David Ross

Unfortunately, with my work schedule right now I don't do much in terms of entertaining. Yes, Yes, we'll be visiting about my experience on MasterChef USA on PBS-and a few of my other television experiences. Probably later this week. If you watch 'MasterChef Goes Large' on BBC America-that's the production that spawned MasterChef USA. Sadly, the series ended on PBS about 6 years ago. Stay tuned later this week.

Dinner is currently in progress at almost 8pm Pacific Time. I'll have the photos up tommorrow morning. I try to keep things simple during the week without falling into the Stouffer's frozen lasagna trap. Tonight I'm grilling lamb chops and serving them over pasta. I was going to do a cucumber/yogurt 'Raita' style sauce for the lamb. But then I thought-what about tossing the sauce into the pasta! So I've got the pasta cooking, the chops grilling, and a few slices of zucchinni grilling to add to the Raita. I've stirred together some Greek yogurt, a bit of sour cream, chopped Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced cucumber, salt and pepper. I've tossed in some shredded Parmesano-Reggiano, and squirted in some 'Green Sauce' I made last night for Chicken. I'll be posting the Chicken dish too-but this green sauce is oh so good. It is basically a 'Chimmichurri' style sauce of pureed cilantro, parsley, basil, olive oil and lemon juice. So right now it's off to finish this Greek-Italian feast of Lamb Chops with Pasta 'Raita'. Or something like that.

Ha! I worked at a cannery when I was in high school. Peas and Corn. I remember those cutters well. ← God I hated those 'corn cutters.' Sticky, gooey, milky corn juice in your hair, under the hair net, in your ears, your nose and any other orifice that was in shot of those damn machines. My job was to walk around with a plastic 'stick' and jam the ears of corn that were stuck in the machines. Now wasn't that a safe job for a teenager in 1977? OSHA probably wasn't around back then.

Part of the fun in talking to people about food and cooking is hearing these crazy tales-cooking a hunk of frozen chuck and whacking a live crab over a log. I'm getting all sorts of ideas from everyone. I think your idea of using cranberries in the Clafoutis would work very well. I'm thinking I'd add some egg nog to the custard, along with a few shots of good Bourbon. Let's call it 'Holiday Clafoutis with Cranberries and Spiked Egg Nog!'

I have two different cherry pitters. You can buy them at any large store with a kitchenware section like a Target or Macy's. I have one that is a small, hand-held pitter. It looks like a pair of pliers with a long metal tooth on one end. You put a cherry in, press down, and the metal tooth spits out the pit. I have a bigger unit that attaches to the side of the counter. You put a cherry in a hopper unit, press down on a handle, then the pit is spit out into a small cup. I prefer this unit because it works faster. I probably pitted the cherries for the Clafoutis in under 10 minutes. Now your rhubarb idea is wonderful. I love rhubarb. We are just seeing some good, local rhubarb in our markets. Here is a link to a story I did a few years back about my experience working in a cannery in Oregon. At the bottom of the story is a link to the Clafouti recipe. http://www.themediadrome.com/content/artic...les/cannery.htm Please accept my apologies for the rough writing in the piece. I was just starting to do some food writing and it was pretty rough back then. I am working on re-writing all the pieces I did for this particular website, which is now kaput. I hope the re-worked food pieces will someday get published, somewhere. Let me know how your Clafoutis turns out.

I would avoid Spice Market. It still gets some good reviews, but I haven't had good experiences there. I was very disappointed in the buffet at Bellagio in May. There is still quality and creativity in the dishes, but it has fallen a notch from its formerly good quality. Some of the meats were overcooked and the cold shrimp were watery and tasteless. On the other hand, I thought the Sunday brunch at the Wynn buffet was even better this year. Smaller selection than Bellagio but the quality of the cooking was much better.

I am really pleased that the huckleberries got such a positive reception. They really rank high on my favorite foods list. I had some leftover Chinese food for breakfast this morning. It was not too good so I didn't take a photo for you-soggy fried chicken, limp broccoli and passable steamed rice. It was better on Sunday night for dinner. 3 cups of free Starbuck's to wash it down. Some of you have been asking about 'the tart' in my refrigerator. It's a 'Cherry Clafoutis'-a traditional French tart filled with fresh cherries, then a custard is poured over the cherries and the tart is baked. I like to let the tart cool in the refigerator so the custard is cold, some may prefer to serve the tart warm. I dust it with powdered sugar just before serving and then serve it with a big scoop of Tillamook Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. I like the first serving as dessert on day one, then I eat on the tart for breakfast after that. I am lucky to live so close to one of the country's top cherry producing regions-the Wenatchee Valley. Wenatchee is home to many fruit orchards and cherries are one of the main crops. Wenatchee lies East of Seattle at the Eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. The Wenatchee River runs through the city. Given the climate-cool nights, warm days and the morning sun rising from the East, Wenatchee is perfect for growing cherry trees. I bake with 'Bing' cherries every year when they appear fresh in our markets. Bings are normally just eaten without baking, but I like the sweet flavor and deep, ruby red color. Bing cherries are much sweeter than the tart cherries that are used in commerically baked pies. We also see 'Rainier' cherries in our markets this time of year. They are yellow with reddish spots. They are more expensive than the Bings, and I usually eat them raw. I have a very specific recipe I use for pastry crust. The ONLY variation I ever make to the recipe is to substitute lard for the Crisco and on occasion I will add finely ground nuts to give the crust some added texture. The recipe consists of butter, Crisco, cake flour, regular flour, and salt and sugar. The butter gives flavor, the Crisco makes the pastry flaky, and the cake flour keeps the pastry light. I add enough ice water to make the dough come together in a ball, then I wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for about an hour before rolling the dough. You see me using a pastry cutter to cut the Crisco and butter into the flour. I ONLY do this by hand and NEVER use my food processor to make pastry dough. Yes, a food processor makes the job very easy. But my issue with using a food processor to make pastry dough is that the blade runs so fast it literally cuts the butter and Crisco into such tiny particles that the finished, baked, pie crust doesn't have that flaky, layered texture we covet in a pie crust. I think 'processed' pastry dough falls apart in your mouth. Argue if you will about the 'pulse' feature on your food processor and how it will allow you to cut the butter into 'pea shapes' to give you the perfect pie crust. That doesn't work for me. You can see from the shaping of the dough that it is very forgiving and easy to work with. What a thing of beauty, a tart pan lined with pastry dough. Just looking at it you know it's going to be good. (I forgot to mention how humble I am). The cherries in the tart, almost ready for the oven. The custard being poured over the cherries, baking moments away. The beauty is baked, dusted with powdered sugar and ready for the table. We'll be talking more this week about 'Northwest' cuisine, but this is the type of dessert you might find on one of our table this time of year-fresh Washington cherries in a classical French recipe.

Thanks all for your suggestions -- we will try the Wynn buffet instead of the Bellagio... I would really like to do Guy Savoy but am feeling apprehensive about the cost (we are not just spending money on food... there are show tickets, gambling, drinking, and spa treatments to be paid for). I know there's a cheaper TGV menu, but how much are the other tasting menus? ← I viewed the menus and prices at a few other places while I was in Las Vegas in May. I remember the tasting menu at Alex at the Wynn was about $175 without wines, the tasting menu at Michael Mina (seafood) at Bellagio was in the same range as was the tasting menu at Picasso at Bellagio. Of course if you add in the wines that are paired with each course it raises the ante by up to $75 or so. You might want to try Bradley Ogden at Caesar's. I think you could have an appetizer, entree, dessert and a few glasses of wine for around $125. One drawback to Las Vegas is that the fine dining restaurants have all gotten very expensive.

No matter the geography, a man with a black skillet, a bottle of Beau Monde and a breakfast nook has well earned his G.R.I.T.S. Guy credentials. Add a pull-out rack of orphaned Tupperware, and you merit a Ribbon of Honor. As the resident Southun-er (or perhaps just the loudest), I'm glad to get acquainted with your area and those beautiful huckleberries. To tell the truth, I had always imagined them to be jewelly little knobbed berries, like blackberries, only huckle-flavored. Now go cook something in that black skillet! ← A Yankee and his cast iron skillet. Is that an oxymoron? I'll have to spend some time chatting with you in the future about the secret to Southern Fried Chicken. The old adage is true-all you need to cook meat is a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. Just one. Treat it right and it will last generations. Don't waste your money buying the latest line of Emeril Ware. Sorry Emeril. Saturday night I did some Pork Chops 'Au Poivre'-coated with black pepper and seared then roasted in the oven. I made the sauce by deglazing the skillet with some Chinese Rice Wine, (didn't have any Sherry on hand), threw in a few sliced shitakes I had left over and then a few glugs of cream. By the way, that cookie jar in the back that serves as my utensil holder is about 50 years old. It was my favorite cookie jar when I was a kid. I'll be the Northerner to make even a Southern cook get goose bumps! I tell you this is just about my favorite food photo of all time. What could be better than hot, searing meat in a cast iron skillet! I served the chop with potato salad. Nothing fancy with the salad, just yellow new potatoes, dijon mustard, mayonnaise, capers, chives and chopped red pepper. I just cut the potatoes in small chunks, boil them about 10 minutes, drain and then toss with the other ingredients. If I want to get fancy with potato salad I'll add some pitted Kalamata olives and steamed haricot vert.

The Cherry Clafouti and use of the cast iron skillet are coming shortly, but in the meantime, I got this tip from my 'Administrative Assistant' yesterday about how to cook Dungeness Crab. Her family just got back from a fishing adventure in Puget Sound just a few miles from the Seattle airport. They go out for Halibut and Dungeness Crabs. She told me not to "boil a whole crab live." She apparently takes pleasure in killing defenseless crustaceans, because her method of choice is to take a whole live crab and whack it over a log on the beach. In explicit detail, she went on to talk about how the "green brains of the crab and the lungs and all the guts squirt out" but that the crab is killed instantly. Supposedly this method of death is what allows the crab meat to become bright white when the crab is boiled. I doubt I'll kill my next crab using her technique. I usually buy them whole, already dead and boiled and the meat is white, sweet and delicious.

I guess I can justify writing the blog while also being at work by doing some 'marketing' of my company. That way if the internet police shut me down for blogging at work I'll have a puny excuse. I work for Horizon Air, which is part of the Alaska Air Group. We are not 'owned' by Alaska Airlines but are Sister companies. Alaska flies the long routes while we fly routes of two hours or less. We fly primarily out of Seattle and Portland up and down the West Coast and into Canada. Alaska has some routes to the East-Newark, Miami, Boston, Orlando, Chicago and Dallas/Ft. Worth. Sorry, no Philadelphia service. We partner with Continental, American and Northwest to name a few of the big carriers. Through the troubles the airlines have had, Horizon has survived and in fact has grown. We still like to think we have friendly, personal service. The beer and wine service is really the hallmark of what we present onboard. It is worked out really well for the wineries and breweries. They get the opportunity to showcase their products in the format of an onboard tasting to literally thousands of travellers a day. In turn, the passengers often go home and seek out the wines or beers at their local markets. You couldn't buy the kind of advertising in a newspaper. When I first started 20 years ago we served fresh sandwiches, fruit, fresh muffins, bagels, really good stuff. Unfortunately as you all know, that is a memory of the past. The food service on airlines will never, ever, be back to what is used to be. You can still get a high-quality, multi-course meal on an airplane-but we're talking first class on Cathay Pacific from London to Hong Kong for about $15,000 US dollars roundtrip. At that price you can't drink enough Krug or Dom.

<raised eyebrows> Sure you didn't spend some extra time in Eugene?? ← Ha-you caught me. And I didn't think anyone would notice that the smoke from Eugene drifted up to Spokane.

Great to hear from you and thanks again for the encouragement to go to Wing Lei in Las Vegas. I plan on talking about the dining scene in Las Vegas later this week when I have a full day to devote to the topic. I've got some photos and the menu to share from the private dinner at Guy Savoy I attended, and the menu and some comments on a private winemaker's lunch at Alex at the Wynn. Let's see if I remember, there were lunches at 'Noodle Asia' at The Venetian, 'Noodles' at Bellagio and a private lunch and talk about Food Writing at 'Sensi' at Bellagio. Breakfasts we'll chat about were at 'Bouchon' at The Venetian and 'THe Buffet' at the Wynn. We'll compare pastries from 'Jean-Phillipe Patisserie' at Bellagio, 'Tintoretto Bakery' at The Venetian and 'Lenotre Paris' at Paris Las Vegas. Good Lord. I'm running out of time already!

Yes, please do share -- and if you have any suggestions heading west (Coeur D'Alene ID, Libby or Kalispell MT), add 'em! ← Nice to hear from you! I shop at Huckleberry's on the South Hill when I want to get some very good seasonal, and unique, produce. As you remember, they have a wonderful wine and beer shop and excellent fresh seafood. Their cheese counter is the best in Spokane. I recently shopped there and bought some fresh, locally picked, morels. They were only $26 a pound. The first morels were puny and dried up and were selling for $45 a pound fresh! Outrageous. I waited three weeks and the price had come down to a reasonable point. I also found some unique fruit oils (as opposed to extracts), that I needed for a pudding recipe. The Orange Oil was so intense I only needed a couple of drops to flavor the pudding base. Rosauer's is better than ever. Everyone-Rosauer's is a locally owned grocery store that is independently owned. It is part of the 'Western Family' co-op of local stores in the Northwest, but the stores have that old-fashioned, family type feel. They are definately better than Albertson's or Safeway. The Rosauer's on the South Hill you used to shop at has just been remodeled and it is wonderful. When you find out where the 'old people' shop in town, you know it's a good store. I'm not bashing old people. I'll be one someday. I'm saying that elderly shoppers go to grocery stores with good quality food. Rosauer's has a butcher shop and the type of old style bakery that you rarely see in most of today's supermarkets. I had to laugh at a little old lady in the wine section. She asked the wine sales person for a "bottle of red wine to go with spaghetti." That was cute, and wonderful. The lady was directed to two choices of moderately priced Merlot from which to choose. I doubt you'd see that personal touch from someone stocking wine at the Walmart Supercenter. Now for a couple of recommendations at Couer'd Alene. Downtown on Sherman street across from the Resort, try to get into Hudson's Hamburgers for lunch. The Idaho legislature recently gave them a special commendation for being in business over 100 years. They serve burgers. That's it. No fries. Burgers. Very good burgers. If you have an evening to spend, I'd recommend Beverly's, the signature restaurant at The Resort. They use many local, seasonal products. And while it isn't exactly the season yet, you may get lucky and find an Elk Tenderloin with Huckleberry Sauce on the menu. Have a good trip.

Right back at you. Coming from a foodie, I proclaim Seattle to rightly be one of America's great food and restaurant cities. While we have a minority of fine restaurants in Spokane, most of our really good restaurants are old-fashioned Mom and Pot joints. Seattle on the other hand, has many, many good restaurants in many diverse ethnic cuisines. One of my favorite Seattle restaurant's is Tom Douglas's 'Dahlia Lounge.' If any of you travel to Seattle this year, go to 'Dahlia Lounge' for a real taste of the Northwest. I've cooked with Tom at a couple of Foodie events, and he's judged my food for a TV Show on PBS. (More on the PBS Show later this week). Tom is a big, affable guy who really knows the foods of the Northwest and how to use them at their peak in season. Kudos to Seattle's great restaurant community.

When I got back to Spokane this evening an employee stopped me in the airport to ask me about how to cook salmon in a particular way. As I mentioned earlier, there are some positives about my long commute-one of them being the people who I encounter that want to talk about cooking. Many of the employees I work with know about my love of food and cooking and it pleases me to no end that they approach me with questions about cooking at home. The employee that I spoke to had a recipe for cooking Copper River Salmon in a dry cast iron skillet with dill. He wanted to put some sprigs of dill in the bottom of a hot skillet, then put the salmon on top of the bed of dill and roast it in the oven "for 30 minutes." Yikes! He actually caught me off guard at first because I don't think what he was suggesting to do to the salmon would have been kind to such an expensive and rare piece of fish. I suggested that he buy some sprigs of fresh rosemary and then soak them in water. Then heat up the cast iron skillet. Drain the rosemary sprigs and then put them in the hot skillet and immediately put the filet of salmon on top of the rosemary. I told him that dill goes well stuffed into salmon or in a sauce, but tender dill would be incinerated in a hot cast iron skillet. I suggested the rosemary would create a hint of herbal smoke as the salmon roasted. I said it was important to keep the salmon moist by drizzling it with some olive oil, lemon juice and then season the filet with salt and pepper. I told him to put the skillet in a hot oven, about 425 degrees, and roast the salmon about 10 minutes for medium rare. I told him to touch the salmon after 10 minutes to test it for doneness. If it was too soft, it would be too rare. I suggested medium-rare would be best for Copper River Salmon. I told him to report back to me next time he saw me as to how the salmon turned out. Let's cross our fingers that his dinner tonight is a success.

Thank you so much for the kind remarks about the tart. I'll be posting a full set of photos tommorrow on the making of the tart. It is a 'Cherry Clafouti'. It's a basic pastry crust formed in a tart shell. I added fresh Bing Cherries that I had pitted and then soaked in 'Kirsch' (Cherry Brandy), overnight. You make a custard of cream, milk, eggs and vanilla bean and then pour the batter over the cherries. The Clafouti bakes in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes. The cherries keep their shape but soften as they bake. The custard gels into a soft pudding. You let it cool and then dust it with powdered sugar and serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. It's a French recipe I do every year when the Cherries come into season.

Ahh, Eugene, Oregon. Home of the rival University of Oregon Ducks and all things green. I happen to be a graduate of that poor farm school 45 miles to the North-Oregon State University. I'm told that there are still some hippies living in Eugene, having settled in town after the uprisings on campus in '68. Apparently they have a fondness for 'herbs' in their cooking-specifically a 'wild herb' that they 'dry', then roll up in papers. The finished 'wrap' is best served 'hot-smoked' by the hippies. (Just a bit of fun ribbing of any U of O grads out there from an OSU alum). My favorite Oregon food item right now is Tillamook Ice Cream. The Tillamook Creamery is pretty famous in the Northwest, and beyond. Tillamook is on the Northern Oregon Coast just south of Astoria. Not far inland from the beach are lush green meadows where the dairy cows feed. It's that rich grass that makes Tillamook Ice Cream so rich and creamy. The Creamery also makes very good cheddar cheese. The sharp cheddar slices are very good melted over a grilled hamburger. Right now our markets in Spokane are selling the Oregon Strawberry Tillamook Ice Cream. It takes like authentic old-fashioned hand churned ice cream, even though it is probably made in huge vats. There are big chunks of strawberry throughout the ice cream. Delicious.

Let's move into my home and take a look at where the cooking takes place. I don't know why people are so curious as to the size of your home. Have you ever had a complete stranger ask you about your house and "how many square feet is your home?" As if the bigger the size of your home means anything about you as a person. I guess some people think that bigger means better. What's that saying-"it's not how big it is but how you use it?" In the case of my house, and my kitchen, size doesn't matter. There's no Wolf Stove, no Gaggeneau, no Thermidor side by side. Do you need a 1500 square foot kitchen to stir risotto? That's my defense. While it would be nice to have the means to outfit a restaurant quality kitchen in a home, I make do with what I have. And I do a pretty good risotto in this little space. The entire house is 950 square feet. Quite adequate for a middle aged bachelor. The kitchen takes up about 72 square feet of the house-measuring 7 1/2 feet wide by 9 1/2 feet deep. I hope Steven (aka Fat Guy) sees this photo. I took it for him because last week he started a thread about cherries. You can see a big bowl of fresh Washington Bing cherries on the counter. They just started showing up in our markets last week. I'll be doing some photos of a delicious 'Cherry Clafoutis' that I did last weekend. There is a small dining area in off to one end of the living room. When I moved in it looked like the inside of a barn that was 60 years old. I put down new hardwood floors, wainscoating, moulding, the drapes and new lighting. This is my newest kitchen gadget-and don't call it an ode to Marcel Vigneron of Top Chef infamy, otherwise known as 'The Little Man of Foam.' I've been wanting to toy with the idea of "foams" since I got back from Las Vegas and a dinner at Guy Savoy. They served a very good 'Seafood Foam' over a filet of 'Crispy Sea Bass.' This is a 'Foamer' that is normally used for whipped cream, but I'm going to try it to make a 'Shellfish Foam.' If you are in my age demographic, anything over 49, you certainly are familiar with the old-fashioned 'Spice Islands' rack that our Mother's had in their kitchens in the 1960's. Spice Islands still makes and sells the spice racks and I think it fits the decor, or lack thereof, of my 1940's kitchen. I know, I'm just like you when it comes to spices. We buy more than we need. It goes stale, and we keep the bottle on the shelf for 15 years. Cumin that is 15 years old has absolutely no flavor. And yes, I've heard the experts say that we should only buy a small quantity of the spice we need, otherwise what's left in that big jar goes stale. I guess I can't help my habit of buying big when it comes to spices. I buy a $4.00 bottle of Cream of Tartar only to use a teaspoon every three months when I make biscuits. Here are some shots of what's currently living in the refrigerator. These are photos of drawers that hold some of my tools. There is a small room at the back end of the kitchen where I keep the washer/dryer, dishwasher and a small chest freezer. I also use that as my 'pantry.' I've got some baker's racks filled with kitchen equipment and a large cupboard with food stuff like dried pasta, flour and sugar, the basic dry staples. This happens to be the top of the microwave which I use as a storage shelf for some Asian sauces and oils. Hey, when you have limited space you use every inch you can get. Remember I said this morning the blog would be personal? How more personal can one be than to expose their dreaded tupperware rack in public? I take lunch to work every day, usually in tupperware. It sure looks cool carrying your lunch in tupperware in a Walmart plastic bag through the airport doesn't it? And I call myself a cook! Where do tupperware lids go? If you know, let me know. About every three months I find I have more bottoms than tops. I take my tupperware to work. I bring my tupperware home. I wash it, I put it away, then I come back later and there are more lids than bottoms. It's like one of those bad episodes from 'The Twilight Zone' when the store mannequins came alive at night only to go still during the day. I think the tupperware comes alive at night, then it flies away and we don't ever see it again. This is another baker's rack of equipment in the pantry.

By the way, commuting on an airplane to work actually can be a learning experience for a foodie. This morning I sat next to a woman and somehow we started talking about food. I think she probably saw me making notes on my July issue of Bon Appetit and it peaked her curiosity about my interest in food. She told me she cooked a brisket and corn on the cob last weekend, and was quite upset that her guests ate all of the meat and cheese tray. Hmm. While I like all the dishes, I don't think I'd ever serve a Jewish-style brisket, corn on the cob and an Italian meat and cheese tray at the same dinner. Maybe it was her version of a cross-cultural fusion menu. She told me she wasn't at all happy with the fact that her guests started eating the brisket before she sat down! She also said that the 'key' to a good roast beef is to "cook it frozen." She said she buys a large chuck roast at Costco and freezes it. Then she puts a lot of whole garlic cloves in a deep roasting pan, puts the frozen chuck on top of the garlic, covers the pot, then cooks it in the oven at 200 degrees for at least 8 hours. According to her, it is very tender and juicy. Not exactly how I would recommend slow-braising a roast, but at least the story was funny and made this morning's commute enjoyable.

I have lots planned. We'll be starting with a look into my kitchen-the refrigerator, the drawers, the tools, the stove, all of it. I've got some thoughts to share about the state of cooking programs on television, and my own personal experiences cooking on PBS and my local ABC television station. I've got lots of food photos of recent dishes I've cooked at home, and finally, I hope we'll have time to talk about a subject near and dear to me-the dining scene in Las Vegas and a recent trip I took down there to attend the Bon Apetit Magazine Food and Wine Focus.

Now, that is a great commute!I was in Portland last year and I was very impressed at the quality of Northwestern-made beer and wine. ← I know, quite the commute. By the way, here is your humble host at his workplace in Seattle: I have worked in the airline industry for 20 years. About seven years ago I moved to Spokane from Portland, for the second time, and bought a 1940's vintage home with a goal of 'fixing it up.' Unfortunately, my business is incredibly unstable and about three months after I bought my home, they closed some of our operations in Spokane and I got transferred to Seattle. Thus started the daily commute. I never felt I could financially afford to move to Seattle as the home prices are about 3 times what they are in Spokane. My day usually starts with waking up at 4am and getting home back in Spokane about 6pm. My real passion is food and cooking and writing, which I hope to make a full time career venture sometime soon. I can retire from the airline business in November so the food God's willing, I'll get into my food work full time-for profit.

I just had some excellent vegetarian meals (penne with fresh thyme and roasted tomato sauce stood out, in particular) on Lufthansa; they were so good that I said, "This can't possibly be airline food." The bagel-in-a-bag wasn't so great, though. Based on your huckleberry posts, it sounds like summer is your favorite season for cooking. Is this true? Thanks for blogging! ← Actually I think my favorite season for cooking is Fall, followed by the Holidays, Winter, Summer and then Spring. In the Fall the Northwest is blessed with Apples and Pears. Washington produces a huge portion of the country's apples and pears in the Wenatchee and Yakima Valleys in the central part of the state. I also like our 'filberts' in the fall. Yes, I still call them by the less snooty name they are known for today-Hazelnuts. The marketing folks felt that we needed to get on board with the traditional European name so about 20 years ago we cast off the name Filbert and started calling the nuts Hazelnuts. In the Fall I put toasted, crushed hazelnuts in a pie crust for a pear tart. I also make a delicious, old-fashioned Apple Brown Betty that is simply appes, butter, cinnamon and fresh bread crumbs. It is so delicate and buttery it will make you just sigh when you taste it. I like cooking in the winter because it gives me an excuse for heavy meat dishes and braises. It's the time of year when we pull all those great Russet Potatoes out of the cellar. Thank you Idaho for leading the pack in potato production. In the Spring we get local asparagus and wild morels come out of our forests. In early Summer we see strawberries and raspberries, followed by the unique Oregon berries-Loganberries, Marionberries and Ollalieberries. In Mid Summer we'll see tomatoes before we move into August and start to see peaches. The growing season in Spokane in Eastern Washington is about 30 days or so behind Seattle in the West. It is a terrible temptation to wait that long for our stuff to come into its own, but it's always better to wait a bit for your tomatoes to ripen in the garden at home. Gosh we have so many wonderful food stuffs out here-Copper River Salmon and Halibut are running out of Alaska right now and we get it shipped in fresh every day. Our geography in Eastern Washington lends itself to raising cattle. To the South of Spokane is the 'Palouse' area-mile after mile of rolling hills covered in wheat fields. Most of our wheat is harvested late in the Summer. The Palouse is one of the world's largest producers of dried peas and lentils.

Yes I think the Portland Farmer's Market would have some huckleberries later in the Summer, most likely off Mount Hood. For anyone who can't buy them fresh at your local market, just go to the web and search for huckleberries. There are a number of companies who sell huckleberries frozen and in all manner of products from jams and jellies to BBQ sauce. A lot of the companies are in Montana, Washington and North Idaho. Here is a link to a story I did a few years back on huckleberries. It was for a now defunct site and I was just starting to do food writing as a hobby. I'd re-write the piece today, but it gives you a bit more about huckleberries and some recipes to try. Enjoy. http://www.themediadrome.com/content/artic...ckleberries.htm

Airline food, or what is still served on planes, is awful. The only food served is barely edible, whether it is served in first class or sold in coach. If Rold Gold pretzels are better than 'real food' you know you are in trouble. Some of the airlines have gone to the buy on board concept-a 'wrap' sandwich with a processed turkey roll and wilted iceberg lettuce come to mind. And don't forget they 'give' you the condiments for 'free'-an aluminum packet of mayonnaise and maybe one of mustard. At our company, a regional airline, we at least have kept a measure of service onboard-and kept a measure of integrity. We were the first airline to serve Starbuck's coffee and that is when Howard Schultz was just a guy selling coffee in Seattle. Today he's a billionaire and trying to put a Starbucks in every city that has running water-in the world. We are also the only airline that serves complimentary wine and micro-brews on every flight. Our micro-brews and wines only come from small producers native to the Northwest. We have recently served some very good Chardonnays and Merlots from the Walla Walla Valley in the Southeastern part of Washington State. Our snacks tend to run to the pretzel and snack mix category, but we occasionally serve items made by local companies. For example, we usually serve Fisher State Fair Scones in August in celebration of the local Fair season. Fisher scones have been sold at fairs in the Northwest for something like 100 years. We usually have them delivered to the airports fresh and serve them on longer flights. Now speaking of Marionberries from previous posts, they play a part in Fisher scones. I remember as a kid going to the Oregon State Fair in Salem and having a fresh hot Fisher scone straight out of the oven. They were filled with fresh Marionberry jam from berries picked not far from the fair. They weren't the heavy, thick texture of scones in most bakeries today. The Fisher scones were always soft and buttery, more like a fluffy biscuit than a hard scone.