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Grandpa’s Dumplings
Growing up, my mom’s mom was the undisputed queen of the dumpling. My maternal grandma and grandpa owned a Czech restaurant called the Country Kitchen (no relation to the chain) that specialized in all the favorites: roast pork and dumplings, svickova (marinated beef with a sour cream gravy), koprova (dill pot roast, yep, sour cream … Continue reading
Pork Chops with Beet Ricotta Salad and Rosemary Garlic Turnip Gratin
We “subscribe” to Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks, which is a service that delivers fresh local vegetables to your door in the city once a week. As the weather gets colder, “local vegetables” increasingly means “root vegetables”, so last weekend we found ourselves with a vegetable drawer filled with beets, turnips, Japanese sweet potatoes, sunchokes … Continue reading
Carne Asada
I was having lunch the other day with a friend of mine, and we were trying to figure out what we should make for an upcoming barbeque. We wanted to move away from the standard burgers and dogs into something a little more interesting. He first suggested bone-in filets, which are always great, but I … Continue reading
Boxed wine?!
Ok, I’m going to go out on a limb here, and hope that my wine-loving family and friends don’t completely write off my judgement after this post. The subject, which is obvious from the title, is boxed wine. I’m a big fan, in theory, of wine from a box (well, technically a BiB, or bag-in-box, … Continue reading
Fresh Sardines, or the Most Aggressive Thing I’ve Cooked
I cook a lot of different foods from a lot of different cultures. I’ve made paneer cheese for saag paneer, stuffed sausage for brats, and cleaned squid for grilled calamari. However, up until very recently, I’d never cooked a whole fish from start to finish. Something about the process of cleaning, preparing and figuring out … Continue reading
Puffy Oven Baked Apple Pancake
Perfect apple picking weather requires about 55 degrees, clear sky, and bright sun. Yesterday was perfect, so Sara and I headed to Kane County and harvested about 15 pounds of fruit, mainly Jonagold. About half of the bounty immediately went into apple sauce to be frozen and eaten over the next few months. The rest … Continue reading
Seared Ahi Tuna on Arugula
Sometimes Pizza Fridays needs a bit more than just pizza. Tonight I seared some Ahi tuna before my pesto, buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomato pizza. If you can find a great piece of tuna (look for Atlantic Ahi tuna, it’s not horribly overfished like many species out there), this dish is super easy but a … Continue reading
Bruschetta Lasagna
Sara and I recently moved into a new place, so, of course, a housewarming party was in order. We’ve thrown parties in the past, mostly casual BYOB affairs with some chips and dip on the table. This one, however, we wanted to take up a notch and provide food and [of course] alcohol for all … Continue reading
Grilled Peaches with Blue Cheese, Toasted Walnuts and Honey
Make this now. Nothing screams nice weather like fresh farmstand fruits, grilling, and lighter meals. We just came back from Michigan with a huge bag full of ripe peaches that we bought right at our favorite U-Pick farm, Twin Maple Orchards. Most of the fruit (meticulously peeled and pitted by my wonderful wife) went into … Continue reading
No Wimpy Bagels Here
I still vividly remember the first time I had a real, New York bagel — I was an intern in lower Manhattan, about a week into my first rotation in the world of finance. Fridays anywhere are permeated with that pleasant tingle of an impending weekend, but something about the 13 hour days in my … Continue reading