My favorite living situation ever was the year I spent in a garden-level apartment in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan. The building was a New York-style brick three-level with two apartments on each level – very old school. My friend Sarah lived in the apartment across from mine, and we spent our free time visiting each…
Ironically, I used to be a vegetarian. Three times, in fact. The first time was during high school, when I was experimenting with trends like any teenager. It lasted until I got tired of not being able to eat what my mom put on the table at dinnertime. The second was during college, when I…
When Eli and I were first dating, and I started having him over for dinner during the week (prior to meeting me, the poor guy subsisted mainly on vending machine food, Wendy’s, Kraft Mac ‘N’ Cheese, and ramen noodles, and I couldn’t stand it), I regularly asked if he had any preferences about dinner, and…
The first time I ate Italian Beef was shortly after I moved to Chicago, at the home of my friends Jonathan and Melinda Carter. I remember walking into their house, and being greeted by a mouth-watering aroma coming from the kitchen. There were about 15 of us there for dinner that night, and Melinda had…
Ground turkey, being lower in fat than ground beef (I’ll leave venison out of this particular discussion, and focus just on the meats available in your local market), is often used as a beef substitute in tacos, pasta sauce, meatloaf, and so on. It’s considered by the health-conscious to be the “beef alternative” staple of…
I love curry. Indian curry, African curry, Thai curry, anything curry. All someone has to do is say the word “curry,” and I will drop what I’m doing, instantly captivated. Show me the curry. Seriously. But curry isn’t something I grew up with. I first tried it during The Great Solo European Backpacking Adventure of…