The final meeting for 2014 of the Chicago Food Swap took place this past Sunday at Peterson Garden Project's Fearless Food Kitchen in the Broadway Armory Field House. Despite freezing temperatures, snow flurries and parking woes, the event was a tremendous success. Everyone left laden down with delicious homemade and homegrown food and a warm ...
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 ...
October 2014 Chicago Food Swap Recap
The Chicago Food Swap had its October event this past weekend. It was our second event in our new home, the Peterson Garden Project's Fearless Food Kitchen. As is so often the case, the offerings reflected the best of the season, from the tail end of backyard garden produce to Halloween-themed treats. The October swap was smaller than the ...
Cooking Demo with Rick Bayless 10/20
I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere has provided me with compensation for this post. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Chicago is a city rich in celebrity chefs, but perhaps none is as well known as Rick Bayless. Restauranteur, author, television star, Rick Bayless has been educating American audiences ...
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 ...
September Chicago Food Swap Recap
Sunday marked the return of the Chicago Food Swap after a two-month break. The September swap was the first event in the Chicago Food Swap's new, permanent home, the Fearless Food Kitchen in the Broadway Armory field house. This roomy, light-filled teaching kitchen, operated by the community gardening nonprofit Peterson Garden Project, makes a ...
July Chicago Food Swap Recap
The Chicago Food Swap returned to Wicker Park, and the funky confines of co-working loft Free Range Office, for its July swap. It was a small but lively gathering peopled mostly by returning swappers with a few new faces scattered here and there. Located on the second floor of a converted glove factory, Free Range Office is filled with light and ...
Scenes from the Farmers Market
At least once every year, I like to bring my camera with me on one of my early Saturday morning trips to the Oak Park Farmers Market to capture the abundance. Mid-July is a heady time at the farmers market. The tables are groaning with fruit from the Michigan orchards. Stone fruits of all kinds, from cherries to apricots to peaches and plum, ...
June Chicago Food Swap Recap
For a foodie event, there is hardly a more prestigious location than Sur La Table, the beloved kitchenwares emporium. So when Ali Banks, the resident chef at Chicago's swanky Sur La Table store on Michigan Avenue, reached out to me about hosting a food swap in her kitchen, I was falling over myself to say yes. While Michigan Avenue is inevitably ...
Culinary Tour of Devon Avenue
Does your city have ethnic neighborhoods filled with markets, shops and restaurants where recent and not-so-recent immigrants can recreate a little of their homeland here in the United States? Most cities do. All over America there are Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Greektowns, Little Saigons, Little Odessas and Little Italies. Some of these neighborhoods ...
Mariano’s Makes Summertime Living Easier
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. #MyMarianos #Collective Bias Summertime and the living is easy. Nowhere is that more true than Chicago. Winter is brutal and spring inevitably a wet, cold disappointment, but summer in Chicago is glorious. The days are warm and sunny; every weekend boasts a different ...
Restaurant Review: Sepia
Today, May 26, is my twelfth wedding anniversary. My husband and I got married on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. I wrote more about my wedding, and how we served corn pudding at dinner, in this post. For today, I only bring up the fact that it is my anniversary because I am reviewing the restaurant we went to ...
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 ...
How to Get the Most out of Shopping at the Farmers Market
This Saturday, my beloved Oak Park Farmers Market reopens for the season. It can't even tell you how excited I am. Zuzu has swim practice across the street from the farmers market from 9-10:30 am and my plan is to spend that entire hour-and-a-half browsing at the market. Ninety minutes at the farmers market is not too much for me. As a home ...
May Chicago Food Swap Recap
The Chicago Food Swap had its May event this past Sunday, May 18, at Green Home Experts, a "green" lifestyle boutique in Oak Park. This was the third time that owner Maria Moran opened her store's doors to the Chicago Food Swap and, just as before, it was a perfect location for a swap. On a sunny spring afternoon, Maria's garden center was a ...
Recap of the April Chicago Food Swap
This past weekend the Chicago Food Swap returned to The Chopping Block, the spacious and beautiful cooking school located in the iconic Merchandise Mart, for its April swap. And it was an outstanding afternoon of sampling, swapping and shopping. As I said in my opening remarks to the group, when we are at The Chopping Block, it is like the ...
Visiting Eataly Chicago
Eataly Chicago, the latest colonial outpost of Chef Mario Batali's culinary empire, opened just two months ago to record-breaking crowds. How record-breaking? After more than 120,000 visitors during the first week, Eataly Chicago had to close for a day just to restock. In other words, Chicago broke Eataly. Take that, New York! I can't stand ...
Asian Steak Lettuce Wraps
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. If you are like me, you are always wondering what chefs know that the average home cook doesn't. Without access to restaurant equipment and ingredients, can home ...
Recap of the February Chicago Food Swap
The Chicago Food Swap held its February swap this past weekend, on February 8, at the kitchens of All Natural Chicago Catering, a local catering company specializing in healthy, freshly made food for corporate and private events. Husband and wife owners Tess and Mickey -- he's the chef -- were incredibly gracious hosts and everyone loved their ...
Chicago Restaurant Week: Naha and Blackbird
Chicago Restaurant Week ended yesterday, although I hear that many of the restaurants extend their special menus for an extra few days. I took advantage of the special $22, three-course Restaurant Week lunch menus to return to two of my favorite restaurants in the city: Naha and Blackbird. Naha is one of the most reliably excellent restaurants ...
Pasta-Making Class at The Chopping Block
One of the kitchen skills that has eluded me for years was how to make fresh pasta. Despite purchasing the right ingredients -- hello, semolina flour! -- and following instructions, my dough never became smooth and elastic enough to roll into long sheets. My noodles always ended up dense and chewy instead having that perfect toothiness that fresh ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...