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Editors of Relish compile their best By Kim Davaz “Good food matters” is a favorite saying of a friend of Jill Melton, the editor of newspaper-insert Relish magazine. Melton and the rest of the editors at Relish agree, and they’ve put the favorites of their good food of the past three years into “The Best of Relish: Celebrating America’s Love of Food.” The recipes are relatively fast without resorting to too many prepared foods. They call for canned beans and broth, maybe some prepared pie crust and prepared pizza crust dough for kids’ pizzas, but for the most part, this is…

Francky and Mike sent Kim a pair of “Super Gloves, Hot Gloves,” from the UK.

Magazine’s latest takes us to market By Kim Davaz Eating Well magazine is dedicated to helping us consume the healthiest and best-tasting food possible. The latest cookbook from the magazine focuses on recipes using the seasonal local foods found in a farmers’ market. A handful of farmers’ markets picked by the magazines’ readers as the best are featured, and the Portland Farmers’ Market made the list. The introduction is full of useful information on nutrition. Colorful charts help explain which nutrients come from which foods, and how to balance your diet. A list tells which produce you should always try to…

British chef’s essays are as delightful as his recipes By Kim Davaz It wasn’t until some British friends discussing what would be made for dinner took “a packet of mince” from the freezer that I realized that the mince in “The Owl and the Pussycat” was ground beef, not mincemeat. I’d always envisioned the owl and the pussycat dining on wedges of mincemeat pie, full of chopped apples and spices, served with slices of preserved quince. We ate Spaghetti Bolognese that night and I thought of the owl and the pussycat, slurping saucy noodles from their runcible spoons. If I had…

Paul gathered us up and made a nice studio photograph of Kim, Olivia, Eliot and Carl.

If going vegan, soup a good way to get started By Kim Davaz Soups are a great way to get more vegetables into the family diet. Even if you aren’t usually vegetarian, there may be times when you might need some vegetarian meals (during Lent or times of health or economic difficulties) and soup is a good place to start. Nava Atlas has reworked her book “Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons” to reflect her family’s change from ovo-lacto vegetarian to vegan in “Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons.” In the introduction, Atlas strongly encourages eating organic produce, grown locally…

Delicious stories fill Amish cookbook By Kim Davaz Sometimes a cookbook is as much a collection of stories as it is a collection of recipes. “The Amish Cook at Home: Simple Pleasures of Food, Family and Faith” is that sort of cookbook. Written by Lovina Eicher - writer of the Amish Cook syndicated newspaper column - with her editor Kevin Williams, the book follows her family and community through the year, beginning with the spring. Photographer Betsy Blanton’s respectful and beautiful photographs of Eicher’s family and farm enhance the family’s stories. Williams’ introduction tells how as a young writer in Indiana,…

Valentine’s Day: Don’t fail to kiss the cook By Kim Davaz Based on “The Best Places to Kiss Northwest” travel guide, Carol Freiberg’s “The Best Places to Kiss Cookbook” will give you plenty of romantic ideas for St. Valentine’s Day. Romance is in the eye of the beholder. One person’s romance might be a secluded coastal inn, another might prefer a city hotel with lots of room service. Someone else might find a trip to Jerry’s for Moss-B-Gone and a big broom very romantic. Jerry’s Home Improvement stores didn’t make the list, but plenty of places in the southern Willamette Valley…

‘Organic Marin’ will have you planning a garden or a trip By Kim Davaz If you’re a gardener, you’ve probably already worn the covers off your seed catalogs and have lists upon lists of potential crops for this coming summer. My annual contact with seed catalogs is theoretical; I’ve been thinking about getting some, because mostly I like to think about planting a garden. Successfully having moved beyond herbs and tomatoes to lettuce and beets last year has encouraged me to be even more adventurous this year. Our compost bin is regularly filled with tea bags, coffee grounds and vegetable trimmings…

Bon Appétit does it again with recipes that fit a busy life By Kim Davaz I can’t tell you how often I’ve eaten something delicious at a friend’s house and have been told, “It’s from Bon Appétit.” That’s understandable. Several of my family’s favorite recipes have come from Bon Appétit magazine, too, including the best chocolate chip pie, a cheesy pasta with an uncooked tomato sauce, and a spicy hot sauce known in the family as Chicken Sauce. I don’t even remember what it was called originally, but it got its name because we serve it mostly with chicken (though it…

COTTAGE GROVE - As the door to Fleur De Lis Patisserie & Cafe opens at 7 a.m., the welcoming aroma of baked pastries is almost visible. A mural by Springfield artist Janeile Emery shows a display of pastries with Paris’ cathedral of Notre Dame in the background. A song by Stevie Wonder fades into the voice of a male radio announcer speaking French. How appropriate that a Paris pop music station from the Internet supplies the background music at Fleur De Lis. Baker Eric Jegat has been at work since before night owls go to bed, sliding trays of croissants into…