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Fresh Sheet: Time to Greek out

John Searle, top, and Jeff Stenfors, grill gyros pita bread and meat, Sept. 24, 2015, at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church’s annual Greek Dinner Festival last year. The 81st edition of the event kicks off on Thursday. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Adriana Janovich adrianaj@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446
John Searle, top, and Jeff Stenfors, grill gyros pita bread and meat, Sept. 24, 2015, at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church’s annual Greek Dinner Festival last year. The 81st edition of the event kicks off on Thursday. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

The 81st annual Greek Dinner Festival is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Spokane’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

The event, started in 1935, sees more than 1,000 visitors each of the three days.

Dine in or carry out: Beef kapama, orzo with browned butter and myzithra cheese, cabbage rolls, souvlakia and Greek pastry, including baklava, melomakarona, or Greek spice-and-honey cookies, and koulourakia, or Greek butter-sesame cookies.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door for adults and $8 for children age 11 and younger in advance or $10 at the door. A la carte items are also available. Pastry is available daily from 11 a.m. Lunch is served daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner runs from 4:30 to 8 p.m.

Festivities take place at the church, 1703 N. Washington St. Call: (509) 328-9310. On the web: holytrinityspokane.org.

Herbal Faire set for Saturday

The second annual Spokane Herbal Faire is Saturday.

The event features music, workshops, demonstrations, vendors, face-painting, plant identification and more. It runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Unity Spiritual Center, 2900 S. Bernard St. There’s a suggested donation of $5 for admission. On the web: spokaneherbalfaire.org.

Celebrate corn on Sunday

Quillisascut Farm is hosting a celebration of Calais flint corn Sunday afternoon.

The event runs from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Fest-goers will help remove corn from cobs, put kernels through a stone mill and make polenta. They also get to taste cheese and take home a bag of stone-ground corn meal.

The cost is $35 per person. Sign up at (509) 738-2011 or quillisascutfarm@gmail.com. The farm is at 2409 Pleasant Valley Road in Rice, Washington.

Go-to blue

When home cook Alison Highberger mentioned in last month’s “In the Kitchen with … ” feature that she makes all of her own salad dressings except for blue cheese, a couple of readers offered up their go-to recipes.

Last week, Patsy Enkema of Spokane provided one she’s had for more than 30 years. This week, Judy Preston of Davenport shares her favorite, which aims to replicate Bernstein’s. When she could no longer find it on store shelves – it’s been discontinued – Preston “tried many other brands, but nothing came close.” She was inspired by Ina Garten’s version. She used her recipe as a base “and kept tweaking with it, until I got it right!” Preston said. “I will never buy blue cheese dressing again!”

So, Alison, this is for you – as well as anyone else out there who needs another recipe for homemade blue cheese dressing.

GO-TO BLUE CHEESE DRESSING

From Judy Preston of Davenport

4 ounces blue cheese

1 cup heavy cream (or half-and-half for a thinner dressing)

1 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons buttermilk powder (or a splash of buttermilk)

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar (or 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar with a pinch of dried tarragon)

1 crushed garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon each: black pepper, garlic powder, garlic salt, onion powder, Tabasco sauce, white Worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients in blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender. To keep the dressing chunky, don’t mix in the blue cheese until the very end, and just for a couple of pulses.