Wedding Anniversary

To celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary, Jeff surprised me with a day of spa, massage and an awesome meal at Chicago Cut steak house! He sent a romantic invitation to my office on Friday with the schedule and activities we will be doing on Saturday, which totally made my day!

We started at Urban Oasis in Gold Coast, where Jeff booked a therapeutic massage for me, and he got a relaxation massage. It was our first time to Urban Oasis, but it was one of the best massages I've had! Jeff researched and found many good reviews!

We then went to Chicago Cut by the river and had an amazing meal with a great view. For appetizer, I ordered their seared foie gras, which was unbelievable and the flavor and texture was head to head with the ones I had at River Cafe in NY. Jeff had a iceberg salad to start with. For our steaks, I had their prime fillet cooked perfectly medium rare. Jeff had their juicy bone-in rib eye. We also had their famous mac n cheese with crab meat, as well as their sauteed shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Jeff had been to Chicago Cut a couple months ago with the boys, and he thought I'd love it as much as he did. And he is right!

I felt so spoiled all day and very lucky to have such a thoughtful husband.

Thunder Snowstorm!

The biggest snow storm in decades in Chicago! The powdery snow storm came with thunder and lightening. We were able to get home early before the storm and be in the comfort of our home during the storm. We ended up with over 2 feet of snow! While Jeff was working hard shoveling, Scraps was having a lot of fun in our back yard!

Happy New Year of 2011!

We celebrated the New Year's Eve at Andy and Jessie's again this year! We brought some potstickers as appetizers. We celebrated over sparkling wine, champagne and toasts. We also played shiraz at the end of the night. Alcohol definitely made the game more fun and interesting :)

New Dishes

Jeff and I love Italian food. Though we frequent several of our favorite Italian restaurants in town, we love to cook and try new recipes together. It was our first try making Lasagna, and it was a success! I've always known it's not very hard to make lasagna, but I couldn't believe how easy this one is that Jeff found online. The finished dish was hearty, creamy and had the perfect ratio of pasta, cheese, meat and sauce. We loved it!

Scallops is one of our favorite shell fish. We found some really good ones in Whole Foods. This dish is basically Jeff's improvised creation. He marinated the scallops in salt and pepper and cooked them in olive oil with some white wine and mixed in with some linguine. I couldn't get enough of it!