The Sweatshop of Love Blog

1. Eat delicious waffles from The Waffle Window.

Apple Pie Waffle, Farm Fusion

Laura and the Blueberry Waffle

2. Look at mountains! MOUNTAINS!

Mount Hood

3. Eat at Burgerville when you have the tiniest amount of room for food.

PT Taking Large Bite, Take One

Lucas and Laura are PUMPED!

4. Play bocci ball in the West Hills!

Action Shot!

Lucas Wins! Kinda

5. Get two skirts, two hunks of fabric, five 7″ zippers, a bag of thread, three bags of old yarn remnants, two vintage postcards, and a super cute vintage clutch for $3.50 at an estate sale!

I Win!

6. Celebrate financial gain by buying very expensive knitting books I’ve been lusting after at Powell’s Books.

Reversable Knits, and Interweave's Stitch Guide

7. As soon as you’ve got the tiniest bit of room, get a lot of Voodoo Doughnuts.

DOUGHNUTS!

8. Eat yourself sick.

PT Taking Large Bite, Take Two

Chocolate and Peanut Butter? Yes, Please!

Laura and the Bloody Voodoo Doughnut

And remember, upon returning to Chicago, to make a meal of your native food:

Burritos!

Hipster burritos!

The best thing about working from home?

Pasta Lunch

All I could think about all morning was a mushroom and broccoli pasta lunch. So I made it! And am eating it right now.

I don’t know if it was the amazing weather we had here in Chicago this weekend or if I was just a girl on a mission, but I rocked this weekend so hard.

Costa Rican Fiest

It all started when PT and I couldn’t stop talking about Irazu. For some reason our solution was not to just go to Irazu but to try to replicate Costa Rican food at home.

The problem is that we think the burritos we make are way better than any burrito out there. That is funny, I know, living in Logan Square where there is a dude on every corner making burritos from his family recipe.

(Note to self: Write up burrito recipe to post on blog.)

So we started with a regular burrito I always make and set out to make some Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad.

Gallo Pinto and Cabbage Salad

This recipe for the Cabbage Salad is dead on. It is exactly like Irazu’s amazing salad! We halved the recipe and we still had salad left over for Saturday. This recipe for the Gallo Pinto is close, and I think with a little tweaking we could get it. We made about a third of the recipe, it still made a ton. And there is a critical flavor missing from this recipe that Irazu’s rice has and I’m determined to figure it out.

Amazing!

We had to have fried plantains, too, naturally. My favorite part of this meal was plating it! I love when there are many aspects to a meal that you can chose from. I’ve got a dinner party in the works for Friday, so stay tuned for try #2.

Sunday Pizza

Mushroom, Artichoke Heart, Caramelized Onions

And our Sunday pizzas were amazing! Mine was fresh mushrooms from the Logan Square Farmers Market, artichoke hearts, and caramelized onions.

PT's Pizza, with Bacon

Bacon-licious

PT’s pizza was the same as mine, only with bacon.

I was productive on the knitting front, too! I knit the two (Eric) Man-Hats, wrote the pattern up for them and posted it on Ravelry. I knit two elephant bodies and finished knitting PT’s Christmas Present (pics later). I know I haven’t done a Christmas Present Update for PT in a long time because, while I was working on it, it was painfully boring. I didn’t want to subject myself to it, much less you.

The Black Tape!

OMG!

And I managed to leave the house! We went to see The Black Tape Saturday night. I’m going to be writing their press kit so we had to go get the live experience. I’m an old lady and didn’t even realize it was possible to start doing anything at 12:30am, but I made it somehow!

I think I earned a little time to relax, but I’ve got some elephants to finish and some seeming to do. (And probably a trip to the gym to make!)

Shrimp Stir Fry with Brown Rice

The cold rain was a nice motivator for PT and I to stay in last night.

(Another untimely Tigers loss and Twins win made it seem like we were both home alone. The Central is still up for grabs. If the Tigers win and Twins lose today the Tigers will win the Central for the first time since 1987. But if the Tigers lose I have to be pissed all day and they have to win tomorrow.)

We made some teriyaki shrimp stir fry with red pepper, broccoli, pineapple, shrimp, and onion, with brown rice. It was so good! I love just throwing things together with some teriyaki stir fry sauce and getting a meal like this.

Cute Packaging!

Note, Pin, and YARN!

I mentioned earlier this week that I won a skein of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks yarn, and it came in yesterday while I was watching The Office!

It was wrapped really cute, came with a handwritten note and a KSD button! It was so sweet, like getting a present from a friend. I will be buying yarn from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks in the future. See what little special touches do?!

And I’m blown away by how beautiful this yarn is! I can’t wait to dive into it.

Any suggestions? I’ve only got 390 yards. I’m thinking lacy shawl? Help!

Workout Fuel

Today was the Michigan/Michigan State game and the Minnesota/Wisconsin game. These are big games; Michigan and Michigan State hate the crap out of each other, and PT was telling me that it’s the same kind of thing with Minnesota and Wisconsin. Neither games were being broadcast on regular TV so we planned to go to the gym to watch them. We made broccoli and onion omelets with pepper jack cheese and a piece of PB&J pumpernickel toast to fuel our workout!

Burritos and Fresh Guacamole

We ran/walked for about two hours while watching Michigan AND Minnesota lose. It was a painful bike ride home! We were tired, sore, and deflated by two close losses. So we made burritos with red pepper, pinto beans, onion, fresh guacamole, black bean and corn salsa, and cabbage.

Girl Friday Started (!)

And I did a bad thing. The Tigers were getting blown out last night, I was sad, it was 8-0, it was rainy and I was cold and baseball sucks and before I knew it I had Girl Friday cast on. Yes, I should be working on presents! But I couldn’t help it.

I figure it’s better to indulge in knitting than, like, a pan of brownies.

And it’s providence because Girl Friday (my Ravelry page) is a Kitchen Sink Dyeworks pattern!

That counts as full circle, right?

I cast on for both front panels and the back, though. I hate knitting a lot of separate pieces. I’m using Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool, the same yarn I used for the Vogue Cropped Jacket, but in natural.

I checked the gauge at it was so on I creeped myself out. It was exactly exactly exactly on with size 8s. I have never seen a gauge so perfect, even when I used the exact yarn and needles a pattern called for. I can’t wait to start the lace pattern!

… right now!

Thursday night PT decided to make some burritos for dinner!

Burritos!

He sauteed up some onions and green and red peppers, mixed in some beans and spices and burritos were had by all.

Burrito Sandwich Wrap

Wraptacular!

The best part of making burritos is having burrito shells in the house, which means you can make sandwich wraps!

I spread some honey mustard on the wrap, the layered romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, and shaved carrots. Delicious! It made a perfect lunch with my Tigers Suck  Cookies and some doritos.

Handlebar Nachos

Last night we headed over to Handlebar and shared an order of their amazing nachos with a side of fried plantains. We just can’t get enough Mexican!

I’m about to settle in and watch some college football! Love Saturdays! I’ve got my Glorified Necklace in my lap and I’m determined to dive into that lace pattern. My rows are over 200 stitches now and it is driving me insane.

Everyone is making a big deal about how Barack makes time for Michelle. They go out to eat! They go for walks around the White House! He looks like he really likes her! They actually spend time together! Like it is a foreign concept to like the person you are married to.

On the other hand, imagine if John McCain would have been elected. Cindy would be so pissed! She would have to live with John for the first time in who knows how long. And the White House would probably be a downgrade from the house she is living in, and John would probably be a downgrade from whoever she is dating now. Would we be talking about how John makes time to go out with Cindy on date nights? Absolutely not. I actually had google ‘John McCain’s wife’s name’ to write this post.

Whitey Barack

PT and I have no need for ‘date night’. ‘Date night’ to me is like what Valentine’s Day is; an excuse for couples who don’t like each other anymore to go out and spend a lot of money so other people will see they still like each other. PT and I like each other, and we do fun stuff all the time.

I know. Weird.

As a joke, we decided last night was ‘date night’. We pretended we didn’t like each other even! Right up until PT put my sunglasses on. You can’t really pretend not to like that face.

Michelle, eat your heart out.

We went to Irazu on Milwaukee. Amazingly, I’ve never been! I’ve lived within two miles of this place for almost five years and I’ve never gone. Thanks to Barack and Michelle, we walked over. I even dressed up! I wore a tank to show off my hot toned arms and a big white skirt that PT promptly spilled coke on.

Patio

The best part about summer in Chicago is getting to eat outside. Irazu just expanded their patio, too, so there were plenty of seats, even for that woman in the blue with her boobs hanging out (unfortunately not pictured).

Veggie Burrito

I ordered the Veggie Burrito: Award Winning! Black beans, yellow rice,lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheese, sour cream & hot peppers. I got my hot peppers on the side, thank god, because they weren’t joking about the hot. There is no way I could have eaten a burrito with that on it. But PT helped himself!

Pepito Sandwich

PT ordered the Pepito Sandwich: Rib eye steak, sauteed onions, cheese, pinto beans & Lizano sauce. I, naturally, didn’t take a taste, but PT said it was very good.

Sweet Plantains and Gallo Pinto

On the side we ordered sweet plantains and gallo pinto, or Costa Rican rice. The plantains were out of control, and the rice was excellent. We ate and ate and were outside and happy! Just like Barack and Michelle would be.

I’m embarrassed now that I haven’t eaten here until now! I’ve been missing out on some seriously delicious food. We can’t wait to go back. If only we didn’t like each other so we had an excuse to go out.

Added Bonus: VERY close to Margie’s Candies! We crossed the street and got cones after dinner.