Travels in Chicago

 No trip to Chicago, Illinois is complete without a visit to Portillo’s.  All I can say is bring an appetite!  You will want to try one of everything… and I think we did.  We were visiting for three days and visited Portillo’s twice.  Does that tell you anything about their awesome food?  This place is so busy that the line can be seen during the day out the door!  And to hear people order is a treat in itself.  Some people know the lingo of how to order while me the virgin of ordering just explained what I wanted – LOL.  On the first visit, we *had* to try an Italian Beef – loaded!  The Italian beef comes in two sizes – regular and big.  We went regular this day and still had enough to share.  It’s made with their famous thin sliced roast beef topped with sweet peppers.  And here’s a hint for you – there’s three ways to order it.  Standard with a splash of ‘gravy’; Dipped which means the whole sandwich is dipped into the ‘gravy’; or Dry with very little ‘gravy’.  “Gravy” is referred to the natural juices from the slow roasted beef.  This day, we went dry.  We didn’t want to wear the gravy all day if you know what I mean – ha!  And it was delicious!  The meat was tender, the sandwich was juicy and it felt like we belonged there eating this Italian Beef all of our lives.

The next day – yep the NEXT day – we had to come back and try some more delicacies again.  Since the beef was so delicious the day before, we thought we would try it again in a different form.  This time we split a Beef-n-Cheddar Croissant.  The same thin layers of Italian beef with cheddar cheese all over it on a nice toasted croissant.  Closing my eyes just thinking of this yummy sammy – it was that good!

Which one was better?  It’s hard to say.  Both of these were so delicious…. maybe I need to try both again before I can make a decision 🙂

 

Travels in the South

Oh friends!  What a week it has been.  With mom recuperating from her car accident, we have all been trying to be nice to her.  After one doctors appointment last week, mom was craving some comfort food.  Nothing screams southern comfort more than this picture, right?  For those that don’t recognize that awesome glory, let me break it down for you.

Those two delightfully brown looking pieces on that plate, that would be boneless fried chicken.  You see chicken of any kind is like one of mom’s fall to foods when she is feeling really icky.  And personally I think these past couples of weeks qualified for just that.

Mom ordered the chicken with green beans, a side salad and white gravy on the side.  What was the gravy for?  Of course to dip that wonderful chicken into before eating it.  You’ve never done that before?  You are so hidden from southern comforts.  You must try it.

So you see mom didn’t do too bad but she sure felt better afterwards. ❤

 

Food Porn – A Southern Breakfast

  The other morning after Christmas, mom/dad went out for a true Southern breakfast.  Mom/dad said they had to get this out of their system to start the year off right.  Shaking piggy head – I don’t get it.  Mom/dad wouldn’t tell me where some of this food came from… they said it was best that I didn’t know.  Snorts – we *all* know what that means huh?  So, let me give you a breakdown of a southern breakfast:

Of course, buttered biscuits, eggs (scrambled and over easy), sausage, streak o’ lean (a southern delicacy – look it up – gulps), pancake, southern gravy and real grits with shredded cheese.  Now tell me my friends – which item do you want to try first?

 

Renovation Reveal Party!

 

Welcome to the Renovation Reveal Party for the Hotel Thompson or as my cousin called it the Casa Thompson!  My buddy Fozzie is going to co-host this party.  To get things started, please enjoy some wine, soda and some snacks.  Then sit back for the reveal and let us know what you think.  If you have questions, ask.  Mingle and have fun my dear friends!!

The following food was brought by Kali and Shoko of Canadian Cats.  Everyone be sure to try some of these Canadian delicacies.  I’m licking my lips now and fixing to jump in – YUMMO!

Poutine – French fries with gravy and cheese – how could you go wrong with this?  Beaver Tails – Now Beatrice and Billy were not harmed in the making of this sweet treat – 🙂  Beaver Tails are pastries shaped like beaver tails with chocolate and banana or chocolate and M&M’s.  Personally this little porker NEEDS one with banana and chocolate.  Nanaimo Bars – These are named after a city in Vancouver Island.  They have three layers of deliciousness – coconut, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate and custard.

 

 

 

 

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Okay my friends – do you remember the ‘before’ pictures?  Let me remind you what they looked like okay.

 The front room was a cluttered mess as well as the kitchen area.  It was definitely time to ‘grow up’ and get a new look.  Below are now the ‘after’ pictures.

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The entry way into the Casa Thompson.  The new sofa.  The new chaise – ❤

 

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The overall front room view from the hallway.  The new kitchen island.  The new cedar flooring in the bathroom.

 **SPECIAL THANKS**

   Thanks to my friend Jean with Canadian Cats (Shoko and Kali) for the beautiful virtual potted plant for the new Casa Thompson.  It’s beautiful!  And thank you my friends for bringing food to the party – I’m still licking my lips!  And many thanks for the long phone calls, listening to me whine while drinking my wine 🙂

Thanks to my brother Easy and his mom for listening to my mom’s troubled woes during the ordeal – snorts – there were a LOT.  Your emails kept her sane… well okay as sane as she could be.

Thanks for my great co-host and partner in crime Fozzie.  You mean the world to us my sweet dear friend.  The phone calls, the emails, the rants and raves.

   Much love to all of YOU and to those that listened to the endless ramblings here in blogville about the renovation.  We were so glad that we could share everything with all of you my dear friends!!

 

Daddy’s Chicken Wing Adventure

As you read here, Tuesday, 07/29/2014, was National Chicken Wing Day.  A local restaurant here called Hooters on Tara was having a special on all you can eat chicken wings that day.  Mommy promised to take daddy so he could show them what he has – snorts.  First off let me throw some shout outs to Keisha who was our waitress (you were AWESOME!) and to Mike the manager.  Mike has helped us out here on my blog in the past when Rockelle and Benedict went on a date a while back.  Mike’s awesome!

So when mom got off of the worky place, she rushed home in Albert and picked up daddy.  Daddy in preparation had walked 2 miles and had a ‘light breakfast’.  He had his game face on and was ready.  Mom picked him up and off they went to the Hooters on Tara.

I was able to get these pictures all off of mom’s iPhone.  Be prepared to be astonished my dear friends.

One of dad’s favorite things in the world are tater tots.  And just fortunately mom had a coupon for a free appetizer at Hooters – thanks Hooters – so they got this amazing tater tot appetizer to the right.  Doesn’t it look amazing!?  That’s tater tots covered with gooey cheese, onions, sour cream and bacon.  Daddy didn’t tell me about that bacon until I saw this picture.  Tsk-tsk bad daddy!

Then the fun started.  They would bring you 10 wings at a time – whatever flavor you wanted.  These are pictures of dad’s platters.  Picture to the left – medium breaded.  They have just a little zip to them as far as heat when you eat them.  Picture in the middle – Cajun breaded.  They have a zip of a different kind.  This zip is from the Cajun spices and are probably dad’s favorites.  Then the picture to the right – BBQ breaded.  These are M.E.S.S.Y.  I don’t care how many wet wipes or napkins you have to clean up with, you are going to be wearing these.  In fact, dad jumped in and wouldn’t wipe down until he was finished with these.  Mommy said that at one point, she thought she was going to have to take him out front and hose him down – snorts.

So you’re calculating to yourself thinking well played daddy – he had 30 wings.  You would be wrong my friends.  Mommy couldn’t finish one of her plates.  She had 13 – daddy called her a wussy.  I’m not sure what that means.  That left 7 off of mom’s plate though and dad ate them.  I told you watch out Joey Chestnut!    Drum roll please – dad ate 37 wings!  57.14% of you voted on Tuesday saying that daddy would eat more than 21 – you were right!

So you would think that’s the end of the story.  Daddy ate to his heart’s content and put away 37 chicken wings.  Nope.  I gotta add my two cents now – snorts.  Daddy was miserable.  Can you say Tums and Pepto Bismol?  Those were his two close friends when he got back to the Hotel Thompson.  Can you say multiple trips to the facilities here all.night.long?  Snorts – I think he finally admitted it to mom last night – he’s not as young as he once was.  Mom and dad both are eating so light today it’s not funny.  I think they are calling for salads all around for dinner for the rest of the week.  In fact, when daddy got up this morning he told mommy, “I’m surprise I haven’t coughed feathers or squawked like a chicken”.  Snorts – silly daddy!

But don’t worry my friends.  I think dad is entering an all you can eat biscuits and gravy competition this weekend – snorts.