food (food) | la madia

Pizza. It's an on-going debate that I have with people.  Some people feel strongly about Chicago pizza and others (like myself) just think it's alright.  I'm a fan of NY pizza personally and as any true New Yorker will say, "It's in the water"...and I always agree.  I personally can't consider anything you have to eat with a knife and fork as pizza, which is why I'm not a huge fan of deep dish.  Pizza is meant to be thin, folded in half and pawed with one (or two) hands.  After hearing rave reviews about Chicago staples like Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, Aurelio's and Pequod's, I tried them and none of them impressed me.  I had given up on good pizza in this city until I tried La Madia.  Yes, it's a little more upscale, the toppings are a little fancier, but it's damn good pizza.

I wouldn't say that La Madia is a place that I frequent, but I've eaten there enough times to know that everything on their menu is so good.  Their pizzas are stellar with the pepperoni with truffle oil as my favorite on the menu and their salads are good enough to fill you up before you get to the main course.  The last few times I've been there I was able to try a few of their entrees and all were just as good as their pizzas.  Although I've been keeping myself on a pretty strict gluten free diet for digestive reasons, I had to sneak in a slice of pizza to soak up the one too many glasses of wine I had at happy hour just prior to dinner...and it was well worth it.  

Can you tell that Matt and I went to Baskin Robbins for dessert after dinner? In case you're wondering, I went with a scoop World Class Chocolate. ;)

|What stand do you take in the great pizza debate? Are you like me and think that thin crust/big sliced pizzas are the way to go? Or are you a thicker crust type of person that likes the heartier version of the pie?|

Also, congrats to Mary from Babble+Bloom for winning the Zia & Rita Giveaway!

food (food) | kalua pork with cabbage

In many cultures, roasted pig is a luxurious dish that is only served during big gatherings or celebrations.  In the Filipino culture this dish is called Lechon and making it for a small family is very rare.  Same goes for the Hawaiian culture, the roasted pig dish called kalua pork with cabbage is served at many luaus, but is also known as a common hot plate lunch available at local restaurants.

photo | L & L Hawaiian BBQ

Since Matt grew up in Hawaii he is very familiar with a lot of Filipino and rice based dishes.  A few years ago when we lived in LA and Seattle it was a lot easier to satisfy our craving for kalua pork with cabbage. There is a larger population of Hawaiians who have migrated over to the west coast, so places like  L & L Hawaiian BBQ were easier to get to since they opened a lot of locations on the mainland.  However, when we moved to Chicago we found it difficult to find a good Hawaiian restaurant.  This is where we had to get crafty and McGyver our own recipe for kalua pork with cabbage - which we've perfected.

Unless you have a pit to roast the pig, you'll need a slow cooker...along with the following ingredients:

• 3 - 4 lbs of pork shoulder (you can do bone in or boneless)
• Sea salt
• 1 tbsp Liquid smoke
• 1 head of cabbage (shredded)
• 1/2 yellow onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp of crushed garlic
• 2 links of fully cooked Portuguese, Chinese or chorizo sausage (chopped)

Directions for pork:

1. Trim fat off of the pork shoulder.
2. Rub sea salt evenly on meat and place in slow cooker.
3. Add liquid smoke into slow cooker and cover.  Cook on high for 6 - 7 hours. (You can also prepare this the night before you want to eat it and cook on low overnight)
4. Once meat is cooked it will be tender enough to shred with a fork.  Shred until meat is broken down.

Directions for cabbage:

1. Take a tbsp of oil from the slow cooker and heat in a large pan on medium heat.
2. Add chopped sausage and heat for 2 - 3 minutes.
3. Add chopped onions and garlic.  Saute until onions become translucent.
4. Add shredded cabbage and mix until combined with the sausage and onion combo.
5. Season with salt.
6. Cook until cabbage is tender.

It's common to find this meal served with rice and mac salad (Hawaiian style macaroni salad) which is a staple in Hawaii, but we opt to leave both of them out.  If you've never had Hawaiian dishes I definitely recommend trying this one.  It's so good and no celebration is necessary to enjoy it.

fash•ion (fash-uh n) | in the navy

I'll never get sick the nautical look.  Stripes, white, wide legged trousers - it's the perfect trend.  And honestly, it's a very a classic one that gets reinvented every year so needless to say, it's not really going anywhere.  The thing I love about it most is that navy is a primary color that's incorporated into the look.  Since navy is basically my black, I gravitate towards anything this color and it always reminds me of the great nautical look.  To me, any article of clothing that can be used to create the nautical look is automatically a good investment.

|What do you think is a timeless look that somehow manages to surface year after year?|

fash•ion (fash-uh n) | bow ties

Did you know that bow ties and bloggers go hand in hand? They've been my latest obession lately and when Rachel (the genius behind The Style Cooperative) asked me to style the Tokyo bow tie, I couldn't wait to put an outfit together.  To see more pics from the fun shoot check out Rachel's blog The Style Social.

Photo by the wonderfully talented Rachel Brooks

Side note - I'm wearing the bow tie again today (styled totally differently) and I love it!

mov•ie (moo-vee) | captain america: the first avenger

As much as I love being social, the anti-social part of me would totally be content if it only consisted of going to the movies.  Going to the movies (not just watching them after they've been released on DVD) is one of the main things Matt and I have in common.  For people who know us as a married couple, they know that we're polar opposites, but I'm glad that enjoying the movie experience is something we both are pretty passionate about.

On Saturday I spent the morning with Rachel of The Style Social / The Style Cooperative (more to come on that) and later that night Matt and I saw Captain America: The First Avenger. Although I was never one that loved reading comics growing up, I have a soft spot for those that have been turned into movies.  Although there are some that I opt to not watch (ie: Green Latern), I will totally geek out to most of them. 

Aside from only knowing of the Captain America character, I was never really familiar with his background.  All I knew was that he didn't have special powers like Superman or Spiderman have. Captain America's (aka: Steve Rogers) story wasn't what I assumed it would be, but it was definitely predictable. The storyline itself was good and definitely delivered a very comic book ending with a few surprises, but part of what made the movie great was the cast...particularly Tommy Lee Jones. Having already played a comic book character once before as Two Face in Batman (pre-Christian Bale), he definitely comes with some experience and his one off lines really made me laugh out loud. Something I wasn't expecting out of the movie.

Overall the movie was entertaining. Was it the best movie I've seen this month? Absolutely not - I would quickly nominate Horrible Bosses for that one, but it was worth seeing in the theater. Honestly, the highlights of the movie were seeing Chris Evans without a shirt on, being introduced to Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones' humor and seeing the Spiderman preview.  If you've exhausted most of the other movie options and are looking for a reason to sit in air condition I think this is a good candidate.  Otherwise, see some of the other summer blockbusters first and table this one for a matinee.

|Are you a movie buff?  If so, any favorite movies you've seen this summer?|

life (lahyf) | frickles

Back when Matt started out his career in finance as a Financial Adviser his hours were so ridic that we rarely saw each other, so we started dedicating one night out of our weekends to date night. Contrary to what people assume about FAs - you start out broke, work insane hours and rarely ever see your loved ones. The first 2 years that Matt started out as an FA, we NEVER ate dinner together during the weekday. In fact, I would only see him an hour each weekday. Monday through Friday he would leave for work at 7am and would come home after 8:30pm (at the earliest) plus work half day Saturdays. Needless to say we never saw each other, which made date night that much more important. That all started 5 years ago and to this day we still continue this tradition.

Date nights never have to be extravagant. In fact, as much as I love a good expensive piece of cow with a side of lobster mashed potatoes, I would much prefer something low key and un-expected. Grabbing a snow cone and strolling through the zoo, taking a day trip to Starving Rock to go hiking or Medieval Times - those are great dates. Since this week has been pure chaos, our date night was nice and laid back with a trip to our favorite restaurant, Nana located in Bridgeport.  This part of town is very un-assuming and in fact it's borderline sketchy, but this organic restaurant that serves "frickles" (cornmeal fried homemade pickles), fried quail with duck gravy and an amazing skirt steak with chimichurri, is one of our favorites.

You walk in and it's unlike any restaurant in the city.  It has exposed brick and an open kitchen, it almost feels like you're having dinner in a friend's really nice kitchen.  The food is crazy good (for both dinner and brunch), but my favorite part of the restaurant is that they support local artists by hanging their artwork on the wall.  Lately, they've been featuring paintings by Patrick Skoff who has these incredible canvas paintings that are so vibrant and affordable.  Every time Matt and I eat at Nana's there's always a new painting that we want to take home and we know that if one is missing from the wall the next time we eat there that it's made its way to a good home.

Since Matt is extremely strict with his diet, date nights that involve eating out is his day of indulging.   Because he has more of a sweet tooth than I do, no cheat meal is complete without something to satisfy his craving from Marble Slab Creamery.  In this case, it was the biggest size of birthday cake flavored ice cream covered in oreos, cookie dough and fudge - while I had the smallest size of fro-yo covered in sprinkles...which he eats half of. :)

|Do you and your significant other do date nights? What are your favorite types of things to do together as a couple?|

Have you entered my Rita & Zia giveaway? 

food (food) | lazy salad

When we lived in LA I was introduced to an amazing little chicken place on PCH called Chicken Maison that served an unforgettable salad...really. The salad was called the Maison Special and all the "fillers" were what made it so memorable - it had pita chips, chicken, lemon dressing and rice. It was a hearty meal and I'm not joking, every time I was in the South Bay bubble it was a must have - that and Eat At Joe's. The salad left such a mark on my palette so much that when we moved to Chicago I tried hard to replicate it. But let's be honest, when you love something SO much, sometimes replacing the original is difficult. However, my salad with modifications is pretty amazing.

There are two foods that I could never live without and salad is definitely one of them (sushi is the other). There are so many varieties and options - to me it truly is the perfect meal. I call it the lazy salad because on weeknights when cooking a full meal isn't an option, this is what I resort to.  It requires minimal cooking and is so easy to make.  

So here's what you'll need for my perfect lazy salad.

Salad ingredients:

• 1 cup of spinach or arugula (I prefer arugula, but for visual purposes you'll see spinach - it's all the store had) 
• 1 pre-cooked chicken breast - chopped (I buy a rotisserie chicken from the store which gives me enough for 2 meals PLUS extra meat for my pups)
• 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes (halved)
• Shaved fennel (I only use a couple of slivers from the bulb)
• 1/4 cup of rice pilaf (this is a lazy salad so I use the Uncle Ben's instant brown rice you heat up for 90 seconds, but you can add whatever type of rice you want)
• Optional: 1/4 cup of pita chips (I don't use this in my salad since I eat gluten free, but Chicken Maison's salad has it and it's good stuff)
• Optional: 1 tbsp of Parmesan cheese (I don't typically use cheese, but I have and it's really good)

 

Dressing:

• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp of EVOO
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp of Greek seasoning (I use McCormicks)

Directions:

1. Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until all are mixed together.  (This lemon juice dressing is my staple)
2. Heat up rice for 90 seconds.  While rice is heating up, combine all remaining salad ingredients into a large bowl.
3. Place warm rice into large bowl and add salad dressing.
4. Toss until salad is coated with dressing.

Enjoy (and be lazy)!

Also, don't forget to enter my Rita & Zia giveaway!

fash•ion (fash-uh n) & life (lahyf) | in good company

Last week I was so fortunate to be included in a slideshow Refinery 29 created featuring some of Chicago's street style and fashion bloggers.  Click here to see all the wonderful bloggers that were featured.

photo | amy creyer (huge thank you!!!)

The world of fashion and personal style blogging has blown up so much since I first started blogging 4 years ago.  I'm continuously amazed by how many new blogs surface not every year, but more like every month.  I swear it was only a year ago that we had our first Chicago blogger meet-up and discovered the handful of fashion/style bloggers that lived in my area.  Since then, my circle of blogger friends has grown and I've had the pleasure of getting to know so many wonderful people that I'm able to share my passion for fashion/style with.  Thanks to all my blogger friends that are always teaching me something new everyday about life and fashion - it's readers and support from other bloggers that make me LOVE being a part of this community!

fash•ion (fash-uh n) | rita & zia giveaway

If you've been following my blog for awhile, it's not hard to notice that I'm loving layered bracelets. Mixing and matching patterns, colors, etc - The way I see it is, the more bracelets the better.

So when I saw some of the amazing pieces by Rita & Zia I became obsessed immediately. Rita & Zia started in Geneva and I'm so ecstatic that they've brought their pieces to the US market.  One thing that makes each item unique is their signature charms.  There are 30 different lucky charms and each represents a specific message. As you'll see there are some fantastic pieces in the Rita & Zia line and I'm SO lucky that they're offering one of my readers a Mini Bling Thread bracelet in neon yellow featuring the Om charm that represents luck, material comforts and spiritual powers.

Since I consider myself a VERY lucky person and I absolutely LOVE bracelets this couldn't be a more perfect giveaway!

Here's how to enter:

• Leave a comment (don't forget your email address) and tell me why you consider yourself lucky.

Additional bonus entries (1 entry for each and be sure to let me know which ones you do):

• Like Rita & Zia on Facebook
• Tweet about the giveaway (please include me - @definingtabitha - in your tweet)
• Like Defining Tabitha on Facebook
  

*Sorry but this giveaway is for US residents only.  Giveaway ends on Tuesday, July 26th 11:59 (est).

Good luck!!!

fash•ion (fash-uh n) & life (lahyf) | street festivals

The joy of living in Chicago is that throughout the entire summer there's a street festival happening every weekend. Unlike any other place I've ever lived, the street festival scene is a huge part of Chicago summers and is a place to celebrate the amazing weather with everyone else in city.  As you can imagine its basically one huge block party with the classic cover band that makes its round to every fest on the calendar, an unlimited amount of over priced beers, street food worthy of forgetting about your diet and overall a good time.  

However, the hot weather can be hard to plan for - especially if humidity is involved.  Street festivals is a day long event where you have to plan for port-o-pottys, crowds and potential pick-pocketers so dressing for a festival requires some guidelines. Last Saturday, Matt and I met some friends at the Taste of River North street festival and knowing that it was going to be an extremely hot day with lots of humidity I had to dress appropriately.

So I have a set of dos and don'ts I keep in mind when dressing for a street fest:

• DO wear light weight clothes (a dress with pockets is ideal), but DON'T wear gray.  If you're a sweaty hot mess in the summer refrain from wearing a color that will show all your sweat marks.
• DO wear a cross body bag to make sure your belongings are secure throughout the whole day.
• DON'T wear a romper!  Remember port-a-pottys are bad enough as it is, you're going to make yourself miserable by stripping down in one of them.  That puts you more at risk of dropping something in the black hole.
• DO wear your sunglasses.  This is especially key if you're a people watcher (street fests are the best place to observe), shades are the best way to be discreet.

Also don't forget that in the hot weather it's always key to keep hydrated and wear sunblock!

|Does your city have a lot of festivals in the summer? What are your outfit rules or guidelines that you set for yourself when spending a day long event at a crowded venue in the sun?|

fash•ion (fash-uh n) | love all

Although you may not be a sports lover, you might love sports in another way.  I personally think that there's a lot to learn when putting together outfits based on sportswear (and no I'm not talking about things you wear to the gym).  There are some sports that inspire actual everyday outfits.  For example, equestrians have been wearing riding boots over their khaki riding pants years before Ralph Lauren perfected the look...or even before Shirley Long sported the look in one of my all time favorite movies Troop Beverly Hills.  

In my case, tennis is a sport  that I not only love to play, but one that continuously inspires me to create new outfits.  There's something about pleated skirts, polo shirts, head gear and the color neon green, that has a soft spot in my fashion heart.

|Do you think that fashion and sports go hand in hand? Are there any sports that inspire your everyday outfits?|

food (food) | skinny taste

Ever since a co-worker introduced me to Skinny Taste, I've been checking it diligently for new recipes to try. I love how Gina organizes her recipes (especially since I have been eating gluten free) because she makes it so easy to filter by diet restrictions, including Weight Watchers points for those who are on the system.

This was the latest creation I made from her recipes, an amazing Zesty Lime Shrimp and Avocado Salad that didn't disappoint. If you're looking new healthy recipes that require minimal ingredients, definitely check out Gina's site.  It's hard to get past the first few posts without wanting to make everything.  Enjoy!

fash•ion (fash-uh n) | walking the dog

I'm one of those people that crawls out of the bed, pops in my contacts, slips on a hoodie (one of 2 that I own - both which were freebies from work) over whatever I wore to bed the night before and walks my dogs out in public for everyone to see wearing just that.  And yes, sometimes that does include wearing my Paul Frank pajama bottoms out on the street at the crack of dawn. Ahh the life of a city dog.

I don't think that walking my dog requires an ensemble that impresses others, but there are definitely people that think different than I do - Ehem Clinton and Stacy.  I don't have the luxury of unleashing my dogs into a backyard to let them run freely, so in order for me to ensure that they don't end up marking their territory all over our place I have keep my prep at minimum.  It may be the only time aside from the gym that I'm comfortable going sans makeup.

|Do you give dog owners a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card on their outfits when they're walking their dog?  Or do you think people should put effort when they're even walking their dogs?|