My husband and I recently had the opportunity to celebrate our anniversary at the Chestnut Street Inn in Sheffield, IL. Located less than two hours drive from Chicago and Peoria, this is an award winning Inn owned and operated by a charming couple, Jeff and Monika Sudakov. From the moment we arrived we felt their hospitality and warmth. Our first night, we stayed in The Green Room. The Green Room was originally the maid's quarters. It is a three room suite consisting of a bedroom with a double bed and bathroom, a bedroom with a twin bed, and an enclosed dining porch. The dining porch had comfortable furnishings and a television. Each room or suite is equiped with Dish Network, and Wi-Fi. They even have a 1000 title movie collection from which you are free to borrow. This suite is beautifully decorated in soft colors. Below you can see the twin room and the dining table on the dining porch. We elected to dine in our suite the first morning and take advantage of the dining porch. We indulged in homemade corn and strawberry pancakes with maple syrup and butter. They were simply devine, with just the right mix of flavors. They had a wonderful texture and perfect crispness on the edges. Monika, I want this recipe! Our pancakes were served with bacon, sliced kiwi and banana, orange juice, and a selection of hot teas. It was pure decadence. Our second night, we stayed in the Blue Room. This room is a woman's dream: romantic and cozy all at the same time. The walls are covered in a soft blue botanical wallpaper and adorned with blue and white china accents. The queen bed has a white lace canopy and is covered in luxurious blue and yellow floral bedding. The TV in this room is enclosed in an Armoire so you can watch it or hide it if you like. Each room and suite has it's own bathroom. Complimentary bottled water and chocolates are provided in the rooms. Not just a couple of chocolates on your pillow, but a whole basket of chocolates! Snacks are provided downstairs in the Butler's pantry. The 1929 refridgerator is full of sodas and Perrier and Monika makes fresh-baked goodies for guests and serves them on the sideboard in the sun-porch. Pictured below is the Blue Room. The Chestnut Street Inn was recently featured in Midwest Living as one of the top Bed and Breakfasts in the Midwest. It was highly rated for its gourmet meals. Chef Monika does an amazing job of using locally grown ingredients and creating cullinary masterpieces that would satisfy even the most discriminating palate. You may dine at the Inn for evening meals by reservation only. We enjoyed an evening in and dined at the Inn on our second night. Our first course was a potato-leek soup. This was delicous; another recipe I would love to add to my collection. Our second course was a salad with pistachios, dried cranberries, feta (mine had smoked gouda since I am pregnant), and an amazing homemade dressing. I ate every single bite. The main course was a pasta dish with a mint pesto (fresh from their garden) topped with perfectly seared chicken and a creamy homemade sauce, all served with a thick and rich balsamic vinegar. While the food was absolutely wonderful, my only complaint about the dinner service would be that there weren't any choices. It was fun being surprised with each course and it was a bargain to enjoy a 4 course gourmet meal for around $30, but it still would have been nice to have a couple of options for the main course. We were so full after dinner that we and the other guests opted to wait an hour and return for dessert. My husband and I retired to the parlor and played board games for an hour and then returned for some of the best creme brulee we have ever had. We almost always order creme brulee when we dine in a nice restaurant. This creme brulee was spectacular. It was an orange blossom water and cinnamon creme brulee. We loved the delicate flavor and the perfectly caramelized sugar crust. We even asked Monika how she caramelizes the sugar so perfectly and she gladly shared her method with us. If you are looking for a relaxing, romantic, and delicious get-away, look no further than the Chestnut Street Inn.
Disclosure: I was not provided compensation for this review, but I did receive a complimentary stay. All opinions are honest and are my own.
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This is a guest post written by my sister Catherine. She recently had twins and has been buying formula like crazy to keep up with them. This article is about her research involving name brand formula versus store brand. She is also a pharmacist and mother of 3.
With the twins' increased nutritional needs as they grow, their formula supplementation has increased and they are eating us out of house and home! (With brand name formula, anyway.) We intially used brand name Similac Advance we had stockpiled before their birth when CVS had 30% off employee discount days, combined with $5 manufacturer rebate checks on each can. That wasn't bad. Then we were getting it at the regular 20% off emp discount (which basically made it the same price as Wal-Mart & other big discount retailers, but CVS was just more convenient since Matt was already there) + rebate checks. Alas, we ran out of rebate checks last week. I then bought a big container of Similac for $21 at Wal-Mart, which only lasted about 3&1/2 days since we are feeding 2 babies 6 oz bottles every few hours. The next time, I ran out in a formula emergency to the closest grocery store to our house, HEB (a TX chain). I noticed they had a store brand of the Similac Advance for $11.88 for the large can vs $21 for the same size of the brand name, a greater than 40% savings. I broke down and bought one can of the generic to try out. (I had never used generic on any of my kids before) I found that it mixes well, the twins eat it with the same vigor as the name brand, and, in fact, their stools are more regular with the generic! This morning I went back to HEB and bought 3 more large cans to get us through the next several days, including our trip to Naples, FL this week. I didn't want to run out there since I don't think they have HEB. Which got me thinking and researching... Q: Does the same company that makes the HEB formula make other store brands in case I can't make it there? (One of the reasons I had always had a brand allegiance to Similac was that I could find it at any retailer that sold formula and know that my baby was being fed the same thing. I didn't want to introduce something new constantly, and chance gas, fussiness, etc...) A: Yes! I called the 800 # on the back of my formula can, which rang PBM Products, a USA company. I spoke to a rep and found out they make pretty much all of the store brand formula. (And it recently won another huge lawsuit against Mead Johnson, the maker of Enfamil, who had deceived customers into thinking that its product was somehow nutritionally superior to the store brand.) Q: Were there any additional coupons that could help me save even more on the store brand? A: Yes, I filled out an online form which will supposedly give me a $3 off coupon and I think I can call and request it monthly. (And I read on one blog that I may be able to get 2/month since I have twins.) Here are some links where I got my info: http://iamwickedcheap.com/2010/08/05/free-sample-parents-choice-walmart-brand-infant-formula/ http://www.pbmproducts.com/default.aspx http://www.storebrandformula.com/default.aspx Maybe you already knew all of this, but I found it to be eye-opening and exciting. I am hoping to largely use store brand formula from here on out till the twins are on milk. It shoud save us a ton of money! |
Welcome to Home Ec @ HomeHi, I'm Faith, a former Family and Consumer Science teacher turned food blogger. I love God, my family, and food. You can usually find me in the kitchen preparing family friendly, homemade recipes and taking lots of pictures. This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesFan Favorites
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