More Fall Fun!

Look at me! I'm posting again. It feels good to be blogging again. I can't believe how much Danny has changed so I'm excited to share pictures of him as he grows. It's crazy to me that he's already 15 months old. This weekend we visited Edwards Apple Orchard and the Pumpkin Patch. Both are places Chad went to when he was a kiddo and now we've made it a tradition of taking our little family.

First, we stopped at the orchard. We went straight for the apple cider and apple cider donuts. Then we played a lot and went to the store for goodies.

Grandma and Aunt Jane - Aunt Jane's first apple cider donut!!!

Chad, Danny, and Papa

Jordan and me! He was all about the donuts and the cider!

Danny's first apple cider donut (he was only 5 months last year!)

Mmmm...sugary sweet.

See? Look how big these kiddos are! Jordan and Danny!

 After the orchard, we went to the Pumpkin Patch! Jordan got to spend tickets on jumpy things and Chad and I launched pumpkins! Danny had fun petting the goats and looking at all the pumpkins.

Pumpkins!!! Arrrr(?)!!!

This is Danny's sweet "Cheese" face. He actually says it!

I'm glad we are able to take our kids there. It seems like there are so many small town or local places that are closing so it's nice that these two places are still around. I hope they continue to be there as our kids get older and maybe even when our kid have kids! Where do you pumpkin patch?

You know...we did get one medium sized pumpkin but we didn't get out pumpkin to carve yet! We were busy running around and having fun and didn't choose a pumpkin. We do have a great little pumpkin spot near our house so I'm sure we'll be there in the next week or so.

Cereal Idiosyncracies

Honestly, I never really realized how different two people can be when it comes to eating cereal!  I just have to write about it because it's been cracking me up lately.  I am intrigued by how opposite Chad and I are when it comes to eating cereal and now I'm wondering what other people's tendencies are when they eat cereal.  

Me: I prefer a roundish tall bowl full of cereal.  I then load up on milk, too.  I make sure I start to see the milk coming up over the cereal so the cereal starts to just barely start to float in the milk.  I love a big spoon to eat cereal with.  I gauge how much cereal versus how much milk I have left as I go so when it comes down to the end I usually can finish my cereal at the same time as I finish the milk.  I leave usually a teeny bit of milk in the bottom of the bowl but otherwise (in my opinion) it is cereal-eating perfection.  Waste not, want not.  

Chad: He prefers a wider short bowl full of cereal.  He does load up on cereal but he doesn't like too much milk.  I mean, he barely even wants any milk in his cereal.  He chooses a small spoon.  He doesn't want to really drink the milk, he just wants his cereal to be barely wet from the cereal.  He'll eat the cereal, leaving flakes or krispies or whatever all around the rim of the bowl and a ton of milk in the bowl.  Here's the part that I am most astonished by, he'll use that leftover milk and just add more cereal to his bowl.  (If I'm going back for a second bowl, I need a whole new set of cereal and a whole new pouring of milk.)  

Did you realize it was even possible to cereal so differently?  I honestly, truly, desperately am dying to know how you eat cereal.  Do you eat cereal?  What kind of a bowl do you like?  Big spoon or small spoon?  Lots of milk or some milk...or no milk!!!  (Jordan has been requesting Cocoa Krispies with no milk and he'll use his spoon to eat it but doesn't want milk on it!)  Don't be shy, no judging, I'm just curious about your cereal personality!

The Green Monster!!!!!

My friend Emily from Canada was talking about Green Monsters and I finally decided to see what it was all about.  We are already a smoothie family and have been making smoothies since before Jordan was born...but we've never made GREEN smoothies!  Basically, Green Monsters are smoothies made with spinach or kale.  Chad made a Target run last night and this morning we whipped up our first Green Monsters!

Chad made me the virgin and then made his with strawberries and blueberries.  We were kind of scared to see what the spinach would taste like but it was really good!  It tasted like banana milk to me.  Super yum!  I could totally see myself drinking one of them every morning.  So far today I have felt great and I do feel like I have extra energy - that's something considering I was up twice in the middle of the night to feed Danny! 

Jordan had his with banana bread from Gramma!

Garlic Bread

Here's the recipe for probably the yummiest, easiest, cheapest garlic bread!!! It's from Simply Recipes. I do "method 2" which is the soft version of garlic bread. I kind of adjusted the recipe. I taken softened butter and mix in an Italian seasoning mix called parmesan basil. I use Jimmy John's day-old bread that you can get for 50 cents and cut inch slices without going all the way through. I take a spoon and spread the butter mixture in between the slices...I would recommend using a generous amount of butter. You wrap it up in foil, stick it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 and you are set! Yum!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late on my Thanksgiving post but at least it hasn't been a week yet! I was up at 4:00 in the morning with my aunt getting the bird in the oven. After that we went back to sleep for a little bit and then when we woke up again we were all about getting everything else ready. It all came together pretty well actually! (The only down side was I so didn't get a shower until after we ate!) Jordan is being goofy in this picture and I'm unshowered and un-made-up!

The turkey and part of the table!
Another goofy Jordan face!
Jordan finally crawled into Jane's lap so she could help him with his Thanksgiving dinner. This was his face when he first tried the cranberries!
By now he couldn't get enough of the cranberries!
Apple-cranberry pie! Doesn't it look great!?! It was very yummy! We had pumpkin pie, also, of course! And...later, Silvia came over with strawberry shortcake that was amazing!
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We have lots of be thankful this year! So happy for our family and friends and that everyone is healthy!

South Loop Chocolate Tour

Woo hoo! Last week, Chad and I were fortunate enough to be invited to go on the very first South Loop Chicago Chocolate Tour!!! We were so excited for a night out and with chocolate! Bonus! I was kind of caught up in eating chocolate, I barely took any pictures, but I do have a few!

We started at Canady Le Chocolatier, which I have to say is absolutely awesome. The owner himself was there to welcome us and talk to us about chocolate. A lot of it was over my head, but it made me completely respect him and his chocolates having heard lots about the process of making chocolate. Look at this case of chocolate! I could have eaten the whole thing! The craziest part is, we live over an hour away...but I have been back twice already since the tour! We sampled his gelato and had to go back. Have you ever heard of blood orange gelato? Well, now you have and you better go get some! This place rocks!

This is a plate of yummy chocolate concoctions from Panozzo's. We would have loved to actually eat or buy some of their Italian food...but the chocolate was great.
Here we are at Three Peas Art Lounge. This place was really cool. It's an art lounge with drinks and cupcakes. The art on display was all about motherhood which I thought was really cool. They do change their art, but I was digging the motherhood display, uh, and the cupcakes!
Here is the link for the Chicago Chocolate Tours Photo Gallery so you can see more pictures from last week! I also strongly recommend that if your headed to Chicago you see if you can go on one of the Chicago Chocolate Tours!!! They are awesome!

Basketball and Pizza!

Well, unfortunately, I'm writing this AFTER the Bulls game...that we lost if you don't know already.  If you weren't watching, then you probably don't care that I just ruined it for you if you didn't know.  Anyway, we went on a nice long family walk after Jordan woke up from his nap and then came home to make pizza together.    

We bought the pizza dough, it was kind of like a Boboli...but not.  First, we brushed some garlic olive oil on the dough.  

We spread the tomato sauce and the cheese!
And then we added our toppings.  Half of the pizza was pepperoni, green peppers, and onion.  One quarter was pepperoni and jalapeno pepers.  The last quarter was ham and pineapple.  

Yum!!!!

It was a great night until the Bulls played...and lost!!!!!!!!

Chocolate Tour!!!!

Really, I have more than the chocolate tour to report, but all the pictures are from the chocolate tour.  On Friday, Chad dropped off Jordan and me at our friends, the Garneau's.  Our friends Marc and Kathy had a great idea for Marc to take care of Jordan for the day so Kathy and I could go have a girls' day out!  It was fun!  Chad went to work, Jordan stayed with Marc, and Kathy and I went downtown.  

Jordan got to go to Dunkin Donuts with Marc and Maddy, they got to play at the tree at Northbrook Court, they took pizza lunch to Daddy at school, and then went back to Maddy's house to play and take a nap.  It was fun!  I do have one picture of Jordan playing at the tree:

Kathy and I made it downtown with minor traffic issues.  We went through Washington Library just to look around, then stopped at Dick Blick, Urban Outfitters, and Old Navy on our way to Macy's.  We wandered around Macy's, looked at the Tiffany ceiling up close, and then ate a mid-morning lunch.  



Finally, it was time for our Chicago Chocolate Tour to begin!  We met at the fountain in Macy's and our first stop was Sarah's Pastries, right inside of Macy's.  


It was a cute little space and everything look delicious!
Next, we went downstairs to learn more about Frango and sample the newest flavor: Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Pistachio...it was awesome!  I had to buy a box!  We also went to their chocolate/candy section and tried some of the Queen's chocolate.

Then, we went upstairs to see the old Frango-making machine...which they, unfortunately, don't really use any more.  All Frango production actually moved to Pennsylvania when Macy's bought out Marshall Field's.  (tear)

This cool piece of Chicago art is actually made entirely of chocolate by chocolatier Joseph Schmidt:

After that, we left Macy's to hit a few other stops to try more chocolate!  The next stop was probably my favorite and I am already concocting a plan to either make this treat myself or to figure out where another Lavazza is.  At Lavazza, an Italian coffee shop, we had these yummy gelato creations.  The woman brought out a tray of mini-coffee cups with gelato...and then she poured the thickest liquid chocolate I have seen right over them.  It was awesome!  I definitely recommend it!

Next, we went to Hannah's Bretzels...but we didn't have Bretzels (the German word for pretzel), instead we marveled at their chocolate wall and got to try lots of samples.  This place definitely had some funky chocolate.  They did also have Kinder eggs, which I remember from when I went to Italy in high school and had to get some!  They have over 200 different kinds of chocolate bars.

Our last stop was Argo Tea where we had Chocolate Tea Lattes which were pretty good...their brownie I didn't care for, but the tea was yummy.  

And that was our Chicago Chocolate Tour.  They have other tours on the Mag Mile and I think I would definitely do that one!  Afterwards we went back to the Garneau's house to find Jordan sleeping and Marc, Chad, and Maddy hanging out.  When Jordan woke up we all went to eat dinner at Michael's and then went home.  We had such a fun day!

Weekend Fun

We had such a nice weekend!  I convinced Chad to fire up the grill because i was so nice!  We had chicken breast and grilled peppers.  Yum!  

After Jordan woke up from his nap we went to Robek's for smoothies and then stopped at the park on the way home.  

BREAD!

I admit, I'm a little obsessed with this cheesy King Arthur bread recipe.  I made it again just now...I just took it out of the oven and it's cooling as we speak.  OMG!  It looks amazing.  The first time I made it it didn't quite look like the picture on the KA website, but this time it looks like it's supposed to.  I can't wait to actually try it.  I love love love this recipe.  Here are the pictures of my latest batch of what they call "grip it and rip it" bread. 

Fresh Fruit

Jordan and I have been looking through old posts from our blog and our friend Kathy's blog lately.  He loves to see the pictures and either call out someone's name or whatever is in the picture.  His favorite part is when there are movies.  He makes me watch them over and over again.  Today we were looking at a picture of flamingos and he asked me if, "Watch it."  I had to explain that not all the pictures are movies.  It was cute.  

We saw a picture from last summer when Jordan was eating a big piece of watermelon.  I miss watermelon!  I miss summer fruit and farmer's markets!  I am so happy that today is the last day of January...I feel like February is just a little closer to summer.  

The melons will be coming in soon...I bought some pears the last time we were at Target so I had one of those today.  Here's my fun apple corer that I love love love.  Slices are way better than eating it off the core or cutting my own slices.  

I think I can...I think I can...

Thank you King Arthur Flour...I have been dreaming about this fancy cheese bread from the King Arthur Flour website for about a week...maybe.  I have never ever made bread before.  Kathy assured me the worst that could happen would be that it wouldn't taste good...but, oh, did it taste good!  I followed the directions as best as I could, I think I was supposed to spritz with water at the end and I totally forgot...so I think it would look a little different around the outside, but it still tasted phenomenal.  If you look at the pictures of their starter and their dough...my dough was totally way thicker and wasn't at all goopy like theirs...maybe I didn't do the right amount of water?  Oh well, I didn't burn it (woo hoo!).  Chad agreed that it tasted pretty gosh darn good.  I will definitely be making this again.  I have to say, it wasn't all that hard either!  Go me!

Here were my 4 mini-loaves before they went into the oven.
Here's a close-up...isn't she beautiful?
The final product!  You can see it didn't quite turn out like the picture from their website, but I used an Italian blend of cheese, which included parmesan...so I think that's why it didn't burst out all over the place.  Maybe?  I used a garlic and onion oil and it tasted kind of like pizza bread.  I wonder if King Arthur has a recipe for pizza dough?  
This recipe was actually quite perfect considering I just finished reading that weird Meg Cabot book about a kid who is basically King Arthur reincarnate...interesting.  

Moral of the story: Do not be afraid.  If you try it, you will have great bread!