These burned-looking Brussels sprouts are actually perfectly done—and delicious. Extremely simple recipe and variations below.
SOME HOME COOKS ARE VERY SIDE DISH-FOCUSED. ME, NOT SO MUCH. I want sides to be healthy and delicious, of course, but I also want them to appear magically while I’m working on the main course. These quick charred Brussels sprouts come close. Continue reading “An easy peasy spectacular side dish: Quick Charred Brussels Sprouts”
WE’VE BEEN COOKING BRUSSELS SPROUTS A LOT LATELY, even for us. This was supposed to be a post about our most recent method of cooking this mighty winter vegetable that’s so simple, it’s almost a non-recipe. Unfortunately, a mighty winter cold had other ideas and pretty much knocked us out. So watch for the new recipe soon—and in the meantime, enjoy Linguine with Brussels Sprouts, Feta and Bacon from our archives.
CHICAGO IS BLESSED WITH A LARGE CHINATOWN FILLED WITH AUTHENTIC REGIONAL RESTAURANTS. Unfortunately for us, during Chinese New Year, those restaurants are more than filled with celebrants. So if like us, you’re looking to celebrate the Year of the Dragon at home (February 10th through the 16th is the public holiday this year) here are eight Chinese and Chinese-inspired recipes. Why eight? It’s considered a very lucky number in many Asian cultures. Continue reading “8 recipes for celebrating Chinese New Year at home”
Three recipes show how vinegar can bring lively, surprisingly subtle finishes to your cooking.
THERE WAS A QUARTER-CUP OF BALSAMIC VINEGAR in last week’s Balsamic Mushroom Sausage Pasta recipe, added at the very end. When faithful reader Dani commented that it wouldn’t have occurred to her to add vinegar, we thought of how often we actually do that here. Continue reading “Vibrant and delicate—cooking with vinegar delivers both”
Mushrooms, Italian sausage and balsamic vinegar create an umami-rich, weeknight-quick meal. Recipe below.
WHEN YOU HEAR MUSHROOM PASTA, YOU EXPECT TO SEE MUSHROOMS IN THE DISH. That’s one of the charms of most mushroom dishes, the distinctive shapes of sliced, halved or even whole mushrooms. As you can see above, that’s not the case here. Continue reading “Simple ingredients, big flavor: Balsamic Mushroom Sausage Pasta”
Hearty, meaty and stuffed with vegetables, including white beans and cabbage, garbure is a soul-satisfying French tradition. Recipe below.
WINTER WEATHER BRINGS OUT THE SOUP LOVER IN EVERYONE. And for us, that means a world of soups to explore. Marion recently discovered garbure, a hearty traditional favorite in the South West region of France—think Toulouse, Bordeaux, Gascony, the Pyrénées along France’s border with Spain. It generally features white beans and savoy cabbage, but it’s not a bean soup or cabbage soup. Continue reading “A comforting, rustic soup born in the South West of France: Garbure”
OUR CHRISTMAS PLANS ARE STILL BEING SORTED OUT. We know it will involve some overnight guests, but exactly when (and for that matter, how many) is still TBD. We do know that it will involve some holiday and post-holiday breakfasts. And that reminds me of these light, lovely ricotta pancakes that Marion has wowed guests with on more than one Thanksgiving weekend. They sound perfect for Christmas too, I think.
Happy holidays to you and yours, and have a happy, healthy new year.
WE LOVE POTATOES IN PRETTY MUCH EVERY FORM. If you do too, here are four recipes that each share little potatoey cooking secrets. Continue reading “One potato, two potato, three potato, four… recipes and cooking tricks”
THANKSGIVING IS OUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY, because it’s honestly just about delicious food. So when our Milwaukee daughter and her boyfriend couldn’t make it to our Thanksgiving dinner in Chicago, we all decided to do another one in Milwaukee. Continue reading “Three Thanksgivings, three favorite dishes”
DUCK. SO ELEGANT AND, TO MANY HOME COOKS, SO DAUNTING. It has a definite wow power when you serve it to guests, but unfortunately, many of us think it’s harder than it really is to get right. Here are some tips for doing duck right. Continue reading “Taking the daunting out of duck: tips and three recipes make cooking this delicious bird easy”