Rick Bayless: Mexican Essentials, released Wednesday, puts some of his most essential recipes (along with lots of videos) in the palm of your hand. more ›

Director Gereon Wetzel decided on a strictly show-don't-tell philosophy for this documentary, and the result is a close but nearly context-free look at Adrià and a handful of chefs going about the process of dazzling the culinary world year in and year out. more ›

Want to be Safeway's next chef? All is takes is a killer skillet recipe. more ›

Now you don't have to wait for the Girl Scouts. Make the insanely popular cookies any time of the year, whenever you want. more ›

The new vegan cookbook from The Spork Sisters is filled with recipes that make meat-free dining easy and approachable. more ›

We found an excellent primer on crafting the perfect gingerbread house online to save all of you in need of a last minute dish for a holiday celebration. more ›

If you need a bread course for Thanksgiving or just a new recipe, try these smooth, savory biscuits. more ›

Hosting Thanksgiving can be stressful and intimidating. Now that we’re just over a week away from the big day, we wanted to share with you our tips for staying cool, calm, and collected. Sort of. more ›

Now that Next Restaurant is onto their Childhood menu, all the hype about their amazing take on turn-of-the-century French cuisine has faded. Now you can make all of the courses from that menu at home with the "Next: Paris 1906" cookbook for iPad. more ›

Soup recipes are back - stay tuned for our favorite soups to keep you warm through the winter doldrums. more ›

If you're not a fan of farro (say that three times fast) you should be. more ›

Use up the last of the summer tomatoes before they wither. more ›

It's that time of year again - pumpkin time! If you aren't a fan of pumpkin pie, try these tasty and entertaining bars! Because everything is better in bar form. more ›

Quinoa. You might not know how to pronounce it, but you have probably seen it on a menu or two or in the health food section of your local grocery store. To the untrained eye, it looks like a grain . . . almost like rice. But cooks and healthy eating aficionados know that it is something more. Quinoa is an ancient and nearly perfect food, as good for you as it is good tasting. As the fight against obesity and unhealthy diets ratchets up, we think you are going to be seeing and eating a lot more of it in the days ahead. more ›

Have you tried tofu noodles yet? Increasingly popular because they look like regular pasta and are almost as versatile, tofu noodles have far fewer carbohydrates than their flour-based cousins. They are made from soy and are usually ready to eat straight out of the package. To warm them up, up you can simply run them under a hot tap or give them a quick dip in a pot of boiling water. They hold sauces quite nicely and are fantastic in cold salads. Chicago’s own Phoenix Bean is one of the premier producers of tofu noodles. Owner Jenny Yang and her crew can be found at farmers’ markets all over the city selling their noodles and tofu and their products can be found in both local stores and restaurants. You can even visit their factory in Edgewater to buy fresh at great prices. more ›

Carnivale University - the fantastic mash-up of a name the Chicago restaurant has given its occasional classes in mixology, Latin cooking and entertaining - met again on Wednesday evening for a basic introduction to the Mojito. Led by head bartender and house mixologist Daryl Freeman, Mojitos 101 gave the crowd of 50 or so students the tools and know-how to whip up this classic, fresh, fair-weather rum cocktail at home. more ›

The USDA regularly tests produce for pesticides and other chemicals - and they were surprised to find cilantro (the first fresh herb tested) was absolutely loaded with pesticides. The Tribune's Monica Eng reported that 94% of the samples taken by the USDA tested positive for at least one pesticide, and 44% showed pesticides not approved for use in Cilantro - the number in apples was 2%. more ›

According to the USDA, pork no longer has to be cooked until it's dry and dead. The previous guidelines, which called for pork to be blasted until it was 160 degrees, white and dry (ok, the last two are our personal descriptors) have been revised, and the Tribune reports that 145 degrees is the new accepted temperature. As chefs have been saying for years, pink pork is safe to eat. This won't change our personal habits (we already cook pork pink) but at least maybe we'll be able to use the built-in alarm on our meat thermometer, which is rigged to conform to USDA guidelines. more ›

For dinner this week, you get a heaping helping of new mayor. Delicious. Give our Rahm Salmon-uel a try. It's a little sweet, and a little fishy, but mostly just smoky and spicy. Just like the man himself. more ›

As our beloved Chicago Bulls continue to surprise and delight, the city's eyes will be on the team tonight as they play at home against the Atlanta Hawks. We weren't lucky enough to score tickets, but we (and now you, too) can make Chicagoist's own Bulls Broccoli at home to eat during the game. more ›

Kevin's experiment with growing tobacco last summer didn't end well, since he was growing them potted on a rooftop deck. The plants he gave us that we planted on our backyard, on the other hand, took root like the weeds they were. Last October we gave Meatyballs Mobile owner/chef Phillip Foss the leaves our Chinese neighbors didn't scavenge to work with in the kitchen. Foss had contacted Art Culinaire magazine. more ›

Nuts about nuts? What a tramp. But really, if you enjoy pecans, try making our Pecan Apple Chicken recipe this week. The pecan coating has more protein than traditional breading, and it's baked so you can avoid oil splatters all over that nice, clean stovetop of yours. The sweet cubes of apple pair well with the crispy pecans, and it's all done in one pan for easy cleanup. This recipe is easy enough for any night of the week - it was designed with the novice home cook in mind. Give 'er a try and let us know what you think. more ›

The illustrious French macaron: those little cookie sandwiches that aren’t quite cookie and aren’t quite sandwich. Macarons have a finer-than-eggshell thin crust, a chewy inside and are typically consumed in precisely one and a half delicious bites. The Parisian pâtisseries have secrets that we will never know (it probably has something to do with their above-quality ingredients), which gives their macarons that much more of an Mmmmm! factor. But Paris is far, and expensive, so we had our hand at making our own. more ›

We were first introduced to Jo Snow Syrups by Lisa Thompson of Blue Sky Bakery. She pulled a bottle out of a refrigerated case and poured a bit of an anonymous substance into our steamed milk, promising that we would like it. When we tasted it, we knew at once that this was a special product. Our first taste, of Fig Vanilla Black Pepper syrup, converted us to the cause, though we weren't sure what else could be done with flavored syrups. After spending an afternoon with the founder of Jo Snow Syrups, Melissa Yen, our horizons have been broadened. Coffee drinks, exotic cocktails, baked goods and even roasts can be enhanced by the exotic flavors of Jo Snow syrups. Best of all? They are all-natural and reasonably priced. We had to get into Melissa's kitchen and learn how these were made. more ›

It doesn't seem like restaurant news is going to be a very high priority today. Our general advice? Assume everything except Starbucks is closed until you call and confirm - as of this morning, there are so many closing notes in our inbox and on twitter that we can't keep updating. But all is not lost! Let's say you are stuck at home and looking for a project to keep you busy and keep the house warm. You could make an edible football stadium, but that doesn't use the oven. Or, you could make girl scout cookies. While we love buying girl scout cookies, what do you do during the other 11 months of the year? You could go survivalist and stockpile them, but in case you don't have a pantry, the Seattle Weekly has broken the code for you. more ›

It’s a real shame that it is so difficult to make your own ribs in the city. We’re pretty sure your landlord is not crazy about the idea of a big barbecue smoker on your rickety wooden porch. Your condominium association might have an objection to you precariously balancing a huge smoker on your 25th story 3x3 cement porch. Nor do we think it good form to funnel woodsmoke into your neighbor’s bedroom window. These challenges aside, you can make what we call “high-rise style” barbecue ribs right at home. (Barbecue smoker purists, turn away!) more ›

You might not know how to pronounce it, but chances are good that you have seen it. If your palate is partial to spicy Asian cuisine then chances are even better that you have actually had some. We are talking about Sriracha - that bright red sauce in the plastic bottle with its crazy logo and scores of foreign characters. As its popularity grows, this hot sauce is showing up in restaurants and grocery stores everywhere. But what is Sriracha? And with its tongue-twisting name and exotic packaging, where does it come from? The answer to that last question might just surprise you. more ›

This weekend is the first Green City Market of 2011. Schwing! To kick things off, GCM is holding a food photo contest for all of you Chicago foodies out there, and the prizes are pretty sweet, in our humble opinion. The contest is “Farm to Table,” and the idea is to show the raw ingredients you buy at the market and how you transform them into your dinner. You should take pictures at the market, while cooking, and of the finished product. more ›

Did you make the resolution to eat out less and cook at home more? That’s okay. Neither did we. We’re lazy. Even still, this is a great time of year to break out that crock pot hiding in the back of your cabinet and slow cook the crap outta some beautiful cuts of meat. more ›

Sometimes a Sunday calls for heading out for brunch. This past Sunday called for getting messy in the kitchen. We had these chicken breasts that inspired us to get our chicken and biscuit on. But we didn't want just any chicken biscuit. We wanted some inspiration. more ›