Food Features

Untitled Document The lovely young lettuces of late spring and early summer are gorgeous enough to use as ornamentals, and some wouldn’t even be out of place in floral arrangements. Colors range from palest celadon and chartreuse to darker shades of green. Some are speckled with red — one variety is named Freckles — and […]

Untitled Document Yes, I know that asparagus is available in groceries these days pretty much year ’round, but it’s still something best enjoyed in spring, just plucked as it shoots from the earth in nearby fields. Grocery asparagus that’s been stored for long periods and shipped thousands of miles may be OK to satisfy off-season […]

Untitled Document Q. Do you have any ideas for kids’ summer lunches? — Vickie A. That question is tough to answer without information on your children’s ages and eating habits. If there’s more than one, will they all eat the same thing? Do they eat lunch at home, or do they take it to daycare […]

Untitled Document It’s a red splash that contrasts with the explosion of green hues in the spring garden. In the days before freezing and the trucking in of produce grown far away, the first rhubarb was eagerly anticipated. These days, to gardeners and culinarians who’ve stayed close to the land, to the ever-increasing number of […]

Untitled Document “If music be the food of love, play on.” — William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night It always enchants me. My first experience with Ravinia was as a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. It’s the oldest outdoor music festival in North America and has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since […]

Untitled Document Spring’s been cool so far, but we know they’re on their way: hot days, sultry days, days when the combination of heat and humidity makes it impossible to stay completely dry unless the air conditioning is dialed down to environmentally incorrect levels. When I’m not interested in eating anything hot, much less standing […]

Untitled Document Have you ever eaten blackened fish? Blackened chicken? Blackened steak? Credit Paul Prudhomme, who invented the technique of blackening, and brought it into American kitchens. In the 1970s and ’80s, when American food and cooking were experiencing a revolution brought about by such people as Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck on the West […]

Untitled Document Q. Do you have a really good recipe for pasta salad? — Elizabeth A. As a matter of fact, I do. This is my personal favorite and one that’s been a big hit with family and friends as well. In general there are two kinds of pasta salads: those tossed with a vinaigrette […]

Untitled Document Which state was the fourth-largest U.S. wine producer in 1900? You’ll probably be surprised to discover that it was Illinois, where the wine industry’s roots go back to the 1770s, when French settlers started making wine in the Peoria area. In 1857, Emil Baxter and sons opened a winery in Nauvoo. Five generations […]

Untitled Document It’s used to make one of the most traditional and delectable complements for wine but also has many other guises; best known are cream puffs and éclairs. Choux paste, or pâté à choux, or — as my grandmother called it — cream-puff paste, dates back to at least the 16th century. Choux is […]

Untitled Document Q. What’s the difference between scallions and green onions? Can one be substituted for the other? — Bill A. There is no difference. Zip, nada, zilch. Whether they’re called scallions or green onions seems to be largely a matter of geography. In the mid-Atlantic coastal states and New England they’re more likely to […]