Content
Every once and awhile I enjoy remixing recipes that have previously appeared on the blog, like my Eggplant and Goat Cheese Dip. I originally posted it here back in August of 2010 to celebrate five months of living in Chicago. Since this month I celebrated my third anniversary of living in Chicago it seemed fitting [...]
When I was younger, I never understood the apprehension about turning 30. I’ve always thought of myself as an old so, so when I was 25 the thought of turning 30 sounded fabulous. For me the 20′s seemed, stereotypically, to be synonymous with insecurity and making mistakes. I was more than happy to skip past [...]
This month kicked off the inaugural challenge for the Creative Cooking Crew. Basically we’re a group of bloggers trying to stretch our cooking skills by all creating a dish each month based on a theme. This month our challenge was to take a rich, fatty, animal protein-based meal and give it a healthy Vegan spin. [...]
Undoubtably cookie baking is one of my favorite holiday past times. Life may be hectic these days and there have certainly been times this month that I’ve summoned the food fairies rather than cooking for myself. But cookie baking, I haven’t compromised on that. I know, you’re glad I’ve got my priorities straight. My first [...]
I’ve been known to get inspiration for recipes in the weirdest places, but I think the story of this recipe takes the cake. The idea for this recipe came after I washed my iPhone in the washing machine. Yes, it was as insane and cringe inducing as it sounds. I was attempting to keep on [...]
With Thanksgiving less than 24 hours away I’m declaring the holiday entertaining season on! Though to be honest, I’ve been pinning ideas for holiday tablescapes, recipes and cocktails for weeks now. As a lover of all things fromage, it’s no surprise that a good cheeseboard is an essential for me when throwing holiday gatherings. And [...]
I’m finally getting back into my cooking/baking routine after falling out of it so hard I was starting to question whether I even liked cooking anymore. And it’s a good thing too because I was starting to wonder whether my frequent takeout routine was making me crabby. It’s not that there is anything wrong with [...]
Last month we played with apples for our 5 Star Makeover challenge. This month we got another seasonal ingredient in the form of squash. I’ve played around with squash a fair bit in the time I’ve had this blog. Though pumpkin in particular takes most Americans to a sweet place, most of my experimentation has [...]
Since my last post my desire to cook has come in drips and drabs. It’s not lost on me how ridiculous it is that I spent over a year and a half looking for a condo with the perfect kitchen – big, updated and full of light – and I’m barely cooking in it. I [...]
This month’s 5 Star Makeover came at the perfect time because I’ve needed some coaxing to get in the kitchen lately. I haven’t posted here since late July. And no, it’s not because I’ve been hoarding some super secret top recipes. I haven’t been cooking much, save for a few uneventful meals that are hardly [...]
As I mentioned early in the week my projects in the kitchen have been a little pathetic this summer. So when family came into town I was determined to redeem myself. Thankfully, around the same time I received an invitation from McCormick Gourmet to participate in their Dinner Party Chain so the stars seemed perfectly aligned [...]
With things beyond hectic in my work and personal life I took an unintended two-month break from the 5 Star Makeover. So when the invitation for this month’s challenge – Greek Meze – showed up in my inbox I was game to get started. Our fantastic hosts provided a pretty extensive list of classic dishes [...]
We’ve had high temperatures in the 80′s and 90′s the past few weeks in Chicago, the kind of arid heat that makes stepping outside seems akin to standing in front of an open oven. Despite this, I’m posting a muffin recipe. If you’re facing temperatures like ours it probably seems a little cruel and ill-timed, [...]
Time for June’s Secret Recipe Club. I’m loving participating because without fail each month I get introduced to either a blog that is new to me or that I’ve read before but never cooked from. This month continued the trend but was even more fun because my assigned blog, Carrie’s Sweet Life, is written by [...]
When I shared last Friday’s cheese reviews it made me realize how much I missed sampling and sharing new cheeses on the blog. I do eat a lot more cheese than is shown on the blog but admittedly sometimes I find myself falling into my old favorites or feeling a little too lazy when I [...]
Today is National Cheese Day, not to be confused with National Goat Cheese Month, which isn’t until August. (I personally find it amusing that all cheese gets only a day, while goat cheese apparently has a whole month. But since I love goat cheese, I’m hardly complaining.) Given the spirit of the day it seemed [...]
Hopefully everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a few days off to drive up to Minnesota and spend time with friends and family. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a love-hate relationship with that drive so I try to find amusing stops I can make [...]
For my second month in Secret Recipe Club I was assigned the blog Teenage Taste. I’d stumbled upon her blog a few times before when Googling for recipes so I was thrilled to be able to spend more time with it, exploring her various eats. Overall, I find her blog very inspiring and it makes [...]
First off, I have to say a huge belated thank you to everyone who came out, in Chicago or elsewhere, for the National Food Blogger Bake Sale and to local wine shop The Poison Cup for generously hosting our Chicago sale. Share Our Strength is an organization that is dear to my heart so I’m thrilled that [...]
One of the fun things about having a food blog is that it provides a peek into what I was preparing and eating at different points in time. Since I’ve never wanted to keep a true food diary I don’t capture every meal and morsel here, but it still gives a good 30,000 feet view [...]
This marks my final submission in the Alaska Fish Taco contest put on by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which since it is also Cinco de Mayo is quite fitting. Our last and final challenge was to create the best fish taco. I will admit for the first time in the entire contest I felt [...]
This is my last fish/seafood taco recipe for the month, so I decided to make it a good one. (Not to discount the others, but this is easily my favorite so far.) This time the challenge was to create our most original taco combo. I was told this could be left somewhat up to [...]
Happy Taco Tuesday! I’m happy to bring you yet another recipe featuring wild Alaska seafood. If you’re just joining me, I’m participating in a fish taco contest among bloggers as put on by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. We’ve been tasked with completely in a range of tasks. So far I tried making battered fish [...]
For my second month in Secret Recipe Club I was assigned the blog Yumsilicious Bakes. With an ample amount of pink in her blog design, Avanika is a girl after my own heart. Her blog is full of sweet treats like Chocolate Overdose Cake and Snickerdoodles. As I was pursuing her blog it happened to [...]
Time again to mark your calendars. The Third Annual National Food Blogger Bake Sale is a week from this tomorrow. This event is pretty meaningful to me because in addition to raising money for Share Our Strength, a fantastic organization, it also personally symbolizes how far I’ve come since the first sale was held two [...]
About four times a year I make the trek home to Minnesota. I have a love-hate relationship with the drive. On one hand is much easier to pack up the dog to drive than it is to fly. There was nothing worse than finding my generally unflappable dog shaking inside his kennel because he’d after [...]
For this installment of the wild Alaska seafood blogger fish taco contest our challenge was to do a grilled taco. While I will admit that a fried fish taco in all its battered, crispy glory is more my style, I was curious to experiment with something a little lighter. As with my last recipe I [...]
Two months ago when I set out to find my perfect chewy banana cookie recipe I never stopped tinkering. The version I came up with then got good reviews from family and friends and I liked the flavor and texture. They were no muffin tops in disguise. No, they were chewy and indulgent tasting, exactly [...]
Last week it was ice cream, but this week it’s all about soup. It might seem a bit incongruent, but it’s pretty representative of the weather we’ve been having these days in Chicago. Somedays it’s nothing but blinding sunshine and I find myself practically skipping to work in a dresses and open toe shoes. Other [...]
Last month’s 5 Star Makeover event was all about beets. Given that they are sometimes called super foods I found it amusing that this month’s theme was junk food. Talk about jumping from one end of the spectrum to the other. Our challenge was not a makeover of junk food, but to incorporate it into [...]
When I went on my apple picking adventure to Indiana back in October I had a feeling once I was hauling my apples back to the car that I had over picked. But it didn’t really hit home until I loaded my apples in the refrigerator and they completely filled both my crisper bins. For [...]
This month marked the first time I was able to participate in Secret Recipe Club. I tried to join quite a while ago but the group was full so when I received an e-mail announcing that they had an opening I was thrilled to take part. Essentially, each month you are assigned another blogger and [...]
Between November and April I usually avoid the weather app on my iPhone. Living in Chicago it’s generally an instant ticket to disappointment and frustration. Despite what a lifetime lived in cold climates might suggest about me, I do not enjoy cold and snow. Sure it’s nice for a few weeks to inspire indoor projects, [...]
I had a blast working with Alaska Seafood to conceive a dish for the Foodbuzz Blogger Fest so when they reached out to ask if I’d like to participate in an Alaska Fish Taco contest for bloggers I was game. The contest started back in February (though I’ve been a bit late to the party [...]
As I’ve probably said before, I am the kind of cook who mostly values exploring the new vs. repetition. I have an inherent desire to switch things up and even if I stumble across (or create) a recipe that I absolutely love it’s almost impossible for me to make it again without changing it in [...]
One of the things I love about cooking is that progress and growth are often very tangible. Dishes that I once considered elusive and challenging like liver mousse or risotto have over time become well within reach. With constant experimenting, exotic ingredients have grown familiar and challenging, new techniques, approachable and possible. And one of [...]
In the past couple of weeks I attended not one, but two soup exchange parties. I went to my first one back in 2009, and then attended again last year, so it’s become my winter tradition. The premise is you gather your friends together and everyone brings a favorite variety of soup. The party is [...]
This month’s 5 Star Makeover challenge was beets. This time I was inspired by my earliest memories of beets. For much of my childhood, beets were nothing more than an incredibly foreign and scary looking ingredient on salad bars. My grandmother would always load them onto her plate along with other ingredients I loathed at [...]
Almost a month ago I mentioned one of my new year’s resolutions, to waste less and to be more inspired by what I have on hand. And thankfully, it’s been working pretty well. While my approach to menu planning is not vastly different, I have tweaked it slightly. My usual routine was to spend a [...]
Between The Patriots’ appearance in XLVI and my alma mater, Boston University’s, victory in the first round of The Beanpot tonight I’ve been finding myself thinking a bit about Boston lately. Without a doubt my decision to move to Chicago nearly two years ago was a smart one, but it doesn’t mean I don’t find myself [...]
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a 5 Star Makeover. To recap, our fantastic hosts Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! pick a monthly theme and then participating bloggers get to interpret as we wish. So far we’ve made over bacon and eggss (I did a pizza with Egg, Bacon, and [...]
For most of the winter thus far here in Chicago temperatures have been balmy and mild. Christmas came and went with barely so much as a dusting of snow. Brown Christmas indeed. I was starting to naively believe that we’d hit spring by February. But then last week we finally got a little over two [...]
Before Christmas I mentioned my love of holiday traditions, but I realized the other day that I forgot one – new year’s resolutions. For a long time I never made any. They seemed like a cliche and I assumed that even if I did make one, my follow through would be poor. Then in 2007 [...]
Back in November while at the Foodbuzz Fest I tried for the first time, and consequently fell in love with, Apple Balsamic Vinegar. Made from apple vinegar and apple juice it had the characteristic depth of balsamic vinegar with the sweetness of apples. And having been aged for 5 years it was also slightly syrupy [...]
This was one of those recipes I never intended to post. I made them for one of my friends over the summer, a casual dinner enjoyed on the back porch with copious amounts of wine and good conversation. Because of all the socializing, snapping a good photograph of this dish was the last thing on [...]
Like salami? Don’t forget to check out my fun giveaway from Creminelli. I couldn’t make it through the holidays without sharing a new cookie dough truffle recipe. Ever since my aunt brought chocolate chip cookie dough truffles to my parents’ house for Christmas Eve two years ago I’ve been hooked. In fact, the original ones [...]
As a child, come December 21 focusing on schoolwork was impossible. I’d long since created my wish list from the JCPenney catalogue and had been on my best behavior so as to ensure I would be in good graces with Santa Claus. Sleeping through the night was practically impossible, the prolonged sugar high following school [...]
For a long time I hated peppermint. It makes me feel like a bit of a scrooge to say so this time of year given the iconic nature of candy canes and my especially unabashed love of Christmas. As a kid I’d never turn down cherry flavored candy canes, but the mint ones, for me, [...]
I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I’m known for changing what I’m making for dinner once I’ve already started cooking. As in, the butter’s melted, the pancetta is crisping in the pan and I’m onto something entirely different than where I originally started. It seems like terrible evidence of my short attention [...]
The sugar high continues here on The Pink Apron with the reveal of our recipes for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I know I thoroughly enjoyed participating because I definitely enjoy baking for others much more than for myself and I also really, really enjoy receiving packages. Getting my boxes reminded me very much [...]
