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Arlington Heights cook experiments with ingredient combinations

Friends who have enjoyed Cindy Waters' cooking may call her a mad scientist. “I like to try different things, put different ingredients together, pull different concepts together,” Waters said. “I often tell them you're going to be the guinea pig, and they will say, ‘yeah, yeah we're going to be fine.'” She adds, “I give them fair warning.”

The Arlington Heights cook says she enjoys the chance to be creative, to combine different flavors and see how they blend successfully.

“It's being willing to try new things, learning what works and what doesn't. It's that mad scientist coming out again,” she said.

Cindy attributes her love of cooking to her family. She said her family has always connected through food and cooking.

“I'll call my mom and we'll talk about recipes. She'll coach me if I have questions. I'll expose her to new foods or different ways to put different ingredients together,” she said. “I'll give my brother some pointers or I'll call him and say I want to try this flavor profile. What do you think?

“If you can't get into the food and the cooking conversation in my family, then you're kinda left out,” she said.

Cindy may occasionally rely on her mom's Italian background when deciding what to make such as eggplant lasagna or chicken cacciatore. But she likes to tinker with Italian cuisine to create a combination one may not expect. Recently, Cindy took her family by surprise, serving grilled Italian sausage on a corn tortilla with a grilled piece of pineapple.

“They just couldn't fathom it, but then they tried it and I was giving them seconds. They didn't think it would work at all but it did,” she said.

But Cindy not only likes to surprise diners with ingredients they may not expect to go together but also impress them with healthy ingredients and flavorful ways to use them.

“I was cooking quinoa way before it was in the news and people were talking about it,” she said. “I feel better when I eat healthy and when I'm sharing food with people I care about, I want them to eat healthy.”

Relying often on grains and beans to create go-to dishes, a favorite that she loves to serve for a special occasion is her quinoa pie with butternut squash.

“You can use it as an appetizer or a main vegetarian dish. Also it can be served warm or at room temperature, so it makes a great picnic food,” she said.

If you need a comforting dish to stay warm this winter, try her curried red lentil and Swiss chard stew with chickpeas.

“In the late fall when I have lots of Swiss chard to harvest from my garden, this is my go-to recipe,” Cindy said. “I always forget how good it is. Every time I make it I wonder why I don't make it more often. I make big batches and freeze portions.”

Knowing her fondness for beans, Cindy recently received for Christmas a cookbook dedicated to using heirloom beans and several pounds of heirloom beans.

“My favorite bean is a Christmas lima bean. It's a big bean that has a chestnut flavor,” she said.

While many of the grains Cindy likes to use such as quinoa and farro may be familiar, she is not afraid to try some that are not.

“My brothers brought me chicos back from Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's dried, smoked corn,” Cindy said.

Whether the ingredients are familiar or something new, Cindy looks forward to a new year filled with food adventures and sharing those adventures with those she cares about.

“Hopefully, I'll expose them to something new to try and open their eyes to what they may like,” she said. “I get a kick out of that.”

• To suggest someone to be profiled here, send the cook's name, address and phone number to food@dailyherald.com.

Quinoa Pie with Butternut Squash

Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños

Curried Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew with Chickpeas

  Cindy Waters of Arlington Heights shares her recipe for her Quinoa Pie with Butternut Squash. She says it's great served at room temperature so it's good for picnics. Patrick Kunzer/pkunzer@dailyherald.com
  Arlington Heights' Cindy Waters is this week's Cook of the Week. Among her favorite pieces of cooking equipment is an aluminum cooking sheet she inherited from her grandmother. The sheet here has been used to bake butternut squash pieces in olive oil and rosemary. Patrick Kunzer/pkunzer@dailyherald.com
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