I grew up eating avocadoes.  My grandfather was an orange rancher in Orange County back when there still were oranges in the OC.  The orange juice from his trees is still the best I’ve ever tasted, but it was the few avocado trees he had in his orchard that I think of more often. Snacks […]

Summer has always been the worst time to be sick.  When I was a kid, the loss of valuable vacation time to something as trivial as a cold, was enough to bring on bouts of childhood depression, also known as whining.  When I became an adult, it got worse. Not that I’m whining.  That’s a […]

When my youngest daughter saw the soup on the dinner table this week, she groaned. “Cold soup?  Can’t you just serve that to the grown ups?” Like most kids, she has pretty narrow parameters about the way she likes foods.  She’s more adventurous than her sister, but to both of them, cold soup is a […]

It was 90 degrees in Chicago last weekend. And when it’s that hot out, you don’t feel much like eating, it just makes you sweat more. Hence the classic summertime pairing of soup & salad. I should really say former classic, because this summer will not be like seasons past.  As you can see from […]

The cucumber is soft-spoken.  It’s flavor is neither strong nor brash.  As a result it’s a vegetable that often doesn’t get a lot of respect. You might even say it’s the Rodney Dangerfield* of vegetables. At best the cucumber is a supporting player adding texture and crunch to other ingredients that hog the spotlight.  In […]