Despite putting up jars upon jars of jams and pickles all summer long, I still find myself scrambling at this time of year to make gifts for the friends, neighbors, teachers and coaches who have touched our lives in the past year. If you are in the same boat, be sure to tune in to Fox 32's Good Day Chicago on Monday December 8 at 9:45 am when I ...
Cookie Exchange: Lemony Jam Thumbprints
It's holiday baking season and I am here to help with some of my best cookie recipes. This cookie came about because I wanted to showcase (read: get rid of) some of the beautiful jams that I put up this year with fruit from my beloved Oak Park farmers’ market. There is no better way to get a sense of who I am as a cook that to try some of my Black ...
Cookie Exchange: Key Lime Meltaways
I'm just back from our annual Thanksgiving jaunt to Florida, and of course, now that my beloved Oak Park Farmers Market is closed for the season, the only farmers market that I get to visit is the Saturday morning Third Street South Farmers Market in downtown Naples. My favorite stall at the Naples Farmers Market sells unusual varieties of citrus ...
Scenes from Thanksgiving Dinner
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Was your meal a success? Did you try new recipes or stick with your tried-and-true favorites? My mother and I hosted my family and several friends at her house in Florida, as has been our tradition for several years now. We have honed our menu over the years and feel like we have the perfect balance of ...
Apple Caramel Tart for Thanksgiving
Today's post is sponsored by Riveridge Produce, a Michigan grower and distributor of twenty-four delicious varieties of apples. Look for Riveridge apples, including Macintosh, Cortland, Jonathan, Empire, Rome and Honeycrisp, for your Thanksgiving table in fine grocery stores, such as Publix, Meijer, Mariano's, Copps, Pick 'n Save and HEB. In ...
Homemade Cranberry Sauce for National Cranberry Day
Did you know that November 23 is National Cranberry Day? I suppose it makes sense, being so close to Thanksgiving, which is cranberries time to shine. But I love to cook and bake with cranberries all winter long. In fact, I stock up on cranberries during the last few weeks of the Oak Park Farmers Market because these babies freeze like a dream. I ...
Cortland Apple, Fennel and Bleu Cheese Salad for Thanksgiving
Today's post is sponsored by Riveridge Produce, a Michigan grower and distributor of twenty-four delicious varieties of apples. Look for Riveridge apples, including Cortland, Jonathan, Empire, Rome and Honeycrisp, for your Thanksgiving table in fine grocery stores, such as Publix, Meijer, Mariano's, Copps, Pick 'n Save and HEB. Thanksgiving ...
What To Do with Persimmons
Prized in their native Japan, persimmons look and sound cool but they are a little mysterious. What do they taste like? How do you use them? I'm new to persimmons myself but I am have been experimenting with them recently and I am pleased with the results. Persimmons are in season right now, from September to December, so if you are ever going to ...
Fennel, Orange and Red Onion Salad with Bulgar
They say never to make a new recipe for company. They should also say: never make a new recipe for a soup that is normally served as a first course as a main course for company. Because if you do, you may find yourself with not quite enough soup for dinner. Serves six as a first course should be enough for four for a main course, right? ...
Perfect Cornbread Dressing
When life gives you leftover cornbread, make cornbread dressing. That is exactly what I did last week. In anticipation of a busy day, I had made turkey chili in my slow cooker in the morning. When I got home, less than an hour before dinner time, I decided that the chili wasn't quite enough for the hearty dinner that we needed after a busy fall ...
Baking for Dorie Greenspan
Revered American expert on French cooking, Dorie Greenspan, is on tour at the moment promoting her latest cookbook, entitled Baking Chez Moi. She stopped in Chicago over the weekend of November 8 and 9th and I was fortunate enough to hear her speak at an event with the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Several volunteers, me included, had baked ...
Gala Apple Orchard Salad
November is upon us. As soon as the Halloween decorations have been cleared away, I begin to think about Thanksgiving. I bet you are starting to think about it as well. Are you hosting this year? Traveling to see friends and family? As always, my mother and I are hosting Thanksgiving for friends at her house in Florida. My children are eagerly ...
Roasted Pumpkin Seed Brittle
Another Halloween has come and gone. As JR said to me on November 1: "Only 364 days 'til next Halloween!" Our house is full of Snickers, KitKat, and Twix, but I thought that what we really needed was some homemade candy. Okay, no. The last thing we need actually is more candy of any kind, but I had some free time and an itch to try something new. ...
Your Best Apple Pie
Are you finzlizing your Thanksgiving menu? Will you make the same foods as last year or will you try to mix it up? My mother and I love to host Thanksgiving together and we have pretty much honed our menu over past the few decades so that it is just how we want it. I did revolutionize the way we cooked the turkey about 7 years ago. (See this ...
Fall Cooking: Pear-Apple Crisp
I sometimes resist making apple crisp because, well, it's just so easy. I would rather spend my time making a recipe that will challenge me or show off some difficult technique that I had spent months mastering. My husband, poor man, just wants an apple crisp for dessert sometimes. Indeed, in my husband's pantheon of desserts, apple crisp resides ...
Fall Cooking: Potato Leek Soup
The thing that you have to understand is that my husband loves soup. Rarely a day goes by during which that man does not eat a bowl of soup. And he is not at all dismayed when he has soup at lunch and comes home to find that there is soup for dinner. A two-soup day? Heaven as far as he is concerned. What's funny is that my beloved late father ...
Leek and Mustard Tart
Today’s post is sponsored by Door to Door Organics, a new grocery delivery service in Chicago, in my capacity as a Brand Ambassador. There are so many delicious vegetables that are at their peak in fall, such as squash, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and kale. When my Door to Door Organics Medium Mixed Produce Box arrived these week, I was ...
Fall at the Farmers Market
Although the leaves are changing and the temperature is dropping, it is still farmers market season. The Oak Park Farmers Market where I shop every Saturday has two weeks left before closing for the year. In more temperate climates, the farmers markets may continue through November. Of course, those of you who live in very temperate climates will ...
Oktoberfest Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage
For some, October means Oktoberfest, the outdoor festival celebrating Bavarian culture, cuisine, and, of course, beer. Not being a big beer drinker myself -- although I did enjoy a pint of Bell's Amber every now and again in my Ann Arbor days -- thinking about Oktoberfest makes me think about food. I do not know much about Bavarian cuisine, but ...
Chive and Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
Sometimes what I have made for dinner doesn't feel like it is quite enough. Maybe I made a big pot of delicious soup but something seems to be missing. Maybe we are having an omelet and green salad - one of my favorite desperation dinners -- but I'm still craving carbs. That is when I turn to biscuits. Homemade bread may take hours of preparation, ...
Chicken Escabeche & Black Bean Tostadas with La Morena
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, La Morena. All opinions are mine alone. #VivaLaMorena #CollectiveBias Chicago knows its Latin food. With a large and thriving Mexican population and some of the country's best Mexican restaurants -- need I mention Rick Bayless? -- Chicagoans understand that the ...
How to Make Kreplach
If you think the matzo ball is the ultimate Jewish soup dumpling, let me quickly disabuse you of that notion. As much as I love a fluffy matzo ball, my heart truly belongs to kreplach, the meat-filled pasta known affectionately as Jewish tortellini and served during the High Holidays. Never heard of kreplach? You are not alone. While matzo ball ...
Where to Eat at Pike Place Market
As I mentioned in my last post, I attended the International Food Bloggers Conference last weekend in Seattle. One of the best things about the conference was, of course, its location. Food lovers flock to Seattle for its abundant local ingredients, its world-renowned chefs and for the sprawling, chaotic Pike Place Market. The Pike Place Market ...
How to Buy the Right Cut of Meat – Part 2
This is the continuation of a . While I was at the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle last week, I attended an informative session put on by the consumer education organization Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. I am sharing what I learned at that session with you in the hope that you can approach the meat counter with ...
How to Buy the Right Cut of Meat – Part 1
I attended the International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC) in Seattle this past weekend. It was a whirlwind of friends, food and great sessions. Later this week, I hope to post some of the pretty pictures I took at the revered Pike Place Market and tell you all about the unique and delicious food I sampled there. (Piroshkies! Crumpets!) But ...