The Chopping Block Cooking Blog

Sopa de Guias con Chochoynes: Oaxaca Squash Vine Soup with Masa Dumplings

I love to garden. I love the physicality of it, I love the beauty of it, the pruning, tending and watering. I love eating fresh produce that I grew myself, and “seed to table cooking” is incredibly ...

Farmers Market Season

I love this time of year. My garden is blooming, and the farmers markets all around Chicagoland are in full swing! It seems no matter where you live, there is a farmers’ market in nearly every ...

Layer the Vegetables Up

It’s the end of Summer, and those vegetables and herbs we’ve been patiently waiting to reach their peak all season have finally done so - I love it! Our little balcony garden is literally ...

Maqluba Makes Use of the Season's Bounty

Every gardener and every friend of a gardener I know is currently faced with the dilemma of what to do with late summer's overflowing gardens. Zucchini as big as a football, copious amounts of ...

Cooking from the Farmers Market

I love farmers markets. Not only do you get access to the best tasting, seasonal produce picked at its peak of flavor, but it has traveled just a short time between the farm and market to get to ...

Farmers Market Fritters

Show of hands: how many of you go to the first few farmers markets of the summer and buy all the things, only to get home and wonder, now what do I do with all this vegetable bounty?! 🙋🏻‍♀️

Cooking for One - Shrimp and Grits

I live alone. But even when my family lived with me, I still mostly ate alone because of a few reasons. First, our schedules were different. Before quarantine and working from home, I had a ...

Zucchini Nut Bread

It’s zucchini season! We planted our garden a little late this year, and didn’t plant any zucchini. But thankfully, our gracious neighbor, Lori, did and offered a couple of her green beauties over ...

Don't Wait for Market Season to Make Pizza

By the time we are getting to the end of January, I start to think about windows being opened, a warm breeze coming through my kitchen window, and me grabbing my farmers market basket to see what ...

Spring Clean your Comfort Food with Tuna Zoodle Casserole

As a kid growing up in Southern California, I didn’t eat many casseroles. When my mom departed the Midwest for Los Angeles, she left a whole bunch of dishes behind along with her winter coats. So, ...