Margie's Candies - Chicago, IL

Mary and I got to meet up one last time and went to Great Seas again.  She mentioned that she went to a cute little ice cream parlor in Bucktown.  I recently moved closer to Bucktown so I was intrigued to find a neighborhood ice cream place.  We decided to meet up with some of our friends there for dessert.  

Forever Yogurt - Chicago, IL

So are y'all all keeping track?  This is dessert number 3 for Mary and me.  Oh my goodness, I did not think it was humanely possible, but then again, I was warned that we would have a lot of time to kill and that we should save room for lots of desserts.   After dessert number 2 at Cloud 9, our friend Faith finally joined us and she hadn't eaten yet.  It was a bit too late to grab real food, but she said she wanted to eat froyo, so off we went to Bucktown to go check out the new self-serve frozen yogurt place called Forever Yogurt.

Cloud 9 - Chicago, IL

What is Taiwanese Snow Ice doing in Lakeview, you ask?  I have no clue either, but I'm not complaining.  We spoke to the owners and they said it's their first outpost outside of Taiwan and I can totally see this being the next boba, the next tart yogurt trend to hit LA.

Mario's Italian Lemonade - Chicago, IL

Right across the street from Al's No. 1 Italian Beef is Mario's Italian Lemonade.  I've heard good things about it and it's only open during the summers, so you definitely have to take advantage while you can.  

Al's No. 1 Italian Beef - Chicago, IL

My dear friend Mary was in town last month and she emailed me weeks before and asked where we should go eat.  A woman after my own heart.  :)  She gets a kick out of getting mentioned on my blog, so she wanted to make sure we went somewhere that I hadn't been and could blog about.

I told her how Jung came to visit a few weeks back and how he loved Italian Beef sandwiches.  Mary never had one before so we thought we'd try Al's #1 Italian Beef in Little Italy.  It's been on Food Wars and Man v. Food and is often pitted against Mr. Beef for the title of Chicago's best italian beef sandwiches, so I thought it warranted a visit.

Mustard-Roasted Potatoes

Cheese, salami and crackers.  check!      

Roasted chicken and gravy.  check!

Summer Corn Sauté.  check!   

Bottle of wine.  check!

Ice cream sandwiches made from smores cookies (courtesy of my friend Mary).  check!  

The only thing missing was potatoes.  I wanted something quick and easy, yet tasty.  I tried looking up some recipes and ended up at one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen.  

Summer Corn Sauté with Basil

I don't know why but whenever I have roasted chicken, I feel like I need corn.  Creamed, steamed, buttered or grilled, I don't mind, just so long as there's corn involved.  I saw a recipe for this in Bon Appetit where they use a bunch of fresh herbs.  I only had fresh basil on hand, so I just used that and it turned out great.  It's hard to mess up when corn is in season and you have fresh herbs on hand.