Grandma J’s Local Kitchen

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A few weekends ago, Jess and Sara and I got together for brunch and to check out Grandma J’s Local Kitchen. They’d been hearing great things about it, but somehow it had flown under my radar, so I was excited to give it a try.

Inside was very small and cute and kitschy and mismatched. It really does feel like you’re eating at your grandma’s house!

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To start we tried the deviled eggs with bacon and the fried pickles with roasted red pepper aioli. This was our first peek at the food and it was surprisingly gourmet. And. Delicious. The eggs were really rich and decadent!

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I tried the braised pork belly bennie (two cage free poached eggs with nitrate free bacon on top of French Bread and hollandaise comes with potato hash), Sara had The Works (two cage free poached eggs on top of potato hash with swiss cheese marinated mushrooms, crispy kale, bacon and fried tomato in a bowl comes with toast,house made jam) and Jess had Duck Three Ways (duck confit with a free range poached duck egg in a maltaise with duck fat fried hash).

Everyone enjoyed their food, but I was especially jealous of The Works that Sara got because it looked SO GOOD.

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Grandma J’s is BYO, so I brought a bottle of prosecco. For $6 we got the mimosa tray and they gave us three seasonal fruit juices (grapefruit, cranberry and orange), to use as mixers. That was a fun way to do mimosas!

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As a side note, I noticed on the menu that they had mac salad and then I noticed some Hawaiian-ish things on the wall… one spot said “tutu wahine,” which means grandma in Hawaiian.. but then realized that as I looked around, grandma was written on the wall in various languages all over the place. Still… the owner’s name is Layla Malia, so I’m going to guess that there is some kind of Hawaiian connection.

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After brunch we went to The Chop Shop to check out The Wicker Collective, a warehouse sale of multiple boutiques in Wicker Park. I didn’t get anything from the sale, but I did get some super yummy prociutto from The Chop Shop! I want to go back there for a meal.

Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living by Nick Offerman


Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living
finished 03.17.14

Let me just say this: Nick Offerman is NOT Ron Swanson. Duh… but sometimes we get all wrapped up in separating the two. This book is funny in parts, but is definitely Nick Offerman’s autobiography, not a bunch of funny Ron Swanson bits. That said, it’s charming and nice. Very midwestern. Also, definitely R-Rated in many parts!

Makai and Ellyza Learn About Music

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Last week Makai and I met up with Loden and Ellyza at Merry Music Makers for a free class. The mission of this place is not only for kids to enjoy music, but to get them very involved in making music. The class we attended was just for babies less than 8 months old and to achieve the mission there were lots of baby tambourines and maracas and rattles and drums and things. There was singing, both by the instructor Ms. Julie, and the parents and Ms. Julie also played guitar. Also? Dance! Makai LOVED it. He was grinning and laughing the whole time.

At the end of the class I was talking to some of the parents and I looked down and he was almost all the way rolled over! One of the first times he got as far as he did.

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After class, we met up with Trent, Dallas and Kristin, who were conveniently over at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro enjoying a few beers on St. Pats weekend.