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Food For Thought Festival - Madison, Wi

eric — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:50:59 +0000

Food For thought Festival
Saturday, September 21, 2012, 8:30am – 1:30pm
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, off the Capitol Square

The annual Food For Thought Festival began in 1999.

From the event site"The annual Food for Thought Festival is a fun, festive forum that explores and celebrates our many opportunities to eat more pleasurably, healthfully and sustainably.

Come celebrate local food and products at REAP Food Group’s 14th Annual Food for Thought festival!

Taking place alongside the Dane County Farmers’ Market, this popular event offers opportunities for the whole family to taste, learn and connect with our local food system..... for free!

The festival will feature booths from over 40 organizations, farms and restaurants as well as an appetizing local foods tent, cooking and tasting demos, kids activities and its first ever Food Camp."

New This Year to Food Camp
Participate, taste, and learn on topics like beekeeping, backyard chickens, cooking with veggies, composting, building a mini hoophouse, cheesemaking, and more...

Chef Showdown
A not-to-be missed experience where area chefs are provided with a collection of the freshest mystery ingredients provided by the adjacent Dane County Farmers’ Market from which they are asked to prepare a dish on the spot.

Local Food Tent
Pick up tasty and locally-sourced breakfast and lunch dishes from Buy Fresh Buy Local program partner chefs. View the scrumptious details!

Interactive Exhibitor Booths
Expect displays by dozens of organizations, farms, restaurants & others working to promote a healthy food system.

Kid's Activity Tent
Chickens! Kids can feed, pet, and meet chicken friends.
Colleen's Art Wagon will have a variety of great food-centered kids activities like edible jewelry making.
Veggie Stamps - help decorate the kids tent with big stamps of your favorite veggies!
Pickle Making! Kids can bring home their own batch of refrigerator pickles.
Face painting and so much more!

Fried Chicken! Thanks, Bon Appetit

eric — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:06:22 +0000

The cover recipe from the February 2012 issue of Bon Appetit is pretty amazing and tastes awesome! This was the best fried chicken I've ever had. Paired with some mashed potatoes that Wendy made, this was a great cap to a Sunday.

Update: My photo is on www.bonappetit.com. It was selected as one of their favorite reader submitted photos!

http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2012/02/cook-the-cover-our-5-favorite-2.html

Quick Bites: Sausage Preview

eric — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:36:35 +0000

We go the crew together last weekend an made some homemade elk sausage. It turned out to be some pretty amazing stuff. Today's post is another "what's in the fridge?" Quick Bites. This was the elk sausage, brussel sprouts, spinach and a hard boiled egg. A pretty quick dinner, done in under an hour. The real prize of this dish is the elk sausage, more to come on that in an extended post.

Quick Bites: Gnocchi and Veggies

eric — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:20:24 +0000

Once again, what's for dinner? Looking through the fridge and cabinets we had some left over veggies and potatoes. Wendy, being a lover of gnocchi thought that would be a good use of the potatoes. I thought slicing the brussel sprouts and mixing them with the pan fried kale would be a nice addition. Simple an quick, this came together beginning to end in just over an hour.

Homemade Pasta

eric — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:42:06 +0000

Homemade Pasta

We picked-up something that I have been wanting for over 5 years, but just kept forgetting about it. A hand-crank pasta machine. I think this purchase kept getting put off because they always appeared quite intimidating to operate. Turning the crank, feeding the dough in and pulling it out so it doesn't get all bunched up. Well, fear not. It is really quite easy to do all by yourself.

For our first foray into pasta making, we decided to make ravioli. Go big or go home, right?

Making a well to put the eggs in, incorporating the eggs into the flour

I looked up some videos on youtube and consulted some cookbooks before deciding to go with Jamie Oliver's recipe. In the end the pasta turned out great, but I must have miss calculated grams into cups because I needed an extra egg to bind the flour. Doing it by hand was great, but it takes a lot less time to using a food processor.

Feeding the dough into the machine, pulling the dough out

Start rolling that sucker out. Basically, you can't screw this up, just make sure you have 5 to 6 feet of space for the pasta to spread out into.

Wendy laying out the filling and cutting the ravioli.

After you have rolled the pasta out to you desired thickness, start cutting down into a more manageable size. Our pasta was cut into about 2 inch widths that we re roughly 18 inches long. We stated filling them with a tablespoon of filling and then cut back a bit. It all depends on the width of your pasta. Have a pot of salted boiling water ready and cook the ravioli for about a minute.

Homemade portobello ravioli with brown butter sauce.

Paired with a simple brown butter sauce, these were pretty amazing.

Beer making kits at their best.

danboy — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:55:23 +0000

Home brewing is easy, but it can seem intimidating at first. Checkout this great video from Brooklyn Brew Shop. While your there, you may as well go a head an order some brewing supplies from them.

Or, if your in Chicago like we are, check out our favorite local brew supplier, Brew & Grow. Looks like they have a fancy new website to go along with their new store at 19 S. Morgan, Chicago, IL.

http://brooklynbrewshop.com/instructions

Revolution Brewing presents Urban Roots for Chicago Community Gardens

eric — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:35:41 +0000

Revolution Brewing will be showing the documentary film "Urban Roots" on Sunday December 11, 2011 from 5PM - 8PM. "Urban Roots" is about the urban farm movement that has been growing in Detroit over the last couple of years. It is an inspiring documentary about the possibilities that can exist in industrial towns grappling with collapse.

This event is a Food Drive to support the Chicago Food Bank and Proceeds from the door will go to Urban Roots to the "First School Farm Project".

Tickets are $5.00 at the door and bring in a CAN OF FOOD for the food drive will get you a TICKET FOR A BEER.

Revolution Brewing
2323 N Milwaukee Ave
Sunday, December 11, 2011
5PM-8PM

RSVP
Revolution Brewing's Facebook page

Little Bee Big Mystery

eric — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:52:35 +0000

Slow Food Chicago and The Notebaert Nature Museum are presenting a series on bees called "Little Bee Big Mystery". The second part of the four-part series will take place on September 27, 2011 at 6:30 PM.

From the Slow Food Chicago September 2nd newsletter:
"The four-part series of workshops invites guests to learn about hive structure, beekeeping and what you can do to ensure the stability of our bee population. The series will include film screenings, tours and hands-on experiences.

Part Two in the series takes place September 27 at 6:30 p.m., featuring a history of beekeeping with Michael Thompson, director and farm manager of Chicago Honey Coop. Michael will cover some of the ancient ways honey bees have been raised and focus especially on the past 150 years, ending with a discussion of Karl von Frisch, Eva Crane and Thomas Seeley.

Cost to attend is free, but please RSVP to adultprograms@naturemuseum.org. "

Your Farmer's Market

eric — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:49:14 +0000

It's August and the markets are full of bounty. Going to the farmer's market can be intimidating. The Logan Square Farmer's Market has really come into it's own in the last since 2005. A Social Bite favorite in Chicago. So much to choose from and questions like "What do I do with...".

Just remember to keep it simple. Salads are easy and you can do whatever you like. Pastas make for a great base, just add in some veggies that you like. Strike up a conversation with the sellers, ask if they have a favorite way to prepare ______. Keep it simple and keep it fun.

Do you have a favorite farmer's market? Cast your vote at www.farmland.org/vote. Just type in the name of your market or zip code and cast your vote. By the way, Logan Square's Farmer Market zip code is 60647.

3rd Annual Goose Island Pig Roast

eric — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:35:30 +0000

Slow Food Chicago presents: 3rd Annual Goose Island Pig Roast

September 11, 2011
2 – 5 p.m.
Goose Island Beer Company
1800 West Fulton Street

Slow Food Chicago’s annual fundraiser is one delicious and rockin’ event that features Slagel Farm pigs prepared by local chefs, beer and soft drinks provided by Goose Island Brewery, coffee by Intelligentsia, and only the best selections from the family of funk by DJ Jacob Ross. Guests receive a commemorative glass as part of their ticket purchase. Proceeds benefit Slow Food Chicago, a not-for-profit organization.

Price: $50 early bird (through Aug. 17); $60 (Aug. 18 – Sept. 11)

Buy tickets

Featured Chefs:

Rick Gresh – David Burke’s Primehouse 
Andrew Hroza – Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub
 Rob Levitt – The Butcher & Larder 
Nicole Pederson – C-House 
Matt Troost – Three Aces

Vegetarian dish:  Chris Spear – Uncommon Ground

Dessert:  Stephanie Samuels – Angel Food Bakery

Coffee:  Intelligentsia

Music:  DJ Jacob Ross playing hits, classics, and rare cuts from the family of funk.

Quick Bites: Pasta & Peas

eric — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:49:33 +0000

Here is another quick meal I wanted to share with you. This dish took under 10 minutes to prepare. There was some left over pasta in the fridge and we have not been to the market this week, so pickings were slim. I was in the mood for some garlic, so I thought that a few cloves of garlic, a shallot, and some peas would make a nice lunch. This dish was full-filling and goes to show that a satisfying meal can be made with just a few ingredients.

Start off by chopping up a couple of cloves of garlic followed by the shallot. Heat up about 2 tablespoons of olive oil add the garlic after a minute. Add the shallots and stir together. Sauté until the garlic is golden and add a splash of dry white wine. In go the peas and pasta, stirring so that nothing burns. You should be good after about 2 minutes or so, you're just trying to heat everything though. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Plate it up and your done. Enjoy!

What's on Hand

eric — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 01:26:17 +0000

The hustle and bustle of summer, juxtaposed with the want of just relaxing. This seem especially true when the temps rise above 90. Dinner was a "what do we have on hand" event. The most important driver in what's for dinner was not turning on the oven. So what I came up with was this. Add some sugar to a pot of water and bring to a boil. When a boil is reached, add in two halved ears of corn. Boil for 10 minutes. While the corn is boiling, chop up the following: a few tomatoes, half a red onion and a few pieces of garlic. Remove the ears of corn and let cool. Dump the sugar water and refile with fresh water that is salted. Boil some pasta, I used angel hair this time. Once the corn is cool, cut the kernels off with a knife and place in a deep bowl. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic to the corn and mix together by hand to break up the corn kernels. Add pepper and salt to taste. To plate the dish, we had some arugula which was used as a base; layer arugula, then pasta and top with the corn salsa. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and top with some mozzaralla or parmesan cheese. Good to go!

The great part of this dish is that not only do you now have a light and refreshing meal, but by not mixing the pasta with the salsa, the salsa can be used as a dip or topping for another dish.

Brunch Sandwich

eric — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:52:50 +0000

I enjoy the challenge of creating a meal from what ever we have on hand. Today I found a few pieces of bacon from City Provisions that were hiding in the fridge, a tomato, arugula left over from yesterday's picnic and the pretzel rolls we picked up from the farmer's market on Armitage. Sounded like the makings for a pretty tastey BLT. To make this quick brunch sandwich: cut the pretzel roll in half length wise, layer on the bacon, pile on top the arugula, add a few slices the tomato and top it off with a over-easy fried egg. Take a bite and enjoy!

More Than Sinks

eric — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:53:21 +0000

Wisconsin is a magical place, a land of cheese, beer, fish fry's and scandinavian women right here in the good ol' US of A. What better way to kick off summer on Memorial Day Weekend than spending it at the Kohler Festival of Beer. Cheese and chocolate tasting, home brew competition, four-course beer luncheon, beer and food pairings and more. Golf too. Check it out here!

BeerHopTacular, June 4th and 5th

danboy — Sat, 08 May 2010 15:02:12 +0000

BeerHopTacular kicks off it's first year with craft brew tastings, demonstrations from beer experts, local artisans and home brewers and much more.

Tickets are $45 and the event will include over 200 craft beers from around the US. http://www.beerhoptacular.com

Stacy Jurich Benefit

eric — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:31:57 +0000

This is a somber one. I'm passing this a long from a friend of mine. If you can attend or contribute, thank you!
-----------------------
Recently on April 23rd, a friend of mine along with her friend were brutally attacked with a baseball bat and robbed on the 1800 block of North Damen in Chicago IL. Both women were beaten unconscious and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital, then later transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where they remain is serious and critical condition.  This saturday, May 8th starting at 7pm, there will be a benefit held in her honor to raise money to help Stacy Jurich, one of the victims of this crime. The benefit will be held at Cans Bar and Canteen located at 1640 North Damen Avenue, Chicago IL 60622. All proceeds will go towards Stacy's trust fund to pay for medical expenses. So if you live or will be in that area, please stop on by and some food and drinks with us. Must be 21 and older to attend, so if you're not of age or can't make it and wish to contribute – please visit http://stacyjurichbenefit.com for more information.

Has spring sprung?

kimchi — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:21:46 +0000

I know it is hard to tell if this warm weather is here to stay, but it has got me chomping at the bit to start gardening. As if the universe is encouraging me, I keep stumbling onto ingenious gardening solutions.

The first thiing to pop up on my radar was an awesome gardening system in the form of a planter from Earthbox. The Earthbox is really a complete kit to get you going (and growing), whether it is on a rooftop, deck, fire escape, or backyard. The system comes complete with a planter, aeration screen, water fill tube, mulch covers, potting soil, fertilizer, dolomite and instructions, so once it arrives you can get right to work. One of the things that really stands out about the Earthbox system is the unique watering system. The planter holds three gallons of water in a resevoir at the bottom, allowing plants to absorb water as needed and cutting down on the frequency with which you have to remember to water! (I am also a big fan of the casters that come with the kit. I don't know about you, but I want to be able to roll my plants around if for no other reason than to hide behind them while spying on friends and neighbors!)

Another favorite is the super cool wall gardening system from Woolly Pocket. Woolly Pocket describes their product as flexible, breathable, and modular gardening containers that can be used both indoors and out. I describe them as super duper cool. I can't wait to start my herb garden on my kitchen wall, and if that weren't cool enough... they are made from recycled plastic bottles!

Now, for what may be the project that started me off on this green thumb kick... A couple moths ago I purchased a mushroom growing kit from River Valley Ranch.

I have wanted to grow mushrooms for a while now, so I was pretty excited to get the project under way, but I had no idea what to expect! After a simple set up and a little time I started to see the fruits fungus of my labor. It has been amazing - I always, ALWAYS have fresh mushrooms now, and it is hard to believe, but you have not tasted a mushroom until you eat one that has just been picked - it is like nothing you have tasted before. It turns out, homegrown mushrooms are superior to store-bought the same way homegrown tomatoes are. Who knew?

What are your gardening plans for the summer? Tell us all about them... if we like them maybe we will send you some seeds!

Where will you be sipping Mint Juleps on Kentucky Derby day?

kimchi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:22:33 +0000

I have always wanted to attend the Kentucky Derby... you know, wear a fancy hat, get liquored up on Mint Juleps, and generally steep myself in the tradition, but this year I am very excited by my Chicago-based alternative.

Rumor has it that Revolution Brewing will be hosting a derby party, and if all goes as planned that is exactly where I'll be - fancy hat, mint julep and possibly a Southern drawl... Hope to see you there!

For those of you planning your own Run for the Roses get together, the Kentucky Derby website has a list of traditional Derby Day recipes that will help to make your event as authentic as possible. Burgoo sounds particularly delicious.

When to get planting!

eric — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:04:46 +0000

Mother Earth News recently put up a nifty map with region and monthly breakdown of when to get your gardening on. You can check it out here.
I don't have any land to garden so I just have some herbs and leafy green growing in the kitchen, you can get something to grow just about anywhere. That reminds me, also take a look at River Valley Ranch for some mushroom kits to grow at home. They rock. More on that later.

Windy City Glass

danboy — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:27:42 +0000

The makers market has Chicago based Windy City Glass for sale. Local artist Nick Paul recycles used silk screened bottles into one of a kind drinking glasses.

I have some beautiful Brugge Bottles I've saved so I can cut the tops off and make into mugs, but this seems like an interesting alternative.

Seasons, leaf shaped plates.

danboy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:55:31 +0000

So the site is in Spanish, but from what I can gather this series of utensils is inspired by the patterns of nature and includes both serving and dinnerware.

Regardless it looks beautiful.

Mayfest Pig Roast At Paddy Longs.

danboy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:06:07 +0000

Paddy Longs knows their pigs. The place is known for their beer and bacon tastings.

So that's why when I heard they where having a pig roast I knew I would find my way there.

Saturday April 24th and Sunday April 25th Paddy Longs will be roasting a couple of Berkshire hogs, basted in Maibock and served with BBQ beans.

Will there be entertainment accompanying all this delicious pig? Of course there will. Bring your polka shoes and do one of those zany polka dances with Big Al's Oompah Band!

Seriously, how can you say no?

Invasion!

danboy — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:37:23 +0000

Come and celebrate The Invasion Helles Bock at Small Bar Albany this Wednesday April 21st.

The wonderful folks from Three Floyds and Half Acre are throwing a party from 6pm on. This will be the one opportunity to drink the Three Floyds/Half Acre collaboration in a bar, and what an awesome bar to do it in.

Boomerang! WOK!

danboy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:51:03 +0000

The trouble with stir fry. We all have experienced it. Water chestnuts flying everwhere, baby corn tumbling across the stove top and then Bam! A shrimp in the eye.

Well put down those safety goggles friend. Wok cooking just got a whole lot easier with Boomerang wok! The boomerang wok is built with the strength of one million stir fry chefs. It's unique design forces food back into the pan instead of all over your cooktop.

No flipping and shaking required either, get professional stir fry results with this pan and a spatula. I can't wait to cook me up some ground pork in this puppy.

Oh my! Mr. Newport...

kimchi — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:36:11 +0000

I am not going to beat around the bush here... I love soda. In my opinion there is a soda for every occasion. Don't get me wrong, I am a lover of beer, wine, spirits, iced tea, juice... you name it, but there are certain things, say pizza or a hamburger, that, for me, just have to be paired with pop. My go-to is Coca-cola and second is probably ginger ale, but now there is a handsome new devil in my carbonated beverage repertoire.

His name is Mr. Newport. He has classic good looks and is lemon-lime flavored in an oh-so-grown-up kind of a way. This devilishly delicious lemon-lime soda is made by Filbert's, right here in Chicago, and is dry and almost a little herbaceous. It is delicious and refreshing on its own, but I bet it would make for a mean little mixer as well... maybe our Social Bite mixologist, Wendy, will whip something up for the warm days ahead... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

DOGFLOYDAPALOOZA!

kimchi — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:27:00 +0000

Yep, that's right... it is DogFloydapalooza time again, and I guarantee this will be the best palooza you can possibly attend on a Tuesday in April.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, DogFloydapalooza is the unofficial kickoff party for the Craft Brewers Convention, which is taking place, here in Chicago, April 7th - 10th.

Hosted by 3 Floyds and Dogfish Head at Bottom Lounge on Tuesday April 6th, the party will include performances by John Langford and The Cashed Johnies, and Andre Williams with The Goldstars and, for the beer groupies among us (you know who you are), Sam Calagione and Nick Floyd will be in attendance enjoying a few beers and talking a little shop.

Visit ticketweb for more details and to buy your tickets.!

Stone Beer week!

danboy — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:04:25 +0000

Fools seldom prosper my foot, Stone brewing will finally hit the Chicago market on April first with a week long celebration.

Stone beer week will take you on a tour of some of Chicago's finest beer bars.

Some of my favorite stops:

4/1 - Hopleaf 7pm
4/1 - Kumas Corner 10pm
4/2 - Small Bar, all location 6-9pm
4/2 - Lush wine and spirits 6-9pm
4/4 - The Map Room 8pm
4/5 - Long Room 6-9pm

And way too many more to count. Be sure and check out the Stone site for a full list, and if you can't make it out to one of the events, don't worry, cuz they're here to stay.

From Grass to Cheese

eric — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:37:37 +0000

Just stumbled across this great sounding documentary in the making on UTNE.com.
It's called From Grass to Cheese and appears to be a great look into what it takes to be a small, family run diary/cheese farm.

Have a look and if you like what you see, give a donation. They are trying to raise some $$$ to finish making the documentary. You can also check out the Nolan Family farm, Laurel Valley Creamery here.

Chili Cook-off & Keg Party

danboy — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:59:38 +0000

Thursday April 1st is a big day for Chicago. Not only will we be cautiously opening every can of peanut brittle, but we'll also be trying to take advantage of some of the new spring events.

On the top on my list is the Boka Restaurant Group's Chili Cook-off. Just roll up to Landmark Grill and give them 20 bucks at the door. You'll instantly be rewarded with all you can eat chili and a cup that entitles you to $.25 dogfish head beers!

This is one event I'm not gonna miss.

Landmark is located at 1633 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.

My measuring cups are cooler than yours...

kimchi — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:53:02 +0000

Generally speaking I have not fallen prey to the onslaught of cutsie kitchen utensils that are available everywhere from Sur La Table to Target. I don't have anything against say... a tou'can' opener, but I usually like my food to be the best looking thing in the kitchen (other than myself, of course). Now for the exception to the rule...

I recently stumbled onto matryoshka measuring cups from World Wide Fred, and that was all she wrote - I am in love with these little ladies and they look adorable in my kitchen to boot! Watch out KitchenAid, you've got some competition in the adoration department! (I'm also smitten with the 'Salt & Peeper' as well)

What is your favorite, albeit silly, kitchen item?

Earth Hour - Saturday March 27

eric — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:33:39 +0000

Earth Hour is happening today at 8:30pm! If you have not heard of it, listen up.

From the Earth Hour web site: Earth Hour is World Wildlife Fund's global initiative where individuals, schools, organizations, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to cast a vote in favor of action on climate change. By voting with their light switches, Earth Hour participants send a powerful, visual message demanding action on climate change.

Pledge now to participate in Earth Hour 2010 and don't forget to turn of all your lights at 8:30 tonight! www.myearthhour.org

All them other Chizzefs be hatin' on my produce

danboy — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:08:35 +0000

They just jealous.

Ever wish you could boil that third grade macaroni art and have it retain all it's fancy glitter and gold, well now there's a solution!

Esslack Food Spray turns that boring old food into blingtasstic wizzack fizzood!

The spray comes in gold and silver (for you classy types) and is entirely edible. Spray it on pretzels, try it on popcorn, spice up your meat loaf. The possibilities are endless.

via(lostateminor)

Scientist finally find hangover cure.

danboy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:15:59 +0000

Scientist have discovered adding oxygen bubbles to booze causes fewer and less intense hangovers. The Oxygen is added the same way you would add Carbon Dioxide to soda, via force oxygenation.

The study also found subjects who imbibed in these drinks sobered up more quickly. In fact, recovery time was 20 to 30 minutes faster on average.

It seems the study was done primarily with a oxygenated soju, but I'd be curious to see how this effects flavor and mouth feel. Any brewers interested in trying this out?

Rate Beer's beers of spring

danboy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:05:47 +0000

Spring has officially landed here in Chicago, and while you might still be brushing the snow off your windshield, that hasn't kept your local brewery from brewing up your spring favorite.

There's a long list of seasonals out there and sometimes it's hard to cut through to the creme of the crop.

So take a second and read through Rate Beer's seasonal beers of spring. The list starts off strong with Three Floyds' Dark Lord Imperial Stout, and rolls through smoked beers, double IPA's, barley wines, scotch ales and sour ales to name just a few of the styles in store for you this season.

I'm going to set a personal goal to get my hands on at least five of the top ten. That should prove a good spring challenge.

Olive Oil Times

danboy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:19:27 +0000

The Olive Oil Times is just that, an online newspaper devoted to all thing olive oil.

The web based publication is packed with recipes, reviews, science, tips and much more.

Chicago Chef Week is Almost Here!

kimchi — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:30:36 +0000

If you were a little slow on the uptake when it came to getting reservations for Chicago's restaurant week this year, fear not, you still have an opportunity to partake in some mouth-watering goodness on the cheap during Chicago Chef Week.

From March 22nd through March 28th, 24 of Chicago's best restaurants are participating in this event, which lets you get your eat on for only $20 at lunch and $30 at dinner. I have already made reservations at Vie, Boka, and Perennial, so don't waste another minute – lest I get them all! Get to OpenTable and make your reservations now.

Keep us updated on where you want to go to dinner during Chicago Chef Week... we think you are cool and we want to eat where you eat!

33 Beers beer journal.

danboy — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:56:33 +0000

33 Beers Beer journal is an awesome simplistic beer journal made by the good folks at BS Brewing.

The journal affords easy one handed note taking and features a unique and easy to use "flavor wheel", and makes reviewing a beer as simple as checking a few boxes and filling in some blanks.

Buy one for yourself, or a three pack and gift some to your friends. I'm sure they'll all love it.

Dark Lord Day Tickets on sale!

danboy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:58 +0000

Get your Dark Lord Day tickets at http://shop.3floyds.com

Family Farmed Expo

eric — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:06:09 +0000

Family Farm Expo at UIC Forum. It is a three day event of locally grown and responsibly produced food and artisanal goods!

This three day event runs Thursday through Saturday March 11th to 13th, 2010.

From the FamilyFarm web site:
Thursday features our world-class Financing Farm to Fork conference connecting local food producers with potential investors.

Friday features the Midwest’s leading local food trade show, our Meet the Buyers reception, an innovative Food Policy Summit, and the scrumptious Localicious Party to cap the day.

Saturday features cooking demos from celebrity chefs, educational seminars and an interactive Kids Corner. Exhibitors offer a wide selection of local food, gifts and useful information to help you eat locally and healthy year-round."

Check it out here: http://www.familyfarmedexpo.com/

Speaking of St. Patrick's Day

wendydee — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:34:13 +0000

It’s going to happen. The entire city of Chicago is going to claim it’s Irish roots (my mother’s grandfather’s grandmother immigrated from Galway, I swear!) by drinking terrible beer in inhuman quantities. I say why drink green beer when you can drink great beer? Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day in style and drink locally! If you’re going to blackout, might as well make it a delicious blackout.

Start off your adventure with a Cross of Gold and some bacon fat popcorn from Revolution Brewing. You’ll probably want to try the Willie, their Scottish ale. That’ll piss off those Irish bastards. While you’re in the neighborhood hit up Piece Pizza for a Dysfunctionale, an american pale ale. Their barley wine is pretty fantastic as well, if you feel up to it. It is 10% apv, after all. Next on the list, Goose Island Brewpub. They sell most of their brews in half pints, too, for the faint of heart. After Goose, it’s on to the tasting room at Half Acre. I hope they’ll let me taste the Daisy Cutter! How about a brewery tour of Metropolitan’s facilities? I hear they offer tastings, too. Want to get out of town? Take the train to Flossmore! Or better yet, make it a brewery crawl and try them all!

With so many options, it’s almost a crime to settle for the swill most “Irish” pubs will be offering. If you truly can’t live without a green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, bring some food coloring with you. You might get laughed at, but I’m sure they’ll let you make your own.

Saint Who?

wendydee — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:23:04 +0000

We’re all familiar with St Patrick’s Day. You would have to be completely oblivious as a citizen of Chicago to not notice it’s revelry. The entire city becomes Irish to celebrate St Patrick converting the pagans of Ireland to Catholicism with binge drinking, vandalism, violence, suggestive t-shirts (“I need a little Irish in me” is my favorite!) and jail time. Happy thought, indeed. Who among us has heard of St Joseph’s Day?

Situated only days apart, the two patron saint’s days have as much significance for devout Catholics as any other religious observance, though their celebrations seem as polar opposites. St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Italy, is charged with saving Sicily from famine. Sicily was suffering a crop destroying drought. Her citizens prayed to St Joseph for rain. In return, they would prepare a feast in his honor. The rains did come and the fava bean saved the people from starvation. It is tradition for those of Italian descent to celebrate this occasion by wearing orange, giving food to the poor and eating a pastry known as a zeppoli (a doughnut of sorts filled with delicious creaminess). No binge drinking in sight!

Chef David DiGregorio of Osteria Via Stato wants to help Chicago expand their Saint knowledge by celebrating St Joseph’s Day. On Friday, March 19th every customer ordering an entree will get to be Italian Catholic for a minute and eat a zeppoli in honor of the saint who saved Sicily. Don’t worry, no conversions will take place. It’s only about the pastry here. What a great day to not be Irish!

Half Acre is switching to cans!

danboy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:58:15 +0000

Sweet, looks like Half Acre will be ditching it's bottles for the more beer and environmentally friendly cans.

The brewery plans on switching to 16oz 4 packs of tallboys. I can't wait to get my hands on these. Camping just got even more enjoyable.

Give a Person a Fish...

kimchi — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:14:57 +0000

Give a person a fish, and you can be sure that fish has been carefully chosen and and is from the 'best choices' Seafood Watch list provided by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Give a person the link to said list and you can hope that they make the right choices on their own... tell a person about how serious the problem is and maybe they will finally begin to understand.

On a number of recent occasions I have found myself being that person at dinner... the person who is preaching to their friends about sustainable seafood choices. Hey, don't get me wrong, I don't want to be that person - I kind of hate that person, but it seems that there are quite a few people who don't know the whole story about the current condition of our oceans and are still ordering fish that are on the 'avoid list'. The reality is that our oceans are in bad shape due to overfishing, illegal fishing, habitat damage, bycatch, poor regulation of the worldwide fishing industry, and our ordering/buying habits.

"We need to train ourselves to see what is hidden under the surface of
the waters because fish stocks are in collapse and the oceans are in
trouble. Many recent studies, including the Pew Oceans Commission
(2003), have come to the same conclusions. The big fish, like the
thousand-pound tuna, are 90 percent gone. Newfoundland cod, wild
abalone, Atlantic halibut and Chilean sea bass are so scarce as to be
nearly nonexistent. Breeding swordfish populations have been cut in
half; marlin are rare. Pelicans in the Sea of Cortés starve for want of
fish to eat." (From Patagonia's Oceans as Wilderness Campaign)

The first thing that we need to do as individuals is to make ocean-friendly seafood choices EVERY time we order or buy fish, without exception. Here are some things you can do:

Familiarize yourself with the Seafood Watch Sushi Guide and the Seafood Watch Guide for your region

Always ask where your fish is coming from.

Tell your favorite restaurants and markets that you will only buy ocean-friendly seafood. (Monterey Bay Aquarium is a great resource for sustainable seafood recipes!)

Ask your favorite sushi restaurant to include each fish's origin and Seafood Watch Guide status on their menu. (If you own a restaurant or a market check out these tips for implementing a sustainable seafood policy in your business.)

It is easier than ever to be sure you are making the right choices. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has made it simple - if you have an iPhone you can download a free seafood guide, if you have a phone with an internet connection you can link to the list at mobile.seafoodwatch.org, or you can download the pocket guide and carry it with you.

If you have a favorite recipe or restaurant that highlights the use of sustainable fish tell us about it!

Check back soon for our series of recipes on cooking with ocean-friendly fish choices!

Chicago Restaurant Week Extended

kimchi — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:50:41 +0000

I was just flitting around the internet, reading blogs and such and I stumbled onto this very interesting and useful tidbit by Phil Vettel at The Stew. It seems that a number of Chicago restaurants have decided to extend their restaurant week offerings - some for a few days, some until the end of March! So if there is a restaurant on the list that you didn't make it to this week, you may have another chance.
According to Mr. Vettel's article, the decision regarding the
extensions is made by each individual restaurant. He has kindly compiled a list of restaurants (which I have included below) that have already decided to extend , and tells us that, come Monday,
OpenTable.com should have a list of who will be participating and for how long.

Ai Japanese
Alhambra Palace
Aria
Atwater
Blue 13
BOKA
Capital Grille (lunch only)
Catch 35
Chicago Firehouse
C-House
Devon Seafood
Dinotto
Fornetto Mei
Frontera Grill
Harry Caray's
Hub 51
Italian Village
Japonais
Joe's Seafood, Prime Steaks &
Stone Crab
Kinzie Chophouse
Landmark
Markethouse
Maxwell's at the Club
Mercat a la Planxa
Merlo on Maple (also La Trattoria del Merlo and La
Salumeria del Merlo)
Mon Ami Gabi
N9ne
Osteria Via Stato
Perennial
Petterino's
Phil Stefani's at 437 Rush
Rhapsody
Roy's
Salpicon
Seasons and Seasons Lounge
South Water Kitchen
Tavern at the Park
Texas de Brazil
Topolobampo
Trattoria No. 10
Tuscany on Taylor
Viaggio
Weber Grill
Zealous

Old Faithful

kimchi — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:41:03 +0000

I don't know if this ever happens to you, but every so often something clicks in my brain and says, 'why haven't you made blankety blank in so long?', and suddenly there I am, remembering one of my favorite standby dishes that has somehow fallen by the wayside. This time it was Mushroom and Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Sherry Cream Sauce from the April 2006 issue of Fine Cooking. I love this recipe, it is earthy, delicious and beautiful and the sherry cream sauce adds just the right amount of zing. It never disappoints. It is a great dish to serve at a dinner party or just for Sunday night supper. Be sure to do all your mise en place ahead of time and this is a breeze to make.

Here is what you will need:
5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

3-1/2 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (1-1/2 cups)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 oz. baby spinach (5 lightly packed cups)
1 large pork tenderloin (about 1-1/4 lb.)
1 Tbs. lightly chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
2 large shallots, finely diced (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup low-salt canned chicken broth
2-1/2 Tbs. sherry vinegar
2 Tbs. heavy cream

This is what to do:

Set a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 450°F. Heat 2
Tbs. of the oil in a heavy, ovenproof 12-inch skillet over medium-high
heat until shimmering hot. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp.
each of salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until browned and tender,
about 3 minutes. Stir in the spinach, sprinkle with salt, and cook,
tossing well with tongs, until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Transfer
the spinach mixture to a colander and set the skillet aside.

Trim the pork of any silverskin or excess fat. Butterfly the tenderloin by
making a horizontal slice lengthwise through the tenderloin almost all
the way to the other side. Open the meat flat, like a book. Cover with
plastic wrap, and using a meat mallet, a small, heavy skillet, or the
heel of your hand, lightly pound the pork so that it’s 1/4 inch thick.
Rub the pork all over with 1 Tbs. of the oil, half of the thyme, and
about 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper.

Squeeze any excess liquid from the spinach and mushrooms. Spread over the pork, leaving bare a 2-inch border along one long edge. Sprinkle on the Parmigiano. Starting with the long side that’s covered with filling, roll the stuffed tenderloin toward the bare-border side so that it forms a cylinder, and secure it with four or five toothpicks or kitchen twine.
Wipe the skillet clean if necessary. Heat the remaining 2 Tbs. oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering hot. Sear the pork on all three non-seam sides until well browned, about 6 minutes total. Flip onto the seam side, then transfer the skillet to the oven. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the roast registers 140ºF, 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the meat to a clean cutting board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, return the skillet to the stove over medium-high heat (be careful; the skillet’s handle will be hot). Add the shallots, season with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cook, stirring, until the shallots soften and brown, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, sherry vinegar, and the remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons thyme, and simmer briskly until the mixture reduces by a bit more than half, about 4 minutes. Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Slice the pork into ½-inch-thick slices (a serrated blade works well) and serve with the sauce.

From Fine Cooking 78, pp. 51 April 1, 2006

Do you have a favorite standby recipe? Tell us all about it. We would love to post it for our readers!

How Not to Screw Up Your Eggs

eric — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:45:47 +0000

Last Sunday eggs were not not working out for us. What was supposed to be a nice, simple breakfast of soft boiled eggs and toast turned into a headache and a mess. I don't know if it was the eggs, the weather or some other supernatural force, but apparently there was no way we were going to have eggs for breakfast.

So this week I decided to do something I rarely do, consult and follow the directions in a cook book. My reference of choice: the 1966 edition of Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child. I must admit that I know a little, but not a lot about Julia Child. I vaguely recall seeing her t.v. show and have read a couple of interviews, that's about it. So, Oeufs Mollets looks to be the first thing that I will be making from her book. This can be said in complete confidence because the eggs turned out perfectly. So perfect that I made two more just to see if they turned out the same. And yes, they did.

So simple, yet so easy to screw up.

Bring your water to a boil, carefully lower the eggs into the boiling water and boil slowly for 6 minutes ( I turned the stove down from 5 to 3). When the six minutes is up, remove the eggs from the boiling water and run cold water over them to cool. That's it, you're in business.

How to properly Cellar beer.

danboy — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:21:49 +0000

Here's a great rundown from hop press on cellaring beers. I've been working on a similar article for socialbite, but wanted to point you at this one in the meantime.

Also if you liked this be sure to check out our barrel aged beers post.

Here's Pictures!! BRANCH 27 CHIMAY DINNER!

chicagobeergirl — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:35:07 +0000

Yes, indeedy, it was quite a dinner. Last Wednesday, the 24th, we enjoyed a four-course dinner at Branch 27, courses lovingly prepared by Chef John Manion with Chimay beer pairings. We all know about Chimay, right? Chimay beers are brewed under the auspices of the monastery at the Abbey D'Scourmont in Chimay, Belgium. They have been brewing beer there since 1850, and it has been available for sale outside the abbey since 1863. Chimay beers have been available here in the United States for the past 20-ish years. There are three available -- the Premier or "red label", which is their Belgian Double style, the Cinq Cent or "white label", which is their triple style, and the super-rich and delicious Grand Reserve, or "blue", which was originally brewed as a special Christmas beer.

We stopped eating lone enough to take pictures of Chef Manion's Parmesan Gnocchi with pork meatballs (think sausage meatballs, ridiculously good!) and braised kale. This was the second course, and it was so good and we ate so much of it that we forgot to take pictures of the third course, the Gunthorp Farms Porchetta with polenta.
Dessert was a Chocolate and Walnut Tart with CHOCOLATE BACON, served with a Jereboam of the Chimay Grand Reserve from 2008. A Jereboam is a large-format bottle, and beer ages differently in large bottles. This beer had a smooth, almost-port-like quality.

The Branch 27 dinner for March will be paired with DOGFISH HEAD BEERS! We are starting to put that together now, so call Branch 27 for reservations. It will sell out fast! www.branch27.com

Lentil Love

lbell — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:46:45 +0000

Let’s face it. As much as I might love to cook, and as much as I claim that chopping vegetables is relaxing, there are those days. Long hours at the office, boss yelled at me, house is a wreck, fridge only has celery and sardines…such days happen.

Well, when they do, I turn to my pantry for a can of Amy’s Lentil Soup. No matter what’s in my pantry and fridge, I can make something healthy and tasty for dinner with that soup. Tuesday happened to be one of those days, so, I came home, pulled out the soup and pondered. Celery and sardines didn’t really seem to fit; there was no frozen spinach; but, I had canned tomatoes! And curry and coriander and garam marsala and turmeric and cumin! Curried lentils it would be. No coconut milk but, I did have some yogurt which would do in a pinch.

The idea had formed and I was off to the races. Here’s a general idea of the recipe:

Menu
Curried lentils over basmati rice

Wine
None. I served it with water followed by mint tea.

Recipes (serves 2)

Curried Lentils over Basmati Rice (as prepared on 2.23.10)

Ingredients:
1 can Amy’s Lentil Soup
½ of a 15 oz can of tomatoes

Cumin
Garam marsala (a spice located in the ethnic foods aisle)
Coriander
Curry
Cayenne
Turmeric
Silk Soy Yogurt, plain (Greek or other plain yogurts would also work)

½ c. basmati rice
Cilantro (optional)
Slivered almonds (optional)

Instructions:

Cook the basmati rice according to its instructions. Keep warm.
Begin heating the lentil soup in a medium size pan over medium-low heat. Add some cumin, garam marsala, coriander, curry, and turmeric to taste. Add a pinch of cayenne. Add the canned tomatoes and heat thoroughly. Add the yogurt. Taste again and add more spices, if necessary. Heat thoroughly.
Pour the soup into two bowls, then, using an ice-cream scooper, scoop the rice into the soup. Garnish with cilantro and/or slivered almonds.

The Takeaway: I typically get better results from my lentil soup experiments but, this time proved the old maxim that you can always add more but you can’t take anything away. I added too much cumin and other spices, so our pores were leaking Indian spices for about 48 hours afterward. Take that as a word of warning for your own cooking experiments- better to err on the side of too little than too much. However, it was rich, satisfying and took less than 15 minutes, so I’m still claiming it as a success!

Other ideas for lentil soup:
• Add spinach and a fried egg
• Add a bay leaf, thyme and sautéed onions, carrots, celery, garlic (a French style)
• Add ginger, tomatoes, tomato paste, frozen green peas and the following spices: cumin, smoked paprika, cardamom, coriander, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, cayenne (a North African style)
• Any type of greens and whatever herbs and spices strike your fancy (your own style)

Zullo's at the French Market

kimchi — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:45:47 +0000

This Saturday marks the opening of Zullo's, an exciting new addition to the Chicago French Market...

Zullo's has been a long time favorite of the team at Social Bite - we just can't get enough of those Zeppole di mela (handmade apple cider donuts) at the Green City Market - and we are happy to be able to get a fix almost anytime we want at the French Market... their first permanent location.

The menu looks mouth watering, filled with local, organic, seasonal ingredients incorporated into savory fiadoni (small empanada-like pastries), panini, pizza and pasta along with daily specials.

Rumor has it there will be delivery to area offices - that's enough to make us want to relocate.

Yo Ho Ho, a brewers life for me!

danboy — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:05:45 +0000

The The 827-foot long cruise ship AIDAblu has all the amenities. The largest SPA in a cruise ship, six restaurants, ten bars and the worlds first brewery on a cruise ship.

That's right a brewery on a cruise ship. This one of a kind brewery features specialty brew vessels that aren't bothered by the ships constant pitching an rolling.

The beers are brewed with desalinized sea water which I'm sure gives all of their brews a unique taste.

Be sure to check out the full article above for some cool history of floating breweries, and when you're done tell us about the oddest specialty food establishment you've seen.

via(appellation beer blog)

Hello Wine, Meet Whiskey.

danboy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:57:20 +0000

Aging wine in barrels is not a new thing. In fact I'd wager a a bet every wine drinker here has enjoyed a nice oaked Chardonay at one point or another.

Aging wine in Whiskey barrels though? Wow.

Of course I wouldn't be writing about it if it hadn't happened. The Grateful Palette got together with Pappy Van Winkle Distillery and aged their 2008 Shiraz in used Whiskey barrels.

The new wine is called Southern Belle and should be available in stores now. From the article:

“It is my sincerest hope that this wine offends every sommelier and Frenchman in the world,”

Now how can you not be intrigued by a wine like that?

Avery has a "can" do attitude.

danboy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:28:00 +0000

Canned beer gets a bad rap. Long gone are the days of aluminum or metallic flavor being imparted by low quality cans. In fact, your chances of a quality brew increase when drinking from a pop-top.

You see cans keep out things that beer doesn't like. Oxygen and sunlight can ruin a great brew, that's why the majority of bottles you see are brown or dark green (I'll save my miller rant for another time). Cans also mean summertime fun. Most parks, lakes, rivers and campgrounds put a ban on glass bottles for obvious reasons.

So when I heard Avery would start canning their beers I got awful excited. Until recently there has been a really limited selection of quality canned beers.

My longtime favorite has been dale's pale ale, but it's hard to find in the Chicago area. Ska (warning flash site) does some great canned brews that are easy to find locally, but you never want to be stuck with just one option.

So here's to looking forward to cracking an Avery IPA in a canoe this summer, and hopefully following that up with another great canned newcomer.

Have a favorite canned beer I missed? Post a comment and I'll compile a list. (rhyme unintentional, but awesome.)

Chimay Dinner at Branch 27

chicagobeergirl — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:10:05 +0000

ooof. too full. Can't post now. I love Chef John Manion. We took some pictures of the Gnocchi and pork sausage and the chocolate tart with the chocolate bacon. I'll get it together for tomorrow.

But in the meantime, get reservations NOW for the Dogfish Head Beer Dinner coming up at the end of March.

Barrel aged beer for the rest of us.

danboy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:47:16 +0000

I've always wanted to do a home brew barrel aged beer. Aged oak barrels can impart so many great characteristics like rich vanilla flavors and delightfully dry tannins - not to mention leaving behind the "spirits" of their former hosts. Of course, as you can imagine getting a hold of one of these barrels is a bit rough.

I have friends in the community who have brought them back from distilleries, and others who are tight enough with breweries to grab some second hand, but I've never known a convenient way to grab one for my own use.

Well now there's a solution for everyone. Port brewing is offering their slightly used barrels for $25 a pop. Great news for California residents, but slightly worse for anyone outside of the state, as shipping costs are likely to get steep.

I hope this catches on with other breweries. Anyone in the Chicago area know an easy way to get a hold of barrel? Let us know in the comments!

Look out Chicago, Stone's a-comin'

chicagobeergirl — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:00:07 +0000

That's right, Chicago Beerios!! Stone is coming!! We don't know with which distributor they'll be, but one way or another, STONE BREWING WILL AT LONG LAST BE IN CHICAGO!! Yeah, you can tell, I'm a little excited.
In the past, I've picked up bottles of delicious Stone beer on visits to Indiana and New York, or anywhere I happened to find it. What I can honestly say about their beers are, they are consistently, dependably excellent. I had the chance to chat with Aaron, the Midwest Stone rep, today at Twisted Spoke. We talked about how Stone Brewing is one of those breweries where you can pick up ANY of their beers and be confident you're going to have a fantastic drinking experience. Three Floyds, Dogfish, Lost Abbey . . . there's a few breweries where, even if a certain style isn't your favorite, or if a particular beer is a little "out there" for your palate . . . you still KNOW you're gonna have an awesome fermented beverage.
SO . . . rumor has it, Stone Brewing products will be available in Chicago by the beginning of April. When I know where you can buy them, I'll let you know.
By the way, I got my ticket today for the Chicago Beer Society's Day of the Living Ales! Did you?

Bite Siverware by Mark A. Reigelman II

danboy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:37:29 +0000

Mark Reigelman designed this bite silverware to raise awareness of both hunger and obesity issues worldwide.

The design is both stunning and engaging and I think conveys the message well.

I'd love to have these on my table, how bout you?

via(designmilk)

Plastic Alternatives

eric — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:56:46 +0000

Disposable plastic. That's an oxymoron. We as a society use it for
everything, even when we don't have to. It does have it's purpose in
say, medical supplies. But as plates and cups? Really? So, I did a
search on the interweb and came up with a few alternatives for your
next get together or picnic. Keep in mind that just about everything
that goes into a traditional land fill, whether it is food, newspaper or
biodegradable plates does not always biodegrade. Land fills are
engineered to remove moisture that is needed for microorganisms to do
their job. If you can compost at home or at a community compost site,
all the better. Here is just a quick bite, more to come.
Find a composter near you!

Bambu Veneerware Bamboo Plates &
Utensils
Available
Here.

Peeled directly from bamboo stalk. Made of 100% organically grown
bamboo.
FDA approved food-safe - No bleaches or dyes
After disposal, biodegrades in 4-6 months
Not recommended for the microwave
Intended for single use

Natur-Bag®
Available Here.
All Natur-Bag^®Products Are:

100% Certified Biodegradable and Compostable
Environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional plastics
Do not contain any polyethylene or other conventional plastics
Bags are available in a variety of standard sizes and thickness to
fit your needs
Meet ASTM D6400 standard specifications for compostable plastics
Meet requirements of California AB 1972 and are Green Cart
Compatible

Available in many sizes and they also have doggie bags.

Chicago Restaurant Week Looms!

wendydee — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:17:05 +0000

The end of February is nigh and we should celebrate! Chicago Restaurant Week is the perfect outlet! With over 130 restaurants participating ranging in caliber from Blackbird to Bistro Campagne and Piccolo Sogno to Province, I say we venture out into the gloom and grey and eat our way to the end of winter! The deal runs February 19th through the 28th with the bargain basement price of $22 for lunch and $32 for dinner (tax, beverage and gratuity not included). It’s a great opportunity to try that spot that might have otherwise been a splurge.

To see a list of all participating restaurants and to make reservations, go to OpenTable.com

What did you do at work today? I saw a big celebrity!

chicagobeergirl — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:55:06 +0000

I love my job. I share some of the best beers in the world with some of the best bars, restaurants, and yes, retail stores in the country. It is pretty cool. Every Monday and Thursday, I have the privilege of visiting The Publican and working with Michael McAveena on their weekly beer selections. Today, when I drove up, I saw a huge black limo outside the restaurant. Naturally, I assumed Oprah was there. But no! Jamie Oliver!
I didn't know Jamie was there until he finished his lunch, as his back was to where I was. Looks like he -- or his people -- called Chef Paul Kahan and set something up, because The Publican doesn't serve lunch on weekdays, dontcha know.
Anyway, they finished lunch, and Jamie walked through the restaurant, shook hands with his server, thanked her, and then headed back to the kitchen to talk to the kitchen staff. I am such a dork, of course, I had to resist the urge to run over to him and say something along the lines of--"Hi! I'm Sally! I sell beer and I have a beer blog and I am part of a Chicago foodie blog called Social Bite!! Do you like beer? Do you want to hang out sometime? Can we interview you? Can you get Food Network to give us a show?" Yeah. That's what I did in my head. But in actual physical reality, I just looked over, smiled and waved at him (again, total dork). He actually smiled and waved back. Seems like a nice guy. And yes, very cute.
Then I went back to sampling some awesome beers with Michael and Chef Paul and Donnie Madia and Wes from Windy City.
Yeah. Not a bad day's work at all.

New Holland Embossed Bottles -- get 'em while you can!

chicagobeergirl — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:30:05 +0000

Who's excited about the Tim Burton ALICE IN WONDERLAND movie? I am!! It is my all-time favorite story, can't even tell you how many times I've read the original stories. And Tim Burton is one of my favorite directors. So tonight, I am enjoying a bottle of New Holland Imperial Mad Hatter I saved from last summer. I know, I know, you're not supposed to save IPA's, you want to drink them fresh, the hop character changes, the bitterness mellows, the citrusy piney character starts to smooth out and sweeten . . . I know!! And yes, the Imperial Hatter has mellowed. But it's still delicious, and it went great with my italian-style turkey sausages, green beans and baked potato.
IN MORE INTERESTING BEER NEWS . . . another reason for breaking out the Imperial Hatter was, I want to rinse out the bottle and save it. This year, New Holland will not be using the embossed art directly on the bottles for their High-Gravity series. So, if you are a borderline-hoarder beer-collector like I am, go out and get a Dragon's Milk, a Pilgrim's Dole, some stores still have the absolutely delicious Charkoota Rye -- get the bottles and save them! The new labels are beautiful and I am excited to try the new styles they're releasing -- and I promise to let you all know as soon as they are available. The Imperial Hatter will be available from time to time throughout the year in both bomber and four-pack formats. Dragon's Milk will be in both bombers and four-packs, too. Extra, extra, extra awesome.

Meantime, I hear the new Showplace ICON theaters on Roosevelt Road will be featuring Mad Hatter IPA on special when the movie is released! I'll be there. Can't wait!!!

A.B Smeby's Seasonal Craft Bitters.

danboy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:54:02 +0000

New York upstart A.B Smeby Bittering Company has started a line of local, seasonal bitters in NY.

The line of bitters includes cranberry, vanilla, lemon and hibiscus among others. I'm really into this idea. I've wanted to start making my own bitter for years.

Have any of you ever tried it? Try and link some recipes in the comments.

Get the whole story at off the presses.

Finally the gingers get some love.

danboy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:05:51 +0000

Half Acre's Ginger Twin red IPA will be officially available this Friday in growler form, bottles soon to follow.

The best part is all gingers will get a discount.

From the site:
*Anyone with God given red hair will be granted an 8% discount on Ginger Twin purchases.
**Anyone with God given red hair and a Longshoremen's beard will be granted a 10% discount on Ginger Twin purchases.
***Identical Twins will be granted a 15% discount on Ginger Twin Purchases
****Identical Twins with God given red hair will be granted a 25% discount on Ginger Twin purchases.
*****Identical Twins with God Given red hair and Longshoremen's beards will be granted a free bottle of Ginger Twin (each) and 50% off additional Ginger Twin purchases.

(The Ginger Discount only valid at the Half Acre Beer Emporium located at the Half Acre Brewery & World Headquarters. 4257 N. Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL)

Visit Half Acre's Site and Blog for more details

An Icehouse for the new millenium.

danboy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:07:59 +0000

Hot on the heals of Schorschbrau's Schorschbock 40, Brewdog has reclaimed their world's strongest beer title (formerly held by tactical nuclear penguin) with their "Sink The Bismark" a 41% IPA.

Brewdog's argument that it's trying to push a responsible approach to drinking beer is all well and good, but it's hard to imagine quality being the chief concern on this race to the top.

While I'm awful curious to try these beers the novelty can only hold up if it's paired with a good brew. How's about battling for the world's greatest beer instead?

You can purchase "Sink The Bismark" from Brewdog's site.

via(a good beer blog)

August in February... my favorite.

kimchi — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:41:43 +0000

There are few things that I enjoy more than having a great meal. I love to eat, I love to cook and I love to go out to dinner. Lucky me, one of my favorite markets in Chicago, August, located at 1500 W. Division, is a grocery store that caters to the home cook by day, and, about once a month, it is my favorite place to dine by night.

Every now and then (there is no set schedule) owners George Djurovic and Angie Kongabel put together an 'After Hours' dinner that starts after August has closed up shop for the day. The store is transformed into a dining room and around 8 o'clock guests settle in to be delighted by Chef Djurovic's creations. The menu focuses largely on seasonal ingredients and is always a surprise.

This Friday, February 19th, is August's first after hours dinner of 2010... I strongly encourage you to make a reservation. These dinners are so good I try never to miss one!

For reservations call:

August Grocery Store
1500 W. Division
Chicago, IL 60622
phone: (773)252-9560

Pssst... keep in mind, dinner is BYOB.

Hope to see you there!

New Moleskins target food/drink lovers, artists.

danboy — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:30:59 +0000

Moleskin has released a new collection of "Passions" journals with layouts optimised for recipes, wine notes, wellness, film, books and music.

I love moleskins and these new targeted layouts look like great gifts for the food/art lover in your life.

UPDATE: order them now via amazon.

via(notcot)

Recession Dinner

wendydee — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:40:08 +0000

Yesterday I left work with a sense of doom. I wasn’t needed for the evening shift, I didn’t have enough money in my pocket to be comfortable, I had absolutely nothing in my cabinets to prepare a full dinner and I couldn’t bear the thought of having pizza bagels for a second night in a row. Inspiration, take hold and deliver this poor lady a meal!

As it turns out Whole Foods is on the way as I walk from work to the red line. I passed it twice before I made the decision to walk in. My plan was to walk up and down the isles and see if anything inexpensive popped out at me. Maybe fish? Risotto? Something they’ve already prepared? Nothing seemed to fit either my tastes or my meager budget. That’s when I saw them. Beef short ribs for $6.99/pound!

My good friend Jen likes to joke that I eat short ribs like it’s my job. Believe me, if I could find anyone to pay me to eat those delicious fatty cuts of beef I would be the happiest chubby girl with dangerously high cholesterol alive! Thankfully for my health and my waistline, no such job offer has come my way. Instead I am content to only eating the cut on the rarest of occasions. My recession dinner would turn out to be one of those occasions.

I didn’t have a recipe to guide my purchases and that made me nervous. I mentally scanned my pantry; carrots, celery, onions, garlic and chicken stock should suffice in an attempt to braise something. I bought two ribs totaling $10 even. Add a bag of brussels sprouts and a cheap (I mean CHEAP) non-vintage, nondescript (and practically non-tasting....it made for decent cooking wine) red wine from France and I had the makings of a delicious, hot meal for only $20.23. Whole Paycheck? Not even close.

Menu
Slow braised beef short ribs. Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit. The sandwich looks awesome, too!

Wine
2004 Feudi di San Marzano “Sud” Malvasia Nera

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds beef short ribs
1/4 cup butter
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups dry red wine (note: this is where the CHEAP wine I bought came into play, not the Malvasia Nera we drank with dinner)
1/2 cup beef broth
1/3 cup medium-dry Sherry
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 bay leaves
1 pinch dried thyme

Preparation:
Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. Melt butter in a large wide pot over medium-high heat. Cook beef until browned on all sides. Transfer beef to a plate. Add celery, carrots and onions to pot and saute until slightly browned and soft, stirring often. Add 1 1/2 cups of the wine, broth, Sherry, garlic, bay leaves and thyme; bring to a boil. Return ribs to pot. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 1 hour.

Using tongs, turn ribs over in pot. Cover and simmer until tender and sauce is very thick, occasionally rearranging ribs to prevent sticking about 1 1/2 hours longer. If need be, add the rest of the wine at this point to keep moisture.

Transfer ribs to work surface. Discard bay leaves. Spoon off fat from sauce in pot. Remove meat from bones. Discard bones (or save for making stock at a later time) and trim off fat. Arrange on a plate spooning sauce over ribs.

This recipe will certainly be repeated in our household. Let us know what you think of it!

Fish and Two Veg

lbell — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:22:42 +0000

I have a completely irrational love of vegetables. I will pick out the vegetables from any dish and eat them, leaving everything else on my plate. So, when I came across a tuna recipe listing two of my favorite vegetables right in the title (!!!), I had to try it. But, there was a small problem. The recipe came from Kinkead's, Washington DC on the Food Network show: The Best Of Episode:Gourmet Greats, and used waaaaaaay too much oil, butter, and bread crumbs and waaaaaay too few vegetables. So, I tripled the amount of vegetables, quartered the amount of butter and oil, and reduced the amount of meat. These are my typical reactions to just about any recipe and, typically, the recipes end up tasting fresher and better than otherwise. Or maybe I’ve just completed skewed my palate and can no longer appreciate anything that isn’t green…

However, in this case, I shouldn’t have messed with the pros. By cutting out as much of the oil, butter and bread crumbs as I did, I think I ruined the presentation of the tuna over the vegetables. My husband completely disagrees and wants me to make this again tonight! Well, you can try it yourself and see what you think. Healthy or buttery, enjoy!

Menu

Tuna Milanese over Prosciutto, Spinach, Mushrooms and Pine Nuts

Wine

2007 Foxglove Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon

Recipes (serves 2)

Tuna Milanese with Prosciutto, Mushrooms, Spinach and Pine Nuts

Ingredients:
8 oz yellowfin tuna, sliced into paillards appx 1/2-inch thick
1/8 cup raisins
1/4 cup port
1 slice whole grain bread, crumbled
2 Tbsp Parmesan, grated
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 tsp
Chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
4 c. whole mushrooms, sliced
3 c. spinach, picked and washed (loosely packed)
1 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted
2 slices prosciutto, julienned
1/4 cups red wine vinegar
lemon juice
1/4 medium red onion, julienned
Salt and pepper
Caper Parsley Relish, recipe follows
Instructions:
In a saucepan, poach the raisins in the port until plump. Drain and reserve the raisins.
Mix the bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp of the grated Parmesan and chopped parsley together with salt and pepper.
Put ½ Tbsp of olive oil in a small bowl. Salt and pepper the tuna paillards and lightly dip in the oil. Dredge through the bread crumbs, coating both sides.
In a saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 1 tsp oil. Add the breaded paillards and saute on one side about 3 minutes until brown and crisp. Turn and cook the other side until brown and crisp (Make sure not to crowd the saute pan.) Keep warm.
When paillards are cooked, wipe out the pan, add a little oil to the pan. Add in the garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté until browned. Add in the spinach, pine nuts, prosciutto, and wilt. Remove from the heat.
In a stainless bowl, add the raisins, onions, remaining 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan, and wilted spinach mixture, dress with the vinegar and toss.
On two warm dinner plates, divide the spinach mixture and sprinkle on the lemon juice. Top each with a tuna paillard and top each paillard with the Caper Parsley Relish.
Parsley Caper Relish: Mix 1 bunch chopped parsley, ½ diced lemon, 1 Tbsp capers, 1 Tbsp olive oil and ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar in a bowl.

The Takeaway: My husband absolutely adored this meal but, I thought it had a little too much going on and really didn’t like the way it plated. I thought the plate looked jumbled and confused. Now, if I had coated the paillards in butter, olive oil, and a gazillion bread crumbs (as the original recipe called for), the tuna would have had a more uniform appearance and looked better atop the spinach mixture. And, next time, I would add the capers, lemon juice and parsley directly to the spinach mixture rather than topping the tuna with the caper relish. I think the flavors would cohere better that way. My husband also recommended that a different fish be used. We both thought the tuna was wasted in this recipe- it seemed like an afterthought to all the other flavors going on. Perhaps halibut or swordfish?

All criticism and hindsight aside, this was a rich, tasty preparation of fish for the winter weather and definitely deserves some experimentation.

FLOSSMOOR STATION SING THIS SONG, DOO DAH, DOO DAH

chicagobeergirl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:50:05 +0000

I have a new bunch of friends!! Our team went out to FLOSSMOOR STATION BREWERY, in historic Flossmoor, Illinois, natch, and oh man, did I have a good time! We met and hung out and drank beers with Brian and Richard, the brewers; Sandy the Marketing/PR/overall go-to gal sampled us out on ALL the beers (that's right -- ALL), and we had some nibblies and drank more and just had a blast. In hindsight, I wish I would have EATEN more, but we had an Olympic Opening Ceremonies party to go to, so I didn't want to be too full.

Anyway.We just started selling their beers last week, and I gotta tell ya, it's a lot more fun to sell beer when you've BEEN to the brewery, you've MET the people . . . it is just a joy. And I must say, I honestly think the liquids are just delicious. In bomber bottles, we have the Stationmaster Wheat beer, a light, very easy to drink American wheat ale; the Pullman Brown, a dark, rich, slightly chocolatey and somewhat smoky brown ale -- might be my new favorite American brown ale, and TWO of their many IPA's. The "Hoppy Hoppy Joy Joy" is a fantastic, INTENSELY hoppy and complex classic American IPA -- floral and citrusy and piney -- there's a lot going on, not like some IPA's lately that just taste like they boiled some Cascade hops in some light malt and called it a beer. The other IPA is called "Chaos" (I think), which is a Belgian style IPA using an authentic Belgian yeast strain. Really good.

SO!!! SUPPORT MY NEW PALS! Go buy a bomber bottle. I know my Binny's, on Grand Ave., has it.

Cupid is Calling...

kimchi — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:25:36 +0000

So... you waited until the last minute to make your Valentine’s Day reservations, didn’t you? You really want to impress your date AND you want something romantic, delicious, authentic and sourced from local farms? You’re kinda picky, did you know that? Lucky for you, we have some perfect solutions.

Ostaria Via Stato

Ostaria Via Stato is serving a very special three course menu just for sweethearts on Cupid’s day. Things to expect: a chef’s selection of antipasti, two amazing pastas and a vast array of main courses, both protein and vegetarian to fill your lovely belly, all from farms we know and love. Now, say you’re into the menu but are a little afraid of what to do as far as wine is concerned. Don’t worry! They wouldn’t dare emasculate your wine knowledge in front of your date. For a mere pittance extra you can have the restaurant pair amazing Italian wines for each course you eat. All you have to do is say “Just bring me wine” and for $20, $30 or $50 per person they will bustle about providing you with a flight of wine guaranteed to delight your senses and gain you a few extra “Valentine’s” points. If you need more information or need a reservation, try asking them directly at Ostaria Via Stato.

Clandestino Valentine's Dinner

For Valentine’s Day, Clandestino has assembled a very special dinner
series in one of Chicago’s most beautiful places. Built in 1878 from
red brick and Joliet limestone, this space now houses an art gallery.
Get ready for a few delicious nights with live performances by some
great local artists. The North Wall of the gallery has been designated
a mural site. Paints and brushes will be provided. It’s all about Love, Pork, and Hearts. This meal will be perfect with either a beer or wine pairing of your choice. Please note: The Clandestino dinner will be held on four consecutive evenings: Thursday the 11th, Friday the 12th, Saturday the 13th (sold out) and Sunday the 14th.

Vie Restaurant

Saturday, February 13 and Sunday the 14th, Vie will be serving a special Valentine's Day menu.

Amuse scallops and paternoster citrus, werp farm arugula

First sablefish, salsify, preserved grapes, 25yr old balsamic

Second smoked crawford farm ham, fazzoletti, black truffles, pecorino

Third dietzler farm tenderloin, yukon gold potato and aged cheddar gratin, spinach, red wine sauce

Fourth Bittersweet plantation Feliciana nevat, strawberry and fennel aigre doux, Cress, honey toasted hazelnut breadcrumbs

To Finish Orange mousse, milk chocolate, cocoa nib nougatine

Five courses, $95, with matching wines optional, $35. To ensure availability make reservations early.

Pastry Market at Logan Square Kitchen

From Logan Square Kitchen's Website: Please RSVP to help our vendors estimate production, and pass along invite to others.
Come by Logan Square Kitchen the day before Valentine's Day to pick up treats from some of Chicago's best artisan confectioners and pastry
chefs. Cookies, cakes, candies, ice cream, french macarons, quiche and
jam are just some of the offerings. Vendors include: B True Bakery, FIG
Catering, Floriole Bakery, Flour Cake & Pastry, Katherine Anne Confections, Macaron Chicago, Nice Cream, Rare Bird Preserves, Rich Chocolates & Candies, Sugarkist, and Tinycakes. Coffee from Metropolis Coffee Tea from Porte Rouge. Cash and credit cards accepted.

Mystery Beer, are you ready for your mystery beer . . . (to the tune of Mystery Date)

chicagobeergirl — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:50:06 +0000

The NEW, TOP SECRET, MYSTERY beer from Founder's Brewing, out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, is called NEMESIS. Why? Of what or who is it the nemesis? With what does this beer have an adversarial relationship? Boring, everyday beer? Maybe.

Nemesis is the name that the Founder's folks have given to their annual four-pack that, I believe, will change every year. The 2009 release is a 12% ABV maple-bourbon-barrel-aged barley wine. The bourbon barrels used to age this beer were once used for aging maple syrup from Northern Michigan. The beer is a delicious, malty, sweet, vanilla, bourbon wheat ale. AND only 60 cases and NO barrels came into Chicagoland. So, what I'm saying is, if you see it, buy it because it won't be on the shelves for long!!

Tomorrow, FIELD TRIP!!! Sort of. We're all taking the Metra to Flossmoor Station Brewing in the south suburbs!

A Wealth of Beer Information...

kimchi — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:53:56 +0000

The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild website is full of all sorts of great information, not the least of which is their calendar of upcoming events. A couple great highlights are:

Saturday March 6th - Day and Night of the Living Ales, Chicago - The Chicago Beer Society invites you to the region’s largest celebration of cask-conditioned ales, with some 40 casks of real ale from Chicagoland breweries and some very special
guests. As always, this promises to be a big firkin deal for area real ale enthusiasts. Attendees will be able to sample the beers and then vote for the 2010 Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland. Last year, in very tight balloting, Surly Brewing swooped in from Minnesota and nicked the title with their Tea-bagged Furious IPA for the second year in a row. Will a local brewer take back the honor in 2010? You decide!. Two sessions: 1-5 pm, 6-10 pm (9:45 last call). Cost: $35 members, $40 nonmembers. Location: Goose Island, 3535 N Clark St, Chicago.

Saturday March 13th - Goose Island Stout Fest, Chicago - Local
craft brewers (15 Guild members so far) will be pouring 20+ different stouts, from Irish-dry to imperial, oatmeal to rye, and all kinds of barrel-aged craziness. Held in Goose Island Clybourn's Siebel Hall, they'll be pouring six-ounce tastings throughout the event. Cost is $20 for 20 tickets; RSVP required, call 312-915-0071. Location: Goose Island, 1800 N Clybourn St, Chicago, 1-5 pm. Goose Island MBA members get in at 11 a.m.

While you are milling around on the site, you should take a moment and check out Imbibe ("I'm a Big Illinois Beer Enthusiast!") - the membership comes with all sorts of perks! I am joining as soon as I finish this post.

Somthin' is a brewin' between 3 Floyds and Half Acre!

kimchi — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:59:05 +0000

Just got this exclusive sneak peek at an upcoming 3 Floyds / Half Acre collaboration beer! Keep your eyes posted here for more exclusive info.

Can't wait to pour this one... Let us know what you think in the comments!

Moresquare...

kimchi — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:59:14 +0000

So I feel like I was just telling people about the recent coupling of Foursquare and Zagat, when low and behold, I stumbled onto to this little tidbit by Bill Daley at The Stew. It turns out that there are some Chicago specific Foursquare badges to be had! For obvious reasons my favorite is the Celery Salt Badge - which you can get by checking in at five of the 12 eligible locations. Which are:

1. Gold Coast Dogs (Multiple Locations)
2. Hot Doug’s, 3324 N. California Ave.
3. Jim’s Original (Maxwell Street Polish), 1250 S. Union Ave.
4. Muskie’s, 2878 N. Lincoln Ave.
5. Portillo’s, 100 W. Ontario St.
6. Soldier Field, 1410 S. Museum Campus Dr.
7. Superdawg, 6363 N. Milwaukee Ave.
8. Weiner’s Circle, 2622 N. Clark St.
9. United Center, 1901 W. Madison St.
10. US Cellular Field, 333 W. 35th St.
11. Vienna Beef Factory Store and Café, 2501 N. Damen St.
12. Wrigley Field, 1060 W. Addison St.

There are also badges for 'Chicago Blues' and 'On Location'... you can find out all the details at Explore Chicago.

Foursquare and Zagat Sittin' In a Tree

kimchi — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:33:26 +0000

Zagat and Foursquare have teamed up. If you have a Foursquare account you can earn a foodie badge when you check into Zagat-rated restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.

Pasta Night!

lbell — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:48:48 +0000

I love pasta. Cappellini, rotini, penne, linguine…be it made of semolina, spinach, or spelt, I want it. I want to buy it (the shapes, the names, the colors!), to eat it (fettuccini in cream, lasagna and tomatoes, ravioli with pumpkin!) but, most of all, I want to cook it.

Pasta gives you more freedom in the kitchen than just about anything except, perhaps, soups. With pasta, you may indulge in flights of culinary fancy and no one can declare the end product “wrong.” What you add to those chewy, dense, slippery noodles is completely up to you. Simple butter and parmesan (a personal comfort food favorite)… ma certo! Primavera with every vegetable you have… non perché? Sausage and rapini in garlic… sí! And, to top it all off, pasta is easy and relatively cheap. Anyone can boil water and stick pasta in it and it usually costs much less than a dollar per serving. Pasta makes delicious, healthy cooking available to all, no matter the contents of your fridge, your cooking expertise, or your income.

Given its versatility and ease, I make pasta at least once a week for dinner. Usually, the remains in my crisper determine what’s cooking. But, some recipes require a repeat performance no matter what’s leftover in my fridge. I discovered one such recipe recently and will be trying it again this evening, with a salad to complete the meal.

Menu

Warm spinach salad with raisins and pine nuts tossed in a shallot vinaigrette

Fettuccine with olives and feta in roasted red pepper sauce

Wine

Ruffino Chianti 2008, a medium bodied, fresh, fairly acidic red wine. Well-priced and goes well with Italian food.

Recipes (serves 2)

Spinach Salad
Ingredients: 1 Tbsp
pine nuts, 1 tsp olive oil, 3 c. spinach, ¼ c. raisins, 1 shallot,
¼ c. balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: Toast the pine nuts in a sauté pan until fragrant and remove to cool. Once cool, chop roughly.

Add olive oil to the sauté pan and warm over medium-low heat.

While the oil warms, finely chop the shallot and whisk it together with the vinegar, raisins and chopped pine nuts in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to the dressing to taste.

Once the olive oil is warm, add spinach to the pan and cook briefly until spinach is very slightly wilted. Remove the spinach and toss with the dressing. Divide among two plates and serve.

Pasta

Ingredients: 3 oz whole wheat linguine, 6-8 cloves garlic, 3 roasted red peppers, 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, ¾ tsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more if you like some heat), 8 kalamata olives, fresh basil, 1 oz feta cheese, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: Put the garlic, red peppers, olive oil, vinegar, and red pepper flakes in a food processor and pulse until you have a fairly smooth sauce. Chop the olives and add to the sauce. Cook your pasta in lightly salted water and drain. While the pasta is cooking, cut your basil into a chiffonade (long, thin rectangular pieces). You can do
this by gently rolling the basil leaves into a cylindrical shape and
slicing. When the pasta is done, drain it and toss it with the
sauce. Crumble your feta into the pasta, add some of the basil
and gently combine. Top with the remaining basil chiffonade and
serve.

The resulting dinner was, according to my husband, incredibly satisfying and the only time he’s liked red pepper sauce. Slightly wilting the spinach and giving it a little heat also went over well. It helped the flavors coalesce better and softened some of the brightness that fresh spinach can have.

Pork and Wild Mushroom Ragú = Yum!

wendydee — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:58:39 +0000

It’s always an exciting day when the new issue of Bon Appétit arrives in the mail. Eric gets first crack at it and when he’s finished it’s my turn to pour over the beautiful pictures and recipes that I have little hope of replicating. Every once in a while I find one that looks basic enough for culinary pedestrian such as myself to tackle. Last night it was the pork and wild mushroom ragú that got the “old college try.”

I don’t have a car. I rely entirely upon the CTA to get me around the city. When I have a particularly large haul from the grocery store I find myself cursing the heaviness of food as I make my way home. In this trip I needed chicken broth, dry white wine, three kinds of pork products, carrots, celery, an onion, two kinds of mushrooms, Matilda (not necessary to the recipe but because I love it) and a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes all of which equaled to approximately 45 pounds of food that needed to be hauled from a bus to a bus to a five block walk home from the bus. It’s a darn good thing I decided not to attempt the gnocchi that day or I could have been hauling at least 75 pounds of materials. I hate not having a car on recipe day.

The recipe itself seemed simple enough, not too labor intensive. Yet I still found myself consulting the magazine before I attempted any step. When I first approach a recipe I make sure to follow it step by step. The way, in the event of a catastrophic failure, I can blame the author. Simple enough. The real key is patience. If they say browning the pork will take six minutes, time it out. Reconstituting the dried porcini mushrooms took 45 minutes, reducing the 2 1/2 cups of white wine took around 30 and simmering the final product into it’s chunky goodness took an additional hour and fifteen minutes. All in all, it took two Simpson’s episodes, one episode of The Office and one Family Guy. Materials used: two cutting boards, four bowls, one skillet, one large pot, two eight inch chef’s knives and two paring knives equaling around thirty minutes of hand washing. Patience is king.

I will say, and not to “toot my own horn”, when Eric came home last night, as he was standing outside the door to our apartment I heard an audible “oh my god!” Yes. This recipe, with all it’s earthy, porky yumminess will be one for the vaults.

Fundraiser at Paramount Room...

kimchi — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:24:31 +0000

Join Paramount Room on Monday February 8th for a benefit in support of Paramount Room Beverage Manager and good friend Shawn Koch in his fight and recovery against brain cancer. 1/2 of the day's sales will be donated directly to Shawn and his Family from 3:00pm until close at 2am.

A full menu will be available throughout the night, as well as raffle-giveaway prizes such as: gift certificates to area restaurants, artwork, custom tattoos, and much more. There will also be an opportunity to donate directly to Shawn, Katie & their daughter Charlie to help with expenses, bills and whatever they may need while he is in recovery form surgery and unable to work. This will be a great evening of positive energy, support, well wishes, music, surprises, plus old and new friends - everyone is welcome.
For more information about Shawn please visit his website at http://www.shawnkoch.com

If you would like to donate something for the raffle-giveaway for this
event please contact direct message us on this site or call Paramount
Room directly at (312) 829-6300 - otherwise just bring yourself!
Paramount Room
415 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60654

Build a better beer glass.

danboy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:27:28 +0000

For safety reasons the British Design Council requested a redesign of the classic pint glass. The idea being to cut down on broken glasses and shards from them, Designbridge stepped up to the challenge.

This double walled glass is filled with a tough resin between the walls of glass, making it not only more durable, but less likely to fracture into dangerous shards.

The glass has the added benefit of unique design and branding opportunities by placing images, etc. inside the resin.

No More Messy Ketchup Packets...

kimchi — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:17:32 +0000

That's right, Heinz is changing their ketchup packets for the first time in 40 years.

First Chiquita Banana stickers, now this? It is a brave new world.

via(Zagat)

Anthony Bourdain has something nice to say!

kimchi — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:18:13 +0000

The James Beard Foundation recently asked Anthony Bourdain his take on the best chefs and restaurants around the world, and I was so happy to see Avec, Blackbird, Publican and Laurent Gras of L20 made the cut!

Check out the full list at the JBF site!

Oh My God... Its Ommegang!

kimchi — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:12:56 +0000

For those among us who are Ommegang fans listen up and listen well... there are two... not one, but TWO excellent Ommegang Brewmasters dinners to be had in Chicago this month:

February 21st Ommegang will be the featured beer in The Publican's ongoing Brewmaster series. Brewmaster Phil Leinhart the of Ommegang will be on hand to speak about Ommegang's excellent Belgian style ales. $45 per person / additional $15 - $20 with beer pairings.

February 23rd Hopleaf will feature a six course dinner designed by Chef Ben Sheagren and paired with the beers ofOmmegang. For this event Brewmaster Randy Thiel will be in attendance.
$75 per person. Seating is limited!
Tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets

And let us not forget the one and only original Goose Island Clybourn

chicagobeergirl — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:20:05 +0000

I am so excited about REVOLUTION BREWING. I mean, who isn't, in the beer community here in Chicago? But in all the excitement, leave us not forget our old dear friend GOOSE ISLAND CLYBOURN. I stopped by there today in hopes of seeing some old friends and maybe getting an audience with Nate, who is in charge of choosing guest draughts. And since I was there anyway, what the heck, I figured I should sample a couple of Wil's fresh brews.

I love having brewpubs nearby with super-talented, awesome brewers producing some of the best beer made anywhere. In the course of this past week, I was reminded at both REVOLUTION and GOOSE that there really is nothing more delicious than fresh, fresh beer. I had a little sample (really, just a little) of Lincoln Park Lager -- brand new today, as fresh as can be, 5.6% Vienna-style lager. And a small taste of Cheffe Berry Stout, from the Chef Collaboration Series. This one is a stout brewed with Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee and blended with berries for a lovely, smooth, coffee-licious but surprisingly bright and not heavy 7% stout.

So, I know the lines at REVOLUTION will be long and punishing this weekend, but go on! Take the time, you know you want to! And after you've had a pint or two and a bit of food, go on over to GOOSE ISLAND . . . try one of their new beers. Or try an old favorite. Drink local.

“Every generation needs a new revolution.” - Thomas Jefferson

danboy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:43:43 +0000

What can I say about Revolution brewing? Well let's start with full disclosure, us here at SocialBite are close to many involved and have been looking forward to this for a long time.

That said, the space, the food, the staff and the beer have managed to surpass my wildest expectations.

The space itself is stunning. It is modern yet filled with all the warmth you expect from a brewpub. The walls are lined with the slats from bourbon barrels and the light fixtures are made from the barrels metal bands. I instantly felt at home and welcome.

Rich beautiful woodwork covers every corner, but is most notable in the bar created by Heineman Bar Co. Beautiful, giant carved fists make up the columns at each corner of the bar. The fists support gorgeous stained glass fittings and pleasantly subdued flat screen televisions.

The bar itself is ample (seating for 30 beer lovers) and as soon as I bellied up I felt right at home.

The first thing I did was get a sampler of the four beers on tap. These consisted of:

"Cross of gold" - a crisp flavorful golden ale
"Workingman's Mild" - an easy drinking brown ale with a light toffee flavor (definitely a session beer)
"Iron fist Pale Ale" - a well balanced and well hopped American pale ale. My favorite of the bunch.
And "Eugene" - a rich, full but not over the top porter with some great coffee and chocolate notes (my wife's favorite).

I hear they're putting their "Anti-Hero" IPA on tonight so I can't wait to get a taste of that.

The food was excellent and maintains all the qualities that us SocialBiters like to get behind. High quality, local ingredients are the star here with charcuterie and baking done in house, farm fresh ingredients in everything and a spotlight on a traditional brewpub menu with an unconventional flair.

Standouts include:

Ceasar Pizza - a white anchovy and parmesan pizza topped with a fried egg.
Flemish style Beef stew - a simple, elegant stew served on a bed of mashed potatoes. Managing Partner Josh Deth called this his "sleeper hit" and I don't doubt it.
The Burgers - We have had the pleasure of trying all the burgers - each of which is served on a house-made bun. Here is a brief synapsis: the Forest Burger (cremini mushrooms and crispy shallots made this earthy, delicious burger a favorite with out team), the Farm Burger (with a perfectly fried egg and a delicious beet it is a throwback to an Australian classic), the Smokehouse Burger (are you kidding? pepperjack cheese and pulled pork - this is a burger you will crave over and over again), and finally the Workingman Burger (a classic, with aged cheddar, onions and bacon... couldn't be better).

It's also worth noting that Revolution has a fine selection of vegetarian options. The Beluga Lentils, Quinoa & Winter Vegetables was a delicious and welcome alternative to the standard vegetarian entrees that are typically found on brewpub menus. There is something for everyone here.

Last, but definitely not least, Revolution has managed to put together some desserts that make me hungry all over again whenever it is time to order. The Beignets & Mocha are perfect if you want a little something sweet. The cinamon and clove in the beignets is subtle, but lends that little bit of balance you need if you are not a total sweet tooth - if you are... dip, dip, dip into the sweet and rich 'cafe mocha nip' that comes on the side. My personal favorite is the Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding, the ale really comes through and the caramel sauce is perfect. Finally, the Cherry Bourbon Cake... I have it on good authority that it is a staff favorite, and I can see why... the almond rosemary upsidedown cake with Michigan sour cherries soaked in bourbon could keep anyone coming back for more. I am not the biggest fan of rosemary, but this is a great combination and I loved it.

All in all I give Revolution a thumbs up the size of their giant carved fists. But don't take my word for it, get in there, grab a beer and see what Chicago's newest brewpub has to offer!

"I know and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backwards." –William Henry Seward

Chiquita Banana's new look!

danboy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:49:22 +0000

The Chiquita banana's sticker has been a mainstay of the produce section for years. I can remember mom peeling the sticker from ripe bananas and sticking it playfully to my lapel. My brothers and I would collect them like badges of honor, so when I saw this redesign it really brought me back.

The new stickers stay true to the Chiquita brand, but are super fresh and playful.

I'm excited about a whole new generation of children being inspired by this iconic design.

Three Floyds at State and Lake

kimchi — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:32:13 +0000

I have already made my plans for Wednesday March 24th, and I encourage you to do the same... I will be attending the Three Floyd's beer dinner at The Wit Hotel's State and Lake Restaurant.

If you haven't visited State and Lake before, you are in for a treat. The menu emphasizes local ingredients whenever possible and prides itself on pairing beautifully crafted food with artisinal beer selections.

Some of my favorite things on the dinner menu are the steak tartar, deviled eggs, grilled hangar steak with marrow sauce and, last but not least, the braised short rib mac and cheese with horseradish gremolata. I can't wait to see what Chef Bradley Manchester comes up with for this beer dinner!

I SAY I WANT A REVOLUTION! I WANT IT NOW!

chicagobeergirl — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:10:09 +0000

Yeah, I'm cool. Want to know how cool I am? I got invited to a pre-opening party for Revolution Brewing!! I know. Super cool.

Jim Cibak, the brewmaster, and I met several years ago at the Goose Island Beer Academy at the Clybourn pub. We bonded over our shared love of I.P.A.'s. He was working for Three Floyds at the time, and just the nicest guy. And an awesome brewer!! After a stint in Cali brewing at Firestone-Walker, among others, he was lured back here to work his beery magic at his own pub! And all of Chicago is the better for it.

Ooo, the bar is beautiful!! Can't wait to spend many hours there! The hope is, the Rev will get their actual liquor license tomorrow, Wednesday the 3rd, and I am hoping to be enjoying a beer with some bacon popcorn by Thursday. Tonight I enjoyed a Workingman Mild, which is described as a lunchtime beer (hello???? FANTASTIC IDEA!!!) at only 3.5 % ABV but full of flavor. Dark malts, caramel and toffee notes with just enough hop backbone, yeah, this is a real beer but I could still sit and drink three or four and not be slurry.

Visit their website at www.revbrew.com, and get down there as soon as you can.

Also, if you happen to see Randy Jackson, could you please tell him there IS NO MILLION PERCENT? As in "a million percent yes"? That the very definition of PERCENT is PART OF A HUNDRED? Drives me crazy. Thanks for letting me vent.

Beer Advocate's Beer in review.

danboy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:02:06 +0000

Beer Advocate's Beer in review issue is out with some awesome news.

Looks like Indiana's 3floyds brewing (a friend of socialbites). Has placed quite handsomely with both their Dark Lord Imperial Stout and Dreadnaught IPA.

Couldn't find anything on line, but you can subscribe to beer advocate or buy the latest issue.

Bag-O-Wine

danboy — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:25:40 +0000

Notcot pointed me at these awesome baggy wine coats and wine breathers by MENU.

The former is a stylish custom bag for carrying your boxed wine in. The bag resizes as you drink and fits multiple tap sizes, so any box of wine should work.

The latter is a stunning carafe with a twist, attach it to your bottle and flip over to aerate your wine, now you can either leave the wine in the carafe or flip it back and serve from the bottle!

I want.

via(notcot)

The croutons go on your salad, not in your pants.

danboy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:44:18 +0000

I spotted this great post from "great moments from Christory" on reddit. Lunch notes from my permanent room mate is an awesome collection of notes the author's wife sticks to his lunch bag every morning.

Every single one is awesome, definitely check 'em all out.

via(reddit)

The DAY IS NIGH

chicagobeergirl — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:55:13 +0000

Okay, it's a little early, but can I please be excited about DARK LORD DAY??? I am, already. It's sad.
DARK LORD DAY IS APRIL 24th!! SATURDAY!! Clear your calendar, book your room at the local Marriott (there's one right there by the hospital), or get your buddies together and book a limo. It's worth it!! Give yourself up to the Dark Lord. Have no responsibilities to hold you back. But remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Stay hydrated. Eat a good breakfast. Maybe bring some snacks in case the lines are too long. But seriously, don't drive if you can help it. You'll thank me after you've been drinking 10% beers for five or six hours straight.

If you have homebrew -- well, I should qualify that by saying, homebrew that you are willing to share -- bring plenty! If you have beer from your part of the world that is not available in the Chicago area -- bring as much as you can carry! There will be beers to trade! There will be other people with beers you want to try!

You all know of what I speak, yes? Of course you do. DARK LORD DAY is Three Floyds' annual release party of their multiple-award-winning Russian Imperial Stout. To beer geeks such as myself, it is nothing less than an annual pilgrimage. A sort of Woodstock celebration of some of the best beers in the world. By the by, THREE FLOYDS was just chosen by Ratebeer.com as the world's best brewery. We'll be celebrating that, too!

Watch this space for more details as they come to light, and more survival tips for the Day. To learn more, visit www.darklordday.com.

Chicken Ham

danboy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:38:56 +0000

Just Bento has an awesome write up of Torihamu or "chicken ham", I can't wait to try this out. I'll bet you can mix the recipe up quite a bit.

I'm going to play a bit with using Schlenkerla Rauchbier or liquid smoke in the mix.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Quick Peek - Old Town Social

eric — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:10:50 +0000

So, my wife and I were out running some errands and I was starting to get pretty cranky. It was Saturday and anyone that knows me knows that I hate to drive anywhere on Saturday. Traffic (my arch enemy) is bad enough during the week and now I was ready to kill something. Luckily for all involved we happened to drive past Old Town Social on North Ave.

We had heard "of" the place but knew nothing about it. The exterior appeared to be reminiscent of turn of the 20th century and that was it... looks like the place to stop. Walking in the front door I knew that this place was going to be good. The door is oversized and looked like it was taken off the front of an English manor. We were greeted by textured ruby red wall paper or maybe it was made of old tin ceiling tiles, looking good. The food had better stand up to the ambiance of the place.

Oh, man. We were not disappointed. Nice wine selection. Pretty darn good beer selection and a menu I could have eaten off of for days. We started with some charcuterie: house-made Toscano and Pate de Campagne. Freakin' luscious. The Toscano was thinly sliced and of a very generous proportion. Nice hint of garlic, salty and a little sweet. The Pate de Campagne was some of the best I've had. It's country style, so there is less liver in it than in Pate de Foie Gras. The texture was chunky (in a good way) and really moist. Served on Brioche with a little Dijon mustard between the Brioche and Pate. We also ordered the Roasted Brussels Sprouts with house-made Pancetta. These were some of the best prepared Brussels Sprouts we have had and I think the Pancetta is what really puts it over the top.

Next up was the Shepard's Pie. This was found under the 'To Start or Share" section of the menu and that is a good place for it. Definitely not big enough for a main course, but a great size if you are looking for a smaller single serving. It was surprisingly filling to be sure. The Shepard's Pie had some nice solidly sized cuts of meat and roughly chopped carrots in it that really made it filling. We also order the grilled cheese and cup of soup. I didn't get to try this because I was pretty sure my wife would have stabbed me with her fork if I tried get some. Next time. That is, if it is still on the menu. That is one of the other great things about Old Town Social, very seasonal top-notch ingredients. I think I will keep my refrigerator, but we will definitely be back.

DRAGON'S MILK

chicagobeergirl — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:55:14 +0000

I love, LOVE New Holland Dragon's Milk. Had a lovely evening with friends last night, played some board games and some Wii, watched Saturday Night Live, and drank a Dragon's Milk. It's the perfect beer for a relaxing winter night. It's dark, complex, somewhat sweet and slightly boozy, all qualities I look for in my beer and my friends.
Today I am going to work on my preparations for my upcoming Belgian beer class. Got the Michael Jackson Great Beers of Belgium 6th edition, got my Randy Mosher Tasting Beer, got my Global Beer DVD, had a hearty breakfast . . . Happy Sunday to one and all!!

3 Floyd's tops RateBeer's 2010 Best of.

danboy — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:22:46 +0000

3 Floyds Brewery took the number one spot in RateBeer's Best Brewers of 2010 list.

If you aren't familiar with 3 Floyds it's time you should be. With a wide gamut of bold and traditional styles, these beers are a foodie's dream.

Other notable awards included 5 beers in the top 100 and three of those in the top 10, The number one English style bitter with Black Heart and the number two IPA with Dreadnaught.

Check out the lists for other great beers.

via (3floyds)

Nine Most Interesting Hot Dog variants.

danboy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:51:45 +0000

While I'm surprised Hot Doug's wasn't number one, I still have to say that this is a fun and interesting list!

Dogfish Head Red & White Release

kimchi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:44:47 +0000

Red & White, the first Occasional Rarity release for 2010 will start hitting the shelves beginning February 1st. The beer began shipping to wholesalers this week.

Now I just have to wait a little bit longer for Aprihop!

(From Dogfish Head)

It's A Pony!!!

wendydee — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:04:16 +0000

One of my favorite parts of a Kim/Dan dinner party is the moment I hear “Go ahead and open up anything interesting from the rack.” With the exception of a few boundaries that have been hammered out over a history of pillaging their wine rack, I know that those words mean I have carte blanch. Theirs is a rack full of surprises in the form of dusty bottles and disintegrating labels (and sometimes corks). Much of the wine was originally purchased by Dan’s father and came into their possession through generous gifting or, depending on how you look at it, clever usurping. Some of the bottles are beyond belief, both in a good way and a horrible way. I’m always reminded of Christmas morning during those moments. Unwrapping a beautiful package to see what treasure lies in store. Sometimes you get socks, but sometimes you get a pony.

It was a typical reconnaissance mission through their rack that brought my attention to the pony. This pony was a 1981 Spring Mountain Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, a bottle only four years younger than myself. It was covered in dust and cooking grunge and staring at me as if to say “I dare you.” At that moment I felt like an anthropologist on a dig in search for answers from our ancestors. My heart raced, my palms began sweating and I’m pretty sure I got nauseous from sheer excitement. In this day and age and at our economic level, very few of my friends have the luxury of having a vintage that old in their collection and are willing to open it. With the exception of my studies (and that Amarone vertical we lucked into at wine class at work), this was the oldest bottle of wine I was ever about to open. I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders as I prepared myself for a proper decanting of a wine that’s been resting for 28 years.

The next portion of this narrative is to express the importance of having the proper tools in your home bar. To open and decant a bottle of wine that old requires a basket, a wine key, a candle and a decanter. In some cases, if the cork is so far gone that it disintegrates as you attempt to extract it, a two pronged cork puller is necessary. As much as I love my friends and with as much as we have in common, the idea of a mies en place for a bar has escaped them thus far. While a cork screw was available, it took fifteen minutes to find an appropriate vessel for decanting and a two pronged cork screw was as far from the bar as Jupiter. In order to get the cork “out” we literally had to shove the cork into the bottle and then “filter” it through cheese cloth into the decanter. I shuddered at the process as I envisioned what would have happened had I attempted this during my sommelier certification examination. The words “epic fail” come to mind. Luckily, I had no Master Sommelier overseeing the process and we were able to get the wine to a drinkable stage before too long. In the end, it all worked out, proper tools be damned!

The wine was cloudy. This was not a surprise considering the decanting process. It was butterscotch in color fading to a burnt umber toward the rim. Again, not surprising considering it’s age. The nose gave off eucalyptus, green bell peppers and dried, red fruits like currants and dried cherries. The first taste confirmed the green bell peppers and eucalyptus, but avoided the fruits of the nose. I wanted the fruit. I needed the fruit. I decided to wait an hour and see if the fruit would possibly come out of it’s hiding place. I knew it was in there somewhere, toying with me, making sure I would come back to it time and again to see how it had changed. This is the face of a complex wine, one that keeps you in wonder of what is in store upon the next sip.

An hour and a half and several “beverages” later, we decided to revisit the elusive wine sitting in the decanter. It had finally found it’s balance! The herbal notes blended seamlessly into dark dried fruits underscored by vanilla and earth. The acidity kept it real and made sure it was a perfect pair with everything Kim had on the table. After an hour’s decanting, the wine had opened up and become exactly what we had hoped for. It had found it’s song and was singing it earnestly.

I will be honest, I had little hope for this bottle. Who knows what it’s home had been like in its 28 years? Who knows if it’s prime was ten years ago? Who knows where it was ten years ago? There are many factors to come into play when one encounters a vintage bottle of wine and many of them can destroy a wine that was once beautiful and leave one with the feeling that one has just opened socks on Christmas morning. Lucky for us, we got a pony.

(For more information visit Spring Mountain Vineyard's website!)

Capture The Flag!

kimchi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:58:08 +0000

I play Capture the Flag almost every weekend in Humboldt Park. I am so dedicated that I capitalize the words Capture the Flag. If you are reading this you should play too.

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that it can get a tad chilly out there on a brisk Sunday afternoon so here is how we deal with Old Man Winter. Hot toddies and hot cider with rum. Take that Old Man!

We like to make our hot toddies with tea instead of water, we have used everything from chamomile to red zinger and each tea has offered a different but delicious result. We have also varied the liquor that we have used from whiskey to rum to cachaca, and again each incarnation was lovely. The two unwavering ingredients have been honey and fresh lemon, both in larger amounts than I would have guessed. We have never used a recipe, we have just concocted to taste... I am beginning to think you just can't go wrong.

As for hot cider and rum... well, its hot cider and rum. I would suggest Seedling Fruit's cider and your rum of choice. The addition of orange slices, cloves and a garnish of cinnamon will take it to the next level.

Imbibe Magazine has a great list of winter cocktails that I would like to work my way through. I think I'll start with the Sugarplum Brandy Cider!

What is your favorite cold weather drink?

Pssst... Longman & Eagle, I have a crush on you.

kimchi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:42:25 +0000

It seems like I have been reading an awful lot about Longman & Eagle in Logan Square, so tonight I thought to myself 'What better night to go see what all the fuss is about?'.

What I have to report is that the fuss is well deserved. After reading the menu I was excited, but a little nervous that the food might not be able to deliver all that the menu had made me hope for. I was wrong to even glance in the direction of doubt.

We started with Kobe Meatballs, creamy polenta, parsley pesto and fonduta. They were rich and meaty, while still maintaining a certain brightness... and they were delicious. Oh were they delicious. Next up was the house-made pork sausage with sauerkraut, shaved apple-cress salad and grain mustard. This was done perfectly. It was exactly what you would expect it to be in a traditional sense, but done so well that I would seek it out again over many others that I have had. After that we had the potato agnolotti with escargot, yellow foot chanterelles, bordelaise sauce and shaved foie gras. This dish was rich and complex with a surprising saltiness that seemed to be coming from the chanterelles. We ended our meal with two desserts, the Callebaut Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding with vanilla ice cream and bourbon anglaise and the Candy Apple butternut squash semifreddo with chestnuts and salty caramel. While both of the desserts were quite good I definitely perfered the bread pudding. It was classic, simple and to the point. The Candy Apple butternut squash semifreddo left me with a few questions. The butternut squash was exceedingly delicious (I want more right now, in fact, I wanted more on the plate), but it was not a semifreddo by any definition that I am familiar with. It seemed to be closer to something like a heavy whipped cream... just an observation, and the chestnuts offered a punch of salt that is great as long as it is evenly distributed. Oh... and the candy apple was a pear. Again, not a complaint, just an observation.

L & E has a well rounded beer and wine list that includes a whole lot of whiskey and about five house cocktails that are painstakingly constructed (I had the 'Last Word' - Tanqueray gin, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, Green Chartreuse and lime juice -which I would reccomend). There is definitely something for everyone.

Overall I would have to give Longroom & Eagle an A+. I will be back soon and often to try everything else on the menu! Oh, and I can't wait to see the rooms at the Inn when they are complete!

Baby its cold outside...

kimchi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:42:35 +0000

It is blustery and cold out there, so we are inside eating vegetable soup with crusty, crunchy garlic toasts.

Vegetable soup is pretty forgiving and it can be as healthy or unhealthy as you want to make it, so use up any vegetables that are nearing their end in you fridge or go nuts in the produce aisle.

This is how I made mine (utilizing fridge bits):

1 Onion medium dice
3 Cloves Garlic minced or creamed
3 Carrots roughly chopped
2 Stalks Celery chopped
2 Pieces Bacon cut in to lardons
Green Beans ends removed and cut into 1” pieces
Broccoli (include crowns as well as stalks peeled and chopped)
Kale rough chop or chiffonade
Fingerling Potatoes (or whatever potatoes you have)
2 28oz Cans diced tomatoes
Chicken stock
Rind of Parmesan cheese

Render the fat from the lardons over low heat. Remove crisped bacon pieces (reserve to sprinkle on soup or for some other deliciousness). Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery to bacon fat and salt to taste (and by to taste I mean generously). Allow vegetables to soften slightly - about 6 to 8 minutes. Add chicken stock, canned tomatoes (with their juice), and potatoes. Bring to a boil and add the remaining vegetables. Cook through and eat up!
To make a healthier version trade the bacon fat for olive oil and the chicken stock for vegetable or mushroom stock.

For the crusty, crunchy garlic toasts:

Slice one baguette on a bias
Lightly coat both sides of slices with olive oil
Toast in 350° oven until cripy
Rub both sides of toast with a halved garlic clove
Top with shredded Parmesan if desired

Helveticookies.

danboy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:23:02 +0000

Ok, so I covered my engineering friends with the Cocktail Blueprints for Engineers post, but what about you typography geeks?

Fret not my visually astute pals we've got you covered, in sans-serif at least... Helveticookies is a full set of cookie cutters that spells out "helvetica".

nibble away to create you own fonts.

via(boingboing)

My new favorite breakfast

kimchi — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:57:49 +0000

I am not going to lie to you – this started with a hangover. Hangover = hungry and lazy. Hungry and lazy = delicious.
Lazy – Annie Chun’s Sprouted Brown Rice (1 minute in the microwave)
Hungry – One egg over easy
Delicious – Mushrooms, sliced and sautéed with a little Shoyu
That little something extra – Thinly sliced green onion sprinkled on top
Combine and revel in a perfect, delicious breakfast – hangover or not.

Cocktail blueprints for engineers.

danboy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:38:00 +0000

You know the type. Fricking brilliant in every other way, but when it comes down to cooking or mixology they can't just seem to grasp the notion of a "jigger" vs a "part".

Well there's hope for all now that we have cocktail blueprints!

As socialbite's resident nerd I can attest to the power of such plans in the right hands.

Playing field level.

via (make)

M'Lady Matilda: A Love Letter

wendydee — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:37:01 +0000

My Dearest,

Shall I ever be able to adequately articulate my passion for you? I must try lest my heart explode from holding it in. I will let Aeros guide my pen, Aphrodite move my words and myself, the mere mortal, feel the pain of a passion unrequited. Please hear my words. I shall not bear it if they fall upon deaf ears.

‘Twas love at first sight which I once ridiculed and now know to be true. The moment I first held you in my hands was a moment of magic the greatest wizards of all time will hope to harness. Your beauty is mercifully understated, classic, delicate and taciturn. Only four words you spoke to me; Matilda, Belgian Style Ale. Fumbling with my wretched fingers I begged them to open you, to pry off your perfect, black bottle cap to gain access to your dark secrets inside. You graciously acquiesced, hissing with the effort. Your aroma; wild and spicy, complimenting your delicate butterscotch coloring. I breathed you in as though your essence was all that was keeping me alive. I knew it would not be enough, that I must drink you to understand your secrets. Through the grace of the gods was I able to bring you to my lips and taste what I suspected to be true. Beautiful balance, butterscotch, bananas, caramel, cinnamon, chestnuts, dried figs....would you have me go on forever? I’ll gladly spend eternity uncovering your clandestine notes. All you have to do is ask.

Say the words, dearest and sweetest Matilda. Say the words.

Yours forever,
Wendy

Cheese 101

kimchi — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:40:10 +0000

I am a lover of cheese, but I am was woefully uneducated on the subject, so I decided to do a little research to see where in Chicago I might be able to get better educated on the topic. What I found was Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine. Pastoral has a variety of classes to choose from. We started with Cheese 101, an introductory course held at the Loop location, and at $40 per person I felt like I was getting more than my moneys worth.

The class started at 6:30pm and lasted until about 8pm. We were greeted by a great staff and were offered a couple of wine options for our enjoyment (this class was not focused on any type of wine pairing). Once everyone had settled in we were taken through a sort of outline of cheese information covering things like the old world tradition / new world practice of cheese making, styles of cheese, the differences in goat / sheep / and cow's milk cheeses and what defines a farmstead, artisan, and specialty cheese.

The lecture portion of the evening was fun and interactive, but the real party started when my cheese plate arrived! We were guided through a fresh Tomini with Herbs, Bucheron, Robiola Rochetta (made with cow/sheep and goat's milk! It was great), Brie de Meaux Rouzaire (a buttery, wildly mushroomy brie that may be my new favorite cheese), Mont St. Francis, Marieke Gouda, Queso de Mano, Comte St. Antoine (comte is a sister cheese to gruyere), Neal's Yard Montgomery Farm House Cheddar, L'Amuse 2 Year Gouda (so outstanding! this cheese had notes of coffee and butterscotch... truly delicious.), Neal's Yard Stichelton, and Covadonga (a sweet, salty, creamy blue with a spicy finish). As we worked our way through each cheese we were encouraged to allow flavors to develop and to really consider how we would describe what we were tasting.

The class concluded with a few minutes of questions and answers and then a little time to shop. As an added bonus, on the night of your class you get 15% off any puchases you make - and believe me, you are going to want to buy some things!

Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine has approximately 100 to 150 types of cheese at any given time with their highlight on artisan produced cheeses. The store set up is also worth mentioning, they really considered the customer's needs by laying out the cheese case and the wine selection to mirror eachother so choosing the right wine to go with your cheese is a cinch!

All in all I feel like I learned a lot and truly enjoyed the process. I can promise you now, I will be continuing my cheese education at Pastoral!

As a side note: Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine has a great selection of gifts and monthly clubs so check out their site.

If you can't make it to Pastoral any time soon check out these books to help expand your cheese horizons:

Cheese Primer

Cheese: A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best

The Cheese Lover's Companion: The Ultimate A-to-Z Cheese Guide with More Than 1,000 Listings for Cheeses and Cheese-Related Terms

How Cooking Made Us Human

danboy — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:32:48 +0000

This interesting talk by Richard Wrangham author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human details how humans became to be more social through the process of cooking their food.

See raw food provides less calories than cooked food, so once us humans learned to harness fire we were left with more sustenance. With that came more energy for the hunts which meant more food which in turn ended up meaning more time to socialize.

All right so I'm poorly paraphrasing here and Jon Udell does a much better job of summing this up so check out the links, they're worth the click.

via(kottke) via(jonudell)

Carl Sagan's Apple Pie.

danboy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:17:25 +0000

Carl Sagan taught us the first step in creating apple pie from "scratch" was creating the universe.

This recipe card sums up Carl's philosophy nicely.

via (serious eats)

xmarx hits the spot.

danboy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:18:27 +0000

A couple of things stood out about xmarx dinner tonight. And forgive me if you're a regular but this was my first experience and quite lovely.

One: Our hosts. From the moment the door was opened I felt at home and completely comfortable in a space I never visited.

The small three person crew covered our every need and made everyone feel like a VIP.

Two: The crowd. Kept to 18-20 the crowds are wonderfully friendly like minded people out on the town for a fun evening. I felt at home chatting with everyone who walked through the door, and the communal seating guarantees you'll make a few new friends as the night goes past.

Three: The menu. Decidedly not pretentious the menu still managed to be fresh, seasonal and inviting to even the most distinguished pallet. The ingredients where picked and prepared that day, straight from local markets and as soon as I walked in and saw a chalkboard plastered with ingredients I knew I was in for a good time.

The starter was a delightful (if not a little sweet) pizza margarita with fresh basil and tomato jam. Wonderful, crispy Sourdough-Crust accented all the flavours immensely. The kicker was a small dried red pepper you crushed over the top to balance the sweet and add a layer of spice to the mix. Unfortunately these peppers where delivered early and looked a lot like say a Craisin. This lead a couple of the more adventurous guests (myself included) to indulge a little early. All it took was a look around the room to spot the folks who made this mistake.

As the fire subsided in my mouth we were served a speck and clam pizza. Still thin, but leavened just enough to make you crave more.

I was blown away by the light fluffy Gnocchi with braised short rib and giardinara. The Gnocchi really shined through though. Lightly seared and fluffy as all get out. A fine entrée indeed.

So next up was a sous-vide lamb in a bed of chickpeas, Fava bean and olive. Lamb was cooked perfectly and the beans where wonderful. I'm not normally a big Lamb guy but if you can keep it medium rare... WOW.

So I'm writing this as I'm relishing a bit (I just got home) but man was it a really good laid back time. I'd recommend checking out the upcoming meals by joining xmarx mailing list. I can pretty much guarantee you'll have a great time.

Minhas Creek threatened over "Boxer Lager"

danboy — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:05:02 +0000

In picking a name like "Boxing Lager" I'm sure the last thing Minhas Creek Brewing expected was controversy, But that's exactly what they got last December when the AGCO sent them a letter about their dastardly choice of nouns.

The complaint stems from Canada's law against the use of "sports" in advertising alcohol. Apparently using the term "Boxer" convinces us consumer that beer will give us super strength.

Check out the Good Beer Blog's post for some interesting breakdowns of this silly law.

via (goodbeerblog)

Ommegang promises a new bear every other month.

danboy — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:02:07 +0000

Ommegang's new brewing strategy is going to see them introducing six new beers this year.

Styles include a Belgian-style pale ale, a trippel, a sour and a Scotch ale.

Also worth noting that they'll be aging many of their high gravity series in oak casks for an extra bonus.

Re-usable 6 Pack

danboy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:11:23 +0000

This re-usable sixpack holder looks like the perfect thing for bringing multiple beers to the next shin-dig.

I wonder how well it holds up with large format beers in it?

Chow's Desktop wallpapers

danboy — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:50:39 +0000

Chow.com has started a beautiful new series of food related desktop wallpapers. Check out the first in the series:

All I want for Christmas is...

kimchi — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:15:01 +0000

What do you want in your stocking or under your menorah this holiday season? My list is longer than I am proud of, but what can I say? I’m greedy. Here is a list of some of the things I am currently coveting, in no particular order:
1.    A membership/subscribtion to Zingerman’s Culinary Adventure Society!! This seems great, great, great! Four times a year they send you a box of eight to ten food surprises based on their food research and travel. This seems like such fun to me – like a black box in your kitchen four times year. (Santa, I have been pretty good this year and if you give me a membership to Zingerman’s Culinary Adventure Society I promise to be even better next year. I swear.)
2.    An end to world hunger… starting here: Naumes Fruit Gifts. Naumes, who have orchards in Washington, Oregon and California, match every fruit gift you give a loved one by donating the same amount of fruit, pound for pound, to a local food pantry or shelter.
3.    Honeybees, a goat and a pig. Seriously. At Heifer International you can give a charitable gift that will provide animals and training to small-scale farmers and communities throughout the world. You can give in almost any increment, for instance, honeybees are $30, a goat is $120, but you can donate as little as $10 toward the purchase of the goat – there are a multitude of options – but I really do want the honeybees, goat and pig…
(Also, visit http://www.serve.gov/ and learn about ways to help in your own community with United We Serve: Feed a Neighbor.)
4.    The KitchenAid Ravioli attachment – A hopper for the filling! Perfect little ravioli! I have to have it!
5.    Books: The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson, Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller, Coco: 10 World-Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs, Momofuku by David Chang, Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch
6.    Italian White Truffle (tuber magnatum pico) from D'Artagnan - I will love it and feed it and pet it and walk it…
7.    Hudson Valley Foie Gras – Duck Foie Gras Lobe, also at D'Artagnan.
8.    KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment and Sausage Stuffer Kit Attachment
9.    Shun Ken Onion Chef’s Knife 10”

Christmas Cookies

kimchi — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

While I patiently await my birthday and all the delicious treats that come along with the holiday season, I have decided to get a jump on the holiday cookies that I intend to make every year, but never get around to. I never know when to start… the beginning of December seems too soon, but if I wait and try to bake them anytime after that I find that we are all booked up with holiday parties, shopping, and recovery. So this year I have made it my birthday resolution to bake, assemble and pack all my holiday treats by December 9th.
I have been scouring cookbooks and the internet in hopes of finding a delicious combination of sweet and savory that will appeal to every recipient and here is the short list that I am considering:

The NY Times Chocolate Chip cookies (while not particularly holiday-ish they are a favorite of everyone I know, and must be included)

Chocolate sandwich cookies with 2 types of filling (peppermint and chocolate)

Cranberry Thumbprints (because I am a lover of cranberries and I want to share the love)

Rum Walnut cookies (this is inspired by my recent obsession with rum cake – we were given tiny Tortuga Rum Cakes at Chicago Gourmet this summer and now (almost) all I want to eat is rum cake…)

Sugar Cookies (because they are sugar cookies – Ho Ho Ho!)

Spiced nuts and homemade cheese crackers (some people just don’t like sweets)

and dog biscuits (in case you are a dog)

Wish me luck!!!