Grilled Spanish Corn from Wolff’s Own Chef

By rebeccatalbotAugust 21, 2014April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Farm-to-Table, Featured, Recipes, Summer Produce

If you’ve visited the prepared foods section at Wolff’s Apple House and seen delicacies like Apple BBQ Pulled Pork, Roasted Chicken Romaine Salad, Best Broccoli Salad and hummus in all kinds of flavors, then you know that we have an innovative, committed chef. Chuck Smith, the chef at Wolff’s, has developed our mouth-watering, nutritious prepared…

Amazing Empanadas with Local Onions and Peppers

By rebeccatalbotAugust 14, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Root Vegetables

I might as well mark my calendar. Every three to six months, the urge to make empanadas hits me. Usually some excuse or inspiration materializes: a friend is visiting from out of town, we’re about to watch a Spanish film or I’ve just been to Zumba and I’m still feeling the Latin rhythms. Once the…

Chicken Cacciatore: The “Hunter’s Meal”

By rebeccatalbotAugust 6, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Summer Produce bell peppers, bruschetta, free-range chicken

When my sister mentioned earlier this week that chicken cacciatore means “The Hunter’s Meal,” I knew I had to try making it again. I’d first tried my hand at it when I was 22, a grad student freshly uprooted from family, cooking my way through the one cookbook I trusted. Sometimes good things in life…

Ginger-Watermelon Salad & A Brief History of Ginger

By rebeccatalbotAugust 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Salads, Summer Produce ginger, herbs, spices, watermelon

Knowing that I wanted to make a ginger-watermelon salad later today, I woke up with questions about ginger dancing in my head: When did people first try using ginger as a spice? When did they figure out the knobby root was edible? When did gingerbread become a thing? When and why did the baby…

Dessert for Dinner: Brie Quesadillas with Peach Compote and Basil

By rebeccatalbotJuly 23, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Peaches, Recipes brie, compote, quesadillas

In elementary school, I had a friend whose mom would make waffles for lunch. Ricotta-cheese-stuffed waffles, topped with strawberries and maple syrup. I loved going to this friend’s house. It was a magical world. Outside, in the corner of their yard, you ducked under some wild rosebushes to reach a trail that led over a…

Getting Creative with Local Produce: In the Kitchen with Marie Connell of MyHouse Cookies

By rebeccatalbotJuly 17, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Peaches, Recipes, Vendors cooking classes, grilled peaches, MyHouse Cookies, peach salsa

This morning, Marie Connell of MyHouse Cookies stood in her kitchen surrounded by tomatoes as she prepared to make quiches. “I know the farmer,” she told me about the tomatoes, “I know she picked them this morning. I know they haven’t been sitting in a truck or a railway car for a week.” If Marie…

Homemade Sodas with Fruit and Herbs

By rebeccatalbotJuly 9, 2014April 21, 2023 Berries, Beverages, Featured, Recipes fruit drinks, herb-infused drinks, homemade soda

During the summer, refreshing beverages call to us. Whether it’s during a picnic, after yard work or at a sporting event, eventually we start to crave a cold, flavorful beverage. Preferably a fizzy one. But we know how bad sugary sodas are for us. They’ve been linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease…

Healing Ourselves with Food: Making a Comeback through a Healthy Diet (Part 2)

By Sorina HigginsJuly 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Breakfast, Featured, Recipes gluten-free, granola

Last week, Sørina Higgins shared her story of her husband’s illness. She wrote: “My husband struggled to go to work every day and came home completely wiped out. Construction on our handmade house ceased. Travel plans were canceled.” Even when a specialist finally got to the root of the problem, Sørina’s husband still had weakened immune…

Healing Ourselves with Food: Making a Comeback through a Healthy Diet (Part 1)

By Sorina HigginsJune 26, 2014June 27, 2014 Featured changing your diet, gluten-free, healthy diet, nutrition, sugar free

I wonder when Hippocrates—or whoever it really was—said “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food,” whether he meant it literally. Perhaps he meant something more fuzzy, like “eat good food for better health.” Or maybe he did mean it in the plainest possible sense: “When you are sick, use food to cure…

Easy Bruschetta Meals

By rachelvanduzerJune 19, 2014June 19, 2014 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Recipes, Tomatoes

The seasoned gardener knows that tomato plants yield a lot of tomatoes. However, when planting a garden with some friends who have a large plot of land, we thought, “why not plant 48 tomato plants?” Needless to say, by the end of the summer we had already canned all of the marinara sauce and salsa…

Making All-Natural Choices: Lone Star Farm Beef

By rebeccatalbotJune 12, 2014June 12, 2014 Featured, Vendors all-natural beef, burgers, father's day, free-range beef

With Father’s Day just around the corner, many people start to think about treating their dads to meat cooked on the grill. This time of year, the weather is just right for gathering the family for a picnic and grilling tender, flavorful burgers, with the smell of a barbeque wafting on the breeze. Just over…

Rice Pudding & Ripe Rhubarb

By rebeccatalbotJune 5, 2014April 21, 2023 Desserts, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes budget meals, desserts, gluten-free

I am pretty sure the first time I ever ate rice pudding was at camp, as a counselor, at around age 17. That the adults in charge let 17-year-olds be camp counselors is one of the mysteries of my adult life. Adult life, though, has solved one other mystery. I now know why a magical…

A Glimpse into the Glory of Your Gardens

By rebeccatalbotMay 28, 2014April 24, 2015 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs

Back in April, Linda Johnson, Wolff’s Garden Center Manager, told me that even before she began working at Wolff’s, she came here to pick out her herbs. “You could have a field day going through here and thinking about your herb garden,” says Johnson. A few weeks ago, we asked YOU what you planted after…

Top 10 Reasons to Bring Leek Dishes to a Memorial Day Picnic

By rebeccatalbotMay 22, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Hardy Vegetables, Recipes, Root Vegetables easy salad, healthy recipes, leek tart, leeks

10. Leeks are versatile and can easily swap with onions in any recipe, but their flavor is mild, earthy and unique. Leeks are in the same family as garlic and onions (and, for that matter, lilies!), so they have a bulb shape that might look familiar, even if you’ve never prepared leeks before. 9. Leeks…

Set the Table for Spring with Cucumber Dill Salad & Black Bean Wraps

By rebeccatalbotMay 15, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal cucumbers, dill, herbs, tomatoes, vegetarian

Whenever I have a chance to teach English courses, I like to talk about cliches. “What are some of your favorite cliches?” I ask. “Or some of the most bewildering?” We write them down. “Now, how can we freshen them up? Make them more unexpected?” Cliches got their start because someone came up with a…

Savory Crepes for Mother’s Day Brunch

By rebeccatalbotMay 8, 2014April 21, 2023 Apples, Breakfast, Featured, Recipes apples, breakfast, brunch, cheddar cheese, crepes, ham, mother's day

I have a lot of memories of bringing my mom breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day. Those childhood memories tell me that my siblings and I must have accomplished this every single year, arranging a tray with an orange juice glass, a mug of coffee, a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, and a bowl…

Frittata Time

By rebeccatalbotMay 1, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Locally Grown, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal bell pepper, eggs, paleo, vegetarian, vidalia onion, zucchini

I first discovered frittatas a few years ago when I needed to use up some fresh sage. Sage, with its leaves like Lamb’s-Ear, seemed fancy enough for Martha Stewart, so I turned to Martha Stewart’s Healthy Quick Cook, a treasure my aunt had given me for Christmas years earlier, and discovered a lovely sage-mushroom frittata. …

Celebrate Local Tomatoes with Open-Face Tomato Sandwiches

By rebeccatalbotApril 24, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Sandwiches, Tomatoes

When I moved to Chicago in 2005, long-time Chicagoans warned me that during the winter, gray clouds take over the sky and remain there basically until April, as if a giant lid covers the city. There are a few day-to-day exceptions, but on the whole, this means that from December to the end of March,…

A Simplified Cauliflower Side Dish

By rebeccatalbotApril 18, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Recipes, Sides

Preparing a holiday meal is joyous and generous. With good music playing, spicy aromas filling the room, and friends or family members playing sous-chef and line cooks, the preparations are often as much fun as the meal itself. That fun can be even more relaxing with some prep done beforehand, so here’s a cauliflower side…

Putting a Full Herb Garden to Full Use

By rebeccatalbotApril 10, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Gardening Advice: Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs, Recipes basil, gardening, herbs, medicinal, mint

Some people grow up surrounded by fresh herbs. They watch, or help, as their parents grow herbs, chop herbs and garnish dishes with soft handfuls of basil, oregano, parsley or sage. Other people discover the magic of fresh herbs later in life, and meals are never the same afterward. Discovering fresh herbs marks a turning…