A Guy Who Loves to Cook!

Number one on the list of the simplest things you can make in your kitchen is boiled water. Tap, pot, heat, done. Number two has got t...

If a root vegetable is going to be cooked, in my opinion there’s no better way to do it than roasting. Any vegetable that can stand up to...

How many times have you passed over this extremely versatile, albeit odd-looking, vegetable while strolling through your lo...

Giardiniera is a staple condiment found anywhere in Chicago where you can get an Italian Beef sandwich. You can usually choose a hot ...

Soup can be made two ways. You can throw everything in a kettle and let it simmer for hours with very little supervision or you can fines...

Chicken simply seasoned, lightly floured and sautéed until crisp? Heaven! Anything with mushrooms, seriously, I love that! I grew up wat...

Sometimes when trying out a new recipe for a main course dish, you devote all of your concentration on the new comer and let the sides, we...

Stuffed Mushrooms at a restaurant always sound like they’re going to be great, and then you order them. What’s the big deal with breadcru...

Too often, the only time Cauliflower is eaten by most people is as part of a crudité platter or smothered in cheese sauce. I have nothin...

Most scalloped potato dishes do not incorporate cheese; that ingredient is usually reserved for au gratin recipes. So maybe this should b...

If you can get fresh, and I mean farm fresh not super-market fresh, Sweet Peas - buy all you can carry! And then use them within one or tw...

Potatoes and onions are a naturally perfect combination; they just fit together in so many dishes. Scalloped potatoes without onions woul...

This is a side dish loaded with tradition. Creamed Spinach is a steakhouse staple found virtually everywhere. This side dish is also load...

Growing up in the southwestern burbs of Chicago, pickled beets were everywhere. The canned variety was always included on every holiday re...

This is another “traditional” side dish that appears to have infinite variations on the absolutely correct way to prepare it; of cour...

Jerusalem Artichokes are neither from Jerusalem, nor are they Artichokes... discuss! (With a nod to Coffee Talk, Mike Myers as Linda Rich...

Cabbage. We like to stuff it, make salads with it and add it to soups and all sorts of other foods. While it works perfectly well as an a...

Roasting is a dry method that surrounds the food with heat for even cooking. The results of roasting are a beautifully caramelized surfa...

Artichokes have been bestowed with a wrapping of elegance for far too long. Even Julia Child, in 1995, referred to the Artichoke as a...

This is not the Popcorn Soup of my childhood; that was made with canned corns, both whole kernel and creamed varieties, plenty of process...