Shortly after 2 a.m. on Oct. 10, employees at both branches of the North Coast Co-op were doing what nobody wants to do: throwing out food. Some worked 12-hour shifts through the evening, pouring out milk, throwing out cheese and tofu, hauling legs of lamb, ox tails and cartons of eggs to the Dumpsters out […]
On the Table
Posted inEat + Drink
The Cookies
My answer for any emotional extreme — sadness, joy, stress — is food. Recently my partner, who works in the production department at the Journal, was under a tight deadline. Naturally, the voice in my head was screaming: Must. Make. Cookies. But here’s the thing. Even though (or maybe because) I have a culinary background, […]
Posted inEat + Drink
We are Never Only Talking About Food
I am always talking about food. Ask anybody. Better yet, try to have a conversation about anything else with me and keep an eye on your stopwatch to see how fast I can steer us back. Why? Well, that’s likely a longer column. But the how is easy: Food touches everything. Food is life or […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Goat Cheese Galore in Bayside
Somehow, lavender is not the first scent you expect on a goat farm. But Karin Eide, owner and operator of Spring Hill Farmstead Goat Cheese in Bayside, is probably not what you imagine when you think of goat farmers, either. With a mane of fiery red hair, a love of bright colors and seemingly-endless tolerance […]
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The Watergate ‘Tricky Dick’ Cake
If you grew up in the Midwest in the 1970s, you didn’t attend a family holiday, barbecue, reunion or get-together without someone bringing a version of ambrosia salad: Some concoction of whipped cream mixed with gelatin, pineapples, marshmallows, raisins, nuts, maraschino cherries, fruitcake candied fruit pieces, sprinkles, coconut flakes, spam, canned mandarin oranges and on […]
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More Than Imitation
Much inspires us to drink. We lift a glass in celebration or raise one in sympathy. We drink to ease social interactions, to find some liquid courage. We debrief at happy hour, bond at the bar and get giddy at brunch. To meet for a drink is how we do. For those of us whose […]
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Spicy Chicken Sandwich Envy
At Popeyes drive-throughs and glass doors across the country this week, steering wheels were slapped and shoulders sagged as patrons read signs posted by beleaguered employees informing them the Spicy Chicken Sandwich was sold out. For those gentle souls sheltered from the fracas, after the chain introduced its new sandwich — a fried chicken breast […]
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Add Melon
Great news: Melon season is in full swing. The list of melon varieties I encountered during recent visits to the Arcata farmers market and the North Coast Co-op is 16 names long, some lovely, like Swan Lake or Snow Leopard, others intriguing, like Toad Skin. We are fortunate a number of farmers grow melons in […]
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What’s Good: County Fair Edition
First, a shoutout to the folks who amble to the fairgrounds toting bottles of water, sandwiches and baggies of carrot sticks. Bless your forethought and discipline. Say kind things about the rest of us, whom you’ll surely outlive, when we’re gone. Along with your excellent cholesterol counts, by forgoing the indulgences of the fair you […]
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Sun, Moonand Fig
It’s the still midsummer air that reminds me to check on the figs. With their deep green leaves shading them, figs are having the coolest, quietest summer of anyone. I remember many years ago my siblings and I didn’t care for them due to their odd looking insides (the flesh and seeds of the cut […]
Posted inEat + Drink
What’s Good: Sauced
In the way that Colette might have looked back on her love affairs with a calmer eye and an appreciation for the sudden and temporary passions that drove her to reckless choices, so do I look back on the trail of condiments with which I have been briefly and tumultuously obsessed. The first was likely […]
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Butter and Belonging at Red Lobster
My immigrant Japanese family came to America and fell in love with cheap steaks, sausage, corned beef and cabbage, lasagna and rye bread. But they drew a deep line at American seafood. In New York State in the ’70s and ’80s, this meant shrimp doused in opaque sauces, dry fillets armored in cracker crumbs, frozen […]