another homemade dinner

While I think of a clever title for this post, I will go ahead and start writing...

Bill has posted a funny commentary on microwaves and salt (or No-Salt, which exists for a longer period of time in his post that it did in actual life). I had secretly hoped he would end his rant with something positive about my cooking which has come a long way in the ten years we've been married. A very long way. I owe most of that to two people: Giada and Emeril. I "heart" Food Network and because of these two cooks, I am more confident in the kitchen. I should probably read "Julie and Julia" or at least see the movie. I have a feeling I would be able to relate.

Back to my post, it's not really a secret anymore, I just told you. Instead I'll just toot my own horn, or something and share yet another delicious cooked meal that I made. From scratch.

Gnudi and Crostini Alla Roma.

Gnudi means naked in Italian, and in this case it refers to ravioli. That just means no pasta shell, just the filling. How does that work you may be thinking. The filling consists of ricotta, spinach, parmesan cheese, two egg yolks (which are the binder) and two eggs. After mixing it all together, you shape it into flattened balls and roll it in flour. Put them in boiling water and four minutes later you have ravioli without the pasta. I love it. This was only the second time I made it, the first was something like a catastrophe in the kitchen, but I learned and I was prepared for the sticky mess that it makes. I had also made homemade marinara sauce, which I thought tasted great.

The second part of this meal (because let's face it, gnudi isn't very filling since you don't have the pasta to make you feel full) was crostini. Ciabatta bread, cut and toasted. Then take a slice of proscuitto and top it with a slice of fresh mozzerella. Back into the oven. While it's baking the second time and melting the cheese, I take butter and melt it. I add minced garlic, then drizzle that over the crostini when it comes out of the oven. Heaven. I am almost sure of it.

If your mouth is watering, give us a call. We enjoy guests and have tons of room in the dining room now that we've gotten rid of the piano!!

Vacation!! the last day

Here we are, finally. The last day of our vacation photos. We checked out of the hotel and waited for the bellman, then the elevator, and then the car. It took an hour to actually get out. I felt like we were in Hotel California. But we made it. We headed to Yolk, a breakfast place that I heard about, but cannot remember where. There was a wait, but it was worth it. Bill had the steak and eggs, I had the crepe platter. Wow, the crepes were so delicious. They didn't need butter or syrup, in fact when I added the syrup just to try it, that ruined them! We didn't need to eat again until later on our way home. I don't even think we were really that hungry, we just ate because we figured we should.

I digress. Before we left Chicago, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We parked in the parking garage, so I didn't get any pictures from the outside of the building. But we took a couple of pictures inside. Here's what we saw:

The 727, and the other airplanes hanging around

a couple of clowns

the U-505, which we toured. This was my favorite exhibit. I think Bill was torn between the planes and this.

the main gallery.

That was it. That was our 10th Anniversary extraordinaire vacation. I hope you enjoyed the photos. And that it was just as boring as a slide show in our home (although we would have made popcorn for you).

Vacation! day six

Okay, so these posts are lasting longer than the entire vacation. But it's fun for me to post one day at a time. First, because the photo uploader uploads the photos backward. If I want it to be easy I have to think of what photo I want to be last, and attach it first. I don't always remember. Then I have to sit here and move the photos around in the post, which should be easy, but is not. Second, I get to relive the vacation and see if I remembered everything in my journal. Third, it is hopefully less of a burden to you. I hope you continue to enjoy our vacation pictures as my memory of the vacation quickly fades into routine...

Saturday morning we had tickets for a 10am architectural river cruise. It was another beautiful day and perfect for taking some pictures of the amazing architecture in Chicago. I plan on framing some of them to add to our collection in our living room.


waiting for the tour to start


lots of sunlight pours down over the city, thanks to the setback requirements when skyscrapers first started going up


this is one of the choices for the living room

We saw this sign back at the entrance to Navy Pier. I could not resist taking a photo.

And what are they doing?


We got back to Navy Pier and decided to eat lunch, which was smart because it was already getting crowded. Then we walked to the end of the pier, or as close as we could get because it was all roped off for the Tall Ships. You had to have a ticket to even look at them and they were strategically placed so that you could not even sneak a peak from the restrooms! We decided we have seen enough tall ships and didn't need to purchase tickets, so we would walk back on the inside of the arcade. Did you know the biggest museum/collection of stained glass is housed in Navy Pier? Neither did we, but we do now!

This was in the floor


If you know First UMC Grand Rapids, this will look familiar. We have one of the last Tiffany stained glass windows and it is very similar to this one.


I love the pastoral scenes




We will never forget.

Vacation! part five

This is day two in Chicago. Bill and I decided not to go to the museum of Science and Industry on Friday and we would go on Sunday on our way out of town, instead. I think it was a wise decision since the weather was beautiful. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for our morning caffeine and took a nice walk. We walked to the bridge on Michigan and were about to cross it when I looked down. Not smart for someone who has height problems. Instead of crossing the bridge we took some pictures and walked back to shop at Crate and Barrel.

It was a nice quiet morning. We went back to the hotel and did what most people who have been married for ten years do, and ignored each other while sitting on our laptops. We decided to make a lunch (we brought a cooler full of supplies) and then walked up to Lincoln Park Zoo. Yes, it was about two miles away, but who wants to drive less than two miles? The walk wasn't going to kill us, so we set off. We walked along the lake, until we had to cross over to get to the park.

The zoo is on the north side of the park and it's free! What you can't see in this picture are the dragonflies. They show up in this photo as black spots. If you click on it to enlarge the photo, you'll see them.

We saw all kinds of animals and we took lots of photos. I think my favorite were the lions. She was out sunning herself up on the rock so everyone could see. If you look close you can see her mate...

He's not easy to spot in the shadows, so I walked around and took his photo from the other side, can you find him?

This sign made us laugh. Really?

I'm also fond of giraffes, so here is one, the other put his head down and is just behind the rocks.

We decided we were hungry enough to stop and eat on the way back. After we looked up restaurants on the gps, then looked at reviews on the blackberry we picked one and headed toward Wells Street. We discovered that we're old and we eat too early because the restaurant we had chosen wasn't open until 6pm. We kept walking, and figured since we were in "Old Town" we would find something. Almost across the street we found this.

Topo Gilgio. Italian sounded good, so we stopped here. We got an anti-pasta plate that was bigger than our table. It had salami, olives, artichoke, some kind of quiche, cheese, red peppers, mushrooms... I'm sure there was more, but I can't remember. Bill ordered the special; black linguine in a cream sauce with shrimp, scallops and salmon. I had rigatoni with pancetta in a red sauce. Both were delicious!! We had to walk back very slowly because we were stuffed and we were bringing home leftovers! We drank our last bottle of Stringio (from the winery we went to in Tuscany) and had a relaxing evening, resting with our feet propped up.

Vacation! part four

Thursday, we drove to Chicago. We had bought tickets online to tour the Robie House which is on the campus of University of Chicago. We got to the house early and actually found a parking spot! We were on the 2 o'clock house tour, so we took the walking neighborhood tour and then ate lunch. The tour took us around the quad and over to Rockefeller Chapel. The Chapel was open so we were able to walk inside.


outside looking at the chapel

inside the chapel looking at the ceiling


in the courtyard of Ida Noyes Hall

We walked over to 57th street and walked until we found a restaurant that looked good. It was Medici and it was delicious! Bill had a "beef stroganoff" burger and I had the special, a meat lover's calzone. Then we headed back for our tour. You are not allowed to take pictures inside which is okay because it's currently under restoration and there is nothing special to see. Especially not after we have been in the Meyer May house here in Grand Rapids, where it's furnished, fully restored and you are allowed to take pictures. Here are a few of the photos from the outside.




It was one of the first houses in the city to have a three car garage!

From there we headed to the Allerton Hotel on Michigan and Huron. We were upgraded to the suite, which was awesome (you can see pictures on facebook). We had dinner reservations at Riva on Navy Pier. We enjoyed our dinner. The food was spectacular and the view was amazing.

Bill had the clam chowder and I had an artichoke stuffed with cheese appetizer. Bill had the swordfish over a creamy shrimp risotto and I had the pork chop. Of course we had dessert and espressos.

It was a lovely anniversary evening. On our stroll back to the hotel we were able to watch the fireworks that were shot off at Navy Pier.