This past weekend Saqib and I hopped in our car, and headed down 94 East towards Michigan to visit my parents for the weekend.  Most of our drive was completed while there was still daylight.  And in the sunlight, I really got a chance to see all the beautiful colors of fall.  The trees on the sides of the road were gorgeous!  They were still in the process of changing colors, and the leaves were still on the trees.  Through the green there were bright splashes of red, yellow and my personal favorite, orange.  Man.. do I love the fall in Michigan.  You don’t get a scene like this everywhere in America.

Whenever I see all those colors together, I always think of something my abbu pointed out to me once a road trip.  There are so many different colors, different shades, different tints of green, red, yellow, orange and brown, yet they all look so beautiful together.  Truly, Allah creates everything perfectly.

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Craving #4–An Enormous Plate Of Nachos

I want lots of oozing, gooey, melty cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, my beloved guacamole, black olives and green onions all over crunchy, crispy and salty tortilla chips. If I can get some meat on that, that’d be nice, thanks!

Craving #3– Tuna Melt Sandwich (with Fries, please)

Thank you, Osman, for telling me that you ate an amazing tuna melt sandwich. Because of you, I have now been craving said sandwich since… 10:30AM cst. I’m thinking about just bypassing the restaurant you mentioned, Nookies Restaurant, and making my own at home. I did see some bread, shredded cheese, and tuna in the house. I know it won’t be the same, but my last two cravings haven’t come into fruition yet, so I want atleast *one* of my cravings to be satisfied.

Today’s kaana was EXCELLENT.  If you’re reading this while you’re fasting, I’m sorry.  But don’t worry, there aren’t any pictures.

The old husband and I got in our car at 6:45pm and headed North on 294 towards Skokie to visit my brother and sister-in-law and join them for iftar.  My brother’s been in Illinois since January, but his wife just moved here this past weekend.  So this was the first time, after much anticipation, that my husband and I got to go hang out with my brother and his wife, not in Michigan, but here in Illinois.

I was really looking forward to something to hit the spot after a long day of work (see post below) and man, did my bhabi deliver!  The moment we got off the elevator at their new apartment the hallway was filled with the smell of what I could quickly, easily, and lovingly identify as Chinese chicken.

Hunno had prepared egg rolls, hot and sour soup, Chinese chicken, and white rice.  The egg rolls were perfectly fried (thanks to Ahsan, her brother) and the hot and sour soup was legit– we’re talking wood ear mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots, and other things of hot and sour soup nature.  The “appetizers” alone were so good that some of us were stuffed after those.  For those people, they missed out on truly enjoying Chinese chicken.

Chinese chicken. *sigh* Wa ma adraka ma Chinese chicken?  Since 2004 my bhabi has been impressing my family with a very simple, yet delicious, Chinese chicken stir fry dish.  It includes chicken (of course), bell peppers, green onions, and a lot of salty, brothy, saucy… sauce!  It’s peppery, squishy, firm, crispy, slippery, and wonderful on top of white rice.  It is just what you’re looking for in terms of a hot meal after a long day of work.

So for you, Hunno, hats off for a meal well made and welcome to the Chi!  I look forward to more delectable meals shared between the two of us, insha’Allah.

About a year ago Saqib was looking online for good ice cream shops and he stumbled upon a company named Graeter’s.  He was so excited to read about this company because the site kept praising it as one of the best ice creams in America.  The company sets itself apart from the rest because they use a unique method to make their ice cream– the French Pot method.

After reading up on the store, he shortly thereafter became bummed out.  Why?  Because the store is only open in IN, OH and KY.  The closest one to him, in Illinois, was more than four hours away!  How would he ever get to eat the yummy ice cream he’d read so much about?

Enter our plans for our honeymoon.  We decided a while ago to drive to Tennessee.  We wanted to drive because we wanted the chance to stop at different places on our way down.  We were discussing different places we could stop and eat at on our drive down when we realized we would cross the path of… Graeter’s!

So on Friday when we left, after about 5 hours of driving, we took a detour in Louisville KY and pulled into this place.

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