• Food

    The $250 Neiman Marcus Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe

    I have a thing for chocolate chips. It’s a big joke around here that I get nervous when I discover that I’ve run out of them. Actually, it’s no joke. My go-to recipes when I feel like baking are chocolate chip banana bread and chocolate chip cookies. I was raised on chocolate chip pancakes, and I raised my kids on chocolate chip pancakes. Homemade chocolate chip ice cream? Yum. Adding chocolate chips to store-bought vanilla ice cream? Nearly as good because chocolate chips. After dinner I’ll occasionally grab a little handful of chocolate chips to satisfy a sweet tooth. One of my favorite episodes of “Friends”? The one where Monica…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Food,  Fun in Chicago,  Travels

    Chef’s Tasting at Rural Society: So Decadent!

    The last time I visited the new-ish Loews Chicago hotel in the Streeterville neighborhood, I was with Liz and her middle daughter and we were too busy with the sightseeing to enjoy a meal at Rural Society, their Argentinian steakhouse. It was a bummer but I made a promise to myself that I’d get back there as soon as I could, to try it out. As it turned out, it happened even sooner than I thought it would! The kind people at Loews Chicago wanted me to come back too, so they offered to treat Jim and me to a Chef’s Tasting. Naturally I said yes. (You would, too!) I…

  • Childhood Memories,  Favorite Things,  Food

    Create Your Taste At McDonald’s!

    If you’ve been reading Suburban Scrawl for a while, you may recall that I have a special place in my heart for the McDonald’s brand. My first job was at McDonald’s and for two years I worked at the brand new location just steps away from my high school, with many of my friends. We had a BLAST. One of the benefits of working there was the food, obviously. Break time was easy because the food was RIGHT THERE. I have always loved the traditional menu but back then we would create our own custom creations, too, to mix things up. We would make sloppy joes with chopped up burger…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Food,  Fun in Chicago

    How To Have The Perfect Thanksgiving*

    Going along with my family’s method of sticking to “new old traditions“, we did Thanksgiving our way. Perhaps you might want to change it up sometime, too? Here’s how. 1. The very first thing you do is make reservations at your favorite Brazilian steakhouse, which is also known as a churrascaria. 2. Start talking excitedly about “Meatsgiving” and make comments about the stretchy pants you’ll need to wear after it’s all over. Also, debate whether it’s best to starve yourself during the hours leading up to dinner or if it’s best to continue normal eating practices, thus keeping your stomach in practice. 3. Spend Thanksgiving Day completely relaxed and smiling.…

  • Food,  Fun in Chicago

    Return To The Chicago Food Swap

    Yesterday, as my title indicates, I returned to the Chicago Food Swap. I used to attend monthly, but it’s been literally a year since I could get my schedule to mesh with the monthly weekend. Yes, it’s a weekend commitment for me. The Chicago Food Swap may only last two hours or so on a Sunday afternoon, by my usual M.O. is to spend the entire day before in my kitchen because I can’t keep from overdoing it. Even though I was SO! SICK! of my kitchen by Saturday night… …I survived my marathon baking session and made it to Sunday. Shew! My sister and I headed to the Broadway…

  • Food,  Roxie

    Apple Bread, Apple Cake, Tomay-to, Tomah-to

    It’s officially autumn, which means that it’s time for me to make hundreds and hundreds (or at least a dozen) loaves of apple bread. I got the recipe from Judy, an awesome woman with whom I worked at a craft store more than twenty-five years ago. Back then I was a young newlywed who was going to college and working at the craft store as head cashier and eventually custom framer—all of this seems like it didn’t even happen in this life, by the way, because it was so long ago. Judy worked in the floral department and basically spent all day restocking the silk flowers and creating beautiful flower…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Food

    It Contains Peanuts, So It Must Be Trail Mix

    I’m coming off of a weekend bender, and all of my Facebook friends watched it all unfold. I’m talking about my addiction to my mother-in-law’s trail mix. Or, I should say, “trail mix”. In quotes. I wrote about said “trail mix” before, about five years ago. That’s how much it impacts my life: it warrants two blog posts. This “trail mix” is always sitting on my in-laws’ fireplace in a huge jar that screams, “COME AND GET SOME!!” Okay, it doesn’t really scream because jars can’t make noise. But you get the idea. We cannot resist this stuff. I posted a picture a couple of days ago on my Facebook…

  • Family Fun

    You Can’t Argue With My St. Patrick’s Day Logic.

    It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I forgot to ask Jim to pick up cabbage to go with the corned beef (which I bought last week) when he did the grocery shopping on Saturday. I also forgot to ask J to pick up cabbage when he stopped on the way home from his girlfriend’s house to pick up the vanilla ice cream that I also forgot to ask Jim to pick up. I also forgot to pick up cabbage when I went out to pick up the egg rolls that Jim forgot (to go along with that night’s dinner of green curry chicken) AND that I forgot to ask J to…

  • Food,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Liveblogging the Latke-palooza

    Wow, November 30th already?? I can’t believe NaBloPoMo is over today: I’ve blogged every single stinkin’ day (sometimes twice!) for the entire month of November. This has been the best NaBloPoMo/NaBloPoMoFo for me personally and I’m not sure why. I’m ending the month with almost all of my “just in case” drafts still snug in the draft folder, and I never once felt like I was struggling with finding something to write about. (Most of the time, LACK OF TIME was the problem!) Of course, it helped that I did a little traveling this month: it’s always easier to write about things when you’re not living the normal routine. Anyway,…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Food,  Fun in Chicago

    Taking A Moment

    I’m currently in Detroit on business and I’m excited about it, not only because of what I’ll be doing while I’m here but also because I’m only THREE! DAYS! AWAY! from visiting my sistuh-from-anuthuh-mutha AND because I have been workingworkingworking like crazy on all of my various jobs for the past ten days in order to be able to make my deadlines AND not have to worry much about work other than “maintenance-type stuff” during my two trips. Shew. That was a long sentence. Actually, if you try and read it without taking a breath, you’ll have a teeny bit of an idea how it has felt to live my…