Food In The Fort

(Well, apparently about 169.000 people say that, according to Google, but that’s not the point.)

As poor Leo can tell you, I am just a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy bit obsessed with recreating recipes so that they taste just like my Mom made them. There’s her shrimp scampi recipe which is always a little less vermouth-y than I remember, the cucumber salad that is always too oily or too vinegary and the turkey gravy on which I don’t even come close. But the other day I nailed one of those maternal recipes to the wall: potato salad exactly as I remember having it as a kid. God it was good. It has a bunch of hard-boiled eggs in it and a lot of celery, but the key ingredient is the celery salt (which is also the key ingredient in a good Bloody Mary; no, my Mom didn’t make me Bloody Marys, that was my Dad).

So here it is, just in time for summer picnicking season: Read the rest of this entry »

Leo is a godless heathen, while Catherine is just a plain heathen but we live in Fort Wayne, Indiana which is nicknamed The City Of Churches. It’s true. You can’t go more than a half mile in any direction downtown without running into a church or overhearing some pious pontiff haranguing the flock about the sorry state of the place where they’ll be spending their afterlife. So we thought it only appropriate to name one of the hottest chili recipes we’ve ever tasted here at Food In The Fort after that mythical lake of fire.

This is truly a collaborative recipe. We made it last week when we suddenly decided that we absolutely had to have chili. Of course, last week was actually the first week of April. We’ve been too busy to write this up before now (something about buying a house…) but it is true that we had a sudden craving for chili, whatever month it was.

Leo concocted the basic recipe out of four or five of his favorites with the guiding philosophy that if a little is good, a lot must be better. By the time Catherine came home, the paint was peeling off the ceiling and god knows what sort of damage Leo had inflicted on his intestinal tract in the sampling. So Catherine felt that a little mediation was in order. Leo rambled on for quite some time about balancing PH levels, but in the end Catherine added the cocoa, sugar and extra cornstarch because they sounded good. Presto! The chili was nice and hot; just shy of necessitating a trip to the ER.

We couldn’t have been happier with this Rube Goldberg of a recipe. It goes great with the sun-dried tomato and jalapeño cornbread and gives sinners like us a little taste of what’s to come. Read the rest of this entry »

If your place is like mine, it’s oppressively hot in the summer, even with the air conditioning running. So the last thing you want to do is add more heat by cooking. Still, unless you want to subsist on a steady diet of deli meats and fast food all summer, you’re going to have to turn that stove on some time. Although, now that I think about it, eating more fast food would give me an excuse to loiter and soak up that sweet, cool, air-conditioned atmosphere… Ah, who am I kidding? They all kick you out after the first couple of hours anyway.

The key to summer cooking is to cook for as short as possible, do it as early in the day as possible, then forget about it and spend the rest of the day competing with the dog for the primo spot on the sofa right next to the A/C vent. This recipe fits the bill. To its advantage, it happens to be quite tasty too and literally takes under a half hour to make (including the time it takes the water to come to a boil). Now move over dog, it’s my turn! Read the rest of this entry »

Via What’s Going Down(town) we learn that the Downtown Improvement District is bringing back their popular Downtown Dining Club cards. The cards are meant to encourage people to visit the many great downtown Fort Wayne restaurants, and there are some wonderful deals to be had at some of your favorite Fort Wayne eateries.

Each time you visit one of the participating restaurants you’ll get a stamp for your card. Collect eight stamps and you’ll be entered into a contest for a VIP Party for you and all of your friends at Columbia Street West plus a night’s stay at the downtown Hilton.

To get your free Downtown Dining Club Card, just visit any one of the participating restaurants and you’ll get your card right along with your meal. Nothing could be simpler, and you get to save a few shekels while enjoying some seriously good eats and supporting your local restaurateurs. Everybody wins.

Hmm… And lunch is only an hour away…

Read on for the full list of participating restaurants… Read the rest of this entry »