Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Sorted by date Results 51 - 59 of 59
Barrels take your mark, get set, go! December 3rd through the 5th is Holiday Barrel Tasting weekend across the Walla Walla Valley. John Abbott, winemaker at Abeja Winery, has a natural affinity to science and creativity, and I love that about this friendly winemaker's wine making. I became familiar with John's skills a few years back when he made a finessed Pinot Noir for Caneros Winery of Napa. When he left Napa for Caneo Ridge Winery, in Walla Walla, I got in line. Now, John is busy flying around Abeja (Spanish for "bee") Winery, in Walla...
I noticed Dayton's organic gardener, Wild Bill, walking down Dayton Avenue this morning. I pulled up alongside of him, and we chatted about Seed Savers, an organization in the Midwest that saves and generates heirloom vegetable seeds. I ordered some Yukon Gold potatoes and a bunch of Ruby Red beets from Wild Bill, and headed for Wally, where I was to cook lunch and dinner for Beta House on Whitman Campus. Yes, I am cooking for the boys again, and just what is it they want me to cook? Meat and potatoes, of course! So, after I whipped up a qu...
Driving back from cooking demos in Seattle this weekend, I was happy to see the Blue Mountains dusted in snow. I love this time of year, when local kitchens smell like cinnamon, and everyone dresses in layers of Black Watch flannel, Sherpa and tufted down. My Wine Guy, who's been out of town all week, met me at the door with a bottle of my all-time favorite: Ridge Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Yum! However, I am impressed by one of our local winemakers, Richard Funk, who's produced a fantastic 2007 Cabernet Sau...
This morning the thermometer pushed 34 degrees. Burr! No wonder I felt a chill around my ankles! This is slow-food season, and today I am making a couple of family favorites: Black Bean Chili and Caramelized Acorn Squash Cake. At about 5 p.m., Wine Guy walked in the kitchen with a bottle of Sleight of Hand Winery's 2008 Magician Gewürztraminer, a blend of 85 percent Gewürztraminer and 15 percent Dry Riesling. Wine Guy jumps in to help with dinner, tossing together a wild greens salad with...
Somewhere my mother read that actor Vincent Price was a vegetarian and loved wheat germ. My brother and I loved the Goulash actor but hated wheat germ, until Mom made one of her delicious nut bread recipes. This was a hobby of Mom's, trying to get her family to eat better foods wrapped up in moist tea cakes. Today, when I saw the pumpkins arrive outside Harvest Foods in Dayton, I decided I would try to create a recipe using wheat germ and fresh pumpkin in a little sweet bread to serve with dinner. I worked on the recipe, and just as I pulled...
I was invited to a local organic grower's harvest party this weekend. She invited several familiar faces, and we all got down on our knees, picking and pulling the last of summer's bounty. We then grilled our lunch of thick-sliced, colorful vegetables piled high on fresh Chapata bread slathered in garlicky aioli. We poured bottles of chilled Castillo De Feliciana 2007 Semillon, a local winery fairly new to the scene. Feliciana winemaker Ryan Raber's ability to stretch the wine drinker's imagination is evident in this wine. Ryan's nine months...
I ran into a fellow chef at the farmer's market this weekend who grows big, voluptuous red chili peppers. We talked of food trends and what's in and out for the approaching fall season. As we parted, he handed me a pinch of chili pepper flakes. This got me thinking, "How could I use these pepper flakes best in tonight's dinner menu?" Before leaving Walla Walla, I swung by the supermarket for a bottle of inexpensive cooking sherry and a pound of Andouille sausage. Driving along U.S. Highway 12, I saw winemakers Jay and Doug standing outside...
What do MFK Fisher, Angelo Pellegrini and Alice Waters all have in common? Answer: They are 20th century food writers who have contributed to the way we think about and eat food today.Recently I was invited to speak on behalf of the Okanogan Valley Wine Alliance in British Columbia, where the majority of the beautiful wines of Western Canada are produced. The attendees were wine producers from Canada and around the world, and food and wine writers from the U.S. were in attendance. After my dissertation, I spent the remaining afternoon...
Onion Salesman Todd Richard of Walla Walla Gardeners tells me the business of packing and selling red, yellow, white and sweet onions is brisk this season. Talk about longevity, Walla Walla Gardeners has been in business for over one hundred years. Can you imagine how many pounds of local produce have passed over their conveyors? Of course there was a time when everything from washing and packing produce was done by hand, but today conveyors handle the majority of work, and the mule- and horse-driven wagons have been replaced with semi...
