Chicagoing: Daily Farmer's Markets and Peach Mojitos

While most people who live in Chicago don't have the space to grow their own gardens, we are lucky enough to have a Farmer's Markets every day spread throughout several Chicago neighborhoods. Since Miss M loves crowds and meeting new people, I loaded her up with Mr. B's Ruff Wear Palisades backpack to help carry the groceries. Not only does the backpack help me carry stuff, but it gave Miss M a job. This means she's more directed making it easier for her to ignore other dogs, food, and the chaos in the crowds. She took her job very seriously:

This particular market stretches nearly a half-mile with a huge array of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and fresh cheeses.

One of my main motivations is to get flowers for our house. I found that of all the markets, Bades Farm which is at the Lincoln Square, Hyde Park, and Clark/Division markets has the best flowers.

The farmer still remembers Miss M from when I first adopted her. Miss M made sure to lay nicely at each booth waiting for me to make purchases and load her backpack. This market actually had a ton of smaller dogs on retractable leashes that people let just wander under booths and go up to people. Several people remarked how patient and well-behaved Miss M was:

Miss M was able to haul peaches, apples, tomatoes, arugula,string cheese, and fresh mozzarella in her backpack while I carried the flowers. We keep our fruit and vegetable in bowls that double as decor, and reminders to eat well:

We chose an assortment of flowers:

To brighten up Mr. B's laying area:

E used the peaches to make fresh peach mojitos with mint from our garden. It's getting a bit cool, but they were still perfect to sip out on our porch:

While I made a salad with the arugula, tomatoes, and mozzarella and basil from our herb garden. Everything was delicious; though we kept having this little face popping up to see how everything was:

Pooches: Stuffed Mr. B

Mr. B is very picky when it comes to his toys. His favorite toys are usually the fluffy ones that squeak. Unfortunately, he is a strong chewer and these toys usually do not last long.

However, we have used some techniques to stop him from completely destroying all of his fluffy toys. We rotate the toys, so he gets to play with each fluffy toy a little at a time. We try to buy toys that are touted to last longer, such as the Tuffys Pet Toys from VIP products.

A has even been able to train Mr. B to be gentle with his toys. Though he will jump at the toy, thrash it around and try to tear it apart, the moment A tells him gentle, he will stop chewing and will sometimes lick the toy. In the video you could see Mr. B's excitement over seeing all of his toys.

Cafe Schwang: Ice & Cucumber Rose Sorbet

It seems like we are always on the search for the perfect dog treat. Some treats have been too expensive,some have been too messy, and some have just smelled too bad. It was only recently that we realized we've always had the perfect free, clean, and odorless treat. And it's the only thing that can make her go from the above photo, to showing the whites of her eyes:

Our pooches absolutely love ice; they love it as much as any of the other treats we give them. The moment they hear the ice dispenser that will leap from a dead sleep and come rushing into the room. Miss M will perform her full repertoire of tricks, and Mr. B can down a bowl of ice in mere minutes.
I had read about some good frozen dog treat recipes that I thought the dogs would enjoy, but then I figured why bother if they already love ice so much; it's free and pre-made. So, I concentrated my efforts to making sorbets that we might like.

Using some of the herbs from our garden, I figured out how to make a trio of sorbets: Lemon-Basil, Cucumber Rose with Mint, and Mango-Lime with Cayenne. I used a variation of this recipe, then I figured out that you can just add different flavors by putting herbs or zest in the simple syrups. We don't have an ice-cream maker, but I just blended it with a bit of ice, added a small amount of alcohol so it wouldn't crystallize, and froze it in an airtight container. The cucumber was my favorite. A lot of the restaurants here serve water with cucumber, and it tasted as crisp and fresh.Of course, Miss M wanted to try some too:

But she was actually happy to stick with ice. It's just too bad this is another thing I've discovered at the end of summer.

Chicagoing: On Bike Dates and Separation Anxiety

Many days I feel like we're the Activities Director on our dogs' eternal cruise ship life. We are awoken each morning to this:

as our dogs follow us around and can't wait to see what fun-filled activity we have planned for the day. While most of our adventures do involve the dogs, unbelievably, E and I do go out by ourselves. Lately we've been realizing that since we pay a premium to live in the city, we might as well take advantage of everything the city has to offer. We've decided that instead of going to our usual standby restaurants, we would only go to new restaurants we haven't tried before. Since we didn't have the dogs in tow, we were able to travel via bike opening us up to restaurants outside our immediate neighborhood.

Of course, we're met with these glares as we're leaving:

We have been able to visit a lot of amazing new restaurants. Some of our favorites were:
-Cumin--An amazing Nepalese/ Indian restaurant that just opened in Bucktown. Everything was just as authentic as the Indian restaurants over on Devon, but much closer.
-Ruxbin--This tiny restaurant does live up to the hype; everything was consistently amazing. The waits can be up to 3 hours, but since we went on a Sunday, right at 5:30, we were able to slip right in. We loved the K-Town Empanadas. Plus, it's BYOB!
-Arami--E is actually friends with the chef at this new Japanese and sushi restaurant. Their fish is amazingly fresh, plus they have a lemon-ginger sorbet made exclusively for them by Black Dog Gelato.
-The Purple Pig--Everyone has been raging about this one all summer. We thought it would be more of a tourist thing, but everything was incredible. We loved the White Bait "French Fries of the Sea" with lemon aioli and the Bone Marrow Smear.

We are actually quite lucky that our dogs don't have separation anxiety and we are able to comfortably leave them alone. We felt like prisoners when we first got Mr. B and he would bark and whine when we left. Luckily with the help of crate training and Kongs, the dogs can go for a time without their activities directors. Though separation anxiety is a huge ordeal where the dog actually feels like its suffocating or drowning when their people leave. Has anyone else dealt with separation anxiety?

Schwang Manor: Bears Game Day in 10 Pictures

While Ms. M was out checking out the plethora of guys in tight cut-off jean shorts

at the Renegade Craft Fair

and A was picking up after Ms. M.

Mr. B and I donned our Bears caps

and I wore my Bears shirt and Mr. B had to one up me and wear his Walter Payton jersey.

Since we don't have TV, I bought a TV tuner just for football season, so I can keep up with my fantasy football team and of course, the Bears.

Mr. B looked like a true Bears fan with his jersey and huge head.

Bear Down, Chicago Bears. 

Ms. M got home to catch the crazy few minutes of the game, but we were too preoccupied to let her join us.

Chicagoing: Miss M Goes Renegade

There is never a shortage of things to do in Chicago, and this past weekend Renegade Craft Fair dropped itself down smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood. This event gathers Etsy vendors from across the nation showing their innovative, unique and unusual wares beneath a half-mile of tents.
Since E had "business" to attend to, I had to choose only one dog to attend. Miss M loves getting attention in big crowds, so I decided to make it a Girls' Day and brought her geared up with our Pets Eye Camera to document her perspective:

The event skews towards the trendy, tattooed and unusual with plenty of skulls, mustaches, and bug-themed artwork. Of course, there were a lot of bikes in art ranging from T-shirts, to prints, to onesies:

And loads of bikes being ridden (just not by Miss M):

 

We saw this patterned tepee, and Miss M was tempted to jump inside:

 We loved the posters by Jay Ryan, but didn't pick any up this year:

We met a friend all the way from Pittsburgh selling beautiful handmade porcelian jewelry from the RedRaven shop. Unfortunately, being so low to the ground, this was all Miss M could see:

There was a weird marching band, which Miss M quite enjoyed until she heard the trumpet:

Our favorite was this shop selling handknit scarfs, hats, and sweaters for your dog. 

Their model is a Boston Terrier, so unfortunately they didn't have much in Miss M's size. They do make custom work for bigger dogs. Should we get the the snow bean hat for Miss M? The blue baron hat for Mr B? Or maybe Mr. B should go vampire?
Miss M had a great time out meeting people, wiggling, and giving out plenty of kisses. And when we got home her camera caught Mr. B with E attending to their "business"... watching the Bears home season opener.

Pooches: Mr. B the Escort

Chicago is a very walkable city; the only problem is we need to take extra precautions after dark. Even if I'm only walking a couple of blocks, I don't like to do this alone at night.
The other day I was going to meet a friend at a cafe mere blocks from our place. It was easy enough to walk there when it was still light out; I just had to figure out a way to get back in the dark. I didn't want to spend money for a taxi, and I didn't want to drive--parking is very difficult and expensive in the city.
I was wishing I was just like Britney Spears, who walks around with a big protective body guard, then I realized I had this guy:

Chicago recently passed laws to allow dogs to accompany their owners on outdoor dining patios, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to bring Mr. B who could later escort me home at night.

Just like a true professional, Mr. B sat quietly next to me the whole time.And I felt very safe walking home with him. It turns out, the people I find scary and questionable are actually scared of me when I'm with Mr. B. When they saw us coming, they made sure to step out of our way and even cross the street. Which is funny because in the light he just looks like this:

Pooches: The Positive Pit Bull Bubble

 When I first adopted Miss M four years ago, I was very aware of the negative attention she received. People gave her evil looks. They would snatch their dogs and children out of our way. And, some people would even say mean things.

 Thinking about this now, I feel a lot has changed. Even with our 2 dogs, we don't seem to have as many negative experiences. More often we've had curious people approaching us asking about the dogs. They bring their children and dogs to meet us instead of moving out of our way. And on nearly every walk people will tell us we have beautiful dogs.

 I  don't know whether we're getting this reinforcement because we do live in a pit-friendly neighborhood with a lot of responsible pit bull owners. Or maybe I'm not noticing the negativity as much because we get so much support from this online community.
Am I just in a protective "positive pit bull bubble" where I'm not noticing negative statements about pit bulls? Or do you think that overall sentiment has changed? How are pitbulls viewed in your community?