Fall is in the air a little bit, even though it does seem like summer in the Midwest now extends into October or even early November, really.

While I’ve enjoyed a long summer of grilled buttermilk chicken and my Mexican street corn salad recipe, I’m very ready to dig into a big bowl of soup. Specifically, a big bowl of soup with noodles!

When I’m truly chilled to the bone in the fall and winter, nothing warms me up like a big bowl of ramen. While my little town has recently gotten a (really good!) pho restaurant, we don’t have anyplace to get ramen.

But it’s really not hard to make at home. I usually turn to shrimp ramen, or the tomato ramen with meatballs that I’m sharing with you today.

This is not the typical college student meal you might think of when you think of ramen. No, my ramen has big flavors and lots of filling toppings.

The post Tomato Ramen Noodles with Meatballs appeared first on Foxes Love Lemons.

Earlier on in this whole 2020 “experience,” I was really craving the two things that weren’t available for carry-out or curbside pickup: Lebanese food, and sushi.

My favorite restaurants for each of those things were closed, and others in the area simply don’t compare.

But if 2020 has proved anything, it’s that we can be resourceful. My homemade kafta recipe stood in for Lebanese takeout, and the sushi craving was momentarily quelled by this little snack (although I often had several for a light lunch).

While I spent one day of culinary school learning to roll sushi rolls, let’s just say I don’t really have enough training to want to go down that path at home.

So, I swapped the rice for crostini, but my stomach said I still did justice to the flavors I was craving.

The post Smoked Salmon Crostini (Philadelphia Roll Style) appeared first on Foxes Love Lemons.

Let’s talk about funk, as it pertains to food. In particular, all manner of fermented and pickled things, and anything that packs an umami punch. Umami is a fifth basic taste – alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The Japanese word translates to “savoriness,” and it’s sometimes described as “meaty” or “earthy,”  but I most closely associate it with “funky.” Umami is naturally present in things like beef, pork, tomatoes, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, miso, kimchi, soy sauce and edible seaweed.

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