A Food and (Once & Future) Travel Blog
Whew! So happy Thanksgiving weekend is coming to a close. I didn’t overindulge too much, but just enough to make going to the gym tomorrow a must. Sorry, no leftover turkey recipes for this Sunday Dinner. All turkeyed out after eating it non-stop for the past few days. We still have almost half a turkey left so don’t worry, there will be a recipe using it sometime this week. Just not today! Continue reading “What’s for Sunday Dinner – Pecan Crusted Pork with Orange Sauce, Lentils, and Beets”
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m coming out of food coma from all the eating today so this is going to be a short recap. Down to 15 chefs and these looked like really fun challenges. A chili pepper quickfire where you could win up to $20K based on the pepper you pick and a chili cookoff challenge where you have no time limit. I mean really, who wouldn’t want to try their hand at these? Sign me up!Continue reading “Top Chef Recap”
Nothing wrong with wine and beer for Thanksgiving but why not jazz things up a bit. It’s a holiday, get some more holiday cheer flowing. Heaven knows you sometimes need all the help you can get when dealing with family (not mine, they’re all saints, at least when viewed through the bottom of a cocktail glass they all have halos). Two favorite cocktails of mine are the Old Fashioned and Manhattan, and I think they fit in well with the holiday. One is made with rye and the other with bourbon. Both have a touch of sweetness to them but not too much, and rye is a little spicier and has more grain and earthy flavor than bourbon. With the heavy, salty, food you’re bound to nosh on you need a drink that will cut through it all. What could be better on the All-American holiday than some potent potables made with good old American bourbon or rye whiskey? Ok maybe not better but they’ll definitely help pass the time as the turkey cooks.Continue reading “Thanksgiving Cocktails”
It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving and I haven’t done the shopping yet so the fridge is looking a little bare today. Cheryl noticed and commented that it didn’t look like there was much to make a dinner out of, then said “but you could probably figure something out.” Indeed I could.
I knew there was some ground veal in the freezer and we had some eggs so I decided to make pasta and ragu Bolognese. Normally I use ground beef but sometimes you have to work with what you have. This particular sauce is one whose recipe is debated and debated and debated and there are many different sides. Do you add milk or not? Veal, beef, pork? Don’t even get into the type of pasta you’re supposed to use (not spaghetti).Continue reading “What’s for Sunday Dinner – Ragu Bolognese”
This week the Eater 38 club took a stab at another one of Chicago Eater’s “Eater 38” restaurants. The choice: Maude’s Liquor Bar. Not only is Maude’s on the Eater 38 List but it’s also on the newest Michelin Bib Gourmand list, so I was a little excited about it. Unfortunately that excitement wore off fairly quickly.
Let me say this right off the bat, I thought their frites were some of the best I’ve had. Perfectly fried, thick sticks of potato with a solid, crisp outer shell, encasing a light fluffy center. They smelled and tasted like they were fried in duck fat which may explain it. The frites were so good they didn’t need the aioli which accompanied the order. Not as much a fan of the other appetizer we ordered, the French Onion Fondue (caramelized onions and melted gruyere). As far as melted/broiled cheese appetizers go I wasn’t wowed. Best to leave this type of dish to the Argentine and Mexican restaurants. Continue reading “Eater 38 – Maude’s Liquor Bar”
Every Thanksgiving the one thing I look forward to most is the stuffing. I really could care less about the turkey. For me that is the vessel by which you cook the stuffing.
This is the stuffing my Grandmother (on my father’s side) made and we used to have it every year. It was one of the first recipes of hers I took from my mother. As with many grandmothers, the things she cooked were normally not written down in recipe form, it was all a pinch of this, a couple of these, etc. (as you’ll see). Thankfully, my mother recorded them as best she could when she was learning them. I had a pretty special bond with my Grandmother, we had the same birthday, and I remember her a lot around this time of year when I make this recipe and her special Hungarian Christmas “cookies” in December.Continue reading “The Best Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe!”
So happy we finally got to the real show! Quickfire and Elimination challenges are back! It was a good episode tonight. The send-home decision wasn’t very controversial, it was a clear-cut win, and everyone is getting along, very little personality drama so far. There were a few curious decisions by the cheftestants however.Continue reading “Top Chef recap”
Here’s an extremely simple pureed soup that fits in nicely with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Everyone has their favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner (mine is the stuffing, the turkey is just the vessel by which the stuffing is cooked in my opinion) and most of the time no one ever wants to mess with the traditional parts of the annual dinner like the turkey, mashed potatoes, and pies, myself included. Over the past few Thanksgiving dinners I’ve stuck with a traditional roast turkey, my grandmother’s stuffing (come back later in the week for the recipe for that…sausage is involved) and pumpkin pie. As good a base as any to build around. Cheryl’s fav is the green beans with fried onions so we’ve incorporated that into our traditional base as well. The rest of the sides are where I think you can get a little more creative and adventurous. Sweet potatoes are one side dish you can really branch out on. Here’s one variation that is so simple you can test it out the weekend before.Continue reading “Sweet Potato and Spicy Sausage Soup”
Michelin Guide is out. Nope, no star for Next. Chef Achatz will have to be content with his 3 stars for Alinea. Not surprised actually though. Why the snub? Who knows. There’s been some speculation lately that Next wouldn’t get a star because the menu is always changing and you could have entirely different meals quality-wise because of it. Since no one really knows what Michelin looks for any guess is just that…a guess. Bottom line is they didn’t give it any stars. Deal with it Next fans.
Continue reading “Chicago Michelin Guide – Nope, Zero Stars for Next”
A couple of weekends ago Cheryl and I had another opportunity to dine at one of Chicago Eater’s “Eater 38” restaurants. We had some friends visiting from DC who were staying downtown so we recommended going to The Purple Pig. It’s on Michigan just north of the river which is enough to make you think “tourist food” but it’s not. Well, okay, there can be tourists there but it’s not a tourist trap type of place. In fact The Purple Pig is on the Michelin Guide’s “Bib Gourmand” list for Chicago which means it has high quality food and the price of an appetizer, entrée, and glass of wine is below $40. At the Purple Pig you can definitely get under that number and be very satisfied when you push away from the table.Continue reading “Eater 38 – The Purple Pig”
The Roaming GastroGnome 