Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner. Are you hosting a party, attending one or just watching with your family? Whatever your plans are, you will need a killer game-time snack. Enter, my Cheddar Apple Chicken Sausage Bites. I originally posted this recipe last year at this time, but it is still a winner. So I am posting it again for all you ...
Brisket for Hanukkah
Tonight at sundown, Jewish families around the world will gather together to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Hanukkah commemorates the victory of a small group of Jews, the Maccabees, over the army of the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus in the second century BCE. After the Jews drove the Greeks out of Judea, they attempted to restore ...
Holiday Entertaining with Gougeres
With Hanukkah starting this week and Christmas only two weeks away, many of you have entertaining on your mind. Let me take this moment to remind you of my favorite make-ahead hors d'oeuvres: gougères. One of the most classic French pre-dinner bites, gougères are small cheese puffs made with pâté à choux, which is the same dough that is used to ...
How to Host a Bagel Brunch
This past weekend, I hosted a baby shower for a friend who, like me, is an East Coast transplant to Chicago. Because my friend and her husband are both from New York, we decided to make New York the theme of the shower. The menu? A classic bagel brunch, of course! A bagel brunch is a relaxed and easy party to throw because you purchase most of ...
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 ...
Make Gougeres (and Feel a Little French)
As longtime readers of West of the Loop know, I am a confirmed Francophile. There was a time in my life when I thought I might become an ex-pat and live in France when I grew up. A year of actual living in France cured me of that notion, but I still love all things Gallic, the food perhaps most of all. If you go a French person's house for ...
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Dip is a sore subject in my house. With a husband who doesn't like mayonnaise, sour cream or even really cream cheese, I struggle to come up with a dip that people in my house will actually eat. Under normal circumstances, I might not even try. If I were hosting my book club or some similar event, I might indulge in one of those Barefoot Contessa ...
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 ...
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 ...