I lived in Chicago for a few years after college, pursing acting and growing up. It was a great experience on so many levels. I was never that successful at making a living as an artist, but I really learned a lot about who I was, who I WANTED to be, and made some really difficult choices. Difficult choices are just a part of your early twenties, are they not? Ultimately it became pretty clear to me that this particular city wasn’t probably where I should be, but I remember those years so fondly.

Anyway, I got to go to Chicago a couple weeks ago to visit one of my dearest friends and her husband and her babies! I am so out of practice with babies. I’ve completely forgotten how much more tied to home it makes one, and how your schedule completely revolves around nap times. I cannot believe that I’ve forgotten what it’s like, but it was so fun remembering what it’s like to have a delicious little squish to cuddle. My ovaries!

Chicago has a wonderful food scene so it was basically a requirement to visit some fantastic restaurants. Rachael’s husband Tony works in the industry and has a vast knowledge of all things food and wine, so bless his heart, he took it upon himself to tell us which restaurants to visit. Which is great, because with too many choices I tend to get overwhelmed and may have ended up at Chipotle 😉 not really, but… There was Neapolitan pizza, every single dessert from the RPM Steak menu (thank you Tony!!!) and tapas, oh my land. I can never get Scott to go for tapas, he just can’t get over the small plates, lol! Rachael and I got to try The Best Cheese in the World. I’m not joking, no exaggerating. This cheese was voted the best cheese (I want to know how to get on that panel) in the ENTIRE world! I was pretty surprised it was blue, but it comes from Oregon, how cool is that!? And it was the first American cheese to ever win the honor. It was served with crostini and honey and it WAS pretty dreamy…

And I’m hoping to be able to bring episodes of HBDH to the website soon! Pray that I can figure out how to do that, ha! I’m so excited for the two Christmas episodes coming up!