a few daily delights

Well, on the bright side it's 20 degrees in St. Paul...but on the dim side Alan Rickman died and my Potter-nerd heart is in mourning (as is my Jane Austen-loving self, his Colonel Brandon made me weep!). So to cheer myself up, I'm looking back on happy highlights from this week, because I feel like all I've done is bitch about the weather and really, it's been an incredibly lovely week. 

--Making the transition from eating like shit and drinking every day to eating quite healthily and drinking...green juice. I've started Snapping a select few friends the daily green smoothie, to mixed results that are inevitably hilarious. Thanks, friends, for keeping me on the healthy train. 

--finally perfecting a frittata for dinner last night. 

--Friends coming to visit: Erin the third weekend of February and Laura the last! Talk about taking my favorite month and making it even better...

--Speaking of perfecting my favorite month, we booked our London trip for work, finally! I'll be headed off to my favorite city in the world for a full week mid-month, right after my birthday, and I cannot wait to revisit old haunts and check a few new places off the list. 

--Cozy, fuzzy, cuddly outerwear that makes the negative windchill tolerable. 

--Burning this candle all evening every evening, resulting in an apartment that accordingly smells like snickerdoodles. 

--My cousin Matt is leaving public and coming to work at my company! I can't wait to have a friend (at least, a friend my age!) in the workplace again. 

--Discovering beautiful new pieces on Classical MPR: "Set Me As A Seal" and Camille Saint-Saens' "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso."

Winter: a trust exercise.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: I've survived my first official sidewalk wipeout of 2016. This morning at around 7:25 am, in my rush to get into work after a slower-than-expected commute, I hit a patch of black ice walking altogether too fast and ass-planted backwards right into the street. Casualties: my coffee (RIP), my dignity (or what was left of it, I suppose), and any shred of remaining patience for the bullshit that is a Minnesota winter. 

These days, it's cold in Minnesota...the kind of cold that sears the lungs and makes my eyes tear up from the wind. Walking to work this morning was an adventure...the pavement slick with the slightest dusting of snow and, underneath that,  ice, looking deceptively safe but secretly greasy like an oil slick. I'm not known for being graceful (see above), and the combination of Uggs and bad sidewalks just increases the adventure. Everyone seems a bit more sluggish, from the pigeons in the arcade outside work to my fellow commuters, heat cranked and windows frosty on the morning drive. 

And let's talk about those drives, shall we? I drive a Honda Civic, which actually handles better than my Bug or Corolla ever did. That said, I'm a ridiculously cautious driver in weather, especially on highway 94, and that can't be said about many others on the road with me. From the granny drivers going 10 when the roads really aren't that bad, to the scary semis that seem to think black ice is fictional like Santa Claus, I always feel like I'm taking my life in my hands when I get behind the wheel in snow. Honestly, I work from home as much as I can just to avoid it. 

It's so cold that I wake up with chapped lips and hands, and it's so dry that my nose bleeds when I blow it. All I want to do when I get home is curl up in my chair under a blanket, as close to the fire as possible. Or submerge myself in a bath, maybe, and soak and steam all the chill out of my bones that I can. I've been existing on soup and tea and oranges lately...the first two to warm myself up, and the third because citrus reminds me of warmer days and climates. 

I'm regaining the art of layering every day. Today, it's tights with leggings over them, ski socks in my boots, a dress and a sweater and a coat and mittens and a scarf and one of those hats with the giant pompoms on top. I feel bundled like "A Christmas Story," so stiff with layers that my normal posture and gait are changed, and still so cold on the bits of exposed flesh that, if I could, I would cover every inch but my eyes. It's so brutally cold when I get out of the car that the layers are the only thing that make the half-mile walk in tolerable...even if it means I start sweating and have to strip half of them off as soon as I get through the door at the office. These vacillations between hot and cold mean my toes are always icy, even under two or three layers. 

Essentially, winter is a trust exercise...like those forced bonding routines at camp, where you're supposed to just let yourself fall backward into someone else's arms, right? I always hated those; I'm not a naturally trusting person, and I fall enough of my own volition to make a planned fall seem even more absurd than it is. Winter's like that...Iknow it's just a part of it, and yet I have to take the stupid fall anyway.  Every day I trust that I'll stay on the road and on my feet, that frostbite and frozen eyelashes will stay at bay, and that, hopefully, eventually, it will warm up. 

Sunday Brunch: Hell's Kitchen

Wow, it's been a long while since I had brunch...although it was great to blaze back into it in the best form with Kelsie and her friends! They had a great day of holiday shopping and the Macy's 8th floor planned, and we kicked it all off visiting a Minneapolis institution...Hell's Kitchen! 

Location/Ambiance: 

Obviously a restaurant called Hell's Kitchen is bound to be a bit unorthodox, decor-wise...located in the basement of a downtown office building, the entrance is unassuming enough, apart from the fun marquee. 

Get inside, though, and it's...well...hellish. Wrought-iron gates, giant "stone" angels and demons, and some very interesting artwork. Not the brunchiest atmosphere, but the novelty of it was definitely fun. 

Ambiance-wise, we didn't know that the Hell's Kitchen weekend brunch featured live music! While it was a bit loud and hard to converse at times, it added a fun spin to a girls' brunch to have a (fairly good) band to watch and listen to while we sipped our drinks! 

Score: 7/10

Beverage: 

The big selling point at Hell's Kitchen is the dual Bloody Mary and Mimosa bar, which features absolutely insane build-your-own mimosas and bloodies. For $15, and not bottomless, however, it seemed a bit rich for our group (especially considering usually my Prosecco costs less than $15 for an entire bottle!). Instead, we stuck to the classic drink menu. A few of us tried Tequila Mockingbirds and Salty Dogs, but I went with the "Dante's Screw," a classic screwdriver with infused vodka. Remembering how good the vanilla vodka concoction was at Haute Dish, I went with vanilla and it was fantastic. 

Score: 8/10 (points off for the ridiculously expensive mimosa bar)

Food: 

Hell's Kitchen was always one of my favorite places we'd order dinner from during public accounting busy season...BiteSquad delivered and they were open super late, so it didn't matter when we got hungry. My favorite dish back then was and still is their "Ham and Pear Crisp" sandwich. The combination of thick-sliced ham, cinnamon-poached pears, and fontina is ridiculously decadent...even more so on cinnamon-spiced sourdough. I ordered it with sweet potato fries and barely dented it...enough leftovers for lunch the next day is always a win. 

Score: 10/10

To check out Hell's Kitchen for yourself, head here...or else visit one of my other favorites from my Brunch Challenge! 

a thirty-below thank you

The windchill in Minneapolis registered around thirty below this morning, and I went to Target without a coat. 

No, I'm not suicidal. No, my blood type isn't "antifreeze." I live in a building with underground heated parking, and it is worth every penny of rent I pay on days like this. 

I needed groceries and laundry detergent if my Sunday plans of tv and meal prep were going to pan out, but when I woke up to this, all I wanted to do was stay buried under the covers whimpering: 

That's ice INSIDE my windows. It's so cold the inside of my apartment is freezing. 

I feel like I can't really complain, given at this very moment there are thousands of people just a few miles away voluntarily watching the Vikings play the Seahawks outside at TCF Bank Stadium. Then again, that's their choice, and there are few things I like enough to be outside in weather like this for four minutes, much less four hours. 

Enter heated underground parking, at both my apartment and the downtown Target, and I was able to convince myself to gird my loins, put on pants that weren't flannel, and make a Target run. My car registered at a balmy 69 degrees when I started it in my apartment garage, and plummeted to -4 within about 3 minutes of being exposed to glacial tundra air. After about a half hour in Target, the car had warmed back up to 40 degrees when I made my exit to head home. No hat, scarf or mittens necessary: just two free hands to carry the groceries and a reminder that there are saving graces to this arctic weather. 

You know you're a Minnesotan when this is the stuff deemed fairy-tale blogworthy. That said, thank you, dear apartment complex, and thank you, downtown Target, for making this hellish polar vortex a little more tolerable. 

Off to brew yet another cup of tea and channel my inner Elsa...as much as I claim "the cold never bothered me anyway," we all know that's a lie. Here's to first-world luxuries and warmer days ahead! 

all together now!

Sorry (I'm not sorry) for the radio silence over here toward the end of December, but realistically, who could have possibly expected me to be legitimately putting anything out when I was so busy celebrating? The Five Schwegs reunited in absolutely epic holiday style this year! Jonathan has been home since December 11, which seems insanely early to me, and Em rolled back into town last from the 18th to the 30th thanks to her company's awesome holiday shutdown. We spent a crazy amount of time together and it was, in a word, wonderful. 

I picked Em up on the evening of the 18th and we met Jonny and our parents at a local establishment (HA) for overpriced wine and catching up before heading home to an early bedtime. Em and I had Christmas missions to complete on Saturday, which involved but were not limited to braving Macy's during their one-day holiday sale (WOOF), petting the cutest dog ever at a local art store, and smelling every candle in Anthropologie. Mom, Dad, and Jon were on their own holiday expeditions, so we decided to rendezvous in Northeast and try out Tattersall together! 

I've loved taking Em and Dad to breweries over the last year or so. My mom and Jonathan are NOT beer drinkers, however, which cramps my Northeast hipster cool-place style a bit since all my favorite places are beer-only craft breweries. Enter Tattersall, which is a distillery serving over-the-top fantastic craft cocktails in a gorgeous old steel mill turned bar. I missed the parking lot the first time, it was so tucked away, but it was well worth the potholes and Google Maps confusion! 

Look at those beauties! I started with a bourbon drink featuring local sage honey and lemon and vanilla bitters, while the rest of the fam chose cocktails ranging from a classic gin martini (Dad) to a habanero-infused gin rickey (Em) to a classic bootleg (Mom).

Round 2 was just as adventuresome...Em and I both picked the "18th and Central," which featured aquavit, a Swedish liquor we'd never tried. IT WAS SO GOOD. 

I'm pretty sure we had way too much fun. We also sampled the food truck offerings from Bark & Bite, a Southern soul-food concept that impressed all of us. 

We all went our separate ways after we finished our second drinks, and reconvened on Sunday for Jonathan's birthday celebration! My mom, the Hallmark goddess, went all out with his presents this year: 

Those are tiny stuffed Star Wars characters on his gifts. How incredibly appropriate! He opened presents, and we headed to the movies to see "Sisters." Cannot recommend it highly enough--it's exactly the right kind of stupid humor with a heart that I adore. If you have a sister, take her and go see this. If you have a family, period, especially one with a sense of humor, go see this. 

Having laughed til our sides hurt, we classed things up a bit and got all dressed up to head to St. Paul for dinner! The St. Paul Grill is a family favorite, especially Jonny's, and we've been there to celebrate more events than I could list. It was a perfect night to be out and about downtown...the Ordway is running "The Sound of Music," the Wells Fargo Family Skate is set up outside the Landmark Center, and Rice Park is draped in millions of lights. 

Not to mention, we had the best table in the place...the corner table with windows on two sides overlooking the park. The view, paired with the Grill's over-the-top beautiful Christmas decorations, made for a gorgeously festive atmosphere. Their best-in-the-state crab cakes didn't hurt either, though. 

We concluded JonathanFest 2015 with a peppermint Oreo Dairy Queen cake, because his taste is nothing if not seasonally appropriate, and an equally appropriate rendition of "Happy Birthday." You may not be able to hear it in the (ten second) video below over my idiotic laughter, but Jonathan's commentary was basically "Awwww yissss, keep it coming, that's right, worship me, happy birthday to ME, YEAH," while my dad kind of "bow-wow-wow"'d his way through it. No wonder I couldn't control myself. 

At least it's videographic proof that we are nothing if not riotously fun together! Hard to believe this was just the first weekend of Schwegmanigans...legitimately the loveliest way to kick off our holidays!