PEACHES ARE JUST STARTING TO SHOW UP IN THE MARKETS. Sweet, juicy and summery. And that reminded us of a delicious spin we did on the classic caprese salad several summers ago, swapping peaches for tomatoes, and adding mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette for more flavor and crunch. You’ll find the recipe and the cookbook that inspired it here.
Green tomatoes, and some kind of pepper and onion are at the heart of this crisp, tart, easy-to-make traditional Burmese salad. Recipe below.
IT’S OCTOBER. THE DAYS ARE GETTING SHORTER, the nights crisp (well, sometimes). The bees are fewer in number and acting kind of drowsy. But the tomato plants, ever cheerful, are still optimistically generating loads of tomatoes. Continue reading “Simple, authentic, delicious: Burmese Green Tomato Salad (kayan chin thi thoke)”
Based on two words from a restaurant menu and Mexican street food, Beet Elote Salad replaces corn with diced beets. Recipe below.
THE OTHER NIGHT I WAS POKING AROUND ON VARIOUS DETROIT WEBSITES and I thought to check out the website of Selden Standard. Several years ago, when we were spending most of our time in Detroit, Selden Standard became a place where I would go when I had a free evening and an appetite for a well-made, kind of rustic, kind of wonderful Midwestern-American dinner. Continue reading “Inspirations from Detroit and Mexico: Beet Elote Salad”
ANOTHER MAJOR FOOD HOLIDAY IS UPON US. Everywhere, magazines, emails, friends and online food sources are sharing recipes. Seemed like a good idea to us too. So good that when we checked our archives, we found we’d done a pretty bang up job a few years ago. Unexpected dishes, like this one, chicken tea-smoked with star anise and orange, then grilled. You’ll find this and 14 other surprising recipes, from grilling to appetizers, sides (including three potato salads) and desserts, right here. Have a great, delicious 4th.
PESTO IS A NOBLE USE OF FRESH BASIL, NO ARGUMENT HERE. But there are lots of other things basil does well. Here are seven recipes to use up the last of this season’s bounty in your garden. Continue reading “Seven recipes show basil does more than pesto”
Watermelon, mango, blue cheese and cayenne pepper create a sweet, savory spicy, colorful summer salad.
BLUE CHEESE—AND BLUE CHEESE DRESSING—HAVE BEEN STARRING IN MOST OF OUR SALADS LATELY. That got me thinking about one of our favorite blue cheeses, Maytag, made by heirs to the Maytag appliance makers on their farm in Newton, Iowa. And that got me thinking about this summery, tangy, spicy fruit salad we made after an Iowa road trip. Continue reading “Fresh fruit and an iconic Iowa blue cheese: Watermelon Mango Salad with Blue Cheese”
The sudden onslaught of full-on summer has us thinking salads. Here are five recipes—traditional and otherwise—for flavorful summer salads.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]I[/su_dropcap] think we slept through spring this year in Chicago. We went from comforters on the bed well into May to 98º this past weekend. From braises and stews to salads. These are some of our favorites. Continue reading “Mixing it up, keeping it cool: five salad recipes”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]E[/su_dropcap]ggs—quick-cooking, affordable, versatile sources of protein—show they can go beyond the breakfast table in these six recipes. Continue reading “Not just for breakfast: a half dozen recipes made with (or made better with) eggs”
Garlic scapes replace green onions in this potato salad, adding a mild garlicky kick. Bacon and lemon juice also play key roles. Recipe below.
For being such a great food town, Chicago comes up short in the farmers market department. Yes, we’ve got neighborhood farmers markets that pop up in parks and plazas every weekend from mid-May to late October, full of organic, locally sourced produce, eggs, meats and more. But as exciting as these are, there’s still something missing. Continue reading “The need for farmers markets: Potato Salad with Garlic Scapes and Bacon”
One of the fun things about writing a food blog is getting to know other food bloggers—even if it’s only “knowing” them from their blogs. This week, I thought I would share recipes from five fellow bloggers I read pretty regularly. Dig in. Continue reading “Five recipes, five favorite bloggers”