This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #VivaLaMorena #CollectiveBias Some dishes on our Thanksgiving menu never change. Some are different every year. My mother and I have cooked our turkey the same way for a decade. We never tinker with the pumpkin pie or the Balsamic-glazed ...
Tilapia with Lemon, Pepper and Herbs over Roasted Leeks
With its quick cooking time and myriad health benefits, fish should be the solution for the recurring problem of what to cook for dinner on busy weeknights. Yet it often isn't. Why? Because we think that serving fish for dinner requires a special trip to the fishmonger. But what if you could find naturally-seasoned, restaurant-quality, prepared ...
Sweet Potato Pie
When your CSA hands you sweet potatoes, make sweet potato pie. Believe it or not, I'm a CSA newbie. For years, I had wanted to join a CSA, which stands for community-supported agriculture. You know how it works: you pay upfront for a share of the fruit or vegetable (or meat or dairy) harvest from a local farm and every week, or every other week, ...
Pumpkin Seed Brittle
It's Halloween and that means that a lot of families will be carving their pumpkins into scary or funny or ironic jack-o-lanterns. This year, Zuzu insisted on a good, old-fashioned face with triangle eyes and nose and a large, gaping mouth and, for the first time, carved her own pumpkin. And JR has requested a homicidal garden gnome for his ...
Apple, Fennel and Cheddar Quiche
Recently, my friends at Cabot Creamery Cooperative and their Vermont neighbors King Arthur Flour challenged a group of bloggers to come up with their best quiche recipe. At stake is a package of goodies from these two iconic brands. They are calling this contest #QuicheFeast. Well, it just so happens that I love quiche and I make it quite ...
Fall Vegetable Soup
It is such a bountiful time of year at the farmers market! I come home every Saturday laden down with red and yellow peppers, purple eggplant, green zucchini, orange carrots, scarlet beets, tan butternut squash, and even coal-black radishes. Somehow I still spend less than I did in July when I could easily blow a quarter of my walking-around money ...
A Trip to the Orchard and an Apple Recipe Round-Up
On the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, my family and some friends drove out to the country to go apple-picking. Apples, of course, are a traditional Rosh Hashanah food and there was something that just seemed right about spending the holiday together as a family outside on a beautiful fall day. My favorite spot to go apple-picking near Chicago is ...
Rosh Hashanah Recipes: Carrot Tzimmes
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year holiday begins at sundown on September 13. One of my favorite holidays to cook for, Rosh Hashanah is a joyous occasion and the holiday meals are festive. Traditional Rosh Hashanah foods are often sweet to express our wish for a sweet new year or round to symbolize the circle of life in which one year ends and ...
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? ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Carrot Tzimmes for Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year holiday begins at sundown on September 24. One of my favorite holidays to cook for, Rosh Hashanah is a joyous occasion and the holiday meals are festive. As I explained in my earlier posts, traditional Rosh Hashanah foods are often sweet - to express our wish for a sweet new year - or round to symbolize the circle ...