A Domestic Goddess Lives in Seattle: A Day of Dresses in Chicago

The Domestic Goddess of Seattle (Christy) flew into Chicago this past weekend to try on wedding dresses for her 2010 spring wedding. It was a Day of Dresses with three of her best Chicago girl friends, 1 Mom, 5 cameras and a multitude of chocolate Hershey's kisses and champagne. If you have not shared in a wedding dress day with someone, I highly recommend it. It may have been our great friendships, how happy we are for Christy & Ryan or what great genes she has to look amazing in EVERY dress she tried on...but it was a wonderful experience even for those of us not getting married anytime soon. 

We had lunch/brunch at Tilli's in Lincoln Park on Halsted. Delicious! They have a great menu with something for everyone from breakfast wraps to nicoise salads to sandwiches all with $2 mimosas on the weekends during brunch hours and they are also blessed with a large open space to dine in. We tried to avoid any bars with O' names and any Irish sounding eateries. Though we've all lived in Chicago for sometime, we forgot that the weekend preceding St. Patrick's Day in Chicago is the ACTUAL weekend St. Patrick's Day is celebrated...yikes. We ended the long and exhausting day with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, pizza, chocolate and lots of girl talk...really, how else do you end a day of wedding dress shopping? Christy of course being the Bride-to-be drank from the Crate and Barrel heart shaped champagne flute...why not?

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A Domestic Goddess Lives in Seattle: The Birthday Cake

The Domestic Goddess that Lives in Seattle is back again. This time with a birthday cake made for Abby. How lucky is she?! Personally I think her serious face in the picture above is just from the shock of how gorgeous the birthday cake is. Christy found the recipe, Golden Cake with Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting in The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl. I mean really, golden cake with chocolate sour cream? How could you not want to make that or eat it? Christy baked the cake portion of the recipe in 2, 9" round pans and split the layers all by herself. Only an architect like Christy or a surgeon with a steady hand could make those layers that perfect. I hear the frosting was rich, but they still ate it all anyway. I'm just wondering who in the family got to lick the bowl, the beaters and the spatula??? I'm still waiting for my cake slice in the mail. But if the cake is as good as it looks I'm sure it got lost in the mail or lost on its way to the post office!

Stay tuned:  The Domestic Goddess that Lives in Seattle will be making an appearance in Chicago! She's flying in this month so that her Chicago girl friends can celebrate her engagement with her! We'll have a weekend of eats and cocktails to share with you!

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A Domestic Goddess Lives in Seattle

Last night I received a text message from my friend Christy in Seattle, it wasn't so much a text message but a picture of a red velvet cupcake.  For this cupcake lover...it was torture...it made me very hungry. I texted Christy  back telling her that those cupcakes looked blog worthy (she is an avid reader of our lovely blog) and I promptly received the 4 images above on my email. The adorable Zoe is attacking that cupcake much like I would...take no prisoners my young cupcake lady! The girls, Abby and Zoe, decorated the cupcakes in the bottom left hand corner with massive amounts of sprinkles and what not...just like I like them. Christy, in her newly acquired Domestic Goddess status, decorated the other cupcakes pictured above in a photo shoot ready fashion, and I hear their Dad, Ryan, did have a role in all of this as the "taste tester"...I mean really, someone has to be!  Stay tuned...the Domestic Goddess of Seattle is baking a cake this weekend for Abby's birthday...  Maybe I'll get a slice in the mail??!!

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