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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,…
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The Quest for Protein: Making a Meal of Vegetables
What a great time for vegetable lovers, compared to the situation when I was growing up. Back then, vegetables were mostly an afterthought in meals. Many times, they were canned versions, although my mother took advantage of the locally available…
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A Family Tradition: Real Sonoran Chili
Here’s a story in honor of our mothers and grandmothers who taught us how to cook. It all started with tacos. When they were young, my children Jamie and Ben preferred tacos above most other foods, especially Ben. But they…
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There’s Always Room for (Somebody’s) Jell-O
Just when I thought we’d heard the last of gelatin desserts and Jell-O, along comes an Epicurious e-mail last week enthusing about the Gelatina de Mosaico by chef Esteban Castillo. The headline trumpeted: “Looks Like Terazzo, Tastes Like a Dream.” …
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Don’t Dessert the Rhubarb!
Rhubarb season has begun. If you’re like me, you don’t necessarily choose rhubarb with all the other choices available. On the farm, we had a small patch of rhubarb when I was growing up, and my mother would occasionally dispatch…
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My Mom’s Favorites from a Depression-Era Childhood
I’ve recently written about the foods that I missed from my childhood, and that led me to think about other people and other times. My 95-year-old mother, Ginny Kettleson, was an obvious choice. That’s Mom on her wedding day in…
