Lorie Hutson

Don't wait until the day before Thanksgiving to start preparing the feast. The "Diva of Do-Ahead" has been teaching classes with stress-busting holiday get-ahead recipes for 15 years. She's compiled a year of feasts into this new cookbook. The menu for each holiday includes a do-ahead countdown for the refrigerator and the freezer. There are also tips for serving, using the slow cooker and variations on the recipes. Look inside today's Food section for a recipe from the book for Make-Ahead Gravy.

Spokane Community College baking instructor Marcel Kopplin placed first in a recent national cake decorating competition with her Tiffany lamp cake. Kopplin, who has been with the bakery department at SCC for 21 years, competed against contestants from a dozen other regional bakery associations last month in the American Bakery Expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Chef and cookbook author Richard Perry edited the book, but he took an unprecedented step before releasing it. Perry recruited home cooks (more than 700 of them in 50 states) to test the recipes. Each recipe was checked, evaluated and retested – up to 10 times – before being included in the book. "The Good Home Cookbook" is dedicated to commemorating and preserving recipes that are distinctly American. "The collection celebrates the hearty back-to-basic dishes that became staples in postwar modern American kitchens – long before calorie counting and low-calorie cooking were born." It is filled with vintage illustrations and contains more than 1,000 recipes. Look inside today's Food section for the recipe for Braised Short Ribs.

The Good Home Cookbook is filled with the recipes American cooks learned from their mothers and grandmothers. Each of the 1,000 recipes was tested in home kitchens across the country before author and chef Richard J. Perry accepted them for the book.

Martinis at Mobius? Don't worry. They're for the parents. Mobius Kids, in the lower level of River Park Square, will host a fundraiser for the children's museum Nov. 10 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Tickets include two martinis, mingling, hors d'oeuvres and music by the Nick Herman Trio. Also, guests will get a private "hard hat" tour of the renovation and loft project at 809 W. Main Ave.

Dear Cook's Notebook: I had a family recipe for apple crisp given to me by my mother, who has since passed away. I used to make it all the time. Somewhere, and I do not know how, I have lost that particular recipe. My children, especially my son, would eat apple crisp until he was almost sick. I can remember bits and pieces of the recipe, but not the whole thing … It has to do with the topping. I can recall butter, flour, cinnamon and brown sugar. Am I missing anything and can you tell me the measurements?

Quick and cheesy: Any parent knows those are two keys to kid-friendly food. And Hamburger Helper's new Microwave Singles are no exception. While the members of The Spokesman-Review reader food panel were still studying the orange hue of the Cheesy Lasagna with Beef and Cheesy Beef Taco dishes, their young guests were digging in.

A cadre of the area's best chefs will combine culinary talents Friday for the first March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. Lead chef Ian Wingate, of Moxie and Bluefish, has organized a team of his colleagues who will present their signature dishes at the benefit. The culinary team includes chef Jennings Waterhouse of Sand Creek Grill in Coeur d'Alene, URM's executive chef L.J. Klink, Ray Delfino of the Spokane Club, Alexa Wilson of Wild Sage Bistro, Jim Wolters of the Manito Country Club, Noel Macapagal of Raw and Tim Hartman of Vin Rouge.

Don't be intimidated by the image of this dessert on the cover of the section. For those ambitious enough to make their own praline pecan ice cream, reduction syrups and garnishes, chef instructor Robert Lombardi, from the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy at Spokane Community College, has shared the whole recipe. But the recipe can be easily simplified for home cooks. Simply serve the basting sauce from the baked apples over store-bought vanilla bean ice cream.

Wilbur might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Washington wine country. But the shores of Lake Roosevelt are actually among the finest places in the state to grow grapes, according to Michael Haig of Whitestone Winery, with conditions that are similar to Bordeaux, France. The area was home to one of the biggest Eastern Washington vineyards before it was flooded by the waters behind the Grand Coulee Dam in 1941, Haig says.

Reader Sharon Pearson called looking for a recipe for the Carrot Cake at Casey's Bar and Grill. The North Monroe restaurant was opened by the Oxreider family in 1946, and they sold it in 1989. The restaurant has changed hands several more times over the years. This recipe appeared in The Spokesman-Review in a 1988 story about Casey's and other old-fashioned family eateries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Look out, Fruit Loops – the berry-flavored cereal shelf is suddenly a bit crowded. Cereal makers have infused the venerable Cheerios and Rice Krispies cereals with fruit flavors. We convened our annual panel of both adult and children tasters to taste the new Fruity Cheerios and Berry Krispies with mixed results.

A new McCormick advertisement had my mom digging through her spice cupboard recently. What did she find? A dozen tins and bottles that are at least 15 years old, according to McCormick.

You could leave all that extra squash on the neighbor's porch, but here are a few alternatives. The first recipe comes from Alice Waters' "Chez Panisse Vegetables" cookbook. It was recently included in the WSU organic farm newsletter.

It's hard to believe with all the recent hot, summerlike weather, but apple season is upon us. Green Bluff growers begin celebrating the annual harvest this weekend. The festival continues through the last weekend in October.