Beaujolais Nouveau Dinner
We invited our friend for dinner to celebrate beaujolais nouveau's release this year.
お友達を呼んでボジョレーヌーボーの夕べを楽しみました。


We cooked (and bought) some french food and had a nice time.
フレンチを作って（買ったのもあり）おもてなし。

The dessert was juuust right size after the big meal.
デザートはちょうどいい大きさでよかった。

Steven folded the napkins. Doesn't it look so professional??!!
Stevenが折ったナプキン。プロ級でしょ？

We emptied 2 bottles of wine and played cards and games till midnight. It was so much fun...
3人でワインを2本あけて、夜中までゲームやトランプをして楽しみました。

Fall has come...It is still warm but I can see some changes on leaves.
I miss Japanese maples getting bright red color in this season.



Here are some seasonal Japanese food I cooked.
Komatsuna (Komatsu green)and Shimeji mushroom.
Oh, I love this plate (Oribe yaki) my mom gave me recently.
Doesn't it go well with the greens?



Hijiki, Mackeral miso stew with ginger, and brown rice...these are not so seasonal but I like cooking this Mackeral dish in the cold weather.

Dishes I cooked in the last two weeks. Some of them have Autumn theme.
この2週間で作った秋のお料理

Roast Autumn vegetables and pork. Love this cookware.
秋野菜とポークのロースト。このロースト用テラコッタ鍋（鍋かなあ。）のおかげでロースト料理が楽々。しっとり仕上がります。

Smoked salmon and beet salad.　スモークサーモンとビーツのサラダ

Chicken, cannelloni beans and Shiitake mushroom stew.チキン、豆、しいたけのシチュー

Sweet potato dessert. Yum!!　さつまいものスイートポテト

Stuffed pumpkin with wild rice and veggies.　かぼちゃに黒いワイルドライス、野菜、ポークをつめてオーブンで焼いたもの。

Sweet potato soup. Steven's favorite. He is a potato boy :)　さつまいも（又！）のスープ。お芋好きStevenの好物。

Curry marinated cauliflower　カレー味のカリフラワーの酢の物

Beets, Pecan and Blue cheese salad.　ビーツ、ピカンナッツ、ブルーチーズのサラダ

We went to San Jose Rose Garden for picnic. I made tuna paste and egg salad and brought some smoked salmon , fruits and a baguette.
Some roses are still pretty and the park smelled wonderful! We love this park. This is our special place where Steven proposed to marry me 3 years ago :)


A Mexican couple was taking some pictures for their wedding in this romantic place.


3年前にプロポーズされたローズガーデンでピクニック。まだ薔薇がきれいでした。メキシカンのカップルが結婚写真をとってました。
遠くに見える赤いドレスが花嫁。

Steven cooked Paella again! This seafood Paella has Shrimp, crams, scallops, seaweed (wakame), red pepper and onion. It was the best Paella I have ever had. The wakame kept rice moist and the dish was juicy and had rich flavors.




The dessert was store bought mini tiramisu in a chocolate cup and Rasberry sorbet.

We opened the wine from Chateauneuf du puff where we visited for our honey moon 2 years ago. Novemver 1 st is our engagement anniversary so it was a special day!

3週間のシカゴ滞在の後はお家でごはん…ということで、Stevenがわかめ入りシーフードパエリアを作ってくれました。おいしかった～！11月1日は私達の婚約記念日なので2年前に新婚旅行で泊まったシャトーホテルのワイナリーで買ったワインを開けました。

The rest of the days in Chicago.
I went to an Aquarium. I am so spoiled by the great one in Monterey so this one in Chicago was so so to me. Thought the fish tanks are small and fishes look sad there. Chicagoでは他にしたこと。１．水族館へ行く（水槽が小さくてなんだか寂しそうでした。）

But this puffer fish looks happy and it was so cute! Click the "play icon" to start movie.

でもこのフグは楽しく泳いでたよ。再生ボタンをクリックしたら動画が始まります。

Steven took a half day off and we did an architectural river ride. We had a great time on the boat but it got so cold at the end of 1 1/2 hour trip.

２．シカゴ建築を見る川くだりツアー。すごく楽しかったけど1.5時間のツアーの最後は寒くて大変。さすがシカゴ。

Went to Smith & Wollensky for company dinner. We were treated VERY well there. This seafood tower had lobster, crab, oyster, clam, shrimp, prawn, squid and so on....Ohhh, it was good!! ３．会社のディナーにお呼ばれ。ここはステーキハウスだけど魚介類がおいしかった！この前菜のシーフードタワーを見て！生のはまぐりがおいしかった。

This restaurant is famous for steak but I had 3 steaks in 3 weeks so took this Alaskan halibut and it was very tasty.　ステーキに食傷ぎみの私はアラスカハリバット（大きいひらめのような魚）を注文。レモンバターソースでいただきま～す。

I had a lot of fun in Chicago. The three weeks has passed very fast. I also enjoyed the library, the yarn shop( I knitted a lot. The photos are coming soon...), walking by the river, Fall colored leaves and so on. Thank you, Chicago!!　他には図書館、毛糸屋さん（たくさん編み物をしたのでそれは又、後ほど）へ行ったり、川沿いを散歩したり、秋色の木々を楽しんだりの3週間でした。シカゴいい街だ！（でも冬には来ない。寒すぎるから。）

The Art Institute of Chicago is beautiful and ...oh my I can spend whole day there.

They have so many collections from Chinese bowl from 500 AD to Modern Art artist's work.
Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Manet, etc....I spent 4 hours there but I needed to screen some of them because there are too many to finish.

I NEEDED to take a coffee break to energize me with some sweets :)

Since Steven worked all night at office, I went to see Giselle. The local ballet company, the Joffrey ballet is good at contemporary ballet so I was a little worried they would change this classical ballet but like The New York Times review said, their performance was a pure classical 19th century ballet.

I enjoyed it very much from the box sheet with a special price :)

Chicago has a lot of beautiful old buildings and modern archiectures so you can enjoy the harmony of old and new.

The local coffee company Intelligentsia serves GREAT coffee and the Baristas even make latte art.

The most proper things to do for Halloween time in Chicago are...

1. Going to a haunted village in downtown.

The curved pumpkins looked so Halloweenish :) and the fountain was dyed pumpkin color!

2. Watching a new Broadway musical, "Wicked" !

Oh it was a great performance. This is the story before the Wizard of Oz and you will find how the props in Wizard of Oz come into the places. We LOVED the voice of the green girl. The theater was also old pretty building with antique decorations.