We like pasta. It’s tasty, it’s quick, it’s cheap and it’s a very easy way to use up things in your refrigerator. This week, we just happened to have some scallions and some slightly wrinkly cherry tomatoes in our fridge, and with some inspiration from Marcella Hazan, we created this dish. It sounds a little odd, but trust us – give it a try. Pasta with Scallions and Cherry Tomatoes (inspired by M.H.) 1 lb......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Theater Pegasus Players and Live Bait Theater are the co-producers behind Steven Simoncic's "Heat Wave." Based on the book of the same name, this play takes a look at the heat wave of 1995 which took the lives of 739 Chicagoans and asks if the deaths could have been prevented and what went wrong. 1145......

A pound and a half filet of cod in the freezer and all out of ideas for what to do with it. Sure, we could grill it or pan fry it, or even bake it, but we've done all those things before. They're all delicious, but not new or exciting. And then along to the rescue comes Elise Bauer at one of our favorite food blogs Simply Recipes. For Lent Elise reposted a recipe......

With four basic ingredients, you can put together a flavorful, healthy soup to sip during the deep freeze gripping Chicago. Skip the pre-made, boxed versions of butternut squash soup and opt for a very easy to prepare, from scratch version, instead. Also, no one is sure what the hell else you can do with a butternut squash. What You Need 1 butternut squash 2 apples (Any kind you like – Gala and Golden Delicious work......

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,......

How Cold is Too Cold?...

It's Wednesday, which means around this time we wait with bated breath for Chicago Magazine's Dish e-newsletter to find our inbox. And, in what's shaping up to be a week of notable restaurant closures, we can add Chinatown's Mulan to the list. It comes to us as a shock, but not a surprise. Kee Chan (Heat Sushi) hasn't been involved in the day-to-day operations here for months. Mulan was known for its Asian-influenced take on......

Rocktober is truly upon us. Usually we would avoid such cutesy phrasing for fear of falling into obvious cliché, but this year truly holds some outstanding live music coming through Chicago in the month of October. Here's a sampling of what to expect this week. Honestly, we’re beginning that suspect that both Matt & Kim and Dan Deacon secretly have apartments in Chicago, because it feels like they’re playing here every other week. If that’s......

- As the CTA moves along with its Doomsday Scenario, Mayor Daley raised the possibility of dedicated bus lanes on Lake Shore Drive. - Dick Devine's current term as Cook County State's Attorney will be his last. - The city is placing the search for a new Police Superintendent in the hands of a highly respected D.C. think-tank. - Good news and bad news on the historic preservation front. - Four men are charged......

After sweeping the Miami Heat and moving past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since the days of MJ, the Bulls now face off against the Detroit Pistons. The series opens on Saturday in Detroit. The one-seed Pistons also swept their opening-round series, taking down the Orlando Magic. Both teams have had nearly a week to prepare for what we anticipate will be a much tougher series for both teams. Do......

The Bulls' Luol Deng may be soft spoken, but that doesn't mean his peers in the NBA haven't taken notice -- and we're not just referring to his play against the Heat last week. They also recognize his sportsmanship, selecting him for the NBA's award given to "the player who best exemplifies ethical behavior, fair play and integrity on the court." In taking home the Joe Dumars Trophy, Deng beat out a number of fellow......

The Bulls' Luol Deng may be spft spoken, but that doesn't mean his peers in the NBA haven't taken notice -- and we're not just referring to his play against the Heat last week. They also recognize his sportsmanship, selecting him for the NBA's award given to "the player who best exemplifies ethical behavior, fair play and integrity on the court." In taking home the Joe Dumars Trophy, Deng beat out a number of fellow......

Chicagoist was pretty sure the Bulls could win their opening-round series against the Miami Heat — ESPN "experts" be damned. But even we didn't think the Bulls could actually sweep Miami. But the young Bulls proved everybody wrong, closing out the series with their 92-79 victory on Sunday in Miami. The Heat put up a good fight for most of the game, leading much of the way until late in the third quarter. The Bulls......

Chicagoist is pretty sure we witnessed the birth of a couple of superstars Tuesday night, as Loul Deng and Ben Gordon teamed up to cool off the Heat once again. With their 107-89 victory Tuesday night, the Bulls took a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series. Gordon got hot early on his way to 27 points, while Deng came alive in the second half to reach 26. Both hit 11 of 19 shots......

Chicagoist is known to throw things when calls don't go our team's way, too, but it's a little harder to get away with when actually playing in the game. Kirk Hinrich learned that lesson in a course taught by NBA VP of basketball operations, Stu Jackson, who fined the Bulls' guard $25,000 for tossing his mouth guard into the stands during Saturday's playoff game agains the Miami Heat. Hinrich's action came after getting called for......

One night, one game, but three seeds lost on the final night of the NBA's regular season for the Bulls. Heading into the final game, the Bulls had the upper hand in winning the second seed in the Eastern Conference. All they had to do was win. Or Cleveland had to lose. But neither came to fruition. The Bulls lost to the Nets 106-97, which combined with Cleveland's win against Milwaukee, dropped the Bulls down......

South Side Irish rocker Tony Duggins...

Doesn't it seem like last year we were getting used to writing "4704" in the dateline of our checks? Chinese New Year is Sunday. 4705 is the year of William Beavers the boar. This means that thousands of people will flock down to Wentworth to watch the pomp and circumstance of dragon processions, fireworks, marching bands, and — since every year is an election year in Chicago — politicians kissing babies, shaking hands, and buying......

No, don't. If your pipes have frozen during this long cold snap, please do NOT thaw them with an open flame. The American Red Cross says so, too. This CBS2 web article is helpful with some tips on how to keep your pipes from freezing as well. Keep the faucets running -- just a little bit. As we heard the guy on the news say last night, "Moving water doesn't freeze." We're not sure we......

Things looked pretty bad when the Bulls' medical staff had to carry Ben Wallace off the court during Saturday night's game against the Miami Heat. At first, a season-ending injury was feared. Initial examinations of his knee, however, seemed positive. Said Bulls trainer Fred Tedeschi: The way we had to carry him off, we thought we were dealing with potentially a season-ending injury. But our initial exam [on Saturday] looked good. The MRI [on Sunday]......

As a general rule, we try not to eat out at Italian restaurants. It isn't that we don't like Italian food, because we do. The prohibition comes more from a belief that most Italian food served in restaurants can be easily created at home. And who wants to pay $12 for a bowl of pasta and sauce that we could make in our own kitchen? But then we read Heat, by Bill Buford. A chronicle......

The Bulls tricked the Miami Heat and treated their fans to a 42-point blowout of the defending NBA Champs, on the same night the champs hung their banner and received their rings. Is the 108-66 victory a sign of things to come for the Bulls' 2006-2007 season? Maybe... After two straight playoff appearances, but also two straight first-round eliminations, the Bulls are poised to compete for the Eastern Conference title this season. We're not saying......

One of the men convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Nicholas Swanson during a brawl in South Elgin last summer was caught violating his probation because he posted images of himself partying on MySpace. Christopher Leon, 20, known at "Cold Heat" on the site, posted pictures of himself drinking, and left messages for other defendants in the case. He had been sentenced to 90 days in prison and 30 months probation, plus an......

Sometimes, when Chicagoist was younger and would get stoned with our friends, they would talk about how easy it would be to get away with this crime or that crime. This was long before all the CSI shows and the Law and Order SVU XYZ Miami Vegas New York Sex Heat Showdown with Baby's dad and everything, but we still never understood why our friends thought these random crimes (armed robberies, etc.) would be so......

Chicagoist believes that the Bulls will hang with the NBA's elite this coming year, with the addition of Ben Wallace. We'll get some sort of answer pretty quickly, we found out today, as the NBA released its 2006-2007 schedule. The Bulls open the season on October 31 on the road against the NBA Champion Miami Heat. The Bulls will be on hand for the Heat raising their banner into the rafters -- a hopeful preview......

Holy crap, we're tired. Day One of the 2006 Intonation Music Festival has come and gone and after a full day's rockin' out at Union Park, we're ready for a nap. No major craziness or incidents to report (though we did see one jackass get escorted out by security for disobeying the no-pushing-your-way-up-to-the-front rule). So far, the fest has gained diversity thanks to a mixture of indie rock, hip-hop, metal and pop but lost a......

For roughly the last year, it seems that any American rock and roll act has only made itself known to people in its homeland by first capturing the hearts and minds (and blogs) of the UK. Then again, when the pop charts here are taken with bands that sound more like the Pussycat Dolls and less like the New York Dolls, it’s little wonder that we come late to the game on a band like......

NBC-5 reports that three men shot a film that attempts to show what life is really like in the Cabrini Green housing project. Shot over a period of five years from 2001 to 2006, the film shows images of violence, police confrontations and rhyme battles in addition to remembrances of friends who have died. The Chicago Housing Authroity objects to the film’s content on the grounds that it portrays only the gang activity within the......

The Miami Heat, led by the Shaquille O'Neal of old (30 points, 20 rebounds) overwhelmed the Bulls at the UC last night, winning 113-96. We began to appreciate just how well Tyson Chandler played defense against Shaq, before spraining his ankle -- he had another subpar night, playing just 18 minutes as foul trouble again plagued him. Nocioni, Gordon and Hinrich each contributed 20+ points of offense, once again, but it wasn't enough to keep......

The Miami Heat regained a 1-game advantage over the Bulls in the best-of-seven series, beating the Bulls 92-78 as the series returned to Miami. For three quarters, the Bulls hung in there with the Heat. They finally unravelled in the 4th quarter, as the Heat turned a 2-point lead into a 15-point win. The series returns to the United Center on Thursday, with the Bulls looking to tie it up and the Heat looking to......