Food Features

After three months of nurturing and coaxing the vegetable garden in my tiny backyard, I’m finally rewarded by a bounty of produce. Throughout the summer, I’ve been snipping and rooting basil sprigs. Now the progeny of my original basil plant has grown into a lush and verdant patch of a dozen plants. The days are […]

This is the time of year when my heart feels like it belongs in two places. Mornings are crisp, the kids are back in school and I’m more inclined to crave a steaming cup of hot coffee rather than an iced cold brew. The air has the aroma of fall and I am all in […]

I’ve been spending my summer as a chef at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery in Champaign. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, but by the end of my workweek, my 71-year-old butt is dragging! When I drive back home to Springfield after my last shift, I count on my two days off […]

This week is all about celebrating summer veggies with recipes inspired to maximize delicious plant-based power. Regardless of what else I’m serving, weekend dinners in the summertime always include a large melange of grilled or roasted vegetables, simply seasoned with salt and olive oil. They fit in nicely no matter the cuisine and can take […]

The origin story of the potato goes back 7,000-10,000 years to the Andes mountain region of southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. Spanish conquistadors encountered potatoes in Peru in 1536 and brought them back to Europe. Leave it to the gastronomic creativity of the French to transform this humble tuber into a decadent and delicious dish […]

Lemon grass is a cornerstone ingredient in many southeast Asian recipes. This culinary grass lends a refreshing, verdant quality to a range of dishes and is readily available in Asian grocery stores. A perennial in tropical climates, lemon grass also can be grown as an annual here in Illinois and can overwinter well indoors in […]

I’m back on my bus this summer, living on a farm in rural Champaign and working at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery. Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery is about 5 miles northeast of the campus of the University of Illinois, my alma mater. My bus is parked next to a goat barn surrounded by a […]

Zabaglione (za-ba-lee-ohn) is a seemingly magical dessert that originated in Italy in the 15th century. Egg yolks are whipped with wine and sugar to create what is essentially a boozy custard sauce. Originally made with Marsala, the French quickly adopted their own version of the recipe using Sauternes, a lusciously sweet white wine from Bordeaux. […]

Of all the plants in my vegetable garden, I have a special fondness for Swiss chard. Unlike asparagus, which makes an early spring appearance and then quietly goes to seed, or Brussels sprouts, whose tasty orbs do not come to maturity until the fall, Swiss chard graces my garden from late spring through the long, […]

We all have nostalgic taste memories from our childhoods. It might be for things like our Mom’s brownies or our grandmother’s lemon meringue pie. Any discussion we might have about the best way to make a particular dish will ultimately be evaluated and compared against what you grew up with. If I were to tell […]

There are two gnarled old cherry trees on the south corner of our old family farmstead. I’m astonished every spring when they burst into bloom and that they’ve managed to survive another year without pruning, spraying or intervention of any kind. The crop of sour cherries is usually ready to harvest in mid-June, but the […]