Chi-town on the cheap
We had a rather impromptu visit to Chicago this weekend, Peppi opened up the kramer Bed and Breakfast for us. Linda (doucanoe) was in town visiting her duaghter, Cathy was flying in from Florida and so Sherry and I decided to grab the train and go to visit Peppi.
I packed some beef in a cooler and Sherry made a lemon tart from Ann T's recipe and away we went. When we finally all arrived on Thursday night, we had a Mexican dinner. We started with margarita shrimp and then had enchiladas, mexican rice, salsa and chips.
We finished off with the lemon tart and some cranberry juice and limoncello that Linda had made. Yes, she made her own limoncello, we all had a taste test and agreed we liked hers better than the store bought stuff!
We brought a slightly belated birthday gift for Peppi, a handmade batter bowl and syrup pitcher:
Cathy brought some of her own home dehydrated garlic:
We had a few other gifts that I didn't get pictures of and finally went to sleep. Breakfast Friday morning was fresh croissants that Linda made. Yes, croissants from scratch and they were delicious and flakey, we ate them with some of the cranberry/grapefruit marmalade I made using Gina's recipe.
We did a little shopping, took some of Peppi's knives to be sharpened and went to Trader Joe's, then came home for lunch.
Sherry really liked the liver pate, we told her she should try it with crackers!
I brought pastrami that Elery had smoked and homemade rye bread, I bought Dubliner cheese at Trader Joe's and brought along a chunk of that award winning Black Star Farms raclette. Linda brought some naan and hummus to go with the pate.
To go on the pastrami sandwiches, I brought the Canadian mustard that Sharon/Chase gave me when I went to Toronto:
Just a few more hours of drinking which included some bloody marys for Sherry, more limoncello and more than a little wine, we decided to start supper. Since I'd brought 3 grassfed sirloins, I put together some braciole to go with Cathy's Grandma's red sauce. Of course, I'd forgotten to bring the recipe and I'd never made braciole before, so I winged it, LOL. Cathy made an insalata caprese and some pasta to go with the red sauce and braciole. We'd also stopped at a nice little Irish meat market and bought delicious Italian sausage, so we made that too, along with some cauliflower.
So, braciole and sausage:
The salad:
A "complete" dinner plate with the spaghetti, Cathy's wonderful and delicious sauce and the braciole, sausage, and cauliflower:
Here is all of us:
Dessert was Sherry's chocolate mousse in Godiva chocolate cups and Lori's limoncello sorbet with blackberries and mint. Very, very yummy, both of them!
Peppi set a beautiful table with her Grandmother's silver and some red roses, in a vase from San:
We finished with pizelles:
More drinking, more talk and some watching of the Olympics, including a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Cathy, Sherry and I, and Peppi was ready for bed (and earplugs, LOL). Hey, I told you we were drinking!
Saturday morning Linda made cookingrvc's hash brown quiche, it was delicious, so thanks, Sue for that recipe. We also had the rest of the croissants. Can't let a homemade croissant get stale you know!
And, because loves2cook4six lives in Chicago, we met her for lunch! We gave her a few little gifts, including Cathy's garlic, so here she is, with Cathy:
Peppi and Cathy had done a little early shopping and so they gave me some borscht mix from a little Polish market. I've never seen borscht mix before...
We did a little shopping, went to a wonderful fish market where we found all kinds of goodies including some fresh parrotfish just like Sharon CB's! Lunch at a Greek restaurant was gyros for several, I had an athenian salad with fresh dill, it was very nice but the dressing was extremely tart and vinegary.
Supper was leftovers, more of nearly everything you see here. The pasta was only better the second day, as was Cathy's special sauce.
Sunday morning we had scrambled eggs, toasted rye bread left from the pastrami and sausage. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate and a train ride home and we've had a great girl's weekend.
Thank you Peppi, for putting up with us, and thank your Dad for being a sweet, kind and gracious gentleman. Oh, and love up Dylan, the man of the house, just because he's handsome and kept us safe!
Sigh. Back to the real world.
Annie
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