I’ve been curious about Vietnamese food ever since I developed a crush on Spike Mendelsohn when he was a contestant on Top Chef. The promise of a mix of spicy and sweet intrigued me, but I never got around to trying Vietnamese food until recently when Chicago’s Big Pho opened up a branch near my [...]

Last night I came dangerously close to choosing a jarred sauce to pair with the lobster ravioli we splurged on at The Pasta Shoppe in Oak Park. I had the jar of alfredo all ready to go, and while I’m sure I’d have loved it (Bertolli Alfredo may not be authentic, but it’s divine), I [...]

This is no shortcut recipe, but it is really simple. It just involves occasionally babysitting while you go about your day. Also? I just made this recipe up. I call it Country French Turkey because the flavor reminds me of Chicken Tonight’s Country French sauce, but I don’t know how French it is. I just know it’s delicious. It’s beautiful comfort food and a super elegant meal that certainly doesn’t taste like it costs so little per serving!

CONFESSION: I was afraid of making my own stocks for a long time. It was tedious, quite frankly, and I’m all about the shortcuts, right? Well, who knew that spending a little time to make the stocks could be an awesome shortcut?
When I made my Shrimp Scampi a couple weeks ago I knew I’d be [...]

Bravado? Maybe a bit, but it’s true. My meatloaf, even when not in MEATCAKE! form, is the stuff of legend. Back when I made the MEATCAKE! I promised a recipe but failed to deliver. Today I give you my secret (modified from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How To Cook Everything). You’re welcome.

CONFESSION: I love cookbooks. Like LOVE cookbooks, even though I rarely use the recipes as described. I like browsing through for fun, getting ideas, learning new techniques I can apply elsewhere. Sure, I use the internet to find recipes on occasion, but my first stop is almost always my shelf of cookbooks. And that’s where [...]

There was something about the Chilaquiles Verdes (think Mexican lasagna) recipe I saw on Daisy Cooks that inspired me to try it from scratch before I attempt to design some shortcuts around it. And believe me, from the fresh salsa verde to frying my own tortillas, this was a labor and time-intensive dish. There are [...]

About a month ago we got a great deal on a whole ham in the discount meat bin. $7 for a TON of ham. The up side? A lot of really good smoked ham. The downside? That’s a lot of ham, and for us, ham is a sometimes food, which means getting creative. I’ve been [...]

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Corned Beef & Cabbage. For one, there’s just no good shortcuts for it. Sure, you can make it all in the crock pot, but then you get mushy, fatty vegetables, which is just no fun. So this time my shortcut was simple: I made my husband start it [...]

How to make delicious little balls of cholesterol… seriously, YUM.

Yes-indeedy, this is absolutely what you think this is, and exactly what it shouldn’t be. It’s a MEATCAKE!!! Featuring three tiers of meatloaf with mashed potato icing and glazed with a delicious ketchup glaze, I was inspired by the awesome recipe by Black Widow Bakery.  It’s late, so I’ll be posting my own step-by-steps and [...]

There are no shortcuts to ropa vieja, a Spanish-inspired dish from Cuba that translates literally to “old clothes”. I’ve tried modifying it for the crock pot, but this is a meal that takes 4 hours to make, plain and simple. But boy is it worth it.
Our friends Tracy and Derek were coming by for the [...]