Ribbit. Ribbit.

Happy Friday, friends! It's always a treat when it's the end of the week.

How cute is this Tigger pumpkin in our kitchen? I just wanted to show it to you, because Tigger always makes me smile. Especially Tiggers that dress up for Halloween and carry a Trick-Or-Treat bag. 

Ribbit. Ribbit. 
Look what I found when I got home from class on rainy Wednesday:

I saw a slimy, hippity-hoppity frog! It was actually tiny and cute, and my mom had to kind of stomp behind it to make it go back in the bushes. If it just chilled out on the driveway, it would soon become roadkill when my dad got home. We love animals. 

Le Mussels
When I was out shopping the night before, I tried an amazing sample of mussels in a garlic and lemon sauce at our grocery store. The price was too good to pass up, so I waltzed out of there with 2.5 pounds of uncooked mussels. The next night, we cooked them. 

My dad made a broth with about 3/4 of a bottle of white wine (we love wine), chopped onions and garlic. 

While that was warming up, he also sauteed spinach, mushrooms and diced tomatoes for the pasta sauce. We also made pasta.

Live mussels!

Now NOT alive.

The mussels were very small, so they opened up almost as soon we put them in the broth. The guy at the seafood counter told me that they took up to five minutes to cook, so we left them in a little bit longer after they opened. l never knew that mussels were so easy to cook. 

Le pasta. 

Topped with our first home made mussels. 

They tasted good, but  my dad and I agreed that we could have done more to give it flavor. We brainstormed some things that we could do for next time. We'll try to make them again in the next few weeks!

Carpet Cleaning

Wednesday was also an eventful day, because our carpets got cleaned. This is what my bed looked like when I walked into my room:

But my carpets looked so pretty :)

Sushi X

Last night, I took the train downtown (there was no way I was going to drive in rush hour traffic) to meet some of my friends for sushi. I met my friends Jessie and Alex at Jessie's apartment, and then we took a taxi to Sushi X in the West Loop. 

Sushi X is byob, and the girls brought plenty of booze. 

I started with a bowl of miso soup. There was a "spicy" option, so I decided to try it. I really liked it. Miso soup has a lot of flavor usually, but I enjoyed the extra kick of spiciness. 

Four of us ordered four rolls to split, and it was definitely enough to fill us up. We got a crab rangoon roll (front), a Godzilla roll (middle), a Philadelphia roll (sides) and a Dragon roll (back). The crab rangoon and the Godzilla rolls were my favorites. I was full, but the sushi was so good that I probably could have eaten another gigantic plate of rolls. 

We were celebrating Jessie's birthday, so we got a a complimentary mango mousse cake and mochi ice cream. Yum!

Some of the girls (me, Jessie, Megan)

You should definitely try Sushi X if you live anywhere near River West. It's very small, so book ahead of time. It was delish!