food

While attending one of Urbana’s Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery’s Farm To Table Dinners, I asked owner Leslie Cooperband if I could “stage” (work as an unpaid apprentice) for one of their events. Guest chefs, often from Chicago, would come down to the farm to create amazing meals, eaten communally outdoors. I was hoping my […]

There is a point every summer when my vegetable garden transitions from a state of scarcity to one of overabundance. My approach to meal planning shifts from “What do I have enough of to make something with?” to “What am I going to do with all these veggies?” This is especially true of zucchini. A […]

Way back in February I got the gardening bug, so I started several different varieties of tomatoes in plastic lettuce containers that I’d been hoarding for that purpose. In a warm east-facing window, seedlings with names like Black Krim, Brandywine, Sun Gold, San Marzano and Green Zebra popped up and lined the windowsill. Eventually these […]

I spent the summer between high school and college working as a maintenance man at a girls’ summer camp in Wisconsin. I was known as “Mr. Pete” and I shared the duties with a college student known as “Mr. Tim.” The camp operated under very strict rules and Mr. Tim and I resided in an […]

Google released a report last year that analyzed what everyone’s cooking, buying and ordering. Google analyzed all the food-related search queries between January 2014 and January 2016. They listed the top five topics based on rapidly increasing interest. One of the top five trending topics was “pho.” Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is Vietnamese beef or chicken […]

Back in the late 1970s my wife and I used to go out for a steak dinner to a tavern in Virden called Rockenbachs. We were newbie wine connoisseurs at the time and enjoyed drinking Lambrusco, a semisweet sparkling red wine, reminiscent of Sparkling Burgundy. Rockenbachs had few bottles of Lambrusco in the beer cooler. […]

Lately I really just want to hit the pause button on life, on the world – hole up in my house for several days straight, and make yummy food. Decadent food, holiday food. Unfortunately, no such button exists so I carve out my little episodes of baking bliss where I can. These are some of […]

There comes a point when creativity and enthusiasm go too far. This week’s recipe, reprinted from an article written by my late wife, Julianne Glatz, in 2014, is an example of something that might be a bit close to the intersection of cool and creepy. Her Witch’s Fingers look convincingly like something you might receive […]

A road trip picnic basket. PHOTOS BY ASHLEY MEYERS  “Are you going to make deviled eggs?” This is the question my grandmother asks every time I tell her I’m preparing food to take on a road trip. “They’re just so good to take in the car.” This always amuses me, because honestly, deviled eggs seem […]

Maddie Meyer pulls up a surprise. PHOTO BY ASHLEY MEYER Radishes are one of my favorite vegetables to grow in the garden. Usually radishes are the very first crop that comes to the table in early spring. They grow incredibly fast – some varieties are ready to harvest in as little as three weeks after […]