Cautionary tips for trick-or-treating have been around as long as most of us can remember. Decades ago, danger originated with the sociopathic neighbor masquerading as Mr. Rogers who spiked kids’ Halloween candy with razor blades. Many people recognized this horror story as urban legend conjured from rumors of a few isolated pranks. Yet fear persisted. [...]
Pear season, as columnist Jan Roberts-Dominguez pointed out this week, has indeed arrived. If you haven’t partaken yet, run down to the grocery store for some local Comice pears. They can be had for as little as 39 cents a pound. But don’t be disappointed if someone beats you to them. An Oregon-themed gift my [...]
Judging from responses, foodies must be feeling like I am — not much has happened in the food and restaurant scenes this year to really tickle our taste buds. Hence, no winner in my Foodies’ Choice awards for best new restaurant category. Some foodies deviated from the Readers’ Choice format and wrote their own ballot [...]
Fire up your taste buds, foodies. It’s time once again for the Mail Tribune Foodies’ Choice awards. Readers of this blog will recall that around this time last year, I asked local foodies to weigh in on the newspaper’s annual Readers’ Choice awards. It’s appropriate, given that about a third of all the categories relate [...]
As reliable as the changing leaves are the apples festooning the tree in my front yard every fall. I’ve had my eye on them since last month and even ventured a bite or two while they remained dry and astringent. A little sprinkling of rain later and a slight chill in the air, and suddenly, [...]
While time is running out to find or fashion the perfect Halloween costume, the folks at Medford’s Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater have skipped ahead a couple of holidays. That’s right — the deadline for entering edible architecture in the sixth annual GingerBread Jubilee is Oct. 31. This weekend, hopeful bakers can learn the tricks of [...]
I admit I’m a fan of Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” and so approached this week’s A la Carte story with an extra bit of enthusiasm. “Iron Chef,” of course, is about kitchen drama more than imparting cooking techniques, which flash by too quickly to really help the home cook. Half the fun is [...]
When my mother-in-law plants tomatoes, she dreams of replicating a once-in-a-lifetime experience: picking a tomato on Thanksgiving. It was a fluke, she told me, the fruit in question from a volunteer vine that grew up outside the garden beds’ confines. Perhaps sheltered by the gatepost, it clung to life all through the autumn chill, [...]
A food-industry fascination with crafting quick-and-easy recipes can defy a cook’s instincts and logic. Since at least two 30-minute recipes make their way across The Associated Press wire every week, there’s bound to be a real oddball every now and then. Some, like the Jerky Chili that ran in the Sept. 17 A la Carte, [...]
A few weeks ago, I bucked up and made the commitment to preparing homemade pastry for zucchini, lemon and ricotta tartlets. Yes, I had a free evening. No, I didn’t use my food processor. No, it wasn’t as horrendous as I expected it to be. And yes, the results were justified — flaky, buttery crust [...]
