My life - My Smelly Dog

My dog, Jake, got skunked last night.  It was horrible.  He got it right in the face and was drooling, shaking his head and rubbing himself all over the ground.  Poor thing.  I called my friend, Chris, who came right over with her "Skunk Kit".

Here is her recipe for washing your dog who has been skunked....1 gallon vinegar to one box of baking soda.  Rub it in all over your dog, focusing on the sprayed area.  Leave it on for about 10 minutes - that's a hard thing.  He desperately wanted to shake and rub himself all over the ground.  After that wash him off with Dawn dishsoap.

He still smells. just not as pungently. It is an awful thing.  Our old dog, Lucy, had gotten sprayed when the kids were all little.  I didn't realize it and let her into the house.  She was literally in the house 4 seconds and when I brought the kids to daycare the next day, everyone commented on how they smelled skunk from the kids.  The smell gets into your nose and no matter where you are, you smell it.

Just wondering......I know there are various recipes as to how to wash your dog after they have been skunked....what is yours??  Please share your skunked stories....this is not fun.

Restaurant Review- Cafe Ba Ba Reba and Annette's Italian Ice - Chicago, IL

We had a great Saturday night out at Cafe Ba Ba Reba in Chicago.  I haven't been there since I was in my 20's and it is now owned by Lettuce Entertain You, which made me a bit skeptical of the quality food and service we were going to have.  But we had a wonderful meal. I had made a reservation through Open Table. In fact, I have booked so many reservations through Open Table that I earned a $20 check to spend at any Open Table restaurant.  We were pleasantly surprised at our final bill as well.  It was about $35 per person - including the drinks. Not bad at all for the fun food and night we had.

We got very lucky when we got there because a parking spot opened up right in front of the restaurant.   If we didn't get that, we may have had to valet for $11.

When we went in, I asked if we could get seated in the porch area, which luckily there was a table. We just ordered a bunch of dishes - about 2-3 each plus a paella that we all shared.

This is their raspberry sangria.  It was great!  Scott and I split a half pitcher, which was the perfect amount for 2 people to share.

This dish was on their specials list.  It was green olives stuffed with goat cheese with a garlic aoili.  It was not so good.  The strong flavor of the green olives overtook all other flavors.

This was one of the table's favorite dished.  This was shrimp with garlic and olive oil.  It had a lot of slivers of garlic and was so tasty.  Anything with garlic is good if you ask me.

This was another table favorite.  This is a beef empanada.  Crispy, flaky with very well seasoned beef inside.  We ordered a chicken one too, but everyone liked the beef one better.

This is the seafood paella we ordered.  We ordered it only for 2 people and look how huge it was.  It came to the table like this.

Once he portioned out the shrimp, he scraped the rice off the pan and served it.

This was my plate.  It was amazing.  It had a wonderful crunch to the rice and SO much flavor.  I must try to make paella myself.

These scallops were perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth fresh.  And there were bits of bacon along with herbs.  Great dish.

This picture was horrible, but this was also one of the favorite dishes of the table.  It was short ribs with this amazing spice and sweet sauce. We also ordered the salmon, but I was told that it had no flavor.  I didn't even bother to try it.

After our dinner at Cafe Ba Ba Reba, we walked around the corner to Annette's Italian Ice.  It was amazing!  I found it on Yelp when looking for a place near us that served only dessert.  What a great find!  There is only a window, no inside location.  There were seats outside that we hung at while we enjoyed our ices.

Restaurant review - Barrington Country Bistro, Barrington, IL

We were looking for a new place to try - and we struck gold.  I used Yelp and Open Table combined to find this gem.  Barrington Country Bistro was fantastic - great service and great food.  The menu changes everyday (which means we have more incentive to come back). We sat outside, which was a wonderful option.  We felt that this restaurant was very reasonable for the high level of food and service.  It was about $35 dollars for each of us, with no alcohol, no coffee and sharing one dessert.

This was our appetizer.  It is ahi tuna tartare. It was one of the best variations of tuna tartare I had ever  had.  It was served in a crispy shell.  It had bits of pear in a light lime-mirin sauce.  Incredible.

These were raviolis made with handmade pasta they make there.  It has prosciutto, roasted squash and ricotta in a sage beurre blanc.  This plate was the smaller option. You can also order a full order of this dish, which is a nice option they had with quite of few of their menu choices.

Look inside this pocket of yummy.

This was the roasted chicken my husband ordered.  It was the best tasting chicken I have ever tasted.  So full of flavor and moist.  And it was served so beautifully - feast for the eyes. Amish chicken, olives, tomatoes, cipollini onions, fingerling potatoes, haricort verts in a dill rosemary sauce. Simply the best chicken I have ever had.  The herbs were under the skin as well as all around it.

Look at this happy tomato, covered in juices and herbs.

This was my lyonniase salad.  On top of greens that were bathed in a warm shallot - bacon vinargartte was a perfectly cooked poached egg.  When I broke it open, the warm yolk flowed over the salad gives it a perfect warm coating.

Here you can see the  lardon (french bacon), fingerling potatoes and shallots in this wonderful, rich  salad.

Here is our dessert - Chocolate Pave.  It was luscious. It was chocolate cake with a cashew praline layer. Sweet and crunchy. The squiggle was somewhat sour, which I liked, but my husband didn't.  It came with strawberry ice cream, but I asked for vanilla ice cream instead.  It was a totally and decadently perfect way to end this wonderful meal.

Our check came with these coconut maccaroons.  I love maccaroons. Crunchy outside, sweet throughout, sticky inside, with nice shreds of coconut.  Happy mouth treats!

My life - Mitsuwa Marketplace

One of my hopes of this blog is that it helps people have new food experiences.  Once I walked you through having dim sum in downtown Chicago's Chinatown.  Once a trip to a Mexican bakery in Palatine. Here's another new place for most people - an oriental market and here is one of the best ones in the Chicago Northwest suburbs - Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights.

 The building has giant blue roof, so it is not easy to miss.  This place is an oriental mall under one huge, blue roof.

 When you walk in, you can see the different areas.  

 Snacks......

 Vegetables....

 Food court - and what a treat. Sushi, udon, stir fry bowls, even gourmet burgers.

 Prepared foods.  These were some cute examples I found.  They have very reasonably priced pre-made sushi.

 Liquor store.....

 This is what was in my shopping cart. Tuna, seaweed salad (they sell one with no MSG - something you can find in many oriental products - which doesn't agree with me, giving me bad headaches), soy sauce (I like lower sodium), rice wine vinegar, and ponzu sauce.

 Here's a roll I made at home.  I used the seaweed salad instead of rice to try to cut down on carbs. It was one of the best rolls.  Tuna, masago and avocado with the seaweed salad on nori.

This was so pretty when I cut it up.  As they say, you eat with your eyes as much as your mouth.

Restaurant review - Smoque, Chicago

Our family went to Smoque the other night after hearing so much hype about this restaurant and its barbeque.  After doing some reading, I was concerned that we will have a huge wait. I called around 5p to do a carryout, but the woman said that the next pick up time was 6:50.  We decided to risk it and go to the restaurant.  We got there around 6:15 and ordered our food by 6:30.  You don't sit at at your table and order, but instead you wait in line then walk up to a counter and order.  You get assigned a table and wait for your number to be called.  We were shocked as to how short the line was, as well as the fact that there was relatively no line the whole time we were there on a Sunday night.

Here is what I shared with our son....a full slab of baby back ribs, mac and cheese (lower tin foil container), corn bread (other tin foil container), coleslaw and I also ordered a "taste" of their St. Louis ribs (top left of picture).  You can see that these ribs all have a heavy dry rub on them.  I wasn't crazy about that gritty crust the rub made, but the flavor of the meat was great.  Heavy smoke flavor - I liked the flavor, but the kids thought it was too much.  The St. Louis ribs were more moist.  The coleslaw was great - vinegar based, which I love.  This review of the mac and cheese came from our son...."Perfect. Crunchy on the outside and creamy inside." Our little foodie....we are so proud of him!

My husband wanted me to make sure to take a picture of his onions.  He was SO happy that when he asked for extra raw onions, they actually gave him a large amount.  Most of the time, when you ask for extra onions, restaurants give a few slices.  Not here and that was a wonderful thing.

Here are their baked beans.  All loved it...you can see that there are vegis in it as well as some meat shredded in it.

Restaurant review - Spunky Dunkers, Buffalo Grove, IL

I don't like doughnuts (I know.....how could I not, you don't know what you're missing...blah, blah blah).  But my family does and when summer school was over, our middle kid asked to go there to get a doughnut to celebrate.  This is my family's new favorite doughnut place - WAY over Dunkin Doughnuts they say.

This one is "like an oreo" and she was smiling the whole time she was eating it. Sounds like a positive review on this doughnut!

Restaurant review - Odd Duck Milwaukee, WI

What a great place.  I searched for top patios combined with food in Milwaukee and this was one that came up.  It is in a somewhat run down area, but inside it is a cute restaurant with this wonderful outdoor area.  Inside it was somewhat loud and hot, but outside it was quiet and cooler.  We waited extra time for an outside table and it was worth it.  We picked out our dishes from their small plate menu.  It is a nice way to order when you just want to hang outside and have a leisurely meal. We ordered one plate at a time. We also ordered a cheese platter and picked 4 different kinds of cheeses.  It was nice to have that at the table for the night to keep nibbling on.  Service was great and it was a  great night!

This is their bloody mary and it was amazing. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I had the last one for the night because they ran out of their mix.  See the egg here.....it is a sweet and sour egg.  I had seen in on the bar menu and wanted to order it.  Now I didn't need to.  It was odd and good (at the Odd Duck, I guess that makes sense!?!?). The texture was different from a regular hard boiled egg - more dense, with a sweet, spicy flavor.  Odd, but so good!!  And the drink came with a beer chaser.

This dish is not on their on line menu because they change their menu often, but was on the restaurant menu.  The waitress recommended this dish as a must have and she was right.  It is fried green tomatoes with a corn relish and (I think) a goat cheese/chipolte dressing.  It was absolutely delicious.....crispy, spicy, creamy, and hits of sweet with the corn.

OMG....this sauce on these ribs was finger lickin' good!!  Sweet, tangy and the ribs were perfectly cooked.  Came cleanly off the bone, but with a slight tug, just like I like them.

This is a goat cheese tarine with asparagus and mushrooms with a balsamic drizzle.  It was served with arugala and pieces of french bread.  This was fine.....but wish we tried something else because this is something we could make at home.