Home

Ratatouille, a vegetable stew from the south of France, is traditionally cooked on top of the stove, but grilling the vegetables adds even more flavor to the mix. The amounts of each vegetable are very flexible, but try for balance of flavors. Make more than you need because the leftovers get better and better. It's important when grilling to make sure the items are secure on skewers. If you use two parallel skewers, whether metal or soaked bamboo, the vegetables will stay more stable on the grill and will behave better when turning. Vegetables on the same skewers should be of…

When you can get great tomatoes, they don’t need much to improve on their flavor: a little salt, a little pepper, maybe a drizzle of olive oil, not to mention in a BLT with avocado. A cheesy pasta topped with uncooked tomato sauce is an easy main or side dish. Adapted from a Bon Appétit magazine too long ago to remember, this has been a family favorite from the first try. When my younger daughter was in kindergarten and was asked (as they all were) to name her favorite food, she said, quite rapturously, “Pasta With Four Cheeses and Tomato Basil…

Eating in should be at least as good as eating out, and maybe even better. There can be pleasure in the choosing and preparation of ingredients in order to end up with something you’ll proudly share. That’s the premise behind Eating In, our new Oregon Life column. In this column, we’ll explore how to get the best food on the table without unreasonable effort. This isn’t the place to learn how to bone a turkey or make tofu. While from-scrach is a good ideal, there are quite good prepared foods that deserve notice. And we’ll notice them. We’ll talk about techniques…

Make sweet and spicy summer dreams come true By Kim Davaz On a really hot day, the only thing that sounds good to eat is something cold from the freezer. Sarah Engram and Katie Luber, owners of the Seasoned Palate, which produces spice blends, have raised the flavor bar for frozen treats. In “Spice Dreams: Flavored Ice Creams and Other Frozen Treats,” they (with Nancy Meadows and Kimberly Toqe) combine ice creams, sorbets and frozen yogurts with toppings and baked items to make an almost never-ending combination of treats. The first and easiest recipe for spiced ice cream is to add…

Silver Spoon Kitchen invites cooks to take an Italian holiday By Kim Davaz I have a friend to whom Italy speaks. They have not been formally introduced and he doesn't speak Italian, but she speaks to him, inviting him to visit. "Recipes from an Italian Summer" from The Silver Spoon Kitchen will have Italy inviting you to vacation there, with many of the recipes from Sicily, Sardinia, Campania, Tuscany and the mountains of northern Italy - favorite places for Italians to go on holiday. The book begins with a guide to Italian food festivals from the first week of May in…

Janet and Sally bid adieu outside of their hangout at Turtles Bar and Grill on Willamette St.