To Do – In Good Taste

The Guac Stop: Chicago Style Guacamole

Maris Callahan — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 22:06:39 +0000

A Chicago style Guacamole recipe from Wholly Guacamole. Let’s get this out of the way right now: since I moved to Chicago, I have gained about 25 pounds. I know, I know. I’m all about the body image healthy eating love yourself and all that. Bear with me here. As much as I do love to feel healthy and to slide into the smaller pair of jeans, I also love eating. Like, a lot. It’s a happy accident that one of my very favorite foods happens to be quite wholesome and full of nutritious goodness. Wholly Guacamole makes fresh prepared guacamole made that’s made with real, simple ingredients like hand scooped Hass avocados. This summer, the brand is launching the first ever guacamole themed lounge also known as The Guac Stop. The Guac Stop (in Chicago June 14 – 18 at Navy Pier) is literally making avocado and guacamole lovers’ dreams come true. In the spirit of “living wholly” the Guac Stop features a customizable guacamole bar, including all the fixings to create a limited-edition “Chicago dog”-style guacamole featuring pickles, tomatoes, onions, peppers and celery salt. While guacamole is the main attraction at this free event, it’s certainly not the only thing on the menu. The Guac […]

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Chicago: Dyeing the River Green for St. Patrick’s Day

Maris Callahan — Sun, 12 Mar 2017 06:00:49 +0000

There are very few things that will get me out of bed at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday. Among those reasons: a television segment, a flight and probably the fire alarm. St. Patrick’s Day has never before fallen under that category. Luckily I’ve never had to test that theory. Now we can add a fourth thing to the list: dyeing the Chicago River green in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with Country Financial. First, I have a confession to make. Until this year, I’ve never been to Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration. For the first couple of years I lived here, I was out of town for the festivities. For the past few years, I’ve celebrated with my friends by going out to brunch, or doing some good old fashioned day drinking in the afternoon. I had never been to the river dyeing, a tradition since 1961 that attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year. According to Mental Floss, the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local was instrumental in the inception of the tradition. In the early days of his administration as Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley was a man on a mission to develop the city’s riverfront area. There was just one problem: The river […]

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Grilling Season is Here: Johnsonville #FirstBratsContest

Maris Callahan — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 06:00:25 +0000

One of my very favorite things about the beginnings of spring is that it signifies the beginning of grilling season. Winter in Chicago has been unquestionably mild this year with only one significant snowfall in December and a handful of days in February that reached 60 degrees F. Even so, Chicago winters are long, gray. and sad, and when I took my dog out this morning and saw crocuses peeking through the ground, I almost did a happy dance. Crocuses are green and green means spring which means grilling which means summer which means pools and warm weather and patios and everything good in the world. Johnsonville, a brand that absolutely shares my enthusiasm for grilling season, kicked things off this weekend by partnering with the Special Olympics in sponsoring the 2017 Chicago Polar Plunge. My cousin and I decided to go watch people jump in freezing water while we ate brats and planned out where we should go next to get lunch. The Polar Plunge was fun for a few reasons. One, I didn’t have to participate. I ran a few road races last year and I was always a little envious of the spectators who were warm and happy, while I dreaded running […]

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Chicago: Tacos & Ceviche at Cantina 1910 – NOW CLOSED

Maris Callahan — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 05:00:29 +0000

Located in Andersonville, Cantina 1910 is a Mexican restaurant that merges the diverse cuisine of Mexico with the bounty of Midwestern farms and producers to innovate traditional Mexican dishes. Do you like to visit restaurants when they first open, or do you like to give them some times to iron out the kinks, perfect the service and tweak their menus? Even though there is definitely an excitement to getting a table at a hot new restaurant the week it opens, I’m on Team Wait. I like to read reviews, hear feedback from friends and know what I’m getting into before I eat someplace. Of course, there are exceptions, but I’ve also been to far too many openings where I was so excited to eat amazing food at a new spot in town only to be hugely disappointed in the experience. In the past month or so, I’ve been to two much hyped spots within weeks of their openings. At one, the food was hugely disappointing and at the other, the service was awful. Both had potential to be far better, so I wonder if had we waited longer to try each restaurant, we’d have had a better experience. Even so, I hesitate to […]

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Phoenix: Queen Creek Olive Mill

Maris Callahan — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 03:15:27 +0000

In September, I visited Arizona for the first time, spending three days in Mesa and three days in Phoenix, with a few brief stops in the Scottsdale area. In between some fabulous restaurants, I attended a tour and tasting at the Queen Creek Olive Mill as a guest of Visit Mesa, which was easily one of the highlights of the trip (beside sitting by the pool at The Wigwam, but we’ve already talked about that. At Queek Creek Olive Mill, you can tour, taste and shop to your heart’s content, learn about how olive oil is produced and tasting it in its purest form — plus in some of the most unique flavors you’ll ever experience. Queen Creek is owned by a husband and wife team, the former a child to first generation Italian immigrants. Going into the project with the intention of producing olive oil solely as a hobby, they planed 1,000 olive trees on 100 acres in the city of Queen Creek. With an eventual goal of providing the Arizona community with fresh, local, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, they later built a 5,000 square foot shed that soon transformed into today’s sprawling Queen Creek Olive Mill, Cafe and Marketplace. The working olive mill offers […]

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