The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Elizabeth and I met at Adrian College our freshmen year. We were both there for only one year, but the year highlights include strip monopoly, Optical Illusion Boy, me living off cookies and coffee for 9 months, Cripple Boy, Brad playing Oasis and Travis nonstop, Dreamy Matt Rife, Chelsea and I becoming drummers, The Gloworm, and a WHOLE lot of boy drama. Elizabeth, Chelsea, Lindsay and I, while recapping our weekends one Monday at lunch, discovered that between the four of us we made out with enough boys in the past 2 days to field a baseball team.

Elizabeth and I hadn’t seen each other since my 21st birthday party four and a half years ago. You know, like the Olympics.  She lives in Columbus, just far enough away from Chicago to make that an inconvenient drive. But she did it Friday! And 7 hours later she was in, and then we were out, of Chicago.

We had to drive out to St Charles for Colleen’s birthday party. After Elizabeth’s drive, and I had just gotten back in the city a couple hours before as well, we weren’t exactly pumped about the two hour drive through traffic to the burbs, but we had to do it for Colleen.

Well, I had to do it for Colleen and Elizabeth was a trooper.

Saturday morning we made blueberry pancakes with the abundance of blueberries I brought back from Michigan, and potatoes with fresh dill.

It was hot and sunny and beautiful in Chicago Saturday, so Elizabeth and I walked around Logan Square and Wicker Park for a while with iced coffees before heading to Handlebar for a late lunch.

We walked over to The Clipper for drinks after some Saturday night baseball (that Elizabeth was also a trooper through).

Gil and Martin came with a friend, and PT rode over despite having a Tastee Freeze-for-dinner tummy ache (Elizabeth and I didn’t seem to have a problem with it!).

Sunday was rainy, so we played Clue! PT looks like he is really concentrating on the game, but it was a massacre. Elizabeth won twice and I won once.

Pudge thought we were the lamest people in the history of the world.

So she made us some drinks! The combo of the night? Aloe vera juice and coconut rum. Well done, Pudge. Well done.

They went very well with the beet salad and corn on the cob we made for dinner. Elizabeth has never eaten beets before, and she gave this a thumbs up! Naturally.

After dinner it stopped raining enough for us to drive over to North Avenue Beach, something we had been talking about all weekend, but with the Air and Water Show and it being 90 degrees, it was crowded and loud all weekend.

Of course, without sun the water was a little cold! This was about as far as we could make it.

But the city was beautiful and the beach was empty. There was even a storm over the water we were watching for a while.

I think we showed Elizabeth a good time. I mean, who doesn’t like blueberry pancakes, clue, and the night beach?

It was nice to be back in the city for me, too. Sleeping in a bed was sweet! Seeing the kitties, and PT, was much needed. And those four pounds I didn’t gain while home I sure gained this weekend!

I’m looking forward to seeing Elizabeth again in four and a half years for my 30th birthday party! We planned this one out well, actually.

My friend Colleen lives in St Charles, which is F-A-R. I don’t have a car so the only way we see each other is if she drives the hour through ridiculous traffic to Chicago or if I bike/train downtown then hop on a metra for an hour and 15 minutes.

1 hour and 15 minute train ride it is! I brought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and read over a hundred pages round trip. I’m loving it! It is so funny and violent! And the integrity of the original isn’t lost of made into a joke. It is exactly what I wanted when I imagined one of my favorite books being laced with zombies.

Colleen met me at the train at ten to ten; perfect brunching time! We have a tradition of going to Nosh in Geneva, which is very close to St Charles, apparently. I’m suburb racist (they all look exactly the same to me!), so I never know where we are.

Usually our friend Shawna is with us and the three of us go, but Shawna is summering in Italy. Boy did she miss out on a delicious breakfast! Who would rather be in Italy when you could easily be in Geneva, IL?! Eating at Nosh?!

Certainly not me after I ordered the mushroom, caramelized onion, and herbed goat cheese (man I ate a lot of goat cheese this week) omelet, served with potatoes and multi grain toast. One of the great things about having a place like Nosh you have been to with your girlfriends a million times is that between the three of us I’m pretty sure we have ordered everything on the menu. There is no guessing! Everything is amazing, and this omelet didn’t disappoint. Caramelized onion in an omelet will be making an appearance in my home made omelets very soon.

Colleen ordered something that we always order, the pear polenta, which is always delicious. Nosh has a nice outdoor seating area that we took advantage of, hence Colleen’s hot shades.

Colleen and I, despite the heat, hit up Geneva’s Swedish Days, which was basically a huge sidewalk sale with food stands. Then we walked along the river where we made some new friends.

And we hit up a St Charles staple, Gramps Frozen Custard.

We love Gramps. We love Gramps so much that we walked like two miles in 90+ degree heat there and back.

Gramps always has vanilla, chocolate, and twist, but then they make 4 or 5 special flavors of the day, which Colleen and I took advantage of. Her cookies and cream was amazing, my peppermint was delightful. We ate slowly to put off our steamy walk home.

Cooking with Colleen is like what non-cooks want cooking to be. Every time I make food with this girl I don’t even realize I’m doing it. It’s what I picture Joan Cleaver was like in the kitchen. She chops, she mixes, and out comes an amazing meal.

No kidding, she whipped up this dinner in 10 minutes. That is a strawberry, cranberry, avocado, toasted almond, blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette-y salad and avocado soup. I’m a cooking dawdler, apparently, because I know that would have taken me half an hour to put together. Colleen mashes some avocados and asks me to chop up some strawberries and I turn around and everything is done! She can whip up a mean pasta dinner in about 7 minutes, too.

We took that salad to town. I could have eaten it straight out of the bowl and never looked back. I make salads and they are chocked full of veggies and for me there is no other option. Strawberries? Duh! Cranberries? Allyson, get it together. Embrace the possibilities!

After dinner I read about zombies while getting very sad Tigers updates (1-8=OUCH) on the train back to the city while watching black clouds roll in. My tummy was full of amazing food, though, so that cut the pain of the Tigers loss and the potentially stormy bike ride back to Logan Square. I made it somehow, dry but for the sweat rolling off my upper lip. I knew a nice Saturday night in was exactly what I needed, so I watched the storms roll in. Me and the zombies.