more fun with friends

So when we first tried out winters in Florida we rented a place for six weeks on the Braden River  and the next year we returned for ten weeks...why am I telling you this now seven years later? Because our landlords for the rental turned out to be this fabulous couple who we became friends with over time.  And last week, despite Al not liking cities, he and Carol came to visit Chicago for four days.

and OK I pulled a fast one with this photo- LOL - all afternoon I have been thinking of burgers so I started with one from Skinny's Place on AMI which right about now is probably drying out from the Tropical Storm Emily that hit Anna Maria Island in the last few days - but since we are in the north we only get sporadic reports of how things went...

We did the architecture cruise and a lot of "touring" - had lunches at The Bagel, Tanta, and mfk. as well as dinners at Osteria Langhe and TAC Quick and a final send off at Al's ("I waited 38 years to have this again") favorite Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder (now he can say he waited 38 years and 2.5 hours LOL)

The night after Al & Carol left we went to the Old Town School to hear Graham Nash in concert - a terrific evening of tripping down memory lane... with three encore songs including of course "Chicago" - the one that really broke me up though was "Wind on the Water" the loss of our beloved Snooty being so recent - that one really hit a nerve.... wonderful evening- reminding us again of how lucky we are to be able to enjoy concerts and theater like we do....

 Nash with Shane Fontayne accompanying on various guitars - WOW was he good!

Then last night we met up with our friends Mon & Beth for dinner at Proxi (a new to us and fairly new to Chicago place) with Jennifer and Steve, who we also know from Chaine (Chaine des Rotissuers dining organization) - the food was excellent and the wines interesting and here you will get the blow by blow - because there was a lot of interesting food-

I really liked the decor - despite being a big room (former printing press location) it was open and welcoming with subdued lighting and some fairly cool sound baffling in the curved ceiling with tiles that helped keep the sound level manageable despite hardwood floors and wood tables - Phil found it loud (partially because the group behind/next to us was quite boisterous)

 I started with an Aperol based cocktail with champagne ice cubes - it was excellent 

on the below column from the three column menu we had the Elotes (OMG!), the Nahm Prik, the Roasted Eggplant, the Shaved Zucchini,

OK so I didn't get a photo of the Elotes until we had all grabbed and devoured most of the two orders- these were worth a return trip for sure!

then in the next column we had the AMAZING oysters, the Baby Octopus, the Raw Tuna, the Stone Bass, and the Fried Fish Collars - all very good but OYSTERS WIN!

the third column found us with the pork jerky (yum!), the black pepper pork, the BBQ Lamb Ribs, the Merguez Sausage, and the Pork Porterhouse

we had three excellent bottles of wine- this sparkler from the Loire a Vouvray, and a wine from the Jura and a red I never quite tracked down - the wines were on the other side of the table so I didn't get a close enough view of any of them for a decent photo - my apologies LOL

then when we got to dessert, I really fell down on the job because I was soooo full I couldn't have another bite-  the three ordered (shown in reverse below) were the pot de creme with a Thai banana cake crumble, and the Thai iced tea ice ream, and the tres leches - all got good reviews from those who downed them LOL

two more exciting events in our week- we had a roosting pair of doves who were making as much mess of the deck as they could so I sent Lucy out regularly and she chased them away after a few days of patrolling the perimeter and then settling in herself in the tomato planters LOL but the big event was even more momentous. We have a new addition to the circle of friends we hold dear. Our good friend, Laure, gave birth to a baby boy -  brother, Hugo, for big sis, Alix (shown helping out on his third day in the world!).

below - Alix holds Hugo - what a great big sister she is!

so on we go- plans with friends a couple of nights this week and next week as well... so more food and more fun with friends coming up!