Weekend Fun!

It should not come as a surprise that I would start my weekend by returning to Green Goodies for another incredible gluten free cupcake.  It should, however, surprise you that I only purchased one!  Well, one for me, the one you see and a vegan one to bring to Lindsay.  I enjoyed this one at the shop while I visited with Tiffany the owner, who is just delightful.  I woke up Sunday morning wishing I had more and wondering why I hadn't just purchased half a dozen to enjoy throughout the week!  They are that good!  


Next stop, The Culinary Kitchen again, as my friend Claude, the owner was making something gluten free for me.  This place is great!!  It is quite the local gathering place where everyone seems to gather knowing that Claude is usually cooking something.  Locals just seem to pop in, making themselves at home, helping him cook, helping themselves to beverages in the refrigerators and just relaxing, visiting and eating as if they had just popped in on a neighbor or relative!  It is the most delightful atmosphere, filled with fun, laughter, food and friendship.  I am sure if I lived here I would be in the kitchen with Claude every weekend.  Keep in mind, this is a place of business, where one can purchase the absolute best in kitchen everything.  But, unlike other kitchen stores, there is a huge center island surrounded by a magnificent working kitchen and everything you can buy just so happens to be being used to cook anyone and everybody it seems, lunch!  I have never seen anything like it!!!!!!  You can see how happy Claude is in this picture and the woman helping him, Rhonda, is another one of my new best friends here!  She was one of the most fascinating women I have ever met.  She gave me her card and suggested we get together before I leave and I definitely plan on taking her up on it!

Next, another wonderful adventure!  Corinne, another student from 105 Degrees and I drove to Rush Springs to collect natural spring water!  Some of you might know how much I love collecting this at home in Kenosha and to finally be able to have a chance to drink natural spring water here was quite a treat.  It was worth the hour-plus ride to get there.  The pipe was very easy to access, right by the road.  In fact, just as we got there, a car pulled up and four young boys jumped out to enjoy the water, too!

It was really quite enjoyable to see!  The one young man was quite talkative and when he found out I was from Chicago, he told me how much he loves the Bears, the Bulls and the Cubs!  And he is from Oklahoma!  Go figure!  I love it!


Sunday was another great day.  With it warm and sunny outside, there was no way I was going to spend most of it in my hotel room, so out I went to find Forward Foods.  A former 105 student, Amber, suggested I check it out.  Wow!  It is the most incredible gourmet food store!  I realized I had walked right by it last week on my long journey.  The most incredible foodstuffs I have ever seen were here!  Was dying to buy more but my budget and suitcase would not allow for more than the following.

Yes, not one, but two different kinds of goat cheese are there.  And the little plastic container holds nicoise olives.  I could not help it!  


Before I returned home I checked out Michaels to get some ideas for packaging for my final project.  While they had a number of options, I was fairly disappointed in the fact that they did not have one thing that I could use that was made from recycled materials, which is my goal.  I know there are online options, but I was hoping and assuming they were more widely available.


When I returned to the hotel, I exercised more control than usual and instead of diving right into both cheeses like I really wanted to, I treated them more like the treat they really were and included one of them, along with the olives, in a salad of sorts for dinner.

I have to tell you, it may not look like it, but this was one of the best salads I have ever had.  The goat cheese and olives made me groan with every bite!  What is wrong with me!?!


You know what?  And this addresses your question,  faithful follower and friend Linda... yes, this week is actually bittersweet.  I am genuinely beginning to feel a connection here.  Wow.