For the past few months I’ve been keeping my eye on the northwest corner of Irving Park and Southport. Each day as I’d drive through the intersection from the east (ha! there I’ve worked another compass point into this post) my eyes would glance over to look for signs the new restaurant under construction was ready for customers. It was steadily progressing when one day, I received a message via Twitter, from Southport and Irving (4002 – 4004 North Southport Avenue) inviting me to a grand opening event, would I like to attend? Um, yes please!Continue reading “Southport and Irving Café-Bistro-Bar – Oh that Pork Chop!”
Braised Chicken Legs with Kalamata Olives
Way back in time when I became more serious about cooking for myself I used to read a lot of Food and Wine magazines. This is a variation of one of the first “step-up dinners” I made where I graduated from using one of those jar sauces to cook chicken in. Those, of course, were a step-up from Shake N Bake chicken. I don’t remember all of the original ingredients in the F&W recipe and over the years I’ve tweaked this plenty. Make it a few times and you’ll find it’s a very easy one to customize for yourself.Continue reading “Braised Chicken Legs with Kalamata Olives”
Grilled Skirt Steak with Garlic-Lime-Cilantro Marinade
Sorry for the rather light posting lately, real world has been pretty busy which is a good thing. Anyway, on my way back from the office the other day I stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a couple of items and saw a bag of limes. I was planning on grilling some skirt steak for dinner and I really like using limes in my marinades so I grabbed them. For me there’s just something about limes that seems to say “sunshine.” Limes (and lime juice) give some really good citrusy flavor to cocktails, salsas, ceviche, Thai food, etc. See? Don’t you think of warm sun and sand when I mention those? Good thoughts for springtime in Chicago.Continue reading “Grilled Skirt Steak with Garlic-Lime-Cilantro Marinade”
Garlic Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb with an Orange Mint Sauce
So remember a few posts back how I said I always make a leg of lamb for Easter? (No? Well go back a few and get caught up!) Since we were traveling I didn’t get to cook Easter dinner. However, upon returning to Chicago I noticed ham and lamb were both on sale. Imagine that. It was kind of like buying wrapping paper on December 26. Very nice. They didn’t have any full lamb legs but there were plenty of 3-4 lb shanks and shoulders to be bought. Prices being what they were I picked up a nice little piece of lamb (and some ham) which I intended to make for Sunday dinner. And since this past Sunday was Orthodox Easter it turns out I did make lamb on Easter!Continue reading “Garlic Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb with an Orange Mint Sauce”
White Sox Home Opener on the Southside!
I don’t know if I should put this in the travel category or not. I did have to cross a border to the Southside so technically…I mean, it’s a long way from Wrigleyville. Especially metaphorically. Northside, Southside, I really don’t have a dog in this baseball fight since I’m a born and raised NY Yankee fan (go ahead, hate away), but I am a baseball fan and love going to the ballpark. When the opportunity arose to attend the Sox home opener, I took it.Continue reading “White Sox Home Opener on the Southside!”
Weekend in Paris: A Tale of Two Memories
Paris. Cheryl’s favorite city. I’d been there once before but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It was a very interesting trip in that my perception of Paris was based on 20 year old memories. How much would it have changed? How different would my experience be this time as opposed to going over on a school trip where, let’s just say, my attentions were focused on other things. And we’d get to see my Navy brother and his family who were coming to Paris from Spain for the kids’ spring break. Bonus!Continue reading “Weekend in Paris: A Tale of Two Memories”
Easter Brunch Idea: Sausage Stuffed Artichokes
So I’m in the grocery store this week walking around looking for inspiration and I spy artichokes on sale. Just like asparagus, artichokes are coming into season and are yet another sign of Spring’s arrival. Artichokes can look scary and overwhelming to the home cook. What do you do with them? Supposedly they’re very difficult to pair with wine so it’s not just a problem for the home cook. Truthfully, they’re not difficult. In fact they’re pretty easy to work with. The simplest preparation is to trim and boil them until tender and make some sort of aioli or sauce to dip the leaves in. Great for kids, they get to use their fingers. We’re adults here though, so a little more sophistication is needed!Continue reading “Easter Brunch Idea: Sausage Stuffed Artichokes”
Mushroom and Carrot Risotto
Ah risotto. Siiiiiiiigggghhhhh. I’d say this is one of those dishes every budding home chef ate at a restaurant or saw Mario make on tv and said to themselves “I have to learn how to make this!” Risotto’s not quite the Holy Grail of home cookery but I’d say it’s one of the top adventures on the quest. And like Percival, you might be forever searching. (Oh man is Cheryl going to roll her eyes and shake her head at that obscure Arthurian/Grail legend reference.) You try and try and try to get this one right every time and feel so good when it all works out but a little disheartened when something goes wrong. I love making this at home and instead of King Arthur, I’ve got Molto Mario to thank for it. Continue reading “Mushroom and Carrot Risotto”
Meat on a Stick: Lamb Kebabs with Mint Yogurt Sauce
It’s almost Opening Day here in Wrigleyville and the temperature has cooled off a bit from last week but that’s ok, it’s still grilling spring training weather. By the time summer does roll around I’ll be in mid-season form. These lamb kebabs are one of the first things I ever grilled for Cheryl, showing her I wasn’t just an inside cook, I’ve got an outside game too! Kebabs, skewers, whatever you call them, these are perfect for summertime cookouts. You can either snack on them as an appetizer or put them out as a main course. This is also a great spring training exercise to reacquaint yourself with how your grill cooks and getting your timing down. Continue reading “Meat on a Stick: Lamb Kebabs with Mint Yogurt Sauce”
Happy World Whisky Day! Whisky Tasting at Binny’s World of Whiskies
Happy World Whisky Day! It just so happens last Thursday Cheryl and I headed south from Wrigleyville to Binny’s Beverage Depot (Lincoln Park) for an annual tasting event they host called World of Whiskies with over 50 different whisky and whiskey (you know the difference) distributors. Since Cheryl and I both like single malt scotch (whisky) we decided to go. Ticket price was $50 each if you had a Binny’s card, $60 if you didn’t, which for a tasting of this size is actually pretty cheap. I recall there being a similar annual event in DC that cost upwards of $125, which we felt was way too much so never went. Anyway, this Chicago event sold out pretty quickly and ran for three hours. Plenty of time to get your money’s worth and for us plenty of time to sample some new whisky. A list of what we tried is at the end.Continue reading “Happy World Whisky Day! Whisky Tasting at Binny’s World of Whiskies”
The Roaming GastroGnome 