Our dining team transformed a golf cart into a bar cart that we used to visit all of our apartments and cottages so our residents could show off their golf skills and enjoy a cocktail. It was a great opportunity for our dining team to connect residents in a fun setting....safely!
Thank you, Ellen Horan, for your gift of beautiful fidget quilts!
Ellen told us her touching story about how she started making these unique quilts: "I have always quilted, first blankets for all the beds in our house (and doubles) and then I started making and sending out baby quilts for various nieces and nephews. Like any hobby, I get tired and sometimes put it away for months or even a year at a time. But I’m always looking for fabrics, quarter yard pieces. I have them in a bookcase by color and they’re really pretty.
My mother spent the last year of her life in a nursing home. It was just down the street from me so we all visited at various times in the day. Whenever I was there, I would notice that she had her hands twisted around something and when I would coax them open, I’d discover they were cloth dinner napkins. My mother had been a clothing designer/seamstress. About a year after she passed, I saw a picture in a local paper of a woman with her mother and that woman had something in her lap. I enlarged the picture and saw that it was a cloth with things attached, like those baby quilts with cloth books and rattles. So, I got inspired again.
I have hundreds of fabrics and I began by picking 7 fabrics that had a theme to them. I needed things to attach, for fidgety hands. So many of my friends came through. One, whose mother had had a dry cleaners, gave me a bag with over a hundred zippers in it. Everyone I knew gave me those little bags that jewelry comes in. I went to the dollar store and bought head bands and big buttons. Ribbons. But the best part is that once my friends started seeing them, they really put in an effort. They gave me bags of costume jewelry and that was really the best part. I could make the quilts beautiful with the fabrics and interesting with the gadgets.
I guess you would say that I make the quilts in honor of my mother. I sure wish I could have made her quilts so that she would have had something to do with her hands. And the reason I don’t charge is in honor of my late husband, who loved that I loved to make things and give them away. So there you go! - Ellen Horan"
For Chef's Appreciation Week, we are featuring our Executive Sous Chef, Daniel Quezada Olmos! A little about Chef Daniel:
Favorite dish to cook: Chiles en nogada
Favorite ingredient to cook with: White wine
Favorite food to eat: Tacos
Favorite kitchen tool: Cookie cutter set
Favorite food trend: Pastry or confectionary side
Favorite Chef: Gordon Ramsey
Favorite travel destination: Cancun
This week's Oktoberfest Meal is inspired from the region of Bavaria! On the menu: Potato Beer Soup, Creamy Dilled Cucumber Salad, Pork Schnitzel with Sautéed Spinach and Spaetzle, Steamed Bratwurst with Sautéed Cabbage and Spaetzle, Cream Puff for dessert, and Heineken as our featured beverage for the evening.
When we can't go to the opera, the opera comes to Westminster Place via Zoom. Thank you Lyric Opera Stage Artists for another uplifting, exclusive, live performance!
Lyric Opera Stage Artists
September 15 at 4:44 PM ·
We went back to Westminster Place today (virtually) for some singing, playing and merriment! Thanks to Jill Greenman and Pamela Williams for organizing, and to the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra for collaborating! Bravi tutti to Ken Donovan, Melissa Trier Kirk and Lewis Kirk, Pam Williams, Heather Wittels, and Marie Sokolova
Wesminster Place celebrated Labor Day with classic American fare of Watermelon Mint Salad, Kansas City BBQ Chicken, Spicy Carolina BBQ Pork Tips, Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake, and a Labor Day Cocktail of Red, White, and Blue (Absolute Citron and Cranberry Juice Garnished with Blueberries).
When our dinner and a movie night feature is Casablanca, the dinner must be Moroccan themed! Our delectable Casablanca menu: Moroccan Cinnamon Braised Lamb w/ Turmeric Rice/Roasted Cauliflower & Peppers, Citrus Glazed Chicken w/ Chickpea Eggplant Curry, Moroccan Cous Cous Salad, Lentil and Kale Soup, and Date Cake.
Our crafted cocktails expert and Assist. Director of Dining Services, Roey Phillips, gave a demonstration and a history lesson on a rich and pungent libation, The Last Word. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b1-5GE34xo
YOUTUBE.COM
Westminster Place Crafted Cocktails The Last Word
This week Westminster Place celebrates our excellent housekeeping team. Happy Housekeeping Appreciation Week! Thank you for your commitment to our community, your hardwork, and your dedication. <3
As our road trip series continues, we hit the culinary road to Atlanta! Our Atlanta menu featured: Sweet Tomato & Onion soup, Kale & Peanut salad, Dijon Crusted Catfish, Chicken & Sweet Potato Waffle, and Deep Dish Peach Cobbler. A special thanks to Chef John McGowan on a great meal execution with our Atlanta menu!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
The dining team continued our Road Trip Series this with our second stop - Philadelphia! Our Philly menu: Italian Wedding Soup, Pineapple Gelatin Salad, Jose Garces' Garlic Shrimp Scampi w/ Broccoli Rabe, Villa Di Roma Meatballs & Gravy w/ Spaghetti & Sautéed Squash, and Strawberry Cheesecake.
Congratulations to Juan, one of our three contestants who won a prize basket for making a perfect score on our Hispanic Heritage Month quiz!
Westminster Place's annual pumpkin decorating content is a SCARY good time! Which of our delightfully, spooky jack-o-lanterns is your favorite? 🎃
Out next stop on our culinary road-trip is Houston! Our Houston menu featured: Chili, Southwest Salad, Texas Style Brisket, Cilantro Lime Tilapia, BBQ Bacon Green Beans, Chuck wagon Corn, Mashed Potato w/ Garlic, and Frosted Banana Cake.
Our thanks to Chef Daniel Quezada for this delicious meal trip to Houston!
For this year’s National Activity Professionals Week, our residents’ words will speak for the gratitude that everyone at Westminster Place feels toward our hard-working, creative, and compassionate activities professionals:
“Since we read in "The Perk" today that this is "National Activity Professionals Week", and it said that you "truly are the heartbeat of each and every residential facility" to which we wholeheartedly agree, we thank you for all your hard work, time, patience, and energy in making Westminster Place such a remarkable place to live. We so appreciate everything you do and we can only imagine what Westminster Place will be like when the pandemic is over and things return to normal and activities ramp up off-campus outings begin.
We thank you and appreciate you --
Edie and Bob”
Westminster Place is proud to announce that, with the help of a team of 20 Walgreens clinicians, our long-term care residents and long-term care staff members received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. A TIME Magazine journalist, cameraman, and photographer joined us on this momentous day to interview our staff and residents about their lives and work before and during the pandemic and their thoughts and feelings about the vaccine. Stay tuned for the upcoming article featuring the Westminster Place community!
The winter holiday season is also the time of year that our resident train afficianados share their passion for trains with the community. Thank you to residents Ed Welch and John McClelland for organizing the event!
A magical and musical Christmas light show created for our residents by our very own Betsy Sklena. ❄️
Leslie Goddard Presents took our residents on a trip down memory lane of Chicago Christmas past with her live presentation, "Remembering Marshall Field’s and Christmas."
Resident, Gloria Gray, turned 91 years old and celebrated with her great-grandson who shares her birthday! Happy Birthday, Gloria! 🎂
