Food

Schug Carneros Estate Wine Dinner - Six-course dinner with wine. Reservations required. Today. 7 p.m., Max at Mirabeau Park Hotel, I-90 at Sullivan Road. $115, includes tax and gratuity. (509) 922-6252. Gary Fox Memorial Cruise and Wine Tasting - Benefit to raise money for additional equipment to go with the Side Scan Sonar Unit. Boarding at 6 p.m., cruise from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday. Board at the Boardwalk Marina, Coeur d'Alene. $50. (208) 446-1300.

Colville Farmers' Market - Wednesdays, noon-6 p.m., through Oct. 17. Third and Oak streets, one block east of Main (Highway 395). (509) 732-6619. Farmers' Market at Sandpoint - Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Wednesdays, 3-5:30 p.m., through Oct. 13. Farmin Park, Third at Main. (208) 265-8267.

Buyers are wary when food makers start messing with a classic. But in this case tasters, both young and old, were happy with the new flavors of Oat Cluster Cheerios Crunch. The slightly sweet, cinnamon touched whole-grain Os mixed with crunchy oat clusters were a hit with the Reader Food Panel, earning four stars for flavor from both kids and adults.

Some recipes have a story. Whether it's the carrot cake passed down three generations before it was finally written down or the cake innovated to rely on an unusual ingredient because others were in short supply, America's Test Kitchen has collected them in a new cookbook.

Have Your Cake and Seniors Eat, Too - Dessert auction presented by Mid-City Concerns and Spokane Meals on Wheels. Heavy hors d'oeuvres and no-host bar. Each winning bidder for items will receive a correspondent dessert item made especially to go with the item. Proceeds benefit services to low income seniors (i.e., hot, nutritious meals, exercise classes, prescriptions, etc.). Thursday. 5:30 p.m., Northern Quest Casino, 100 N. Hayford Road, Airway Heights. $35. (509) 232-0864. Hope for A Wild Future Dinner and Auction - Benefits Conservation Northwest's work keeping the Northwest wild, from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies. Sparkling wine reception and hors d'oeuvres, silent and live auctions, live music. Dinner, fine wines and specialty desserts. Keynote address by wilderness champion Brock Evans. Register online at www.conservationnw.org/about/ spokane-auction. Thursday. 6-9:30 p.m., Davenport Hotel, 10 S. Post St. $70. (509) 747-1663 or (800) 878-9950, ext. 18.

Colville Farmers' Market - Wednesdays, noon-6 p.m. Third and Oak streets, one block east of Main (Highway 395). (509) 732-6619. Farmers' Market at Sandpoint - Saturdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Wednesdays, 3-5:30 p.m.. Farmin Park, Third at Main. (208) 265-8267.

It's time again for the annual pilgrimage to the honey-drizzled highlight of fall – Greek Festival. The 72nd annual dinner at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1702 N. Washington St., runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. It features a traditional dinner menu each night for eating there or take-out, including beef kapama and orzo tossed with browned butter and myzithra cheese. Dinners are $12 for adults or $6 for children under age 12. Dinner is served each day beginning at 4:30 p.m. Lunch is served at 11 a.m.

I was dismayed and disappointed to find, when reading through the much-hyped report on Washington wines in the most recent issue of Robert Parker's influential Wine Advocate, that the Spokane wineries were completely ignored. There were no reviews from any of the dozen or so producers here, nor any mention that such wineries even exist. Whether intentional or accidental, it's a shame that wineries as good as these are virtually unknown except in their own backyard. The point was emphasized recently by my tasting of new releases from two of Spokane's leading boutiques – Barrister Winery and Robert Karl Cellars.

Autumn offers many things to love, but at the top of my list is the opportunity to take children to an apple orchard. Whether you pick a peck or bushel yourself, or just pick one out to bring home, it is nothing short of bliss to let your children run among the laden trees on a cool, sunny day, with the sweet sticky smell of ripe apples to sharpen your appetites. Try to visit an orchard where you can get fresh cider, too, which is nothing like the pale, insipid apple juice at the grocery store. The real thing is assertive, caramel brown, almost chewable, and is worth bringing home by the gallon. Drink some now, and store the rest in the freezer, thawing it out in January for hot cider with cinnamon sticks, served to pink-cheeked children who have been playing in the snow.

I'm not sure there's a better spot in the country to spend late summer and all of autumn than right here, where we've all landed for our various reasons or lack thereof. There's been a nice mix of summer and fall of late, with evenings cool enough for a jacket while sitting out on the patio. But let's not forget about the grill just yet. I'm nowhere near done with grilling season – not that it ever really ends for me. It seems like everyone and their dog had rib-eyes on sale during the week before and just after Labor Day. So I grilled two just-this-side-of-obscene steaks not just once, but twice in the same week.

Now that fall is in the air, it feels right to turn our culinary attention to something warm, something comfy. It's time for soup.

Artisan Room Culinary Lounge - Five-course fusion dinner by Moxie Chef Ian Wingate and Artisan Room chef Gonzo Carillo. Champagne reception, blues and jazz music and dancing. Thursday. 6:30 p.m., Ridpath Hotel, Artisan Room, 515 W. Sprague Ave. $100. (509) 747-2224. Intro to Wine Tasting - Taste and learn about the seven basic wine styles, discuss what "professional tasters" are looking for and why they swish and swirl. Thursday. 6:30 p.m., Vino!, 222 S. Washington St. $35. (509) 838-1229.

It's getting even easier to look – if not cook – like a television star. This month both Martha Stewart and the Food Network partnered with major retailers to launch new kitchenware collections to help you equip your kitchens like the studio sets you drool over.

Columbia Basin Farmers' Market and Bazaar - Today and next Wednesday, 2-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 8 a.m.-noon, through Oct. 27. Moses Lake Civic Park, Fifth at Balsam, Moses Lake. (509) 766-6751. Colville Farmers' Market - Wednesdays, noon-6 p.m., through Oct. 17. Third and Oak streets, one block east of Main (Highway 395). (509) 732-6619.

They're Oreos, after all. The children guests at a recent Reader Food Panel treated them as such, happily snacking on the soft cream-filled cookies. Both the original and the chocolate creme flavors scored four and a half stars from the kids.

Kae O'Brien experimented on her husband and co-workers to come up with her winning recipe in the recent NASCAR Cooks! competition. Her Speedway Cheese Balls combine the ease of food on a stick with batter-fried goodness. O'Brien said she wanted to create something easy to eat that featured a product from one of the contest sponsors, Birchwood foods.