Coconut Macarooners!

I love all things coconut and have been looking at making the macaroons in the Flour cookbook for a while.  When Nick and I were responsible for bringing a dessert to a party it proved to be the perfect excuse to make them!  The post's title is from when Cookie Monster was auditioning for SNL on Facebook and he impersonated McGruber, calling himself Macarooner - too funny!  While these cookies tasted pretty good, they did not come out looking the way they were supposed to.  So here is the story of how I made the cookies that tasted great (people confirmed that!), but with some places noted where things did not turn out the way they maybe should have!

Macaroons!

Welsh Cookies - Classic Family Recipe

This a very different type of cookie recipe, one that has been in my mother's family for quite a long time.  Whenever my grandmother (my mom's mom) came for a visit from upstate New York, this seemed like one of the go-to recipes we would cook together.  I have so many memories of cooking these - from the bowls we used (a nice 70's orange) to rolling out the dough, to the cookie cutters.  I always looked forward to making these with my grandmother since it was something special we would do together.  As I became more into baking myself, these Welsh cookies always seemed to be the first recipe I would pull out of the recipe box.

Welsh Cookies!

Mooo....

I will start out this post by saying that I am a huge fan of Mooo....  Nick and I had a fantastic Valentine's Day dinner there in 2009, it had my favorite burger for awhile, and the restaurant itself is contemporary.  I have been saying that with all of the burgers we have been eating since starting this blog, I needed to go back to Mooo... to get a good comparison.

While Nick and I were in Chicago for our extended long weekend, I was lucky enough to have my mom take care of Holly.  As a thank-you, I thought we could do lunch at Mooo... and see if their burger holds up as the favorite.  When we walked in, there was only one table of people.  The three of us decided upon the corner bar seat.  The bartender greeted us warmly and took our drink order, from which it took him awhile to return.  Turns out he had to fresh brew our coffee - OK, that I appreciated.

Coffee

Over-Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Another Meatless Monday meant having to come up with something creative for dinner.  I had four large portabello mushrooms on hand and Nick had ripped a Cheese-Stuffed Portobello recipe out of an old issue of Food Network Magazine - perfect!  Based on some of the CSA veggies we had on hand, I adapted the recipe a bit.

The Ingredients

Milk and Honey Sandwiches and Italian Dinner

While hanging out (stranded) in Chicago we were lucky enough to be staying with one of my favorite people, C and her husband.  However, they are in the midst of gutting their kitchen, which left no space to cook or to really hang out on a couch (their kitchen is connected to the family room!).  So rather than lounging around the house and driving our lovely hosts nuts, one afternoon we headed out to lunch at Milk and Honey Cafe in Bucktown.  When we walked up to the counter to place our order, I was in awe of the amazing pastry display - so many yummy looking things!

Needless to say, we jumped on one of the cupcakes.  This was a banana cupcake with a caramel frosting.  Delicious!

Cupcake

Back to lunch foods (we actually did wait to eat the cupcake!)  We decided to keep it easy and order some sandwiches because they had a great variety.  Once we placed our order we headed outside to grab a table and enjoy the sunshine.

Pequod - Chicago Deep Dish and some Touristy Activities

When going to Chicago there are so many incredible food options, but one of the most basic is also the most delicious: Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. When you ask for recommendations you can get any number of names, including the original Pizzeria Uno.  However, when I asked my friend C, who we were staying with, where to go for some good deep dish, without hesitation she suggested Pequod's Pizza. 

Chicago Deep Dish

When we were seated at our table, we noticed that not only was Pequod's C's recommendation, it was actually just named the Best Pizza in Illinois by Food Network Magazine.  With those types of endorsements I knew we would be in for a treat.