Dining on the Riverfront

We decided to dine at American Tap tonight with our "Today's Hot Deal"  Groupon-like coupon that basically gave us an entree for free.  Our dining adventures around Peoria usually are prompted by our various daily deal coupons and our Peoria Dining Guide coupons, although our Hooter's coupons continue to remain unredeemed despite my weekly suggestions..."dear, they have great wings!".  I thought the American Tap looked interesting because of their specialty Horseshoe sandwiches, which are a local Central Illinois creation containing a piece of texas toast with some meat, topped with fries and covered with a cheese sauce.   I had the pulled pork Horshoe and Catherine had the Philly Steak Horshoe.   Hayes dined on freeze dried yogurt having eaten beforehand due to his parent's frugality.   Oh and we happened to go on a Thursday night which is $2 draft beer night...convenient.  The American Tap is located on the riverfront in the previous "Old Chicago" building.  So afterward we were able to take a walk along the riverfront.  Here's a few pictures from the evening....

~Jeff

State Street, that great street....

Frank Sinatra got that right...the Near North Side of Chicago is a fabulous place to be. Jeff & I took a culinary tour of the Near North part of town to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. Mini shots of blueberry & lime balsamic vinegar concoctions cleansed our palette at Old Town Oil. Hardcore gastronomers dress up their ice cream and other desserts with balsamics. Stunning. A mouth-watering Reuban sandwich with perfectly cured pastrami topped with a secret Russian dressing awaited us at a Jewish deli on Cedar Street. To die for! The Fudge Pot is always a favorite stop...along with Bacino's supreme spinach deep dish pizza. Amazing. If you're in Chicago, I'd highly recommend a Food Planet Food Tour.
Along with fabulous food, you get to learn about the ethnic pockets that make Chicago so diverse. Speaking of which, Jeff doesn't believe any trip to Chicago is complete without a visit to the Steppenwolf Theatre. We saw a matinee of "Clybourne Park," a fascinating nod to A Raisin in the Sun, which explores the issue of race in Chicago in the 1950s and today.
When you marry food, culture and history, it sure makes for a rich experience and well worth getting away from the reality of our daily life to re-engage one another.
I think next year we're heading to Bucktown!

~Catherine

Carnival de Pumpkins!

In addition to the pumpkin festival parade, we also ventured to the carnival for some dinner and dessert.   I had some pumpkin chili cheese nachos, but their pumpkin chili has very little pumpkin flavor.   We also opted for a good old elephant ear as opposed to any type of pumpkin dessert delicacy.  Luckily for us Hayes is terrified of even the tamest of carnival rides because they were not cheap.   If Max and Laney were with us and our whole family wanted to go on just one ride it would've been like 25 bucks...for ONE ride!   I'll stick with my six dollar elephant ear, at least we can split that.

Pumpkin Festival Parade

Growing up in Morton instilled a love of pumpkins from an early age.   Going back to school in late August only mean that the Morton Pumpkin Festival was right around the corner, and soon the Jefferson School field was going to see the large white tents rising from the earth.  The Pumpkin Festival Parade on Saturday is a monumental event in the year of a child, as you are able to stockpile candy that will last you until Halloween rolls around.  Mortonians take their parade seriously and stake out their parade route turf days before by placing lawn chairs and roping off sections of Jefferson Street.  This year's parade was extra special because of an appearance of our family's favorite morning show host - Catherine Cambra from WCIC.  That's right, Catherine rode into Morton in her WCIC van, waving and throwing candy to all her adoring fans.   It couldn't of course be all sweets and smiles, a little heartbreak rolled down Jefferson Street in the form of Clifford the Big Red Dog.   My niece Brielle saw Clifford from a hundred yards out and waited with her arms open calling him to come over and give her a hug.  Yet Clifford just lumbered right by waving to the crowd but sticking to the center of the street and leaving Brielle with her arms spread wide tasting the bitter disappointment that only the spurning of a Big Red Dog can bring. 

Moqueca

Every culture with a coastline has a different version of seafood stew. From New England "chowdah" to San Francisco's cioppino (Jeff's all-time favorite)...our family adores stew. We've decided to celebrate and pray for a different country every month and this month's focus is Brazil. So this week, I decided to make moqueca (pronounced "mo-KEH-kah"), a traditional Brazilian stew made with fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, and coconut milk. Jeff gave it a thumbs up but it was a little exotic for the kids!
Our church is committed to helping the Amazon jungle region of Brazil by sending mission's teams to set up water filters, visiting families in the village, providing dental hygiene education and constructing a church. So it's near and dear to our hearts. It's a fascinating culture marred by corruption and poverty. We're so glad to belong to a church that aims to bring hope and transformation to such beautiful people.

Tween Paparazzo Stalks Neighborhood Boys!

I saw an interesting documentary a few months back called "Teenage Paparazzo" about a pint-sized photojournalist who rode his bike over Hollywood and Beverly Hills trying to snap photos of the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. He would wait outside their homes or a club and then sell his pictures for thousands of dollars. Well Peoria isn't Hollywood and Delaney isn't a teen yet, but she does love to take pictures. So she asked me one night to use my camera and then preceded to bounce around click-clicking away on the old Canon 20d. The stars of the show were Hayes, who loves to run around and be cute, and also Jalen-- a neighborhood friend of Max's who could not get of enough the limelight. In fact, he insisted on getting his picture taken individually with everyone in the family, including Catherine, who he dragged out of the house specifically for the picture. Below our some of the pictures our tween paparrazo took that night, but I don't think TMZ is paying a thousand bucks a snapshot for the stars of our neighborhood.