1) More progress 2) Post race refresh 3) Mother’s Day 4) Hell yea! 5) I scream 6) Airport dining 7) My view

A fabulous start to a fabulous weekend where I was so well taken care of. I checked into my ocean view room and was greeted with a fruit and chocolate basket, with a nice note about my son written by his boss. My room not only had a great view, but a nice covered deck.  So even in the rain I could sit out an enjoy the view and scent of the ocean.

We started our evening with a walk into town, we took the beach route. It was a few miles but who cares how far it is when you are on the beach.

A fun evening out that ended at Liar’s Saloon.  More like a house party where I was the den mother, but an extremely fun time.  When you are visiting a new city, the best way to get to know it is to trust the locals and skip the tourist spots. Proof positive was our dinner at The Hideaway, this place is literally hidden away in the marina. This time of year the lot in front is filled with large boats that block you from even seeing the building. Seems pretty shabby at first glance, but don’t let the appearance fool you. With the windows open to the water I imagine this place is even better in the summer months. The food is fresh from scratch Mexican with some BBQ items mixed in.  The owners are friendly and their love of the place comes through in the food.  The brisket tacos are simple and delicious, seriously the best brisket I have ever had!

The chips are fresh made and so light and crispy, great with the creamy guacamole and salsa. The shrimp burrito was awesome, super fresh and light (as much as a burrito can be anyway)! The margaritas are made to order and shaken to chill, no sour mix in sight. Bonus they had my long sought after Watermelon Wheat beer, a special request on my behalf, I was well taken care of over the weekend.

On our way to The Hideaway we stopped off at The Montauket to check out the sunset. They were not serving food yet for the season, but it is a great place for a drink on the water, especially at sunset.  There is plenty of seating outside and even on a crummy day the view from the bar is pretty spectacular, all you see is water as if you were on a boat.

After a late night, it felt great to sleep in on Saturday morning.  Waking to the sounds of the ocean is best case in my world.  I took a nice long walk on the beach, grabbed some lunch, and then was off to enjoy my early Mother’s Day gift, an hour-long Swedish massage.  See, I could not have been taken better care of. Such a treat and boy have I wanted a massage lately. I headed back onto the beach to walk into town.  The weather wasn’t ideal, actually I could only see about 40 yards in front of me on the beach, a bit eery. On the plus side, I had the beach to myself. The beach gods took care of me too, collecting beach glass is an obsession of mine, though I rarely find any on the ocean beaches.  Not only did I find glass on my walk but I found blue beach glass, a rare find, and lots of it. Best souvenirs ever!

Once in town I stopped in a few stores and stopped in for a small bit to eat at South Edison.

South Edison was a great find.  They had a list of craft cocktails, including a design your own pickle martini where you can select from a variety of pickled items and have it mixed with your choice of gin or vodka. I wasn’t in the mood for a cocktail so stuck to my watermelon wheat beer.  Seriously, how is this beer from Minnesota and not available in Illinois? The food menu, not surprisingly, had a lot of seafood options. I only wish I had been more hungry so I could have tasted a few other options. I went with a red snapper crudo with pickled watermelon, ginger and kaffir lime.

Delicious! pickled watermelon has been added to my to-do list. I loved the check delivered in a little pale with salt water taffy too.

With Sunday’s early morning race looming, Saturday was a low-key evening.  More tasty food from The Hideaway and bed before midnight. I crashed hard, a late night and lots of walking made for a tiring and fulfilling day!

I was well cared for all weekend, it was s such a nice treat! Though I majorly failed on the picture front, ZERO pictures of me with my son. #FAIL! Mother’s Day weekend wrapped up airport style, worth every minute of it…

Back to reality!

1) Almost there 2) Happy hour ocean side 3) LIRR 4) Progress 5) Brisket tacos 6) Tball fiesta 7) Salt water shot

My flight home wasn’t until early evening on Sunday, so I was excited to see there was a Mother’s Day race planned for the Sunday morning.  After a long hiatus from 5Ks, I ran a second one in as many weeks.  The distance is not my favorite since it often takes me about that distance to start feeling good.  My last 5K I rode my bike the few miles to warm my legs up, this time I didn’t have that option.  The weather wasn’t too great, drizzling and foggy, it was cool but bit humid.

The race was a good old-fashioned home-grown race.  No online sign up, no swag, no shirts, no chips, no time clocks.  I was handed an index card with my number when I crossed the finish, they manually tallied results.  A nice table of cold water and juicy orange slices at the finish line, love orange slices after a race.

Not a huge turnout, though I have no clue how it compared to earlier years.  If I had to guess, I would say maybe 60 people, it was definitely the smallest race I have ever run. The route was loop around Fort Pond. Being unfamiliar with the area I had to be sure to keep the runners in front of me in view so I’d know where the next turn was, pretty bare bones course marking as would be expected for such a small race. A nice scenic quiet, slightly hilly course, it actually reminded me a lot of my last marathon experience.

On the last curve headed into the finish I spotted my son and girlfriend at the finish line to cheer me on.  Up early on a day off, that’s love. We headed out for breakfast and a hike in Shadmoor State Park. The trails are on bluffs with great ocean views and a WWII Bunker to explore.

Overall a great day and a fun race, bonus I improved my time from a few weeks ago.

1) Blue skies 2) Chit chat 3) Understatement 4) Start Me Up 5) Porch guest 6) Player 7) Overdue

Luckily this weekend I had time to pick up some of the broken pieces and make some progress on the to do list.  Lots of time for some fun and relaxing too. I got a lot done in the kitchen to help prep for our busy week ahead.

We have a couple of busy evenings, so something quick to grab to eat is on the menu.  First up, the incredible edible egg. Leftover rice makes a great crust, mix it with an egg and season with salt and pepper.  Cover the bottom of a greased casserole or pie pan.

Pour on top of it a mixture or eggs, milk, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper.  Top it with cooked vegetables and cheese.  I used leeks and Swiss.  I used 6 eggs, about 1/2 cup of milk, a tablespoon of mustard, and two leeks (chopped and sauteed), 4 oz of cheese, season with salt and pepper.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.  Reheats perfectly for a quick weeknight meal. Makes a great lunch too, served on top of some salad greens or baby arugula. These casseroles are a great way to use up what you have on hand in the fridge, which I am a bit obsessive about.

Up next, cheeseburger wraps! I should have used more meat in each wrap and less foil.  Grilled on the stove-top grill and these are another quick weeknight meal.

Finished off my time in the kitchen with an appetizer to bring to a friend’s house for dinner. So easy to throw together and so very tasty.  Very refreshing for our first evening to sit outside for drinks and appetizers.

It was nice to wrap up the weekend with some fun and our delicious grilled brat burgers. The work in the kitchen was much preferred to the never-ending yard work, wish I knew it was all done but lots more work on the agenda for next weekend too. Regardless, it always feels good being productive!

1) Oberon season! 2) Cashed out 3) Mexican night 4) Not playing along 5) Celebration 6) Dead head with bed head 7) Costco

The weather in Chicago is finally cooperating so we fired up the grill for burgers, brat burgers. We used to go to this local restaurant and they had brat burgers on the menu, but they were always out of them when we try to order them.  Guessing they never did have them or even make them. They are closed now so we’ll never know.

I took a package of bratwurst, removed the casing and put them in a bowl. Before seasoning the meat I checked the label to see what kind of seasoning was already added in. Much to my surprise corn syrup was the second ingredient.  WTF, why? Gross.

Next time, and there will definitely be a next time, I plan to grind the meat myself and season it with the bratwurst seasoning I have from Penzey’s. If you don’t have this seasoning, just season with onion powder, garlic salt, salt, and pepper. I also added some chopped fresh garlic.

I need to make the patties thinner and larger on the next go-round, or maybe just use slider buns. The burger to bun ratio was a bit off.

Topped these bad boys with warmed sauerkraut, grilled onions, and spicy mustard — the pretzel bun is a must. These were delicious and will be making a lot of appearances on our grill this summer!

1) New route 2) Watch dog 3) Practice 4) Lake front 5) Night view 6) RIP 7) BLT + smoked pork + fried egg

…the dog refuses to use the yard.  Our basement got a few inches, but we have nothing compared to others, our neighbors included. Thankfully it has not rained in many hours, and things started to recede.  Rough times for people.

The weather did hold out for the littlest’s first t-ball game. The White Sox donated uniforms to the little league in our town, hooking those fans young.  Happens he is a huge fan, it’s the first team he ever saw play.  He is over the moon with his White Sox uniform!

He played pretty well for his first time, though he was pretty nervous.  The ball went flying by him out in left field and he didn’t move.  Turns out his coach told him to “stand right here”, so he was under the impression he could not move.  He was on base when a teammate hit a grand slam, running and the bases and scoring was pretty exciting.  His team did a great job and won!

The forecast doesn’t have rain in it again for a few days, let’s hope that is accurate – we have had enough spring showers this year. I thought I would try to brighten up the gloom, the scent and flavor of citrus always does the trick.  Pink grapefruit did the trick, in my salad and on my salad.

Chicken, avocado, grapefruit with a smoky paprika and grapefruit dressing drizzled on top. The smokiness of the paprika works awesome with the tart grapefruit, without over powering the bright flavor.

The dressing is delicious!

Takes no time to get this made, even on a work night.

I can’t wait to use this as a marinade for chicken on the grill, the smoky smell just screams summer to me. Hope everyone is dry and being spared the worst of what the rain is bringing, we have and I am thankful.