Topolobampo

Sorry it's taken me so long to post these pictures of our Topolobampo evening!

Matt surprised me with these reservations (for Oct 22) over 2 months ago. Who knew what those months had in store for us. I really wanted to go in a slightly better "mood," but on the plus side I could drink (although, I would trade all the alcohol and caffeine for, well you know.) We decided to go big that night and instead of order off the menu, we did the Chef's Tasting menus. I did the Top Chef Tasting menu, and Matt did the Adventurous Menu along with the wine flights. The Top Chef menu will be available until November 14th, but from what I heard you can't get a reservation before that so I felt that I had to try this out. I also opted for 2 mojitos instead of wine, and Matt started with the Blue Curacao margarita. Here's the line up of plates:

First course:

Mine -- hickory-smoked quail with Hickory House barbeque sauce, Iroquois cornbread croutons, spicy watermelon salad, roasted garlic slaw, chile threads. I thought this was delicious. I felt bad for the little quail with the tiny legs I was eating, but the sauce and watermelon were a great contrast.

Matt's -- Hawaiian ahi tuna carpaccio and fresh Maine sea urchin with crispy tortillas, fresh lime and roasted garlic mojo. Fried leeks, avocado, sungold tomato. (Wine pairing: 2008 Sitios De Bodega "Con Class" Verdejo, Rueda, Spain). The waiter asked Matt if he ever had sea urchin. Then he said it's like eating 10 oysters. In the end Matt likened it to sucking on a barnacle on one of the Titanic's anchors. Yum! (I tried it w/o the urchin and it was delicious).

Second Course:

Mine --seared Hawaiian ahi tuna in Oaxacan black mole with plantain-filled tamal, grilled nopal salad, roasted knob onions, three nut crunch. This was my favorite. I could have drank the mole, and I just love seared tuna (must be raw in the middle!)

Matt's -- "Popcorn" sweetbreads with green pumpkinseed mole. Roasted local turnip, fried plantain, Bayless Garden microgreens. (Wine pairing: 2008 Brander "Cuvee Natalie" Santa Ynez Valley, California) Matt made me taste this. I thought the flavors were good but the idea of sweetbreads made my mouth unhappy.

Third course:

Mine -- black rice "a la tumbada" with Maine lobster, tender squid, PEI mussels, grilled octopus and homemade chorizo in fresh tomato-jalapeno broth. Pickled vegetables, prosciutto pearls.

All of this was good, except that the sauce was very fishy (at least for me, I'm not used to eating a lot of shellfish). The mussel was inedible. I had to drink 2 glasses of water to get the ocean out of my mouth.

Matt's -- Pan-seared halibut cheeks with creamy squash blossom sauce. Fresh shell black beans, garlicky "wilted" spinach, Oaxacan string cheese, tortilla crunch. (Wine pairing: 2006 Vincent Giradin Mersault "Les Narvaux" Cote D'Or, France) Now Matt wasn't crazy about this, but I loved the buttery-ness of it and the pairing wine.

Fourth Course:

Mine -- overnight-braised Maple Creek Farm suckling pig "pibil" with crispy pig's foot, sour orange jellies, habanero-pickled onions, sunchoke pudding.

OKAY. Pig's foot is not something I eat. And if it were off the plate, this would have been my favorite thing ever.

Matt's -- Rich, red chile-and-epazote broth with 72-hour-braised Tallgrass short rib. Corn masa dumplings (chochoyotes), xoconostle (sour prickly pear) green peas, chayote. (Wine pairing: 1997 Terreno Chianti Classico Riserva, Tuscany, Italy)

Matt didn't have a lot to say about this, and the piece he gave me was all fat.

Note: We have no pictures of this course because we started talking to a really nice couple next to us and completely forgot.

Fifth Course:

Mine -- Warm, caramelized tart of camote morado (Mexico's native white sweet potato). Buttery garnet yam swoosh, spiced walnut ice cream, toasted homemade marshmallow fluff, tangy caramel sauce. I had to pace myself by the time we got to dessert, but there was no way I wasn't going to finish this entire thing as it was delicious! I could eat it over and over again.

Matt's -- Warm, nutty mesquite-bean cake with cajeta (goats milk caramel). Negra Modelo-poached Klug Farm pears and apples, dark beer chocolate. (Wine pairing: NV Campbells Rutherglen Tokay, Victoria, Australia). Matt really liked his dessert (which I was glad because I didn't). I was happy eating mine. YUM!

2010

Early pregnancy and miscarriage really eats up a lot of time. It's hard to believe that if Matt and I conceive as soon as possible, there's a 3 month gap in due dates. The last time, we heeded my doctor's advice which was to go through three period cycles. We did that and got pregnant the very next month ... 6 months had elapsed in due date (from Jan 2010 to June 2010). This time, I feel I can't afford to wait. I may be setting myself up for another heart break, but I can't get 2010 out of my mind. I have until March to conceive. Can anyone say pressure?

In some ways I feel like I am going out of my mind, in other ways I feel like I need an anti-depressant. But my mom said I don't need an anti-depressant because I leave my house and look forward to doing things. I dunno. I'm sitting at my desk right now at work -- and even though I'm lucky enough to have a cubicle right next to the window, light streaming in -- I think I could use an upper. Can't we all?

I just feel so positive about the next time. Hey, if I can't have hope, what else is there?

Another loss

This isn't usually something I've talked about on my blog ... in the beginning it seemed too personal, and somewhat taboo. But after time, it feels somewhat incomplete if I don't say what's happening and share.

As most everyone knows, Matt and I have been trying to conceive for over a year. Getting pregnant doesn't seem to be a problem for us .. but the staying pregnant does. I've had two miscarriages so far, and am currently waiting for the 3rd one to happen. It's very bittersweet, there's nothing as exciting as getting that positive test with your hubbie waiting outside the bathroom door with baited breath, some weeks of anxiety and euphoria, only to be crushed way too soon.

My miscarriage in June took me a long time to recover. I was approaching my 8th week, but chances are the pregnancy stopped some time before that. However, I felt that this was it, so the loss was devastatingly hard for Matt and I. Matt was very supportive -- how do you grieve when your wife cries herself to bed every night. My summer was a blur.

This time, I was at the doctor getting my lab tests within moments of a positive home test. Everything was looking great - my HcG was doubling (actually tripling) and my progesterone started off at a good number. I was scheduled for a 6w ultrasound. That u/s showed the baby stopped growing a week before, but to confirm I needed more progesterone tests (very low, needed supplements) and had to wait a week for another u/s. It was our longest week, and it consumed Matt and I, but I think we knew how it was going to end.

So now I wait for my body to miscarry. The other times it happened spontaneously since we weren't tracking it so closely. I'm not sure what's harder -- thinking your pregnant and losing it or knowing earlier on and waiting. I guess I'll let you know.

So what's next, you might ask. The doctor ordered Matt and I chromosome tests, and I will be on progesterone from Day 1 the next time. Since our miscarriages have been so early, chromosomes tend to be the main culprit, so we'll see if Matt and I are carriers for something.

Otherwise, we try again.

Looking positive ... this has really brought Matt and I closer in a different way. He's been there for me every (literal) step, and his presence means more to me than anything. I'm always saying, "I've got Matt, I'll be okay."

Thanks for listening ... in some ways this is rather therapeutic.

Milwaukee & Meatloaf

We were supposed to be in Newport, Rhode Island this weekend for a wedding (Matt's fraternity brother), but circumstances (to be discussed later) led to us having to cancel. I am so bummed because we found this cute B&B in Newport and the wedding looked like it was taking place in a beautiful church and botanical garden. Matt and I were really looking forward to this little jaunt (and I had my new Coach shoes to wear and everything). Oh well. Our plane tickets are good for a yea, and we only lost 1 night's worth of money at the B&B.

So we kept our vacation days and went to Milwaukee yesterday instead; we spent the day at the Milwaukee Art Museum (and had I known you could take no-flash photography, I would have snapped a lot more photos) and saw the Andy Warhol Exhibit. Then we had lunch at the Comet Cafe (we saw it on Diner's Drive-Ins, and Dives on FoodNetwork and thought it looked cool). I had the mile high meatloaf sandwich, and Matt had the compact Turkey dinner. It was all very good (read: fattening). Plus we got 2 cupcakes for dessert (to be eaten much later of course).

A Wedding @ 66 stories high

My cousin got married this weekend and her reception was on the 66th floor of the Sears Tower (Metropolitan Club).She's my cousin because ... her grandfather and my grandmother are first cousins. Hey, we're Italian and family is family -- we're all cousins! Plus her dad was my orthodontist, and I used to watch her and her sister (I'm 6 yrs older) when we used to visit the family years and years ago. Funny how you remember those things. When I saw her in her gown I thought of how we would play in her grandma's basement and how her sister stood at the curb crying one time when I had to leave.

It was so cool to be downtown all dressed up, going through security check, and then 66 flights up, up. up, up.

Bathroom/ Hallway Update

Since coming home from vacation, our intention of getting everything we started in the house done has just fallen to pieces. Fallen is a key word here.

**Matt did stain the rest of the staircase and it looks great despite it being different kinds of wood. Now we just need to get a nice coat of polyurethane on it.

**Our bathroom got a new low-flow toilet put in – and it's comfort height so talk about sitting on a throne. All we need now to moe forward is a countertop. We had high hopes on a good price from a friend of my parents, but his supplier isn't calling us back (I guess the economy isn't that bad), so we went to Home Depot and they want close to $1000. Matt and I said, "Thanks, but no thanks." So now we're going to try a place that sells remnants.

**Finally, we needed to finish painting the hallway. We needed a second coat on most of it and we can't even reach some of the walls without a ladder or – as my dad told us to do – scaffolding. I was on a roll last Sunday painting until I got too close to the edge of the stairs, crouched down with the roller in my hand, when I lost my balance and tumbled down the stairs head first (well, head into the wall first). I did a 360 down the stairs hitting every possible part of my body. Luckily Matt was right there and he ran to me screaming to make sure I was still alive; I was so badly bruised I was layed up for the rest of the day with ice everywhere..

I guess things just don't want to get done around here…

No Olympics in Chicago ...

I love the Olympics. From when I was very young, my mom got us all excited about it and we would curl up in front of the TV every night to watch the opening ceremonies, events, and stories of the athletes and the host cities. I would always envision I was one of the skaters or gymnasts, imagining the routines in my head and the cheers from the crowds.

When my mom told me that the kids in the host city got to help out and didn't have to go to school, I was flabbergasted. I wanted to know why our small suburban town couldn't host the winter games. My mom looked at me rationally and said, "You need places to ski and ice skate to have a winter games, honey."

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I clearly pointed out to her the excellent hill by the Post Office where we used to sled, and the pond where we would go ice skating. To a six year old, those were clearly obvious and ideal places for athletes to show their stuff. My mom had to set me straight, whether I agreed or not, there would be no Olympics in our town.

So when Mayor Daley started this campaign for the Olympics, I was incredulous. But it was the summer games, and if Atlanta could pull it off, we could too. I'll be honest, I wasn't one of the Olympic die-hards rallying for the 2016 games - traffic, taxes, crowds... But every time I would see it I would feel a twinge of excitement -- regardless of the fact I was no longer in school and wouldn't get any time off.

But I thought, maybe, just maybe, we would get it and how fun would it be to bring my kid to the games, and tell them this was about 40 years in the making.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. I can't explain why I'm saddened, but I feel for Chicago as if she were that Olympic athlete, the one who gives it her all, but doesn't win. I'm saddened for the child in me that innocently thought Alberto Tomba could race down that Post Office hill.

Maybe in another 40 years, Chicago will try again, and win. And I can bring the grandkids.