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Illinois is known as the Land of Lincoln; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum located in Springfield, Illinois is the largest presidential library in the country according to Wikipedia. It’s on my list of places to visit. Springfield is also the capital of Illinois and the birthplace of the famous Route 66.

In July 2008 my 17 year old grandson and I took a road trip to New York so we could visit a college that contacted him. He informed me before we left that we ARE going to stop in Chicago so we can eat at Giordano’s Pizza. He said it was the best deep dish pizza he’d ever tasted. It WAS great pizza and it was huge – I could barely finish one piece! The Chicago Metallic deep dish pizza pan would be perfect for making a deep dish pizza at home I decided, but it will have to stand on its own merit. I have some ideas formulating for “Grandma’s Best Pizza”. I’ll start with some prime steak, seasoned with Chicago Steak Seasoning then grilled to perfection and sliced into slivers. Place the grilled slivers onto a bed of mozzarella cheese and top with onions and mushrooms that have been sauteed in real butter. When it comes out of the oven we’ll have a taste-test, then celebrate by opening my Chicago gift box of assorted Ghirardeli Chocolates – ummmmm – they melt in your mouth.

That reminds me – another Chicago Metallic item on my list of fabulous pieces is the Gourmetware Taco Rack because it will bake up to four flour or corn tortillas without using any grease or oil. You just place the tortillas on the non-stick rack and bake for about 7 or 8 minutes and you have delicious crispy taco shells all ready to be filled with your favorite ingredients. I love to make extra bowls of chopped ingredients to be used for another meal as long as everything is already on the kitchen counter- no sense in making the mess twice. For instance, chopping tomatoes, onions, green pepper and so on – I chop more than what I need and put the extra in small bowls or zip lock bags.

We discovered some interesting facts while in Chicago: the very first McDonald’s hamburger franchise was opened in 1960 by Ray Kroc in Des Plaines, Illinois. It operates now as a museum – we didn’t have time to see it on this trip, maybe next time; we also learned that the corn grown in Illinois is utilized in the production of about 40% of the ethanol used in the USA, with Illinois having the distinction of second in the USA in its corn production. That’s interesting. We heard that Lake Summerset is the best kept secret in Illinois – they average fifteen students per teacher in their 2,000 plus population.

Wherever you go you can’t miss the many signs of sports memorabilia and fans of the Fighting Illini, NFL’s Chicago Bears, the National League’s Chicago Cubs and the American League’s Chicago White Sox to name just a few. There’s so much to see in Illinois, we must plan another road trip and check out this historical state.