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Lorie Hutson

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A&E >  Food

Farmgirl Gourmet finds joy as Lagasse blogger

On the sunny back porch of a craftsman home in Cheney, Heather Scholten is hovering above her lunch with a camera. She snaps a few pictures, stopping to add a bright red napkin and silver fork. Then, she slides her iced tea over to keep a shadow from the glass out of the Wok-Seared Duck Salad.
A&E >  Food

Greek dinner set to start Thursday

It is the last day to buy discounted advance tickets for the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church’s 76th Greek Festival. Church members have been busy preparing the traditional tastes of Greek culture for the annual dinner, which will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
A&E >  Food

Pear-Cranberry-Ginger Cutie Pies full of flavor

These adorable little pies will have you looking for excuses to make them. Dani Cone, founder and owner of Fuel Coffee and High 5 p1Pe in Seattle, dishes on her minipastries in her cookbook, “Cutie Pies: 40 Sweet Savory and Adorable Recipes” (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.99). The book was released this week.
A&E >  Food

Storing summer’s successes

All of that hot September weather extended the growing season and as kitchens start to cool down, it will be the perfect time to tackle fall canning projects. At Petunias Marketplace in Spokane, the kitchen has been bustling as owner Stacy Blowers and employee Beverly Bailey put up produce from area farmers markets. They were recently processing Italian plums in spiced light syrup.
A&E >  Food

Kitchen kickstart

What are the chances of building a local business selling balsamic vinegar candy or beer cupcakes? Pretty slim, right? Think again.
A&E >  Food

Spokane Public Market set to celebrate opening

The Spokane Public Market will host a grand-opening celebration on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting by Mayor Mary Verner. Market supporters will be celebrating the free-flowing traffic on Second Avenue after a long construction season with entertainment, vendor specials and giveaways until 6 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by The Spokane Entertainer’s Guild, and includes live music along with stilt-walkers, unicyclists, jugglers, flamethrowers and face painting.
A&E >  Food

Cougar Crest Winery opens new tasting room

Cougar Crest Estate Winery has a new Spokane tasting room. The tasting room, 8 N. Post St., Suite 6, will serve all of Cougar Crest’s wines. Tastings, wine flights and wines by the glass will be available during regular hours, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
A&E >  Food

Monica, Shane Sanders speak fluent dessert

Monica and Shane Sanders know something about love's first bite. Shane was in the military when he met Monica in her native Colombia. They had an instant connection but one problem: He didn't speak Spanish and she didn't speak English. "We literally wore out dictionaries talking to each other," says Shane Sanders. Love is a powerful thing. More than 16 years and four children later the couple are counting on a different kind of infatuation for their latest venture - that deep desire for dessert.
A&E >  Food

Fresh sheet: Interest brews in craft beer tasting

Get Spokane’s Oktoberfest on your calendar. The Washington Beer Commission will reprise the craft beer tasting Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24, in Riverfront Park, transforming the Gondola Meadow into a Bavarian biergarten.
A&E >  Food

Magical Mayan Salad lentil festival winner

Jane Bracher, of Robertsdale, Ala., took home the top prize in the annual cook-off at the 2011 National Lentil Festival. Tasters at the festival on Aug. 20 chose Bracher’s Magical Mayan Salad from the top six recipes in this year’s competition. Judges narrowed it down to the best six out of 118 recipes submitted from 32 different states and Switzerland.
A&E >  Food

Find the finest in French cuisine at Fleur de Sel

Approachable and close to home, Fleur de Sel brings the best of French dining to the area. Perched above Post Falls in a space shared with Highlands Day Spa, the restaurant is unassuming and yet elegant. It may seem an unlikely place for such a fine cuisine.
A&E >  Food

Spokane firehouse wins BBQ Cook-off

Tree Top has chosen Spokane Fire Station No. 13 as the winner of America’s Best Firehouse Barbecue Cook-off. Firehouse cook Tony Yuen and his Puleihu BBQ Sauce were selected by a panel of judges for the top prize and a $10,000 donation for the station.
A&E >  Food

Find tips, techniques at canning workshop

The height of canning season is upon us. No matter how long you’ve been preserving, questions can arise about the process. But you can ask me and two other local canning experts for answers during an open house Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. at Sun People Dry Goods, 32 W. Second Ave., Suite 200.
A&E >  Food

Applebee’s back with new look, menu

The Applebee’s restaurants in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene have reopened after facelifts. Each of the four stores – Spokane Valley, Spokane South Hill, Coeur d’Alene and Northpointe – closed for remodeling during July and have reopened with a new look, décor and menu items. It took just three days for each remodel.
A&E >  Food

Santé chefs will share secrets

Chefs from Santé Restaurant & Charcuterie will share tips and recipes for using local market ingredients in an upcoming class. The Aug. 1 cooking class will feature ingredients from the Spokane Public Market. For $100, participants will get a recipe notebook and snacks, along with dinner and wine or a beverage at the end of the evening.
A&E >  Food

Tandoor ovens enhance the unique flavors at Asian Cafe and Bakery

The Asian Cafe and Bakery is not what one might expect from its name. Instead of the more familiar flavors found in Pacific Asian countries, the cafe serves cuisine straight from the heart of the continent, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Walk into the tiny restaurant and the inviting smell of baking lepeshka, a traditional Central Asian bread, welcomes diners. The bread and savory pastries called samsa, a flaky crust filled with beef, onions and spices, are baked each day in one of the restaurant's two tandoors.
A&E >  Food

Retreat serves up culinary training

Cooks eager for the farm-to-table experience or those who want to sharpen their skills in the kitchen might consider a new retreat offered at the Quillisascut Farm School for the Domestic Arts near Rice, Wash. Chef Kären Jurgensen and owners Rick and Lora Lea Misterly will host up to a dozen people for a workshop designed to share the techniques taught in professional culinary programs, as well as the secrets of farm management, garden and livestock care on a sustainable, organic farm.
A&E >  Food

Where work is always a treat

Marcel Kopplin is no newcomer to the local pastry scene. For 22 years, the baker and cake decorator, taught students of the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy at Spokane Community College the secrets of fondant and buttercream frosting. Since her retirement in 2008 she’s continued to bake and decorate specialty and wedding cakes with daughter Stephanie Lentz.
A&E >  Food

Put your creations to the test

You’ve won raves from friends for your apple pie or rhubarb chutney or plum wine. Now find out whether those baking, canning or viniculture skills are blue-ribbon worthy. Exhibitors’ handbooks for the Spokane County Interstate Fair and North Idaho Fair are available online for the summer competitions.
A&E >  Food

2 live brews

No one needs an excuse to kick back with a cold brew on a holiday weekend. But just in case, there are two new area breweries to check out. Bi-Plane Brewing Co. in Post Falls and Budge Brothers Brewery in Spokane are sporting new Northwest- and English-style ales. Both recently opened tasting rooms to show off their wares.
A&E >  Food

Fire Station 13, cook Yuen are finalists in cook-off

Firehouse cook Tony Yuen and Spokane Fire Department Station No. 13 are finalists in America’s Best Firehouse BBQ Cook-Off. Sponsored by Tree Top, the contest asked entrants to make a short video to convince America that their firehouse and recipe deserve the $10,000 grand prize.
A&E >  Food

Pataha Flour Mill finding new life

It was once one of five water-powered flour mills in Garfield County, grinding grains destined for local and far-flung markets. Now, the Pataha Flour Mill in Pomeroy, Wash., is the last. Owner Jon Van Vogt says the others have long since burned, but he and his family are working to preserve the remaining three-story mill, built in 1878.
A&E >  Food

Blazing a trail with grilled cheese

Ask the mom behind the spatula at Mommy G’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese wagon about the inspiration for the new food trailer and Jessica Rapp deadpans: “Well, I have five boys.” Which is true – but that’s only part of the story.
A&E >  Food

At the top of the pecking order

Palouse Pastured Poultry chickens live outside, pecking for insects and foraging for alfalfa and weeds – most of the time. Unless it rains: Then the fair-weather birds like to tuck into one of the 10 covered but floorless “chicken tractors” in the farm field along Pine Creek near Rosalia. Or, if Allen and Emmy Widman’s 3 1/2-year-old son, Reed, gets his hands on them.