Food

I remember standing in the kitchen with my mum, lining up jars of pickles on the table, ready to be sealed and carried outside. In winter, our apartment balcony became an extra pantry: a barrel of sauerkraut beside jars of fermented green tomatoes and gherkins, vinegar-pickled bell peppers and bottles of tomato juice.

Long before they were given the name “Coeur d’Alene” by French traders and trappers, they called themselves “Schitsu’umsh,” meaning “The Discovered People” or “Those Who Are Found Here.”

Some places give off a happy vibe, and Bluebird’s Cottage in Spokane Valley is one of them.

Every Monday during Mom’s last three years living in her duplex, except for the several Mondays she was out of town, I took her a batch of home-cooked dishes, often the products of my incessant recipe testing. If you’re a Community Cookbook regular, you know that she must have sampled quite a variety of dishes.

Pizza Hut will once again be treating voracious readers this summer.

Sure, you can serve Mom breakfast in bed or book a reservation for a spendy brunch, but what if Mom would rather have a dog – as in a hot dog slathered with chili on top?

Looking for a way to take your baking to the next level? Try rye flour, a sneaky way to add complex flavors, a tender crumb and a little nutrition, especially in sweet baked goods.

Cinco de Mayo is on May 5. It is more than a holiday celebrating a military victory in the distant past or a single culture. At a deeper level, it’s a celebration of the human spirit and of mankind’s quest for freedom and dignity. Cinco de Mayo isn’t just a once-a-year holiday; it’s a process and a state of mind.

Rhubarb, the perennial vegetable with its characteristic red stalks, is primarily available in a short window of spring. It can be baked, pickled, poached or otherwise cooked and still retain the delightfully tart flavor it’s known for. Often, it is paired with sweet strawberries to tame its sharpness.

Since food writer Molly Stevens published her cookbook “All About Braising” in 2004, she’s often wondered why it still resonates. To this day, she regularly hears from readers old and new, which is a good thing, because Stevens says she never tires of talking about braising.

Millions of Americans start their days with a cup (or three) of rich coffee made from freshly roasted beans.

Spring in the Inland Northwest is an invigorating time of year. The warming temperatures and increasing daylight hours are melting the winter doldrums away. The vast, rolling fields of Eastern Washington and North Idaho are turning green with emerging crops of wheat and other grains, potatoes, lentils and beans. Farmers are fully engaged in the new growing season.

The answer to “What’s for dinner?” usually revolves around the choice of protein, but it doesn’t always have to. While we tend to think of sauces as a condiment or supplement to the food at the center of the plate, a good one can easily be made the star.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – The San Luis Obispo region of California is known for the beauty of its coastline and a relaxed pace of living, but despite its long history of winemaking, it has never broken through with the public as a coveted source for great wines. This may soon change.

There’s nothing like a fried chicken sandwich to put a giant smile on a sandwich lover’s face.

Mardi Gras heralds the start of the Christian Lenten season with its 40 days of prayer and sacrifice culminating in Easter Sunday. Shouldn’t there be a kind of Mardi Gras-style celebration at the end of this long, austere process?

If you’re feeling burned out by your daily cooking routine, you might reflexively try to pare things down, using fewer ingredients and bare-minimum recipes, but cookbook author Jerrelle Guy does the opposite – she adds something. She was able to reclaim her joy and creativity in the kitchen by sprinkling a little extra flair into her meals, tapping what was already in her pantry as inspiration to make everyday food feel special.

What do America’s national parks taste like? In Northern California, perhaps it’s the earthiness of forest mushrooms and sweetness of crab meat. Along the Southern border, maybe the basso of pine nuts and tang of cactus paddles. And in the East, how about … a whole lot of country ham? That delicious thought came up while Nina Elder and Melissa Knific were researching their 2026 book, the ...

Joe Absolor discovered that you can indeed go home again, a fact that delights local food lovers.