A light, herbal farewell to summer: Gin, Elderflower and Campari

Gin, elderflower liqueur, Campari, lemon juice and club soda make an easy-drinking, end-of-summer cocktail (that you just might drink year-round). Recipe below.

Gin plays a big role in our summer cocktail rotation. So does Campari and soda for Marion. And we always seem to have St-Germain elderflower liqueur around. So when I came across a cocktail recipe combining all of those, I knew we had to try our own version. Continue reading “A light, herbal farewell to summer: Gin, Elderflower and Campari” →

Eggplant. It’s what’s for dinner. Again. Linguine with Japanese Eggplant and Basil

Some eggplant roasted ahead of time is the base of this weeknight quick vegetarian pasta. Basil, garlic and Parmesan are the other key ingredients. Recipe below.

Our tiny, abundant garden continues to be, well, abundant. So one recent evening, I came home to find Marion roasting eggplants, beets and potatoes. Okay, the potatoes were from the fridge, not our garden, but they weren’t getting any fresher. The beets and potatoes were sides for dinner that night. A few nights later, I turned the eggplant, some basil from the garden and a few always-on-hand ingredients into this quick dinner. Continue reading “Eggplant. It’s what’s for dinner. Again. Linguine with Japanese Eggplant and Basil” →

What can you do?

This week’s post was either going to be a cocktail or maybe a compound butter with fish. I had the ingredients for both, more or less, and some basic ideas on how I was going to make them. Only I didn’t. So instead, you’re being treated to an image I nabbed off the Internet. There was no name listed with it, so I can’t even give credit where photo credit is due. Please come back next week. I’ll try to have one of these two recipes or something completely different.

Five burgers, no beef

Lamb and turkey stand in for ground beef in these five burger recipes.

I’ve been thinking about burgers lately. Big, juicy, beefy burgers. So imagine my surprise when I dug through the Blue Kitchen archives and didn’t find a single beef hamburger. But I did find these lamb and turkey burgers, and I remember every one of them fondly. Continue reading “Five burgers, no beef” →

Arroz verde peruano: Peruvian Green Rice

A traditional Peruvian dish, green rice gets its green from cilantro and its plentiful flavor from onions, carrots, peas, garlic, cumin and chicken stock. Recipe below.

Since moving into our new old house a little over a year ago, we often talk here about how much we love our neighborhood, Pilsen. And we do. But Marion and I also both fell hard for our first Chicago neighborhood, now called Lakeview, but back then, New Town (and less officially but more permanently, Boystown). So we’re always up for an excuse to visit our old nabe. This time, our excuse was a new fast casual Peruvian chicken restaurant, Chopo Chicken. Continue reading “Arroz verde peruano: Peruvian Green Rice” →

Pleasantly peasanty: Chicken with Vinegar Shallot Sauce

Leave it to the French to tame the sharp bite of vinegar with lots of butter, shallots, garlic and tarragon in this classic Lyonnaise dish. Recipe below.

CHICKEN. IN VINEGAR SAUCE. After me somehow never hearing of this ever, suddenly it was everywhere. Within the span of the past two weeks, three very different recipes popped up on my radar from three very different sources. A little digging turned up more. And despite my ignorance of it, chicken in a vinegar sauce wasn’t some new chef-driven trend. It was rooted firmly in “my grandmother used to make this” and “based on a traditional Lyonnaise dish” territory. Continue reading “Pleasantly peasanty: Chicken with Vinegar Shallot Sauce” →

Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail

Five ingredients—gin, fresh sage, simple syrup, and grapefruit and lemon juices—create an herbaceous, summery cocktail. Recipe below.

We’ve lived in our new old house for a little more than a year now. The biggest transformation since we’ve moved in has been the garden. During the gut rehab of the house, the backyard was buried under demolition rubble three separate times. Even though our contractor’s team ostensibly cleaned up after the project, the first step of creating a garden involved removing a stunning amount of glass shards, broken bricks, nails, gravel and other debris—at least partly done by digging away the top several inches of the yard and throwing it out. Continue reading “Celebrating yardwork: Summer Garden Gin Sage Cocktail” →

The taste of summer: six potato salad recipes

With summer in full swing, potato salads are showing up at picnics, family barbecues—anywhere people get together and eat. Here are six potato salad recipes to get you through the season, from the traditional classic to the decidedly non-traditional. Continue reading “The taste of summer: six potato salad recipes” →

Changing up chicken: Tomatillo-braised Thighs

A make-ahead tomatillo sauce with cilantro, garlic, jalapeño peppers and lime juice livens up this weeknight-quick chicken dish. Recipe below.

We’re big fans of chicken, especially thighs. They’re flavorful, juicy and relatively inexpensive. But it’s easy to fall into comfortable cooking ruts with them. “Shall I do my chicken and wine again tonight?” “Should we just roast them?” Or now, with summer here, “How about I fire up the grill?” All good choices, to be sure, but sometimes you need a change. And that’s where this tomatillo sauce with black beans and corn comes in. Continue reading “Changing up chicken: Tomatillo-braised Thighs” →

Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail

Smoky mezcal and tea brewed from dried hibiscus blossoms star in this refreshing, herbaceous cocktail, which also features cilantro, lime juice, simple syrup and club soda. Recipe below.

IN OUR ONGOING, VARIED ADVENTURES IN COCKTAIL-LAND, we sometimes play bartender challenge. In the right bar, on a slow night, we’ll specify a particular spirit, describe a flavor profile—citrusy, summery, fresh, for instance—and ask the bartender to create something. Almost always, he or she rises happily to the occasion and we end up with something wonderful, full of layers and subtleties. Continue reading “Garnet and Smoke: a mezcal hibiscus cocktail” →