January is always the toughest month for me for cooking. There’s a post-holiday malaise that hangs over the kitchen. I try to balance the excesses of December with austerity, but it’s hard to get excited about much of the seasonal produce when the pickings are slim. Oh, I like root vegetables and cabbage and squash but sometimes …
Vegetarian
I was hoping to bake these orange cardamom snowflake cookies last week, because they are seriously some of my favorite cookies of all time and I wanted to share them with you in time to add them to your holiday baking list. But I couldn’t. My refrigerator was out of commision for 5 long days …
We’re about to embark on the marathon of holiday festivities that span of weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, which is, for most of us, the busiest time of the year. I love Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, I always thought Christmas was where it was at. (Because PRESENTS!!!) But as an adult, I’ve …
We’ve lived in the same neighborhood as Big Jones since it opened in 2008, but we only realized what a gem it is about a year ago. It’s a Southern restaurant, and I’d never spent much time thinking about Southern food. I wasn’t a huge fan of the “grease, grits, and greens” kind of Southern cooking …
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, …
I love salted caramel. You love salted caramel. We all love salted caramel. Or most of us do anyway. It’s getting to the point where it’s unusual to see the word caramel not preceded by some salty adjective. But what if you could take that rich, creamy dark salted caramel and add some notes of umami? …