"pacific northwest" news and stories

Times restaurant critic Nancy Leson comes out of anonymity and announces a new blog to boot, All You Can Eat.

Yes, there are a lot of African-American chefs in Seattle. No, they don't all cook "soul food."

In the kitchen, make good use of Spring produce with recipes for: Marinated Salmon and Spinach Salad, Oven-Braised Cod with Leeks, Fennel and Peppers, Sautéed Artichokes with Crispy Garlic and Sage, Artichoke Bottoms, and Grilled Asparagus Salad.

Brian Carter blends a good bottle, and your petite Syrah questions are answered.

At the bar, shake up a Golden Orange Sake-Tini, Java Mojo and sip the Wine Pick Of The Week, a 2004 Torres Coronas Tempranillo, making sure to note How To ... Store wine better.

In the kitchen, the Seattle PI is quick cooking Quick Moussaka and seven different recipes, one for each day of the busy week, including Salmon with Lemon Olive Oil Sauce and Walnut-crusted Drumsticks. There's also a recipe for Catalan Fish Stew.

Ballerina Brunson doesn't give up good food for her art.

Convenience is, well, convenient, but it comes at a hefty price. Upscale markets like Whole Foods and Metropolitan Market in Seattle that provide prepared foods are charging an arm and a leg, but consumers don't seem to mind.

Crisco has gone the way of trans-fat free. Seattle Times provides answers to common questions about trans fats and recipes using the delicious, and now healthier, stuff: Classic Buttermilk Biscuits, Basic Pie Pastry, Apple Crumb Pie, and Currant Scones.

Out on the restaurant scene, everybody's favorite Chinese restaurant Doong Kong Lau heads to Central America and turns into El Salvadorean Mi Chalateca II.

Brrr...Baby, it's cold outside. The Seattle Times Food & Wine section says to stay inside and heat up the kitchen.

• From three cookbooks, one each about hot chocolate, potpies, and coffee cakes: Recipe: Ancient Aztec Cacahuatl, Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake, Italian Picnic Potpie, Extremely Flaky Sour Cream Crust, "Keep Your Heart Pumping" Hot Chocolate, and Turkish-Style Mocha.
• It seems the haute new trends for 2007 in the supermarket are all about service, local, and ethnic.
• The Taste of the Town is Italian, with a special nod to Enza Sorrentino who opened Sorrentino Trattoria and Pizzeria with her son.

There are a few articles in the Seattle Times' Food & Wine section this week -- restaurant Carmelita seems to be related to every other restaurant, experts offer tips on how to live a Champagne dining lifestyle on a beer budget, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia holds a Wine Festival -- but the real highlight of this week is pumpkins.

They're not talking about those hulking orange orbs that we use to carve Jack O'Lanterns. They are gushing over the much smaller Sugar Pumpkins, which are the star in a whole host of pumpkin recipes, from pie to soup: Flaky Pie Dough, Maple Pecan Pumpkin Pie, Maple Pecan Topping, Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Curried Pumpkin-Peanut Soup. And to kick it all off? A cocktail of course -- the Pumpkin French 75.