January 2012
17 posts
One of my all-time favorite bakers talks about... →
Less than successful...in blogging
Well, I think it’s pretty obvious now that I have failed to blog everyday of 2012 so far. I have to say it’s hard to find something interesting to say everyday. Oh well. I shouldn’t say failure but I should mention what a good friend used to say. It was Chef George Jack who just retired who when presented a “failure” would say that it was a “less than...
Kale Salad with Beets, Gorgonzola and Pine Nuts →
You’ll love this salad/entree with very little fat. Of course you must love beets!
January Bread Guild Meeting Time →
Bread guild meets at 9:00am on January 14. If you want to come and make some lean and crusty bread, join us. See you there!
This Week in Food #315: What's There to Eat in...
Check out the new episode of This Week in Food. Chef Wook Kang and I travel all over the city to taste some of the best food for you. It’s a hard job but somebody’s got to do it! Thanks for listening. Check back next week for a new episode. Direct Link to This Week in Food #315: What’s There to Eat in Chicago?
Biking in the winter
You probably already do this. Remember when you go on the lakefront trail the water fountains are shut down for the winter. Bring your own water even for a short ride.
Frankie's for Pasta; nice night for it
We had a gift card for Lettuce Entertain You restaurants. There’s thousands of them in the Chicagoland area. Where can you go for a good…whatever? Some are great like the Everest Room and some are not so great. I won’t say where. We just wanted a nice plate of pasta. I haven’t had pasta that much in the past year as I was trying to lose weight. I felt like I could handle it...
Steamed Mussels in White Wine with Crusty Bread
I got one of those Groupons from Dirk’s Fish Market on Clybourn Avenue. It cost me 10.00 and got me 20.00. Pretty good deal huh? For New Year’s Eve, Margie and I like to have some sort of shellfish. They had some great looking shrimp so I got a pound but I still had 5.00 left. I spied mussels being poured just as I was wondering what to do with the rest of my money. I had not made...
Coldest day so far; tear/sigh
I love to get outside and have fun. I usually don’t mind the weather and just deal with the rain, cold, snow or whatever it is. Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the coldest days of the year. I am not happy. I have good cold weather gear but when it hits the single digits, it’s just not that safe to be out for very long.
Several chef friends of mine are meeting tomorrow night at...
January Bread Guild Newsletter →
Chicken for dinner!
We went shopping yesterday and found a “clearance” chicken for 3.00. I’m marinating it in lemon salad dressing. I plan to roast it. You should try the same. I’ll post a picture later.
December 2011
3 posts
Dining Chicago » Chef Mark Mendez: Open letter to... →
November 2011
14 posts
white chocolate cranberry cookies
A friend asked for a white chocolate cranberry cookie recipe. I remembered a great one from years back. Here’s one with cherries but cranberries can be used as can any dried fruit. Have fun!
white chocolate cherry cookie
Yield: 24/2.25 oz
.5 cup white chocolate chips
1.5 cups dried cherries
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1.5. cups a.p....
Protein Bar Review and Big and Little's change
So I ate at Protein Bar yesterday for lunch. I had the Ivy which had chicken, basil pesto and quinoa. I went there for the burritos on whole wheat tortillas. I have wished for a long time that Chipotle would adopt whole wheat tortillas. They have added brown rice which is good but just not good enough. Protein Bar’s burrito is great on a whole wheat tortilla. It’s much smaller than...
Make it work!
I had a boss once that always said, “Make it work!” He didn’t care that you were having trouble or things were going bad for you. He just wanted it done. I think that was good advice to young cooks. You can usually find a way to “make it work”. Don’t give up. Yesterday, there was a student that had very wet French dough. It wouldn’t work for baguettes like...
...on to school!
I can’t wait to get to school to make bread with my two new classes. One class is making pizza and yeast breads. The other class is getting ready to do those things. Either way, we’ll be eating some good bread by the end of the day.
...not so fast!
Well, it started nasty and got nice. I went for a ride thinking it was going to stay that way. Silly me. I had a tailwind on the way up North. On the way back, it felt like 20mph of wind working against me. It was brutal but I made it.
Working with yeast.
When you use fresh yeast, it is less potent than active dry or instant. At school we use fresh. Use half as much active dry and one third as much instant in the recipes we make at school.
November Bread Guild Newsletter →
October 2011
1 post
October Bread Guild Newsletter →
September 2011
1 post
2 tags
August 2011
6 posts
1 tag
3 tags
3 tags
“Google before you Tweet is the new Think before you speak” - RedHeadMess...”
WatchThis my video podcast for this week. A follower on twitter had asked me to show how to make French bread in detail. I was more than happy to oblige. If you have been following the CHIC podcast since the beginning, you would know that the very first podcast was about making French bread. Have fun!
3 tags
July 2011
3 posts
2 tags
1 tag
bread dough
It’s just this simple. When dough is too dry, add water. When dough is too wet, add flour. Nuff said!
June 2011
10 posts
teff croissants
I read in Modern Baking the other day about teff croissants. What is teff? It’s an African flour made from a very tiny grain only grown in Africa. It only comes in the whole grain variety because of its small size. I studied the formula and found I could make it here at school. I went in search of teff flour. Where does one find teff flour in Chicago? I found it at an Ethiopian grocery up...
1 tag
Banana Bread
I’m making banana bread today because I have ultra-brown bananas. That’s the secret to good banana bread: old bananas. I’ll show you a picture when I get it done.
Check out my tumblr page →
WatchWatch the way this guys bakes at his bakery in Brooklyn NYC. It’s a place called Scratchbread.