Free Slurpees are back at 7-Eleven as the 24-hour convenience store chain celebrates its 98th birthday this Friday.

On July 11, 7-Eleven offers its patrons a free small Slurpee drink at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes locations nationwide while the Mountain Dew Infinite Swirl flavor makes its return for a limited time.

Fans of the...Read more

CHICAGO -- “I think it was important for us to be Black,” said Jamhal Johnson, co-founder of Chicago’s local Moor’s Brewing Co. “We put a Black man on the beer can.”

For Johnson and longtime friends Damon Patton and Anthony Bell, that’s been one part of a well-considered growth and branding strategy for Moor’s Brewery Co., the ...Read more

Tender vegetables soak up this tangy marinade and turn delicately smoky and tender on a hot grill. These kebabs make a wonderful side dish with grilled meats or fish. You can substitute the zucchini with yellow summer squash or use both if you wish.

Marinated Grilled Vegetable Kebabs

Serves 4

Active Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 ...Read more

Cold cereals can be anything from a quick and easy breakfast to a comforting midnight snack and many things in between. Cereal was first developed in a sanitarium to aid with digestion. Over the years it transformed into something that was more sugar and less nutrition. Fortunately, the pendulum has swung back a bit. While there are plenty of ...Read more

This is the dish I often serve in the summer. I make up a double, sometimes triple batch of the onion compote and have it ready for simple barbecues. You can purchase sausages that are uncooked or precooked, which will vary the cooking time. It is important to make sure the sausages are cooked through, and you can check this by cutting into them...Read more

Now’s the time to enjoy crisp lettuce salads brimming with crunchy vegetables, fresh herbs and a refreshing dressing. Add a crispy-edged grilled protein, such as steak, chicken or fish, and that gorgeous garden salad transforms into summer’s ultimate meal.

When it’s grilled steak piled over those greens, the salad deserves the crown. The ...Read more

Everyone’s mother has a signature potato salad recipe, at least in the South it seems. I’ve got about four versions that I rotate between, including an Ina Garten recipe that uses whole-grain mustard and my mother-in-law’...Read more

When I was growing up, it wasn’t unusual for me to plop down at the dinner table in my Rainbow Brite T-shirt and stirrup pants to a plate of Shake ‘N Bake pork chops. Introduced in 1965 to mimic fried chicken, Shake ‘N Bake is a store-bought seasoned breading mix that came with a bag that you could shake the seasoning and meat together in....Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — There are recipes representing 32 countries in a new cookbook, and the authors have the pantries to prove it. The Peruvian pepper paste aji panca, timur peppercorns from Nepal, Vietnamese ngo gai or culantro, black jeera seeds for lamb biryani — they’re all a new part of their cooking repertoire now.

A trio of authors — ...Read more

Summer evenings draw me out of the kitchen, into the soft light and gentle breezes. Our dinners should be effortless and casual.

Some nights it’s just my husband and me, but often friends stroll by, swing in for a drink and stay for something to eat. My only challenge is how to stock up for such sweet spontaneity. What to keep on hand? ...Read more

Like many home cooks, I keep a kitchen garden planted with herbs during the summer growing season.

I have a pretty good hand with basil and rosemary, and my parsley generally does pretty well, too. Yet one of the most prolific — or dare I say dastardly — patches of green contains mint.

The bully of the herb world, mint is quick to take ...Read more

Like a good summer movie, a great sandwich should be full of delightful familiar ingredients sparked with a few good surprises. And like a good plot, the sandwich should be built on a sturdy foundation.

But first, let’s agree on the definition of a sandwich as opposed to a hamburger, hot dog, taco, wrap, empanada or burrito. To quote the ...Read more

DENVER -- Colorado whiskey continues to impress, earning numerous accolades at a recent spirits competition and sweeping the podium for the best American-made single malts.

The International Whisky Competition, founded in 2010, announced the winners of its annual contest in late June and local distillers made an impressive showing while also ...Read more

I hate my wife’s cousin Deb, whom I love.

Deb is the sort of person you would describe as “neat,” if “neat” were still a word that is used to describe a person, which it is not.

She is an old, unrepentant hippie, complete with a stint in a commune on her resumé. Although she lives in a small town in the middle of Ohio, that small ...Read more

These lemon-blueberry oatmeal bars taste like a hearty bowl of oatmeal that you can hold in your hands. Each square is bursting with fresh blueberries and infused with lemon zest. Once you get the hang of this easy breakfast, try them with raspberries or blackberries or swap out the almonds for toasted pecans or walnuts for a different spin.

...Read more

In looking for an alternative to sugar-laden sodas, many turn to sports drinks, energy drinks, and some of the newer “healthy” sodas. But are those beverages actually a better choice to wash down your lunch?

Traditional sports drinks were developed for a college football team practicing all day in the hot sun. They contain sugar, sodium, ...Read more

Here’s a soup you’ll enjoy in warm weather. Mint, lettuce and peas seem made for each other. While peas are often thought of as a springtime vegetable, they are lovely in the summer, as well. I’ve added snow peas to sweeten and enliven the taste of the English peas.

Butter lettuce, sauteed scallions and carrot add an interesting component...Read more

Two of our favorite Chicago restaurants serve amazing caramelized onion dip. One uses labneh (strained Greek yogurt), and the other serves the creamy concoction with homemade potato chips. Both are beyond crave-worthy. I happily brave traffic to indulge.

Admittedly, Lipton’s “California” dip fuels our fascination. Dried onion soup stirred...Read more

There’s no better fruit to serve at breakfast than blueberries. Baked goods and blueberries go hand-in-hand, from blueberry pancakes to bakery-style muffins. That’s why I ...Read more

If you don’t think you like catfish then somebody didn’t do something right. Perfectly fried, Southern-style catfish — whether cooked at a fish shack, at a Saturday night fish fry, or on the banks of a winding river — should ...Read more