Bacon and chocolate, together in a cookie, are, most definitely, a marriage made in heaven. As candied bacon tends to disappear in our house, I have to quickly grab a couple of strips to hide when I make a new batch. A couple of strips is plenty to give these chocolate chip cookies a hint… Continue Reading
How to Make Salted Caramel Sauce
The Real Reason French Women Don't Get Fat: Trout en Papillotte
Sweet Dark Cherry Clafouti
Homemade Hot Fudge
Just a Simple French Chocolate Cake
Chicago Cooking Classes and Writing Conferences: Making Room for Mom in Summer Mayhem
Summer vacation finally started yesterday in our house. Talk shifted to tennis whites, pool towels, and sunscreen instead of homework due dates and tests. There’s plenty of time for freedom and playing in the grass, but I’ve learned in summers past that too much free time leads to overwhelming choruses of boredom and fighting. So… Continue Reading
Tarte aux Pommes
The last recipe I’ll share with you from our Anthony Eats picnic is this recipe for French Apple Pie, aka Tarte Aux Pommes. Although few things are as American as apple pie, the French are pretty proud of their take on apple tarts, and deservedly so. French apple pies have wafer thin apple slices, buttery… Continue Reading
Salade Nicoise: a Picnic Salad to Please the Whole Family
In France, salad comes at the end of the meal. Instead of warming up your palate, it washes everything down, clearing the palate for cheese and dessert. I hated salad with a passion, called it cow food, but was still forced to force down a few token leaves every night before being admitted to the… Continue Reading
Quiche Lorraine: Bacon, Swiss and Picnic Bliss
When you think of summer picnics, does quiche come to mind? You might have relegated quiche to that folder in your mind labeled 80s concepts best forgotten, but I’m hoping that after you read this post, you’ll layer your picnic basket with rich and butter individual quiches for when the summer finally arrives. Not only… Continue Reading
Chunky Chicken and Vegetable Alphabet Soup to Gear up for Summer Frenzy
Summer is the time of freedom, of flashlight tag, capture the flag marathons spread over days, and movie nights on weeknights. But it’s also the time when meals can start to slide towards the less healthy: hot dogs by the pool, daily Italian ices, and burgers at swim meets. Having a batch of homemade soup… Continue Reading
Rules of Civility and Gods of Gotham: Two Summer Reading List Must Haves
My kids are two weeks away from their last school bell of the year. They’re counting the days, and so am I. I should be busy buying sunscreen and swimsuits, but instead I’m planning my summer reading. Once my monsters are out, free, and wild, I won’t have the time to pile my nightstand with… Continue Reading
Candied Bacon Sprinkles
Candied bacon sprinkles? You’re either raising your eyebrows or licking your lips right now. I personally was in the raised eyebrow camp the first time I was served candied bacon on an ice cream sundae. I love bacon probably more than most people, and love that sweet and salty combinations, but bacon on ice cream… Continue Reading
Using Journaling to Talk to Tweens: Mother Daughter Diaries
Ever since I could put pen to paper, I’ve had a diary. My mom recently found my first one and sent it to me, the kind with the lock, although the lock was long gone. The first few pages are filled with colorful drawings, then the pages move to cramped, furious script, long diatribes about… Continue Reading
Peach and Wild Blueberry Muffins: the Essence of Summer
Block Island is a tiny and beautiful place off the coast of Rhode Island; it’s so small that you can bike around the entire island in two hours. It’s truly the kind of place where you can pack a few t-shirts, shorts, and sweatshirts and not feel underdressed at any restaurant. Steve and I headed… Continue Reading
Dry Roasted Pork Shoulder to Combat Spring Sports Schedule
This big hunk of slow roasted pork shoulder is more powerful than it looks. More than a mound of melt in your mouth tender pork, it’s a dinner solution for little league baseball late nights. Every April, little league baseball takes over our family. My husband coaches my son’s team and their practice and game… Continue Reading
Food Blog Forum Recap: Could Pinterest Be the New SEO?
Food Blog Forum 2013 in Orlando was amazing, as amazing you would think a food blogger conference at Disney would be. Stalk Julie from the Little Kitchen immediately if you haven’t already been following her gorgeous site, to not miss any details for 2014 FBF registration, in Asheville, NC. Tickets sold out in less than… Continue Reading
Disney Insider Tips: No Reservations Necessary
We’re in Disney this weekend for the Food Blog Forum. People are often surprised that a world traveling family like ours would be Disney fans, but we do enjoy a Disney long weekend. Getting a life size Pooh bear hug is a pretty great experience and the Magic Kingdom fireworks never fail to make me… Continue Reading
Facing the Fear of BRCA and a Family Breast Cancer Legacy
Angelina Jolie revealed yesterday that she had a preventative mastectomy after discovering that she is a carrier of one of the BRCA gene. The news hit close to home. The timing seems relevant so I thought I would share my BRCA story. Bored during a stupefyingly hot summer afternoon, my cousin and I decided to… Continue Reading
Soy Glazed Roasted Sweet Potatoes and a New Approach to Feeding Picky Eaters
I love sweet potatoes. I love them baked. I love them mashed with butter and crunchy flakes of salt. I love them in kielbasa stew and in hand pies. I love them forgotten to bathe in the fat of a slowly roasting chicken. But no matter how much you love something, no matter how much your… Continue Reading
Food as Medicine: Your Favorite Comfort Food Recipes Needed Stat
When people are sick, my first instinct is to feed them: big bowls of chicken tortellini soup, hot challah from the oven, creamy spaghetti bolognese. Watching my father being fed the same vanilla flavored nutrition liquid through a nasal tube for the last five months has been one of the many painful aspects of his… Continue Reading
Mango Shrimp Tacos and Asian Steak Tacos: Taco Night Al Fresco Fiesta!
Taco night has been a longstanding tradition in our household, long before we relocated to Chicago. But the rich Mexican community here and the abundance of delicious taco joints has inspired us to take taco night to a whole new level. Taco night used to mean seasoned ground beef served with a few colorful bowls… Continue Reading
Life Lessons in the Little League Dug Out
I never gave much thought about the different dynamics of sports until my kids started playing them. I’d played soccer, basketball, and softball, with varying skill, but didn’t realize how different their rhythms were. A missed pass is forgotten quickly during a soccer game but on the baseball field all eyes are on the player… Continue Reading
My Long Road to Lactation: New Chicago Parent Article
I have a new personal essay published in this month’s Chicago Parent magazine entitled My Long Road to Lactation, all about how it took me three kids to become a nursing mother. I got comfortable nursing with Juju and was a pro when Sophie arrived as a tiny preemie, ready to deal with pumps and… Continue Reading
A Poetic Cry for Help Lost in a Sea of Paper
Periodically, my children’s backpacks explode onto the kitchen counter, overflowing with weeks worth of graded homework, unit tests, and all the other paperwork that fills their school lives. It sits on the counter for a few days before I can find a quiet morning to sift through it and find the gems worth saving, the… Continue Reading
Caramelized Banana Dutch Babies: One Dish Breakfast Solutions To Feed Big Families
Breakfast for six is a tall order. Bella doesn’t eat fruit. Jack doesn’t like breakfast. Steve likes a toasted bagel with cream cheese, pepper, and ruby red tomato slices. And both Juju and Baby Sophie like a feast of little tastes. Me? I like to sleep in and be woken with a steaming caffe latte and lots… Continue Reading