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Saucy Salsas, So Simple and Savory
What a time to take advantage of all the fresh fruit and vegetables now available at local markets, farm stands, and maybe your own garden patch! The hot weather of summer means grilling time, and what better to pair with…
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Fish. Fresh and Simple: That’s What Makes It Sacred
Making a great dish can be simple. Get the freshest ingredients, prepare them in a manner that will take advantage of their best features and flavors, and serve. That was the lesson for Paul Chartier, a fishmonger, chef, and owner…
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Giving Those Underappreciated Vegetables Another Try
We’re entering the season of garden bounty when locally grown vegetables of all shapes and sizes are available from nearby farm stands and even from our own gardens. String beans, lettuce, cucumbers, and soon sweet corn will be ripe for…
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Thai Chicken and Lettuce Rolls
A quick, cool, no-cook summer meal
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Old-Fashioned Family Food Nostalgia
Each of us has a portfolio of recipes that we ate as children, but that are no longer on our adult menus. Think about your own experience. You can probably come up with a goodly number of meals that were…
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On a Quest to Concoct the Best BBQ Sauce
I was a born carnivore, but lately I’ve found that I can do without meat in a number of meals. Usually, four or five of our weekly main meals are vegetarian, and the others include fish or chicken, not red…
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Gatherings 2.0: What Have We Learned in the Past Year?
After a year of rather lonely singular dinners, we’re finally easing back into dinner party mode, and I couldn’t be happier. But what have we learned over the past year, and how will those dinners that we organize change? People…
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Better Than Baked: Cowboy Beans
It’s official: summer! Now we’re into June and grilling season. Rather than opine on burgers or barbecue, I thought, how about a blog on my latest side dish? What are we having that’s different? In my case, it’s cowboy beans. I…
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Gone Fishin’
Getting fresh fish in north central Illinois in the mid-1950s was difficult. But late May/early June usually marked the time of year when the family would travel to northern Wisconsin on a fishing trip. If the fishing was good, that…
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How Do You Say Cheese?
Thinking about amplifying the flavor of dishes in my last blog led me to think more about adding cheese to a variety of dishes. In this day and age, there’s no lack of choices concerning cheeses. That’s progress. Growing up,…
