Curses! I hate when I forget to take a photograph of the completed meal, and this chicken makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) was absolutely freaking phenomenal. It was, without question, one of the most amazing meals I’ve made at home. And yet, no photos. But I have pics of the biryani, which was also fantastic.
CONFESSION: You [...]

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 [...]

Recently I spotted a new addition to the always interesting ethnic foods section at our local Woodmans. Something South African’s bagged sauces caught my attention immediately and I knew I had to try them. I started with the Durban curry, and I’m so glad I did.
Earlier in the week I roasted my first duck, a [...]

Italian restaurants and I have a tricky relationship. It’s because I make REALLY good Italian food. I’m better at some cuisines than others, but Italian is easily the one I understand the most completely. Because of this I find a lot of Americanized Italian food bland, often salty, and usually end up saying “My lasagna/ravioli/pesto [...]

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 [...]

Perhaps my most successful experimentation ever, this meal was born from the need for something very quick and I had a few off ingredients that I needed to get rid of, and I sort of made this up as I went along. One of my favorite meals that my grandfather used to make is smoked [...]

Admittedly I was skeptical about trying this recipe, but it sounded so, so good. We picked up some smoked salmon for a steal from the discount meat bin at Woodman’s and I found the recipe when I was searching for ways to work smoked salmon in with pasta.
My shortcut? Vodka sauce from a little fresh [...]

When I discovered Trader Joe’s had langostino tails (little, sweet lobsters) for only $9 a bag I about lost my mind. There’s little I love more than seafood alfredo, and now I would be able to make my own!!
It was really quite simple to do. I thawed and rinsed the langostinos before sautéeing them in [...]

Tonight’s dinner was the product of a fridge full of mustgo. A pound of ground beef, some multicolored cauliflower from the farmer’s market and some leftover curry paste. I’d never thought about making curried ground beef, so I was shocked when I found that ground meat actually had a name.

I kind of wished I could [...]

Who knew a crappy little hole-in-the-wall restaurant would have one of the best meals out I’ve had in a long time? My friends and I had dinner at Taste of Lebanon in Chicago before seeing our friend Don play Tom Cruise in a reenactment of Legend at the Neo-Futurists Theatre and were treated to a [...]

This meal had a couple different inspirations. A few years ago my husband and I went to Cleveland for a long weekend and ate at a wonderful little restaurant whose name I can no longer recall. I’ll never forget my lunch, though; they served a macaroni and cheese with pulled BBQ pork that was just [...]

Inspiration hit tonight and boy was it a good one. I present to you a new favorite. The flavor was complex and intense, sharp and sweet. It was kind of the perfect meal, and if I had a restaurant this would so be on the menu.
Since I don’t have a restaurant, I present to you [...]