I had always fantasized about having a vegetable garden, but it wasn’t until we purchased our first home in Fort Worth, Texas that I got to develop my green thumbs.
I managed to shoe-horn a small vegetable garden into a sunny spot not shaded by the giant pecan tree in our backyard. In that small plot, in [...]
Mar 10, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.”
Clementine Paddleford
Clementine Paddleford was a prolific food writer in the mid-20th century. She was best known as the food editor for This Week [...]
Mar 10, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post
Oregon is one of those states where lots of people forage for interesting food. Some forage the forests for wild mushrooms in the fall. Others forage for truffles buried beneath the forest floor, with their truffle-sniffing dogs in tow. Still others forage the many tidal pools at the coast…for what? you might ask. Read on and you’ll discover some tasty edibles.
Mar 08, 2010 | 3 comments | View Post
Brie and pear make a delicious and classic combination, with a twist of being encased in pastry and baked to golden deliciousness. Is that really a word? Deliciousness? Make it and decide for yourself and be sure to enjoy it with a glass of Oregon pinot gris or riesling!
Mar 07, 2010 | 5 comments | View Post
This just in … The Taste of Oregon is one of five food blogs nominated for the “Best Regional Cuisine Blogs” by Saveur Magazine.
As a reader of our blog, you can help us achieve the distinction of being Saveur’s Best Regional Cuisine Blog in the magazine’s inaugural Best Food Blogs Awards.
Mar 01, 2010 | 5 comments | View Post
There are numerous claims on who invented and sold the first “Corny Dog“. Hot dogs on a stick, dipped in a cornmeal batter and deep-fried have numerous names as well: pogo, dagwood dog, wobo, pluto pup, mercury mutt.
I grew up enjoying a yearly fix of Fletcher’s Corny Dogs at the [...]
Feb 26, 2010 | 3 comments | View Post
It was a bubbly night at the Silver Grille Café in Silverton, Oregon on January 30, 2010. Friends, fans and family of Seven Brides Brewing gathered for a much-anticipated six-course dinner created by Chef Jeff Nizlek, who expertly paired each of his courses with a different brew. Carefully chilled kegs of six of the Seven [...]
Feb 26, 2010 | 5 comments | View Post
Coq au Vin or rooster in wine is surely one of the oldest recipes in existence. Roosters to eat can be hard to come by as they have a job to do on the farm. Even retired roosters are rare and I imagine that most of them ended their earthly days as the star of [...]
Feb 25, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
I looked at the pile of crab meat that was left over from the enchiladas our good friend and dinner guest Steve Martin was helping me assemble, and was wondering what to do with it when he suggested, “Why not Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict?” I hadn’t ever thought of having crab for breakfast before, but [...]
Feb 22, 2010 | 2 comments | View Post
Being an avid outdoorsman has one drawback: Sometimes I have too much bounty from the activities I enjoy — fishing, clamming and crabbing. To keep the family from getting bored, I draw on another favorite activity — creative cooking.
Fishing, clamming and crabbing at the seashore in Oregon can be a tricky thing. First, you have to [...]
I had always fantasized about having a vegetable garden, but it wasn’t until we purchased our first home in Fort Worth, Texas that I got to develop my green thumbs.
I managed to shoe-horn a small vegetable garden into a sunny spot not shaded by the giant pecan tree in our backyard. In that small plot, in [...]
“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown [he or she] left behind.”
Clementine Paddleford
Clementine Paddleford was a prolific food writer in the mid-20th century. She was best known as the food editor for This Week [...]
Oregon is one of those states where lots of people forage for interesting food. Some forage the forests for wild mushrooms in the fall. Others forage for truffles buried beneath the forest floor, with their truffle-sniffing dogs in tow. Still others forage the many tidal pools at the coast…for what? you might ask. Read on and you’ll discover some tasty edibles.
Brie and pear make a delicious and classic combination, with a twist of being encased in pastry and baked to golden deliciousness. Is that really a word? Deliciousness? Make it and decide for yourself and be sure to enjoy it with a glass of Oregon pinot gris or riesling!
This just in … The Taste of Oregon is one of five food blogs nominated for the “Best Regional Cuisine Blogs” by Saveur Magazine.
As a reader of our blog, you can help us achieve the distinction of being Saveur’s Best Regional Cuisine Blog in the magazine’s inaugural Best Food Blogs Awards.
There are numerous claims on who invented and sold the first “Corny Dog“. Hot dogs on a stick, dipped in a cornmeal batter and deep-fried have numerous names as well: pogo, dagwood dog, wobo, pluto pup, mercury mutt.
I grew up enjoying a yearly fix of Fletcher’s Corny Dogs at the [...]
It was a bubbly night at the Silver Grille Café in Silverton, Oregon on January 30, 2010. Friends, fans and family of Seven Brides Brewing gathered for a much-anticipated six-course dinner created by Chef Jeff Nizlek, who expertly paired each of his courses with a different brew. Carefully chilled kegs of six of the Seven [...]
Coq au Vin or rooster in wine is surely one of the oldest recipes in existence. Roosters to eat can be hard to come by as they have a job to do on the farm. Even retired roosters are rare and I imagine that most of them ended their earthly days as the star of [...]
I looked at the pile of crab meat that was left over from the enchiladas our good friend and dinner guest Steve Martin was helping me assemble, and was wondering what to do with it when he suggested, “Why not Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict?” I hadn’t ever thought of having crab for breakfast before, but [...]
Being an avid outdoorsman has one drawback: Sometimes I have too much bounty from the activities I enjoy — fishing, clamming and crabbing. To keep the family from getting bored, I draw on another favorite activity — creative cooking.
Fishing, clamming and crabbing at the seashore in Oregon can be a tricky thing. First, you have to [...]
For those of you who don’t get excited by raw seafood, smoked is a refreshing way to serve a variety of seafood that makes an easy and beautiful dinner presentation.
When Charles and I went to Paris many years ago, I remember the displays outside the restaurants, with fish, oysters, clams and shrimp arranged in beautiful [...]
Stuffed bell peppers are one of the most beautiful ways of presenting a simple, savory entrée. Many fruits and vegetables are suitable for use as serving vessels, as are some shellfish.
Bell peppers come in a variety of colors, from the common green to reds, yellows, orange and purple. All of these are sweet [...]
The martini is perhaps the most romanticized and bastardized alcoholic wallop ever invented. Among famous martini aficionados are Winston Churchill, FDR, Ernest Hemingway, Cary Grant and the fictional James Bond who preferred his “shaken, not stirred” and with vodka. H. L. Mencken once called the martini “the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.” [...]
Smoked Alaskan Sockeye salmon, shrimp and leeks make a wonderful stuffing for an easy recipe for ravioli using won-ton wrappers. Top it off with steamed mussels and a sauce of white whine, cream, fish stock and peas for a wonderfully tasty dish.
How generic can you get with a recipe? How about “Pasta with House Sauce”? In truth, how often, especially when time is an issue, do we turn to pasta to help us put a meal on our table? It can be the “go-to” for stretching quantities when unexpected diners are coming. It can help turn boring [...]
When we have friends over for dinner, or when we host parties, one of the things that’s fun to do is to push the boundaries of “finger food.”
Face it. Sometimes you’d rather serve things that people can use their fingers to eat so you can manage the volume of dirty dishes and silverware.
And when you [...]
Going shopping for dinner without a set plan can be a dangerous thing — at least for some people. For me, it reminds me of shopping the open-air markets in Bangkok as a child. My mom and I would roam the market to see what was fresh and then decide on the spot what to buy [...]
Vic gave me a copy of The Tra Vigne Cookbook from the Napa Valley restaurant of the same name some years ago. Two recipes captured me immediately — Forever Roasted Pork, and Mozzarella Martinis. The pork recipe can be made any time of the year, but the Mozzarella Martinis are best left to [...]
One of the nice things about living in the Pacific Northwest is the availability of live shellfish at the grocery stores.
Almost any time of the year we can find live oysters, clams, and mussels. The mussels come from mussel farms in Washington State’s Puget Sound, live oysters come from the many Oregon bays as well [...]
Spain … on the road Again came to us in the Fall of 2009 from PBS with weekly installments of an epicurean tour of Spain featuring an unusual cast of Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman and Claudia Bassols. With Willie Nelson singing On the Road Again, the carefree quartet was filmed cruising [...]
In Oregon, we’ve got the best of two worlds.
Wine lover? How ’bout some world-class pinot noir? Prefer white? No sweat. We’ve also got pinot gris that’ll knock your socks off.
And what if you’re into beer? Well, besides great wine, we have GREAT beer.
Turns out that Oregon has more breweries per capita than any other state [...]
“Better eat your black-eyes!” my mother would say. “You don’t want to go into the new year without some for luck.” I have been enjoying bowls of black-eyed peas with cornbread for as long as I can remember and they were always served on New Year’s Day. Mind you, it was served throughout the rest [...]
Sometimes adapting a recipe can be a tricky thing when you start substituting ingredients. And when you adapt a complicated recipe like Julia Child’s Lobster Thermidor, it gets even more daunting, especially when you’re replacing the main ingredient, lobster, with Dungeness crab. It can be one of those kitchen experiences where you feel like you’re [...]
