TOMS Shoes

I, like most girls, love shopping whenever my schedule and well, let's be honest, budget (ekk) allow it. Shopping was definitely more fun back when it wasn't my money I was using to buy things but all the same it's still one of my favorite pass times. However, the one great thing about living on a budget is that you pick up a lot of good tricks for spending every dollar wisely and thanks to company's like Groupon, you can still indulge in little splurges every once in awhile.

All that being said, I was pa-rousing my staple online shopping sites last night, discouraged by the high price tags of all the "must haves" of the season when I remembered that I'd been meaning to check out this retailer one of my old co-workers had interned at back in college. She was always talking about all the great charity work the company does and well that engage their customer base. The company I'm referring to is TOMS Shoes.

According to their Web site, TOMS has provided over 600,000 shoes to needy children throughout the world but instituting an ingenious business plan; For every pair of shoes that are purchased, TOMS will donate a pair of shoes to a needy child who cannot afford shoes of their own. The extra bonus? The shoes are super affordable and cute! Their classic shoe is only $48.00 and most of their other styles of shoes fall well below the $100.00 mark. Ordinarily I double check with my gut (thanks to my stupid budget) before making an online purchase, but I have to say this was one expenditure I felt truly great about!

Happy shopping everyone!

The Farmers Market

Today I ventured to the farmers market for the first time and now having done it, I really hope it becomes a habit because I loved it. In fact, being there reminded me a lot of when I was a kid and would beg my parents to go and let me live on a farm. For anyone that knows me, that thought is probably laughable, but yes it is true. I used to want to live on a farm with chickens, pigs, the whole deal. Luckily, my parents decided it would be better to send me off to college than a farm, although I'm sure some times they would have liked to given those years of teenage angst I supplied them with. :)

Anyway, back to the farmers market...

It's great to be that close to your food. It makes the experience of shopping a lot more fun than a grocery store. Every booth has samples so you really know what you're getting when you buy it. The experience could potentially be overwhelming if you don't know what you're looking for so I advise going with a plan in mind, mine being breakfast. It also never hurts to bring a friend along so you have someone to talk you out of buying the ten dollar homemade jam just because it had a cute label.

So sticking to my plan, I got up nice and early, intentionally skipping breakfast so that I would be forced to find something to make given whatever was available at the farmers market. I cheated a little and purchased a delicious peach smoothie after walking around the market for awhile, but I did come out with some delicious Parmesan and rosemary crusted bread, purple asparagus, farm fresh eggs, summer butter and beautiful star gazer lilies. I used it all to make a simple but delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with purple asparagus and white cheddar and toasted bread with fresh summer butter.

You can see pictures my little Saturday adventure below :)

Lots of fun booths all over the market

Got em! 

Tried them but I didn't get them

Gorgeous flowers

The really expensive jam that I luckily didn't buy

"Purple Passion" asparagus - really delicious. I was told it is slightly sweeter than green asparagus.

Smoothie stand at the market

Raspberry and peach smoothies

My loot!

Cooking up my purple asparagus for breakfast

The end result :)

Phoebe's Cupcakes

For anyone that follows my Twitter feed (thank you, by the way) it's pretty obvious that I have a fondness for cupcakes. So it shouldn't be at all surprising that I try to use some of my free time seeking out new cupcake bakeries to try.

This past weekend, I went walking through Lincoln Park in hopes of finding some great farmer’s market deals when I happened upon Phoebe’s Cupcakes. I stopped inside and was immediately drawn to the simplicity of the store. There weren’t 800 different cupcakes competing for my attention. In fact, there were only six to choose from. Even though the selection was limited, I still had a difficult time picking a flavor considering all six flavors sounded delicious. Since I couldn’t pick just one, I ended up going with a salted caramel and a red velvet one rationalizing it to myself as needing to try more than one flavor in order to get a proper opinion of the cupcakes at Phoebe’s :)

Store front of Phoebe's Cupcakes

Pretty chandelier hanging in the store

Really cute dispenser display with colorful sprinkles to add to your cupcake purchase.

Salted Caramel Cupcake: Vanilla Cake soaked in Homemade Caramel with Caramel Buttercream Frosting topped with Himalayan Rose Sea Salt

Red Velvet Cupcake: Classic Southern Red Velvet Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting topped with Red Sprinkles

Surprise! Caramel on the inside of the cupcake too! 

Wine Down

As much as I love being able to take advantage of all that city life has to offer sometimes it’s just as nice to be able to wind down and have a relaxing night in. Several weeks ago, a friend of mine and I decided to do a wine and cheese night.

To gather our necessary supplies, we ventured to my favorite Chicago grocery store, Fox & Obel in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. The only problem with this brilliant wine and cheese night idea was that neither one of us knew practically anything about wine or cheese. (I guess my college years of enjoying Andre and Yellow Tail didn’t exactly make me a wine connoisseur. Not to mention, the extent of my cheese knowledge was knowing that KRAFT singles were always a must when making a proper grilled cheese sandwich). So when we got to Fox & Obel we were a bit overwhelmed to say the least. Luckily, Fox & Obel had a great wine sommelier on staff that helped us pick two great wines, both at reasonable prices. The sommelier  even suggested what types of cheeses to pair with our wine selections. We ended up with a red and white wine and six different cheeses  to enjoy.

It was great getting to try something a bit outside my comfort zone, and with great success! 

The Places You're Surprised You Loved

Being the "learn by the school of hard knocks" kid that I am (well, according to my mother anyway) when I graduated college I decided that it was unfathomable to subject myself to the "failure" of moving home and limiting myself to finding a job in the city that I had grown up in. I kept telling myself that if I never left and branched out I would stay in Chicago forever. Now, don't get me wrong, Chicago is an amazing city that I feel blessed to live/work in, but I saw so many of my peers going off in new paths and didn't want to be the only one not stepping out of my comfort zone. So, my senior year, I started the inevitable job search and decided that I was only going to consider Chicago as an afterthought, focusing on other major metropolitan areas for my search. Well, funny thing about that is whenever I was given a great lead/opportunity/job offer in another city I found something "wrong" with it. I think the real thing "wrong" was probably my unrealistic expectations and unwillingness to lose the safety net of being within driving distance of my parents house (just in case). But anyway, long, super drawn out story later, I ended up taking a post-grad internship in Ann Arbor, Michigan - a safe four hour drive from Chicago.

I didn't really know what to expect when I moved to Ann Arbor. It was nothing like Chicago. The people were different, the culture was different and even the pace was different. I took a big leap of faith by moving there considering I had limited resources in terms of friends nearby. Oh and did I mention that I had never been there before? But cares to the wind I made my way up north, subleased an apartment from a more than a little questionable character and set off to test myself in the city of blue and yellow.

Soon enough I became accustomed to the great little cultural nuiances that make up Ann Arbor, and even now I find myself missing many of the things/places I took for granted while living there - most notably the AMAZING restaurant scene that comprises Ann Arbor.

If you're even in Ann Arbor, there are several AMAZING restaurants that you must try:
DISCLAIMER: I use the word "restaurants" in terms of really really good cheap food that I could afford on an intern salary. I'm sure their are a ton of great high-end culinary stops in A2 that I would have loved to try given a different financial situation.

For one, Le Dog was my go-to lunch stop at least once a week I'd say. It's a little homemade soup/hot dog joint that boasts some of the best quick-food around and (don't kill me Chicagoans) it could easily beat out many Chicago hot dog stops. Not to mention, their lobster bisque is hands down the best I've ever had. The only problem is that they only offer it on Thursday's and Friday's.

Zingermans, a sandwich shop/deli revolution in Ann Arbor's KerryTown District has garnered national press for their wide variety of specialty sandwich options and unique eclectic culture. It's a little on the pricey side for a deli in my opinion, but worth the occasional splurge.

Blimpie Burger...need I say more? If you haven't seen Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on The Food Network you may not know what I'm talking about so I'll cue you in. Blimpie is your average hole-in-the-wall burger joint with no-so-average tastes. Their burgers are HUGE, delicious and fairly priced. The best part though is how you order. It kind of reminded me of "the soup nazi" episode on Seinfeld. They have a very specific way for you to order your burger and if you don't abide by their rules...well, just do me a favor, follow the rules. :)

Ashley's was my favorite libation stop at the end of a hard day of work. The bar (with pretty decent pub food) offers over 60 beers on tap and a number of themed beer flights like Fruit Beers...I'm still convinced that the pear beer I tried there had to be juice.