Food

Harvest arrived early to Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley in 2004, so Kathleen Inman rose at 2 a.m. on Sept. 1 to do the first picking run through her pinot noir vineyard. As she was about to leave the house, her husband, Simon, surprised her with a gift for their 20th wedding anniversary.

As Ben Franklin once said, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Now, Taco Bell wants to add something a little more appealing to that grim list. The chain this week reassured upset customers that its beloved Mexican pizza would return to its menu on a permanent basis on Sept. 15 after disappearing earlier this year.

Calabacitas translates to “little squash” in Spanish, so I only thought this recipe would be fitting for National Zucchini Day on Aug. 8.

Snickers bar fans will be able to enjoy the taste of their favorite snack on almost anything, as the candy bar has been transformed into a seasoning.

Fresh herbs are great for adding color and flavor to dishes, but considering they are plants that have been yanked from their home in the soil, they are understandably on the brink of collapsing into a limp, messy shadow of their former selves. (How would you feel if the same were done to you?) While they will eventually meet their fate in a pesto, salad dressing or whatever dish you’re whipping up to satiate your hunger, there is one thing you can do to extend their life as much as possible: Wrap them in a towel. (Sounds comfy!)

When it comes to crave-able foods, a good burger always ranks high on my list. But what goes into crafting the perfect burger? Local chefs had a few words of wisdom.

When Dimitar Gerov was a boy growing up in the mountains of Bulgaria, his mom and grandma were the family chefs. He fondly remembers waking up to piles of crepes they would roll with Bulgarian feta and lutenitsa, a Bulgarian staple best described as a red-pepper chutney.

Summer is the laziest season in the kitchen for me. I don’t know if it’s the heat or my kid being out of school that makes me so unmotivated, but I have absolutely zero desire to cook. Even chopping ingredients feels onerous. In an ideal world, I’d be eating a bottomless bowl of cut-up watermelon for my meals. But in the real world, dinner still has to be made. Motivated by this laziness – yes, I am aware that’s an oxymoron – I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking of dishes that require minimum effort and deliver maximum flavor.

Chef and restaurateur Chad White has teamed up with Hello Sugar owners Ramsey and Amy Pruchnic and TT’s Old Iron Brewery and BBQ co-owner Travis Thosath to open a new taco shop.

We've all been there. Where, exactly? The place that exists where avocados are seemingly only either rock hard or discolored mush when we cut them open. You may have even seen the memes about how small the window is for peak ripeness. While such jokes are exaggerated for effect, many of us still struggle with the question of how to choose a good avocado and determine when it's ready to eat.Here's what you need to know.The look: The first thing to check is the fruit's appearance. Avocados should have a glossy skin that is free of cracks and dry spots. The vast majority of avocados sold in the United States are Hass avocados, which tend to darken as they ripen. For these, bright green avocados should be ready in a few days, while darker ones are more likely to be ready to eat.Another sign of ripeness is the color under the stem. "Once the stem is removed, there will be a little dimple and that dimple should most resemble the color of the inside of the avocado," Rebecca Angel Baer wrote in Southern Living. "So if that dimple is brown, chances are you'll see a lot of brown spots when you slice it open. But if that little dimple is yellow-green in color, you probably have a winner!" However, if it's still very yellow, it likely needs more time to ripen.The feel: But the best indicator of avocado ripeness is firmness. Give it a gentle squeeze in the palm of your hand - the avocado industry prefers that shoppers don't poke the fruit with their fingers - and if it yields to the pressure, the fruit is ready to eat. Firm avocados should be left at room temperature to continue to ripen.You can speed up the ripening process by placing the avocados in a paper bag, and can make it go even faster by adding another ethylene producing fruit, such as an apple or banana, to the bag. (Similarly, keep avocados away from such fruit if you don't want them to ripen so quickly.)The timing: Once the avocado is ripe, it is best consumed within the next day or so. If you don't plan to eat the avocado that soon, you can place it in the refrigerator to slow the ripening process and give it a few extra days of life. Once an avocado is super soft, it's probably due for the compost bin.With this in mind, it's important to consider when you want to eat the avocados the next time you go grocery shopping. For example, if you want to eat avocado toast for breakfast every day for the following week, buy some that are ripe now and some that still have ripening to do.If you happen to have a bunch of ripe avocados all at once that you need to make use of - not a bad a problem to have - you can always make a big batch of guacamole.

Incrediburger & Eggs is closing on July 31 after four years of business.

People who drink a moderate amount of coffee – up to 3½ cups a day – might have a better chance at a longer life span, even if their coffee is lightly sweetened with sugar, according to research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The proprietors behind South Perry’s Grain Shed are planning new eateries in Hillyard and Liberty Lake.

National Ice Cream Day was this past Sunday, but it’s never too late to have a fail-safe recipe for a simple and delicious vanilla ice cream.

Most crustaceans meet a predictable fate at Red Lobster. But not Cheddar, the bright-orange specimen who is now set to live out her days being oohed over at an aquarium rather than, like so many of her compatriots, being broiled and dipped in butter.

Spokane’s food scene is on the come up, and Crave! NW is where it shows.

In order to stand out against other coffee shops in Spokane, Lunarium has adopted a late-night, tea and coffee oriented concept that embraces an evening version of the cafe scene Spokane loves most.

On July 14, 1789, an angry mob stormed the Bastille, a medieval fortress prison in Paris, signaling the start of the French Revolution and eventual overthrow of the monarchy.