We are not vegetarians around here. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I don’t even like most vegetables that much.

Despite that, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of including a day of meatless meals in our weekly menu. Even a slight reduction int he amount of meat you eat is supposed to make a difference in the average American’s health, and will make a positive impact on the environment as well. There’s a whole “Meatless Monday,” movement going on (you can read more at www.meatlessmonday.com).

In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollen advised America to  “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” He has since cited Meatless Monday as a way to reach this goal. In April 2009 Pollan expressed the need for Americans to reduce meat consumption during an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show: “even one meatless day a week—a Meatless Monday, which is what we do in our household—if everybody in America did that, that would be the equivalent of taking 20 million mid-size sedans off the road.”

That’s all well and good, but I grew up in America, and for me (and my husband) a dinner plate has a piece of meat, a side dish, and [hopefully] a vegetable. We’ve been eating healthier for about 6 months now, and have been doing well at it, but our menus do tend to follow that format. We’re on board with the Meatless Monday concept, for sure, but I’m having trouble coming up with meatless meals for picky eaters.

Here’s why:

1) We don’t like meat substitutes. No tofu, no boca burgers. They’re not good, and may not be good for you.

2) We’re not huge vegetable eaters, and the veggies we do like don’t tend to be liked by both of us. I like mushrooms, but not David. He’ll eat peppers all day long, but I pick around them. Etc.

3) We’re still trying to eat healthy here! I’m following Weight Watchers, and most of the satisfying meatless things I can think of are swimming in butter, cheese, and cream. Fettuccine Alfredo, anyone?

So I feel a little stuck. Anyone have ideas for substantial, tasty meatless menus? A couple of carnivores could use your help.

No real post today, just Christmas wishes to you and yours. Merry Christmas!

Believe it or not, I’ve been doing this for a whole year. Make A Whisk recently celebrated its one year anniversary. Or birthday. Or blogiversary. Whatever you want to call it–last December, snowed into my apartment, I decided to pull the trigger on this blog idea I had. My husband had done the behind the scenes work, and my co-workers had contributed a name. All I needed was some content. I headed to the kitchen to bake Christmas cookies, started taking pictures, and I was off!

For the longest time, I posted nearly every day. I haven’t been posing as often lately, but I’d like to get back into the daily posts now that work has slowed down some. I’ve got a whole slew of recipes I’m ready to share. In the meantime, though, here are some of my favorite posts from the past year. If you haven’t tried some of these recipes, you absolutely should. They’re fantastic.

From December: Coq Au Vin. It felt fancy to make, and was incredibly delicious. From my favorite cookbook of the past year, the Barefoot Contessa’s Back to Basics.

From January: Cognac Cream Macaroni & Cheese. Mac and Cheese is decadent by design,  but this recipe was extraordinarly rich and creamy. Adapted from the first Top Chef Cookbook. (I hope to get the sequel for Christmas this year!)

From February: For our Valentine’s Day meal, I recreated the dinner that David and I had a Wildfire the night we got engaged. New York Strip Steaks with a Blue Cheese Butter Crust. Yum!

From March: I first tried my hand at a little treat called Cake Pops! They were the first, but not the last.

From April: Fried Macaroni & Cheese. Because Mac & Cheese needs to be portable. And crunchy sea salt is awesome.

From May: Little Debbie Style Oatmeal Cream Pies. For my sister, Liza!

From June: Double-crusted Key Lime Pie. One of David’s all-time favorites.

From July: Pastitso (Greek Lasagna).

From August: Cream Cheese Pound Cake. (So good! Bakerella never lets me down!)

From September: Seasoned Oyster Crackers. Ridiculously easy to make, but tasty, and a reminder of a wonderful party to celebrate Paw-Paw.

From October: Camembert Stuffed Pork Burgers, for a contest in the Red Eye to meet Top Chef Stephanie Izard. Which lead to…

From November: Dinner Party with Stephanie Izard! Great food, great time. And when was the last time YOU watched Top Chef with a Top Chef?

* * *

So all in all, it’s been a great year. I’m excited to still be blogging, have had a lot of good times and good food. I’m looking forward to sharing more pictures, recipes, and stories in the coming year.

What was your favorite Make a Whisk post from the past year?

I must really love my husband.

Because it is his birthday, and because he bought three of these on Sunday, I’m making his favorite cake ever tonight.

Even for an Alton Brown recipe, this cake is pretty labor intensive. I learned a bit from last time though, and have broken the tasks up over the past few days. Monday night we drained, baked, cracked, peeled, and shredded the coconuts. Last night, I made the coconut milk and coconut cream for the cake, and baked both cakes. Tonight, they’ll be cut into four layers, drenched with coconut water, and I’ll be making the frosting that holds the whole thing together. Stay tuned for pictures and the full recipe. In the meantime, you can check out how Alton does it. It’s a lot of work, but I have to grudgingly admit: it’s kind of worth it. This cake is amazing!

I haven’t made my own coconut extract yet, but due to an unfortunate incident with Leah not knowing that we were saving that measuring cup full of dirty [coconut] water, I have a ton of extra coconut around. I might try to make a batch for next time.

Anyway, assuming that all goes according to plan, I’ll be back here with pictures of the finished product soon. In the meantime, let’s all wish David a happy birthday!

As you might remember, a couple of weeks ago, I entered a contest that the RedEye was running called Virtual Kitchen Stadium. The idea was that Stephanie Izard, winner of Top Chef Chicago, would pick three random-ish ingredients, each participant would create a dish, and then she would judge the dishes based on the pictures and recipes. You can read more about my entry here.

I didn’t win. That’s the bad news.

The good news is, Stephanie Izard is so sweet and awesome that she decided to invite everyone who participated in the contest over to her place for a pot-luck dinner party!

David and I went last week, and had an awesome time. There was a ton of great food, and lots of fun conversation. We met some very interesting people, in addition to Stephanie herself. We got to try a bunch of new dishes, including, for me, brussels sprouts. (They were good! What is the world coming to?!). After all of the food, and there was LOTS, we all crowded in around Stephanie’s new TV to watch that night’s Top Chef.

It was a little weird, watching Top Chef with an actual Top Chef, but a lot of fun. Stephanie was really nice, friendly, warm, and just plain normal. We had a great time.

If you want to see more pictures, you can check out the RedEye gallery here.

Stephanie also blogged a little bit about the night at her own website/blog, here.

Tonight, we had pecan-crusted chicken and boring from-a-box scalloped potatoes. The chicken was good–I used corn meal instead of bread crumbs, because I forgot that we were out of bread crumbs, but it worked beautifully. I also used this awesome honey mustard that we picked up at Fox & Obel’s the last time we were there.  I’ve had it several times, it’s great as a spread on sandwiches or a dip for pretzels, but it also makes an awesome pecan-crusted chicken.

While I made dinner, Leah and I were talking about side dishes. I definitely feel like I’m in a side dish rut. I feel like we never used to eat “from-a-box” sides, and I seem to be relying on them more and more lately.

What are your favorite side dishes?

Today’s blog post is already up…over at the Chicago Redeye blog.

I entered a contest to try and incorporate ground pork, camembert cheese, and haricots vert into the tastiest dish. I don’t know if I’ll win, but the dish I made sure was tasty. We ate it two days in a row and it even got David eating green beans! There’s a picture below, but be sure to check out the post on the Redeye blog, and feel free to leave your comments over there. Maybe you can sway Stephanie towards my dish.

Check the recipe out here.

It’s no secret, at all, that we love Alton Brown around here. The recent Good Eats Anniversary special on Food Network called Alton’s classic show “Good Eats” one part Julia Child, one part Mr. Wizard, and one part Monty Python. That’s about the most apt description I can think of. Ten years ago, Alton set out to create a cooking show that would be fun and educational, and I don’t think anyone is doubting that he was successful. Even the shows about things I don’t like (Brussels Sprouts, Okra) are fun to watch. Sometimes, they even make me think, briefly, about trying those things. As I’ve said before, when we’re looking for a go-to recipe, for pretty much anything, Alton’s the guy. Below is a snapshot of all the Alton dishes I’ve made for the blog. The best thing about an Alton recipe is it quickly becomes a standard. Many of the things you see below are made frequently around here.

• Pancakes
• Salmon
• Rice Pilaf
• Stuffed Pork Chops
• Pork Wellington
• Pan Roasted Steaks
• Pulled Pork Sandwiches
• Fried Chicken
• Fajitas
• Baked Brown Rice
• Homemade Pizza
• Stovetop Macaroni & Cheese
• Chicken & 40 Cloves
• Baby Back Ribs
• Cheese Fondue
• Waffles
• French Onion Soup
• Coconut Macaroons

So when we heard that Alton Brown was doing a signing for his new book, Good Eats: The Early Years, we were there. (P.S. Amazon has it for half the price of Borders! If you want it, I recommend you get it there)

I plan to review the book in full once I get through it, but from what I’ve seen (Mostly from the time I spent waiting in line!) it looks excellent. The book goes through all of the recipes from Seasons 1 -6 of Good Eats, and provides updates, behind-the-scenes info, and even deleted scene-style additional recipes that didn’t make it into the original episode. I’m excited to look back over some of our old standbys and see what new tips Alton has for us!

Borders, on the other hand, gets a not-so-great review. When we saw Alton at Crate & Barrel a few years ago, there was a crazy-large crowd, but they still managed to let everyone at least have a chance at hearing the discussion/demonstration that he did. We really enjoyed that demo, but in this case, Borders had people waiting in all different sections of the 3 level store. Determined by an unpublished wristband system. We were on the same floor as Alton, and you could hardly hear that he was speaking, except that the group closest to him laughed every now and then. Why not at least broadcast that audio through the speakers over our heads, instead of the innane music we could also barely hear?

Ultimately, David and I were the only ones out of a group of 4 that stayed. The wait was too long, with too little reward it seemed. And I mostly agreed. David and I already had a signed book from the Crate & Barrel appearance, so why wait around? On the other hand, once you’ve waited around for 2 hours, what’s another hour and a half? At least we do have a signed book to show for all that waiting.

Dave’s friend Phil left reasonably early, and his friend Mike left about an hour or so after that. Dave and I stuck it out. When we’d gotten pretty close to the end, AB walked out into the crowd and offered to sign books for children so they could go home. It was a nice gesture, but it also happened right next to us in line–and it was fun to hear his conversations with the little kids.

When we finally got up to our turn with AB, we introduced ourselves, got our picture taken and were pretty much on our way.

Except, in an amusing turn of events, when we mentioned that Mike had gone home earlier (but we were still hoping to get his book signed) Alton added a tongue-in-cheek personal message to his autograph:

It was all in good fun, I promise.

P.S. I also had a chance to flip through the Cake Wreck’s book while waiting in line, and I feel like buying it for everyone I know for Christmas. It’s such fun, and a great intro to the Cake Wrecks blog. I really wish I’d gone to Jen’s book signing when I had the chance, but Skokie seemed a little far for a Thursday night. *shrug*

David and I got married a year ago. Well, a year ago last Sunday. First, I’d like to take a moment to be a little bit mushy and point out that I love David, he loves me, and this year has been awesome.

Now, I’d like to brag about the amazing anniversary presents he got me—from Le Creuset!

I couldn’t have been more excited, I don’t think. I’ve wanted a Le Creuset French Oven for a long time, and it’s really the one slight disappointment from our wedding registry–we got pretty much everything else you could think of or want.

So David made the lengthy excursion to the Le Creuset Outlet Store way out in the suburbs and picked up a few amazing presents.

First, these oil & vinegar bottles (but mine are the same blue). They’re awesome, and match my salt cellar from Leah.

Then, an amazing French Oven in the same cobalt color. I’m having visions of Coq au Vin, dear readers, I definitely am.

Finally, a heart shaped French Oven. Why? Because David thought it was ridiculous and that I would love it. And he was 100% right–it is ridiculous, and I do love it! I feel like heart shaped Chicken Pot Pie is in our future.

I know some girls would’ve wanted jewelry. And I know that the 1st Anniversary is traditionally paper. But for me, this was the perfect 1st Anniversary gift, and like David, something I plan to keep pretty much forever.

It’s been a while since I posted, I know. And I’ve got some great recipes coming, up, I swear. But you’re going to have to wait another day or two for those.  Today, we’re headed to Iowa for the wedding of a couple of college friends, Roxy and Jordan. I’m very excited for them, and can’t wait to celebrate with them tonight, but I’m also tired. Because Leah and I were up late making these:

Totally worth it!

I know you’re probably much too busy to be reading this today, but if you happen to see this, Congratulations, Roxy & Jordan!!