Chicago, Day 2

We are having a snow day AGAIN.   This has already been one crazy winter this season!  I'm wondering if schools will be closed tomorrow since the snow is staying on the roads, and we are not supposed to get above freezing (high 17/low -1 today, high 14/low 3 tomorrow), and the wind chill is expected to be -20!!!  Did I bring Chicago home with me, or what?!

On our second day in Chicago, we had a yummy breakfast in the hotel and headed to Shedd Aquarium for the day. We got to see Sea Monsters (a 4-D experience), as well as the aquatic show with dolphins, penguins, and even a dog named Coral! I spent much of my time in the Amazon Rising, Oceanarium, and Polar Play Zone, but the highlight had to be the Jellies. Zach was pumped about seeing them, but I couldn't have cared less when we arrived. Out of curiosity--and the fact that we had the wristbands to get in--I decided to tour this area. I LOVED it. All of the different jellies were so interesting and mesmerizing, and I learned so much. I also captured some beautiful, haunting, and otherworldly images.

 largest fish caught in the Amazon

 4-D Sea Monsters Experience

 the aquatic show

view of Lake Michigan

After the aquarium, we changed hotels, moving to the Intercontinental on the Mag Mile. 

For dinner, we went to Andy's Jazz Club, where I had a delicious strawberry spinach salad and gin Big Ben cocktail, and we enjoyed some live music. 

On our way back to the hotel, we came across The Eataly! I'm not sure how to describe this place, other than it is an Italian foodie's mecca. It's like a shopping mall of Italian goodies, with separate stations for different types of goods. So there was a patisserie (I don't know what the Italian word for this French term is--probably something awfully close), a gelateria (that sounds good, huh?), a WHOLE Nutella shop, a wine "cellar," a cheese bar, a separate mozzarella bar, a deli, a pesca-ria (that sounds good, too), a bread section, a pasta section, etc. (I could have tried to Italianize my semi-French words for some of those other areas, but I gave up.) 

We ordered desserts and took them back to the hotel to enjoy. I ate mine and stayed up to finish Monsters of Men. A glorious time!

 We're part of the ambassadors program, so we got a fruit basket, mineral water, truffles, and a personal letter from the head of our hotel!

 I forgot what this was called, but it was like a mousse-type dessert!

Zach's was delicious as well!  :)

Menu Monday...er, Wednesday: EASY CORN CHOWDER

Howdy, folks! How's the day treating ya? I'm so thankful for today's rain because it meant I did not sweat bullets on my way home this afternoon! HALLEJUAH! Sorry that my posts have been few and far between, but Zach and I have both feeling rather poorly since early last week when we came down with some kind of stomach bug. It put me in a right terrible state because I had been sick a week or so before, so my Crohn's had already been stirred up. :(

Thankfully today it is much better than it's been. :)

However, having been sick for so long meant that we ate a lot of oatmeal and take-away, and I did not cook very much. Sunday we did venture out to Eureka to see Casablanca in BasinSpring Park, and we gorged ourselves on Italian at Ermilio's and treats in the park. Sadly it made me sooo verrry siiiiiiiiiick. It didn't help that we had lasagna Monday night when Tommy was over. We've had Italian a bit too much lately.

Last night we were supposed to have tuna-cucumber sandwiches and CORN CHOWDER, but I was feeling sooo badly and CORN CHOWDER just did not sound good. When I am ill, I usually want one of three things: 1) something sour; 2) ice cream; and 3) Cheez-Its.

Well, since I continually eat my weight in Cheez-Its every single day, I didn't have many left and was saving them for snacks at work. We also didn't have any ice cream, except for some Magnum bars, but those are actually Zach's because I had two out of the box of three before. So that left something sour. What did I have? Sweetarts claro que si! Then Zach made me some biscuits and gravy, which is both plain and rich and much better on my tummy.

Side note: since I got sick the first time, my tummy has swollen up like water balloon attached to a faucet nearly every time I eat. This means I have looked pregnant for much of this month. If pregnancy feels anything like this, no thank you. ;)

Onto the recipe, hungry babies! Zach loves Mimi's Cafe's CORN CHOWDER and have found it is hard to beat by anything else. We bought a pack of CORN CHOWDER mix at World Market one time with hiiigh hopes, but it let us down so very far. I had all but given up hope for finding something we could easily make at home that would compare with Mimi's...until tonight.

EASY CORN CHOWDER

-Chop 1 medium onion, chopped--or enough chopped onion that equals what you would call a medium onion and saute the onion in 3 Tbsp. butter until slightly golden. We LOVE onion, so we say the more the merrier. :)

-Add 1 can creamed corn and 1 can of cream of potato soup.

-Add 3/4 cup milk.

-Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat, but do boil. We served us in our cute little soup cups Zach's parents got us in Florida. :)

I asked Zach to rate my EASY CORN CHOWDER on a scale of 1 to 5 with Mimi's being a 5. He didn't give me a number, but he said it was "up there" with Mimi's. ;)

Sorry for forcing you to look at pictures with even poorer quality than usual, but this soup was so quick, all I had time to grab was my iPhone!