The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog

A Most Wonderful Snack: A Guide to Treating Yourself

When the reality of winter coming begins to set in, and it starts to look more and more like gathering indoors with our loved ones might be a bad idea for the second winter in a row, the importance ...

Adventures in Fungus Fruition

I joined the team at The Chopping Block two years ago, and the change of career trajectory was very apparent right from the start. After working almost 20 years in some of the hardest, and not so ...

Don't Miss Mushrooms at your Farmers Market

When I stopped by the Logan Square Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, I visited River Valley Ranch Farm's stand. They are from Burlington, Wisconsin and are the oldest mushroom farm in the ...

A Photo Essay from a Day in a Chef's Kitchen

I woke up on this day with plans for a couple of kitchen projects, but a mid-morning delivery from a nearby friend inspired an expansion of the plans. We had recently visited her new home on Memorial ...

Mushrooms and Polenta

One of the things I love most about farmers markets is discovering that something unexpected is in season. I always buy whatever it is, whether it was on my shopping list or not, and rush home to ...

Rekindle your Love for Kitchen Equipment

One of my first quarantine projects was taking everything out of my kitchen cabinets and drawers, cleaning the surfaces and reorganizing the contents. I had an appliance drawer that was a chaotic ...

Why make a Sweet Cheesecake when you can make a Savory One?

If you love cheesecake like I do, you need to make this savory Mushroom Cheesecake Tart.

Corn and Potato Soup in Mushroom Broth

I love going to the farmers market, and as luck would have it, my office is right across the street from the Daley Center. Every Thursday I do my customary walk around the market to see what’s there, ...

Every Day Can Be Fry-Day with an Air Fryer

I never really considered myself to be a cook obsessed with gadgets. Sure, I have had a CrockPot since I graduated from college, the Instant Pot has truly changed my life, and I use my Vitamix ...

Don't Knock Mushrooms until you've had them Cooked Properly

I often hear from students in our cooking classes about the foods they say they don’t like. When I hear this, my next question is always “What don’t you like about it?” As a nutritional chef, I run ...