Archives for July 2013

wwww.

July 31, 2013 / By Courtney / 5 Comments

Yea – it’s what WE wore Wednesday time! Toronto Mama and I can’t wait to see those cute outfits. You know the drill, link up below or post on Facebook. Thank you so much for participating!

This past Sunday I had a fun date with my boys. We drove to a reclaimed furniture store in Crystal Lake, IL. I love this place and have found some unique pieces for around the home. This day was a brass antique trunk which sets perfectly at home in our family room, stuffed with toys of course. After that we went to Portillos – um, YUM! I am so that annoying girl that orders the chopped salad in one line, and then waits in another line for cheese fries. Here is what we wore on our (randomly chilly) Sunday date:

L: He had a really cute tee on that day but I didn’t manage to get any photos without his sweatshirt, which is from Old Navy. Gap skinny jeans and Target gym shoes.

B: LOVE his onesie this week, it was a gift from his Aunt Lala and is from a boutique in the city. She’s just fancy that way. It was paired with his green colored jeans, from H&M.

C: Now that I’m looking at these photos I realize we were all in stripes, which happens often. My tee is from J Crew and while I wasn’t happy about the random fall weather, it’s always fun to get in my favorite jeans which are Hudsons. Target camel colored flats which I have had for 4ish years and still wear all. the. time.

So that’s our look for this week! What’s yours?
C

C’s picks.

July 28, 2013 / By Courtney / 7 Comments

B still thinks my shopping list is his shopping list which results in me leaving the store always missing something.

Alright, hope everyone had a great weekend! Here’s what on the line up for our kitchen this week:

Sunday night we enjoyed to die for baby back ribs. The rub, the tenderness, the charcoal flavor – it was all spot on. A grilled corn and arugula salad sat on the side, which I hope to share with you later this week because it was heavenly!

We need to practice fish on our green egg – haven’t tackled that yet. These fish tacos from Curtis Stone (swoon) will be a great recipe to test out. He’s never failed me.

Tuesday let’s go back to something we’ve mastered – burgers! Turkey for moi, cheddar stuffed bacon for M. We’ll go with our regular sweet potato fries on the side and maybe more of that arugula corn salad…

I’ve been dying to try this summer stew, and Wednesday looks to be a great night to cook in.

Thursday is M’s birthday! Fun for a month I can tease him about being 4 years older than me. Let’s make M and L happy and go with our traditional Italian sausage night. Hand cut fries on the side sounds delicious and are just a little more special than our normal tator tots. And of course I will bake a treat – he loves this cake.

Let’s close the week with our pizza.

Anything new cooking in your kitchen this week? I’d love to hear!

My dad’s charcoal onions.

July 27, 2013 / By Courtney / 4 Comments

Growing up I have vivid memories of my dad standing over our classic black charcoal weber grill. He was not too tall, not too short, handsome, of course, and his hair was much less peppered with gray. Has it been age…or three daughters? I’m going with the latter, hands down. Anyway, he would start it up long before dinner time was announced because, well, charcoal grills can be finicky like that. I remember him placing the round charcoals carefully in the bottom of the grill and rolling up balls of newspaper, tucking them in just the exact right spot to get things going. He’d then confidently walk away and stop back by just every once in awhile to lay a flat hand over the coals to gauge the temp. Somehow his hand told him exactly when it was good to go. I know. He’s pretty impressive.

While the charcoal was getting hot you could find my dad doing a few things. The first would be pitching to my sisters and I for our ‘baseball game.’ Looking back at this now it’s quite a hysterical thought as not one of us has even a remote sense of athleticism in us. I’m not quite sure how the game went on but somehow it did. I’m guessing the massive hollow ball and hollow bat made it a tad easier on the violin and piano playing, art class taking, choir singing ‘team’ my dad was dealt. Poor guy.

The second would be, if we were lucky, prepping his speciality – charcoal onions. Hmmm, how to explain these. Well, they are a highlight of my childhood to start. Waaaaaay before Chili’s and Outback come out with their fried blooming onions, my dad came out with his smokey charcoal version. No deep frying here, he’d peel an onion, cut slits, stuff down thick pads of butter, salt & pepper it and call it a day. Not one but two sheets of foil would go around these baseball sized treats and directly into the charcoals they’d go for 45 – 60 minutes, or however long it takes a bunch of violin nerds to get through an inning or two.

Gosh, isn’t it amazing how food can bring you back? Great work, dad. As always.
C

P.S. Are you wondering what to do with these? They are killer over burgers, or hot dogs. Also, they aren’t too shabby by themselves either. You really can’t go wrong.

You only live once.

July 25, 2013 / By Courtney / 16 Comments

So, we have this local butcher and my family has been going there for years. My wonderful grandparents, who have since passed on, would religiously go (together of course) to pick up meat for their Friday night burgers or get their awesome chicken dijons to fry up in a skillet. They would joke with my mom about ‘Mr. Smiley’ who ran the place. It was all sarcasm as even after years of loyal service this guy wouldn’t crack a smile at the repeat customers. Somehow though my grandparents and mom would continue to go. I guess the meat was just that good.

Since I’ve grown and prepared food on my own for my family there has been a turnover and the butchers actually great me with a smile. They would always ask how my grandparents are – with sincere concern since they hadn’t seen them in awhile. And I would have to tell them ‘not well’ and they would actually care. Now that time has passed they ask about my mom and if I don’t have the boys with me it’s always ‘where is the big guy?’ I always wonder which boy they are referring to.

This summer something new has popped up at the butcher, aside from their awesome prepared burgers. Hello, Green Big Egg. You’ve heard of this thing, right? It’s the grill to have. Charcoal flavor, without the fuss. I’m sorry, I love the convenience of gas but charcoal is the way to go and the from scratch and authentic side of me has been lusting after one of these glossy eggs for quite some time.

The guys knew, and began teasing me a few weeks ago whenever I’d walk in and practically begin to pet one of the eggs. ‘You only live once’ I’d hear over and over. You know what? It’s true. Yes that rationale doesn’t work on a daily basis for multiple huge purchases but here and there it is acceptable. My birthday is in August. M’s birthday is in August. B’s birthday is in August. Happy birthday, family. Here is one heck of a grill.

I think the best way to sum up is from a dinner party a few weeks ago when it was mentioned that you really don’t enjoy eating out after getting a Green Egg and I couldn’t agree more. We’ve had the best chicken of our lives. The burgers we grilled were ridiculous. There is just no comparison.

I realize it’s not an option most days to just drop $1000 on a grill but if you’ve been toying with the idea, well, you only live once…

Get one, and make this basil lemon pepper chicken.

Basil lemon pepper chicken

2013-07-31 10:43:07

Yields 6

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Prep Time

45 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

1 hr

Prep Time

45 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

1 hr

Ingredients

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus 1/4 cup
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, coarsely crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
3 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
1 large garlic clove
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Instructions

Whisk 1/3 cup of oil, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, fennel seeds, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper into a resalable plastic bag.
Add the chicken and seal the bag. Massage the marinade into the chicken.
Refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day, turning the chicken occasionally.
Meanwhile, blend the basil, garlic, lemon peel, remaining 1/4 cup lemon juice, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a blender.
Gradually blend in the remaining 1/3 cup oil.
Season the basil sauce, to taste, with more salt and pepper, if needed.
Prepare the barbecue for medium heat.
Remove chicken from the marinade. Discard the marinade.
Grill the chicken until just cooked through, about 10sih minutes per side.
Transfer the chicken to serving plates, drizzle with the basil sauce and serve.

Adapted from Giada

A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

wwww.

July 24, 2013 / By Courtney / 3 Comments

Another week of wwww! I hope you are able to link up with Toronto Mama and I – we love seeing you each and every week. Be sure to stop on over to her page for some really creative ideas, especially when it comes to crafting. And it’s a huge bonus that her little one is just too cute for words.

Ok, here we go! This week we had a special date at Grammie’s garden. It was so neat to see all the work she’s put in and what is growing. Later that day in the car L pipes up ‘Grammie’s garden is so cool mom!’ I couldn’t agree more. Here is what we wore on a muggy (and buggy!) day:

L: Old Pier Beach tee from Crewcuts (I actually googled it to see if it’s a real beach and it is! A surfer spot in Australia. Cool.) Play striped shorts from H&M and Crew Cut striped flip flops.

B: Crew cut bull dog tee (this just suits him, so well). Striped Gap shorts which M can’t STAND because he thinks they are so unflattering. Really, at this age? I’m sorry but nothing is slimming on a 25 lbs bebe!

C: So, I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking wearing an all white dress to a messy garden but hey – I left with it still all white! I feel I should get some sort of medal for that. Dress is from J Crew (years ago). Normal jewelry and rainbow flip flops.

There you have it! Be sure to link up below and/or post on Facebook.
C