This is just to tease inspire you. A couple months ago when we shared our recipe for banana bread we asked what sort of extras you like to mix in. This weekend we made banana bread again and stirred in a half cup each of dark chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts. And then we sprinkled some of each on the top before popping the pan into the oven. We had family visiting later on......

With the warmer weather upon us, we've been outside exercising more and not really into the heavier meals we enjoyed during our winter hibernation. What we've been digging is a well-made salad for a meal, but salads can get really repetitive and boring if you're not careful. Our issue has been that we'll make one great salad and then keep making it until we're so sick of it we either can't stand the sight......

Good, healthy appetizers that impress guests can be hard to come by – everything seems to be either wrapped in bacon or filled with expensive ingredients! Plus, your vegetarian guests are getting tired of veggies and dip. Here’s a recipe for the best tomato-based bruschetta you’ll ever make. Your guests will love you, but you’ll never be able to order it at a restaurant again without being disappointed. You may even end up eating......

Last week when we made slow-cooked beef roast with vegetables and calico bell pepper muffins we also made cowboy cookies. This is a recipe that has been in our family's repertoire for generations, but funny enough, we don't know how they got their name. A cowboy cookie is basically a crispy oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips. That cowboys like? No idea. But they're good on their own, and great with a cold glass of......

Healthy, tasty meals with few ingredients are the name of the game here at Chicagoist. Next time you’re looking for a new fish dish, or you find yourself with salmon in the freezer and no idea what to do, try this simple recipe! It’s impressively tasty, and takes under an hour. Garlic and Lemon Marinated Salmon 2 6 oz salmon steaks (or filets) 1/3 cup olive oil 4 cloves of garlic, chopped Juice of ½......

Here at Chicagoist, we like to keep it simple. On a freezing cold night like the ones we’ve been having lately, that means making tasty meals out of what you have in your refrigerator and your pantry. We don’t know about all of our readers, but if our pantry is any example, we don’t have quail eggs, fresh tarragon and homemade pasta sitting around after a week of avoiding grocery shopping. We usually do have......

The temperatures dipping back down again this week has put us in the mood to cook some classic comfort food. On Presidents' Day we had off but our main squeeze didn't so we were nice and spent the day making pot roast, calico bell pepper muffins and cowboy cookies. Whatever your plans this week, you need to go dust off your slow cooker and make a roast. We know everyone has their own way......

If your Valentine has a sweet tooth and you're looking for something special to make for him or her on the big day, this chocolate-dipped shortbread may be just the thing. These cookies only have six ingredients, all of which we had in our kitchen already. Score! Love it when that happens. Traditionalists will want to leave the chocolate plain, but if your Valentine is a nut-lover, sprinkle some chopped nuts on before the chocolate......

Sick of eating side dishes of chips or heated frozen vegetables, we're always on the lookout for easy sides to make. Adding an exciting side can make your lunch sandwich feel like a real meal. They can also spice up your dinners. When we saw this edamame salad on TasteSpotting we knew it'd be right up our alley. If you can boil water, stir things with a spoon and chop up one scallion, you......

Some days, we just don't feel like cooking and can't be bothered to start the car. That's when you realize that you've underestimated frozen food. Ahh, frozen food. The bachelor's friend. The easy girl at your favorite bar. Let's enjoy her, shall we? Our bar today is Trader Joe's. Let's see what he has to offer. Breakfast – Start off relatively guilt free with some frozen, steel-cut oatmeal. 4 grams of fiber, 5 grams of......

It's the 4th week in January. Do you know where your diet is? If your New Year's resolution was to get fit but you've got a mean sweet tooth holding you back, this applesauce cake may be your savior. Satisfyingly sweet, but made with no butter or eggs to add unnecessary fat. Just don't eat it all in one sitting! Ingredients 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tsp......

Different cultures around the globe have certain foods that are purported to bring about good luck if served and eaten at the start of a new year. While researching a story idea last month we spoke with Professor Bruce Kraig, President of the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Professor Kraig told us that, in Italy, lentils represent coins and that eating lentil soup is regarded as wishing for prosperity for the eater. We also spoke with......

This time of year is usually a slow period for restaurants, what with the cold weather and all. Add to that some scary uncertainty on the job front and people are eating in with more frequency. Which is why the city's convention and tourism bureau is helping out by designating the week of February 22-29 as "Chicago Restaurant Week ... eat it up!" The goal is to raise awareness of the city's dining scene during......

We spent much of last weekend at home watching the NFL playoffs. Whenever there's a chill in the air and football on the tube, we want to make something hot and classic and satisfying to eat. Saturday we made this twist on our old favorite, the potpie. Using ground sirloin keeps it lean and makes it easy, because who can't brown some hamburger? And the sauce is rich without being too heavy, which we......

This classic peanut butter and chocolate combination is simple to make and will impress your friends because who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter together? More than one Chicagoist has made this recipe and we all give it the thumbs up. Try it for yourself. Chocolate Peanut Buddy Bars 1 c. peanut butter 3/4 stick butter 1 1/4 c. sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla 1 c. flour 1/4 tsp. salt 3 c. chocolate......

If you are willing to brave crappy weather with your "Bush was right" or "Bush is a dope" signs, get ready: he's coming to town on Monday. He’ll be in the windy city for the day to celebrate the anniversary of his signing the No Child Left Behind Act into law, and apparently to eat some pizza (Oh, Perino, you’re such a card). He will also be speaking to business leaders to discuss the......

For many of us the holiday season is marked by a weight gain that makes the freshman fifteen seem like a case of simple water retention, spurred on by the flood of baked goods that appear in homes and offices everywhere. But with the huge range of fresh vegetables, herbs, and great cuts of meat available year round in Chicago, the wind chill shouldn't keep you from enjoying some healthy foods. While grilling out may......

Where protein is concerned, chicken is easily the biggest mainstay in our diet. It's affordable, lean, and easy to prepare; it provides us with the flexibility for a wide array of recipes; and we're never bored with eating it. On the other side of the spectrum is mayonnaise. We don't mean satiny emulsions like aioli fragrant with garlic or dill, mind you. We're talking about the white man's poison, Hellman's ca-ca. Our aversion to straight......

Certain holiday cookies evoke memories of childhood. Chocolate Crinkles are one particular cookie that does that for Chicagoist. They're kind of like a cookie brownie, if you can imagine. [Ed note: Oh, can I.] Join us, won't you, as we whip up a batch. What You Need 1 cup cocoa 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 cups granulated sugar 4 eggs 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt Combine ingredients,......

Today is the first day/second night of Hanukkah, the festival of lights (or as we like to call it, Jewish Christmas). In addition to lighting the menorah/hanukkiah, playing dreidel and getting presents, Hanukkah is about oil. And while there are all types of oil, our preference is for the hot bubbly kind in the pan. We cooked up two kinds of latkes last night. The first kind we made was from Fine Cooking magazine,......

So yesterday in our "One Bottle of Wine" post we alluded to some gnocchi we had Saturday night. We felt the need for something to really stick to our ribs with the sleet and frozen rain falling all night, but we didn't want to go through the process of actually making these popular Italian dumplings from scratch. Lucky for us, the produce store by our house (Egg Store, 3008 S. Halsted, 773-284-8704) often carries pre-made......

Last year, perhaps a little earlier, we gave you a quick run-down of where you could buy yourself a turkey and at what cost. We felt that it would be nice of us to do that again for you ... not to mention the fact that we haven't had time to get a turkey for ourselves. So, without further ado, a decidedly skewed to the north side turkey roundup. Dominick's located at 6009 N Broadway......

In what's become an annual feature here at Chicagoist and a personal favorite, we canvassed the staff for some of their best recipes and put together a potluck of amazing proportions to fascinate your taste buds, amaze your family (even the ones entranced by the football games), and bring about peace on earth - or at least in your family - for a few hours through the miracle of tryptophan, simple starches, and sugar......

This month we were originally going to look into one of the cheese readers recommended in October. But then we had all this apple pie to eat. And we had one of those zap-zippity-zap brain moments where we connected the dots and came up with the quite-brilliant plan of picking a cheese of the month that also complemented the apple pie recipe we shared with you last week. So we we went to the new......

Last week we had a hankering for some lamb. We get this craving with some frequency, most often while in nice restaurants. But we have a problem with cooking certain kinds of meat at home. When at a restaurant we don't hesitate in ordering something medium rare and - when the cut of meat warrants it - even straight up rare. However, we have a hard time recreating those meat conditions when in the comfort......

Last year we told you about our apple picking and subsequent experience making applesauce. We thought we'd pick apples again late last month, though we knew it was past proper apple picking season. We went to Royal Oak Farm Orchard where, chagrined but unsurprised, we learned that there weren't many apples left on the trees. Those that remained were, much of the time, unreachable to our five foot five self. We persevered and collected a......

Last week, after making our soup, we found that we still had a fair amount of mushrooms in our possession. We put them in a container, into the fridge and didn't worry too much about them for a few days. Eventually, we realized that they had to be used. We considered a fried rice kind of meal with mushrooms or a tomato sauce, but neither of those things quite did it for us. So we......

It may have been delayed, but fall is finally upon us. What better way to celebrate it than to put on comfy slippers, elastic pants and a heavy sweater whilst slurping a rich and hearty soup? Even before the temperature dropped Chicagoist was gearing up to make a creamy mushroom soup. It was fortuitous that the day we made it was also the day that the median Chicago temperature fell by a whopping thirty degrees.......

So we’ve been watching the baja fish taco revolution with a wary eye. Thanks to the Tribune's Kevin Pang we even have the bracelet, which makes for a great conversation piece for people with their minds in the gutter. The other night we were hungry for some tacos and thought that some fish tacos would be a fitting meal. However, rather than go out to Carbón and buy them, we decided to make them at......

A few weeks back we wrote about our search for a certain Rosey Goat Cheese. Many readers wrote in with information about other places we could look, other cheeses that might fit the bill, and complaints about the commenting system. We were happy to get such a response, even if it didn't actually lead to a purchase of the product in question. We figured readers had given us, and each other, a fair number of......