Autumn in North Carolina

We've been so busy lately that we almost missed my favorite season - autumn! Fortunately, the riot of color that is my favorite part of autumn came a little later to North Carolina and we finally had a chance to go enjoy it all this weekend! Technically, the fall colors are just about over but the leaves around Raleigh just started to change this past week so we thought we'd explore the area a little more.

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day - we feel so lucky to be down here where it can still be in the 60's in mid-November! We hear that it's cold, rainy or snowy back in Ann Arbor and Cleveland....sorry! There was a scrumptious start to the day, meeting up with Chris' med school friends, Susie, Yousuf and his wife Fatima at the Piedmont, where we had our delicious dinner with Michael Ruhlman. Lest you think that we are overly biased towards the Piedmont, Yousuf was the one who chose it! We found out they all like the Food Network too and had been watching The Next Iron Chef (Yousuf was rooting for John Besh but we forgive him) too! And I had grits for the first time...and liked them! The shrimp, bacon, mushrooms, scallions, and lemon juice made it all the yummier.

Then we tried to drive around a North Carolina scenic byway north of Durham and got a little lost. Surprisingly, most of the leaves had actually fallen. Durham is only about 15 miles west of Raleigh but it made a difference. Also, we saw evidence of the drought North Carolina has been suffering. Didn't get a picture but suffice it to say that the lake was really more of a creek.

We ended up in the Duke Gardens, which are quite lovely. Not quite our beloved Arb in Ann Arbor but very picturesque. Plus, it gave a chance to test out some fancy new features on my new camera (and I'm typing this on my new computer...all my gadgets are shiny and new!).

Red trees always catch my attention first:

But yellow trees glow in the sunlight!
And we can't forget all the orange...

A nice little bridge:

More pictures from our little jaunt to be posted on flickr soon. But a last shot of us enjoying the afternoon...

Yay Michael Symon!!!!

How could you not love the ultra-cheesy original Japanese Iron Chef? We used to watch that show faithfully. And we went to Morimoto's restaurant in Philly, which is the best Japanese food we've had to date. We haven't been as big fans of Iron Chef America - for various reasons. But once we found out Michael Symon, of Lola and Lolita fame in Cleveland, was going to be on the Next Iron Chef America, we had to watch.

Michael Symon is really as engaging as he seems on TV. We were eating at Lolita one time and he came out to talk to some friends sitting at the next table. He stopped to chat with us too and made us laugh. His laugh is totally maniacal but so fun! He is also an amazing chef so naturally, we've been rooting for him. And he won! We were so nervous that everyone seemed to love John Besh but we really thought Symon was more imaginative and his plates looked better (like we know anything) so yay that the judges agreed with us! Can't wait to see what Michael Ruhlman has to say about this on his blog....

Annotated what?

Why annotated-alice? I have been called Alice in Wonderland for years and years. So I adopted it for myself and used "Wonderland" on a bare bones webpage just to poke fun at myself. When it came time to choose a name for this blog, Wonderland was already taken since I am a bit late to the blogging world. So what to call it? Then I remembered a book that I had called "The Annotated Alice" which is actually a pretty cool book. It explains all the references (annotations) in the original Alice in Wonderland as well as the original illustrations. So by checking out the blog, you get the inside, referenced scoop on my life. Well, when I update it, that is.

I suppose I could have named the blog after another "Alice" book or two I have: About Alice (which might make sense actually) or Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater. Hm. That would be a good name for a spin-off blog or the foodie pages. Actually, those are the titles of 2 books by Calvin Trillin, an American humorist. About Alice is a love letter to his wife and is quite touching actually. Alice, Let's Eat is an ode to food. How can you not love it? Ooh, I see there is another book called Travels with Alice. Again, a perfect title for another page/blog! Gotta go get that one.

Sad notes from today:
* Michigan lost to Wisconsin. It was painful to watch. Chris and I turned to watching Friday Night Lights instead for some compelling football. :)
(On a brighter note, Ohio State lost too. We're still unsure of whether this is good or bad. It would have been fun to be the ones to take them down from the #1 spot. On the other hand, I have a bad feeling that they will beat us anyway. Doh!)
* Our official wedding photos still aren't posted yet. Our photographer didn't promise they would be posted by a specific date but sent out a general email a couple weeks ago promising that all pictures from October would be posted by....2 weeks ago. Anyone who helped with the photographer decision knows who we're a little annoyed. Oh well. We'll get them eventually. Thank you to everyone who has sent us pictures so keep sending them!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a fun and treat-filled Halloween! Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, mostly because it's my birthday too! Turning 30 is scary if I think about it but not too horrible so far. At least I got married before I turned 30! Hah!

We were invited to a Halloween party last weekend that one of my attendings was throwing but I was sick over the weekend and didn't feel in a very festive mood. Unfortunately, we decided not to go at the last minute, after Chris spent a couple hours creating a costume that represents one of his favorite foods: a Chipotle burrito! Check it out:




















We went out for dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday but felt guilty for not being around to give out candy to the kids. So we filled a basket with mini candy bars and left it on our stoop - honor system, right? We came back 2 hours later to a completely empty basket. And there aren't very many kids in our neighborhood. We're trying to figure out whether it was greedy kids who took it, or maybe our scary neighbors. Halloween just isn't quite like it used to be when we were kids (now THAT makes me sound old!). At least dinner was yummy. Will do a foodie picture posting this weekend (once I figure out how to download pictures off of my new camera) but a quick taste: my dessert was 5 different scoops of homemade ice cream/sorbet: apple cider, honeycomb, white peach, thai basil and chocolate chili. The thai basil sounded intriguing and tasted exactly like basil but a little sweet and was really really good! The chocolate chili started out chocolately but ended with quite the kick from the chili!

Last little birthday gift for the day (in addition to all the calls and emails I got today - thanks!) - our photographer Jessica Claire posted pictures from our wedding on her blog! Perfect timing! The link is below along with new pictures from Peggy. Overall, not a bad birthday or Halloween (excepting the greedy candy nabbers!) this year!

Catching up with my life

Yes, I have been in the wedding black hole for the last month. And yes, I still need to post about the amazing dinner at the Piedmont. And yes, some people want to see all the official and unofficial pictures of the wedding. But since it's 12:45 am and I still have to work Friday, I can't do it justice. But here are some links if you want to see pictures from the wedding! We'll post more this weekend either on this site or on our wedding website: linsquared.googlepages.com (Wedding Photos link).

**new!** From our photographer, Jessica Claire: http://jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm?postID=194

**new!** From our other photographer, Braedon Flynn: http://braedonsblog.com/2007/10/24/alice-and-chris-got-married/

From my Facebook album: http://umichigan.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18458&l=d3da9&id=695048831

From Stephanie's blog: http://jandsrufener.blogspot.com/

From Tom on his Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomyoung/sets/72157602652550738/show/

From Joe and Loui: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=p8vt5ox.973ixhrl&x=0&y=-s98aqy

From Peggy Liao: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcNm7Ri5aMmPR
(someone tell me if this link doesn't work)

Foodies

Chris and I admit that we like to think of ourselves as foodies but really we're just food snobs. Or maybe it's just me. Chris will try just about anything and he has an amazing instinct for choosing the best thing on the menu. We like to eat at good places and love to read good writing about food. Our humble beginnings in Medina, OH and Okemos, MI may not lead you to think so, but living in Ann Arbor, home of the famous Zingerman's among other good eats, sparked our interest. Then we lived in Cleveland and made regular outings to the West Side Market, Lolita, and Sage Bistro (until it closed). Too bad it took us until our last two months in Cleveland to find Parallax and its really good sushi!

Living in Cleveland (Heights) also had another perk: we discovered Michael Ruhlman. For those of you we haven't raved to, Michael Ruhlman is a really good writer born and raised in Cleveland Heights. I discovered him in the local interest section in the bookstore. I was looking for something that represented Cleveland for a friend. I found 2 autographed books by Michael Ruhlman called The Making of a Chef and "The Soul of Chef" and bought them. I got a little delayed on my flight to Salt Lake City and started reading. And never stopped. Sorry Vince! I made Chris read them after I got back and we quickly started reading the rest of his books. If you enjoy reading about food and/or good writing, try Ruhlman. He also has a website and blog that's fun to read. He's also good friends with Anthony Bourdain who likes to comment on the blog. Ruhlman dared Bourdain to come to Cleveland and check out the food scene, which Bourdain did! They recently aired an episode of No Reservations from that escapade!

Michael Ruhlman's chef trilogy is:
- The Making of a Chef
- The Soul of a Chef - helped us become fans of Michael Symon and we are dying to go to the French Laundry
- The Reach of a Chef

He also wrote about Cleveland based things:
- House - Renovating his century old home in Cleveland Heights. We discovered afterwards that it was within walking distance from our apartment in Cleveland Heights!
- Walk on Water - Exploring the world of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Not a fan of the Clinic but I respect the writing and the players in the book.

There are a couple more books we haven't gotten to yet but it's only a matter of time.

So why the blog? Well, book suggestions for one. But, what's much more exciting is that we are going to meet Michael Ruhlman this weekend! He's coming down to the Triangle to meet with some bloggers, check out his old stomping grounds, and check out the local food scene. Since Chris regularly checks out the ruhlman.com blog, he found out about it and now we get to have dinner with Michael Ruhlman and check out some of the great food around here! This is good as we've really only been exposed to the North Carolina barbeque and Bojangles fried chicken (so good!). So exciting!

Woe is Michigan

This is my first post on this blog that I created a while ago. I've gotten caught up in trying to keep up with my own life so I never actually got around to posting anything. But, on a day where I really had time to do nothing (for the first time in months), it turns out to be a depressing day...if you are a Michigan Wolverine. We all had such high hopes for the season, but Chris always did prefer it when Michigan was the underdog. We always outperformed expectations that way. I suppose that we outperformed expectations these past 2 weeks as well....just in the worst way possible. So, physically it's been a relaxing day but mentally quite stressful. Especially thinking about how I will get teased by all the non-Michigan fans for the forseeable futures....better try to look for happier things to blog about now......