Cooking a post-worthy recipe is not happening this week. So instead, we take a look back at what we’ve cooked in some Septembers past.
Marion cooks up a hearty chowder, chock full of potatoes, corn, fish and bacon, giving it a sweet note by substituting corn stock for fish stock. You’ll find the recipe here. Continue reading “Septembers to remember: five recipes from our autumn archives”
Chicken thighs are seared, then pan roasted with apples, capers, shallots and rosemary for a meal that tastes like autumn. Recipe below.
FOR MUCH OF MY LIFE, AUTUMN HAS FELT LIKE A BEGINNING TO ME. Starting with grade school, fall marked the start of something new. A new year, with fresh school supplies, new clothes, new classes—and sometimes, new schools (we moved a lot). After college, I taught for a number of years—first elementary, then college—and that autumnal sense of renewal stayed with me. Now, I get that same sensation in the kitchen when September rolls around. Continue reading “Falling for autumn: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Apples and Capers”
So now we’re being threatened with taco trucks. “On every corner!” The response to this latest us-against-them lunacy has been deservedly hilarious. Talk show monologues, Facebook memes and T-shirts have all embraced the impending wealth of taco choices. Continue reading “Labor Day and the invasion of the taco trucks”
Pesto is a quintessential summer meal maker—garden fresh, versatile and requiring little or no cooking. Here are five pesto recipes, from the traditional basil to creative takes using sage, cilantro and even kale.
A sudden abundance of basil in our garden has us enjoying quick weeknight—and lazy weekend—dinners of simply prepared pesto with pasta. But it doesn’t always have to team up with pasta. It can be tossed with cooked potatoes and green beans, spooned over grilled meats and fishes—even smeared on crusty bread as a snack or appetizer. And it doesn’t always require basil, as some of these recipes demonstrate. Continue reading “Getting playful with pesto: five recipes improvise on a summer standard”
Chicken breasts are briefly marinated in olive oil, sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard and fresh sage, then roasted. The mustard quietly blends in, taking on a subtle role. Recipe below.
Mustard is pretty much our favorite condiment. At any given moment, we have five or six varieties in our fridge. We give each other mustards as stocking stuffers. We love its brash, tangy brightness when slathered on things and all the ways it can be transformed by various makers—a current favorite is Edmond Fallot’s Walnut Dijon Mustard. But a curious thing happens when you cook with mustard. It disappears. Continue reading “Mustard’s delicious disappearing act: Roast Chicken Breasts with Mustard and Sage”
This kind of sums up our lives right now. So no recipe. But we’ll be back with a fresh one next week. Please ignore all the crashing crockery sounds.
A quick marinade of fresh basil, garlic and olive oil gives pan-grilled pork chops classic Italian flavor. Recipe below.
I like basil. Scratch that. I love it. Basil and rosemary are my two favorite fresh herbs. So when Marion recently announced that one of our basil plants was finally ready for harvesting, I was ready too. Continue reading “Trio of big flavors blends beautifully: Pork Chops with Basil and Garlic”
We’re not cooking much this summer—well, not cooking much in the way of new shareable recipes. So I raided the archives to see what we’ve cooked in past Julys. Some good stuff, it turns out. Continue reading “Six recipes for a summer with a thousand Julys”
We are a nation of immigrants. Appropriately enough, our eating on the 4th of July holiday weekend, a time that celebrates our nation’s birth, illustrates why this is a good thing. We started Friday night at Lao Beijing. Continue reading “Independence Day and food in the land of immigrants”
Feta cheese, black olives, red onion, dill, and lemon juice and zest do their predictably wonderful thing when mixed together and heaped on pan-seared pork chops. Recipe below.
Leave it to me to appropriate a vegetarian dish for a meaty use. We were at a housewarming last weekend thrown by the adult daughter of a friend from our St. Louis days. She and her roommate have a lovely new Humboldt Park apartment, and it was filled with a lively crowd—including an impressive contingency of fairly newly minted babies. We seem to be going through a period right now where many of our friends, old and new, are young. Continue reading “A vegetarian-inspired Feta and Olive Salsa plays nicely with Pan-seared Pork Chops”