ShareTweet Food is family. How many of your childhood memories are tied up with favorite dishes, shared meals, and family celebrations? I was always an enthusiastic sous chef to my mother in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until I left home that I fully appreciated them. I went to high school and college on the… Continue Reading
Category Archives: recipes
>If You’re Craving Carbs, Turn to Stuffing for a Creative and Fun Side Dish
ShareTweet > FOOD FIGHTS SWEEPING AMERICA, TEARING FAMILIES APART There’s a bizarre epidemic sweeping the States, spreading from kitchen to kitchen that has public officials concerned. Food fights are breaking out at dinner tables everywhere as husbands and children are taking a stand and demanding an end to boring potato side dishes. Although mashed potatoes… Continue Reading
>Nutella Hot Chocolate
ShareTweet > Nutella and hot milk together in a cup. This is happiness. Snow goes hand in hand with hot chocolate. That goes without saying. When the kids come trooping back into the house, peeling off their snow-covered clothes, they expect me to greet them with steaming mugs of hot chocolate. And while it would… Continue Reading
>Gruyere Popovers Are the Ideal Weapon for this Artic Winter
ShareTweet > Popovers Warm from the Oven Fill the House with the Most Amazing Smell. It’s cold in Chicago nowadays. Like, really cold. 10 degrees below zero when we wake up cold. Our driveway is an ice rink cold. Walking around without a hat is not an option cold. The only way to fight back… Continue Reading
Ebelskiver Pancakes, Little Puffs of Deliciousness
ShareTweet > I have a few fashion loving friends who get this fiendish gleam in their eyes when they’re talking clothes. To them, the names of the designers on Gilt.com actually mean something. I don’t like to look like too much of a soccer mom, but I’ll only get behind a fashion trend if it’s… Continue Reading
Beef Bourguignon Stew, Equally Delicious in the Crock Pot or the Stove Top
ShareTweet Beef Bourguignon is so satisfying on a cold winter night. Do you have a dish that you can make with your eyes closed? That your hands know by rote? For me, that dish is Beef Bourguignon. It was one of the first dishes my mother taught me how to make. I started by… Continue Reading
>Duck Fat and Potatoes, a Marriage Made in Heaven
ShareTweet > Stole this gorgeous pic from Laughing Duck Gardens as my duck fat disappeared before I could shoot it. In the month of resolutions and diet talk, I’m going to buck the trend to talk about a fat. And not just any fat. I’m going to talk about duck fat, a decadent, moan inducing… Continue Reading
Oreo Truffles Even a Kid Will Love
ShareTweet Do you remember the first time you bit into a truffle as a child? Those perfect little balls dusted with golden cocoa in their fancy gift boxes just looked so irresistible. Each time the soft chocolate yielded to my baby teeth, my taste buds were assaulted by the intense flavor of pure cocoa,… Continue Reading
>Bacon, Apple, and Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing: the Rebel’s Choice
ShareTweet > I have a deep question for you to ponder today. Why is bacon not a more popular Thanksgiving stuffing ingredient? I’ve had stuffings with scallops, and others with water chestnuts. I’ve also had many made with sausage, which are delicious. But until a few nights ago, I’d never had a stuffing made with… Continue Reading
>a Chocolaty Twist on Pecan Pie
ShareTweet > The only way to deal with a long, frustrating day replacing credit cards, car windows, and cell phones, is with chocolate. Lots of warm, ooey, gooey, melt in your mouth chocolate. As that first forkful melts on my tongue, the stress of the day finally begins to recede, my shoulders loosen, and the… Continue Reading
>Carrot Souffle: my Favorite Thanksgiving Side
ShareTweet > This Carrot Souffle commands center stage. At the Thanksgiving table, the turkey is the unquestioned star. When my mother in law takes it out of the oven with its gleaming caramel skin, a hush falls over the large crowd gathered in the kitchen. And I don’t begrudge the turkey its time to shine,… Continue Reading
>Caramelized Pecan Squash Bites: the Perfect Thanksgiving Appetizer
ShareTweet > Caramelized Pecan Squash Bites before Thanksgiving Dinner When most people think of Thanksgiving, they picture a golden turkey or mounds of fluffy mashed potatoes. but those aren’t my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. When I head to my Mother in Law’s Thanksgiving dinner, my mouth is watering for her pre-dinner appetizers: her mushroom roll-ups, pigs… Continue Reading
>a Few Thanksgiving Prep Tips from Melissa d’Arabian, host of Food Network’s 10 Dollar Dinners
ShareTweet >One of the Food Network stars I most relate to is Melissa d’Arabian, host of the 10 Dollar Dinner Show. Although I always get some great budget saving tips from watching her show, that’s not why I’m a fan. I love that her husband is French, and the fact that her exposure to European… Continue Reading
>Sweet Potato and Date Chicken Tagine
ShareTweet > I met my husband at work. I was young, just out of college, and was instantly smitten by this sophisticated New Yorker with his jazzy ties. We were friends at first, wasting countless work hours in whispered conversations in office cubicles, commiserating over our love lives, and talking about food. Yes, food. I… Continue Reading
>Jazzing Up School Lunches with Orzo
ShareTweet >How much do you experiment with your kids’ school lunches? We’re pretty adventurous at the dinner table in our house, pushing the envelope with honey duck and Cornish game hens, but if you took a peek in my kids’ lunchboxes, day after day, you’d get pretty bored.… Continue Reading
>Dorie Greenspan’s 20 Minute Honey Duck
ShareTweet >Do you ever make duck at home? Or is it the type of thing you would only ever think to order in a really fancy French restaurant? Duck must have a bad rap in America. It’s the only reason I can think of that more home cooks don’t make duck at home. People must… Continue Reading
>Roasted Butternut Squash Soup: the Perfect Way to Celebrate Fall
ShareTweet >Is it wrong to feel so alive as everything around me is dying? To dance with the leaves as they fall to the ground? I can’t help it. I love fall with its crimsons, its burnt siennas, and its sulfuric yellows. Just walking to school is like walking through a Monet painting, leaves crinkling… Continue Reading
Bacon Crusted Pork Tenderloin to Woo Picky Food Snobs
ShareTweet Are your kids generally open to trying new things at the dinner table? At dinner time, my kids lose all trust in me, approaching the table with betrayal in their eyes, as if I’m trying to poison them, clearly still reeling from that sweet potato with turkey baby food jar I tried to feed… Continue Reading
>Delicious and Easy Brunch Dishes for my Kelloggs Breakfast
ShareTweet > Sweet and Crunchy French Toast was easy to make and delicious. My online and offline worlds are colliding more and more frequently nowadays but I still often feel self-conscious inviting my “offline” friends into my online life. Everyone always ends up having a great time, but I still have a tough time sleeping… Continue Reading
Truffle Butter Chicken Made Divine with Sous Vide
ShareTweet Truffles are a powerful ingredient. A little goes a long way, and that’s a good thing considering how expensive they are. An individual fresh black truffle typically costs over $100. Last week I performed a minor miracle when I made an incredible truffle butter chicken breast that tasted as though it had been marinating… Continue Reading
>(Relatively) Healthy Homemade Chicken Nuggets
ShareTweet > These Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets Will Be a Hit with the Kids Tonight I’m going to give you a gift: a baked chicken nugget recipe that you can whip up in less than 5 minutes. And it’s good. Let me tell you how good. So good that my kids ate them with a… Continue Reading