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Lorie Hutson

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A&E >  Food

Dinner Together: Pappardelle dish transcends seasons

This month’s Dinner Together dish pairs perfectly with the weather – winter’s glory mixed together with the promise of spring. Anchored by oven-roasted winter squash and punctuated by peppery arugula, this pasta is quick and satisfying. It manages to be both hearty and light. Swap out one of those winter comfort casseroles for this vegetarian meal and you won’t miss the post-meal heaviness one bit.
A&E >  Food

Dinner Together: Turkey and mustard greens team up for nutritional post-holiday meal

When the first of the year rolls around, many people are in need of a nutritional reboot. After weeks of holiday meals and treats, it can be hard to return to healthier eating habits. This year, I was in serious need of some post-holiday magic to help put the skids on celebration meals. We had holiday visitors and reasons to celebrate on top of the traditional treats, including the 60th wedding anniversary of my husband’s parents, just after Christmas. Throw in a looming milestone birthday and a nagging head cold, and you can see why I might have been succumbing to the leftover treats a little too often.
A&E >  Food

Dessert together: Bar treats perfect for holiday events

It can be hard to keep up during the busy holiday season. There are presents to buy and wrap, big meals to cook and guests to entertain, so it can be tempting to succumb to all the shortcuts that surround. Holiday treats are easily purchased, but it’s not worth it if you can make them so quickly at home.
A&E >  Food

Leftover turkey will shine in Southwest casserole

There’s always something of a leftover turkey tug-of-war at my house after the Thanksgiving holiday. The hinting begins long before the wishbone has been snapped, sometimes weeks before the meal when my husband starts salivating over the sandwiches he’s planning. He’ll alternate sammies stacked with cold turkey topped by his mother’s cranberry-orange relish with toast squares topped by hot turkey, stuffing and gravy, for a week – minimum.
A&E >  Food

Simply soulful

When fall descends, one of my favorite warm-up meals is tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. I grew up on Campbell’s tomato soup, but I’ve always felt a twinge of guilt for opening a can when homemade soup is so simple, delicious and packed with nutrients. Still, no one wants to come home after a long day and start chopping a pile of veggies.
A&E >  Food

Smitten Kitchen’s baked ranchero eggs; it’s what’s for dinner

Sometimes an easy dinner isn’t dinner at all – it’s breakfast. I love serving eggs for a fast, filling meal and it is also a great way to bust out of a dinner rut. I usually default to quiche because it gives you the flexibility to use up ingredients already in the house. Frittata is great, too, especially for those trying to steer clear of the extra calories (or the gluten) in crust.
A&E >  Food

New JunoBar free of gluten, dairy and soy

BumbleBar has a new gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and mostly raw addition to its organic snack bar family. The Spokane-based company owned by Liz and Glenn Ward has created the new JunoBar, which is set to hit store shelves by the end of the month.
A&E >  Food

For Padrtas, the Bridge for now, future

Bridge Press Cellars opened in 2009 with the immediate distinction of being the state’s 600th winery. In the four years since, both the industry and Melody and Brian Padrta’s small winery have grown. Washington state now has more than 750 wineries and 350 wine grape growers. At Bridge Press Cellars, the Padrtas have expanded from reds made exclusively from Walla Walla Valley grapes into new terroir, including the rehabilitation of an old building near the corner of Pacific and Browne into a winemaking and tasting room they share with partners Mark and Valerie Wilkerson of Emvy Cellars.
A&E >  Food

North Idaho Reads wants family recipes

Share a favorite family recipe for the North Idaho Reads project. Library organizers are collecting unusual or traditional recipes for an online cookbook inspired by this year’s North Idaho Reads book by Erica Bauermeister, “The School of Essential Ingredients.” Each year, patrons are encouraged to read one book and themed programs are offered.
A&E >  Food

Calm, cool and collected

These hot days have a way of draining my ambition for cooking. Rather than resort to another dinner out, I began dreaming of the recipes for meals wrapped in a cool, crisp lettuce leaf. There are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of recipes for these Asian-inspired wraps. Each varies a bit – using different kinds of greens, various meats for the filling and untold variations of dipping sauces.
A&E >  Food

Fresh Sheet

Patit Creek Cellars opens tasting room Patit Creek Cellars celebrates the opening of its new Spokane tasting room Saturday.
A&E >  Food

Wine mag honors local restaurants

Six area restaurants have been honored by Wine Spectator magazine for their wine lists. The magazine has compiled a list of the world’s best restaurant wine lists since 1981. This year, 3,793 restaurants in 50 states, 76 countries or territories and on 11 cruise ships were given awards. To receive the program’s entry-level Award of Excellence, a restaurant must have “an interesting and diverse selection of 100 or more wines that are well presented and thematically match the restaurant’s cuisine in both price and style,” according to a news release.
A&E >  Food

City will host second hearing on food trucks

The city of Spokane will host a second public hearing on the rules governing food trucks. Proposed changes to city laws would allow mobile food vendors as a permitted use in zones that currently allow retail. Mobile vendors would have to register each year with the city and get a permit.
A&E >  Food

Rainbow of flavors

Summer’s sweetest treat is enjoying a seasonal resurgence in Coeur d’Alene. Both Pilgrim’s Market and Scratch Creamery & Pizzeria are offering a new rainbow of house-made flavors, ranging from strawberry balsamic and salted caramel, to roasted pear with gorgonzola and creamy peanut butter.
A&E >  Food

Tater tacks

It’s not even 9 a.m. and Leon Frechette’s house is already filled with the aroma of baking potatoes. Frechette, a former Spokane contractor and author of several books on building and remodeling, was researching a book on alternative building materials at a show in Las Vegas when he and his wife, Kimberly, came across the idea of potato nails while talking to a manufacturer.
A&E >  Food

From vegetarian to cupcakes, check out INCA After Dark

Master everything from vegetables to cupcake decorating with INCA After Dark in July. Chef Adam Hegsted will teach a class on preparing vegetarian small plates July 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. Hegsted will focus on seasonal produce from local farmers markets. The class is $50 per person. Then on July 31, Joslynn Lende, the bakery manager of Sweet Frostings, will teach students to make professional-looking cupcakes by mastering frosting bags, tips and sparkling sugars. The class is 6 to 8 p.m. and it is $50 each.
A&E >  Food

Twilight Cider full of surprises

Don’t think sweet. The biggest misconception that Will Jordan finds among those who are trying his hard cider for the first time is that they expect it to be as sweet as apple juice. Twilight Cider Works is among the growing segment of artisan hard cider makers that ferment apple ciders until almost all of the natural sugars from the juice are gone, leaving a subtly flavored and effervescent cider for bottling.
A&E >  Food

Cossette back at Bake-Off

Joan Cossette has done it again. The Colbert woman is one of 60 semifinalists in the 46th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. Her Lemon Pistachio Blackberry Thumbprints need votes to advance to the final round and earn her a chance to win the $1 million grand prize. Voting is open now through June 27 at www.bakeoff.com. Finalists will compete for the grand prize Nov. 10-12 in Las Vegas.
A&E >  Food

‘Butters’ a mouth-watering gem

Quick look: If the thought of butter melting on a hot biscuit or in a dish next to Dungeness crab is enough to get your mouth watering, the new “Flavored Butters” cookbook is sure to spark your imagination. Author Lucy Vaserfirer of Vancouver, Wash., is the author of “Seared to Perfection” and the popular Hungry Cravings blog, at www.hungrycravings.com. Her new book will have you making, shaping and using flavored butters with abandon. What’s inside: Put a new spin on your favorite breads, baked goods, vegetables, burgers and seafood with these spreads, which are sometimes called compound butter. Spread apricot-almond butter or mint butter on a breakfast scone. Try goat cheese and sun-dried tomato butter on a piece of multigrain toast. Or, top a steak or burger with gorgonzola-chive butter.
A&E >  Food

Polenta proves upper crust when it comes to pizza

Everybody loves pizza. Shake things up a little with this hearty and endlessly versatile recipe for a polenta “crust.” Top it with your favorite pizza toppings or sauté your favorite seasonal vegetables and spoon them on top before baking.
A&E >  Food

YWCA plans Evening in Tuscany

Help provide a safe place for people displaced by domestic violence with your dinner ticket. The YWCA, 930 N. Monroe St., will host An Evening in Tuscany dinner June 22 made by former restaurant owner and chef Gina Lanza, of Amore and the Anaconda Grille in Spokane. The menu features artichoke pesto lasagna, served with a Caesar salad and an Italian dessert. Drinks and dessert will be served on the rooftop.
A&E >  Food

Barrister wins Legends honor

Winemakers Michael White and Greg Lipsker of Barrister Winery in Spokane have been chosen to make the 2013 Legends blend wine for the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center. The center in Prosser, Wash. is named for the late Walter J. Clore and promotes Washington wines and food. Clore is known as the “father of the Washington wine” and began studying vinifera grapes and the potential for growing them in Washington soils in 1937.
A&E >  Food

Crossing their teas

If taking tea in a turn-of-the-last-century parlor or enjoying a French pastry on an elegant wraparound porch sounds like a nice respite from real life, there is now The Silver Spoon Tea House. Mother and daughter team Sylvia Erickson and Lara McHenry opened the new tea shop and patisserie on June 1 in a Queen Anne-style house built in 1903 at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Walnut Street. They offer loose leaf teas, French press coffee and pastries from Petit Chat Village Bakery (complete with the proper French pronunciation of the business) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in the front room and on the veranda. Reservation-only afternoon teas are served in the elegantly decorated rooms throughout the two-story house.
A&E >  Food

Partnership proves to be a Grande blend

Grande Ronde Cellars began as a partnership between four men with the same love – for grapes from the Walla Walla valley. Dave Westfall, David Page, John Mueller and Michael Manz launched the winery in 1997 with grapes from the same vineyards that were supplying fruit to acclaimed wineries such as Leonetti Cellars and L’Ecole No. 41.