Editor’s note: The Journal’s website is a treasure trove of recipes to explore while you shelter in place. This week we’ve plucked a Simona Carini’s simple, three-ingredient homemade pasta from the stash (May 23, 2013), as comforting to eat as it is meditative to make. In the beginning there is flour and water. Make the […]
Pasta
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Entertaining for the Hesitant Host
I was nervous the first time I gave a dinner party but it turned out to be a blast. Two friends from the Vancouver Unitarian Church annihilated the tuna fish casserole I served. An unlikely trio, we spent a merry evening in my studio apartment laughing, telling stories and looking out the bay window at […]
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Gone After Dinner
Cork-down wine bottle chandeliers light Marcelli’s Italian Restaurant from the chipped green linoleum counter on one side to the corner that was once walled off during the spot’s time as an Italian deli but is now decorated with framed news articles. Outside the front windows, cars flash by on Fifth Street’s three lanes as a […]
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The Traditionalists
Two very different Italian restaurants are sticking to their traditions, one in a landmark building with classic steaks and pasta dishes, the other with an old-country, farm- to-table menu. Hotel Ivanhoe Restaurant & Saloon The Hotel Ivanhoe Restaurant and Saloon feels like it’s been there forever. Indeed the building and the redwood bar inside have […]
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Mac and Cheese Appreciation
We are living in a golden age — golden brown, really — of mac and cheese. Diners, high-end restaurants, bars and food trucks alike all offer their takes on the quintessential comfort food. It’s a dish that contains multitudes: the basic elbow and cheddar, stretchy forkfuls drizzled in truffle oil and duck fat, and deep […]
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Heart of Gold
It’s easy to wax philosophical and talk of the ephemeral pleasures of the world, watching waves wash away our footprints and blossoms wither like it’s no big deal. And yet, for some of us, the here-today-gone-tomorrow specials at a restaurant can spike panic as we listen to the server rattle them off. What if they […]
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Eat Your Spaghetti
If not the smell of the sauce (or “gravy” as they used to call it), the huge portrait of the owners with a tuxedoed Marlon Brando and young Sophia Loren that hangs in the back room of Roy’s Club (218 D St., Eureka) should tip you off that you’re in an old-school Italian-American joint. Like […]
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Crab Invasion
In the same way that pumpkin spiced everything shows up in the fall, in winter legions of crab specialties hit our county like Attack of the Crab Monsters, which maybe you caught during the Crab Festival. The overwhelm — not to mention the underwhelm — is enough to send you straight back to cracking your […]
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The Veal Deal
Some days call for a fancy lunch. Birthdays, meeting friends you haven’t seen in a while, brutal weeks at the office — eating something wadded in paper will not do. You need little bread plates, ironed tablecloths and a plate of something slightly romantic that required deglazing and reducing. Sadly, not all of these days […]
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Roman Holiday
Our version of a heat wave is around 75 degrees. Still, who wants to cook when there are lawn chairs to be filled and bocce balls to be rolled? If incoming waves of zucchini and tomatoes (it’s good to have friends in Willow Creek) are keeping you in the kitchen, here are a couple of […]