48 showerless hours in Chicago

I've been traveling quite a bit lately--mostly recreationally and not for work--so I'm not complaining. But it can be tiring, and that why I haven't posted in a while. My early July trip was to Chicago with my friend J. We scheduled a girls weekend in Chicago way back in March. What a huge city! We had a good agenda, and still didn't see the entire city.This is the view from the Hancock Tower on cloudy Saturday morning. We were waiting for Cheescake Factory to open at 10:30am for some brunch and needed to waste some time.

After brunch, we headed north on the L and saw a Cubs game at Wrigley! Fantastic stadium, really family friendly and affordable tickets.

This is the view of Navy pier, from our Architectural tour boat. The skies cleared up a bit for the actual tour. Here, you can see a replica of the ferris wheel built for the Worlds Fair in the 1800s.
We also went to the famous Second City improv theater and caught a show. Very funny. And on Sunday morning, J made a friend in the bathroom. This cockroach is about 3 inches long, and prevented me from taking a shower. The hotel staff came up to the room with a broom and dustpan, but by that time, our friend had vanished.

Overall, Chicago seems like a great city. The only complications to our trip were the delays flying in and out of the city.I'd love to go back, especially if I had family or friends to visit there.

Strawberry Rhubarb Turnovers

I'm getting kinda good at this. I wanted to feast on the strawberry and rhubarb frozen in my freezer, and decided to take a bit of a shortcut. I bought some Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, and set off to McGuyver the sweet seasonal fruits into an appropriate consistency for the turnover filling. No one likes a dry turnover!

I decided to heat down the fruit with some sugar and lemon juice in my handy crockpot (perfect for summertime baking because it doesn't throw off heat like a stovetop does!). Once that heated down, I added double the amount of cornstarch and let it cook for another 30-50 minutes. The result was an awesomely gooey filling...perfect for a turnover. This recipe was also my inaugural use of the Silpat sheet that my sister gave me for my birthday. It acts like parchment paper without the fuss of cutting it to the proper pan size, and without the waste! Love it, and super easy to clean off!

Take a peek at how they came out. Not bad, but they fell a bit after they'd been taken out of the oven and were cooling off. This is a keeper! Do you like my fancy sanding sugar?

Minuteman National Park

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. Now, you'll get a good sense of how much of a historical dork I am.

I spent nearly 5 hours on the Battle Road of the Minuteman National Park in Concord MA getting a guide from a Park Ranger in 80 degree heat. Since Nate is in Dublin, I went with his Dad, a fellow historical enthusiast. We walked nearly 3 miles (me in flipflops--it was hot!) and got to see some beautiful historic spots: Paul Revere's capture site, Bloody Angle where we took down like 8 British Regulars, and the home (below) of Abigail Adam's brother (...or was it father?).

I highly recommend checking out this national park if you're interested in the Revolution. I may just come back on Patriots Day 2012 and experience the reenactments firsthand.

Summer Solstice: strawberries for dinner

June signals "pick-your-own" strawberry season. This year, we went back to Connors Farm in Danvers for their strawberry festival. We picked a whole pallet of strawberries for $25, and it only took an hour. Nate took some pretty awesome pics, which he should post here. Hint. Hint. Once home, it weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds; and now I have a full freezer!

Once of the first things I made with these hand-picked jems, was strawberry shortcake. Growing up, my best friend Katie's mom had a tradition: on the first day of summer, she'd serve strawberries for dinner to her four daughters! Since I practically lived there, I absorbed that tradition and continue to carry it on.

Biscuits, macerated strawberries, and homemade Chantilly whipped cream. Like whoa.

Independence Day

On the eve of Independence day, I made us a fresh and light dinner after a sticky and hot day. I realized that this dish has a cute "red white and blue" theme to it.

This was my attempt at a twist on a caprese dish. Call it whatever you want--eggplant napoleon, caprese salad--- it was tasty! And fancy, too, if you don't mind me saying so.

Ingredients

• eggplant, sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper until tender
• fresh mozzerella
• tomatoes
• chopped garlic
• sun dried tomato pesto
• basil
• balsamic vinegar

Are you impressed with my food styling skills?