St. Patty's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a big deal in Chicago.  They dye the river a bright green, which is pretty cool, but other than that, it is totally insane around here.  It's not even a real holiday, and I don't know what the big deal about it is here, but people come out of the woodworks here to drink to their hearts content.  It's annoying really.  It's like Chicago's Mardi Gras or something.

Anyway, so we hit the beach for a little while yesterday then headed downtown to check out the river.  Then we quickly bolted home to avoid the rowdy masses.  All in all, I'm still loving this 80 degree weather and don't want it to end!

New Favorite Dinner Recipe

This recipe comes from the "Keeping Up" cookbook, the follow-up to the "Favorites" cookbook by the Ivory family, which I also love.  My favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe is from their first, favorites cookbook, which I make way too often.  

This dish is seriously so delicious and my boys all gobble it up.  For Davis I just throw some in the magic bullet for a quick second and he loves it.  And he is not a great eater!  We made this yesterday along with some roasted asparagus and it was divine.  This also gives us enough for leftovers and I just make more noodles the following day.  Doesn't get much better than the smell of freshly chopped basil in your kitchen!  

Chicken in Tomato Basil Cream Sauce

5 or so chicken tenders (I use 4-5, but you can vary depending on your crowd)

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves minced garlic (I just sprinkled in some garlic powder since it's what I had on hand)

dash red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes,

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chopped basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over med-high heat.  Brown chicken tenders on both sides, cooking until no longer pink.  Remove from skillet and dice, then place in baking dish.  (I've been using a pyrex round dish, you could use 9x9 or whatever you have.)

Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the same skillet and cook onion, garlic and red pepper flakes until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and simmer an additional 5 minutes.  Stir in cream and cook until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat and add basil, salt and pepper.

Pour tomato sauce over chicken in baking dish.  Bake uncovered at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until bubbly.

Serve over your favorite hot pasta.  Our current favorite is Barilla's spaghetti rigati.  It's great over angel hair as well.

Enjoy!

Sunshine

I couldn't be more happy about this unusually warm weather we are having in Chicago!  It is nicer here than it was in Kauai.  How crazy it that?!

I took Noah and Davis down to the beach on a long walk today and let them roam around in the sand.  Davis absolutely did not like his feet in the sand.  He better get over that quickly because we love the beach!  He finally just walked up and down the ramp, over and over, until it was time to go.
Today was a good day.

Hawaii wrap up

We're back.  After some insane amounts of rain and lots of time wanting to just come home, we endured the storm and ended the trip with about a day and a half without rain.  You better believe we hit up the pools and hot tubs while we could.  Of course when the rain stopped, the winds picked up like crazy, so most of my time was spent in the hot tubs.  They had tractors out re-doing the sand on the beach and we were finally able to dip our feet in the ocean, which was colder than I had expected!

We got stuck at the hotel for a few days and couldn't even leave because parts of the main highway had washed away due to the flooding.  The hotel was low on staff and many of the staff had to stay at the hotel at least one night because they couldn't even get home.  Restaurants nearby shut down because they ran out of food, due to road closures.  The hotel restaurants had to cut their menu down to a small buffet for each of the meals.  Seriously, it was so crazy.  This is one trip we will never forget.  This and our last trip to Hawaii  when Noah was a baby have literally been our worst vacations.  How sad is that?!  All I have to say is I'm glad they were Grant's work incentive trips and we didn't have to pay for them!  :)

I think from being outside during the rain and wind, running from pools to hot tubs, the kiddos got sick while we were ending the trip.  We went home with some crazy coughing kids and spent most of our time on the red eye flight home covering their mouths the instant the coughing fits flared up, as to not wake the other passengers trying to sleep.  Grant and I practically missed a night's sleep and have been exhausted from the long flight home yesterday.

Hawaii, you sure are beautiful, but I don't think we'll be visiting your islands again.  

Kauai so far

So we made it to Kauai.  After about 13 hours of travel, we were exhausted by the time we finally got to our hotel room.  Don't worry though, the boys were up at 4 a.m. the next morning.  I'm seriously pooped.  The hotel we are staying at is absolutely beautiful though.  Not the most kid friendly, but oh well.  The worst part, is that it is raining here.  Pouring ran.  Like, flash flood warning rain.  The roads to the towns are closed due to the flood advisory and rivers flooding.  Seriously... I will never come to Hawaii again.  Two for two now, both times I've been to Hawaii we've had bad weather.  Last time we were in Maui, it was cold.  It's beautiful here, but it is so far away, and so expensive.  I'd rather be in soCal poolside or something.  

Here are some shots we got yesterday when it stopped raining for about 5 minutes.  We finally gave in and just hit the pools and hot tub in the rain yesterday.  Today, there hasn't been a minute without rain.  The surf is outrageous right now!

And I think we'll be doing a lot of this.  Cartoon watching in the  hotel room.  With ridiculous room service bills.

Grant and I were joking yesterday that we're going to go home whiter than we were when we got here.  My self tanner is already fading.  ;)

Dang you, Hawaii.