Major Catch Up

Wow! These past couple of weeks have literally flown by! Despite my lack of blogging, our lives have been incredibly busy, in a really good way!

We've had multiple gatherings of friends for dinner and drinks, gone out to a couple of great restaurants and even fit in a couple of quick trips. A couple weekends ago, we began a fun weekend in Milwaukee for one of Bryan's great friends' birthday. It was a really fun evening filled with delicious Cajun food and awesome Kopp's frozen custard, a local Milwaukee favorite. It was super yummy and the helpings were massive!

The following day, Saturday, I flew to Minneapolis for one of my best friend's bachelorette party. We started out at her place for wine and appetizers and played some games and opened her gifts. It was so much fun and it was really nice to meet new girl friends! We then went out to the restaurant Zelo in downtown Minneapolis, which was very delicious. If any of my Minneapolis readers have the urge to try a new restaurant, I would definitely recommend Zelo! After dinner, we went out on the town for more drinks and dancing until the morning hours! It was a great time and I think we sufficiently embarrassed the bride-to-be!

I had a midday flight back to Chicago on Sunday, just in time to drive up to Northwestern's Evanston campus to see my best friend (and maid of honor!) Lucy play a violin recital as a part of her Masters in Performance degree. She played an amazing recital - she literally rocked my socks off! I love you Lucy! We even got to have Lucy and her sister Rosie over for dinner this past week and I re-made a recent favorite, mozzarella stuffed brushetta turkey burgers with balsamic glaze, which was definitely a crowd pleaser! On the side was a kale salad (post to come shortly!) and sweet potato fries which are always a favorite!

We had the beginning of the week to rest up and relax, I guess as much as we could with full time jobs and full time medical school going on. Then, on Thursday we had some incredible friends come to stay with us for the weekend. Thomas and Abigail came to visit from Pennsylvania and were here for a non-mutual friend's wedding in the area. It was just amazing to get to spend time with them. Thomas is a college friend of Bryan's and his group of guy friends is incredibly close. It's been such a great joy to have them in my life too. Lifelong friends are just priceless! We began their first night here with brews and appetizers from the Haymarket Pub and Brewery and came back to our place for grilled steak, salmon and asparagus with sides of orzo salad and kale salad (stay tuned). The next couple of nights they were busy with wedding related activities, but we were able to have an absolutely amazing Saturday brunch complete with mini egg pies (which were incredible), french toast, fruit, sausage and mimosas! It was so fun to get some quality time in with them. The last time we saw them was over New Years, when all of Bryan's friends got together at a cabin in northern Minnesota. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see them again before the holidays roll around again! While they were busy at the wedding yesterday, Bryan and I had a nice little date night and went to Sushi Wabi, a West Loop favorite!

This week looks to be quite busy as well. I'm going to be traveling to Michigan tomorrow morning for training for a new position at work and when I come back on Thursday, we hope to have a fun filled weekend. Bryan and I only have June to enjoy summer together in Chicago. He will be doing 2 month-long away rotations for medical school in July and August, so we must embrace every opportunity that we get to have fun this summer while we can!

Stay tuned for a couple of great recipes coming up next!