Fruit as the dessert course: Sautéed Pears with Thyme and Ice Cream

Pear slices sautéed with butter and fresh thyme and topped with ice cream and lemon zest create a fresh, decadent dessert. Recipe below.

Sometimes, dinner parties can be all glossy and elaborate, with candlelight, multiple extravagant courses and multiple opportunities to overindulge. And while this dessert would hold its own in that setting, it came out of the other kind of dinner party. The over-the-top informal kind that can only be shared with really old friends—and that is every bit as much fun.

We spent Sunday afternoon wandering around the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing with our friend Casey. We’ve known her longer than we’ve known our own daughters, so when we got back to our apartment, we were totally comfortable convening in the kitchen to throw together a simple dinner. Continue reading “Fruit as the dessert course: Sautéed Pears with Thyme and Ice Cream” →

Chocolate Chunk Cherry Brownies and the evilness of squirrels

Bittersweet and white chocolate, a touch of espresso and dried cherries soaked in red wine give these brownies a nice grown-up finish. Make them ahead—they’re twice as good the next day. Recipe below.

BEFORE I EMBARK ON THE STORY OF HOW I CAME TO MAKE THESE BROWNIES, I would like to say death to all squirrels. All squirrels, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

A few weeks back, I was seized by the baking bug and to my amazement found that we actually had ingredients that would make it possible to both bake something delicious and to avoid a trip to the store. The product of that frenzy was double chocolate chunk cherry cookies, which turned out to be rather unexpectedly fiddly to make. Continue reading “Chocolate Chunk Cherry Brownies and the evilness of squirrels” →

Small Bites: Snow cones, cocktails and seven pounds of chocolate

Snow cones going artisanal with small batch syrups is the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post. And Marion and I are asked to judge chocolate. Lots of it.

Snow cones are a primal summer pleasure. I remember staring at the spouted bottles of colorful syrup at the snow cone stand as a kid, agonizing over my flavor choice. If the stand allowed you two flavors (or sometimes even three! three!), the decision became exponentially harder.

Now a former Chicago restaurateur is making the decision a lot more interesting. Melissa Yen used to run one of our favorite weekend breakfast haunts, Vella Café. Frustrated by the limited choices in syrups for flavoring coffee for the café, she started experimenting with her own. Out of those caffeine-fueled adventures, Jo Snow Syrups was born. Continue reading “Small Bites: Snow cones, cocktails and seven pounds of chocolate” →

Deliciously grown-up dessert: Meyer Lemon Sage Olive Oil Cake

Not-too-sweet Meyer Lemon Sage Olive Oil Cake balances sweet and tart beautifully, and the sage gives it a nice grown-up finish. Recipe below.

In case you’ve just tuned in, the lovely Christina over at A Thinking Stomach recently sent us a generous box of Meyer lemons grown on her own tree. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying experimenting with them. This cake Marion has now made three times is the best thing we’ve done so far. I’ll let her tell you about it.

A couple of days ago, in one of those far-ranging conversations about things that are delicious and things that are definitely not delicious, my colleague Melody pointed out that so many commercial pastries—and we are talking white-tablecloth-restaurant level, not six in a factory-sealed cardboard box for one US dollar level—are disappointing, just because someone thought it would be a good idea to save five cents by skimping on an essential ingredient. Cannoli rolled in peanuts instead of pistachios. Napoleons made with something that certainly isn’t butter and filled with something not unlike grout. Lemon bars overdosed with sugar to make up for not actually being very lemony.

Well, this is lemony. For some time now I’ve been thinking about a recipe that appears all over the Internet in many forms: Olive oil cake, and this week’s installment of our Meyer lemon festival gave me a reason to try it out. Continue reading “Deliciously grown-up dessert: Meyer Lemon Sage Olive Oil Cake” →

A pair of grown-up Halloween treats: Roasted baby pumpkins, white chocolate with buttery pecans and candied orange peel

An impressive start and finish to an autumn dinner—roasted baby pumpkins filled with mushrooms and shallots, topped with Gruyere for the first course and sinful white chocolate with candied orange peel, roasted pecans and reduced maple syrup for dessert. Recipes below.

Our last Halloween party some years ago was the kind of party that makes us call the police now. Seventy-five or so people overflowing from our apartment into the hall and onto the fire escape out back. About two in the morning, I started turning the music down out of some drunken semblance of courtesy to our neighbors. I turned it down three or four times, in fact. But at 4:30, when the last guests left and I turned it off, it was still impossibly loud.

Still, we have fond if blurry memories of that party—and a soft spot for Halloween in general. Continue reading “A pair of grown-up Halloween treats: Roasted baby pumpkins, white chocolate with buttery pecans and candied orange peel” →

Cornmeal Lemon Cake with Strawberries and Mint: Simply the taste of spring

A simple, not-too-sweet, lemony cake topped with strawberries and fresh mint makes a light, seasonal dessert. Recipe below.

I didn’t grow up in the South, but lots of my relatives did, and they had an influence on my mother’s kitchen. In real estate terms, you could call mine a childhood with Southern exposure.

In spite of that fact—or maybe because of it—I was never a big fan of cornbread. At family gatherings, this was cause for some mild concern, but the “oh-well-more-for-me” instinct swiftly and invariably soothed it. This cornbread/cornmeal indifference followed me into adulthood, despite occasional attempts on my part to overcome it.

What put it back on my radar screen recently and actually made it stick this time was a simple piece of cake at mado. I mention mado here a lot, I know. That’s because owners Rob and Allie give me a nickel every time I do (mado, mado, mado, mado). Continue reading “Cornmeal Lemon Cake with Strawberries and Mint: Simply the taste of spring” →

Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market on Saturday, April events at Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand

Chicago’s Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market returns with another one-day event of delicious creations by local small-batch pastry artisans, and Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand features a month of events highlighting food grown or produced within 250 miles of Chicago.

Going locavore in Chicago is sweeter than ever these days. In February, we wrote about a pre-Valentine’s Day Pastry Market at Logan Square Kitchen. Well, they’re at it again. This Saturday, April 10, the Logan Square Kitchen Spring Pastry Market will feature a day of pastries, chocolates, caramels, ice cream and more. Most of these treats are not widely available. In fact, many one-of-a-kind items will be created just for this event.

All the vendors featured at this one-day event are local food artisans, most of whom produce their wares in small batches, many producing seasonal items available for only a short time. Continue reading “Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market on Saturday, April events at Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand” →

Don’t call this stuff ‘crunch’: Sweet, salty, addictive Matzoh Crack

A new spin on this dangerously delicious Passover dessert, with white chocolate and spicy rose sugar. Recipe and variations below.

OUR FAMILY MAY NOT HAVE EVERY ETHNIC GROUP, BUT WE’VE GOT A LOT OF ’EM. English, Scottish, Polish, Jewish, Cherokee—and that is just a fraction of it. We are part of the portrait of America, the welcome everyone! stream that keeps reviving and renewing and invigorating us all: One family, one people, one house. Continue reading “Don’t call this stuff ‘crunch’: Sweet, salty, addictive Matzoh Crack” →

Earth Hour 2010: This Saturday, you can help save the world by candlelight

Romantic dinners are usually intended to heat things up, but dining by candlelight this Saturday night will actually help fight global warming.

Earth Hour, now in its third year, is a global initiative aimed at raising awareness of global warming and the issues of climate change. According to the Earth Hour website, on Saturday, March 27, 2010, at 8:30 p.m. local time, “hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour.”

Tasting Table reports that a number of Chicago restaurants are participating, turning out the lights and serving up specials to mark the occasion. But you can celebrate right at home, with your own candlelight dinner. Here are some romantic menu ideas from the Blue Kitchen archives. Continue reading “Earth Hour 2010: This Saturday, you can help save the world by candlelight” →

Stuff we like: Sweet Margy Gourmet English Toffee

Artisanal gourmet toffee, produced in small batches in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, delivers sublime flavor and gives your teeth a break.

I wish I could say it was love at first bite with toffee and me. It wasn’t. When I was nine or so, a neighbor girl’s mom took her and me to a movie and snuck in candy bars to avoid movie theater prices. At the time, Hershey’s milk chocolate was my speed. Maybe with almonds, if I was being really adventurous. What I was handed after the lights dimmed was a Heath Bar. In the darkened theater, I thought it said Health Bar, not a promising start. And it was little. Still, chocolate was involved, so I soldiered on, even though I was less than impressed.

But when I later fell for toffee, I fell hard. Even though it threatened to break my teeth with every bite. Even though, failing that, it stuck to my teeth like crazy. There was just something so buttery good and, well, grown up about toffee that I put up with its cruel dental ways.

So imagine my delight when we recently discovered Sweet Margy Gourmet English Toffee. This is toffee at a whole different level. Continue reading “Stuff we like: Sweet Margy Gourmet English Toffee” →