As I mentioned, my family recently returned from a week-long trip to Santa Fe with my mom. My husband loves the Southwest and even tried to convince me to move to Albuquerque after law school. I actually love New Mexico as well, but not quite enough to live there. I could never get used to living in such a dry, desert climate but I do love to visit ...
Stoplight Farro Salad
My family recently returned from a wonderful trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I have many stories of all the delicious New Mexican cuisine we ate -- a cuisine that is characterized by the question: "green or red," referring to the kind of chiles you want on your dish, naturally. But this story is about farro, which is not a New Mexican ingredient. One ...
Merguez with Yogurt Harissa Sauce
I have been cooking so much Middle Eastern food lately because of my obsession with the cookbook Jerusalem -- a obsession that half of American seems to share, by the way, according to . But long before I knew my way around baharat and tabbouleh, I was a big fan of North African cuisine - a region that is just down the road from the Middle East and ...
Easiest Ever Fruit Crisp
Think you don't have time to make a delicious, old-fashioned dessert for your family tonight? Well, I think that you do. Forget about making an elaborate dough that needs to be chilled and rolled out. Forget about softening butter and getting out your stand mixer. The easiest dessert to make, by far, is a crisp: sliced, sweetened fruit dumped into ...
Great Summer Salad Ideas from Jerusalem
It's July and that means it is time for another Tasting Jerusalem topic. Created by two food writers, Beth from the blog OMG! Yummy and Sarene Wallace from 805 Living magazine, Tasting Jerusalem is a community dedicated to exploring the cuisine of the Middle East using the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi as a guide. Each ...
What To Do in Montreal
As I mentioned earlier, my husband and I spent a blissful few days sans kids in Montreal over Fourth of July weekend. He had never visited this historic, cosmopolitan city and I had only been there once, almost thirty years ago, on a trip with my family. We knew very little about Montreal before our trip but were intrigued by the city's reputation ...
Montreal’s Marche Jean-Talon
My husband and I recently returned from a delightful long weekend -- sans kids -- in Montreal. We are both celebrating milestone birthdays this year, and this trip was our joint present to ourselves. We picked Montreal because it combined geographical proximity with Old World charm. I always enjoy opportunities to trot out my college French and my ...
Strawberry-Mint Lemonade
Zuzu heads off for two weeks of overnight camp tomorrow. This is her second year going and she is so excited to see her camp friends again and participate in all the fun, outdoor activities. But she is also a little sad about leaving her friends back at home. Not sad about leaving us, mind you! Sad about leaving her friends. One thing I have ...
Restaurant Review: GT Fish & Oyster
A restaurant with the words "fish" and "oyster" in its name is not the kind of place that I would normally drag my non-seafood-eating husband. But when I am not the one choosing the restaurant, anything can happen. Last week, various members of my extended family came to Chicago to celebrate my first-cousin-once-removed graduation from ...
Preserved Lemons for Tasting Jerusalem
It's June and that means it is time for a new Tasting Jerusalem challenge! Created by two food writers, Beth from the blog OMG! Yummy and Sarene Wallace from 805 Living magazine, Tasting Jerusalem is a community dedicated to exploring the cuisine of the Middle East using the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi as a guide. Each ...
Coffee House Strawberry Scones
The coffee house in my town makes the best scones I have ever tasted. I am never one to waste calories on inferior pastry. For example, I make regular trips to Starbucks for a Chai Tea Latte, but I haven't eaten one of their baked goods in years. But the scones at Blue Max Coffee are worth the indulgence. Huge, flaky and studded with fruit, these ...
Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus
My mom returned from Paris a few weeks ago and reported that all the markets, and all the restaurant menus, were full of asparagus. The French get so excited about asparagus season because they don't expect to see asparagus all year round. In France, you get asparagus in the spring and once they're gone, they're gone until next year. Au ...
Scenes from the Oak Park Farmers Market
The Oak Park Farmers' Market has been open since May 18, but, as always, the market started slow. The first few weeks offered little locally grown produce beyond lettuce, asparagus and rhubarb. Don't get me wrong: I can do a lot with asparagus and rhubarb. Like grilled asparagus, asparagus pesto, rhubarb jam, and rhubarb-ginger buckle, just to name ...
Healthy Snacking: Banana Yogurt Muffins
Yesterday I was working on an article about healthy snacks for the back-to-school issue of a local parenting publication. It's odd to be writing about back-to-school when my kids still have two more weeks to go in this school year, but that is how editorial calendars work. The article was a natural fit for me: I am committed to finding healthy, ...
Classic Strawberry Shortcake
This past weekend was Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. It was a busier-than-usual weekend at my house. Saturday, my husband took our daughter to a NHL playoff game, which the Blackhawks won thankfully. My husband and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary on Sunday with a dinner out -- a review of that meal coming later ...
Chocolate Spice Cookies for Tasting Jerusalem
As some of you may remember, I am participating in a virtual cooking community called Tasting Jerusalem. Created by two food writers, Beth from the blog OMG! Yummy and Sarene Wallace from 805 Living magazine, Tasting Jerusalem is a community dedicated to exploring the cuisine of the Middle East using the cookbook Jerusalem as a guide. Each month, ...
Bread Machine Swedish Cinnamon Buns
One of my favorite items from May's Chicago Food Swap were Swedish Cinnamon Buns by veteran swapper Rachel. These yeasty sweet buns sprinkled with pearl sugar disappeared all too quickly the day after the swap, leaving me with nothing but crumbs and a burning desire to bake some more. If the mention of cinnamon buns conjures up images of over-sized ...
Lamb and Rice Stuffed Peppers
I suppose there is no need to mention (again) that my husband is not as adventurous an eater as I am. As a result of to his aversion to seafood and his avoidance of pork, I have a fairly limited universe of meats to cook with at home. Chicken and turkey are fine; I can even get away with the very occasional duck dish. Beef works of course, but ...
Maple-Glazed Breakfast Cookies with Dried Cranberries and Pepitas (Nut and Peanut Free)
After I spent all last week wanting to eat my Glazed Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies for breakfast, it occurred to me: why not eat cookies for breakfast? I brought up the idea of a breakfast cookie to my friend Chef Druck, who informed me that in France, where she grew up, the breakfast cookie is a veritable phenomenon. The French actually call it "un ...
White Sangria for Spring
Twenty-seven years ago, a family moved into the house across the street from mine. This family had two little girls, ages three years and six months. I was thirteen at the time and could just see the babysitting money in my future. I did indeed end up babysitting for the family across the street quite a bit. What's more, this family become some of ...
Glazed Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
Back in March when I attended the Good Food Festival, I met some folks from Hazzard Free Farm, a Certified Naturally Grown farm near Rockford, Illinois. Hazzard Free Farm grows heirloom grains, like blue and red cornmeal, barley, wheat and oats, and sells them to many of Chicago's best restaurants. Recently, with help from a grant from Rick ...
Eating our Curds and Whey
Many of my food and mom blogger friends are raving about the new cookbook Homemade with Love by Jennifer Perillo. Perillo is a professional food writer based in Brooklyn, author of the popular food blog In Jennie's Kitchen, and mom to two daughters. I don't know Jennie personally, and sadly, I missed my chance to meet her when she was in town ...
Chicken Tomatillo Stew
Tomatillos are one of the more misunderstood fruits out there. Perhaps because of their name or because they are often used to make salsa, many people associate them with tomatoes. But in fact, tomatillos are members of the nightshade family. Their closest relatives are the gooseberry or the ground cherry -- a late-summer farmers' market crop that ...
Farmers’ Market Find: Rangpur Limes
Obviously I'm talking about a Florida farmers' market. You wouldn't be likely to find Rangpur limes at an Illinois farmers' market even in good weather, which it's not right now. No, today's farmers' market find is courtesy of the Saturday morning Old Naples Farmers" Market, which is a must on all of our Naples trips. The Old Naples Farmers' Market ...
Make Eataly Your New York Destination
One of the highlights of my recent trip to New York was the chance to eat and shop at Eataly, Chef Mario Batali's 13,000 square foot shrine to Italian food. Located right off of Madison Square Park and easily accessible by several subways lines -- I took the 6 train downtown from my hotel at Lexington and 51rst and felt like quite the New Yorker ...