I must make a pizza or flatbread for dinner at least once a week. It's my go-to meal for especially hectic evenings or when I'm just feeling lazy. It's so easy to make pizza at home and the results are delicious, and healthier than ordering pizza, not to mention less expensive. Not only are pizzas and flatbreads easy and quick weeknight meals, ...
Winter Fruit Pie for National Pie Day
When I learned that January 23 is National Pie Day, that was all the excuse I needed to plan to bake a pie. I am not an expert pie baker by any means. But pie appeals to me as a traditional and all-American dessert. You guys know that I am a sucker for lost arts -- hence all the canning -- and pie-making, these days, seems to fall into that ...
Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups
There are so few foods that all four members of my family will eat. I can get three out of four easily. Zuzu, JR and I will eat bacon; my husband won't. Zuzu, JR and my husband will eat cantalope; I won't. And my husband, Zuzu and I will eat many, many things that JR won't. The best chance I have to get all four of us on the same page, ...
Cheddar Apple Chicken Sausage Bites
When my husband was living in New York City right out of college, he threw an annual Super Bowl party, the signature elements of which were a big pot of chili and a sign on his apartment door with the number of the game in Roman numerals. After he left New York for law school -- which was the best thing he ever did because that was where he would ...
Key Lime Curd for Teatime, Dessert and Beyond
I am still playing around with the Key limes that I brought home from Florida. But even if I had to rely on my local grocery store for citrus fruits, I would still find plenty of delicious varieties to chose from. This is truly the best season to be exploring the versatility of citrus fruits. A casual stroll through your grocery store's produce ...
Warm Up with Argo Tea
Today’s post is sponsored by Argo Tea. Argo Tea has a special offer for West of the Loop readers to warm up this month: receive a free oatmeal with purchase of a signature drink at any Argo Tea cafe location. Argo Tea is also giving away a special gift to two West of the Loop readers: a tea gift set and a $50 gift certificate to its website. See ...
Key Lime Meltaways
Continuing on my theme of cooking with citrus fruits -- a perfect January theme -- today I present the Key lime. Smaller than its cousin the Persian lime, which is the variety we usually see in stores, the Key lime is particularly juicy and acidic. It has a smooth rind, a greenish-yellow color when ripe and lots of pesky seeds. Key limes also have ...
Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Is it cold where you are? Is the ground covered in snow? Yeah, tell me about it. After the coldest December in twenty years, Chicago is bracing itself for an even colder January. I came home from two weeks in sunny Florida to 18 inches of snow and below-freezing temperatures. It has been a shock to the system to say the least. What we all need ...
Meyer Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake
In January, just about the only excitement to be found in the produce section is in citrus. All the other fruit has that anemic, flown-in-from-the-southern-hemisphere look. Summer vegetables like peppers, zucchini and tomatoes are expensive or tasteless or both. And while I love cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, root vegetables, and winter squash, by ...
Last Minute Gift: Thyme-Infused Sea Salt Caramels
I was running around Oak Park yesterday taking care of some last-minute holiday errands when I ran into one of my canning students. She pulled me aside to ask if I had any last-minute edible gift ideas. Apparently her son thought the gift that she had picked out for his teacher was not going to cut it. I could have acted all superior and claimed ...
The Ultimate Cranberry Orange Scone Recipe
This is perhaps the third scone recipe I have published. How often can one person make scones, you may ask. Well, you see, I often have some of my girlfriends over for coffee during the week and when I do so, I like to make a special treat for them. But I have a limited time -- maybe an hour -- in which to bake something between dropping my kids at ...
Lemon-Scented Jam Thumbprint Cookies for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap
Since swapping food has become such a big part of my life, this year I decided to participate in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is just what it sounds like: the food bloggers who participate receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. You send each of them one dozen of the same kind of cookie. You ...
Cooking Tips from Marcus Samuelsson
Last week, Macy's Culinary Council, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, invited me to attend a demo by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson at the State Street Macy's store. Everyone knows Marcus Samuelsson from his many television appearances and, of course, from his Harlem restaurant Red Rooster. I have long been a fan of his and ...
Roasted Garlic Hummus for the Chicago Food Swap
Last Saturday was the second anniversary Chicago Food Swap. It's amazing how this community has grown in such a short time. From the dozen or so swappers at that first event in December 2011, the Chicago Food Swap has grown to a community of several hundred people with events that regularly draw eighty or ninety. Each swap, it seems, is a mix of ...
Low-Fat Holiday Treat: Chocolate Mint Meringues
This is a recipe and post from a few years back, but the story is so classically me and the cookies are so tasty and seasonal, I just had to bring it up from the archives. Enjoy! It all started with the Meyer lemons. I was doing my just-buy-the-necessities-because-we-are-leaving-town shopping trip last week when a display of vibrant yellow ...
Latkes for Hanukkah Dinner
Yes, this year Thanksgiving falls during Hanukkah. Yes, everyone is talking about the culinary mash-up of these two holidays. I even wrote a freelance article for the local weekly paper about how to merge Thanksgiving and Hanukkah food traditions. (To sum up: I recommend going with sweet potato latkes and challah stuffing.) But Hanukkah lasts for ...
Enjoy Jonagold Apples from Michigan
Today's post is sponsored by Riveridge Produce. Look for Riverridge Gala, Honeycrisp and Jonagold apples from Michigan for your holiday table. Whether you want to make an amazing apple pie, a refreshing salad accented with crunchy apples, or a sweet-and-spicy squash and apple soup, such as the one pictured here, Riveridge apples will make your all ...
Maple Pecan Cherry Granola
Eating breakfast is a struggle for me. While I love traditional breakfast foods like eggs and pancakes, those are more of a weekend breakfast treat. Weekdays mornings are too rushed for that kind of cooking. Sadly, most quick breakfast foods -- cereal, fruit and the like -- don't appeal to me. And I hate eating something just for the sake of ...
Savory Bread Pudding
I can't stop making savory bread puddings for dinner. Part of the problem is that I have a lot of stale bread to use up. I love nothing more than to eat bread and cheese for lunch, so every few days I buy some fancy cheese and a baguette. The baguette inevitably goes stale before I can finish it. If that bread were going to waste, I would be upset, ...
From the Archives: Five-Spice Pumpkin Apple Cake
Have I ever mentioned that I am a sucker for pumpkin-flavored baked goods? The pumpkin pie is definitely my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. But pumpkin-flavored treats are more versatile than we give them credit for: they work well not just for dessert but also as breakfast or brunch fare. I love how pumpkin adds sweetness but also earthiness ...
Cheddar Cauliflower Gratin
Fall is cauliflower season and I could not be more excited. Although broccoli is just about my least favorite vegetable, I adore its cruciferous cousins, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Cauliflower has all the healthy, cancer-fighting nutrients that you would expect from a member of the Brassica family and a mild, nutty taste that appeals to ...
Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Rice and Black Beans
I get very excited when I see poblano peppers for sale at the Oak Park Farmers Market. You may be familiar with poblano peppers from the Mexican restaurant favorite chiles rellenos, in which poblano peppers are stuffed with cheese, battered and then deep-fried. Usually topped with a spicy red sauce, chiles rellenos is a delicious, if guilt-inducing ...
How to Make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies (It’s the Chocolate, Stupid)
I recently visited The Chopping Block, Chicago's premier recreational cooking school, to scout the location for the November 10 Chicago Food Swap. Next to the cooking school's beautiful demonstration kitchens is a small retail shop that sells high-end cookware, hard-to-find ingredients and select cookbooks. So naturally I picked up a few odds and ...
What To Do with Fresh Figs
Have you noticed fresh figs for sale at your grocery store lately? While dried figs are available all year long, fresh figs are truly a seasonal delight -- available only for a few months in the late summer and fall. While these beauties are here, I have been snapping them up and adding them to salads, flatbreads and cheese plates. I even tried my ...
Tips from a Cooking Class at Williams-Sonoma
Do you love Williams-Sonoma as much as I do? I walk into that store and instantly start adding things to my mental wish list. A new stand mixer, a shiny saute pan, maybe some serving dishes, a cookbook or two -- I want it all! One of the best things about Williams-Sonoma is that it takes the home cook seriously. Whether you are just starting out in ...