Mushroom Chicken Stroganoff is wonderfully complex, layered and lighter take on the beef classic. Recipe below.
STROGANOFF WITHOUT BEEF? We recently came across a recipe that had us asking just that. We’re happy to report that umami-rich mushrooms and leftover chicken offer a quick, simple—and richly flavored—take on this old school comfort food dish. Continue reading “Where’s the Beef? Mushroom Chicken Stroganoff”
CHICAGO IS BLESSED WITH A LARGE CHINATOWN FILLED WITH AUTHENTIC REGIONAL RESTAURANTS. Unfortunately for us, during Chinese New Year, those restaurants are more than filled with celebrants. So if like us, you’re looking to celebrate the Year of the Dragon at home (February 10th through the 16th is the public holiday this year) here are eight Chinese and Chinese-inspired recipes. Why eight? It’s considered a very lucky number in many Asian cultures. Continue reading “8 recipes for celebrating Chinese New Year at home”
Cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate chips take the lead in this luscious double chocolate banana bread. Recipe below.
WHEN YOU HEAR CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD, what do you see? It could be a standard issue golden brown bread with molten chocolate chips flecking it throughout. Some home bakers create a marbled bread with veins of chocolate swirling around. Still other breads, like this one, go all in on the chocolate—both in appearance and in flavor. Continue reading “Chocolate is the star in Very Chocolatey Banana Bread”
Three recipes show how vinegar can bring lively, surprisingly subtle finishes to your cooking.
THERE WAS A QUARTER-CUP OF BALSAMIC VINEGAR in last week’s Balsamic Mushroom Sausage Pasta recipe, added at the very end. When faithful reader Dani commented that it wouldn’t have occurred to her to add vinegar, we thought of how often we actually do that here. Continue reading “Vibrant and delicate—cooking with vinegar delivers both”
Mushrooms, Italian sausage and balsamic vinegar create an umami-rich, weeknight-quick meal. Recipe below.
WHEN YOU HEAR MUSHROOM PASTA, YOU EXPECT TO SEE MUSHROOMS IN THE DISH. That’s one of the charms of most mushroom dishes, the distinctive shapes of sliced, halved or even whole mushrooms. As you can see above, that’s not the case here. Continue reading “Simple ingredients, big flavor: Balsamic Mushroom Sausage Pasta”
Hearty, meaty and stuffed with vegetables, including white beans and cabbage, garbure is a soul-satisfying French tradition. Recipe below.
WINTER WEATHER BRINGS OUT THE SOUP LOVER IN EVERYONE. And for us, that means a world of soups to explore. Marion recently discovered garbure, a hearty traditional favorite in the South West region of France—think Toulouse, Bordeaux, Gascony, the Pyrénées along France’s border with Spain. It generally features white beans and savoy cabbage, but it’s not a bean soup or cabbage soup. Continue reading “A comforting, rustic soup born in the South West of France: Garbure”
This impressive, rustic, delicious galette is foolproof, even for reluctant bakers. Recipe below.
OUR DECEMBER KEPT LURCHING INTO UNCERTAINTY—due to various dramas, we were never sure how things would play out, who would be visiting, even whether we would get a last-minute unavoidable summons for a road trip, surprise! Continue reading “The yes-you-can-bake Apple Galette”
OUR CHRISTMAS PLANS ARE STILL BEING SORTED OUT. We know it will involve some overnight guests, but exactly when (and for that matter, how many) is still TBD. We do know that it will involve some holiday and post-holiday breakfasts. And that reminds me of these light, lovely ricotta pancakes that Marion has wowed guests with on more than one Thanksgiving weekend. They sound perfect for Christmas too, I think.
Happy holidays to you and yours, and have a happy, healthy new year.
WE LOVE POTATOES IN PRETTY MUCH EVERY FORM. If you do too, here are four recipes that each share little potatoey cooking secrets. Continue reading “One potato, two potato, three potato, four… recipes and cooking tricks”
THANKSGIVING IS OUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY, because it’s honestly just about delicious food. So when our Milwaukee daughter and her boyfriend couldn’t make it to our Thanksgiving dinner in Chicago, we all decided to do another one in Milwaukee. Continue reading “Three Thanksgivings, three favorite dishes”