Winter Minestrone

If you're feeling like you may not make it through the rest of the winter, eat some of this hearty soup and you'll feel stronger. It has loads of leafy greens in it to give you staying power. We ate it with Italian beef sandwiches. I used the "put a frozen roast into the Crock-Pot" method again, and again it worked out wonderfully well.

Winter Minestrone
From Gourmet magazine, January 2009 issue
Headnote to the recipe:

Patience is the key to this soul-satisfying soup chock-full of winter greens. Its depth of flavor comes from cooking the soffritto—a mixture of pancetta, onion, celery, carrots, and the ribs from the chard—for a good 45 minutes and from browning the tomato paste. The result is so savory that there’s no need for broth; water, canned tomatoes, and a parmesan rind work beautifully. And because this soup must cook slowly, don’t worry about prepping all your vegetables before you begin—you can simply chop as you go.

1/3 lb sliced pancetta, chopped (I used cured pork jowl from Triple S Farm)
3 medium red onions, chopped (I used one huge red onion, as that seemed like enough onion to me!)
4 celery ribs, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch Swiss chard
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes in juice
3 quarts hot water
5 cups coarsely chopped cored Savoy cabbage (I didn't use the cabbage, only the chard and escarole)
5 cups coarsely chopped escarole
1 piece Parmigiano-Reggiano rind
1 (19-oz) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (I used a 14.5-ounce can)

Cook pancetta, onions, celery, and carrots in oil in a wide 7- to 9-qt heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, while preparing chard.

Cut out stems from chard and chop stems, reserving leaves. Stir chard stems into pancetta mixture with garlic, 1 tsp salt, and 3/4 tsp pepper and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender and begin to stick to bottom of pot, about 45 minutes total. (Set aside chard leaves.)

Push vegetables to one side of pot. Add tomato paste to cleared area and cook, stirring constantly, until it starts to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Stir paste into vegetables and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. (Paste may stick to pot, but don’t let it burn.)

Stir in tomatoes with their juice, breaking them up with a spoon, then add the 3 quarts of hot water, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pot.

Bring to a simmer. Stir in cabbage, escarole, and parmesan rind. Simmer, covered, until greens are tender, about 40 minutes.

Coarsely chop chard leaves and stir into soup along with beans. Simmer, partially covered, 10 minutes. Discard rind. Season soup with salt and pepper. If using ditalini, stir in just before serving.
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You notice the recipe talks, at the end, about adding the small tube-shaped pasta called ditalini to the soup just before serving. So it clearly means cooked ditalini, but the amount is not specified. I'd say, from having made the soup, that it could take about two cups of cooked pasta (I didn't put pasta in, but it would be a nice addition).

You can find escarole at any supermarket; I got mine at Schnucks, and it's near the lettuces.

Urbana’s Market at the Square Launches Strategic Planning Effort

Lisa Bralts, the director of the farmers' market located at Lincoln Square in Urbana, contacted me the other day with the news that the city will be holding meetings to get public input on the future of the market. I'll reprint, below, some of the details from the press release about the whole thing. If you love the Urbana farmers' market, you may want to go support this planning effort.

The City of Urbana’s Market at the Square, one of Illinois’ largest farmers’ markets, invites the public to participate in the Market’s new strategic planning initiative. The first public input session will be held Tuesday, February 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Urbana Civic Center, located at 108 East Water Street in downtown Urbana. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

Market staff, along with city planning staff and a steering committee made up of Market vendors, representatives from area businesses, elected officials, and members of the public, will be conducting a strategic planning effort for the Market in the months leading up to the 2010 season. This planning exercise is designed to

• create Market mission and vision statements,
• set goals for the Market’s future, and
• give the city a blueprint from which to operate the Market for the next several years.

The public input process, scheduled to take place over the next several months, will include at least three sessions where the public will be asked to participate. The first session will include group exercises designed to get participants thinking and talking about their perceptions of the Market, whom it serves, and why it exists. The information gathered at this meeting will provide the framework for mission and vision statements and will be used to inform exercises for the second public input session, tentatively scheduled for the third week in March. A third session is tentatively scheduled for the last week of April.

“Market at the Square is huge asset for the City of Urbana and is held very dear by many of our residents,“ said Libby Tyler, city of Urbana community development director. “By undertaking a strategic plan, we can make sure that everyone can participate in developing a vision for the future of the Market.”

For more information, please contact Rebecca Bird, Planner I, at 384-2440, or rlbird@city.urbana.il.us. You may also contact Lisa Bralts, director of Market at the Square, at 384-2319, or ljbralts@city.urbana.il.us. And you can keep up on the latest Market happenings by visiting the blog for the Market at the Square.

Sunday Dinner: Pasta with Tuscan Meat Sauce

My mother, who was Sicilian (well—first-generation Sicilian-American), could turn out some delicious food, especially pastas. And when it was meat sauce, she could bring more meats out of a 3- or 4-quart saucepan than you ever thought possible: meatballs, sausages, chunks of pork and beef—the meats just kept coming and coming. That little saucepan was like a magical, bottomless pot.

I like to try out different recipes for pasta sauces so that I can share them here. This one, which is from Michele Scicolone's 1,000 Italian Recipes, while not as ambitious as my mom's meat sauce, was still very delicious. Instead of the boneless beef chuck called for in the recipe, I used a pound of beef stew meat from Triple S Farm. And I took the sausage meat out of the casings and chopped it into chunks before browning it.

Tuscan Meat Sauce
From 1,000 Italian Recipes, by Michele Scicolone

Makes 8 cups

Recipe headnote: "Spices and lemon zest give this beef and pork ragù a sweet flavor. Serve it with pici." (I used spaghetti.)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
4 ounces imported Italian prosciutto, chopped (I used Triple S bacon.)
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium red onions, chopped
1 large celery rib, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound boneless beef chuck, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 ounces Italian sweet sausages or ground pork
2 pounds fresh tomatoes or 1 28-ounce can imported Italian peeled tomatoes, chopped
2 cups homemade meat broth or store-bought beef broth
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. Add the prosciutto and chopped vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, for 15 minutes.

Stir in the meats and cook, stirring frequently, until browned, about 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, broth, wine, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened, about 2 hours.

Remove the beef chunks from the pot. Place them on a cutting board and chop into small pieces. Stir the chopped meat into the sauce. Serve hot. Can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 2 months.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
I cooked a pound of spaghetti, stirred maybe 2/3 of it into the sauce, and heated it through before serving, because I like it when some of the sauce is absorbed into the pasta. But of course you could also just spoon the sauce over the pasta on a serving plate or on individual plates. I grated some Parmesan cheese and served it with the pasta, and we had roasted green beans, carrots, and garlic on the side.

The fairly lengthy browning of the vegetables and then the meat really gave this sauce a rich, deep flavor. And the lemon zest and hints of cinnamon and nutmeg were a wonderful touch. Highly recommended.

I've tried other recipes from Scicolone's book, which you might like to check out if you like meat sauces. This Abruzzo-style sauce is also very meaty, what with the pork, the lamb, and the veal in it. The pork ragù with fresh herbs has merely a pound of ground pork in it, plus fennel seeds and four types of herbs. Finally, if you're looking to use beef short ribs, you might like the short-rib ragù with mushrooms that I featured two years ago this April (warning: this last, from the Fine Cooking Web site, is very time-and-labor intensive).

Securing Your Valentine's Everlasting Love

I'm not saying that your Valentine is materialistic. But it never hurts to get him a little something. Especially a little edible/drinkable something.

How about Belgian delights from our local chocolate makers extraordinaire? Rubens chocolates, shown above, are available in pretty packages of all varieties and sizes at the Art Mart in Urbana. Go early to avoid disappointment, and keep them in a cool place (but not the fridge) until it's time to whip them on your sweetheart.

You might also ply that special someone with Toffee by Audra. This crunchy, buttery, chocolatey confection is also for sale at Art Mart, as well as at Sun Singer, Walnut Street Tea Company, and World Harvest International Grocery in Champaign.

Or how about Valentine-themed cupcakes from Cakes on Walnut in downtown Champaign? Red velvet cake topped with pink buttercream and roses is likely to melt her heart.

Pastry is always good. Mirabelle bakery in Urbana has you covered in that department; they usually have a large selection including filled croissants, fruity or cheesy Danishes, and more that might do the trick. Pekara bakery in downtown Champaign also has pastries aplenty.

Perhaps a vintage Port is more your paramour's style, or a bottle of bubbly, or a single-malt Scotch. Check the Corkscrew Wine Emporium in Urbana and Sun Singer in Champaign and they'll fix you right up.

We already talked about where to go for a romantic dinner, but seeing as how V Day is on a Sunday, taking your darling boy or girl to brunch might be the ticket. For previews, see my reports on the fabulous buffets at Jim Gould in downtown Champaign and Silvercreek in Urbana and from-the-menu brunches at Escobar's, Luna, and Radio Maria in Champaign. (Pictured is the Mexican chocolate cake at Escobar's.)

Sunday is also Chinese New Year, so you could always feed your lover dumplings for good luck. There are recipes in this great L.A. Times article, and we also featured a dumpling how-to on this blog a few years ago. If you're not up to making your own, they serve some tender and tasty ones at Empire on Green Street. It's the year of the tiger, y'all—dumplings might make him roar.

If all else fails, there are always diamonds. Ha ha. No, seriously.

Quick Bite: Cuban Sandwich at Aroma Cafe

I've been on a private mission to discover the best Cuban sandwich in C-U. As you may know, I've reported on the Cuban at Escobar's and the one at the Black Dog. This time I tried the one offered by Aroma Cafe in downtown Champaign.

At Aroma, they put ham, a thin slice of tender pork, Swiss cheese, and pickle between slices of white bread and then pop the whole thing into a sandwich press to melt the cheese and crisp the bread. The sandwich is served with your choice of tortilla chips and homemade salsa, a small salad, or fresh fruit cup for $6.95.

This was a tasty sandwich. The first time I had it, I found the bread to be a little too crunchy for my taste. So the second time I sampled it, I asked for what Aroma calls the Medianoche, which is basically the same sandwich only served on a softer bread and spread with mayo instead of mustard. I didn't want mayo, so I asked if I could have the Cuban sandwich on the Medianoche bread, and the counter person gladly made the substitution. That's the way I'd go from now on, because I found the bread, while still crispy after grilling, to be not as heavily crunchy.

On my first visit to try the Cuban, something strange was going on with the side of salsa, which I think you can see in the photo. It was as if the person making it had been in a hurry, so there were large pieces of onion and peppers in there, making it not nice to eat. However, on my second visit the salsa ingredients were a normal, uniform size and I enjoyed the flavor and texture (Aroma salsa has black beans and corn in it along with the usual tomato, onion, and peppers).

At $6.95, though, the sandwich at Aroma seems somewhat overpriced. It's very satisfying and tasty, and it's truer to the traditional Cuban sandwich than the Black Dog's is, but it's quite a bit smaller, and it doesn't come with the super-duper sides that you can get at the BD. (I won't bring Escobar's Cuban into this discussion, as that's a high-end restaurant at which you expect to pay more, plus the sandwich there is served with both a salad of baby greens and sweet potato fries). The smaller size of Aroma's sandwich is not a problem—it was just right for lunch, and I didn't have to take half of it home. But at the same price as the large BD Cuban that's got a thick slice of ham in it and healthy chunks of house-smoked pork, in addition to being served with more labor-intensive and expensive sides? I'd be happier if the Aroma version were priced at around, say, $5.50. Heck, even the Cuban rated the best in Chicago, at a joint called Cafecito, goes for only $4.99 ($6.50 if you add chips and a soft drink).

And speaking of the Chicago sandwich shop of the same name: I discovered a new favorite coffee drink while at Aroma. The cafecito is simply espresso poured over sugar in a demitasse. They used just the right amount of sugar for my taste; the coffee was a little sweet but not overly so. Delicious. Yes, I could order an espresso and put sugar in it myself, but why, when I can order a cute little cafecito? Go for a double, if you dare.

I must also mention that while at Aroma I was sorely tempted by the fabulous array of sweet treats on offer—the tiramisu, especially.

Aroma Cafe
118 North Neil Street (next to the Blind Pig Brewery)
Champaign, IL
217-356-3200
Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
See food and drinks menu on the Web site

Valentine's Day Around Champaign-Urbana

Have you made a reservation yet? If not, I have a few ideas to get you started. Other ideas and information are welcome; leave them in the comments.

Biaggi's
The info is not on their Web site, but here's what the chef told this reporter: "We will have an appetizer trio of black-pepper seared tuna, mustard-rubbed beef tenderloin, and charred eggplant with prosciutto crostini and a saffron aioli. For entrees, we will have a seared Cobia fillet with crab and lobster tossed in orzo pasta with braised Swiss chard and roasted red peppers and finished with a pomegranate glaze; an espresso-rubbed lamb porterhouse with roasted red potatoes, fresh spinach tossed with pine nuts and dried cherries in a scallion cream sauce with a demi-glace reduction; and snow crab and spinach ravioli in a tarragon cream sauce. To finish the meal we have created a combination of red velvet cake, vanilla sponge cake, and chocolate souffle, with chocolate mousse and a raspberry coulis.

As an added bonus for the three-day weekend, we are extending our features to Monday and offering half-priced wine."

Phone 217-356-4300 to make a reservation.

Boltini Lounge
Aphrodisiac-laced "sweetheart" tapas dinner party on Saturday, February 13, involving oysters and a "drinkable box of chocolates." $69 per couple (I don't make these things up). Check their Facebook event page for menu details and contact info.

Carmon's
According to their Web site, they'll be offering "some specials," but no details yet. You can check their Facebook page or call 217-352-5880 for more information and reservations.

Jim Gould
It says on the Web site (click on Events) that the weekend will be "full of Valentine's Day opportunities," but that's all the info I could see. If you'd like to spend V-Day at JG, call for details (217-531-1177).

Kennedy's at Stone Creek
Special dinner menu will be offered in the restaurant on Saturday and Sunday, February 13 and 14. There will also be a "beach bash" on Saturday evening in the banquet center with music by Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets. See the complete special dinner menu and details on the bash on Kennedy's Web site.

Radio Maria
A special tasting menu will be offered on Saturday and Sunday, February 13 and 14. See the tasting menu by going to the Web site and clicking on Menus and then Specials. Contact info is there as well.

Silvercreek
Special menu will be offered all weekend (February 12 to 14). Serving dinner 5 to 11 p.m. See the entire special menu and number to call for a reservation on the SC Web site. Mind-boggling array of desserts on the "Mountain of Love."

Sun Singer
Music and movies will play, wines will be poured, and special small plates will be served, not to mention desserts. See the food and drinks menu, and hours, on the Web site.

Timpone's
The restaurant will be open on Sunday, February 14 starting at 4 p.m. (they are usually closed on Sundays). No details yet on the menu, but you could check the Web site and their Facebook page, or call 217-344-7619 for more info.

Old English Cheese Dip

If, at this late hour, you still happen to be looking for something to snack on this evening (I hear there's a big football game going on), look no further. Now, you can't be a snob about processed cheese, but if that's not a problem, this dip takes about 30 seconds to make and it disappears before anything else.

Many thanks to the coworker who gave me this recipe about 12 years ago. It has come in handy many times.

Old English Cheese Dip

1 5-ounce jar Kraft Old English cheese spread
1 8-ounce package Philadelphia brand cream cheese
2 teaspoons Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

Place the cheeses in a medium-sized bowl. Shake the bottle of Worcestershire sauce well, then pour the 2 teaspoons of it onto the cheeses. Whip everything together with a hand mixer until smooth, then scoop the dip into a serving bowl.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Et voilà. Is that the simplest dip ever, or what? One thing: I will be a stickler about the Worcestershire sauce; you must use Lea & Perrins brand. Other brands are not worth talking about.

I won't tell if you lick the mixer beaters or even the mixing bowl itself.

Happy Super Bowl, if you're into it. In honor of the Saints, I'm making Emeril's chicken and sausage jambalaya (even though someone else in my household has decided he's rooting for the Colts).

Food Shame Haiku Contest: We Have Winners!

The haiku contest has ended, and the results are in. As you might imagine, it was extremely difficult for the judges to narrow the field down to three. But it had to be done. Sad to say, some haikus that would have been finalists strayed from the 5-7-5 syllable scheme. However, we're very happy with the winning haikus; we love all of them.

Allen's comes in at first place:

Pickled Garlic Cloves
I ate the whole jar.
I ate the whole freakin' JAR!
My girlfriend got MAD.

Second place goes to Cheri:

Birthday Cake
Discount birthday cake
There are no birthdays today.
I sit here alone.

And Christine gets third:

Little Debbie Nutty Bars
mille-feuille-like layers
crumpled wrapper under seat
gone in just three bites

Thanks so much to everyone who submitted haikus; we had a grand time reading all of them. Look for another contest in the future with more great prizes from C-U food establishments!

Allen, Cheri, and Christine, congratulations! Please e-mail me at champaigntaste AT gmail DOT com to sort out who gets which prize.

And once again, a huge thank-you goes out to the Mettler Center, Vinny's East Coast Pizza, and Xinh Xinh Cafe for donating prizes.

Spiced Blackeyed Peas with Curry Leaves

Around the new year I was looking for recipes involving blackeyed peas, as I've co-opted the Southern tradition of eating them on New Year's Day for good luck. I love and adore blackeyed peas, so it's really just another excuse to eat them. This year, I ended up making an Italian-style dish instead of the usual peas-with-ham-hock version, and that was delicious. But I had also seen the recipe that follows, in the November/December issue of Saveur and have been wanting to try it ever since.

This dish hails from the Gujarat region along the west coast of India. There are a number of ingredients that might be unfamiliar to you: curry leaves, asafetida, jaggery (a kind of rock sugar), tamarind concentrate, and chickpea flour. I didn't use the asafetida, but I did find the curry leaves, tamarind, and chickpea flour (called besan flour) at Annapoorna, the Indian grocery in Royal Plaza. They probably carry most if not all these items at Mirsung grocery as well.

The curry leaves are a fresh item (you can see them in the photo), so you'll find them in the refrigerated section. I left out the asafetida and I used brown sugar in place of the jaggery. The tamarind concentrate comes in a jar, and it's got a pungent, citrusy flavor. The chickpea flour is used, in this recipe, to make a kind of roux, and that gives this stew-like dish a deep, nutty flavor. I enjoyed the stew; it had different flavors in it than the Indian dishes I usually make do (when I cook Indian food, I tend to make South Indian dishes, and I had never used tamarind or curry leaves before).

If you try this, let me know how you liked it. As you can see, it's a quick and easy dish once you have all the ingredients assembled, especially if you use canned peas.

Spiced Blackeyed Peas with Curry Leaves
From Saveur magazine, Nov/Dec 2009 issue

2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
10 fresh curry leaves
1/4 cup Indian chickpea flour
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 to 2 teaspoons hot paprika
1/8 teaspoon asafetida
1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate
1 tablespoon finely chopped jaggery or packed brown sugar
2 15-oz. cans black-eyed peas, drained (I used 2 cups of dried peas, cooked, which I guessed to be about the equivalent of two cans)
Kosher salt, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Heat oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add cumin and curry leaves; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, turmeric, paprika, and asafetida and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in 2 3/4 cups water; bring to a boil. Stir in tamarind and jaggery; stir to dissolve.


Add blackeyed peas, season with salt; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro.


Serves 4 to 6

Uncle Jack's Family Restaurant

Food—American
Drink—Specialty cocktails, smoothies, milkshakes, beer and wine, espresso
Location—Southwest Champaign
Average prices—Breakfast: $7; lunch: $7.50; dinner (entrees): $12
Atmosphere—Upscale coffee shop
Service—Solid on our two visits, especially at breakfast
Patio seating—Didn't see any, but it's not the season
Vegetarian friendly—More so at breakfast than for lunch or dinner
Child friendly—Yes, and there is a children's menu
Group friendly—Yes

Situated next to Jupiter's at The Crossing, Champaign-Urbana's newest family restaurant serves up breakfast, lunch, and dinner in an atmosphere that I'm going to call ramped-up Red Wheel. Like those old-time family eateries, it has the crazy patterned upholstery on the booth seats, the early-morning-to-late-evening hours, the friendly waitresses, and the traditional and well-loved basic American food.

And by traditional American food, I mean everything from pancakes to spaghetti and fried chicken to burgers, with eggs Benedict, waffles, pot roast, and a few steaks thrown in for good measure.

We'd heard about the lines out the door at breakfast time on weekend mornings, so, in order to get the scoop for you, dear readers, we rose with the dawn and got ourselves over there a little after 7 a.m. on Saturday (Jack's opens at 7 on weekends). Only a few other patrons had ventured out in the cold at that hour, but by 8 a.m. there was hardly an empty table to be found in either of the two good-sized dining areas. Not surprising that they'd fill up like that, as the joint is nice and families in southwest Champaign have been without a nearby breakfast spot for lo, these many years.

Though they've been open only a couple of weeks, the staff was clearly prepared for the onslaught: carafes of lemon-spiked water graced every table along with the requisite ketchup, hot sauce (Cholula), jams and jellies, and so forth. When we ordered coffee, a full pot was quickly brought to our table. Our server was attentive and friendly, and knowledgeable about the menu.

Friends, this is not a shoestring operation. Lovely lighting, accents of dark wood, and a replica tin ceiling, along with solid, heavy flatware and dishware, glossy drinks menus, and plenty of staff signal operators with plenty of investment capital who know how to use it. And speaking of the drinks menus, let us pause here and peruse them, because you won't see them online.

The juices:

The (nonalcoholic) coffee drinks:

The smoothies, made with apple cider, yogurt, and a variety of fruits:

The "morning cocktails," which we couldn't quite face at 7 a.m. but you might want to try if you go later and call it brunch:

The milkshakes:

And, though they're not drinkable, let's take a look at the desserts while we're at it:

Ahem. Now, back to breakfast.

For the morning repast I settled on the Rockefeller omelet ($7.49). In a nod to the famous oyster dish of the same name, the omelet was nothing if not rich: smoked salmon, bacon, spinach, and cream cheese blanketed by three eggs. The omelet was tender and hot, the spinach fresh, the bacon crispy, and the cream cheese, well, creamy. The omelet was accompanied by deceptively light fried potatoes.

My esteemed life partner ordered the kielbasa skillet (also $7.49): sautéed onions, green peppers, a ton of cubed, grilled kielbasa sausage, and fried potatoes were topped with scrambled eggs smothered in Cheddar cheese. Instead of toast, we both opted for English muffins on the side.

If only we'd had to go out and plow the back forty afterward.

Wanting to gather data on the lunch and dinner offerings, we took one for the team and returned for dinner the next evening. There were certainly patrons, but it was nowhere near as busy at dinnertime as it had been for breakfast. Here's a shot of the main dining room (we went early; it did fill up more than shown here).

We started with mac and cheese bites ($5.99), simply because I had to see what they were like. This is what they were like:

Brown and crunchy on the outside, cheesy on the inside, and served with ranch dressing. I have to believe these are a ready-made product that are just put into the deep fryer at the restaurant, but if anyone from Jack's is reading this, and you're really making mac and cheese and breading it yourself, let me know. The bites were interesting but probably not something I'd get again. I ate only one, because I had, well, fried chicken coming.

The chicken dinner ($9.99) included a breast, a thigh, a leg, and a wing, and they were the largest pieces of chicken we'd ever seen (especially the breast and thigh). We found the breading, while crispy, to be too heavy—you kind of had to fight your way through it to get to the meat. And it was pretty greasy. But fried chicken is deep fried, I hear you saying. Yes, but it doesn't have to be as greasy as this chicken was. The chicken pieces were nice and hot, though, and once you got to the meat it was juicy.

The mashed potatoes that came with the chicken dinner were advertised as garlic mashed, but I didn't detect any garlic flavor. The potatoes were very bland and seemed—I won't say watery, but they just weren't rich and flavorful. The vegetables were very nice, though, cooked just right, still vibrant in color and crisp-ish.

Keith's pot roast was the better dish. He loved the flavorful gravy, and the beef was very tender. That gravy really improved his mashed potatoes, and he had some tasty veggies on his plate as well. I would recommend that dish if you're a meat eater.

Drinks-wise, I tried a Bloody Mary. It was perfectly adequate, kind of spicy, but when the bill came and I saw that it had cost $7.00, I decided that I'd stick to nonalcoholic drinks here, or maybe a beer. A cocktail containing well vodka and some bloody Mary mix is not, in my book, worth what I consider to be a premium-cocktail price.

All in all, we appreciated being able to get $10 dinners in a pleasant environment (most of the entrees are $10, with burgers and other sandwiches, and the pastas, going for even less than that). If we'd had just the entrees and had stuck to nonalcoholic beverages, our bill would have been extremely reasonable for two hearty meals—right around $25. Our breakfasts were good and we'd go back to try other morning offerings (note that breakfast is served "all day," though, so you don't have to go in the morning to order from the breakfast menu). And sometime I'll have to check their sandwiches and salads at lunchtime. I'm particularly curious about that Cuban sandwich...

Uncle Jack's Family Restaurant
At The Crossing in Champaign (the development at the corner of Windsor and Duncan Roads)
217-366-9222
Open 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends
See all of the menus on their Web site.