It's June and that means it is time for a new Tasting Jerusalem challenge! Created by two food writers, Beth from the blog OMG! Yummy and Sarene Wallace from 805 Living magazine, Tasting Jerusalem is a community dedicated to exploring the cuisine of the Middle East using the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi as a guide. Each ...
Lemon Orzo Salad with Asparagus
My mom returned from Paris a few weeks ago and reported that all the markets, and all the restaurant menus, were full of asparagus. The French get so excited about asparagus season because they don't expect to see asparagus all year round. In France, you get asparagus in the spring and once they're gone, they're gone until next year. Au ...
Classic Strawberry Shortcake
This past weekend was Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. It was a busier-than-usual weekend at my house. Saturday, my husband took our daughter to a NHL playoff game, which the Blackhawks won thankfully. My husband and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary on Sunday with a dinner out -- a review of that meal coming later ...
Bread Machine Swedish Cinnamon Buns
One of my favorite items from May's Chicago Food Swap were Swedish Cinnamon Buns by veteran swapper Rachel. These yeasty sweet buns sprinkled with pearl sugar disappeared all too quickly the day after the swap, leaving me with nothing but crumbs and a burning desire to bake some more. If the mention of cinnamon buns conjures up images of over-sized ...
Lamb and Rice Stuffed Peppers
I suppose there is no need to mention (again) that my husband is not as adventurous an eater as I am. As a result of to his aversion to seafood and his avoidance of pork, I have a fairly limited universe of meats to cook with at home. Chicken and turkey are fine; I can even get away with the very occasional duck dish. Beef works of course, but ...
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 ...
Glazed Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
Back in March when I attended the Good Food Festival, I met some folks from Hazzard Free Farm, a Certified Naturally Grown farm near Rockford, Illinois. Hazzard Free Farm grows heirloom grains, like blue and red cornmeal, barley, wheat and oats, and sells them to many of Chicago's best restaurants. Recently, with help from a grant from Rick ...
Chicken Tomatillo Stew
Tomatillos are one of the more misunderstood fruits out there. Perhaps because of their name or because they are often used to make salsa, many people associate them with tomatoes. But in fact, tomatillos are members of the nightshade family. Their closest relatives are the gooseberry or the ground cherry -- a late-summer farmers' market crop that ...
Farmers’ Market Find: Currants
I stood in front of the table of fruit deep in thought: three kinds of currants -- white, red and black -- plus gooseberries! Another vendor a few tables over had four or five small boxes of hard-to-find tayberries. What to get? It was an embarrassment of riches. So much fruit! So many unusual and old-fashioned crops that you never see at the ...