This Dinner Will Drive You Simply Wild
Are you ready to go a little wild when it comes to eating in this new year?
Might as well get things started with the “Wild Game Feast” Jan. 21 at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene.
The menu begins with an assortment of appetizers featuring rabbit, bison, duck sausage, goose and rattlesnake. Dinner includes smoked wild Pacific salmon with wild grain salad and pepper coulis, and venison scallopini morel with garlic mashed potatoes, as well as roasted pumpkin soup for starters and chocolate decadence for dessert.
Bill Rutherford, the school’s food service manager and a certified chef, will comment on each course. There also will be wildlife displays by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and music by local pianist George Conrad.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m. in the school’s new Edminster Student Union Building. Tickets are $25, with proceeds going to the alumni association scholarship fund. Seating is limited, and tickets must be purchased by Jan. 14; call (208) 769-3316 or (208) 769-7806.
Monk-y bread
January may be National Bread Machine Baking Month (according to the bread machine manufacturers, anyway), but it’s also a perfect time to learn the ancient art of breadmaking by hand.
In the new public television series “Breaking Bread With Father Dominic,” host Father Dominic Garramone, a Benedictine monk and avid baker, explains everything from mixing and kneading dough to forming loaves to telling when the bread is done.
The 13-part series of half-hour shows also visits bakeries and bread events across the country. It debuts Friday at 1:30 p.m. on KSPS-7 in Spokane; for more information, visit www.breaking-bread.com.
Bake-Off kiss-off
We’re willing to make one food prediction for 2000: No one from the Inland Northwest will win the million-dollar Pillsbury Bake-Off.
That’s a safe bet because no one from the entire state of Washington (much less Spokane), or North Idaho, is among the 100 finalists announced by Pillsbury last week.
The closest competitor out our way is Becky Beus of Kuna, Idaho (near Boise), whose Incredible Peach Cobbler remains in the running in the Fast & Fabulous Desserts & Treats category.
Density fog
Finally, it’s not just enough to count calories any more, reports Self magazine. Now you have to worry about “caloric density.”
The idea is to eat foods that contain the fewest calories per gram, so you get filled up without bulking up. Pass the parsnips, please.