Growing up as a young child in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, I always envied the neighbors who lived next door to our 1950s ranch house. My parents had an unhappy marriage. My father always liked to say, “When I took the vows, it was for better or for worse,” and he wore it […]
Food Features
Posted inFood & Drink
Discover sherry and port, the winter wines
An elegant finish to a rich holiday meal, fortified wines like sherry and port are perfectly suited to the long, cold nights of winter. These wines are steeped in history and tradition and, after years of declining sales, these wines are becoming once again popular. Many younger drinkers are discovering the versatility and complexity of […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Stocking stuffers for cooks
Looking for budget-friendly gift ideas for someone who loves to cook? Needing a stocking stuffer? Gifts that will actually be used and appreciated? Here are my recommendations for the 2019 gift-giving season. Because my restaurant gig gets me home after midnight, my wife tends to watch PBS documentaries during her evenings alone. A documentary that […]
Posted inFood & Drink
It’s pecan season
Pecans have a special place in Karen Voss’s heart. “I should have known what I was getting myself into when my husband and I were dating 44 years ago. We’d often go out and pick up pecans on nice fall Sunday afternoons.” The hobby grew into a family business, and Karen and her husband, Ralph, […]
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For something different, Cassoulet
High atop the kitchen cabinets in my apartment sits a pottery bowl known as a cassole. It is quite large – about the size of a basketball. It is wide at the top and is tapered down to its base. My cassole is glazed in its interior and rim but is unglazed on the outside. […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The savory side of pumpkin spice
For warm, autumnal meals that manage to feel cozy while still staying light and fresh, look no further than your spice cabinet. Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, ginger and cloves are the standard players in most pumpkin pie spice mixes, and while these sweet spices are standard additions to many of our favorite baking recipes, they […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Clean your plate
Comfort Food Week is making a timely arrival just as the autumn air takes on a bit of a nip. These chilly days go hand-in-hand with steaming pots of bean soup, savory mashed potatoes and gravy and creamy macaroni and cheese – all the stuff that’s good for the soul – and some area […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Sunchokes
I was 17 years old in 1970 when Joni Mitchell released her album Ladies of the Canyon. I’ve always found her music to be very impactful, and her early recordings are among my favorites. A line from the album’s track “Big Yellow Taxi” has always stayed with me: “Don’t it always seem to go that […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Sweet potatoes. Dig it.
I should know never to go into the vegetable garden without a basket and shears. I’d ended up there with my toddler, following her as she wandered aimlessly about our property on a sunny autumn afternoon. Several days had passed since I’d last been out in the garden, and in that time we’d had the […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Economies of a scale
Has the experience of spending my first six months of retirement working in a restaurant kitchen made me a better home cook? It definitely has, but not in the ways I would have expected. Much of my time in the kitchen is spent picking little leaves off of thyme sprigs or cutting a basket of […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Springfield-grown mushrooms
Now that cooler fall temperatures have finally set in, foodies in the know will soon be enjoying one of autumn’s most delectable seasonal offerings. Wild mushrooms pop up seemingly overnight in local woodlands and farm fields, waiting to be plucked by an experienced mushroom hunter and taken home to be fried in butter or stirred […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A fond food memory
While attending dental school in Chicago back in the 70s, I was on a limited budget and always on the lookout for good but cheap dining experiences. One of my favorite discoveries was a small storefront restaurant in suburban West Dundee called Mama di Pinto, named after its chef owner, Virginia Pinto, who died last […]
