The Chopping Block Cooking Blog

When Opposites Attract in Food and Wine Pairing

The first step to creating a memorable wine and food experience is to find a common denominator between food and drink – turkey and cranberry sauce, for instance, served with a Pinot Noir, which is ...

Baby, It’s Freezing Outside: 5 Kitchen Hacks to Warm Up Your Winter

By this point in 2019, I don’t need to preach to you about the misery of winter in Chicago. Even though this isn’t my first frigid rodeo, something about this winter feels more painful than the ...

Choosing, Understanding and Making the Most of a Recipe

Have you ever looked up a recipe online and ended up buying $70 worth of ingredients to make it? It's so common these days with the millions of recipes available on the internet. Although some ...

The Quickest Way to your Valentine’s Heart: a 20-minute Comfort Food Dinner

I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s day. It always seems to stress me out, whether it was when I was single and felt left out, or now that I am married and I feel pressure to outdo ...

How to Make Homemade Mexican-Style Chorizo

I love chorizo, and I am honestly baffled when I meet someone who doesn’t. When I ask people what they don’t like about chorizo, they often say it is because it is greasy. I’ll admit it can be ...

Try Something En"Thai"cing like Lamb Laab

I rang in New Year's Eve at one of the world’s best restaurants, Eleven Madison Park in New York. It was a dreamy dinner of elegant plating, impeccable service and subtle perfection. The food ...

A Taste of Old Florida

While some of you were shivering through the polar vortex earlier this month, I was home in Florida. Before you get all jealous know that I made the last minute trip home for a family emergency. ...

The Benefits of Drinking Bad Coffee

With the Polar Vortex coming through Chicago last week, I found myself with some unexpected free time since The Chopping Block was closed for two days. So, I decided to take on a project I've wanted ...

Beef Paprikash: A Cold-Weather Cure

Like many of you, when it was ridiculously cold last week, I went into survival mode. In addition to filling my gas tank and changing my furnace filter, I also made sure we had plenty of wine in ...

Food Comics: Easy Sides

We are pleased to introduce Food Comics from The Chopping Block where our resident Cartoonist Tom O'Brien illustrates his cooking adventures. Here, he shows us how to make three easy vegetable side ...