Czech Foods Recipes

Christmas morning is the perfect time to justify a leisurely dessert-like brekkie. And it seems to me that the messiness of pavlova certainly mirrors the disarray of little ones rushing down the stairs Christmas morning. I don't know about you, but for me, Christmas mornings are as relaxed and comfortable as a holiday gets. No one minds if they don't look their best in front of mom's camera when there are gifts to unwrap and gasps of surprise to be heard. While Pavlova is usually thrown together with summer berries (as in last summer's strawberry-basil pavlova ) it can take a winter turn as well with the addition of chocolate in the meringue base. Sauteed bananas are coated in caramel and a sprinkling of nutmeg, and a mascarpone cream sweetened with maple syrup simply resounds of breakfast. And did I mention it's all spiked with a wee bit of Baileys Irish Cream? Good Christmas morning! Continue to Recipe... Recipe: Chocolate Pavlova with Caramely Bananas & Masca

When I am not engaging in the daily grind of work or spending my usual time in the kitchen (or on this cooking blog), I like to engage in my two favorite sports, golf and ice hockey. Living in Chicago I am fortunate enough to have several local parks within the city and in the surrounding suburbs that are great places for outdoor skating in the winter. Last year I introduced the sport of skating (and hockey) to my six year old and plan on doing the same with my little two and half year old this winter. The excitement of teaching these kids the fun wiinter sport encouraged me to write a lens about Chicago skating rink directory covering ten quality outdoor rinks in the area. For those that reside in the area or plan on visiting the Chicago area during the winter, I highly recommend you check out my new site .

Yesterday I finally got around to making some Czech checkerboard cookies. The linz dough recipe I used was out of Brizova’s cookbook, though I have seen similar recipes throughout the web . The ingredients are simple and minimal; flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and cocoa. This preparation is simple and straightforward as the dough is divided in half before the cocoa is added to make the chocolate squares (checkerboard) or as the dark swirl (pinwheels). The other option with the light and dark dough is to make random cutouts to make a salami cookie. I liked Brizova’s recipe as it was easy to follow and required just a small list of ingredients. Making the cookie was an enjoyable experience as I recruited my six year old to sift the flour, cut in the butter and work the mixer. The cookie dough was very crumbly and loosely held together and maybe that is the way it works with a linz dough. You really have to work the dough out to get the butter to moisten and bind every flour and sug

I am in the midst of planning a Christmas Eve party with friends and relatives that will have the offerings of assorted meats and cheeses served with accompaniment of cold salads and a few hot side dishes. We try to keep the Christmas Eve celebration easy as we opt for the formal sit down dinner the next day. Our Christmas Eve celebration meal is essentially a build your own sandwich with the offerings of a fresh baked spiral ham, sliced turkey, and roast beef. The meat gets accompanied with choice of cheeses, fresh breads, and assorted condiments.   Just because the fare is considered informal, there is no reason to hold back on creativity. The cheese tray is one item that can definitely be tweaked to present a fun festive appearance. Some quick ideas to making a cheese tray look fancy and fun: 1.        Serve it on a mirror If you have a small platter sized mirror (doesn’t have to be round); this will serve as an excellent serving platter for cheeses. Make the presentation look fancy