Food

Farmers Jamie and Chad Henneman were careful when they were shopping for land. The Rice, Wash., couple had seen other young farmers crippled by debt, and they didn't want to take on more land than they could afford.

At age 51, Billy Shore ¨C founder and chief executive of the anti-hunger charity Share Our Strength in Washington, D.C. ¨C has some food issues himself. Shore pretty much hates "the taste and texture" of all vegetables, except spinach and corn on the cob. And those two are fairly recent concessions in an otherwise vegetable-free life.

Personalized items make you, or someone you love, the star attraction. Here are two foodie-themed ways to make yourself or a loved one the center of the universe. Spreading it on thick: Maybe you won't make it on a Wheaties box, but would you settle for a condiment? (We think this is sassier, anyhow.) Heinz is letting customers personalize 14-ounce glass, 20-ounce plastic or party-friendly 2.25-ounce mini bottles of ketchup and/or mustard. Go online to myheinz.com; prices start at $6 per bottle plus shipping.

There's a new addition in the fruit snack aisle. But the results for Yogos were mixed from both the kids and adults on The Spokesman-Review's tasting panel.

If you've got a beginning or budding cook in your life, "How to Boil Water," could be the ticket. Recipes cover the basics, but there are tips, glossary descriptions, troubleshooting advice and wisdom on giving dishes a personal touch.

There always has been an element of naughty fun to Nigella Lawson, the playful and lusty British cook who has made sustenance sexy. The cleavage-revealing shirts and suggestive spoon-licking on her previous TV series, "Nigella Bites," have even enticed some reviewers to label her a "gastro-porn" queen.

Sausage Making - Turn your wild game and those inexpensive cuts of meat from the store into savory sausage for the barbecue and dinner table. Presented by Community Colleges of Spokane Institute for Extended Learning. Two-day class held Thursday and Oct. 12. 6:30-9:30 p.m., Michlitch Company, 130 N. Stone St. $47. (509) 279-6000. Seafood Extravaganza Cooking Class - Salmon, prawns and sunimono salad by Hide and Ed Tsutakawa. Thursday. 6-8 p.m., Japanese Cultural Center, Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute, 4000 W. Randolph Road. $15. Register by Sunday. (509) 328-2971.

Ten years after the Junior League of Spokane released "Gold'n Delicious," the service group is back with "Still Gold'n." The collection, subtitled "Celebrating Spokane One Meal at a Time," is filled with signature dishes of the Northwest.

Merna and Brent Olsen specialize in gourmet varieties of potatoes, from familiar reds and Yukon golds to more unusual red and blue flesh varieties. Olsen Farms near Colville delivers potatoes 10 months of each year. There are quite a few varieties available right now, including Yukon Gold, Red Norland, Red LaSoda, Viking Purple, German Butterball, Cal White, All Red, All Blue, Kerr's Pink, Russet Norkotah and Red Gold.

Make the grocery store part of your quick-fix pantry. Author and cooking teacher Andrew Schloss has created more than 300 recipes that rely on high-quality, prepared ingredients from the store to help cooks get dinner on the table fast.

Blue-ribbon winners highlighted chocolate, yeast, Spam and ranch dressing in this year's Spokane County Interstate Fair for good reason – the contests were sponsored by Ghirardelli, Fleischmann's, Spam and Hidden Valley. Their recipes ranged from supereasy Spam wraps to an elaborate, braided apricot bread. Here are the winners from each contest:

71st Annual Greek Festival - Enjoy lunch served daily from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., and dinner 4:30-8 p.m., along with pastries, souvlakia, taverna, dancing coffee, deli, imports and Orthodox Bookstore. Thursday-Saturday. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1703 N. Washington. $12/adults, $6/ages 12 and younger. (509) 328-9310. Community Dinner - Presented by the Moscow Food Co-op. Menu consists of roasted figs with gorgonzola and honey balsamic reduction, butternut squash fritters with sage crème fraîche, house-smoked salmon streusel, cilantro and roasted tomatillo coulis, warmed white bean salad, sunken chocolate souffle with mint ice cream. Thursday. 6:30 p.m., 121 E. Fifth St., Moscow. $24. (208) 882-8537.

Washington Spokane Farmers' Market – Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and Wednesdays 8 a.m.-1 p.m. through October, Second Avenue, between Division and Browne streets. (509) 455-4266.

One recipe leads to another, if you're a cook with a curious mind. Recipe developer Pam Simmons says she was inspired to go beyond a vanilla-flavored blueberry cake recipe she came across, so she adapted it by adding mixed berries and almond paste, and another egg. The result, with its flavor of frangipani and texture of an almond butter cake, won unanimous approval from taste testers.

Newly chic though they are, appearing on an ever wider range of social scenes, cupcakes are still their disarming little selves under all the fancy frosting and avant-garde garnish. So relax: You can still bake up a batch without taking an advanced culinary course. Anyone can have a lot of fun playing the variations game – starting with three new recipes that showcase honey.

Find out what's happening on the local food scene at tasteeverythingonce.com. Spokane food blogger Jennifer Olsen is turning her Web site over to guest writers for a week starting Saturday.

Reader Emma Harder called recently to request a recipe for green tomato mincemeat pie. Here's a recipe I discovered this summer in a wonderful cookbook by Janie Hibler, "Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobber." The book is a collection of recipes unique to the Northwest, with interesting sidebars on history and ingredients.