Last fall I went to Duck Duck Goat for dim sum with my sister and her friends. Duck Duck Goat, if you don't know, is Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard's Asian-inspired restaurant in Chicago. It was also the one restaurant on my list of 12 restaurants...
At the beginning of 2019 I made a list of 12 restaurants that I really wanted to go to, one for each month of the year. I have this tendency to go to the same handful of places over and over again. To never leave my...
I always get kind of nervous to look back, in December, at the resolutions I had made for the year back in January. Usually, by now, I've completely forgotten what, exactly, I pledged to do with my twelve fresh months. Oh, who am I kidding, I...
Have you ever put off doing something because it seemed overwhelming, complicated, daunting, only to find when you finally did it, that it wasn't a big deal at all? I do that all the time. All. the. time. I build things up so much in...
My sister gave me a choice for what to gift me for my birthday: cash, a gift card, or a ticket to join her on a Chicago pizza tour with Chicago Pizza Tours. While my debt-ridden bank account always appreciates money and my Starbucks card...
When you think of New Orleans you might think of The French Quarter, Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, streetcars, jazz...
I'd been to Seattle three times before. The first time, in 2009, I did everything my guidebook told me to do there. The second, in 2011, I explored for a few hours between a train from Vancouver and a flight back to Chicago. And the...
I had but one goal for my four-night vacation in Austin, Texas: eat everything. Austin's food scene excited me. The city is probably best known for tacos and Tex-Mex and barbecue. And who wouldn't be excited for tacos and Tex-Mex and barbecue? But it...
In 1989, I fell in love. I was in third grade and he was both the coolest and the cutest boy I'd ever laid eyes on. Bleach blonde hair, striking hazel eyes. A class-clown meets bad boy in the most adorable way. He had a cell phone...
I first "invented" these alcoholic pudding shot recipes five years ago for my thirtieth birthday. I believe the conversation, in my head, at the time, probably went something like this: Val 1: "What should we have at my birthday party?" Val 2: "Jello shots?" Val 1: "But we...