Fall has always been my favorite season, even though it doesn’t last long enough and means that the cold and snow of Michigan winter are on their way. I love the vivid colors of the changing trees; the crisp, frosty mornings when I can see my breath floating on the air in front of me….
In late fall, when I’ve given up on salad and the farmers’ market pickings are growing slimmer, I turn to my oven for everything – meat, baked goods, and even vegetables. I like nothing better than pulling a pan of mouth-wateringly aromatic roasted vegetables from the oven – they are so good, I could eat…
I first tasted huevos rancheros at Hot Spot, a breakfast eaterie in Chicago’s west side Humboldt Park neighborhood. My friend Laura was my breakfast partner that morning, and she was the one who ordered the huevos, and who ended up threatening to slap my wrist when I wanted to keep stealing bites. Hot Spot serves…
Late summer in Michigan means gardens overflowing with zucchini. My grandparents and my dad, who live next door to each other yet have separate vegetable gardens, spend August giving away what seems like an endless supply of zucchini – to their friends, neighbors, anyone who happens to stop by (you might think they’d have learned…
Summer means cucumber salad. My mom’s cucumber salad. It can show up on the picnic table alongside anything from burgers to brats to barbecued chicken and perform as the perfect side dish. I’ve also been known to eat it as a one-dish meal. It’s also, oddly enough, the dish that got me to like raw…
The day before I first made dinner for Eli, my friend Becky asked me what I was planning to cook. I rattled off the menu, which included dessert of blueberry crumble. The following week, Becky sent me a link to a Smitten Kitchen post on something called blueberry boy bait. “Is this what you made…