Happiness is a Cold Shamrock Shake

Shamrock shakes...enough said.

Snow Globe

Went to have lunch with my dad today and got this shot out his office window...it may be almost March, but it's still a wintry wonderland in Milwaukee.

Nostalgia

I'm at Mama D's house in Kansas City, cleaning out old boxes of stuff that's been accumulating for more than ten years. Here's the most amusing stuff I've found so far: my 8th grade basketball picture, a New Found Glory sweatshirt (no comment), a greeting card I meant to give someone in 2006, and an old copy of my high school newspaper, the Thomas More Utopian (aptly named?).

Fat Tuesday

So although my last name is Pierski, I do not celebrate Fat Tuesday by running down to the nearest bakery for finely crafted Paczki (Polish jelly filled donuts) but instead stuff my face with, you guessed it, French fries. These fries came with a humongous sandwich at Honeypie in Bay View, where the portions are all humongous...see conversation below for reference.

Me: "This plate is, like, 12 inches wide. That's a lot of platage..."
My boyfriend: "Especially when your food is piled 6 inches high"

I think you get the idea.

A Blogging Hiatus Recap

So, dear friends, I've been away for awhile. I've had some mishaps, some adventures, and accomplished a few things. Let me show you a few:

Celebration: I toasted to the New Year with a good looking young man...
Happy surprise: I found a vending machine that serves all kind of addictions...nicotine, chocolate...

Industriousness: I found time to bake, and learned to cook a few new things (my own version chicken chili, homemade chicken pot pie, apple crisp, and macadamia and chocolate chip cookies all went in the 'win' column)...
Stranded: I was officially the last one living on Farwell Avenue to realize it's one giant tow-away zome during snow emergencies. It turned into a ghost town, and I got my car stuck in the snow twice trying to trek out to my dad's house (with it's sweet promise of a garage and plowed drive-way)...

Relief: The first of what is hopefully many acceptance letters to a Ph.D. program, so that I can fulfill my goal of becoming a professor and academically stressing out the--ahem--future leaders of tomorrow...

The Shout

Sometimes my camera has a mind of its own, and throws a blurry picture my way.

Art Museum Part 2

Just a little playing with color and light...and I thought modern art couldn't be functional.

Chez Jacques

You're all probably sick about my writing about food, but I've come to realize that not only do I love food, but I love all varieties and kinds of food--I can wax eloquent on fine dining and fast food alike. Today, I'm handing out kudos to Chez Jacques in Milwaukee's Fifth Ward. It probably looks to you like it's just a ham and cheese melt, but is in fact a superbly executed croque monsieur (so make that a French ham and cheese melt, naturellement) and salad served with the world's most delicious dijon mustard vinaigrette. They also have some fantastic crepes in a variety of flavors, including a tasty chicken curry crepe (not traditionally French, but still delicious). I'll definitely be coming back here again.

Art Museum

I went to the Art Museum last week to check out the Andy Warhol exhibit (which they wouldn't let me take pictures of it, so it doesn't get its own post) and while I was there went to visit my favorite piece of art in the regular collection. It looks unassuming, just an open suitcase on the floor, until...

You walk up to the suitcase and look in. This isn't the best picture of it, but in the suitcase is a sewer grate, and under the sewer grate is a stream with plants, rocks, and running water. If you're really interrogative in nature, you can walk around the back of the suitcase and see two pairs of feet...

It looks like a dad holding a little kid up over the water as it runs by. I think I love this because it's three things in one, isn't what it seems on the surface and isn't the sort of modern, abstract art that I could do myself at home with rocks or finger paints. Thumbs up for the suitcase.

Honeypie

Honeypie, a new(er) restaurant in Bay View, is home to all sorts of delicious home cooking and midwestern-ish comfort food. I've been meaning to go there for awhile, and finally got there this week. I ordered some white bean chili, to keep it warm and simple, which was delicious. I was with a friend, who pointed out a dish called the Davenport on the menu: it promised a "mound of turkey," mashed potatoes, cheesy sauce, assorted veggie toppings, and a some bread. He sort of scoffed at the menu's boasting, but he shut up real quick: it was indeed a real mound of turkey and mashed potato deliciousness. I would have to say, I'd recommend Honeypie to anyone who's as hungry as a horse. Or hungrier.

Spanish Lessons

Tested out my fledgling knowledge of Spanish on the windshield while stuck in traffic between Chicago and Milwaukee because of a crazy semi-truck accident. Apparently, I quiero the windshield. Maybe I'd better study up some more.

Embarrassing Birthday Trip

Some parents like to really embarrass their children when birthday time rolls around. And some people really enjoy helping their friends' parents plan that really embarrassing birthday experience. This past week, that's exactly what happened when the mom of my friend Chris enlisted our help to plan a spectacularly embarrassing birthday dinner for Chris and his younger brother Joe at Organ Piper Pizza in West Allis, otherwise known as the Music Palace of Metro Milwaukee.

Joe, on the left, and my friend Chris on the right, look plenty embarrassed. And although the pizza is pretty solid, the real attraction is the old-school organ, which is attached to several rooms of organ pipes as well as other sound making devices attached to the ceiling and walls, like sirens and train whistles. An ancient old man named Ralph plays old standards, show tunes, and songs from movies. Below, old Ralph unfurls the American flag for a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Best part of the evening was when my friend Ben joked that the place-with its families with small children target audience and loud, cheesy music-made it a great place to take a girl on a first date if you didn't really like her. Classic stuff.

Baking Again

A little almond pound cake with vanilla drizzle...by far the most easy dessert I have in my repetoire because I can cheat and use box mix or store frosting for the drizzle if I want. No one needs to know, and it comes out delicious either way.

Hard at Work

Some of my favorite things- my roommate Brian in the kitchen where he works and a basket of french fries...kind of awesome.

Dinner and Dessert

I know, I know, another food post. Maybe you'll forgive me once you see how delicious this all is. On Saturday night, I had the most amazing chicken florentine with pesto sauce while in the midst of a baking session.

On the menu for dessert - apple pie. I tried a new recipe of my own, which I think turned out quite well (I combined a recipe I got from Mama D with another I pulled from Epicurious.com, adding a little extra sugar and small amounts of brown sugar, nutmeg, and vanilla into the usual apple pie filling). I'm proud of the few things I can cook or bake well, so I felt like sharing the pictures of the results with all of you.

The Explorer

This bike, seemingly permanently parked outside of Sven's Cafe in Bay View, looks ready to do some serious exploring. I generally go to Sven's for the French Vanilla Chai, but if some quality exploring time was on the menu, I wouldn't be one to say no.

Indian Summer Day

The weather was something fantastic today - in Wisconsin we usually miss out on any extended period of weather in the 60s...but today was a sunny, wonderful exception.

Ducks took a last celebratory turn around the Veteran's Park lagoon.

The last joggers and kite-flyers were out in full force.

The last yellowing leaves clung onto their trees with the last breath of autumn.

Another Delicious Post

I went to Transfer Pizzeria in Milwaukee for the first time last night, and enjoyed the general atmosphere (they have local art displayed on the walls, and live jazz on Tuesday nights) as well as some decidedly delicious food. If you go, I would highly recommend the bruschetta as well as the Pollo Fungi pizza, which had an unusual name (do you usually think of Fungi as delicious?) but was a dreamy combination of a perfectly hand tossed crust, chicken, mushrooms, onions, and sauce.

On a side note, I realize that I love to blog and talk about food. A lot. So to help myself out, and you all as well, I added food to the list of things I talk about alot on the blog's home page. If you click on it, all of my food related posts should now pop up. I've blogged about food so much that there's actually more than one page of pictures-just hit "older posts" when you get to the bottom. Looking at all that culinary goodness made me so hungry, I had to go eat something.

Halloween - The Morning After

This is my front porch. This is also the wig that my roommate Brian wore out last night for Halloween. Somewhere on the walk up to the front door from the sidewalk, the wig escaped, and has been relaxing on our front steps ever since.

Halloween - Obligatory Zombie Post

My roommate Jill has a good friend named Megan...who happens to be a zombie. She is, in fact, the best zombie bride I've ever seen. In my effort to celebrate Halloween, I felt like I should also celebrate Megan's clear desire to eat brains, or whatever human flesh she can get her cold, undead hands on. While her husband, Craig, looks pretty pleased with the prospect of getting eaten alive, Jill (below, dressed as the USO) still can't believe Megan finds her appetizing.