Cooking with Vinyl Home Page

The MTV Video Music Awards are Sunday, Aug. 30. You read that correctly. MTV still awards music videos despite no longer playing music videos. If, like me, you were born in the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, aka “the MTV Generation,” you remember fondly when the cable channel actually played videos all day. You still have a little crush on Martha Quinn or Alan[…]

Read More

The food: About a year ago, I ate Mexican street corn for the first time … and fell in love. It’s charred sweet corn, onions, jalapenos, lime juice, and seasonings, all mixed with a healthy dose of mayonnaise. The results are spicy and creamy — the perfect side dish for backyard barbecues, family potlucks, or Taco Tuesdays. Best of all, it’s super simple[…]

Read More

The food: In my Q&A with Chef George Formaro earlier this week, I discovered his guilty food pleasure is a juicy steak with decadent Bearnaise sauce. He was kind enough to share his recipe for a classic steak Bearnaise, along with some helpful hints for getting it right (more on those in a minute). The music: In the same interview, George admitted he likes KC  and the[…]

Read More

Des Moines is an amazing city. When I sing its praises to people who’ve never lived in Iowa’s capital, however, they tend to look at me like I’m joking, crazy, or a country bumpkin. Ask anyone who has spent meaningful time there and you’ll discover I’m not nuts: Des Moines is damn cool. One reason for its awesomeness is George Formaro, the chef behind Centro, Django, South Union Bread[…]

Read More

The food: Admit it. There are times when nothing (and I mean nothing) is as satisfying as chocolate. On those days, it’s smart to have this recipe for chewy chocolate cookies handy. These cookies super rich and moist, which tends to happen when you use a couple of sticks of butter, and they taste amazing on their own or warmed up and served with ice[…]

Read More