And, on to the numbers:

237: Campers in attendance

10: Campers in my group between the ages of 4.5 and 6

4: FANTASTIC junior counselors with my group

87: Degrees Fahrenheit outside

6: Spinning rides my campers went on

2: Rides my campers said “OH MY GOSH NO WAY” when I asked them if they wanted to go on

4.5: Fried cheese balls consumed

18: Inches high the shared slushie cup was that my girls shared

10: Very blue tongues that followed sharing said slushie

64: Photos taken

6: Photos that included kind of creepy carnies

1: Photo that looked way better fake-aged (I’m up there in the top cart)

75: Ride tickets used

10: Blue sno-cones purchased

4: Sno-cones that were both blue and red

6: Sno-cones that were both blue and green

2: Sno-cones that were completely consumed

~11,000: Questions asked about what we were doing next

44: Minutes each way spent on the bus

7: Inches of corn dog consumed

9: Varieties of farm animals viewed

22: Inches of the largest zucchini on the 4H winning vegetable table

1: Counselor who got hungry looking at said vegetable table

3: Rolls of sushi ordered at dinner by Sarah (a now self-named FBIT, or Food Blogger In Training. She took the pictures of her plate)

2: Rolls of sushi ordered by me at dinner

1: Rice bowl full of spicy goodness

2: Pieces of “experimental sushi” sampled (rolls of crab, asparagus and cucumber, topped with mango and strawberry)

1: Adorable cupcake keepsake vase sent to me for my birthday by my mom

10: Hot pink carnations also sent to me by my mom

58: Mini cupcakes made to share with campers and counselors tomorrow

1: Exhausted camp counselor heading to bed…

Technorati Tags: Baking, birthday, camp, cheese, cupcake, cupcakes, dinner out, friends, seafood, sushi

This is an odd one though.

There are few foods that I remember loving as much as I love my mom’s tuna salad. Yup, you read that right, tuna salad. I can remember being a little girl and going back to the dish of tuna in the fridge 3, 4, or even 5 times to get more, even if I was totally full. My mom would make a HUGE amount, and no matter what, I’d eat it.

I always knew when I had a tuna salad sandwich for lunch at school when I’d open my bag and see a foil-wrapped package instead of my usual plastic bag, and it would make my day!

After a long hot day at camp, the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the stove or the oven, and when I really thought about it, tuna salad was what I wanted. Adam stopped at the grocery store for ingredients while I met up with our wedding photographer to pick up our album (it’s FABULOUS!), and I came home and got to chopping.

Mom’s Tuna Salad

Ingredients

3 cans white tuna in water, drained

3 ribs celery, finely chopped

1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

juice of 2 limes

salt to taste

~2 Tbsp. real mayonnaise

Directions

Mix the tuna with the celery, onion, lime juice, pepper and salt. Stir in mayo until the salad holds together, it might be more or less than 2 Tbsp. depending on the moisture in the salad. Refrigerate until cool and enjoy.

I did my best to remember what to do, but I’m not positive my mom used onion like I did… but it worked! It hit the spot, and I definitely consciously had to STOP eating it so I had some left over for other meals.

Camper quote of the day, said by 8 year old girl: “Mara! Look! I have nuts! (Holds up pistachios) {pause} Why does everyone laugh when I say that?”

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: camp, family recipe, salad, simple recipe, Summer, tuna

What was I going to say, no?? Of course I agreed to go, and looked forward to it for weeks. Something came up and Adam wasn’t able to join me, so I brought my friend Sarah from camp. We joked all day that we were going on a date, and lucked out by not hitting too much traffic after camp. We were also lucky in that my friend Kristin was home, who lives all of three blocks from the restaurant, so we were able to park in her building and go up to her condo to change our clothes and freshen up.

I hadn’t been to Ben Pao since a really bad date almost 8 years ago in which my date wouldn’t allow me to bring my leftovers home since he’d paid for them. Yeah, bad date. Ben Pao was one of the first “upscale” Asian restaurants in the area, and it hasn’t changed much in the last few years.

We checked in at the door, and were told that there was a video crew there, so we needed to sign a release. Since the whole evening was sponsored by My Blog Spark and General Mills, the release mentioned something about footage being used for marketing purposes. Pretty cool!

Sarah and I sat down and were greeted warmly by the server, and had a special menu on the table.

My adorable dining companion (She’s 22, no matter how old you think she looks!)

Since we’d had a super long day at camp, we both agreed that we’d be enjoying the one included alcoholic beverage we’d been offered. I had an Asian pear saketini and Sarah had the red dragon. You can see the descriptions here, and yes, they were as good as they sounded and looked!

Almost immediately, the food started coming out. We both commented that it was a very fast meal, but I guess that’s what happens when the restaurant was closed to the public!

The hot and sour soup was salty, garlicky, a bit spicy, and had a very subtle mushroom flavor.

We’d barely started to eat the soup when our plates of appetizers came out. There was one plate with cigar-shaped crab Rangoon, vegetarian spring rolls, and chicken potstickers served with a quad of different sauces.

From front to back, those sauces are: Chili-mango for the crab Rangoon, vinegared soy sauce for the potstickers, sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard for the spring rolls

We also had a plate of chicken lettuce wraps with a pineapple hoisin sauce, reminiscent of P.F. Chang’s

While the crab Rangoon and Spring rolls were good, my favorites were the chicken potstickers and the lettuce wraps. I’m such a sucker for dumplings!

We were asked to choose our entrees from the list on the special menu. I selected Sweet and Spicy Shrimp, and Sarah ordered the orange chicken. Again, we were surprised by how quickly the food came out, but were still hungry, so we didn’t argue. I immediately noticed how few shrimp were actually in my meal, and how evenly the vegetables were cut:

And then I was struck by how similar Sarah’s chicken looked.

We were served a bowl of fluffy white rice that escaped the camera somehow. I asked for brown rice instead, but I was informed that they didn’t have it for the special event. No big deal, but still a bit disappointing…

About halfway through eating our entree, I said to Sarah, “Wouldn’t it be funny if this were one of those ‘these unsuspecting food bloggers thought they were getting a restaurant meal but it’s really a frozen entree’ things?” As we ate, the camera crew came around and filmed us eating, taking pictures, laughing…

We started talking again about the food. We noted that the appetizers and soup were fantastic: crispy fried stuff, flavorful soup, interesting sauces. We talked then about the entree. The fried bits of chicken were a bit soggy and tasted, as Sarah said, “Like a chicken nugget in sauce.” There were way too many vegetables and too few protein pieces in both our entrees. So few, that if it had been a paid meal, we would’ve sent them back. I had prepared myself for a salty meal, but I began my salt bloat after just a few bites. The rice, however, was fabulous. Perfectly fluffy, flavorful, and absorbed the right amount of sauce. Does this sound familiar yet?

I finished picking the shrimp out of the entree, our plates were whisked away, and the My Blog Spark hosts came around with a basket of fortune cookies. Upon opening mine, I found…

I was right! While our appetizers and dessert (to come) were Ben Pao’s own, the entree was a frozen Wanchai Ferry meal. My opinion of the meal didn’t differ much from Adam’s when he reviewed the Beef and Broccoli a couple weeks ago. When we were asked by the camera crew and My Blog Spark hosts about our opinions on the meal, I couldn’t lie. But I didn’t want to be negative, so I complemented the rice! I think Sarah put it best, “I’m not going to lie, the rice was FANTASTIC!” I guess I was the only one who was honest and said she suspected the swap, but the camera crew asked me for my name and blog name, and apparently they were filming a commercial, so be looking for it!

We continued with dessert: Chocolate egg rolls with a honey-peanut dipping sauce, and mini lemon-ginger cheesecakes.

I really liked the chocolate egg rolls…

In all, it was a fun evening, even though the main part of the dinner didn’t live up to my expectations. We were provided with coupons for free Wanchai Ferry entrees, as well as a discount at Ben Pao the next time we visit. You can enter to win the Wanchai Ferry coupons by writing on the wall of the What’s For Dinner? fan page! I’ll select a random winner on Thursday, just in time for my next big (trust me, this one is BIG) giveaway!

Sarah and I left Ben Pao and walked to visit my sister at her new restaurant and have a drink… you’ll have to wait a week for a post on that place. It deserves more attention than a tack-on at the end of another post!

My birthday week celebrations begin soon, and I’m so excited! Usually, I love my birthday, but I’m actually THRILLED to be turning 30!

Have a great week, and TGIM!

**The coupons and dinner were provided to me by MyBlogSpark**

Technorati Tags: Asian, bloggers, Chicago, Chicago dining, Chinese, date night, dinner out, friends, fun, giveaway, shrimp, sweets

Technorati Tags: cute, food

Technorati Tags: photography

Sorry for the general lack of pictures! Most of my shots are of our whole group, and I only have permission to post pictures of Skylar… so, here goes:

234: Campers in attendance

12: Campers in my group

5: Junior counselors that assisted my group

93: Degrees Fahrenheit outside

46: Minutes spent on the bus

68: Degrees Fahrenheit inside

37: Minutes spent in the insane rope climber and ball pit area

7: Times ridden on bumper cars

4: Times ridden on go-karts

460: Game tokens played

3496: Game tickets won for prize redemption

12: Ice cream-shaped bubble necklaces and temporary tattoos won

4: Trips to the “Potty Ride”

520: Slices of pizza consumed

38: Slices of pizza consumed by my group

3: Strange kids that swear they don’t like pizza

7: Average number of pieces of candy won in a game by each camper

66: Firecracker (Red, White, and Blue) Popsicles consumed on the bus on the way home

60: Campers with blue hands and mouths by the end of the bus ride

~220: Campers that had a major sugar crash upon arriving home

1: Amazing husbands that cooked me breakfast for dinner when I got home

Technorati Tags: camp, family, friends, fun

And sometimes, I flat out cheat.

Sometimes I go straight to the Whole Foods meat counter, buy pre-made something or other, cook it through, and feast.

Tonight? It was an easy decision. The cute fish guy was putting fresh salmon burgers into the case, and my mind was made up.

Salmon burgers with feta and spinach, atop Ezekiel hamburger buns, with a side of roasted broccoli.

Ok. I guess I cooked a little.

Camper quote of the day: “Wow, you have scary hair!”

I know MamaPea can appreciate that one…

I may or may not have bought some peanut butter chocolate coconut milk ice cream too…

Yep. This post was boring. Sorry

Technorati Tags: burger, cheese, salmon, sandwich, seafood

I had to bring cupcakes!

I’m sure we still would’ve gotten together anyway, but the cupcakes made it even better. I’ll get to those in a minute though…

A bunch of us met up at a Dunkin Donuts yesterday morning for coffee and breakfast, and there was no lack of things to talk about. Then, Carrie said it best… “I’m done with coffee, I’m ready for wine!”

We stopped at the non-local girls’ hotel first to drop off some bags and a cooler, and then headed down the street to the Lynfred Winery in Roselle, Illinois. I’d read about it before, but had no idea what to expect. We were greeted by a gorgeous ivy-covered house and a welcoming staff.

We wandered around the gift shop for a few minutes while we waited for our tour to start, and I was amazed to see the vast variety of wines. There were some named for Chicago, some that were more traditional, some expensive, and some that were fruit-based.

Our tour began at 2 p.m. so we opted to do a wine tasting. For $9 we got to taste 7 different wines: Chenin Blanc 2007, Pinot Grigio Reserve 2008, Riesling 2008, Sangiovese 2007, Merlot 2006, Petite Sirah 2006, and Kiwi-Rosé. Each pour was quite generous, and served by a lovely woman who told us a little bit about each wine. My favorite, by far, was the Riesling! I’ll have to go back and get more soon.

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our wine (see girls? You’re on the blog!!)

L-R: Me, Amanda, Amy, Carrie, Nicole, and Liz

We spent nearly an hour and a half sipping wine and talking about what we liked, didn’t like, things we had in common, our husbands, families, other friends… it was a great time! Before we knew it, we were heading down into the cellars of the winery and learning its history. While it’s not a typical winery in that the grapes and fruits aren’t grown on the premises, but they’re carefully selected from crops all over the country. They currently have 80,000 gallons of wine in their cellars!

We also learned about the bottling process, and that there’s one man whose sole job is to feed the bottles onto the conveyor belt through a little window.

The winery was downright gorgeous! I love that there’s this little gem of a place just down the street from me!

I treated myself to a bottle of Lynfred’s Cherry Wine made with cherries from Michigan. You can trust that I’ll let you all know how it is. It was official, after we finished shopping though: we were hungry, a bit tipsy, and downright sweaty! It hit 97 degrees and with the wine…yeah, not pretty.

We went together to the hotel and laid out a spread of delicious treats: my cupcakes, Amy’s black-bottom raspberry cheesecake, hummus and carrots, and some cherries.

I believe these cupcakes were enjoyed all around. I promise, I’ll get to the recipe in a minute! OH! You want to know what kind of cupcakes they were?? They were fluffernutter. If you don’t know what a fluffernutter is, I’ll explain in a minute too. But for now, just be jealous of these gorgeous girls who got to enjoy them!

Ok, now that you can see that the cupcakes were indeed enjoyed, I’ll fill you in on the secret of the fluffernutter. A fluffernutter is nothing more than a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. They can be glammed up a bit by using Nutella, homemade bread, homemade marshmallow… but in its purest form, its fluff and peanut butter and that’s it.

I had the idea for a fluffernutter cupcake during lunch at camp one day when a camper had a fluffernutter sandwich. It seemed like a great idea for a cupcake, and an even better one to bring to our little get together. I scoured the internet for cupcake recipes, and while I found a few more standard cake recipes that merely added peanut butter, this one from Cooks.com struck my fancy because it was a) easy, and b) involved putting my mixer on high speed. I did adapt quite a few things from the original recipe.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 3/4 c. cake flour

1 c. milk

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. peanut butter

1/3 c. butter, room temperature

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 cupcake tins with papers. Measure all the ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat all ingredients together for about 2 to 3 minutes until well combined, then turn the mixer to high speed for 2 minutes. Spoon into cupcake tins, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake 18-22 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

The frosting made another whole challenge for me. So many marshmallow frosting recipes called for a jar of marshmallow Fluff, and I just wasn’t having any of that. I looked and researched, and finally came to the conclusion that a simple boiled icing was my answer. I made it once before and it was an utter FAIL, so I followed these simple directions from eHow.com and it was perfect! I did, of course, make a few alterations to the recipe, including upping the water to 3/4 c. and added 1/4 c. dark brown sugar to the mixture before boiling.

The final product? Well, there were many “yums” and “mmms” from the girls, but the best reaction was from Liz who said “this is the most interesting cupcake I’ve ever had, and I mean that in a good way!” I’ll take interesting over boring any day!

And with that, I leave you… wish me luck taking my campers ice skating tomorrow!

Have a wonderful night, and TGIM!

Technorati Tags: Baking, Chicago, cupcake, cupcakes, friends, fun, meet-up, sweets, wine

Please enjoy this week’s selections of cute…

A special Good Times “HI” goes out to camper Gabby and her mom, Ro who told me yesterday they’re Cute Food Saturday fans! So, hi guys! See you at camp Monday!

Technorati Tags: cute food

Pom-poms, Chicago skyline, amazing contrail, Skylar (and all my other campers!) as Rosie the Riveter, and my happy Friday grill. Have a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: camp, cute, friends, fun, grilling, Summer