Great Meal at Found Kitchen and Social House in Evanston last Friday night!

We celebrated my niece the newly honored Dr. Liz M. whom recently received her PhD. in Art History from Indiana University! We took her out to spoil her with great food and wonderful ambiance at Found restaurant http://www.foundkitchen.com/ in Evanston. This was our second time their and Liz and her husband Matt's first time. I must say we were all thoroughly impressed with all the goodies we had!

At Found they have shared plates and there were no picky eaters in our crew so we were all open to whatever the guest of honor Dr. Liz wanted! She was kind enough to let us assist on the picks. We started off with a Kale and Swiss Chard Salad with Nuts, Seeds, and Pears....what a great start to the meal! We followed up with Roasted Squash and Brussel Sprouts with Harissa Sauce, Cilantra and Pepita another outstanding choice! Next up another amazing dish Fried Butterball Potato Salad with Aioli, Celery and Pickled Peppers.....yo you gotta try dis!

Our final main course was the evening menus special and the picture below says it all!

New York Strip Steak on the bone with Bearnaise Sauce and Leeks, Mushrooms, and Bacon yum, yum, yum! I believe the Liz enjoyed her wonderful celebration meal!

 We finished up at our home for dessert for some cheeses and death by chocolate!

Nothing like talented chef wannabees coming together for dinner!

A big thanks to our friends John and Deb for inviting us over to feast on many amazing foods! Lots of laughs and great eats with them and many other friends. Let's see......on this plate above we have an amazing rack of lamb(Amy), flank steak(John), brussel sprouts with bacon(Brian), fingerling potatoes with onion and carrots(John and Amy), shrimp with white beans(Brian), and not shown seared scallops(me) cooked in Amy's pan that she seared the rack of lamb in! A great Saturday night and thankful to have been included with this fun festive group of friends! Once again hats off to all the chefs! Great job by all! Bon Appetite!

Let's talk turkey! Plus other recent foods on my menu for my ultimate love for food!

OK is it wrong to cook a 13 lb turkey two days after I assisted in devouring a 20 lb turkey at my sister's house for Thanksgiving? Let's start off by saying that our Thanksgiving dinner at Katy's was spectacular, spectacular! Great time with the family! It was so good we had to try and copy this great meal two days later! With the assistance of my wife and mother we preceded to accomplish this great feat! Our Saturday morning began with great holiday shopping deals at the mall in Madison and taking in a matinee movie! Then proceeded to come home and cook our turkey with Irmiter stuffing! This was the same Irmiter Stuffing recipe that my sister cooked and was my father's recipe and I must say I have yet to taste a stuffing better than this in all my years of eating stuffing....of course there is lots of bacon and hot pork sausage in this stuffing. Those who would like the recipe just ask and I would love to share! This is a picture of the one and only Irmiter Stuffing!

Did I mention on Friday the day before we cooked Lamb Trotters? What are Lamb Trotters you ask? I did as well! I found out that it is part of the lamb leg and it is delicious! Here is a picture of the finished dish Wine Braised Lamb with Garlic....which we served with roasted potatoes and rosemary. 

Here is the recipe below!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wine-Braised-Leg-of-Lamb-with-Garlic-231736 

A Taste of Italy! Cioppino! Italian Style Seafood Stew withTomatoes and Basil

Made this last week! One of my favorite things to make on a cold wintry day! Makes for a great hearty supper! Serve it with a nice green salad, bread, and a crisp white wine and I guarantee happiness! This awesome seafood stew has shrimp, crab meat, clams, onion, garlic, oregano, fennel, tomatoes, white wine, basil.....so good!

Carnitas Taco Night! I love Mexican food!

We had many and I mean many carnitas tacos at the home of my niece Liz and her husband Matt this weekend! They rocked this great meal which we enjoyed thoroughly! Much like us they enjoy great food and prepared us these great tacos with homeade black beans, topped off with a great dessert of Arroz con Leche! All of this with some ice cold Negra Modelo's! Thanks!

Let me show you this video from the singer Ingrid Michaelson that sums up my feeling for my love of Mexican food!

To all the Veterans...thank you for your service!

I just want to send out a huge thank you to all our Veterans of Foreign Wars! I appreciate all that you do and have done to protect our freedom!

A carnivore's delight weekend! Mmmmmmmm steak!!!!!!

Above picture of some beautiful steaks prepared by my wife's cousin Randy on Saturday night! Delicious! We took a lovely trip out to Batavia, IL yesterday for a great dinner and visit with two of our favorite people Randy and his wife Pam! Great conversation and lots of catching up to go along with steaks cooked to perfection...medium rare of course(is there any other way to order steaks?) accompanied by some great wine=a perfect fall evening! Thanks! Here is picture of the finished smothered in tasty sauteed mushrooms!

Did I mention I went out for steak on Friday night? A weekend to make DaBears Superfans proud! I dined at the Chicago Cut Steakhouse http://www.chicagocutsteakhouse.com/ with two of my favorite Irishmen Murph and Osh and enjoyed a delightful Bone-In Ribeye!

I was able to do an hour and fifteen minute workout at spin class yesterday and go for a four mile run today.....to help the waistline! Back to healthy lifestyle and eating today on Sunday! It's nice to splurge every now and then!

Ode to a legend! Chef Charlie Trotter!

Who is your favorite chef of all time? If you don't have one that's fine, maybe you could tell me what your favorite restaurant is? Here is my ode to my favorite chef and restaurant of all time! If you have not heard the legendary chef and restaurateur passed away suddenly at his home earlier today at the young age of 54! I'll miss you Charlie Trotter! I was served my finest meal on my birthday in 2006! I had long waited to eat at this famous eatery for near 20 years. I had first heard of him in 1987 while working downtown. This is when I was first really getting into fine dining restaurants and all the great things that could be done with food! I would travel the Redline train daily throughout the week reading both the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, and on Thursdays picking up the latest edition of The Reader. I always would peruse all the restaurant reviews by all three papers and learn of all the great eateries in our city. I remember reading of this young whipper snapper chef only 28 years old making headlines quickly and rising to the top of his craft. He would earn his way to a James Beard award as top chef and earn top rankings in all the food publications. I always knew that I was going to eat at this restaurant at some point even though you needed to make reservations months in advance. Let alone the cost was for those making CEO salary's, which I was not quite at in my life! Well low and behold my kind friends whom I am always so grateful to have in my life came through once again! This time they gave my wife Cheryl a present for earning her PhD...a gift certificate to Charlie Trotter's restaurant. Dr. Cheryl being the great wife she is and knowing my adoration for this chef was able to take me their for my 43rd birthday on a Saturday night, October 27, 2006! I had eaten from his take out store located on the 1300 block of Fullerton a few times, but now I was going to the palace.....the place I had dreamt about many nights located just west of Halsted on Armitage! I had driven and walked by this restaurant so many times and now I was walking through Charlie Trotter's restaurant's door! We went and Cheryl had another surprise our niece Lauren who teaches at Lane Tech and was coaching their girls soccer team had a connection at the restaurant....it turned out one of her players father worked for Charlie and would end up giving us a tour of the restaurant after our dinner and bringing us back to the kitchen and down to the wine cellar! Amazing night! We did wine pairings picked out by our waiter to accompany each of our courses!

It started with an unbelievable appetizer bite which they call Amuse Gueule. Followed up by the first course of Poached Skate Wing with Red Curry, Twenty Four Hour Braised Fennel, Razor Clams & Herb Oil...next up Alaskan Halibut with Sweet & Sour duck Gizzards, Crosnes, Battera Kombu & Watermelon Radish....the hits kept on coming my mind was in ectasy food overload as it was living up to everything I was hoping for! Next course was Roasted Quail Breast with Crispy Hominy, Huitlacoche, Zucchini, Rosemary & Red Wine Essence and we were only half way home now! This was followed up by South Dakota Bison Tenderloin with Quinoa, Black Cardamom Mole & Ash Baked Eggplant. We were then brought Oloroso Sherry Sorbet with Dates & Mustard Greens. Still more coming which was Honey Crisp Apple with Toasted Caraway, Maytag Bleu Cheese & Cider Gelee! Lastly some Mignardises which is finger food desserts! Yum-yum!

How do I remember this great meal, because my wife had Charlie Trotter sign the menu that she then had framed and we keep in our kitchen (see picture below)! I'll miss you Charlie and I'll always have my memories of your creations! I still have your cookbooks and will try to recreate the magic from all the recipes you created!!!!!

A Seafood Extravaganza! The 50th birthday week came to an end on a high note!

Take a look at these beauties we cooked up this week! Halibut Fillet, Wild King Salmon Fillet, Whole Cooked Dungeness Crab, and Yellowfin Tuna Steak!

Started off with Dungeness Crab on Thursday which was Halloween night and served with some great candy bars(As seen in the previous post)! Friday night we moved onto the Yellowfin Tuna Steaks. Recipe courtesy of New York Chef Rocco DiSpirito. I found recipe for Seared Tuna, with Green Beans, Lemon and Wasabi on Epicurious's website http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Seared-Tuna-with-Green-Beans-Lemon-and-Wasabi-363404 Here is the pic of finished product and the Seared Tuna was cooked to perfection medium rare!

It was a great evening! We followed up this night with a morning bike ride to The Hair Loft for an early haircut appointment with the legendary hair stylist Jerry, whom many of you know as my bro! after the haircut and 22 mile ride we arrived back home for our Saturday morning breakfast of Eggs, Sausage, Alderwood Smoked Garlic & Pepper Alaskan King Salmon and wheat bread baguette!

We enjoyed the rest of Saturday getting many things done around the house and getting Cheryl ready for her trip to Boston. She leaves Sunday morning for a conference and returns home on Thursday night. Saturday evening we cooked what we discussed could be one of my best cooked meals that I could not have done with out my number one sous chef Cheryl! Another find of mine that I found on Epicurious's website this one I had many of my own twists on the actual recipe we substituted halibut for the cod http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cod-with-Chorizo-and-Breadcrumbs-51179210 I covered the halibut with Panko breadcrumbs and added a couple more tablespoons of red wine vinegar, the smoked Spanish chorizo sausage was perfect with the meal, along with grilled carrots purchased at the farmers market! Here is a pic of the final dish! Amazing and very easy to make!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone had a spooky and candy filled day! We were lucky enough to have treats to go with some awesome Dungeness Crab! Steamed the crab and unwrapped the candy bars for a feast of a meal! Very scary delicious! Also enjoyed a good laugh as we watched a favorite clip from "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" Here is the clip below....hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Turning 50 with my wife Cheryl is spectacular! What a great food extravaganza! Great time with family!

Here are some pictures from some of my fun birthday celebration! Along with info on all the fun I had with my wife and wonderful family!

Above we have a picture of our dinner tonight at my brother Jerry's house. Awesome job Jerry and Denise thanks for making it a great day! Short ribs with a hoisin sauce that is out of this world, served over mashed potatoes! My sister-in-law Mary Kay made the great salad with heirloom tomatoes from her and my brother Chris's garden, simply delish!

Appetizer at Jerry's homemade pizza with artichokes, pine nuts, and buffalo mozzarella! Mmmm good!

 Above picture was from our brunch at 10 this morning at Bread & Wine http://breadandwinechicago.com/ located at 3732 W. Irving Park. Here we sat at the counter where chef Michael Dean Reynolds worked his magic in the restaurant and were able to chat it up with him and his sous chefs. Great guys and great cooks! Above you see our two main brunch courses we split. On the left is Breakfast Banh Mi

pork belly, ham, pâté, kimchi, fried eggs, hash browns

On the right is Crispy Semolina Gnocchi

poached egg, hollandaise, spicy tomato confit

Here is our starters to get our morning off to a great day! From left to right you see a marvelous jam, boucheron style goat cheese, pickled watermelon, BBQ pork rinds, with toasted crostini bread in the back, an unbelievably tasty mustard, and last is a divine chicken liver pate!

 A couple of tasty drinks to start off with! Bloody Mary and Mezcal with ginger beer! On the right in this picture is chef Michael Dean Reynolds....what a great host! We will be back soon!

Here my lovely niece Catherine brings me my wonderful chocolate mousse cake that came from Bennison's Bakery in Evanston! I had a great night at Jerry and Denise's home, with my nieces Catherine and Olivia (who per my request entertained me with her great piano playing!) thank you Olivia!

All of the above is from my birthday today! Last night was a special birthday dinner celebration with my wife. We went to Riccardo Trattoria in Lincoln Park....sorry no pics! Here is link to their website http://www.riccardotrattoria.com/index.php/ amazing dinner. I find that I use the word amazing quite a bit when talking about food! Started off with a great Prosecco sparkling wine to go with our antipasti Focaccina di Recco with Stracchino cheese, truffle oil, arugula & prosciutto followed up by Grilled Calamari with salmoriglio sauce & tricolor salad, lemon Followed up by Pappardelle Alla Ligure rabbit ragout, white wine, artichokes & olives and grilled whole branzino fish with garlic green beans! Accompanied with a great bottle of Campaccio wine from Tuscany! 

Thanks to all who made me so thankful to have a great family! Missed all the rest of my brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews...wish you all were there!

Lastly, I want to thank my wife....my wonderful companion these last 21 years! Thanks for this great journey in life! To share it with you has been the best that I could ever ask for! Look forward to many more great times with you!

Weekend fun at the Easter Seals Walk of Life fundraiser down at Soldier Field!

Earlier today, my wife Cheryl and I volunteered and participated in her work's fundraiser.Cheryl works for Easter Seals and today they held their walk fundraiser down at Soldier Field. We were joined by our sister-in-law Denise, niece Catherine, and her friend Aphrodite. Here is a picture of the two young ones enjoying cupcakes we brought from our new favorite place Baker Boy Bakery!

I was able to meet many of Cheryl's colleagues from work and learn about all of the services Easter Seals provides to individuals and their families of all ages. We had beautiful weather for the walk! After the walk we enjoyed sandwiches from a new find Pane's Cafe located at Sheffield and Wellington in Lincoln Park. Great sandwiches by the way! http://www.yelp.com/biz/panes-bread-cafe-chicago

Friday night masterpieces!

Tonight, Cheryl and I cooked a couple of great seafood dishes that I found in La Cucina Italiana magazine. The magazine is a recent subscription gift from our good friends Larry and Michelle who live in Packerland U.S.A. Fon Du Lac, WI. We put the magazine to test tonight with an appetizer of stuffed clams with pancetta. This recipe is courteous of the great Italian chef Marc Vetri whose restaurants are located in Philadelphia!

I must say these were amazing and very easy to make! We used cherry stone clams we purchased from Burhop's Seafood in Wilmette.

Next we made our main course from also from the magazine. This dish was merluzzo su cipolle caramellate e pomodoro aka cod with tomato and caramelized onions. OMG! This was out of this world good! Cod also purchased from Burhop's. There was no reference as to where the recipe was from. If anyone would like either of these recipes let me know.

Happy cooking this weekend to all! Ciao!

It's going to be a great day!

Walked out our back door this morning to this beautiful view! Looking forward to a great day! On the menu for tonight cod for the main course and appetizer of stuffed clams. Recipes and pictures to follow later....gotta get back to work!

Then to top it off on the drive in to work heard one of my all time favorite songs on WXRT. This is the day! By The The. Enjoy this beautiful fall day!

My love for all things chicken!

This pic above was taken in Kauai, Hawaii in 2009 while on vacation....after a long hike in Waimea Canyon, we came across a woman surrounded by chickens and were quite amused, so took this photo. Recently, I was thinking about......why do I love eating chicken? I started thinking of my youth and all the ways chicken was served to me & my family. We had grilled Grecian chicken, chicken noodle soup, grilled chicken smothered in barbecue sauce, chicken curry(my Dad's recipe from his days in Burma), chicken salad sandwiches, chicken cacciatore(my Mom rocked this), chicken tettrazini, chicken with orange slices on top....to name a few! Oh wait one more....our weekend morning breakfast with chicken livers, smothered in lemon juice!!!! Yum!

Do you love chicken, like I love chicken? How do you like your chicken cooked?

Perhaps you like to just visit with chickens like the woman in this pic! :)

Do tell! I look forward to your responses!

Nothing like making the most from the leftovers from the weekend!

We have not been home much the last couple days, due to work. My wife was in Bethesda, MD on business and arrived home late last night. I was leaving the house at 7am and arriving home at 9pm, so not much food the last couple days. I did have nice salads for lunch and fresh fruit from our trip to the Evanston Farmer's Market over the weekend. Tonight we went with some wheat rice pilaf, topped with fresh sauteed peppers & zucchini, which was then doused with our venison sauce from the weekend meal we made. Outstanding! In looking at the picture I took above.....I was not impressed with the blurriness of the pic....but meal tasted great! Good to have the wife back home!

Off to Orlando for work next week. Any good restaurant recommendations for this area?

I am headed to Orlando next week on business. I am looking for recommendations for Orlando eateries? I go there once a year....if not twice a year on business and have had some decent finds for restaurants. I have a favorite Italian restaurant down there I always go to that usually puts a smile on my face with their food. It is called Fresco's Fine Italian Dining aka Fresco Cucina Italiana.

Here is their website  http://www.frescoorlando.com/  It is located in a little strip mall off the beaten path of the touristy places. Here is the link to their Yelp page http://www.yelp.com/biz/frescos-fine-italian-dining-orlando I'll be sure to post on here some pics when I go there next week. Below is a pic of the outside of the restaurant. Doesn't look all that great from the outside but the food is amazing and ambiance is nice!

Bike ride yesterday finds us at the Baker Boys in Highland Park! Thumbs up on this!

Went for a bike ride yesterday with my wife Cheryl and turned into a longer ride (30 miles) due to the beautiful fall day that it was yesterday! Ended up in Highland Park and looking for some energy and spotted what we figured was a coffee shop and turned out to be a bakery.....Baker Boys. All I can say is we both went with the Chocolate Eclair and it was quite delicious! Look forward to more trips here! Here is a link to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bakerboyshighlandpark Definitely stop by on your next trek to Highland Park just East of the Metra tracks and just a little east of Green Bay Road.

Here is a pic of the beautiful fall day taken Kenilworth beach.

Meals from the trip to the Evanston Farmers Market

This weekend my wife Cheryl and I headed to the Evanston Farmer's Market and brought home lots of goodies for our weekend cooking! Pictures below...all comments excepted.

Pictured above brussel sprouts sauteed in an iron skillet cooked in the bacon grease from the country bacon that we later chopped and added to this dish. Outstanding....love this dish!

Our friend Larry the hunter caught his first elk ever.....him and his wife Georgene were kind enough to share their catch with us a beautiful venison roast. I braised it in dark beer, carrots, potatoes, vegetable stock, fresh rosemary and cooked for three hours. It just fell apart with the touch of our forks. Served it with Ancient Crusted bread from Whole Foods Bakery. Delish!

Here we grilled shrimp on skewers with mustard dill dressing and kalamata olive yogurt sauce. Awesome! This one was courteous of the great chef Bobby Flay. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/grilled-shrimp-skewers-with-mustard-dill-dressing-and-black-olive-yogurt-sauce-recipe/index.html

Ultimate Love For Food

Welcome to my blog! This is my first post. For those of you who are appreciative of good food and cooking I look forward to your comments and posts on our "Ultimate Love for Food"! My love for food and cooking started in my early twenties. It was at this time I had moved out of my parents house (I do want to say that both my mother and father Ellen and James Irmiter were both great cooks and I learned quite a bit from just watching them over the years of my youth) and had to fend for myself in the kitchen. I found that cooking came very easy! I was given the cookbook The Joy of Cooking and this would be a great help in my kitchen endeavors. I was following the recipes to a tee while making many of the dishes in this book and found that my guests that I was feeding were enjoying my food immensely. I was quite thrilled by this! It brought me great joy (no pun intended)! Since then my cooking has come a long way. I am now able to know what ingredients work with all the different herbs and spices. I hope all those viewing this blog enjoy my thoughts on food and cooking. Let the blogging begin!