Basil Vinaigrette Potato Salad

Glutenfree Girl posted a recipe for potato salad in May that I have been craving ever since. To say that I’ve been craving potato salad is a big deal. I have never been an eater of potato salad – even passing up my mom’s, which seems to disappear at any summer gathering. But when my [...]

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Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

In the first two weeks of our summer farm share, we’ve received a bunch of mint in each box. Normally, I might use some of it in a chopped veggie salad, or to marinate some lamb for kabobs, but this time…ice cream was at the top of my list. Oh, and here’s one more plug [...]

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CSA Week 2 & Basil Caesar Salad

It’s week 2 of our Summer CSA, and the green goodness keeps on coming! This week’s box brought us more amazingly lush, crisp lettuce – one romaine, one green leaf, green garlic, zuchini, rhubarb, snow peas, mushrooms, strawberries and mint. Quite a haul! I don’t have specific plans for everything yet, but I did wash [...]

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Grilled Lamburgers

I love lamb any way that it’s cooked, but I really enjoy the cheaper cuts the most. I’ll pass up a lamb chop in favor of lamb stew any day of the week. Our meat farm share provides us with some lamb almost every month, and this month we received ground lamb, and my favorite [...]

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Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

First of all, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and especially to mine! Like most Dads, ours reigned over the meat grilling, and did a fine job with the handling of meat and fire. Dad taught us a lot of things – like how to mow the lawn and clean the pool [...]

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From the CSA Files: Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf

Friends have been telling me all week that they can’t wait to hear what I make with all the veggies from my CSA boxes, and this is the first of many CSA meals I’ll be posting. The inspiration for this one came from one of my favorite cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking, by Heidi Swanson. If [...]

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Spring Fling: Poppin’ Peas

Don’t those peas look amazing?! I’m surrounded by fresh, local produce this time of year – from our CSA, the Evanston Farmer’s Market on Saturday, Green City Market on Wednesday and Saturday, Federal Plaza Market on Thursdays, the Downtown Farmstand Tues-Friday, and finally – the small, yet excellent Prudential Plaza market on Tuesdays. Pretty much, [...]

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The First CSA Box of the Season!

Tonight was our first CSA of the season from Home Grown Wisconsin. Check out that spring bounty! I can tell you that all of this miserable rain is making for some incredibly tender and luscious lettuce. We had an amazing salad with dinner tonight (which was scarfed before we took time for photos) topped with [...]

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My New Favorite Lunch: White Bean Dip

Saturday evening we had some of my very favorite feminists and their guys over for a BBQ. The weather wasn’t very cooperative, as it was yet another cold, wet Chicago day, but when this group gathers, the food is always amazing. We love to eat, and we do it well. I really meant to take [...]

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Roasted Banana & Mango Compote

The idea for this recipe came straight from the roasted banana ice cream recipe. I fell in love with the roasted bananas cloaked in bubbling brown sugar and butter, and I wanted MORE! I had 2 bananas leftover on the counter, plus a mango, so I decided to combine the two, and roast them up [...]

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