A Couple of Chicago Restaurant Reviews

Don't forget to enter the contest for 2 free cooking classes at the Viking Cooking School courtesy of Heinen's. Enter Here

I love my job. Not only is it challenging & rewarding, but I get to work from home about 85% of the time. The other 15% of the time I spend visiting customers across the Central US. Most of my travel has me flying / driving in one day and returning home the next day. Even though I often travel alone, I am not the type of person to sit around in the a hotel room. I love to explore the city I am visiting, especially the restaurants and sporting events that city has to offer. Although I could never live there, my favorite city to visit is without a doubt Chicago.

To me, Cleveland is a lot like Chicago. Both cities are on a Great Lake, both have crappy weather, both have great restaurants, bars, museums, sports teams, & theater districts, & the population in both cities is made up of mostly long time mid-westerners who hold similar values. Chicago just has more of everything than Cleveland does, namely jobs & downtown life. On the flip side they have way to much traffic, much higher cost of living, & higher taxes.

It had been about 15 months since I'd been to Chicago but that finally changed yesterday. I had to present at a conference this morning in Chicago and even though I had some final prep work to do last night I was looking forward to a great dinner all day. I was torn on where to go so I asked my Twitter & Facebook audiences where they thought I should go. I was already leaning towards James Beard winner Paul Kahan's latest restaurant, The Publican, and once The Iron Chef told me The Publican was right up my alley, my mind was made up. Paul Kahan, one of Michael Symon's good chef friends, is creating quite the dynasty in Chicago.

Simply put, my experience at The Publican was amazing. The Publican is a fairly casual restaurant, self described as a European beer hall that focuses on their great beer list and farmhouse fare to go with it. The menu features high quality ingredients and it lists all the farms that the food comes from. Pig is definitely the predominate ingredient on the menu, from snout to tail, along with pristine oysters and fish.

I started with an order of the house made pork rinds. My waiter told me it's a 36 hour process to make these. They get the skin from a local farm, wash it, cure it, and deep fry them before tossing them in cheddar powder & a chili pepper I could not understand the name of. They were unlike any pork rinds I've ever had. Nice & crunchy, yet they melt in your mouth and there was just enough seasoning to enhance the flavor. Delicious!

While I was snacking on these the bartender brought me my first beer. I am typically a huge hop head and drink only IPA's, but I could tell my waiter / bartender new the large beer list in & out so I told him what I liked & what I planned to eat and asked him to pick something for me. He brought me a sample of Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier, a German smoked lager. I was a little skeptical having never tried a "smoked" beer but he was spot on. The beer was very well balanced and the smoke was very subtle. It was the perfect beer to go with my pork fest.

For my entree I ordered Bollito Misto, which translates to Italian Boiled Dinner. Served in a small, very hot cast iron pan, it was a mixture of cotechino sausage, pork belly, pork confit, and smoked turkey with cippolini onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and turnips all in a delicious sauce of pork stock, butter, citrus, capers, parsley, and who knows what else. I ate every last drop of this complex dish, even using my bread to mop up the last of the sauce. This was one of the best dishes I've ever had. Any where. I can still taste it more than 24 hours later.

I also ordered a side of the pickled veggies which included cauliflower, green beans, onions, and bread & butter pickles. These were also very good, although not on the same level I enjoyed at the Culinary Vegetable Institute March Earth to Table dinner - photo thanks to Stuart Spivack.

I closed out my dinner with Kyle’s After Pork, a house made digestif composed of artichoke liquer, rum, lime, & mint. This was the perfect end to a hearty, rich meal. It will be very tough for me not to rush back to The Publican next time I am in Chicago.

The Publican 
845 West Fulton Market
Chicago, IL‎
(312) 733-9555‎


After my presentation I stopped by my one of my favorite Chicago restaurants, Frontera Grill, for lunch. Frontera does not take reservations and there has been a wait for a table every time I've ever been there even though they've been around for 23 years! Fortunately I've never had a problem getting a seat at the bar.

Frontera Grill is owned by another James Beard winner, Rick Bayless. Believe it or not, according to Wikipedia Rick's culinary career began in Cleveland in 1980 at Lopez. Bayless is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, Mexican chefs in the country. His menu changes monthly and he only serves authentic Mexican dishes, this is not your typical Tex-Mex restaurant! Rick is also a firm believer in the Earth to Table movement and lists many ingredient sources on his menu.

My lunch was perfect, as usual. I had a couple of the small plates, plus chips & salsa and a house made Limonada. My favorite was the Sopes Ranceros, crispy corn masa boats with savory shredded beef, roasted tomatoes, avocado and homemade fresh cheese.

Before heading to the airport I walked next door to Bayless's latest venture, XOCO, which is slang for little sister. This small space, described as a "quick-service cafe," offers Mexican street food and snacks. Even though you order from a counter, there was a 20-30 minute wait for a table and they only allow take out after 3pm. Fortunately all I was after was their fresh, house made churros (Mexican doughnuts) and they sell desserts to go all day. $3 got me three churros that were still hot and covered in sugar. I haven't eaten many churros but I can't imagine them getting much better than these.

Next time you are in Chicago, I highly recommend making a stop at one of Rick Bayless's restaurants in addition to The Publican.

Frontera Grill
445 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL‎
(312) 661-0381‎ 

XOCO
449 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL‎
(312) 334-3688‎

Roasted Dates with Pancetta, Almonds, and Chile (p. 31)

I know, I've been a bad blogger. Life has been busy and I haven't had any time to sit down and write. Fortunately, I have been cooking. We invited some friends over last weekend to share some food, enjoy some wine, and play some games. I decided to make Michael Symon's Roasted Dates with Pancetta, Almonds, and Chile (p. 31).

This post is sponsored by Heinen's and I am giving away 2 more gift certificates for cooking classes at The Viking Cooking School. Details on how to enter are at the end of this post.

While in Michigan recently on a business trip, I made a few stops in Ann Arbor to visit the Zingerman's establishments. For those unfamiliar with Zingerman's, it is small group of food related companies in the Ann Arbor area. A few examples of their businesses include:

• Zingerman's Deli - Featuring huge corned beef sandwiches, an exceptional array of farmhouse cheeses, estate-bottled olive oils, varietal vinegars, smoked fish, salami, coffee, tea and much, much more., 
• Zingerman's Bakehouse - Handmade, artisan breads & pastries. Located inside the deli.
• Zingerman's Creamery - hand-crafted cheese and gelato
• Zingerman's Roadhouse - Chef Alex Young, two time James Beard award finalist, serves up, "really good American food." Young's menu features seasonal, heirloom products, with much of the food coming a farm owned by the Zingerman's a few miles away.  

They have a few other shops as well, but these are the four I stopped by during my 3 days in Michigan. I brought back some amazing meats, cheeses and bread, plus some smoked fish & meats from Tracklements, another nice shop up the street from Zingerman's Deli. In case that wasn't enough, I also whipped up chicken liver mousse with fresh chicken livers from Plum Creek Farm, that I served with crostini, to go along with Michael Symon's roasted dates.

The roasted dates are definitely the easiest dish I've made from Live to Cook, and they were pretty tasty too. Michael describes this dish as the, "perfect balance of the taste elements I love," sweet, savory, salty, nutty, & spicy.

Dates & Wine

In this picture you may notice there are two different kinds of dates. Heinen's had two different kinds of dates so I decided to buy them both and do a side by side test. On the left are California whole pitted dates by Dole ($2 for 8oz); on the right were Medjool dates, with pits ($5.99 for 10oz).

The wine pictured above is not for the dish, it's the wine Laurie at the Avon Heinen's recommended I serve with the roasted dates. She thought a food friendly, lighter red wine would pair nicely with the dates, as well as the rest of the food I was planning to serve. After considering a couple Pinot Noirs & Barbera's, she decided on this 2006 Dolcetto D'Alba. As always, she was spot on. This wine was a great choice!

Dates ready to go in the oven

The first step in the recipe calls for the dates to be roasted until heated through. Because the Medjool dates were not pitted, I had to slice them open and remove the pits. This was pretty easy to do, although the dates were pretty sticky.

Prior to baking the dates, I tasted each variety. I thought the Medjool dates tasted much better. They had more sweetness to them and I preferred their texture. Would the same thing hold true when the final dish came together? Read on...

Pancetta & almonds browning

While the dates were warming, I browned the pancetta, almonds & garlic in a sauce pan. Once they were browned I added some homemade chicken stock to the pan, along with some crushed Thai chili's from Spicehound. I was out of crushed red pepper but thought the Thai chili's would work well.

I brought this mixture to a simmer, making sure to scrap up any of the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, and let it reduce down a little before removing it from the heat and mixing in some butter, lemon juice, & parsley. All of this took less than 10 minutes.

After the sauce was mixed well, I mixed in the warm dates, making sure to toss them around to get the sauce inside the pitted dates.

The dates tasted A LOT better than this picture looks!

I was very surprised by the results of my test comparing the two different dates. I thought the larger, plumper Medjool dates tasted better alone, but everyone preferred the smaller Dole dates in this dish.

The real star of the dish was the sauce though. Like Michael says in the book, it was the perfect combination of sweet, savory, salty, nutty, & spicy. We all thought the sauce could be used in many different preparations. For example, on top of a grilled piece of fish or chicken.

Dates are a very easy, delicious, healthy snack to prepare for a party. Michael's rendition is very good, although the best I've ever had were the chorizo stuffed dates at Avec in Chicago. Michelle at Cleveland Foodie tried her best to recreate them here. I suggest giving them both a try next time you need a quick, easy appetizer.

By the way, if you are interested in trying Michael Symon's version, they can be found on the menu at Lolita.

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost about $8 to make these delicious Roasted Dates with Pancetta, Almonds, and Chile.

Dates - $1

Pancetta - $4.99

Almonds - $1

Miscellaneous (garlic, crushed thai chilies, homemade chicken stock, butter, lemon juice, flat leaf parsley) - $1

WIN A GIFT CERTIFICATE FOR YOU AND A GUEST TO ATTEND A COOKING CLASS OF YOUR CHOICE AT THE VIKING COOKING SCHOOL

Heinen's has once again been kind enough to give two lucky readers a gift certificate good for two people to attend the class of their choice at the Viking Cooking School - for those of you outside of Cleveland, sorry but the passes are only good at the school at Legacy Village in the Cleveland area. There are multiple ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post describing your favorite appetizer to make
2. Tweet this post on Twitter
3. Mention this post on Facebook

You can enter one time per day so feel free to come back every day to add another comment, tweet, etc. Be sure to leave a comment for each entry and make sure to leave an email address where I can contact you in case you win. Last time I had no way to contact the first two winners I picked so I had to re-pick. I will pick the lucky winners next week via www.random.org/. Good luck!

First Signs of Spring

While most people probably took last weeks warm weather, the longer days, and the tulips and daffodils popping up as the first signs of Spring, I saw my first sign of Spring Thursday afternoon when the The Greenhouse Tavern's twitter account posted the following message:

Got a shipment of morels & fiddleheads today can't wait to create our spring pasta. With this weather I bet we'll have ramps by April!

Followed by this picture:

Morel Mushrooms & Fiddlehead Ferns

As soon as I saw the post I knew I had to make a trip to The Greenhouse Tavern. I was so excited to see these gems of the forest making their way into an area kitchen! I don't know where Jonathon sourced these from, but I can't wait for them to start showing up in our forests over the next month or two along with ramps. 

We went tonight and had a great dinner with friends. The spring pasta with housemade pasta, morels, fiddleheads, and crispy pork was definitely the best dish of the night! I urge you to head out to your favorite local restaurant and check out their spring additions to the menu while you can!

Morels, ramps and fresh local asparagus are my favorite Spring foods. What are yours?

Balsamic Vinaigrette (p. 65)

***Pardon the interruption: I apologize for the issue with my blog layout. I am currently working on getting it fixed. If you know anyone that does good blog layouts, let me know. Now back to your regular scheduled programming.***

It's so easy to pick up a bottle of Kraft salad dressing at the grocery store so why should you bother making it from scratch? Like so many other things I've written about on this blog, the quality of the ingredients you use makes a huge difference in the final taste of a dish. More important than knowing what's in the dressing, you know what's not in the dressing. By making it yourself you avoid the additives (chemicals) that go into most processed salad dressings. 

 

7 ingredients, how many are on your bottle of Kraft?

Making salad dressing is extremely easy and you can easily adapt recipes to what you have on hand or what flavor you'd like to include in your dressing. Typical vinaigrette's follow a ratio of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar but Michael Symon's Balsamic Vinegar recipe (p. 65) is 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar because he prefers a more tart vinaigrette. He suggests adding the oil incrementally and tasting along the way until it has the right balance for your taste buds. 

  

Slowly adding the oil

Making the dressing is as easy as mincing shallots & garlic, whisking them together with Dijon mustard, honey, and balsamic vinegar. Once they are combined, slowly pour olive oil into the mixture, mixing continuously while pouring, until emulsified.  That's all there is to it. Now you can use this delicious, healthy dressing to top salad, fish, chicken, or anything else that sounds good to you. 

  

Fresh Spinach, Killbuck Valley Oyster Mushrooms, Mackenzie Creamery Goat Cheese, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, topped with Balsamic Vinaigrette 

 Storing the Vinaigrette

Old honey bottles are a great way to store sauces & dressings. I also use honey bottles to store my homemade hot sauce and other sauces. One down side of making salad dressing from scratch is it doesn't have the shelf life that the stuff you buy at the grocery store does because everything is fresh and there are no preservatives. I recommend using it with in 2-3 weeks. Fortunately the recipe can easily be modified to make the amount you will use.

Like I mentioned earlier, this dressing recipe can easily be changed or added to depending on what you have on hand and what you want to serve it with. There are a couple other salad dressings in the book and I will make them, but I urge you just to experiment. Use this recipe as a guide and experiment with different flavors of oil and vinegar or try adding fresh herbs and spices.

What is your favorite salad dressing?

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost about $4 to make 1 1/2 cups of balsamic vinegar dressing. You can use a cheaper olive oil or vinegar, but I don't recommend it. This is one of those recipes where you get what you pay for.

Olive Oil - $2 (Olive Tap)

Balsamic Vinegar - $1

Misc (shallot, garlic, Dijon mustard, honey, salt) - $1

NE Ohio Dining Survey - Chance to Win Restaurant Gift Certificate

Are you interested in having your voice be heard in the NE Ohio restaurant community? Mimi Vanderhaven, a local publication that doesn’t accept advertisements from major national chains, in favor of promoting the heroic efforts of those local entrepreneurs, is currently undertaking a market research project to help support locally owned restaurants. The survey, which takes about 10 minutes to complete, gives you the opportunity to share your opinions about food, restaurants, dining out, dietary needs, menu prices, service, nutrition and much more. Survey results will be shared with area restaurant owners who will use the information to better align their strategies with the true desires of Northeast Ohio diners.

My favorite question was:

If price was no object, what restaurant in NE Ohio would you go to and why?  

My response? I would go to Dante for the 21 course tasting menu with wine pairings and car service. 

To encourage readers to complete the survey, Mimi is offering a number of prizes that will be awarded to random participants, including $10, $20 and $50 gift certificates. Among the first 1,000 participants, approximately every 20th person will win a gift certificate. And one lucky survey participant will receive the grand prize of $500 in certificates to the local restaurant(s) of her or his choice. 

Read more about the survey here: http://www.mimivanderhaven.com/takethenortheastohio

Take the survey here: http://www.researchcleveland.com/

Ingredients at the Cleveland International Film Festival

I receive the weekly e-letter from Great Lakes Brewing Company. In this weeks edition they have a great offer that I thought some of you might be interested in. The information below is taken directly from their website.

Great Lakes Brewing Company invites you to attend the FREE PRIVATE SCREENING of Ingredients, a feature film of the Cleveland International Film Festival!

Unfortunately I will be in Dallas during this showing and won't be able to attend. I hope to see Ingredients some time soon though.

Movie Description:
The local food movement has taken root across the country. Just travel 50 miles west of Cleveland to get a taste of it at The Chef's Garden. This small family farm in Huron, three miles from Lake Erie, is where the Jones family "farms the soil" and grows vegetables naturally. This farm is one of many featured in INGREDIENTS, a beautifully photographed film that documents the growing support nationwide for the local food movement. Restaurant owners in San Francisco have partnered with local farms to provide fresh produce daily. Farmers in Oregon are producing healthier livestock. And in New York City, farmers' markets now occupy center stage on the streets during weekends. Narrated by Tony Award-winning actress Bebe Neuwirth, INGREDIENTS provides a recipe for how we can eat healthier and support a sustainable food system.

Date:
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Time:
6:30 PM: Check-in and voucher pickup at the GLBC table in the Tower City Cinema lobby
7:00 PM: Film (66 minutes)

Location:
Tower City Cinemas
230 West Huron Road
Cleveland, Ohio

FREE PARKING WHEN AVAILABLE is offered to CIFF patrons in the Tower City Center Self-Parking Garage (off Huron Road) and Tower City Amphitheater Parking at Riverview (off Canal Road).

RSVPs Required:
First Come, First Serve! Reservations for you and your guests can be made by calling Felicia Jackson at 216.771.4404, ext. 222 beginning Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

Added Bonus!
Because GLBC is offering this free film screening as a courtesy to our loyal customers, we ask that you do not make reservations unless you are 100% committed to attending. As an incentive, GLBC guests will each receive a complimentary voucher for an additional film at the Fest!

Chef School: All Things Pasta

For those of you that have been under a rock for the past year, The Greenhouse Tavern is one of the hottest restaurants in Cleveland, even being named one of the top 10 new restaurants in the country in 2009 by Bon Appetit Magazine. The Greenhouse Tavern is the dream of Jonathon & Amelia Sawyer, among others. Jonathon has worked in many great kitchens around the country, including under Charlie Palmer in NYC and Michael Symon at Lolita in Tremont and Parea in New York City before returning to his hometown of Cleveland to open Bar Cento in Ohio City, another Cleveland gem. He received lots of recognition while running the kitchen at Bar Cento but was eager to open his own restaurant. That's where The Greenhouse Tavern comes in.

The Greenhouse Tavern was the first green certified restaurant in Ohio. From the recycled decor that decorates the restaurant, to composting their food scrapes, to toilets that don't use water, The Greenhouse Tavern truly practices what it preaches. Oh yeah, they also serve some pretty good food. You're not going to find any "foam" on the menu and Jonathon isn't likely to be seen using an immersion circulator or molecular gastronomy on his menu. Jonathon is one of many Cleveland chefs who follow the Earth to Table movement. His menu focuses on preparing high quality, local, in season ingredients as simply as possible to let the ingredients shine.

The Greenhouse Tavern Chef Series Schedule - Click to see Details

The Greenhouse Tavern recently started a program called Chef School. Once a month they are hosting "students" like me into the restaurant for the ultimate hands on cooking class. As a birthday present, my awesome wife sent me to Chef School in February for their pasta making class. I recently read a book (Playing for Pizza by John Grisham) that really got me interested in Italian cuisine, so the timing couldn't have been better. Earlier that week, I took my first cooking class, the basic knife skills cooking class at the Viking Store at Legacy Village. I was extremely disappointed in the class at Viking (biggest. understatement. ever!) so my expectations were pretty low as I headed into The Greenhouse Tavern. I should have known better.

The class was on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I arrived a little early to pick up some beans from Erie Island Coffee Company on E. 4th. It was great to see so many people out and about downtown, walking their dogs, and hanging out on E. 4th on a Sunday afternoon when there were no sporting events going on. There was also a steady crowd of diners at the Greenhouse Tavern throughout the afternoon / evening. After picking up coffee I was still 15 minutes early so I sat at the bar and enjoyed an Ithaca Brewing Company Flower Power IPA while watching the Cavs battle the Magic. Once all the students arrived, we were invited down to the kitchen and offered a glass of Monmousseau Brut Champagne and a spread of food to snack on. While we were snacking and drinking, Jonathon began talking to us about the history of pasta and introduced us to one of his cooks, Dan, who joined The Greenhouse Tavern after working under James Beard winner, and pasta guru, Barbara Lynch in Boston.

Jonathon & Dan teaching us about basic pasta dough

For the next 4+ hours (the class was advertised as being only 2 hours long), Jonathon & Dan taught us not only how to make delicious homemade pasta, but also provided us with the historical and regional context of the dishes we were preparing. I also learned many great tips for working in the kitchen throughout the day. I feveriously took notes & pictures on my iPhone (sorry, the iPhone doesn't take the best photos) while they were demoing how to make each pasta and then they set us lose to make it ourselves.

We started by making linguine. We were told this was a Roman pasta typically made by less weathly people. We used the well method of cracking one egg into a well of flour and slowly working the flour into the egg with a fork before using our hangs to knead the dough. We kneaded for 10-15 minutes, fully developing the gluten that gives pasta its toothsome bite. After the dough had the proper texture, it was put in a bowl covered with a damp cloth for 45 minutes before we rolled the dough and cut it into linguine. We were able to try a manual pasta roller / cutter like in the picture above as well as the pasta attachment for a kitchen aid mixer.

Rolling egg yolk ravioli dough

The second dough we made was a 3 egg yolk raviloi. Originating in the Emelia Romana region (Bologna), this was a heartier, richer pasta due to the use of only yolks and was more fitting to the people in this colder region of Italy. This dough also used the well method and hand kneading to develop the gluten that gives raviloi its toothsome bite.

Stuffing ravioli

After the dough rested, we rolled it into sheets, used the rings shown in this picture to layout the ravioli on the dough, stuffed it with a mixture of potato, housemade fromage blanc and fresh herbs, brushed the pasta lightly with water, covered it with a top layer of pasta, and cut them into ravioli.

 Rolling gnocchi

The final pasta we made was a light, pillowy potato gnocchi. The process for making gnocchi dough is similar to making pasta dough, but unlike the others you do not want to develop gluten. It should be handled as little as possible to ensure it remains light & airy. We made a well out of poached potato, covered it with flour, and cracked an egg into the well. This dough is much stickier than the other doughs but once it had the texture of scrambled eggs, we worked the dough with our hands until we could roll the dough into "cigars" and cut into 1" or so gnocchi.

 Potato Gnocchi w/ Brown Butter & Crispy Sage

Jonathon and his kitchen staff then used the pasta we made to serve us an amazing meal: Potato Gnocchi with brown butter & sage, New Potato & Fromage Blanc Ravioli, Linguine alla Vongole (Linguine & Clams), and a scoop of Jeni's coffee ice cream.

I had no experience making pasta prior to this class. Similar to what I mentioned in this post on baking bread, I always thought making pasta was a difficult, time consuming process. The class showed me that it is actually pretty easy and the results are well worth the time. I am eager to put my new skills to work in my kitchen. Luckily, one of the recipes in Michael Symon's Live to Cook is egg yolk pasta dough!

If you are interested in a hands on cooking class, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the Greenhouse Tavern's Chef School series. I am very disappointed that I can't make it to the March class where they will be teaching you how to butcher a whole 300 lb pig but I am sure I will be at another one soon enough.

Ok, now it's your turn. Tell me about the best cooking class you've ever taken.

Viking Giveaway - New Winners

I did not hear from either of the original winners of the Viking Cooking School giveaway so I picked two new winners, #44 & 52. Congratulations to Poise in Parma & Audrey W! Please email me your mailing address so I can have the gift certificates sent to you.

I am back home safe and sound and hope to have a new blog post up tomorrow about an amazing cooking class I took recently at The Greenhouse Tavern.

Back to Your Regular Scheduled Programming...Soon

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably know I've been skiing in Vail since Wednesday. I've been doing a lot of skiing so this is the first time I've been on a computer. I'll be home in a few days and look forward to getting back in the kitchen!

 

Top of Tucker Mountain @ Copper Mountain - accessible via snowcat & a brutal 30 minute hike at 12,443'

 

Beautiful Back Bowls at Vail

Also, an update on the Viking Cooking School Giveaway. Neither of the winners have contacted me so I will be picking two new winners when I get back in town if the commenters mentioned in this post don't contact me soon.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

Special thanks to everyone that commented on the post about Michael Symon's Mac & Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese & Rosemary. I've got lots of new mac & cheese ideas to try now.

Now, without further ado...Drum roll please...Random.org picked comment #38 & #57 as the winner of my Viking Cooking School giveaway courtesy of Heinen's. I don't have email addresses for either of the winners so if either of these comments below are yours, Congratulations! EMAIL ME your mailing address and Heinen's will send you your gift certificate. If I don't hear from these two by Wednesday I will pick new winners. For those of you that didn't win, especially frequent commenter PosieinParma, check back soon. I will be doing another Viking Cooking School give away soon.

Comment #38
foodfan said...

Mac and cheese always makes me think of Phil the Fire. I did not love theirs but the chicken and waffles were one of my guilty pleasures. The photos of yours look great.

February 23, 2010 9:23 PM

Comment #57:
Anonymous said...

I've made this recipe multiple times, and it is very easy. Don't try to rush the sauce and use quality ingredients-you'll get a quality product! Enjoy!

February 28, 2010 2:16 AM