A Chicago 4th of July

River, enjoying his view of the river

I am not a 4th of July celebration fan (although this is not to be confused with not being a fan of the 4th in general). This is primarily because I hate loud noises, to the point where the idea of sitting and listening to eardrum shattering fireworks brings on a panic attack. But Jeremy assured me that it's not as loud in Chicago by the lake. I guess I must really trust him - I agreed this sounded fun!?!?!
We had a stay at swissotel purchased from the MFB auction this spring, plus a gift certificate to Keefer's, one of Chicago's best steak houses. So we've heard anyway.

Waiting at the Pier

Let me just cut to the chase here on the fireworks.
Point 1: We took the kids because it seemed cruel to leave River out of the fun. But hauling 2 kids with strollers down and up several flights of steps to get to the pier = totally unfun.
Point 2: The fireworks were scheduled to start at 9 pm. We probably left for the pier around 7 along with a HERD of other people. I don't mean this as an exaggeration either.
Point 3: We somehow missed the ramp leading up the upper part of the pier (by the ferris wheel) so we took the elevator up. This required like a 10 minute jaunt through the boardwalk. Once on the elevator, there was no sign to get off by the "ferris wheel"so we ended up getting on a random floor. Parking garage. Just so you know, if you ever find yourself at Navy Pier on the elevator, trying to get to the ferris wheel, get off at the Shakespeare Theater level. :)
Point 4: It's not like we missed this, but it was like a million degrees outside. We staked out some chairs and then waited and waited and waited. All this waiting started working on my mind. It was 100 degrees out. River was antsy (surprise!). And I just knew that Jeremy's definition of "not loud" was not going to match up with mine. I wanted to go back to the hotel. Immediately. Unfortunately we'd waited forever so I was just planning to plug my ears and tough it out.
At 9 promptly there was a countdown and the fireworks started. Jeremy was right - it wasn't that loud. I'm not an expert on fireworks and I couldn't see much of them on the lake but Jeremy thought Sibley's were just as good as Chicago's so that was a little disappointing. I say, whatever. Fireworks, fireschmorks.
The real joy was getting out of there. Half the population of Chicago was trying to leave Navy Pier at the same time and there we were, with 2 strollers. The one I happened to have was like trying to navigate a mower through a herd of pigs. River had a love/hate relationship with his stroller. On the way out, he hated it. Good thing it had straps. I drove the stroller on some lady's foot because, well, there were feet everywhere and I was just trying to get back together with Jeremy. I almost felt bad about it.
After lugging the strollers back up 2 more flights of steps, we arrived, dripping and weary, back to the hotel. I've often wanted to take a cold shower and then when I get in, I decide that maybe a cold shower isn't exactly the thing I want. Not last night. I took the coldest shower I've ever planned to take in my life.
This morning, while in the hot tub on the 42nd floor of the hotel, I realized that I had the perfect view of the pier from there. I could have avoided stroller lugging, crowds, heat, and any noise last night, right there in the lap of luxury. Maybe next year. Maybe.
I am NEVER going to Navy Pier on the 4th again. You are all my witnesses to this declaration. It just ain't worth it.

My lady M, being her sweet little self at the Pier.

 I haven't said much about the hotel. I don't want to sound jaded - it was a perfectly nice hotel, located in a lovely, quiet part of Chicago. It basically sits on the end of Wacker Drive so there is no through traffic. The view was great - River loved it especially. Blah, blah.
But then we had breakfast this morning and I fell in love with swissotel.

 Assorted fresh fruits, perfectly cut and perfectly ripe.

 Greek yogurt, assorted cheeses and Swiss meats.

 Smoked salmon, capers, hard boiled egg yolks, and egg whites.

 Toppings for oatmeal.

 Herb butter, vanilla butter, and plain butter.
I didn't capture the poached eggs florentine or the display of croissants, or scrambled eggs that actually looked good.
It was so awesome! I had smoked salmon and cream cheese on a whole grain bread. These are the times that I wish that I had 4 stomachs so I could have had room to try at least a little bit of everything. Alas.
Of course, all this beauty comes with a cost. The breakfast buffet is 26 clams per person, should you ever find yourself at the swissotel.

This guy was washing windows today. It was pretty cool to behold the efficient way he worked.
For the record, I made it to Pizano's and PaperSource, but not Keefers. We'll be enjoying that dinner sans children. :)

4 Years Together

On our honeymoon - June 2008

Jeremy and I just had our 4th anniversary. I'd say we just celebrated it, except that we did not celebrate it, unless eating pizza in Fairbury counts as a celebration. I, for one, do not think so. That would at least require a trip to Reality Bites.
I'm not a very romantic person, sadly. The longer I'm married, the more I realize this. In fact, my expectations have sunk to the depths of being glad Jeremy makes it home for supper, let alone back rubs, toothpaste applied to my toothbrush :), flowers, breakfast in bed, etc.
And yet, as we recently studied in a Bible study, women need to be loved. I am no exception.
The following story illustrates just how I know that Jeremy loves me in a very real way.
We weren't married for very long when I was shopping at Daves and saw this young kid putting up a paper on the bulletin board in the store, saying he needed work. I'm not really sure why it triggered such emotion in me. Maybe it was because he looked so pathetic. More likely because I'm such a tender hearted person. :) Whatever the reason, I could just hardly stand it that this poor boy didn't have work! Why didn't someone help him out? I was sobbing as I related this story to Jeremy. I'm sure he was sitting there wondering what on earth he'd gotten himself into with this sniveling woman by his side for life. But being the male problem solver that he is, he carved some time out of his day to personally seek this kid out and talk to him.
Oh what a love! He listens to me! That act of kindness is worth more than 20 years of roses to me.
And that is how I like to hear "I love you".

After introducing Jeremy to Bacaro in Champaign. A different dining experience for him - he was a good sport!

Happy Birthday, River!

He's 2!

Let me start off by stating the oft heard comment that I can't believe my first born is 2 already. Unreal how fast that went, although I know 2 years is really a very short time, all things considered.
Anyway, the problem with birthdays is that from now until doomsday (probably a little exaggerated but you get my drift), I will be in charge of making birthday cakes. I like to make cakes. I like to make frosting. I like parties. But I don't really know that I love to make birthday cakes. They just look so tacky most of the time.
But to be perfectly honest, I feel some pressure, being a pastry chef and all, to make this fabulous birthday cake for my offspring, even though River didn't ask for it and probably wouldn't care if he got a cake at all. I caved to the pressure. And oh, it was painful!
River is really into tractors so I felt the need to make him a tractor cake. Not that I was looking forward to it.
The extent of my cake decorating knowledge is 1) frozen cakes frost better and 2) do crumb coats on the cake. And I padded that info with a quick web search of tractor cakes and floundered ahead.
My first problem was that cake thaws very quickly, especially when the cake is cut in small pieces. Also decorators frosting doesn't stick to cut portion of cake, frozen or not. So the crumb coat was pretty much a coat of crumbs in frosting that stuck on in blobs.
I was working myself into a lather with the cake, shoving it back into the frig to somehow pull itself together while I tried to work up enthusiasm to keep working on it. I'd tell you how I put the cake together but it clearly wasn't the best way so you might as well get tips from someone else. I would just tell you to use buttercream frosting. Or even canned frosting if you like. Just as long as it sticks to the cake.
I also made the mistake of bringing home one of my nephews as a treat for River (again, seriously, it's not like he asked me to do that so I'm not sure why I thought he'd really care. In fact, it was more for my benefit since I thought they'd play together and I could slave over in the cake in peace. Ha! As if that were possible!) Since Simon was at our house, River didn't want to nap.
The second mistake I made was scheduling River's 2 year check up for that afternoon. I fought with him to take his nap for a while til I realized I'd be leaving before too long to take him to the dr. so I just let him go. He was a ball of energy at the dr's office.
He finally went to sleep when we got home, so I resumed fussing with the cake. I was kinda wishing I could heave it into the trash except I wasn't going to pull off another cake with more icing by the time his party rolled around that night so I kept working at it.
About this time, my perky nephew bounded into the kitchen and started watching me. And bless his sweet little heart, he told me, "That is an awesome twactor!"
Well, this lowered my blood pressure. At least it looked like a tractor which was something. Simon thought it was cute. It tasted good. And hopefully it wouldn't fall over until River blew out the candles and I could quickly carve it up in which case, the fact that it was ugly wouldn't matter anyway.
I'm not sure exactly what I learned from this experience as far as whether birthday cake making is worth it or not. Someone was aghast at hearing that I was maybe just going to buy River's cake next year. I figured having a mother who wasn't a shrill witch on one's birthday was worth more than a lopsided tractor cake.
On the other hand, seeing Simon's obvious delight at the cake pleased me immensely. He didn't care if it was ugly. It was cake! And it was for a birthday party!
I will probably be making River another cake next year. Hopefully he'll be into owls or something fun like that though! :) I live in hope.
And one more thing - don't ask me for advice on cake making! Unless you want to know what not to do!

Nice right? The back wheel fell off a few times, I didn't have enough white frosting for the window, not like it was sticking to the cake anyway...

Like how the cab is leaning backwards? :0

This is more like it! Meringue buttercream on chocolate cupcakes. The wrappers and animals were from a kit I found at the Container Store.

Surviving Monday

I know, I know, I've made it to Thursday. But I have this laundry list of things to complain about. (Don't you just want to keep reading?!?!)
Speaking of laundry, my washer isn't spinning or rinsing the clothes right. There's a dead mole on my patio. I guess I could move it myself but that's the cat's job. River grabbed the roll of flab on my stomach yesterday. Our water is still hard despite my remarks to Jeremy and my hair has looked greasy for a week even though it's been washed. River has a runny nose again. And when people comment on it, I feel like it's somehow my fault even though he gets enough sleep, enough food, I have him wear a coat outside when it's cool. And I even give him a vitamin every day, shamelessly calling it candy.
The other day when Riv was supposed to be taking his nap, I kept hearing him coughing. So fearful that he might cough til he puked, I pulled a Florence Nightengale and decided to give him a spoonful of honey. He didn't even get a sip of honey down before he gagged and puked all over himself. This is why I'm not and never will be a nurse.
I have my favorite bars sitting on the counter which ordinarily would make me happy except for that comment above about getting my fat roll pinched.
I was driving into Fairbury the other day, thoroughly annoyed with life, when I heard the song "The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA". It took that cheesy song to remind me that I do have a good life. I have 2 sweet kids. One hard working, good looking husband. Porch furniture. Books to read on the porch furniture. We're healthy. I have a few friends.
And really, I didn't want to do the laundry anyway.

 I know. Cute kids. Fun cousins. Iced coffee while reading a book. Cream cheese bars (from Heirloom Cookbook!). Life is good.

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Lady M

My sweet little girl! With her perpetual worried expression.
This little lady looks more like her mama's family...trust me on this.











Some of you are under the false impression that my kids look so much alike, to the point that I might get their baby pictures confused. That is, if I didn't notice the pink and flowery skirts and dresses v. the green, brown, orange, etc boy clothes. River is roughly the same age as Madeira in this picture and as you will note, they don't look similar except in coloring maybe. 
Genetics! I'm still holding out for a dark haired child because I'm pretty sure even if he/she looked like Jeremy, I would get the credit. :) And really, isn't that what having children is all about? (Sarcasm alert)

 After Jeremy said he was coming home for lunch today, I reached for my trusty new cookbook, full of my old favorites. I tried to go to another book but I wasn't feel real adventurous, not to mention I wasn't going to go shopping between last night and noon today. Enter cheesy sausage stromboli. I understand that stromboli doesn't really need a recipe (bread dough, meat, cheese, seasonings, roll up and bake. Done.), but this way you don't have to hunt down a bread recipe on your own. Of course, frozen bread works perfectly too.
Anyway, I think I've tried this dough in the bread machine before and it's fairly sticky and makes a decent amount. I'm pretty sure this is the dough that overfilled the bread machine and made this huge mess. Just a warning if you like your machine. :) So I used my kitchenaid mixer. The dough is a cinch to make if yeast dough scares you.
The recipe actually makes two loaves. Since I only need one I halved the filling, and I put the other half of the dough in the freezer. I've never frozen my own dough before so I'll see how this works out.
The original recipe says to roll out the dough into a 10 x 15 rectangle (see top picture), and to put the filling down one side, leaving a 1 inch margin, and then fold the dough over the filling. I left the recipe in the cookbook as it was originally, but the problem with making the stromboli that way is that you end with a hunk of bread on one side and all the filling on the other. Not ideal. So I made a braid.

 I put the filling down the center of the dough, and then used the pizza cutter to slice diagonal strips in the side. I didn't count the strips, I just made them roughly 1 inch wide. (I know, Martha Stewart, I am not.)

 My less than perfect braid.

 The braid after the second raising.

 I  have a little chef-in-training who likes to sit on the counter and "cook" with me. See that little hand in the top picture? He was actually messing with the faucet while I was cooking the sausage when I heard this crash. I thought it was a dish, but no, it was River in the sink full of dirty water and dishes. As you can tell from his expression, he didn't like it too much.

 But did he learn? Nope, he was back on the counter after I took his soggy clothes off. (BTW, he did have a welt on his back so it had to hurt.)

Finished stromboli. The less than perfect braiding is hardly noticeable anymore which is good for those of us that have to race through our baking. :(
I always serve this with marinara sauce (open a can of spaghetti sauce! :)).
This served 4 adults. I had one piece left after lunch. If I pause to think too long about the fact that I spent practically all morning getting lunch ready, only to have it inhaled in about 15 minutes, I might never want to cook again. But I don't like having leftovers. And I like cooking (usually).
Again, this is an heirloom cookbook recipe. If you get around to making it, and have questions, let me know!