The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog (4)

Passion Fruit Tart: Ignite Your Passion this Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, which means it’s time to start Googling which chocolate dessert to prepare for your loved ones, right? Chocolate is a pretty sexy and delicious ...

Ten or Maybe Even More Things You Don’t Know about Meatballs

There are a million meatball recipes available online. I’m sure most of them are pretty yummy, but I’m not here to tout the best meatball recipe. I’m here to tell you what you probably don’t know ...

Homemade SpaghettiOs

If there is one dish that brings me right back to childhood, it’s canned SpaghettiOs. My mom would never buy it though, and I get that it was probably not the healthiest thing we could eat, but she ...

Love It or Hate It - Part 1

We all have that one food whether from our childhood or a bad dining experience that we just can’t stand. It could be a texture issue, a smell, how it was presented, or just a preconceived notion ...

From Chicago to Florida via Goldbelly

I first learned about Goldbelly a few years ago when I was given a gift certificate for the holidays. If you aren't yet familiar with Goldbelly, it's an e-commerce platform that connects people with ...

Do Yourself a Favor and Buy Fancy Chocolate

I definitely understand why people buy the cheapest, or maybe even more frequently, the second cheapest chocolate at the grocery store for baking. The price difference between that and the really ...

Top Tools for any Kitchen

As a chef instructor at The Chopping Block, I work with hundreds of home cooks all with varying levels of comfort in the kitchen. My goal and hope is to identify where they can find an edge to help ...

Homemade Egg Rolls

The Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year is upon us, which got me in the mood to make some of my favorite Chinese dishes. Egg rolls are the quintessential Chinese takeout food, but did you know they ...

Pozole Pointers

Despite its relatively simple appearance, there are centuries of tradition and unique flavor combinations packed into a simple Mexican dish. From endless varieties of fresh and dried chilies like ...

Five Great Pastry/Baking Books for Beginners

I’ve been getting some good traction on these book roundups, and maybe if I can make the case that the book collection can be routed into a productive outlet, I’ll be allowed to continue to ...