(The thread-opening post 17 and a half years ago )

And it's "deja vu all over again."

Mmmmm..... chili.

fun! One day I’ll learn to make it...

it’ll be grilled steak, carrots, and penne with Rao’s marinara on the side. Yummy.

i also added an Italian chimichurri sauce - I googled the term and whipped up a nice dipping & marinade. Yum.

dessert - Lotus salted caramel ice cream and fresh Doubletree cookies

I didn't intend this to be this way:
Wheat thins & Brie with fig orange jam
Baked potato with lots of butter and salt and pepper and the crumbs that were in the bottom of the Costco cheddar bacon crisps.
Cheap wine
Cosmopolitan but made with (my homemade) limoncello instead of lime.

Changing planes at DCA tonight so whatever I can scrounge there. In the old days on a 3 hour layover like I have tonight I'd leave security and hit Legal Seafoods or the sushi place but I'm not sure they're going to be open.

That seems like a perfectly acceptable dinner to me.

Homemade quiche (just Swiss cheese, nothing fancy - but tasty!)

Homemade cream-style corn (made using fresh corn and buttermilk)

Romaine salad with blue cheese, toasted pecans, dried cranberries and raspberry vinagrette
Cauliflower with the pepperoncini and mint (girl & goat style)
Grilled pork tenderloin with apricot, ginger, honey mustard, jalapeno glaze

I'm actually not sure if I've been there. I think that's the place my grandma used to love.

Turkey burgers broiled inside. The condo came with a gas grill but no propane in the tank. On the side: Publix Southern style potato salad (with hard boiled egg), Publix sweet cole slaw (it had the furthest out expiration date) and mai tais from a very inauthentic recipe (but delicious all the same). The plan has been to cook in the condo on this vacation but don�t expect much in the way of effort. I was drained after a day in the hot sun with the grandkids.

You guessed it, we're just a couple minutes drive from Skokie Hwy. So I know all those places of course. I don't recall if we've had the whitefish from Once Upon a Bagel, but I'm sure we will one day. We tend to go with lox more often. Restaurants in the suburbs have just reopened for outdoor dining only. So we're going to brave the 90 degree humid day tomorrow and go to Bobby's in Deerfield. And up to Highwood on Friday night if the weather cooperates! Love to cook, but I'm really looking forward to eating at restaurants for the first time in almost 3 months.

Bobby’s and the highwood restaurants have always had nice outdoor dining for the summer. I don’t know why Prairie Grass, which is probably REALLY near you, doesn’t have outdoor dining (like their sister restaurant) considering that gigantic parking lot!

i really love driving in that area overall when I’d have a rental convertible. Either stay at embassy suites across from hyatt Deerfield or we rent a house. Now I’ve no idea when we’ll return - the fact that normal people on FlyerTalk aren’t flying totally screams much. So I know this region really well and I’m not stalking when I mention names and places out there. Plus being where the John Hughes movies and Ordinary People all occurred... just so priceless and essential, especially now.

i annoyed the boss at the egg place by Demetra’s because I asked about all the celebrity pictures. He’s in all of them and I had to know how he got to be photographed with such royalty.

Pasta with white sausage sauce (from NYT). So simple, so tasty.

I’ll have to maybe check out white sausage sauce. I’m already very satisfied with marinara - esp the Rao’s even though I’ve always enjoyed my own cooking of marinara sauce from DOP san Marzano tomatoes and basil.

supper was turkey tacos and dessert was frozen homemade “Kit kats” - still rich but very good from the freezer. Very rich; I had only 2 slices. Very ace dessert.

Not being able to travel to Beyrut this month, we decided to make the Lebanese-ish experience at home. The Menu consisted of:

Labneh with Maanesh Flatbread, Hummus and Kibbeh

Lamb Kafta with rice and Tomato Salad

We originally decided on having Baklavas with the final coffees, but our guests surprised us with bringing a Layali Lubnan, topped with chrushed pistachios, ashta and strawberries, so that made it as the formal Dinner Finale.



The Lebanese red wine Chateau Musar with the starters and main. The coffee/baklava combo was enhanced with a non-Lebanese digestif

Disaster! My daughter wanted cold shrimp. Publix was out of cooked/cleaned so I bought a pound and a half of �Argentine Red� peel and eat. Got home and they were mushy and fishy. Fortunately I had bought cold fried chicken for the grandkids and there was enough for everyone. Supplemented with hummus, carrots and celery & watermelon.