It absolutely kills me that my husband doesn't like rhubarb. WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? Rhubarb is tart -- not cloyingly sweet like strawberries can be. (Oh please, don't send me hate mail because I dared to say that strawberries are too sweet. I like strawberries just fine, but I think we've all had a few overly sweet strawberry desserts in our time. ...
Farmers Market Find: Green Garlic
If you have visited your local farmers market this spring, chances are you have seen a lot of spring onions. But are you sure it was green onions that you saw? Could it possibly have been green garlic? The two crops look very similar. And, of course, they are related as onions and garlic are both members of the allium family. (Other cousins include ...
Cookbook Review: Hoosier Mama Book of Pie
Some say that pie-making is a lost art. I have found, however, that there are countless men and women toiling away anonymously in their kitchen, keeping this quintessentially American art alive. I was at a party the other night and got to talking with one of my neighbors. The party was a dessert party so the subject naturally turned to our favorite ...
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
Today, May 15, is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I don't usually pay attention to these made-up food holidays but I will take any excuse to write about, or make, chocolate chip cookies. I think homemade chocolate chip cookies are just about the best dessert in the world. Willpower and restraint go out the window when I am presented with a ...
Ramps Two Ways
It's spring and that means that foodies everywhere are losing their minds over ramps. For the uninitiated, ramps are a variety of wild leek with a mild garlic flavor. They have a small bulb at the bottom and a leafy green top. A staple of farmers' markets, ramps are apparently hard to cultivate and tend to be available only for a few weeks in the ...
Smoked Turkey Banh Mi
Zuzu came home from school dejected the other day because she had not gotten her first or even second choice for her class project on French-speaking countries. Instead of Canada or Belgium, Vietmam was the country Zuzu had been assigned. My first thought was: you dodged a bullet there, kid! I would absolutely love to do a school project on ...
Mother’s Day Brunch Ideas
I am of the firm belief that you should not go out to eat on big restaurant holidays, like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. The restaurants are extra crowded, the prices inflated and the wait staff harried. You are much more likely to have a great meal on any random Saturday night or Sunday morning when the dining room has a normal number of ...
Mango Salsa for Cinco de Mayo
Okay, so we don't actually celebrate Cinco de Mayo at my house. We're not twenty-something city dwellers with the alcohol tolerance befitting a recent college grad. Instead, we are a suburban family of four who will spend Monday night going to piano lessons, doing homework and eating dinner without Daddy, who has a work function. But we did have ...
Brownies with Dried Cherries and Mango Puree
Brownies happen to be my daughter Zuzu's all-time favorite dessert and she is incapable of passing one up. Two summers ago, on a family trip to Nantucket, she repeatedly shocked my mother by ordering a brownie over any one of the amazing homemade ice cream flavors on our nightly trips to The Juice Bar -- Nantucket's beloved, hole-in-the-wall ice ...
Diner Classic for Dinner: Red Flannel Hash
Truman Capote is rumored to have said that his favorite food was chicken hash. Indeed, chicken hash was the centerpiece of the midnight buffet at Capote's legendary 1966 Black and White Ball at Plaza Hotel. I love all kinds of hash myself and would happily eat some version of it every week even if I wouldn't serve it at a society ball. I have ...
April is Grilled Cheese Month
I'm not usually so last-minute about things, but did you know that April is Grilled Cheese Month? If you are a regular reader of food blogs, my guess is that you already knew about Grilled Cheese Month because everyone has been chiming in with their versions of this lunchtime classic. I am so late to the game, in part, because of Passover. I spent ...
How to Make a Chopped Vegetable Salad
Last week, sometime after the third night of repurposed leftover brisket, multiple bowls of matzo ball soup and the umpteenth plate of scrambled eggs, I longed to sink my teeth into some food that would resist. Give me something -- anything! -- with some crunch to it. I went to my fridge and pulled out all the raw vegetables I could find: ...
Meringue Bites with Lemon Curd and Berries
This is the dessert that I wish I had made for my Seder: bite-sized meringues shells filled with luscious lemon curd and topped with a juicy strawberry. The dessert that I actually made was kind of a flop. The idea was similar but my proportions were way off. For the Seder dessert last week, I made saucer-sized meringues filled with sliced, ...
Matza-quiles or Mexican Matzo Brei
I think for many people observing Passover, breakfast is the hardest meal of the day. Oatmeal is out. Cereal seriously not okay. Toast verboten. Granola a no-go. So, what is left to eat in the morning? On weekdays, when he is in a rush, my husband downs some yogurt and an apple, which is a very healthy, but maybe not the most satisfying, ...
The Only Brisket Recipe You Will Ever Need
I was all set to make chicken for Passover this year. I had a terrific recipe worked out and given that I was hosting a Seder on the second night of the holiday, I figured that my guests would appreciate a lighter entree. And then my husband asked me if I would please make brisket. "Your brisket is special," he cajoled. Well, how could I resist ...
Passover Menu: Chocolate-Covered Matzo Toffee
So much of cooking for Passover seems to be about making up for what we can't have during the eight-day festival. Many Passover recipes, especially those for Passover desserts, claim to be "as good as" a regular dessert made with flour and leavened. The author cheerfully declares that he or she would eat this Pesadich dessert all year round - it's ...
Chicken with Dried Fruit and Almonds for Passover
The Jewish festival of Passover begins next Monday at sundown. Mondays are busy nights around here so I am planning to host a Seder on the second night of Passover, which thankfully is somewhat traditional. It's still hectic to host what amounts to a large dinner party on a weeknight, so I am already starting to prepare some of the dishes ahead of ...
Spring Cooking: Asparagus, Ricotta and Lemon Flatbread
When people ask me what my blog is about, I say that it is about fitting ambitious food into family life. This recipe is exemplifies what that tagline means to me. This flatbread can either be a quick weeknight meal or a cool, all-from-scratch, DIY project depending on how you approach it. You can make this seasonal, vegetarian flatbread in no time ...
Turnip Greens and Potato Frittata
I have always maintained that if you have eggs in your refrigerator, you have the makings for a perfectly good dinner. Whipping up a quick omelet will get dinner on the table far quicker than ordering pizza. Add a green salad and you have a complete meal that is perfect for when it feels like there's nothing in the house. If you have a few ...
Review of Preserving by the Pint
My friend Marisa McClellan changed the way Americans think about water-bath canning with her iconic blog Food in Jars. Writing from her apartment in downtown Philadelphia, Marisa showed a new generation of cooks that preserving fruits and vegetables food was the logical extension of their interest in local, seasonal produce from CSAs and farmers ...
Mariano’s Simplifies my Passover Shopping
I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. Popping into Mariano's, my favorite Chicago grocery store, this week I noticed that the Passover displays are out in full force. Is it really that time of year ...
French Patisserie Meringues
When you think about French pâtisseries, or pastry shops, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? An impossibly flaky, buttery croissant? An almost-too-beautiful-to-eat tarte aux fruits? A towering croquembouche encased in spun sugar? Rows of brightly colored macarons? Sensible choices all. But for me, the favorite French pâtisserie ...
Understanding the Terminology in the Meat Case
Today’s post is sponsored by Illinois Farm Families, for which I serve as a Brand Ambassador. You can read more about my role as a Brand Ambassador here. What do you look for when you buy meat? Is taste the most important factor in your purchasing decisions? Is it price? Safety? Sustainability? Do you see terms such as "organic," "conventional," ...
Meatless Spaghetti a la Carbonara
Today's post is sponsored by Safest Choice Eggs as part of its March Meatless Meals Party. Before March 31st, enter to win one of two Safest Choice Prize Packs, worth over $450, containing a $200 Amex gift card, a 10" inch Lodge Round Fry pan, a set of Sur La Table mixing bowls, a year's supply of eggs and more. When I was a little girl, one ...
Hamantaschen Galette for Purim
Saturday at sundown, the Jewish festival of Purim begins. Purim commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from an evil government minister, named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish community in ancient Persia. In essence, Purim is the Jewish "carnival" holiday -- every culture has one -- where people are encouraged to dress in ...