I don’t do this too often because I don’t want my subscribers (ahem, do you subscribe to Suburban Scrawl? No? Click here to either add me to your feed reader or get me delivered to your inbox) to be annoyed with an extra, feeder post, but now and then I really want EVERYBODY who reads Suburban Scrawl to see a post that is considered a review because it includes brand information (and is, because of that, posted on an ad-free page that you “home page clickers” don’t see just by visiting. See why you should SUBSCRIBE???), but really rocks out as a post in general. Today is one of those…
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Melisa And The Girl And The Goat
Warning: LONG POST AHEAD. (Sorry. It’s worth it: I promise!) One of my favorite things about being a blogger is that I have been afforded experiences that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to enjoy. My non-blogger friends are often flabbergasted at my stories of, say, driving a car for a week just for the purpose of reviewing it or getting a preview copy of a television show before the general public gets to watch it. Some of these unique experiences involve meeting people who I wouldn’t normally run across on the streets of Chicago (or the western burbs for that matter). Monday night was one of those nights, and…
- Food, Friends, Fun in Chicago, I've Got Mad Skillz, My Friends Have Mad Skillz, My Sister Has Mad Skillz
Chicago Food Swap: Almost Like Hanukkah!
Yesterday my sister and I drove to Forest Park so we could participate in the Chicago Food Swap. It was the second swap that co-organizers Vanessa and Emily have put on so far, but my first time going. Sadly, I missed the first one due to having other plans. I’ve been looking forward to this one for two months. Great news: it was fabulous! We had a great time. The way a food swap works (apparently this is huge in Los Angeles, by the way) is that everyone brings home-grown or homemade items, packaged so that people can pick them up and look at them. When you sign in, you…
- Blessings, Childhood Memories, Family Fun, Favorite Things, Food, I've Got Mad Skillz, My Kid Has Mad Skillz, My Mom Has Mad Skillz, Review
Birthday Traditions: Make A Cake And Eat It, Too.
A couple of weeks ago we celebrated J’s 17th birthday. SEVENTEEN. As in, “My younger–and last born–son is seventeen.” It would be really hard for me to believe if there weren’t a trail of rainbow-colored crumbs all over our family photo albums*. You see, around here birthdays mean one thing: beautifully decorated rainbow cakes (the insides are tinted in various colors). It’s a tradition my mom started, and what I love about it is the thought that goes into it, resulting in the birthday honoree feeling extra special. I remember how creative my mom was with birthday cakes when we were kids. Over the years, she made me a Holly…
- Childhood Memories, Confessions, Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?, Food, My Mom Has Mad Skillz
Old Habits Die Hard.
When he was little, J–like so many other young kids–had a strong aversion to bread crust. Unfortunately for him, I had a strong aversion to making a sandwich and then cutting off the crusts for my kid. Call me mean if you want, but I just figured that if he didn’t like the bread crust that much, he could just eat around it. I did help him out a little bit, though, by cutting his sandwiches into quarters on the diagonal. This way, he could nibble what he considered “the good stuff” all the way down to the crust. That picture above, though? That was my sandwich, from yesterday’s lunch.…
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Cotton Candy Cure
I’m a pretty busy person, to put it mildly. If you’re a regular reader, you know this already. If you’re new (welcome!), just know that I don’t have idle time very often because I am always running in five or six different directions simultaneously, while juggling. It’s not often that I can just hang out, just for fun. Although events (planning and attending) are a big part of my life these days and I immensely enjoy seeing friends old and new at huge, noisy gatherings, the experience of a non-stop-laughing hang-out session with a friend or two has become almost totally foreign to me. Yesterday I was reminded how much…
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A Cheesy Visit To The Mars Cheese Castle In Kenosha, Wisconsin
Since this is a week in which so many are traveling, I thought it would be fun to tell you about a very famous tourist attraction that is just over the Illinois/Wisconsin border, off the stretch of Interstate 94 between Chicagoland and Milwaukee. It’s the Mars Cheese Castle. The “Mars Cheese Castle” has been there for more than forty-five years. The owners recently built an actual “castle” just west of the land on which the original building stood. Regardless (and even though it’s not *right* on the border but actually about eight-ish miles north of it), when you see that sign you know for sure you’re in Wisconsin. The mouse,…
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Chicagoland Food Swap Debuts December 4!
You are probably sick of food, being just a few days removed from Thanksgiving and all (unfortunately I have never had that problem, being sick of food), but I have a pretty exciting food event to share with those of you who live in the Chicago area. My friends Emily and Vanessa, along with a couple of other ladies, have created the Chicagoland Food Swap, which will be happening once each month at various locations all around Chicagoland and makes its debut next Saturday, December 4. The Chicagoland Food Swap brings together those who share an appreciation for making/baking/growing their own food and involves swapping jams, canned goods, cookies, eggs,…
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How I Got My Hands On Some Schweddy Balls: A True Story
Ever since the news came out that Ben & Jerry’s was producing Schweddy Balls (inspired by this, one of the best SNL skits ever), I knew I had to find it locally. But where to find Schweddy Balls in the Chicago area? I was stumped for a while, because our grocery stores (and drug stores, and convenience stores…yes, I’ve been checking!) haven’t started stocking it yet. Finally, duh: I decided to do a web search to see if we have any Ben & Jerry’s locations in my area. I already knew that there is a location downtown at Navy Pier, but was hoping I’d find one in the western suburbs.…
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It’s What’s For Breakfast.
We get up pretty early in this house, due to having a high schooler in the family. Usually the alarms go off around 5:30 a.m., and everyone shuffles around showering, brushing teeth, and doing all of those other things required to get out of the house. J leaves by 6:30 every day. Having a sixteen-year-old means, in this house anyway, that we don’t have to dress him or make his lunch or supervise his every move to make sure he gets out the door on time: he’s very good at doing that himself. It’s for that reason that on occasion, Jim and I will “sleep in” until 6:00. Today was…