Author Archives: Sarah Lemon

Sarah Lemon

Sarah Lemon whips up stories on the Rogue Valley’s growing food scene with an enthusiasm that rivals her love of cooking. Her blog mixes culinary musings and milestones with tips and recipes you won’t find in the Mail Tribune’s weekly A la Carte section. When she’s not in the kitchen or unearthing the freshest seasonal produce, she’ll dish on local food trends, products and events. Add your own recipes, tips and ideas to this blog or e-mail slemon@mailtribune.com

Don’t overlook odd greens, wild weeds for salads

By Sarah Lemon | Published: March 11, 2010 | 0 Comments
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 gritty [...]
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Stovetop popcorn stars in sweet-salty-spicy snack

By Sarah Lemon | Published: March 9, 2010 | 0 Comments
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 reasons [...]
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Tart-pan quiche easier than pie

By Sarah Lemon | Published: March 4, 2010 | 0 Comments
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 realized, though, [...]
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Flavorful homemade bone stock also healthful

By Sarah Lemon | Published: March 2, 2010 | 0 Comments
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 of making [...]
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Rent-a-Kitchen cooks still stocking local stores

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 25, 2010 | 0 Comments
It’s been almost five years since Rent-a-Kitchen opened its Talent doors, providing a certified commercial facility for start-up businesses that otherwise couldn’t afford their own digs. The sour economy has since forced out a few small food businesses, but there’s no lack of entrepreneurs taking their places at the stove. One of these is Vintner’s Kitchen, [...]
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Will third time be a charm for New Sammy’s?

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 22, 2010 | 0 Comments
Charlene and Vernon Rollins didn’t install their restaurant in a rundown shack on Highway 99 — without so much as a sign — with the goal of reaping recognition. But their offbeat Talent eatery, New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, is getting just that from the prestigious James Beard Foundation. For the third straight year, Charlene was named [...]
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Make the most of efforts to cook live crabs

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 18, 2010 | 0 Comments
What more can I say about Dungeness crab, featured in this week’s A la Carte, except: Eat it. Now. It doesn’t get any better than wintertime in Oregon. Most Oregonians worth their salt don’t need a reminder. That’s why the primary aim with this week’s story was to provide some new recipes and highlight the new [...]
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Savor Olympics, an evening at home with poutine

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 15, 2010 | 0 Comments
Some women may consider it rank heresy to cook their own Valentine’s Day meal. I’m not one of those. Sure, I’m all for giving hard-working home cooks a night off, myself included. But a night when everyone else dines out doesn’t always deliver in the romance department. Give me a birthday, catching-up-with-friends, TGIF or just-because restaurant meal [...]
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East can meet West in one colorful dish

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 12, 2010 | 0 Comments
Cosmic forces have transpired this year to align Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day, apparently a unique coincidence by modern reckoning. The event is likely to pass as mere curiosity for most, given the distance between millennia of Chinese civilization and the Western mutation of Valentine’s Day from Catholic feast day honoring early Christian martyrs to [...]
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Take a page from history: Cook, eat ancient grains

By Sarah Lemon | Published: February 9, 2010 | 0 Comments
When I get tired of even Moroccan-spiced oatmeal, next on the breakfast menu is hot millet-amaranth cereal. No, this isn’t some new Malt-O-Meal product. It’s a porridge made from two ancient grains that get little play in modern life. While “whole grains” became a buzzword in the last decade, Americans did little to progress beyond whole versions [...]
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