TGIF! Hooray for Fridays! Yipppppppeeeeee!
1. Troll Hunting at the Morton Arboretum
Why is it so easy to miss the things that are an hour from home?!?!? I've lived in this area my entire life & had never stepped foot on the grounds of the Morton Arboretum! It was amazing. It is HUGE, full of fun stuff for Lulu & an all around awesome spot. It is within 15 minutes of both the Bolingbrook IKEA and the home of some of our great friends. Which is to say, we will certainly be back!
We went to go on a troll hunt, they have this incredible art installation (which was created on site) of 20-30 foot wooden trolls spread throughout the space. We had 4 kids under 4 in our group, so we only "found" 2 of the 6! We move a bit slowly ;)
It had been a horribly rainy morning but cleared to a hot, humid, sunny afternoon for our adventure. What a treat it was.
2. Help from Neighbors
In order to go on our troll hunting adventure - we needed to have someone feed Owenn dinner & let him out.......of course I didn't think of this until Saturday morning & our dog walker wasn't available on such short notice. Ugh. Enter our amazing neighbor Megan & her adorable family!! Megan was willing to take the Owenn pup on a walk & feed him dinner & generally be amazing. When the neighbor kids wanted to "help" so also entertained them! I am so grateful! She even sent us this photo of their dog walking adventure!! Honestly, how would I get through life without the people on our block?!?
Later this week I was booking one of our fabulous neighbor girls to babysit Lulu so I could have a bit of time to prepare for Chris' parents' arrival for their first visit to Evanston. In the context of the text conversation (which includes the neighbor girl's mom to cross check schedules, etc) my neighbor Phuong offered to nap sit Lulu so I could get a couple things done. This is a buy mom of 5 of her own kiddos - but found the space to offer to lend me a hand. It was so helpful to knock out a bunch of niggling errands both without Lulu & before my in laws arrived.
Great neighbors are a Godsend. Honestly. I paid them back in baked goods (duh) but I don't know if that was enough. I hope so. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such generous people.
3. Anne is FOUR
Our niece Anne turned 4 this week! We celebrated her over the weekend at the Lake & Lulu & I popped in to see her on her actual birthday this week. I love this little lady & the big girl she is quickly turning into.
4. Moroccan Chicken Recipe
Found a delicious slow cooker recipe on the world wide webs this week, made it & it was really good! I should've added a cup or 1.5 cups of chicken stock to the slow cooker - there was not enough sauciness for my liking. We served it over quinoa with naan (the delicious frozen garlic naan from Trader Joe's. If you've never had it - please do yourself a favor & it. You won't be sad that you did!!) I wish it had more sauce for dipping said delicious naan into....
Changes I made to the recipe are as follows:
~Subbed in chopped apricots & prunes for the raisins in recipe
~Subbed capers for the olives. Both just preferences but I would recommend both swaps :)
~Ignored the recipe spice mix in favor of this jarred mix I have in my spice drawer
~Also - my chicken was done in 3 hours........probably before 3 - mine might have been overcooked at 3 hours. So if your slow cooker is on the larger size.......check your food after 2 hours of cooking on low!!
~Didn't do it, but will do it next time - add 1-1.5 cups chicken broth to the cooker to amp up the sauce factor
Happy Friday to you & yours! I hope you try the chicken recipe - its incredibly delicious. Happy cooking & happy weekend & happy September!!
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