About a week ago we had some friends over for dinner. It was a typical Chicago January night and the temp was around zero so I was suprised when they actually made it.

Not wanting to get overly complicated I roasted a chicken with potatoes, onions and garlic underneath which served as a natural rack of sorts. I use amish chickens that I get from Pasture2plate.com and they are they best I have found and always tender.

For the vegetables I did something that I had never...

Nicko

Around New Years I purchased several bunches of parsley (one of which was still alive and kicking) and I had a crazy idea on how to preserve them. First let me say my idea is untested so I will have to post back on the actual success of my idea.

For a number of years I have had a food saver system which I use to vacuum seal bacon that I make as well as other things that end up in the freezer. The original food saver I had was marginal but about a year ago I bought an updated model...

Nicko

Over the past several years I have attempted to make my own yogurt, but each attempt always resulted in nothing more than room tempature milk. Finally after about 6 attempts I actually ended up with real yogurt and learned what I was doing wrong.

If your wondering why anyone would want to make their own yogurt it is because I grew up with my father making yogurt. My father grew up in small village in Greece where they made their own yogurt. It was not a regular item in our house or...

Nicko

The past year seems like it has been one long endless stream of upgrades to ChefTalk. Although the upgrades can be time consuming I am extremely happy to see how much ChefTalk has grown as a result of the upgrades. Here are a list of some of what has happened this past year:

• Photo Gallery
• Regular monthly newsletter (teamed up with globalchefs.com)
• Special guest forums (Harold McGee, Rick Bayless)
• Blogs
• New layout to the main site (in progress)
• Addition of RSS feeds for the cook book

...

Nicko