Our ‘customized tasting’ at Custom House

Last weekend was boyfriend’s brother’s bday :] So he, Steven, got to chose where to go. The funny thing was that boyfriend kept it secret from me until… he needed my iphone gps/maps app to get there :] hahaha… But he knew I’d be excited about it, and I was… the place chosen was…. *cue music*

DUN DUN DUN

CUSTOM HOUSE!!!!!!!

Like always, we created our own sort of “Tasting”…
We started off with the oysters…

Oysters w/ Housemade Cocktail/Spiced Fennel

Malpeque [East Coast] & Kumamoto [West Coast]

Delicious ‘92 German Riesling picked out by Boyfriend :]

Wagyu Beef Tartare

Ovendried Tomatoes/Potato Chips/Fried Farm Egg
SOOOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!!!  Absolutely love tartare.. and the potato chips and the egg were the most perfection compliments :D

My picture one bite of everything on the chip *nom

Quail

Onion Beignet / Confit Leg / Caramel Balsamic

Baby Octopus

Italian Style Caponata

Sweetbreads

Glazed Bacon / White Polenta / Wild Mushrooms
What an overindulgence. These are so delicious. I had my first sweetbread (finally) a few weeks ago at Publican at the James Beard Dinner…  sooo good….

The red Italian to go with our entrees…

Veal Cheeks

Tomato Anchovy Preserve / Bone Marrow Crostini

Prime New York Strip

Bone Marrow / Oyster Mushroom
The most amazing steak. Perfectly cooked.. Just a bit under medium rare… my favorite. The mushrooms and the bone marrow sauce reallly just made the dish THAT much better. LOVE!

Maine Scallops

Cauliflower Puree / Kohlrabi / Green Apples / Bacon Vinaigrette
Perfectly cooked and tender.. loooved the apples with it :]

Baby Turnips w/ Fresh Herbs / Truffle Salt

&  Brussel Sprouts w/ Bacon / Bourbon Maple Syrup
LOVED the brussel sprouts. I’m such a huge fan.. I love them every which way, even just plain steamed…. so these were such a treat!!!

Housemade Ravioli

Goat Cheese / Oxtail Ragu
Amazing. You guys know I’m not a huge goat cheese person but I LOVE LOVE LOVED these.

Artisan Cheese Selection for three :]

They gave Steven two complimentary truffles with a little pink candle.. lol

Lemon Cheesecake

Golden Raisin / Pine Nut Brittle / Thyme

Foie Gras Pot de Creme

Pickled Grapes / Almonds / Baylet Hazen Blue
We actually got TWO of these :] So thick and rich!!! Still love the Primehouse one the most from the Fois Gras weekend, but this was delicious. My favorite was the almond/foie pairing!!! Altho the pickled grapes were a delightful treat!

“Smores”

Warm Chocolate Mousse / Honey Graham Tuille / Toasted Meringue / Bacon Powder

While the bacon powder was sadly very very  subtle, the meringue was delicious and the best part of the dessert. A tiny piece of the tuille with the mousse and a bit of the meringue made it taste like smores heaven in your mouth!

We are awesome.

Happy Birthday Steven :D

Brunch is my favorite Meal of the Day

“There are very few things this New Yorker loves as much as Sunday brunch. You can sleep until noon and still get eggs anywhere in the city, alcohol is often included with the meal, and Sunday is the one day a week you get the single woman’s sports pages: the New York Times wedding section.”

- Carrie, Sex and the City

Despite feeling sick all week, and well, being down right nauseous most of the time and not eating as well as I usually do… the weekend turned out to be a great weekend of feasting. Thankfully I was able to keep all that delicious food in!  Let’s start out with a quick recap….. David Yurman/Chicago Mag event, tapas & sangria with great people (including the awesome Rick and the gorgeous Raechelle) at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!… Steven (boyfriend’s brother)’s Birthday dinner at Custom House (which I’ll be posting about in the next few days!) Another yummy tapas meal at Meson Sabika and then…. the star of today’s post… Chaise Lounge’s VERY FIRST BRUNCH…. EVER!!!!

BTW, it was absolutely PERFECTION!… great that it was after Halloween… you know to beat those hangovers.. not that I had a hangover or overdrank or anything.. but boyfriend & I had been starved after coming home from K’s Halloween party in the ‘burbs. This helped satisfy our hunger MUCHO!

The first thing we got offered was to make our own bloody marys from the bloody mary cart that got pushed over next to our table :D

Share Our Strength’s A Taste of Pursuit: No Kid Hungry

My buddy, Chef Andy Husbands (from Boston’s Tremont 647 & Sister Sorel) is a guest chef at a Charity Dinner in Chicago next Monday!!! So everyone in the area, if you’ve gotten nothing to do on Monday nite, want to eat some great food and give a little love to the children, please check it out :D



Join Host Chef Christopher Koetke for a unique dinner event featuring the Chicago area’s most talented chefs. The dinner will raise funds to support Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in theUnited States.

900 N. North Branch Street
Chicago, Illinois

Monday, November 2, 2009

6:00 pm – Reception and Silent Auction
7:00 pm – Tasting Dinner and Live Auction

ABOUT THE EVENT

Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit^® is a unique national touring dinner series that features the nation’s top chefs taking their talents to the nation’s hottest culinary cities to raise the critical funds needed to end childhood hunger in America. Find out more »

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Kendall Hosts

Christopher Koetke
Dean of the School of Culinary Arts, Kendall College

Massimo Bosco Kendall Chef Instructor Steve Grand Pre Dining Room Instructor

Guest Chefs
Steve Chiappetti Viand	Andy Husbands Tremont 647 and Sister Sorel	Matt McMillin 3Sixty Dining Intelligence
Mindy Segal Hot Chocolate Kristine Subido Wave

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Purchase Tickets or Sponsor a Table

Tickets are $150 per person and table host opportunities are available at $5,000. Click here to make your reservations online or contact Andrea Agalloco at 888.273.6141.

Reception hosted by Stella All Brands

Friend or family of Kendall?  Join us for only $95.  Just enter the code “kendallffr” (must be all lowercase) to receive the special rate.

Get your tickets now!!!!!

GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha

You ever had Kombucha? I owe it much love. This morning I woke up completely dizzy and nauseous. I blacking out and had my head in the sink for awhile this morning.

James Beard Foundation Benefit Dinner

Can you ever really go to too many of these delicious dinner events? You don’t really need a reason, but since boyfriend & I are trying to cut back on spending so much at events… who says you can’t celebrate his new job more than once?! I say more celebrations!!!!

So the James Beard Foundation Benefit Dinner was at the famous Publican, one of Paul Kahan’s babies :D

Haha so me… & some quickie cooking…

How come ppl don’t comment anymore? *pout*

Decided to take a cute little quizzie that just popped up on my twitter page from one of my fav tweeters @mylastbite!!!

What’s your “Foodie Profile” ?

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Last nite I decided to make a quickie dinner for me and my parents. I’ve made this before with the boyfriend (except with pork belly instead of proscuitto) but this time I changed it up a little bit with proscuitto, turkish figs, some chianti  & cute little cipollini onions.

On the side I sauteed some spinach with garlic and a sprinkling of a secret spice…

All three plates ever devoured CLEAN! <3 NOM!

I just had lunch and it was lame. Good thing breakfast of yogurt & cereal strangely filled me up completely this morning…. It’s taco day @ the work cafeteria but the fake hard shelled kinds with the minced beef & etc… :[ Sad. Ended up just getting a fake torta and building a huge salad with grilled chicken. I’m still hungry….

Fruit time… :D

OctoBEER Fest a la Rick Gresh

Oh Gresh, you genius you! Not only can you cook you can brew some delicious delicious beer. I don’t remember the last time I DRANK this much beer… maybe since college?!?!?!… And back in those days it was just cheap beer too… yours?! I’d pay a LOT for it :] I’m SUCH a fan!

The peach one was (also the first one we got) was one of my fav beers of the nite :] Read on below to find out the details

Finally giving into my cravings…

Boyfriend got a new job so this calls for a celebration :D His brother and I treated him to a decadent meal at a neareby Italian place. SO FREAKING GOOD. We were jumping around with ideas of where to go but it all came down to a few simple things, we didn’t want to travel much (or overpay) for some really really good food…. ANTEPRIMA it was. Steve, boyfriend’s brother, had been raving about this place near his apt so it’s where we went….

Just the ambiance and the smells and the friendly people already made this the place to be…. we got there at 730… and we left… I think about 3 hours later.. yep we totally shut the place down :]

Happy Birthday PrimeHouse!

AHHH, the lucky streak of eating delicious food, continues…. so the other day was PrimeHouse’s birthday and they had a special dinner planned :] Boyfriend is out of town :[ so his brother (also a lover of good food) & I headed out for the celebration! Complimentary champagne and snacks are dangerous.

FIRST,
SPICY WHITE TRUFFLE CHOCOLATE POPCORN.

To. Die. For.

Our Sundays have a lot to live up to…

Where did you spend your Sunday night yesterday? Boyfriend and I spent it here…

The gorgeous Mettawa Manor for the Green City Market Annual Harvest Celebration