Not in it, but not totally out of it either
By Emily 4 Comments
My family just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Peru. We visited Machu Picchu and other Inca ruins, the Andean city of Cusco and Peru's capital, Lima. We were astonished by the complex buildings of the Incas, touched by the warmth of the Peruvian people and delighted by the delicious food we ate. It was one of the best trips of my ...
Read More »
By Emily 1 Comment
Are you looking for the perfect appetizer to wow your guests this New Year's? I have just the thing: gravlax. This Scandinavian cured salmon is part of my family's holiday celebration every year and every year we ask ourselves: why don't we make this more often? Goodness knows it is not hard. The catch? You have to plan in advance -- three days in ...
Read More »
By Emily 2 Comments
Every year at this time of year, my mother bakes dozens and dozens of Swedish gingersnaps, called pepparkakor, to give to family and friends. The recipe came from my grandmother, whose parents were Swedish, and it calls for chopped slivered almonds in the dense, spicy dough. I grew up eating these cookies by the pound as a child and they are a ...
Read More »
By Emily Leave a Comment
Christmas is in less than a week and you are out of ideas. Or money. Or both. But you still have a long list of people who need gifts, from the day care teacher who likes your kid the best to the UPS guy who never tells your husband about all the packages from Zappos. So, get in the kitchen and start making some edible gifts! Edible gifts have ...
Read More »
By Emily 1 Comment
This is a story about what it is like to be the child of a food blogger. The other day, at the grocery store, Zuzu spied a jar of edible cookie dough from The Cookie Dough Cafe in the dairy aisle. She begged me to buy it because she had heard about this company's products from some of her favorite You Tube stars. I, on the other hand, had never ...
Read More »
By Emily 1 Comment
For the last night of Hanukkah this year, we celebrated with a special family dinner. I made potato latkes, of course, and the main course was a delicious, marinated leg of lamb. If you are looking for an impressive entrée for your upcoming holiday feast, you could not do much better than a boneless leg of lamb. Because it has been so ...
Read More »
By Emily 3 Comments
Aren't these individual mince pies adorable? I'm pretty taken with them myself. Wouldn't they look so festive at a holiday party, cookie exchange or even as the end to a jolly Christmas dinner? I couldn't just give you a recipe for sweet, spicy apple mincemeat, tell you that it makes an absolutely smashing pie filling -- yes, I'm feeling rather ...
Read More »
By Emily 4 Comments
Today’s recipe post is sponsored by Sun-Maid in conjunction with my work as part of Kitchen-PLAY‘s #TeamFreshSummit. As always, all opinions are entirely my own. Doesn't the word "mincemeat" make you think of Christmas in Victorian novels? I'm sure there was a mincemeat pie at Bob Cratchit's family Christmas or at least at the Christmas ...
Read More »
By Emily 1 Comment
This week, Jewish families around the world will gather together to celebrate Hanukkah, the festival of lights. Hanukkah commemorates the victory of a small group of Jews, the Maccabees, over the army of the Greek King Antiochus in the second century BCE. After the Jews drove the Greeks out of Judea, they attempted to restore their temple, which ...
Read More »
By Emily
The Chicago Food Swap celebrated its fourth anniversary on December 6 with an outstanding swap. There were new faces, old friends, delicious food and prizes. Yes, prizes! To mark the occasion, we had two culinary-themed door prizes at the December swap: the new KitchenAid Precision Press French press, which I gather is the gift for the at-home ...
Read More »
By Emily
Friday is National Cookie Day! And why not? It's the time of year when everyone is pulling out their favorite cookie recipes, creaming sugar and butter, chilling dough, cutting out shapes, piping icing, drizzling chocolate and filling tins. Even people who rarely bake have a favorite cookie without which their holidays would not be complete. If ...
Read More »
By Emily
Thanksgiving is barely over and Hanukkah is right around the corner. Many of us are still recovering from one holiday and another is upon us. And right in the midst of all the celebrations and obligations that this time of year brings, a friend of mine lost her mother. She came home from the funeral, looked up and it was Thanksgiving. I barely ...
Read More »
By Emily
I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere has provided me with compensation for this post. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. In the pantheon of Chicago celebrity chefs, Stephanie Izard ranks among my favorites. Not only was Stephanie the first woman to win on “Top Chef,” my favorite television show, she is ...
Read More »
By Emily
Come Friday, you will have leftover mashed potatoes sitting in your fridge. Don't try to deny it. I am sure that those mashed potatoes will be absolutely delicious at your Thanksgiving dinner. I hope that your guests will smother them in gravy and mix them with turkey and stuffing