Tag Archives: dinner

Let Us Eat Barbeque!

For the last couple of weeks, my friend Seth and I have been planning to go to County Barbeque together, but also with some friends. Only, we haven’t really given enough notice for friends to plan to join us.

So we’re giving you notice today that on 21 April 2015, at 7:30 pm, we will dine at County Barbeque. Address is 1352 W Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60607. We are hoping you, you, you, and especially you will join us. Seth agrees.

Seth’s never been to County. I’ve been a few times. They have a solid draft list, bottled Palomas that are killer, fantastic chicken, and really great corn pudding. They have other things too, but I enjoy the chicken too much to tell you what else.… Continue reading →

Taming the Mania

Note: I wrote this post on the 23rd & then had some issues getting it uploaded before I left for Baltimore. So please read it accordingly.

My home smells a bit like lovage today. Very faintly. I, as planned, stripped all the leaves off and chopped them very finely. They’re frozen in ice cube trays now. I put the stems out with hummus to see if they’d be an adequate celery snack substitute. Only Bill was willing to try them (I don’t like celery much), and he said the stems were entirely too woody for that kind of consumption. So, into the stock bag they went.

I also chopped the rhubarb into chunks and froze that on a freezing sheet1. I’ll dump that into a baggie today.… Continue reading →

Preparing for Tomorrow

I’ve mentioned my last giveaway on this blog quite a bit recently, in part because it’s on my mind a lot right now. See, my winners are coming over to eat, drink and be merry tomorrow, and I want to make sure it’s delicious and worthy of merriment.

I always stress a bit about hosting a dinner shindig, because I don’t do it often enough. Oh, I have a friend or two over for games and/or food all the time, but I rarely do a big, planned thing. Often, my friends come over on less than a day’s notice (sometimes less than an hour’s) and I feed them whatever Bill and I are eating that day and the house is in whatever state the house is in.… Continue reading →

[73] Coq Au Vin

Cover of Cooking for Two

I can’t remember why I decided to make this recipe. The sane and reasonable reason would have been, “Because I didn’t want any leftovers before Thanksgiving” and that may have played a small role. However, probably not as large a role as you might expect. I think the biggest reason was wanting something that wasn’t out of How to Cook Everything. Basically, I wanted to cook out of a cookbook we haven’t used in awhile.

On top of that, a very sane Thanksgiving reason also encroached. Not only did I not want leftovers before the big food day, I knew I wanted more freezer space as I cooked beforehand and for leftovers afterward. So I did a lot of digging through my freezer to see what I could use.… Continue reading →

[66] Simple, Perfect Chili

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

I can’t lie to you guys. I really love The Pioneer Woman’s blog, and all of her recipes and photos make me drool. Except the ones with cilantro.

Bill also loves her blog. So when we found her cookbook in a bookstore, not too long after it’d been published, we both really wanted to buy it. We knew we could get most of her recipes online (thus costing us nothing), but we felt we should support her work. Also a book is, in some ways, more portable than the internet. For example, I can take this to my mother’s house and cook out of it more easily than hauling a laptop into the kitchen.

Not that I don’t want a kitchen laptop, even so.

I picked this recipe as one of the first to make out of this book because I really enjoy chili and I love having some in the freezer for cold days and lunches and so forth.… Continue reading →