Sorry for the delay, but the weather here over the past week in Chicago has really put a cramp in my cooking and baking. It’s just too nice to stay inside and do either.

The past couple days have been a lovely blur of seltzer water, iced drinks and freezes, and slurpees. Things you can savor out in the heat and play well with the beach. Things that require not a lick of flame or the zap of a microwave to make ready. I’ve consistently gone to the beach the last five days in a row. Ah, the end of college and the beginning of summer.

What a wonderful thing.

Of course, chocolate just doesn’t hold up to this kind of heat, so I’ve had to tap out my treats. Ice cream is in constant rotation, but sometimes you just need a little crunch.

Homemade pecan toffee popcorn fits the bill. Every Friday from January to May I would commute downtown for an internship, and every Friday I would get off a couple stops early in the Loop to stop by Garrett’s popcorn. It’s the smell, really, that gets you. More piquant and rich than wafts of homemade ice cream cones, Garrett’s popcorn really fills the air. For months, I was powerless against such smells. And then, I decided to make it at home.

The only hour the oven has been on in the past week was yesterday, quite early in the morning before the 95 degree day really set in. A nibble here, a bite after lunch, this popcorn is the sweetness of summer, distilled. Or rather, caramelized and toasted. And clearly, there isn’t anything better than a caramel summer.

Recipe on the following page.

The result of that hard day last fall? Two jewels of the Chicago hot-dog scene, both with unique offerings. Hot Doug’s, with their crayfish sausage, duck-fat fried fries, and wonderfully balanced cheese, sauce, and sausage pairings, is for the sausage purist. The sausage, and they run from traditional to gourmet at Hot Doug’s, is king. Relatively nearby however is a place where sausage is king, but the rest of court is just as loved. Franks ‘n’ Dawgs is the place to find ‘five-star dining, on a bun.’ (Their pun. Punny.)

I’ve been back since, many times. I apologize for the picture quality, but I couldn’t be bothered with composition and lighting, those little things, when there was food on the table. It’s that good. What you see is the Roaring Buffalo Chicken, truffle chicken sausage, celery root slaw, blue cheese, and house-made hot sauce, and the Southerner, pork loin and caramelized onions sausage, corn bread, cherry bourbon BBQ sauce, and scallions.

If you’re in Chicago, or even the Chicago-area, go. Get a dawg. And the brussels sprouts salad and the triple truffle fries. Heads up, it’s byob, and there’s a Binny’s on the other side of the block.

South Dakota.  You should go.  If only to eat at Jerry’s Cakes & Donuts.  And ride the roads with Harleys galore.  Oh ya, and the Badlands and Mount Rushmore are pretty cool, too.

When the White Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Spread is gone, it’ll be the lowest point thus far in your eating career, no exceptions.  There will never be such a void.  Never a valley so deep, chasm so wide, but most importantly, never a jar so empty.  And you’ll look too, you’ll look deep into the bare pretzel peanut butter spread jar at the smeared remnants, the last slicks of white chocolate pretzel peanut butter goodness.  Maybe you’ll tear up a little bit, because that spread was just so, so good.

What is it about peanut butter that makes it so delicious?  At the most basic it’s peanuts, perhaps toasted and lightly salted, pulverized and ground into a luscious, rich nut butter.  Make butter out of anything really, and it’s hard to go wrong.  Take plain, simple lowly peanuts and elevate them from bar snack status into something wonderful.  It’s the nostalgic stuff of white bread peanut butter and jellies, peanut butter cups and, for a lucky few, peanut noodles and satay sauce.  So imagine the possibilities if you take peanut butter a step further.

This White Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Spread however goes above and beyond plain old creamy peanut butter.  With the addition of white chocolate and crushed pretzels, peanut butter is transformed into a rich, dessertesque White Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Spread.  And while it’s good enough to eat by the spoonful, a little smear of this spread on a PB&J or peanut butter and honey sandwich, an extra slick in a Gruyere or sharp cheddar grilled cheese, or perhaps most ridiculously layered between slices of chocolate cake is everything good in the world.

Recipe on the following page.

Everybody should have a porch swing.