Elena’s Quick Quiche

When my friend Elena made this for me, it had been days since I had eaten anything home made or truly filling. Living off of pizza and bagels due to a busy schedule left my stomach yearning for something more substantial.  This quiche really hit the spot. With bits of tender spinach, crunchy bacon, and [...]

Eating French in Brooklyn

On a recent visit to Smith Street in Brooklyn, one of the notable sites was the plethora of French restaurants. If you have an itch for a French cafe experience, this area is definitely one of the places to go. For brunch we went to Provence en Boite. Part bakery part restaurant this place has [...]

Roman Dining in Chicago

There is nothing more awesome than a true Italian style dinner….multiple courses, good wine, and eating that spans several hours. It is pretty rare to find a restaurant that feeds you continuously for that long without requiring you to nibble and look ackwardly at your impatient waitress/waiter. But at Enoteca Roma (restaurant part of Letizia’s [...]

Cake Tasting Chicago

The best part of planning a wedding is definitely the cake tasting. There is nothing more amazing than being handed a large array of cake and being told to have at it. In Chicago there is an endless number of great bakeries to choose from. To narrow down the list, I chose to go [...]

Four Seed Tweety Bird Cookies

When I was buying the ingredients for these cookies from bulk item section of whole foods, it looked like I was feeding a very expensive bird so I thought dedicating this cookie to Tweety bird was appropriate. I was having a craving for nuts, granola, and an oatmeal cookie and these cookies are the [...]

Mark Bittman’s Olive Oil Cookies with Wine and Rosemary

Mark Bittman, I like your style. When I read this recipe initially I had to admit it seemed a little too much of the savory side to be called a cookie. The ingredients could easily serve as a base for a fantastic italian meal, which is what makes these cookies so special. I was [...]

Rosé Wine Apricot Clafoutis

Inspired by my favorite celebrity chef Mark Bittman’s recent New York Time’s video on clafoutis. I decided to create my own version of this easy French dessert. I had a lot of left over dried apricots thanks to a Costco impulse buy and decided to reconstitute these super sweet fruits with a little rosé [...]

Chestnut Souffle

To be honest, I am amazed how well this turned out. I just happened to have a couple of packages of whole chestnuts that needed to be used. Unfortunately, the internet and my cookbooks did not have much to offer by way of any recipes calling for whole chestnuts. Most recipes require chestnut paste. So [...]

Tackling Yeast: Two Bread Recipes

In the past when I’ve tried a yeast recipe, I’ve found myself lacking the patience to let things rise or some accident left the yeast a little…ummm….dead, like horrible yeast massacre dead. One time the water was too warm, another setting the dough left to rise by an over enthusiastic radiator precooked half of it. [...]

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova

For me one of the best parts of the holiday season is the desserts; and few desserts can top a fluffy rich pavlova. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. The pavlova is flavored with cocoa and bittersweet chocolate chips, topped with a generous pile of raspberries and sweet [...]