David Ross

I've tried Clafouti every which way, including the ways you described-without the crust and with the cherries left unpitted. I tend to agree with you that unpitted cherries actually have more flavor. We just have to convince the uninitiated people in our families that there is more to a cherry than a pitted cherry. Campbell House is only open now for private affairs like weddings. Ankeny's, which used to be at the top of the Ridpath Hotel, is closed. It unfortunately closed when the Ridpath was sold. They are remodeling it and it should open soon under the new hotel ownership. Luna on the South Hill is one of the better restaurants in Spokane and they are what you and I call 'Northwest Cuisine.' They have probably been open 15 years. The Davenport Hotel was just named as one of the top hotels in America, and they the main hotel dining room is good. The original chef from the Davenport, Ian Wingate, left the hotel a couple of years after it reopened and has two good places downtown-Moxie which is American cuisine and an Asian style restaurant. The South Hill has a couple of newer restaurants, one being Vin Rouge which is a bistro style wine bar. I haven't been there, but it is getting good reviews. We are getting better in terms of the numbers of good restaurants, but for a metro area closing in on 500,000 people we still have a long way to go for a city of our size to have a decent restaurant trade.

I can get almost anything in Spokane-but there are some things I miss not having in Spokane that I could get in Seattle. I do a lot of Asian cooking and we only have one decent Asian market in Spokane, but their fresh produce is limited and the seafood is frozen. They do have fresh pork belly which I regularly buy. Unfortunately, we don't have the type of wonderful Asian markets in Spokane like Seattle does. Seattle has this Asian Supermarket-Uwajimaya-that sells things like live seafood and BBQ duck. I miss not having a market like that. You would think being only a few hundreds miles inland we would have wonderfully fresh seafood in Spokane. We don't have much. Most of the seafood is found only at Supermarket counters. The stinky stuff they haul out in trays every morning, haul back into the cooler at night, haul back out on day 27. We have only one old-fashioned seafood shop-Williams Seafood-and it is excellent. I buy frozen frog's legs there and they are not afraid to sell me fresh Chilean Sea Bass. You've probably heard that many restaurants stopped serving real Chilean Sea Bass because it apparently has become endangered. I am one man contributing to the demise of the Sea Bass fishery in Chile. But really, I get by very well in Spokane, but my cooking would be better if I lived over in Seattle. On the reverse side, while Seattle will sell some fresh Morels and fresh huckleberries, they probably come from our side of the state. Sometimes in the Spring our small Farmer's market has a stand with literally buckets of Morels that have been picked in the forests just a few miles North of Spokane. And of course, the huckleberries. If I need things like chestnuts, foie gras or game, I just order that online and it is delivered to Spokane the next day. Thank God for the internet.

Hello Michigan. I hear your local cherries are wonderful. I macerate the pitted cherries in Kirsch overnight so they can soak up that good cherry brandy flavor. Thanks for the tips on pastry crust. I have always been apprehensive about using my hot little fingers to mix pastry crust because I was afraid the shards of butter would melt. I'll try your tip though, next time I make pastry crust. Thanks.

Here are some photos from one of my oldest cookbooks-the 1907 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer. I can't remember which long-gone relative left this book to me, but it is a treasure. It is quite interesting to read through the recipes today, nearly 100 years after the date this cookbook was published. I counted 10 different recipes for chicken livers. You would be hard pressed to find one chicken liver recipe in today's edition of the Good Housekeeping cookbook. Most of the recipes in the book that require cooking in an oven simply state "Start a fire. When the fire is hot, roast the meat." The photos look crude and the meat is primal. But don't you get a sense of the American farm tradition when you look at that black and white photograph of a whole joint of beef? I have plenty of cookbooks with colored photos of a perfectly trimmed beef filet 'stacked' on top of pureed potatoes with truffles. The beef is glistening with juices that seem to drip off the high-gloss pages of the cookbook. That look is pretty, but there is something intriguing about a 94 year-old photograph of the leg of a steer butchered in the barn out back.

This morning breakfast is 'Cherries ala Tupperware.' Yes, last night I found a beautiful matching set of tupperware. This is one lid that didn't get away. More of the sweet Bing cherries. I also had two pieces of soggy, limp toast wrapped in foil. So awful that it wasn't photo worthy-merely some stomach filler for the cherries and cups of coffee.

I'm glad you are liking the blog. This morning it is absolutely beautiful with clear skies all the way from Spokane West to Seattle. Nature's alarm clock went off in Spokane at 315 this morning. As we get closer to the longest day of the year, the chirping should start about 5 minutes earlier by the end of the week. Wonderful. It's actually a gift to wake up in the Northwest as the sun is coming up in June. In Eastern Washington the sun is an intense blue in the morning. The air is incredily clean smelling and fresh. Think of Spokane as a medium size city in the middle of a pine forest. I love your story about driving through the state. I always caution people that if they take the 'country roads' to have plenty of water, food and a blanket. Really. As you said, you can literally drive through farmland for hours without seeing any other cars. You may get passed by a big old Dodge truck but that's about it. The scenery is well worth being alone on the road.

I am currently doing something that most foodies would NOT recommend you do before falling asleep-no, I am not eating ice cream in bed. I am watching one of television's worst shows about what America eats. The television is currently turned to 'Taste of America' with 'host' Mark deCarlo. This will more than likely cause me to have nightmares all night. This poor guy is more 'schtick' than substance. One of the subjects is wild morels-a mushroom that we all know is coveted in our world of food and cooking. The average, everyday Joe and Joan that appears on this show, seem to be excited to have their 'one moment in time' on television and to be able to showcase their scrumptious dishes for the camera. Unfortunately, they are quickly shocked, stunned in horror as Mark the mucracker makes fun at them at their expense. It gives the term food and cooking on television a bad name. He should be selling Subaru's, but I digress.

Doesn't ring a bell right now. I hope you are surviving the hot Summer in Sacramento. My Sister lives in Carmichael and tells me it's been pretty hot down there.

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.