French Market

I knew there would be a perfect time to write about the French Market that is across the street from our building in downtown Chicago.

It’s fun to stroll over to the market on weekend days when we don’t have much going on and planning our dinner on what we find. One of my favorite shops is this pasta shop that sells Pappardelle’s Pasta. This pasta is handmade, using the finest ingredients. The noodles are really loooooong, and they have all sorts of interesting flavors (including chocolate hazelnut dessert ravioli!!). We bought garlic spinach, sundried tomato, and sweet potato pasta. Our plan was to combine the garlic spinach and roasted tomato basil pasta with some lightly sautéed vegetables and make a sauce. We picked up some red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, and green onions and we were ready to go!

Sidebar: My favorite pastry shop in the French Market is Vanille Patisserie. All of their desserts are designed to perfection with layers of textures and flavors topped with accessories I didn’t even think would be edible. They have quite a few regular desserts lining the shelves and new ones pop up every now and then along with some seasonal delights.  

Anyway, back at home we got going on the pasta. As the pasta was cooking, we simply sautéed the chopped veggies in olive oil with some garlic and a variety of seasonings (we add the tomatoes at the very end). Once the noodles were drained and placed back into the pot, we started making the sauce by stirring it right into the hot noodles. We used reserve noodle water, a little half and half, grated parmesan cheese, a little butter, and freshly ground black pepper. Sometimes I’ll splash in a little lemon or lime juice too. So simple and so good. We then plated the noodles, topped them with the sautéed veggies, fresh basil and parsley, a little grated parmesan cheese, and a little freshly ground black pepper again. Delicious. We enjoyed the pasta with a deep red Malbec. Perfection. 

The uncooked noodles

Cooked noodles with our homemade sauce

With all the veggies and toppings

The pasta tasted great! The combination of the garlic spinach and the sundried tomato flavors were really awesome together. I highly recommend giving these a try. I’m really excited to try a new recipe with the sweet potato pasta!

Popcorn Balls

I had a craving for these little balls of goodness the other day. They are super easy, take about 10 minutes, and only have 3 ingredients. Make a bag of popcorn (you’ll probably only use about 9 cups of it – if you want to use the whole bag, then multiply the other ingredients x1.5 approximately). While that is popping, melt one 10oz bag of large marshmallows with half a stick of butter. If you want the balls to be colorful, you can add food coloring to the mixture. Put the popped popcorn into a large bowl and pour the marshmallow mixture over it. Mix with a large wooden spoon until all the popcorn is covered with the marshmallow mixture. Once it is cool enough to handle, butter your hands and form into palm sized balls. This makes about a dozen. To store, wrap in cellophane.

Falafels!

I made falafels from scratch for the first time! We had our neighbors over for dinner, and one of them is a vegetarian and loves falafels. Talk about pressure! Okay okay, I did it to myself my suggesting the idea anyway. But, I was very excited to give it a try. It turns out, these suckers are actually pretty easy if you have a food processor! One of the reviews I read said to use half chickpeas and half fava beans, and that the canned stuff was crap. I disagree. I used canned chickpeas, and they were delicious! Another reviewer said to try to leave the mixture a little chunky for some texture in the falafel. However, I found this very hard to do. Once you get all the ingredients processed, you have to add flour bit by bit until the mixture stops sticking to your fingers. In order to do this, you have to keep mixing it in the processor. I doubled the recipe for the 4 of us, and we ended up with leftovers (which is fine by me!). The recipe also says to make the falafels into walnut sized balls. However, all the falafels I’ve had have been about golf ball sized, so that’s what I had Bryan do. Thanks to Bryan for frying these suckers up to perfection! We used peanut oil for the fryin'. We served them with pita, diced tomatoes, onions and green bell peppers, tzatziki sauce and tahini sauce with a side of cous cous topped with parsley, basil, and mint. I’d also like to make a shout out to Kristy for making the baked kale and edamame! Here's the recipe for the falafels. They were a HUGE success!! Try them yourself!

Lentil Soup with Spicy Italian Sausage

It's hard to make a picture of soup look good! I can tell you, though, that this soup tastes great! I usually add my own melody of spices like Italian seasoning, savory seasoning, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, basil and oregano. Forecasters warned this past week that Chicago was going to have hurricane-like winds, and we did! It was nuts. On these cold windy days, there was nothing like coming home to have a wonderful warm bowl of hearty goodness. This soup is quite healthy too with all those lentils, spinach and other veggies. It also makes a lot of leftovers!! See the recipe here!

Chicago History Museum, Navy Pier, and Hancock Building

Another busy weekend in Chicago! We had more friends come to visit us, Rob and Sarah!

Saturday was a busy day. After a lazy morning, we started the afternoon off at the Chicago History Museum. It was interesting to learn just how big the Great Chicago Fire really was back in 1871 and how the city re-built itself. After working up quite an appetite, we decided that some Chicago-style hot dogs were in order. We headed on over to Navy Pier so satisfy our craving and take a ride on the Ferris Wheel!

Our late afternoon plans were to enjoy the sunset at the Signature Lounge in the John Hancock building. It's one of our favorite places to take out-of-towners! For the price of a cocktail, you get a spectacular view!

To finish the evening off, we had a great dinner planned: Grilled steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. YUMM!

Thanks for coming to visit us! Come back again soon!

Kielbasa Stew

 

This dish is a Judy Hinck classic! I requested this recipe from my mother-in-law after enjoying it at Bryan’s childhood home on a couple of occasions. It’s one of those comforting dishes that you never want to stop eating, and it works great for a chilly fall day! This soup/stew is so good, easy, not too time consuming, and quite healthy too!

The last time I made this soup, I used frozen collard greens. This time, I practically ended up doubling the recipe. We had some leftover fresh kale from the grouse meal, so I used both kale and collard greens, and it ended up being more than 10 ounces total (probably about 16 ounces). We also wanted to add more carrots. Since we had to cover all the veggies in the pot, we needed to add more water (about 3 cups). Since there was extra water, I threw in about ¼ cup more rice. To compensate for flavor, I added an extra cube of beef bouillon (I only had one of the chicken). All of this adding and tweaking actually worked out really well. And now we have leftovers! I love having leftovers for lunch the next day! In the future, I might add a little extra seasoning, but the soup really doesn’t need much. It is very good on its own!

Kielbasa Stew

1 pound kielbasa, cut into slices (I make them thin, so that there are more meat pieces)

1 white onion, chopped

1 pound sliced carrots (or more if you like)

10 ounces chopped kale or collard greens

4 cups water

½ cup rice

1 tablespoon (approximately) olive oil

1 teaspoon or 1 cube chicken boullion

Ground pepper

In a large soup pot, cook kielbasa and onion in heated oil, about 5 minutes. Stir in all other ingredients. Add pepper to taste. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 to 18 minutes. Enjoy!

Millenium Park Bean, Pops for Champagne, and Braised Short Ribs

On Sunday, it was Harriet and Calhoun’s one year wedding anniversary! Can you believe we were so lucky to spend such a special weekend with them?! To help celebrate, we wanted to make something special for them. My husband wanted to take charge, and came up with this great recipe for braised short ribs. While the beef was marinating, we had time to do a little city exploring. We walked over to Millennium Park to take some photos by the bean, which happens to be the top image on my blog and my favorite item in the park. This sculpture is actually named the Cloud Gate. It was inspired by mercury and the artist wanted to engage the Chicago skyline with it. You can take some seriously artistic photos using the mirrored curvature of the enormous sculpture! If only I was so artistic.

After taking fun photos at the bean, my husband and I surprised our guests with a stop at a champagne bar, Pops for Champagne, to celebrate their anniversary (thank you Groupon)! It was a great experience to try some amazing champange!

Once back at home, we were able to continue the cooking process of the short ribs which consisted of a couple hours of baking and broiling. It was worth the wait! The beef was incredibly moist and tender and the flavor was incredible. My husband chose to serve it with Cajun sweet potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was a delicious meal to end an awesome weekend with friends. Love you guys!