Krik's Picks

I took a day off on Friday. I stayed home and my wife and I took care of our two grandsons for the day. I went early to the Minneapolis Farmers Market and bought a bushel of tomatoes. (More about them later.) Then I went by my son’s house and picked up Leo. Shortly after I got home, my son-in-law dropped off Trey. In the afternoon, after their naps, we made gingersnap cookies. I relied on my standby recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook . The poor thing is getting pretty old and worn. As you will see in the photo, the cover now is being held in place with duct tape. I positioned two of the cookies on the book cover just to show how they turned out. I once looked into getting a new cookbook. But I discovered that they’ve changed some of the recipes . So I guess I’ll just keep using this book that I bought more than 40 years ago. Gingersnaps are my favorite cookie. Maybe the boys would have preferred chocolate chips. But no one complained. They had fun helping and then sampling the f...

My wife had a hard time deciding where to go for a special birthday dinner this year. We brainstormed a list. She hemmed and hawed and went back and forth between several favorites. Finally she called me with her decision – Blue Point in Wayzata. It turned out to be a great choice. It seems like a lot of the hot new restaurants opening in the Twin Cities offer limited menus and small portions. There’s nothing wrong with that really, unless the limited menu is so limited that you can’t find something that you really want. But it was a relief when we opened the familiar Blue Point menu and saw so many tempting choices that it was hard to decide what to order finally. And another advantage of choosing an old familiar restaurant is the confidence that your going to be served something that tastes good. I like experimenting and innovation with cooking. But you don’t always know if you’re going to actually like some of the unusual combinations being offered these days. Which is not to...

I was in DC earlier in September – the only trip I have planned for the month. I’ve written before how the Barracks Row part of Capitol Hill is attracting lots of creative eateries. So on this most recent trip, I had made up my mind to try someplace new. I was going to be in the neighborhood anyway for a reception. So I planned to just wander up the street and look at a few menus. My plan fell awry, however, when I walked by Lavagna . I ate there last January, and really liked it. Nothing that I’d seen while wandering so far looked better. So I abandoned by plan to try someplace new and got a table at Lavagna. Some things have changed since I ate there in January. For example, in my original post, I mentioned that ‘Lavagna’ not only is the name of a town in Italy, but it’s also the word for ‘slate.’ When it first opened, Lavagna posted its menu on little chalkboards. But no longer. The owner, Stephen Chueng, was circulating through the restaurant chatting with customers. I asked h...

My wife’s birthday landed on Rosh Hashana this year. So I prepared the festive meal with help from family and guests who shared the evening with us. Here’s what I made – turkey (roasted on the charcoal Weber Grill ), eggplant Lasagna with parsley pesto, mashed potatoes, challah, and applesauce (apples from my parents’ farm). My son and his wife brought a delicious apple cake. My daughter and her husband brought a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis for Sweet Pea Crostini (a crowd-pleaser every time). Another guest brought a delicious kale salad with walnuts and dried cranberries. Another guest brought roasted asparagus and red peppers. Any my wife’s sister brought a tray of chocolate peanut butter brownies. We had a total of 12 adults, three kids, and one toddler for the dinner. There was plenty of food. No one went home hungry. The lasagna that I made was something new. I’ve made lasagna with roasted fall vegetables before. But the eggplant lasagna was unusual (at least for me). I di...