A Little Chipmunk

I completely forgot to upload this photo yesterday on my blog post about the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I love chipmunks! So cute! Hi little chipmunk. :D

Chicago Botanic Gardens

This past weekend was PRIDE weekend in Chicago. Whoohoo! Happy pride to all. An exciting weekend all around especially because of this. New York is the 6th state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Being such a huge state it will hopefully open up the doors and influence other states to change laws and legalize same-sex marriages. It's an exciting step but there is still a lot more to fight for so show your pride and stand up for equality! Yes!

On a lighter note, Rob and I had decided we were going to go hiking on Saturday and enjoy the pride parade and festivities on Sunday. We decided to do some hiking in the Forest Preserve, then head to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Admission is free, unless you park in their lot which will cost you $20 dollars. We decided to cheat and we parked in the Forest Preserve parking lot and walked roughly 2.5 miles up the gardens. We were feeling very ambitious. I think we walked roughly 7 miles that day. Here are some pictures I took around the gardens. It's such a visually stimulating place!

I liked these but I forgot what they're called. Whoops.

More pretty flowers that I also do not know the name of.

Here's my little bee friend. Hello little bee friend!

I loved this sculpture.

These flowers were my favorite! Purple Alliums or "Onion Flowers"

Ahhh refreshing!

The Theodore C Butz Carillon.

One of my favorite parts of the gardens was the Rose Garden. "Stop and smell the roses", as they say. We literally did. This may sound cheesy but it was such a great moment. To admire and appreciate the beauty of nature that we sometimes take for granted. Each rose was so special and smelled completely different. I wanted to smell the roses all day! Any chance I get from now on I will definitely stop and smell the roses. :)

Ahhhhhh...

Amazing!

Homemade Arancini = Heaven

Arancini. The word itself just rolls off the tongue like buttah. Thanks to Rob's aunt, I was lucky enough to learn how to make homemade arancini. (Insert many exclamation points here). This was so exciting for me. For those that don't know, arancini originated in Sicily. They are fried rice balls coated with bread crumbs. The middle contains mozzarella cheese, peas and a meat sauce. How could you not love a deep fried ball of rice with cheese in the middle?! Yuuuum.

So, three weeks ago Rob's mom and aunt came to Chicago for a visit. We were lucky to have fantastic weather that weekend. Rob's aunt is an expert in the kitchen. The day they arrived she made homemade pizzas and arancini. It was delicious! Here's a pic of us happily making the arancini:

She's a great teacher!

What a process! Messy, but totally worth it. I have yet to try making them on my own but I will soon. And I may need to have Rob's aunt on speaker phone just to make sure I don't forget anything. Here she is posing with the yummy arancini:

It was a great visit and it was nice spending time with his mom and aunt. I'm so glad they came. And I'm so glad I still have some leftover arancini in the freezer. Mmmmm!

Salsa!

This is kind of boring. I mean, salsa is easy to make and I don't really need to do a post about it. But as you can see, I'm going to anyway! I'm not actually a big fan of this salsa recipe so I'm hoping you (yes you!) will share a good salsa recipe. Something different, something fun. Whoohooo.

Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS

3 tomatoes - diced
1/4 cup onion - chopped
1/4 cup cilantro - chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 clove of garlic - crushed

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together then eat it up.