Cate Gibbs could have fooled me. The 22-year-old server and part-time bartender at Ashland’s Winchester Inn devised the winning cocktail for a local competition celebrating Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 75th anniversary. Despite Gibbs’ tender age and relative inexperience, her “Viola’s Disguise” beat out creations from more than 20 Southern Oregon mixologists. “It was everything we asked [...]
Southern Oregon chocolatiers are racking up more celebrity endorsements this weekend. Guests at a Los Angeles filmmakers event honoring Matt Damon Saturday will receive goodie bags containing toffee, fudge and other chocolates from four local companies. Lillie Belle Farms of Central Point, Dagoba of Ashland, Cary’s of Grants Pass and Oregon Connection of Coos Bay were [...]
For the past 20 years, the local standard-bearer for specialty Asian ingredients has been Asia Grocery Market in a tiny strip mall clinging to Medford’s Winco shopping plaza. Now there’s a new kid in town. Taste of the Orient opened late last year at The Shoppes at Exit 24. Housed in a sparkling-clean, expansive storefront, [...]
I knew the local produce outlook was bleak, but sunshine brightened my trip to today’s season debut of the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market in Medford. As a recent food story on the market’s opener explained, salad mix is nearly the only offering for most local growers who lost field crops to an unexpected December [...]
Dragging myself out of bed in protest to Sunday’s time change, I was compensated with more than waffles at some friends’ brunch. Their parents, always good for talking up their latest food forays, shared a trustworthy tip. The couple had been to Callahan’s Siskiyou Lodge Friday evening for a special winemaker dinner. Greeted with a [...]
As one online reader sarcastically pointed out, Friday’s review of an Ashland pizzeria perhaps fell a tad short on enthusiasm. I want to give Martolli’s its due because I really do think its toppings and sauce options appeal to a wide Ashland audience, not just the tourists who will practically trip over it en route [...]
Although the weather is less spring-like than recent newspaper spreads on salad would suggest, it’s still hard to resist the siren call of fresh greens. I singled out a bunch of spinach at the grocery store last weekend. Emerald-green, velvety and surprisingly clean this time of year, bundled spinach tends toward the disheveled, tough and [...]
It took all my willpower not to whip up a batch of popcorn for Sunday’s Academy Awards. Indulged on Friday and then again on Saturday, my popcorn habit was getting a little out of hand. But given the sheer number of movies I missed that were nominated for Oscars, I have more than a few [...]
Quiche, I’ve always believed, isn’t nearly as fussy as the name implies. In my kitchen, it’s a go-to meal that can be assembled from assorted bits of produce, meat and cheese. If you have eggs in your refrigerator and refrigerated pie crust (I’m a cheater), you can have quiche in about an hour. I recently [...]
I assumed Monday’s Local Food Connection conference in Medford would reveal some new twist in the region’s food scene. Running into Suzi Ginet of Plaisance Ranch, however, reinforced a tried-and-true technique of thrifty and health-conscious cooks. Customers of her family’s Williams ranch often want bones from their certified organic beef cattle strictly with the goal [...]
