Comfort Foods and Indulgences

2011bestbite.jpgOh, I have no trouble recalling the favorite thing I ate in 2011. It was October 8th, the evening before the Chicago Marathon. My husband and I were in the Windy City to watch our son, who lives in Fargo, ND, run the marathon. His birthday was the same day as the run, so we planned on lots of celebrating. My husband and I were ready for a break after a day of walking the city.

We happened upon Bice Restaurant in the Talbot Hotel and thought we'd stop for just a glass of wine as we regrouped and decided on our plans for the rest of the evening. One glass of wine turned into another, then dinner and finally, dessert. Just the thought of that dessert makes me salivate. Bice's Cioccolatissimo was recommended to us by our server.

"I am a diabetic," he said. "If I am going to die, I am going to die eating Cioccolatissimo." After that, how could I say no to a chocolate dessert that was planned to be this charming man's last bite on earth?

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ImageThere must be as many ways to make chili as there are shades of Sherwin-Williams paints. There’s no right or wrong way to make chili. It’s all about what pleases your taste buds. And, I’m always willing to give a new twist to a pot of chili.

Dennis Weimann, News Director/Anchor of Lakeland News at Lakeland Public Television sent me an email the other day and shared a chili recipe he had developed. He was planning to make a pot that day. Maybe he’s getting ready for the next United Way Chili Cook-off in Bemidji. I examined the list of ingredients. First, I noticed it had beans and meat. That’s important to me. I can eat a chili with beans and meat or with beans only. I don’t mean to make any of my Texas friends shudder, but I just can’t call it chili if there is only meat with no beans in the pot.

As my eyes moved further down the list of ingredients, I began to see a side of Dennis Weimann that amazed me. I had no idea he was a spice guy. A chili head. A lover of heat.

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ImageSure, drinking a cold beer is one's of life's simple pleasures. But why not be happier by eating beer too? Meats like beef and venison taste better when cooked with beer, which is why beer spiked chilis and stews and beer-infused pot pies taste so great.

Beer lends a full-bodied, earthy flavor to braised vegetables too. Collards or kale braised in beer? Oh, yeah. And don't forget thick, gooey beer and cheese soup. And then there's baking with beer, but let's save that for another post.

Today I'm sharing one of the tastiest, simplest recipes from my cookbook, Recipes Every Man Should Know, co-authored with Brett Cohen. Beer bread is for the man who loves beer and bread but hates to bake. There's no kneading or fancy bread machine required. Just some muscle for stirring.

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clafouti.jpg Clafoutis. You've eaten one. You've probably baked one. You've definitely heard of one. But can you define one? What is a clafoutis?

It's not quite a cake or a custard or a flan or a pudding. It has been called lots of names, including "a baked fruit dessert," "a baked custard with fruit," "a crustless pie," "a fruit-fill flan," and my personal favorite, "a sweet frittata." Purists called it a flognarde, but that lacks the panache of clafoutis (pronounced cla- foo-tee).

Clotilde Dusouslier, the charming Parisian food blogger, calls clafoutis "the epitome of the French grandmotherly dessert: unpretentious, easy to make, and blissfully comforting."

Call it what you will, especially if you're high school French is a little rusty. Just be sure to make one.

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squashrisotto.jpgWhen we first moved to Southern California, we thought we were in pretty good shape; turns out that “pretty good shape” is a relative phrase. Even the guy bagging our groceries knows his body fat percentage. In fact, the popular gym chain, 24 Hour Fitness (yes, they are open 24 hours a day), originated here. That pretty much says it all.

After a killer leg workout at the gym this past Sunday, we wanted to treat ourselves to a mega-carb meal. Since I had a butternut squash saved and had just purchased some fresh rosemary, I decided to make butternut squash risotto.

I prefer fresh rosemary to dried because its soft needles are much more redolent and its flavor is brighter. In this butternut squash risotto, it heightens the flavor of the squash and balances the pungent blue cheese.

I know some people don’t make risotto because it takes too long and the continuous stirring is tedious. Well, I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve been making risotto for years, and I don’t stir it continuously.

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