'Ono in Hawaii

So this post is primarily for my sister Ashley because I wish she were here to enjoy all of these amazing foods with me!

On Monday night we went to Ono Hawaiian Foods - I had their laulau dinner:

Laulau, lomi salmon with chili pepper water, day-old poi, Maui sweet onions with coarse rock salt, pipikaula, and of course haupia to finish off the meal.  Sooo 'ono!

Here's a pic of the family enjoying:

Then Tuesday Gram made her Oyakodon (I'll try to get the recipe from her tonight):

Here's a video of Gram cracking the egg over the Oyakodon:

And to finish things off, a fresh peach pie!

Valentine's Day, 2011

Lauren and I celebrated Valentine's Day simply, with a huge BBQ lunch at Chicago Q:

...and with dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock Center near our house.  What a view!

We enjoyed our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, and we look forward to many more to come.

Blizzard!

Lauren and I enjoyed the first full-fledged blizzard of our lives last week.  It had the distinction of being the third-largest blizzard in recorded Chicago history.  It was a piece of cake (and actually a lot of fun) from our point of view, but then again we had no car to dig out, no sidewalk to shovel, no utility outages, and no urgent need to leave the house.

We made the best of the evening in, watching the snowstorm, reading to each other, and sipping hot chocolate.

Rather than delaying this post any longer, I figured I should just link to our gallery of photos from the storm, and embed below all the little youtube videos we made, in no particular order.  Enjoy, Mom. :)

Our photo gallery.

And here are the YouTube videos:

2010 Holiday Letter

Here's a copy of the holiday letter we mailed out this year:


Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!  We have had a wonderful 2010 full of changes and new adventures.

The biggest event was our wedding on July 16 on the island of Lana’i, Hawai’i.  We were thrilled to have many family and friends join us for a ceremony on Hulopo’e Beach, followed by a reception at the Lodge at Koele in the mountains.  We especially appreciate all the work and support of our parents.  It was a perfect day filled with love and happiness!  You can see our wedding pictures here.

We then started our married life with a honeymoon in Fiji.  After weeks of intense wedding planning, we relaxed and enjoyed sun, sand, Fijian culture, and plenty of singing around the kava bowl.  Lauren held Will to a scant 0.5 scuba dives per day, but in return she allowed him to skip (almost) all the horseback riding.

A couple of weeks after our honeymoon, we packed all our belongings and moved east from Mountain View to Chicago, IL.  We are currently living on the 16th floor of a high-rise apartment in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.  Chicago is famous for its wonderful restaurants.  We’re both fond of Pizano’s, a neighborhood pizza joint where everybody knows your name.  While the weather continues to drop (13 degrees and snowstorms most recently), our hearts stay warm!

Will is settling in to Google Chicago, where he has begun building a local team to work on GWS, the web-server group known for tight friendships and rock-and-roll lifestyles.  His Chicago colleagues have already inducted him into the office rituals of spicy chicken and mediocre foosball.  Will is also studying Spanish, continuing Chinese, and noodling around on the mandolin.  (He’s taking suggestions now for his future bluegrass-pickin’ stage name.)

Lauren is having a great time at Northwestern in her JD-MBA program.  She is basically a first-year law student this year, and she has loved learning more about how our court system works.  This semester she took Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Torts, and Contracts.  Next semester she’ll take Property, Constitutional Law, Business Associations, and Tax.  Her MBA classes will start this summer and run through next year, taking her north by train to Kellogg’s Evanston campus.

We are looking forward to a great 2011 and send our love to all of you!

Love and Aloha,
Will and Lauren

Christmas Feast!

Will and I are chillin' in Florida, mostly chasing after his very cute nephew Soren:

We made a rib roast from a Publix recipe in the paper:


4 carrots (rinsed)
2 medium onions (rinsed)
1 (24-oz) bag baby potatoes (rinsed)
8 celery ribs (rinsed)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 standing rib roast (4-5 lb)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 sprigs fresh rosemary (rinsed)
3/4 cup horseradish sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Steps
Preheat oven to 475°F. Peel carrots, remove ends and skin from onion; cut both into 1-inch pieces. Cut potatoes and celery into 1-inch pieces. Combine all vegetables and olive oil in large bowl, stirring until evenly coated; transfer to medium-size roasting pan. Season roast on all sides with salt. Place roast on rack arranged over vegetables (wash hands). Place roast in oven and immediately reduce heat to 325°F. Bake 1 hour.
Meanwhile, remove rosemary leaves from stems and chop leaves very finely; combine in small bowl with horseradish sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper; set aside.
Remove roast from oven. Coat roast with horseradish mixture. Bake 1 1/2 to 2 more hours or until internal temperature reaches 145°F (medium-rare) up to 170°F (well-done). Use a meat thermometer to accurately ensure doneness. Transfer roast to cutting board; transfer vegetables to serving dish. Let roast stand 10–15 minutes before slicing; slice and serve.

Then we made some spinach (here) and some sweet potato casserole (here).  It was a feast!

First Chicago Snow (and Naked Dudes?!)

First snow in Chicago turned the city int a fairy tale of skyscrapers and old churches.  I feel like I'm in a combination between a European city, a futuristic city, and a Charles Dickens-esque industrial city.

Deep into studying for finals, my plan for the day is to stay warm and look out our windows.  Snowflakes drift down past the glass.  I never knew that when it snows, it gets brighter - our study is filled with light!

BUT, uniquely Chicago, note the guys in briefs and Santa hats running down State street.

Very Cool Alinea

Last weekend Hawk came up from San Francisco and the highlight of the trip (although there were many) was a trip to Alinea, possibly the premier gastro-molecular restaurants in Chicago.  Our menu for the evening is above - note that the circles are an infographic:

• The size of the circle indicates the size of the dish
• The coloring of the circle indicates the intensity of flavor of the dish (the darker circles are the more intense dishes)
• The placement of the circles indicate the sweetness of the dish - sweeter dishes towards the right.

AMAZING meal, especially with the wine pairing.  I'm glad we did it once but certainly this is a Special, Special Occasion type of meal - I do want to be able to afford grad school.

We too videos of each of the dishes which are posted below (if you're getting this in email form, you might have to click through to our blog here so you can see the videos).  Thanks again for Hawk for suggesting the restaurant, making reservations months in advance (even before buying the plane tickets), and being the greatest company!