The FoodDay staff create a culinary herb primer (although sadly, the guide seems to have lost all its formatting on the way to the internet) that tries to help the home cook use fresh herbs more effectively in their cooking.
Once you know how the flavors of the herbs will complement your meals, you still might need help with storage, chopping and preserving. Once again, FoodDay steps in with helpful tips.
Looking for a way to give your summer meals a quick kick? Herbal butters are a great way to go (really, how can you go wrong when butter is involved?). They've got seven recipes that utilize these compound butters and they'll keep your meals inspired for the rest of the season.
Two brewers in Oregon have been trailblazers in the area of organic brewing and the movement is continuing to grow.
Grilling a slice of bread creates something slightly more transcendent than a mere piece of toast. Brushing it with olive oil prior to introducing it to the heat produces something that is wonderful under a tapanade or a spoonful of bruschetta.
For a really special summer dessert, try this Pain au Chocolat made on the grill.
Check out local bbq competitions, new grocery stores and fresh, local berries in today's In the Mix column.
An Oregonian staffer tries her hand at making cheese. First comes a mozzarella class where she has mixed results, but an attempt at making chevre at home boosts her confidence and readies her for more cheesemaking accomplishments.
White asparagus is a culinary world darling. It is grown so that the plants are shielded from the sun, never to develop chlorophyll, which would turn it green. Farmers harvest them under cover of darkness to preserve their creamy colorlessness.
Tomato season is still at least a month away, and so while you wait for the local ones to hit your markets, turn to canned whole peeled tomatoes. The FoodDay editors have done a taste test of some popular brands. Click here to check out the winners.
Instead of calling for take-out midweek, do a little culinary multi-tasking on the weekend, to ensure that you have plenty of leftovers in the fridge all week long.
We all know we should eat more whole grains, but when it comes to pasta, which tastes better? Whole wheat or whole grain?
A couple of weeks ago, in my round-up of the Oregonian's FoodDay section, I linked to a story they ran about a budget eating challenge. In it, they asked four Portland-area families to reduce the amount of money they spent on food a week (without making mealtime a joyless experience) and document the experience.
At the time the story ran, I didn't think too much of the families that they chose to participate in the project, but soon after, it was pointed out to me by blogger and Slashfood reader Lelonopo (via twitter) that the Oregonian had only selected families that were white, straight and had children. As a lesbian woman without children, their selection made her feel invisible. Her comment got me thinking about how many different populations FoodDay had ignored when they selected their participants (and everyone has to eat, which would have made diversity in the pool an interesting and valuable thing).
She took her frustration and channeled it in a useful direction, penning a letter to the Oregonian (last one, on page two of the article) that was published today in an article that gathered an assortment of feedback about the article.
What do the rest of you think about the FoodDay's choice to only include white, hetersexual families with children? Who would you have liked to have seen?
A FoodDay staffer recalls her family's month in the low-budget challenge that was featured last week in the section. She saved more than $40 a week on groceries and discovered that her family was far more willing to try new foods than she ever thought before.
We know him as Jared, the man who lost an enormous amount of weight by only eating Subway sandwiches, but his accomplishment now is that he's kept the weight off for ten years.
Last year a local urban farm added an flock of hens to their land and started a co-op of neighborhood folks in order to have help taking care of the layers. The first year is almost up and it has been a huge success. (As I started reading this article, I realized with a small shock that the featured folks are long-time family friends. I love the smallness of the world some days).
If you are feeling up for bacon and eggs, why not try your hand at biscuits and gravy? The FoodDay staff offers what they believe to be the best rendition of that class.
We've all heard that nitrates aren't good for us, but we often don't know much more than that. Here's the well-researched story.
In this meat-heavy section, they're offering some ways to shift the balance to lighter, vegetarian fare without losing the classic, comfort food qualities.
Looking for a way to make chicken, that dinnertime standby, a little more interesting? J.M. Hirsch reviews Cook's Illustrated new cookbook devoted to the humble bird.
He thought he was heading towards Alice Waters' landmark restaurant, Chez Panisse, but instead Chef Marco Shaw of NE Portland's Fife Restaurant found himself captured by the relative ease and peace of Portland (not to mention a thriving restaurant scene).
Rianne Buis lived in Portland for several years and found herself deeply addicted to the Irish Soda Bread from Grand Central Bakery. A move to Seattle left her without a soda bread source and so she determined to recreate Grand Central's version in her own kitchen.
In the Mix offers info on local fundraiser, Take Back the Tap, on whether parenting styles can raise a child's risk of being obese and rounds up some happy hour deals.
What could be better than using up your St. Paddy's Day leftovers in a corned beef quesadilla.
If you build a Winter Farmers' Market, the people will come. The selection will be seasonal (ie no buttery lettuces or ripe tomatoes) but the cheeses, preserves, baked goods, kale and end-of-season winter squashes make the trip worthwhile.
Identical twin chefs face off! Raymond and David Anderson are 29 year old twins who are both Portland-based chefs. They were give a box of 16 ingredients, a 6-burner stove and told to out-do one another. The challenge was to create two dishes in under one hour that used at least 10 of the 16 ingredients in the box. Want to see how they did? Click here for the results and some recipes.
I still remember the first time I tasted french onion soup. We were out to dinner with my grandparents (I must have been seven or eight) and my sister and I were allowed to order anything we wanted. As we were checking out the menu, I saw a waitress go by with a little crock-shaped bowl with melted cheese on it. I knew I had to have it. Thus started a life-long love affair with this delicious soup.
Over the last twenty years I've had some good french onion soup, some bad and some sadly mediocre bowls too. I've experimented with making it totally from scratch and in a pinch have followed Rachael Ray's short cut recipe. Last week the Oregonian's Foodday featured this classic soup, making me consider another round of trial and experimentation. If you're in need of a good, warming bowl of soup, you should check out that article and accompanying recipes.
Pie crusts are a tricky thing. I admit that I don't have a whole lot of experience with them and when I have tried to wrestle a cohesive sheet of dough into a pie pan, I've often settled for something far less than perfect. I'm okay with that though, I fill it with something delicious and call it rustic. It works for me.
But having read the Oregonian's food section today, I think I may have just learned the secret to a perfect pie crust every time. Olive oil. Danielle Certoni had always admired her mother-in-law's apple pie, and when the in-laws came for Thanksgiving, she asked her to make it. When she went into see how it was going, Danielle was surprised to discover that the secret was olive oil instead of butter or shortening. Apparently, it's quite common in other food cultures and produces a light and flaky crust without needing the same delicate treatment that we've come to expect that pastry needs. I don't have any pies on my cooking schedule, but the next time I need a crust, I'm turning to this recipe. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!
The picture is of an actual Olive Oil Pie Crust. It was posted on Flickr complete with recipe and entertaining narrative of how it came to be.
My parents have recently been having the roof replaced on their house. When the roofers took the shingles off the area over the attic crawl space, they discovered a cache of stuff that dates back to the time when the house was built. In addition some children's toys and two boxes of tithe envelopes from a church down the street, they found a few pages of the Oregonian from February 1st, 1927. Back in those days the Oregonian ran a daily column entitled Homemakers Exchange, that encouraged women to send in their helpful tips for keeping a home running smoothly.
Many of the tips from the column are still applicable for today, including the reminder to dip your whisk into cold water before beating eggs to prevent sticking and to heat the blade of your knife if you are going to be chopping sticky things as it will aid in your chopping. My favorite tip, and one I plan on using very soon, is the one from R.A.K. that recommends that you can used cooked, pureed carrot just as you would cooked pumpkin.
I'm a big fan of quickly pickled things. I often make a salad of sliced cucumber and red onion, with a dressing of red wine vinegar, a little olive oil, dill, salt and pepper (and sometimes a pinch of sugar if it's too puckery). I like to let it sit for about a half hour, so that the cucumber soften a bit but still retain a little crunch and the red onion starts to turn a feisty magenta.
The Oregonian's food section printed a recipe on Tuesday for "Quickled Kraut," a local restaurant's take on a quick pickled cabbage. It's not as quick as my cucumber salad, they recommend that you make it at least 24 hours before serving, but it sure seems simple to prepare.
Up until a Memorial Day picnic a year ago, I had never encountered the concept of a beer cocktail. It had never even occurred to me that one would want to mix beer with something else. That was, until I walked up to a friend at the picnic and she said, "Hey, do you want a Lemonade Shandy?"
I said sure, because I almost always say sure when someone offers me a drink, and walked with her to the makeshift bar (three coolers lined up under a tree). She popped a bottle of Yuengling Lager (the drinkable, inexpensive beer of choice in Philadelphia) and poured half it's contents into one of those big red plastic cups you always find at picnics and parties. She filled it the rest of the way up with sparkling lemonade, giving it a rough swirl in an attempt to combine and handed it over. There must have been a look of horror in my eyes as I took it, because she offered an encouraging, "Just taste it, it's really good, I swear." I took a sip and discovered that she was right. It was fantastic, as the lemonade took the middling lager to another level of goodness.
This week the food section of the Oregonian ran a feature on beer cocktails and the foods that go nicely with them. They've got a really comprehensive list of summer beer cocktail suggestions. I do believe that Hibiscus blossom is calling my name.
Two brewers in Oregon have been trailblazers in the area of 
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Up until a Memorial Day picnic a year ago, I had never encountered the concept of a beer cocktail. It had never even occurred to me that one would want to mix beer with something else. That was, until I walked up to a friend at the picnic and she said, "Hey, do you want a Lemonade Shandy?" 
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