a most wonderful weekend

I'm still floating from an amazing weekend. Brian had the weekend off work, which

is a rarity. We spent the entire day on Saturday in Evanston - a beautiful Chicago 

suburb right on Lake Michigan. It's the town Brian grew up in. I sometimes say I'd love

to live in Evanston - that maybe when Brian retires we could buy a condo in one of the

 vintage buildings with the stunning architecture. It's a town filled with old, beautiful

 mansions, parks along the lakefront, restaurants of every kind of ethnic food you

 could imagine, all kinds of unique shops, and has a rich cultural arts community. 

However, the real estate is quite pricey and the property taxes are ridiculous. Plus, I think 

that  living in a busy, crowded suburb - no matter how beautiful it is - would quickly get 

old for me. I do love the (relative) quietness of living in a small, rural suburb.

One of my favorite stores - a must-stop when we go to Evanston - is Secret Treasures.

It's a small shop, but filled to the brim with all kinds of vintage goodies: furniture, 

jewelry, dishes, kitchenware, jadite, McCoy pieces, Bakelite flatware, Depression

glass, ephemera, books, and linens. You'd think a privately-owned shop in an expensive

suburb would have high prices, but not this shop. The owner's prices are very

reasonable. This is the place that I bought my butler's table from a couple of years ago.

I did buy two egg cups ~  the one on the top shelf with the pink crimped edges

(made in Japan) and the little owl one (made in England) next to it.

After we were done shopping, we had lunch at an Indian restaurant.

The lunch buffet had an amazing selection of food: Dal Makhani, Palak

Paneer, Tandoori Chicken, Samosas, Vegetable Jalfrajee, Catfish Curry,

and some kind of goat dish. I tried a little bit of everything except for the

catfish and goat dishes (I don't eat either). And a basket of fresh, homemade

naan bread was brought to the table to mop up all the delicious curry sauce.

 A beautiful afternoon after a filling lunch called for walking around the downtown
 Evanston area. We came upon this huge library and I just had to go in and take a look.

There were four levels of books, movies, and music.

They even have an entire room dedicated to books that are for sale

(50 cents each). I told Brian that if I lived in that area, I could easily spend an

entire day in that library. And then I'd be coming home with piles of books that

I'd never even have time to read.

We then wandered down to our favorite lakefront park, spread out a quilt in the grass,

 and laid in the  shade, reading and half-dozing. We could hear the lap of the gentle waves

against the rocks and the cries of the seagulls overhead. I've always admired the beauty

 and expanse of Lake Michigan and how the sky and water melt into one expanse of

 blue on the horizon. Maybe that's why I gravitate towards these colors in my decorating.

Our last stop in Evanston was Brian's childhood home. His dad sold the property

last year and it's now being torn down and rebuilt. It was really bittersweet for Brian

to see his family home in the middle of demolition. As we were walking around the

property, I spied something in the overgrown foliage in front of the house. It was their

family house sign that Brian's dad had made in 1973 when they moved into the house.

I am so thankful that I found and rescued this sign. We brought it home with us and 

I'm thinking of making a small gallery wall in Tim's room with this sign and some old

family photos. 

Our trip home wouldn't have been complete without a stop at Kaufman's Deli 

in Skokie. I lived with my family in Skokie in my late teenage years - early 20's, 

right before Brian and I got married. Kaufman's has been around "forever" and has

always been Skokie's go-to Jewish deli for corned beef, lox and bagels. 

Guess it's a good thing we don't live close to this place anymore, because their

meat prices are crazy! There's nothing like authentic kosher corned beef, but at

$14.29/lb. (the lean kind), we can only afford to indulge in this the 2-3 times/year

that we happen to visit. 

Tim came home late Saturday night, so since I had both my men at home all day

on Sunday, I did a lot of cooking. For a late breakfast, I made an indulgent dish ~

sausage gravy to be served over biscuits. Instead of buying a roll of pork sausage,

I made my own. Grocery store pork sausage in the plastic roll is filled with a lot

of nasty stuff - MSG, BHT, propyl gallate, and a ton of sodium. So I simply took a 

pound of ground pork and browned it with salt, pepper, paprika, ground cloves,

a lot of ground sage, and a little bit of pure maple syrup. For the gravy, I added 1/4

cup of flour to the meat and stirred for a minute, then slowly added two cups of

milk until thickened. 

Father's Day dinner was marinated, grilled pork tenderloin, grilled potato and onion

packets, and orzo veggie salad.  I was so full from indulging in too much rich food

and meat all weekend (I usually eat mostly vegetarian), that I only ate a few bites

of potatoes and orzo salad for dinner.

After dinner, we stayed around the table and had wine and beer (wine for me;

beer for the boys) and played cards and just enjoyed each other's company.

Tim had written Brian the most heartfelt note for Father's Day which made Brian

cry - and in turn, made me and Tim cry, too - but it was all good. Tim naturally went

through a really hard time after his brother (my oldest son, Phil) passed away almost

five years ago. With Tim being away at school and being on his own and the natural

passage of time, Tim has really grown up and matured. It makes a parent proud when

you realize your child finally "gets it". I am thankful that we have such a close, open,

honest, loving relationship with Tim. These handsome, wonderful men are the loves

of my life. :-)

Today is back to the usual ~ housework, laundry, watering all the outside

flowers and plants, and going to physical therapy. No cooking!

Happy Monday, everyone. Thanks for your visit.