We’re happy that you’ve dropped by. Pull up a chair and have a drink while we turn on the radio and fire up the grill. We can swap stories, recipes and memories of days gone by. If you’re not in a rush, maybe we’ll even light a campfire and get the guitars and ukuleles out. In any case, we’ll share some good food and great company.
Make yourself at home.
Having grown up with Nat Cole’s version of The Christmas Song and the Ronettes’ Sleigh Ride, I’ve always romanticized roasting chestnuts at the holidays. On several occasions over the years I considered giving it a try, but fresh chestnuts were relatively difficult to obtain where I live, and what I learned about the process made it seem a little complicated, so I didn’t get around to it until 2024.
The first attempts roasting in the oven were underwhelming. They came out bland, mealy – and edible but unappetizing. I finally decided to give it one more go, on the Weber Kettle this time, and those were much better (and finally worth the bother).
Here’s the process I use, after much research into recipes, blog posts and YouTube videos, and our own trial and error refinements.
First, sort and wash the chestnuts. Discard any with mushy or papery skins, and be sure to inspect them for tiny insect holes. There are usually two or three in any one pound batch that need to be tossed.
Next, score an x shaped pattern on one side of each chestnut, just barely breaking through the skin. I used an inexpensive chestnut scoring tool from Amazon for this, but you could use a paring knife. Just be careful not to cut too far into the nut meat.
Soak the scored nuts in warm water for at least half an hour. I usually let them go for an hour while I’m getting the grill set up.
The coals and some wood chunks go on one side of the grill, and the pan for the nuts is placed over the other half for indirect cooking.
Keep a close eye on things after the first ten or fifteen minutes. At some point the skins will pop open where they were scored, and the meat will begin to get a nice golden brown color. The last batch I roasted were ready to remove from the grill after about 25 minutes.
Bundle up the roasted chestnuts in a damp towel in a bowl for a few minutes to steam and soften the shells. Once they’re cool enough to work with, peel off the shells and they’re ready to eat. I always try a few unseasoned, but then tend to put a little melted butter, maple syrup and Cajun seasoning on them. You could use any combination of sweet or savory seasonings you like.
The chestnuts have a mild flavor on their own, and the flesh is tender and chewy, so don’t expect the sort of deep nuttiness and crunchiness of things like peanuts or cashews or almonds and such. They’re definitely fun and unique, though, and add something to our holiday tables or as a warming snack on a chilly evening.
You can find chestnuts for roasting online. That’s not a paid link, so feel free to do a search to find your own merchant. The nuts are highly perishable, so keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to roast, and make sure you’re able to roast within a reasonable time of their arrival.
It’s also kind of cool to know more about the history of the American Chestnut, sadly now all but gone in the wild. It’s the tree that inspired the lyrics, back in the day when plentiful autumn harvests were still in memory.
I first tasted an apple fritter as a young man in my hometown of Decatur, Illinois, at the Van Zetti Bakery. It’s been my favorite donut-adjacent food for fifty years since.
Recently, we ran across Kent Rollins’ YouTube channel, and I was delighted to find that he has a recipe. Despite my trepidation toward deep frying, I decided to try it out. We picked up a bag of Granny Smith apples and a bottle of Fireball Whiskey on Saturday, and made these on Sunday Morning.
The first step was to dice the apples and sauté them in a little butter. Once they start to get soft and a little golden, I added a couple tablespoons of Turbinado Sugar and a tablespoon of dark brown. Then came a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and finally a good splash of Fireball to deglaze the iron skillet. This all got set aside to cool while making the batter.
I beat two medium eggs well to start the batter, incorporating 3/4 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of melted butter. The dry mixture (1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a little grated nutmeg) went in next, along with 3/4 cup of Ginger Ale, as we didn’t have Mountain Dew on hand. By then the apples were cool enough to add, and the dough was ready for frying.
I used a little over an inch of vegetable oil in the bottom of a Dutch Over for frying, dropping in four large spoonfuls at a time once the oil was hot. The recipe made about a dozen and a half fritters, and they were just the right size for an individual serving – although everyone ate more than one.
The glaze was a cup of powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of Fireball, with a little more of the Ginger Ale to get the right consistency.
You can watch the whole process on Kent’s YouTube video. The recipe is here.
These were as delicious as I had imagined and hoped, and the frying was a lot less daunting and messy than I had feared. It’s the cowboy way. 🙂
The first Sunday of Summer 2025 was HOT. Here in the South Suburbs of Chicago, we had temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit all weekend.
Claudia had prepared a potato and green bean salad for a Midsummer party that we attended on Saturday Evening, and par cooked enough extra to grill on Sunday. She also made a nice green salad, and I grilled some Tofurkey Vegan Polish Sausages that we served with sauerkraut and mustard.
Claudia described it as “Summer on a Plate.”
I walked out back of the house to mow yesterday, and the violets and dandelions were so beautiful that I decided to wait a few days. 🙂
So I picked 108 violets to try Annabel Margaret’s violet syrup. Here’s a video with the recipe if you’d like to try it.
Let equal parts of violet petals and water (heated to boiling then left to cool for 5 minutes) steep overnight. Then add an equal part of sugar and heat very gently, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Finally, add a squeeze of lemon juice.
I had about 3/4 cup of petals, and it made a little over half a bottle. Super fun to harvest and remove the petals with intentions for our happy, loving home. Also, watching the syrup go from blue to violet with the addition of a little lemon juice was just beautiful.
This recipe came from Rainbow Plant Life. I cheated a bit with the spices, opting for some pre-ground things instead of toasting them all from scratch. The meal still took a couple hours altogether to prepare, but it was well worth it.
I think I’ll try a double batch of the full fledged version one of these weekends.