• Places | Food | Recipes

    Perfect Almond Croissant

    It ain’t easy being a girl. It’s even harder if you love your pastries as much as I do! I’ve been to many bakeries around Chicago and I think I have finally found the PERFECT almond croissant. Well, actually the credit goes to my friend Leila. As a pastry chef she has tried, and made, plenty of croissants in her career, but she had the same problem I had: couldn’t find a great flaky, thousand-layered croissant that’s always made fresh and always tastes like a cloud of buttery goodness. And then we went to La Patisserie P. A tiny corner bakery, hidden among asian markets and noodle shops, always full…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Oh Em Cheese!!!

    I spent most of my morning on twitter , scrolling, RTing, tweeting, following… When one post caught my eye: national grilled cheese month. Happening NOW. 2 hours later I was still thinking about grilled cheese so I decided to make my own to kick off this celebratory month. It’s got bacon, tomatoes, 2types of cheese, spinach and bread. Simplest thing ever. To make 2 grilled cheese sandwiches: 4 slices of bread 2 slices of tomato 2 slices of bacon Handful of spinach, chopped 4 slices of cheese, or more, your preference (I used 2slices of mild cheddar and 2slices of Swiss) Butter First cook the bacon and tomato slices over…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    French Macarons

    I’ve been absolutely obsessed with French macarons and I think I found the best macaron baker EVER. I’ve been ordering LOTS of macarons online, since Chicago bakeries SUCK at making perfect macarons, and a few months ago I came across www.LeilaLove.com. I’ve ordered many many times from her and each time I fall deeper and deeper in love with her. Leila always packages the macarons in beautiful boxes for any occasion, she wraps them in air tight foils so they won’t dry out by the time they get delivered to me. It’s an absolutely gorgeous and decadent set of macarons, always different flavors, but I’ve been able to request all…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    …And Some (more) Cupcakes!

      Today I went back to Tails in the City to exchange Chuck’s pajamas. Came out with a hat and a scarf set, too… I think I might be a little obsessed with this place, oops. On my way out I noticed there’s a cupcake store next door, More Cupcakes. I’m in so much trouble. Tried the passion fruit and chocolate hazelnut one, both delicious! Maybe even better than Sprinkles and Magnolia… Here’s some new pictures from today. Enjoy!  

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Cranberry Dog Biscuits

    I found this recipe while baking the Carrot Oat Doggie Biscuits today. I had a box of dried cranberries in the cupboard just sitting there and I was trying to make enough to last me a while, and different types of treats. I didn’t want my Chuck and Oprah to be bored with the same taste for a week (I’m such a silly human) So I found these Cranberry Dog Treats and decided to give it a shot. I cut the recipe in half, because I don’t like freezing anything, especially dog food, and I don’t want them to go bad after a week or two. I substituted molasses for…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Carrot Oat Doggie Biscuits

    I was so glad I came across Doggy Dessert Chef today! I ran out of doggy biscuits throughout the holidays and I had to whip something up really fast. I live in a high rise building with lots of dogs here, and my two pups are very overprotective of the elevator. The only way to have them not bark at the other dogs is to have a yummy treat in my hand. And some people are completely NOT ok with “some dogs barking loud at their well behaved dogs”.. Pfft. Can’t wait to one day live in my own house.. Dreamin, dreamin.. Ha ha. So anyway, the recipe is called…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Doggie PJs – Tails in the City

    Here’s a story about how I ended up getting PJs for my two dogs at Tails in the City. It was the last weekend before Christmas and I was still missing gifts for my boyfriend’s parents. So I went downtown, on Mag Mile. The beautifully lit and not-so-beautifully-crowded Magnificent Mile. Thought, it’ll be so joyful, I’ll swing by Ghiradelli for some hot chocolate and of course the winter holiday scenery will make me feel like shopping is something i enjoy. I ended up walking down Delaware Ave, and noticed a cute little sign saying Tails in the City. It immediately caught my attention so I grabbed bf’s hand and dragged…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Doggie Biscuits

    So I’ve noticed that some of the store bought treats have been pretty tough on Oprah’s belly, she has thrown up several ones, from chicken strips to bacon bits (Beggin strips are the worst by the way, even Chuck can’t handle them) I’ve been looking for a good recipe online, tried two already before (one was a cheddar biscuit, I won’t be making ever again, I can’t remember what site I got it from, one was a Peanut Butter Banana biscuit both my dogs LOVED) Today, I am posting this along with a tip: ALWAYS read reviews on recipes when baking something the first time. There’s almost always something wrong…

  • In Ivy's Head

    Life’s Too Short Not To Share It With Others

    Celebrated my birthday this past Tuesday. The fact (or myth?) that the world will be ending in a few weeks gave me an excuse to kind of go all out. Or just out. Met with a few of my closest friends at Public House for some eats and drinks. Being there those few hours I realized that all this time I was so wrong about the relationship of our age with making new friends. All this time I thought kids have it so much easier, because of school, activities, neighbors, to make new friends. Yeah, they do have it easy, but why do we have to give up being social…

  • Places | Food | Recipes

    Gingerbread Snickerdoodles

    Can you do that? Can you flavor snickerdoodle cookies to your taste buddies’ request? I did.. and my buddies were craving gingerbread. I found gingerbread cookie ice cream at Dominick’s last week n it’s all i’ve been eating lol (safeway select brand, recommend it)   Anyway. made mine a little too big so some of them got stuck together. but that’s ok, still taste great. Served with a scoop of gingerbread ice cream lol I used Martha Stewart’s Recipe, used a stick of butter and a stick of margarine instead, also added 2 teaspoons cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2T gingerbread spice to the batter (vanilla goes in…