Bump on a Log

The past week has been spent in what I call "exam recovery mode." I sat around and was completely unproductive (unless watching a massive amount of television and movies qualifies as being productive). Mostly, I tried really hard to not use my brain.

Well, that isn't completely true. Cooking meals counts as being productive, right? I spent some time cooking a healthy lasagna with Mark. It was not great. The recipe called for a small handful of turkey sausage, whole wheat pasta sheets, homemade sauce, and a cheese/spinach/basil mix that required super low fat/no fat ricotta and cottage cheese. The sauce was delicious, but the lasagna was not super tasty--only the middle pieces were any good.

I also made a whole mess of chicken salad. Usually, chicken salad makes me happy. What can go wrong with mayo, poached chicken breasts, apples, curry, almonds, and a splash of lemon stuffed into whole wheat pita? Well, let me tell you. Several health-food bloggers have written about swapping out the mayo for Greek yogurt. They said that it tastes great, unlike other recipes that taste nasty when Greek yogurt is substituted for some fatty ingredient. They lied. Or, maybe the just have not had good chicken salad in a long time. It was awful. I love Greek yogurt. Mark loves Greek yogurt. Chicken salad, however, requires mayo, y'all. MAYO.  Say it with me: chicken salad requires mayonnaise.

I did manage to make a delicious meal of
shrimp scampi with whole wheat noodles
and a white wine/lemon sauce. 

Anyway, after a week like that, I needed NEEDED to get out. So Mark and I got dressed up and headed downtown. The weather was gorgeous, but a little warm. By "a little warm," I mean that the high was 80. I guess I've been in Chicago for too long, because a year ago a high of 80 would have been a little too cool for me.

We indulged in a little bit of retail therapy and decided to walk around to find a nice lunch spot. I wanted anything BUT Italian. Of course, we came upon a place that smelled like heaven and was packed with groups of people speaking Italian. We couldn't pass it up. The place is called Quartino, and the wine and sangria are pretty darn cheap and come served in carafes--you order drinks in 1/4 liter increments. The sangria was perfect for the warmish day and the bread was super tasty. Everything else was alright, but the sangria and bread were so refreshing that the food didn't really need to be art. 

We had the penne alla vodka

Drinks came in these carafes (1/4L, 1/2L, 1L)

Today, we got up at 5:30 and walked over to Starbucks, picked up our small pumpkin spice lattes and ham and cheese croissants, and walked out to Promontory Point to catch the sunrise. I can't get over the fact that we can walk to all of these places.

We forgot to take a pic of us together. So...there's this!

Pano shot taken by Mark

It was breathtaking.

I wasn't thrilled about taking photos because,
frankly, I got dressed in the dark and didn't
want to bother putting makeup on at 5:30.
Please excuse my slightly miffed expression.