A food blog from Chicago about keeping it simple in the kitchen
Risotto is a popular dish in our house. It’s creamy, it’s warming, it involves a bottle of wine to drink while you slowly stir the rice. And since it takes on flavors so well, it has endless possibilities for how it’s prepared. Since traditional way is labor intensive, I found […]
Some time ago, we swapped out sweet potatoes for white potatoes when it comes to all things mashed. You don’t need me to tell you about all of the nutritional reasons for this switch, but I would like to share some ideas based on our favorite way to make mashed […]
While I’m a huge fan of the big, hearty, chewy grains like barley, farro and wheat berries, I’m not as big of a fan of the long cooking times. Here’s a very simple recipe for cooking barley that uses a pressure cooker, or an Instant Pot, to cut the cooking […]
Sometimes a salad isn’t always a salad. To the British, salad means anything with mayo stirred in. To many Americans, salad means using iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese and ranch dressing. Here we’re not too far off. Instead of lettuce, we’ll use steamed green beans. Rather than cheddar cheese, we’ll use […]
If you spend much time poking around in the food blog world, you may come away thinking that January is National Quinoa Month. I’ve noticed that, in particular, there are a lot of vegetable quinoa burger recipes popping up. Great idea, I thought. What I tried to take away from […]
This recipe is definitely on the other end of the scale from “simple”, however it still qualifies for “awesome”. Think of these Smoked Salmon Rolls as a dinner party plate – since the prep and planning required disqualifies them from the “easy weeknight dinner” category. The long description, as if […]
Hearty Red Chard From green kale to red kale, from collard greens to beet greens, there is a tremendous assortment of hearty leafy greens in the late season that are perfect for cooking with the flavors of your main dish. All of these greens sauté quickly and are easy to reheat […]
Wheatberries (or wheat berries) are a nutritional powerhouse because of their balance of protein, fiber and carbohydrates. They also have a great chewy texture, a mild nuttiness and can take on flavors of their surroundings really well. The gotcha to all of this is that they will take more time to […]
In American cuisine, is there any better side dish than a crispy, crunchy potato? But what if the potatoes are purple? And they’re oven roasted purple potatoes? For many, the crispy potato, from french fries to hash browns, is a staple along side a meat and a vegetable. Since oil-laden […]
Fall and Winter typically call for large pots of chili and soups. Large pots of chili and soups call for a great cornbread. Chipotle Cheddar Cornbread The challenge with most of the cornbread mixes is that tend to produce a dry finished product. After you’ve spent all this hard work […]