I had a great weekend, busy and HOT in Chicago!! And, believe it or not we didn’t make it to the pool this weekend!!
Saturday my kids and I spent a few hours at the local High school for their annual book fair. I’ve always wanted to go, but never seem to make it, so I made a point of going this year. They had THOUSANDS of books, so you know I headed for the cookbook table first!
I got 8 cookbooks, all for 50 cents or $1.00 each!! Wahoo! The best one is a George Forman Grilling cookbook and all the recipes have the nutritional value!
Then on Sunday, my two older kids best friends (who are brother and sister) and moved to Hawaii a few years ago came back to visit. My kids were VERY happy to see their friends and what a difference 2 years makes!
That’s my son Mark on the right with his best friend Austin!
And my son Paul and his best friend Alexa
My kids were friends with these kids since kindergarten and its hard to believe how big they are getting!
So, I was so busy, I didn’t really have time to cook anything fun, but I will still leave you with a recipe!
Did anyone see Melissa, from the Next Food Network Star’s first episode today? I thought she did a great job! I was looking at her recipes on Food TV that are posted and one popped out to me immediately. I tried to make glazed carrots the other day, that were not good, so next time, I am going to use Melissa’s recipe!
Glazed Carrots by Melissa d’Arabian
Ingredients
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
3/4 pound carrots, cut on the bias into coins
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
In a small skillet, combine the broth, water, butter, brown sugar, cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the carrots, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until just tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Uncover the pan and let the liquid cook down until it reduces to a glaze, about 2 to 3 minutes. Toss the carrots to generously coat them with the glaze. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!!
Your weekend sounds busy, but the “good” kind of busy! 🙂
I love the carrot recipe! I haven’t made much with carrots lately, so this is just what I needed!
Have a great week! 🙂
I missed it, I need to set it to DVR otherwise I’ll never remember! Thankfully it’ll probably rerun 800 times!
Wow, you are seriously lucky to have a book fair like that. I would be in heaven.
look at those books!! I am so jealous!! So glad you made it this year 🙂
and those pictures of your visitors / kids are adorable! Glad everyone enjoyed the visit!
I love books! I would have walked away with so much at that book fair!
Awe man! I missed Melissa’s show! Gotta check the Food Network for reruns…
I love that show!! I didn’t get to see Melissa’s episode but I’ll have to check for a re-run of it. Glad to hear she did so well :O)
Cute kiddos!
Hey Jenn…I went to the farmer’s market and thought about going to the book fair but everyone’s schedule did not allow me to have time to do both! Next year I will go with you! I did see Melissa’s show, I thought she did a great job although there was a lot of comments online about her dinner (lunch) not costing $10. I think that’s probably right but it all looked great to me!
wow that book sale looks huge!!!! sounds like you really scored with all those cookbooks. i havent been to a sale like that in a while but they really are the best 🙂