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A little over four weeks ago, I dropped off my first born child, Jack, to The University of Missouri. Man, oh man, was that ever tough. I told my husband that it was a good thing that he was there because I would've had to stay in a hotel in Columbia for a week just to compose myself before driving home. I think I lost 5 pounds in tears alone😭. But on the bright side, the move-in went well, he was happy and excited, and I was going to see him in three weeks!!
So last weekend, my husband and I drove back down to Columbia to see our first SEC football game, Missouri Tigers vs. South Carolina Gamecocks.
Woohoo! Actually, it was just an excuse to hug him one more time😉. It was so much fun!! Friday we took him out for
Shakespeare's Pizza with his roommate and a friend.
Their Panda Pepper pizza is the bomb! Saturday we saw SEC Nation show live with Tim Tebow, then my husband and I headed over to
Glenn's Café for some fried oysters and bloodies that were made with Absolut Peppar vodka.
Yummy! Then we walked and walked and walked some more. Next, we met up with Jack again and my husband's cousin who was the former SID (sports information director) for the Gamecocks and then we
might have had a few beers (Jack had a coke) while we were catching up on our lives. Later that day we walked down Stadium Blvd. and watched South Carolina beat Mizzou 31-13. Minus the score for the Mizzou fans, it was a beautiful day!
But before we headed back down to Columbia, I asked Jack if there was anything he would like me to bring from home. It was also his birthday weekend, so he most certainly asked for a batch of my cupcakes, but he also requested Italian beef and gravy from that quickly expanding American restaurant chain serving up Chicago-style foods, a.k.a Portillo's.
You got it, babe! Since then, I have had Portillo's on my mind, but the weather has been unusually warm for me to sink my teeth into an
Italian Beef. So I pulled out an old recipe for the Portillo's Chopped Salad to satisfy my craving.
This salad is a meal! Pasta✓ Chicken✓ Bacon✓ Veggies✓ Greens✓ Cheese✓ Seriously, what more could you want? Well, maybe a super yummy sweet Italian vinaigrette to bring it all together 😋. Like most salads, it is also very versatile. In my version, I marinate the chicken breast in some of the vinaigrette, then I grill the chicken for a nice charred flavor. However, you can simply sauté the chicken or you can leave it out all together and serve it as a side salad for a large crowd. I also use Radicchio instead of red cabbage because I like the bitter taste of it with the sweet dressing. You can also add as much or as little of the tomatoes and the pungent blue cheese to your liking. Whatever your variation turns out to be, I guarantee it will be good. This salad also keeps pretty well. It was easy to pack for school/work lunches and it was very nice to come home to on my lunch break this week.
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Back to the weekend...on Sunday, we took Jack out one more time for breakfast at
The Broadway Diner. I don't think it has ever taken me that long to eat breakfast. I just didn't want the weekend to end and leave my baby. He wanted to walk back to his dorm room, so we said good-bye in the parking lot and...yes, I cried again 😢. But it wasn't as bad as the first time. You see, I get to see him again in two and a half weeks!!
Doin' my happy dance! This is one of the few times I am more than happy to travel more than 8 hours for soccer games in Kansas City because we will drive right through Columbia and have dinner with our boy!