Kitchen Witch | Tuesday, November 21,2006

Thanksgiving for one

However unpopular, dining alone has its place

Whether we travel or stay at home, this week is the busiest week of the year — for one meal. We scurry through airports, plow through interstates and push our way through supermarket aisles, jus

Kitchen Witch | Thursday, November 16,2006

Pumpkin pie with a clean little secret

A recipe that calls for tofu

By Kim O’Donnel

Untitled Document Thanksgiving as a self-contained concept is a beautiful thing. We cook; we travel over the river and through the woods. We gather at table, we give thanks, and,

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, November 1,2006

Bad news calls for good apples

Here’s how to make caramel-dipped apples

By Kim O’Donnel

It’s been a rough autumn for the food chain. First it was the nationwide supermarket spinach scare, then (albeit to a lesser degree) it was lettuce and carrot juice. Next came the FDA’s an

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, October 25,2006

The real old spice

Here’s a recipe for classic gingerbread

By Kim O’Donnel

Autumn is tricky; although beautiful (golden harvest colors, crimson leaves), delicious (apples, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes), and eventful (Halloween, Thanksgiving), it’s our cue to bundle up

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, October 11,2006

The bread ambassador

During Ramadan, try making Arab flatbread

By Kim O’Donnel

For a long time, the words “Food is everything” donned my refrigerator, torn from the pages of a magazine lost and forgotten. Although I remember smiling in acknowledgment, I doubt that I

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, October 4,2006

Spinach plan B begins with a C

Make Greek greens and sweet onion pie

By Kim O’Donnel

By the time you read this column, will the Escherichia coli spinach mystery involving 23 states be solved? Who knows? Regardless of the spinachy state of America, life must go on, and we gotta keep ea

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, September 27,2006

Wok much?

Even a dish as simple as fried rice becomes something special in its embrace

By Kim O’Donnel

I’ve got a new baby in the house. Swaddled in plastic, she arrived in need of a good scrub. Although she doesn’t cry, gurgle, or spit up, she does keep me up at night, my mind racing over

Kitchen Witch | Wednesday, September 20,2006

Cookies for life

A recipe for egg-free, hippie-granola-type snack that’s yummy

By Kim O’Donnel

Of all the recipes from my hundreds of cookbooks and scrap-paper mishmash, there’s only one that predates my cooking career and has remained a part of my life. It was 1993. After six months wor

Kitchen Witch | Thursday, September 14,2006

Culinary coming of age

The cookbooks for children are getting better

By Kim O’Donnel

Ruby is my special pal who lives in Oak Park, Ill. She lives with her kid brother, August, and her parents, Miguel and Nancy, who have been in my life for the past 17 years. Rubes is more like a de fa

Kitchen Witch | Thursday, September 7,2006

The pesto pinch

Pureeing huge piles of basil leaves has to bring about good karma

By Kim O’Donnel

Hailstorms recently pounded northern Italy, and, as a result, much of the country’s basil crop was obliterated, making the preparation of pesto, the beloved summer herb purée, impossible.