A Squared: Weekend Recap: Fun, Food, and Friends

Monday, July 2, 2012

Weekend Recap: Fun, Food, and Friends

Happy holiday week, everyone!
If you have this holiday week off, I am super jealous.  If you're back at the office on this Monday (like I am/will be) I feel your pain.  Truthfully though, ours won't be that bad-- Alex and I both have the Wednesday holiday off and then we took Friday off as well to jet off to New England to celebrate wedding #2 of 2012 in Maine.  Look forward to some photos of that beautiful event next week!

In the meantime, I wanted to share our weekend (in pictures) with you... We had a great weekend spending lots of time with friends, which was nice since the 4th of July falling mid-week seriously hurts our ability to host/attend the kind of festivities that we usually enjoy.  Hope your weekend was full of fun, food, and friends also!











On Friday after work I met up with Alex and our good friend (and Alex's coworker) Tony for dinner and drinks at Farmhouse, a really cool farm-to-table tavern in Chicago.  I had this fabulous cocktail called the Farmer's Daughter that was made with fresh muddled strawberries.  And check out how they bring your bill to you-- in an old vintage book.  So cool!


On Saturday night (after cocktails at Kerri & Scott's) we headed out to Old St. Pat's in the West Loop for what is allegedly the World's Largest Block Party.  Wonder if they can confirm this?


We really wanted to see Mike & Joe perform, but we got there too late.  Huge bummer.  We did catch Lifehouse who headlined the Block Party on Saturday.  Remember them?





And then we hopped in pedicabs and rode down to the Block Party post-party at WestEnd.  Not sure how it's possible, but after 5+ years as a big city girl this was my first ever rickshaw ride!


After our long fun Saturday night, our Sunday was off to a slow start.  Luckily, Alex didn't have a soccer game so we headed off to Bull & Bear to meet up with Mike and Colleen, our favorite brunch double daters.


There was quite a commotion at Bull & Bear when we were finishing up and as it turns out, a storm blew in while we were eating.  Check out the creepy sky (above) during our walk/run home from brunch.


We ended Sunday with much nicer weather and a casual BBQ at Alexis's place.  That's the grill master herself (above right) showing off her Pinterest-worthy desserts.  Perhaps I should invite her to guest blog and share her recipe with you?  I brought a homemade grilled corn and avocado salsa, which was a great BBQ appetizer-- it's easy, fresh, and summery.  And it's a nice little twist on your standard guacamole.



Grilled Corn & Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:
  • 2 ears of fresh sweet corn, husks removed
  • Olive oil or cooking spray
  • 1 plum tomato, diced
  • 1/3 red onion, diced
  • 2 ripe avocados, diced
  • 1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced *1 pepper is not too spicy (think Mild Salsa), so if you like a little more kick, add a second pepper.
  • 1/4 red bell pepper, diced
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
  • Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Preheat grill to medium heat.  Coat each ear of corn with cooking spray or oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Grill corn evenly on each side until kernels become brighter yellow and grill marks begin to appear.  Remove from grill and let corn cool.

Once corn has cooled, slice the kernels off the cob. Gently combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Season well with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste. Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy.


Derived from original recipe courtesy of For the Love of Cooking.

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