Real life with teenagers

Is this what your dinner table looks like?!? And how often do you say........

NO SCREENS AT THE TABLE!!!!!

Perfect winter meal

I made a delicious winter meal the other night - butternut squash soup, pork chops and a side of onions and apples.

 For the soup, I used my regular formula.  1 cup chopped onion, celery and carrot (I buy it pre-chopped from Trader Joe's Mirpouix - you can also buy it pre-chopped at most salad bars), chicken stock and I roasted 1 pound of chopped butternut squash.  This I also bought pre-chopped.  Have you ever tried to cut a butternut squash?  Your hands get this coating on it that make it stiff.  Really weird, but true.  While the butternut squash is roasting, I brown the vegis right in the soup pot. Then just add in the roasted (soft and slightly browned) squash and chicken stock.  I also added a dash of nutmeg and white balsamic vinegar.  The nutmeg makes you go "Hmmmm, what's that extra flavor?" and the vinegar counters the natural richness of the squash. That's it. I shoosh it with my stick blender and add in salt and pepper as needed.  My husband calls this soup liquid candy.  It is SO delicious!!  And not to mention healthy with no added fats and minimal salt.

 I thinly sliced sweet onions and granny smith apples (which I peeled). I add in a dash of salt, nutmeg and cinnamon and about 1/4t of brown sugar. I cooked all this low and slow on the stove top until they all got soft and brown.

 This takes about half an hour to get it to this point.

For the pork chops, I bought butterflied boneless porkchops.  About 1 hour before I grilled them (I grill all winter long), I rubbed them with bacon salt (yes, bacon salt.  You can find this in the spice area of a lot of grocery stores these days.  Believe it or not....it's kosher!!) and chipolte seasoning salt (another item I found in the spice area of the grocery store).  I put them back in the fridge for 1 hour, then took it out while I was cutting the vegis to let the meat come to room temperature.  This is always a good idea to do with your meats.  It allows for a more even and true cooking.  The most important thing with pork (and all meats) is not to over cook it.  Remember that there is carry over time in your grilled foods.  My pork was very moist and slightly spicy with the rub.  And with the crunch and sweetness of the onion/apple topping it was winter on a plate!!

Fun outing - Architectural salvage

On a cold day in Chicago, we were looking for something fun and different to do.  I had seen architectural salvage places on various HGTV or DIY network shows, but I had never been to one.  I went on Yelp and looked it up.  There were a few options.  We went to Architectural Artifacts.  Wow....SO fun.  We walked around for a couple of hours.  Your mind just goes wild in a place like this.

Here are a few of the sights -

This is a room of doors.  There are many of these rooms.  As you can see here, there is every kind of door you can image.

 Here is a room of fireplace mantels.  Look on the left of this picture.  That is a gorgeous mosaic mantel. Again, many rooms of mantels as well.

This was one of my husband's favorite pieces.  This is a clock face, like from a old building, turned into a huge dining table. You can see the 12 o'clock roman numeral at the bottom of the picture frame.  SO cool!!!

Restaurant review - Urban Vegan, Chicago

I was looking for something different to eat.  I found Urban Vegan.  Ends up it is a "vegan Thai" restaurant. It is a small restaurant - maybe 8 tables.  It was very clean and the staff was very nice and attentive. I was at the Lakeview location.  They have another restaurant in the Lincoln Park area.

This is the Seaweed soup.  Yes, I like seaweed. If you like sushi, you like it too.  It is the nori, the dark wrapper around your maki roll pieces. This had seaweed, napa cabbage, mushrooms, tofu and mung bean noodles (also known as cellophane noodles).  This was so nice and light and just brimming with health.  I really enjoyed this soup and this little restaurant.

Brilliant Idea - Panera Cares

When we were in Chicago the other day, we wanted to grab a small bite and sit.  Look at what we found - Panera Cares.  Ends up that there are 4 of these in the country - and two of the four are in Chicago.  The other ones are in Clayton, MO (seemed weird location, but this is Panera's home base, so it makes sense now) and Portland, OR.

The idea is that you pay what you can. On the menu there are "suggested donation" amounts, but you pay what you can.  According to the co-founder of Panera "Twenty percent of customers pay more than the suggested donation. Sixty percent leave the suggested donation and 20 percent leave less, typically significantly less."

As you can read below, they ask for volunteer time if you can't pay at all.  This is an amazing thing. It is so win-win. Panera can write off its left over inventory as donation (since the food at a Panera Cares is day-old) and those who can't afford to eat get food.  I haven't ever seen such a big win-win scenario before.  

Dinner - Beef and vegetable soup

This was a great supper!!!  I used top sirloin for the beef and cut it into small pieces.  I browned them first.  Then added the cartons of no salt beef stock (always have at least one half a carton left over in case you need to add more liquid as the soup condenses), frozen lima beans, frozen cut green beans, 1 can of dark kidney beans and carrots.  To this I added burgundy wine (2 gluggs - professional cooking term), 5 cloves of garlic, chipolte pepper powder and salt. I left it on the lowest setting on the stove and stirred it occasionally for about 2 hours.  It was very rich and full of flavor and little fat.

Restaurant Review - Kitsch'n on Roscoe, Chicago, IL

We found a great place for breakfast.  Kitsch'n on Roscoe - 2005 West Roscoe Street, Chicago. We were sat in the back porch area.  What was nice about it is that you felt like you were outside, with just a tarp between the sky and you.  But with the heaters, it was nice and toasty.  The best of both worlds.....outside and warm.  The service was friendly and attentive. Great place we will be going back to for sure.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know my affinity for eggs benedict.  Here is their version - Bayou Crab Cakes Benedict.

 These are crab cakes with poached eggs, habanero corn bread hash, bayou hollandaise sauce (I had it on the side) and a green salad.

It was great with everything all smashed together.  The hash was delicious.  It was made with grated potatoes.   And the texture and slight sweetness of the corn bread hash was so great with the smooth, rich yolk and crab-full cakes.