Hey everyone! Well my time with the family is now over 🙁 but it was definitely just what I needed to keep me going through the rest of the school year 🙂 I’m also going home for a bit some time in May, so I have that to look forward to as well (can you tell I get a little bit homesick?)
Our day and evening in the city were wonderful. I love downtown Chicago – the lights, the action, the shopping (even though I can’t afford most of it)! We had dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe, which has a great view of Michigan Avenue.
I got the Greek salad (sorry, I kept forgetting to take pictures!) but the highlight of the meal was an appetizer of Vietnamese Chicken Summer Rolls:
These were light and delicious.
Vietnamese Chicken Summer Rolls
Chicken, Fresh Asparagus, Red and Yellow Peppers, Carrots and Rice Noodles all Rolled into an Asian Rice Flour Wrapper. Served Cold with Spicy Peanut Sauce
We spent the night doing some shopping. We stopped by the Hershey factory, but realized that we could easily buy a bunch of not-so-healthy chocolate bars at Target for a lot cheaper if we wanted to and didn’t really want to do that anyway, so the aura around the factory wore off quickly 🙂
We slept in a little this morning and went to brunch at a busy restaurant with a cozy atmosphere called Tempo Cafe:
What is it with brunch restaurants that makes their portions so huge?! I ordered an omelette with spinach, tomato, mushroom and feta and they came up with this:
Don’t get me wrong – it was absolutely delicious! Each person who orders one gets their own little skillet! Underneath that giant mass is a heaping pile of hash browns. I skipped those and ate roughly half of what you see on top. I also tried some of my mom’s fruit-filled pancakes – banana, strawberry and blueberry cooked inside pancakes? YUM!
Boy am I full.
We spent the rest of our trip doing a little more shopping before heading back to campus. Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye – the hardest part. I love family visits, but sometimes it makes it even harder to put the focus back on work. I better “work” on that though – I’ve got two papers due this week!
Random side note: I really want to bake something. Soon. I see so many delicious things on everyone’s blogs and I’d love to try them all, but I also need to be realistic about the fact that I don’t have the time. So I pose a question to you, lovely reader: what is your absolute favorite baked good that you have made recently? I’m looking for some tantalizing descriptions here 🙂
I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend – back with more tomorrow!
Sweet dreams 🙂
Looks lovely! It’s always a love/hate thing for me to depart from my family. I have always wanted to make frtui-filled pancakes but am intimidated!
I made the ‘banana muffin tops’ from Kath’s blog! They turned out great and they were so easy to make! It took me about an hour (if that) from start to finish!
I live away from my family too so I can understand how you are feeling!!
Wellll seeing as how I just added you to mine – you better! =]
I take it you’re not living in MN right now?
Aww it sounds like you had so much fun with them! I hate getting homesick.
Wow!! That’s a huge skillet of food hehe.
EXTREME home-sickness was one of the main reasons that I transferred from a university in another state, to a university right near home – it was far too difficult being away from my family for such long periods of time; so I completely understand why it was hard to say good-bye!!
Despite the bittersweet good-bye, it DOES look like you and your family spent every minute VERY wisely – you had delectable meals, fabulous shopping trips, and more!! :0)
Check out my blog, for the latest “new favorite” baked goods that I’ve made :0)
Aw I’m sorry that everyone has to know what it feels like to be so homesick 🙁
Thanks for the suggestions ladies – I think I will have to try one from each of you!!
[…] went for a nice 2-mile run around the city, came back and headed out to Tempo Cafe for breakfast. I’ve blogged about this place in the past – it is […]