This ginger syrup is a favorite for me. It makes the best ginger ale. It’s sweet and spicy and complex. I used to imagine ginger ale was one of those mysterious beverages that required a lab or a factory or complicated equipment to produce. (I used to feel the same way about tonic.) It turns …
Fall
Orgeat is a funny word. I remember seeing it for the first time in a row of bottles of flavored syrups available to add to lattes and cappuccinos and Italian sodas at an independent coffee shop in the 90s, the kind of place that had lumpy couches and open-mic nights and a patina of patchouli-scented dinge. …
Looking for an alternative to classic guacamole? This bacon blue cheese guacamole is unabashedly full-flavored. And it has bacon in it! (Which, of course, means this guac is definitely not for vegetarians.) I know blue cheese is a little controversial. There are haters out there. You can have your traditional guacamole while those of us …
Most Wednesdays during the growing season I go to the Green City Market in Lincoln Park. It is, of course, where I shop for fruits and vegetables. But I also like to go to the free chef demonstrations that the market hosts. Because these take place on Wednesday mornings, the crowd tends to be mostly retirees, …
It may not seem like it, what with all the cakes and cookies and bars and brownies and pots de creme and cocktails, but I spend a lot of time thinking about wellness. I haven’t always been that way. I was a habitual lunch-skipper in high school (who occasionally pooled fries with friends). I subsisted mostly on grilled cheese for …
I spent the entirety of the week before last in a baking marathon. These brown butter apple almond cakes were just one of five different desserts plus a two-tier cake I made. I was tasked with creating and producing a dessert buffet for our friends’ Traci and Dan’s wedding. Traci loves good food and is …