Food

Felice Shapiro

How To Feed Your Vegan Guest 101

I shamed myself the other week when I invited my  dear friends who are Vegan over for dinner and we started to discuss the menu. "So I'm not sure what to make because I know you are Vegan," I said. "Don't worry, we will bring a Vegan App and a Vegan Pizza." "Wait, I invited you guys." "It's ok don't bother." I let them bring the pizza and the App. "Really Felice.....this is so not OK," I chided myself. "You should know better. You're smart and love to learn so you can do this...you can learn what to make for your Vegan friends. More and more of my friends are becoming Vegan and rather than educate myself about what I can serve them when they come over,  I keep asking the same dumb questions about whether this or that is ok. I should know better! I mean what's so hard about this? Roast the veggies and don't use butter...use olive oil. No you can't have Cobb Salad with cheese and bacon. Do you know why...
Cooking in kitchen

What’s a Chia? What’s a Hemp?

Chia seeds. Hemp seeds. Flax. Nutritional yeast. Liquid aminos. I ask you. Did your mother ever sprinkle nutritional yeast on your frozen dinner? Chia on your canned green beans? I think not. "Cheeseburgerfriesandacoke." That was one word to me, for decades, from elementary school through my forty's at least. For years growing up, we'd go to the local diner, The Golden Coach, or just "The Coach" for those in the know. But it could have been any restaurant. I barely needed to look at a menu. When the waitress came by, my mouth just went on automatic pilot. I am a real foodie. I love to cook. Entertaining my family and friends around my table is my favorite thing ever. I worked in a restaurant kitchen. I've been to cooking school. I follow a million food bloggers. So I am not a culinary neophyte. But I want to embrace this new healthier way of eating...so, as my title here asks, I go in search of the answer to my question, "What's a Chia? What's a Hemp?"...
Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique | Cynthia Thurlow | TEDxGreenville

Healthy Aging with Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique | Cynthia Thurlow

So here's what you need to know about Intermittent Fasting: Breakfast being the most important meal of the day is wrong; It is more important when you eat than what you eat; Exercise more and eat less doesn’t work. Calorie counting doesn’t work. Healthy aging is all about Intermittent Fasting.  Listen to this Ted Talk by Cynthia Thurlow and see if this is for you....
Sitting at the bar in Langham Hotel Chicago

Designing Specialty Cocktails: The Greg Allman Cocktail And Other Creative Drinks

I find the name of cocktails so intriguing.  We created the The Greg Allman. When Greg Allman died, we wanted to create a drink in his honor.  Naturally, we started with peaches and bourbon.  Listening to his bluesy voice sing Melissa in the backyard, we swirled the cocktail stick and nibbled the peaches, time stamping a summer evening with other boomers....
Mason Jar Magic

Mason Jar Recipes: How To Make Garlic Confit & Preserved Lemon

Felice loves my mason jars. When we teamed up to cook a couple years ago, she stood there marveling at the line-up of homemade condiments, confits, and pickled vegetables, on the top shelf of my fridge. I learned this trick from the Gjelina cookbook by Travis Lett. Making my own condiments has become one of my favorite cooking pastimes, and anyone who has eaten at my place is knows the benefits. ...