The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Let's talk about Washington state's wine industry and it's playing a significant role in rural economic diversification efforts. I find this to be invaluable information today because we still have people who are misinformed about the value of our...

Permitted to permit! The word is out, the rules are explicate and to participate in the Walla Walla Farmers Market as a vendor selling foods of any kind, you must have liability insurance and a health permit, plus any other permits your booth may...

Today, I boarded an airplane coming home from the annual Seattle Green Festival where 2,400 people attended. I spoke in the afternoon to a packed room of people who share a common interest in the way we eat and think about food today, a theme that...

Today, I received word about a food contest I'd entered and won. This was a bet I took from a friend who said I was too good to send a recipe into Tony Tantillo, Safeway Stores fresh produce representative. The truth is I am neither too smart nor... Full story

Wine weekend is over and done for another year and I have some information to share with those who didn't make this year's event: IT WAS WONDERFUL! Of course, you can always get down to your favorite wineries any weekend through the coming months... Full story

A nyone who knows me knows I am a yoga freak, on my mat practicing each morning before coffee or hello. Yoga and stretching keeps me vital, limber and most at peace with everyone and everything around me. I have practiced this method of living for...

This week I visited my old friend and associate Chef/ Organic Activist Jesse Cool. Back in the early '90s, Jesse asked me to take her place as Executive Chef at her popular Flea Street Café in Menlo Park, California, while she wrote her first cookboo... Full story

Once again the wineries of our region are preparing for May 6, spring release weekend. To ready myself for this year's downtown party, I went to the wineries a little early to quench my fascination for food-friendly red wine, and ended up at Walla... Full story

I t's raining again, so what's new? Okay, it's good for the garden and the farmers and the wild things that fly and creep, but sometimes you just want to feel free of an umbrella. Am I the only person in the Touchet Valley who wants spring to be... Full story

I went grocery shopping today. I unloaded the four canvas bags, took off my shoes and sat down to balance my check book. Though I'd heard the cashier say the number, as I wrote the check it really hurt to see $77 missing from my checkbook register... Full story

I n the food and wine business, the weather has everything to do with the harvest. The recent weeks of rain and snow flurries here in the Great Northwest are what make great grapes for crush and make next fall's late-harvest vegetables so abundant.... Full story

This afternoon, Wild Bill of Wild Bill's Organic Patit Street Garden, Dayton, and I had our seasonal over-the-fence-visit. Bill's in the planning stages of his 2011 organic summer garden. In a couple of months he'll plant various leafy greens, corn,...

I n the wine business, there's nothing more apparent than one designated wine growing AVA compared to another. For those of you who may be new to wine lingo, AVA is short for American Viticulture Area, an official term designated to wine-grape...

I found it very comforting to be home this weekend to answer letters from you, readers, to re-pot house plants and do a little cooking of all things. Last week, I had such an incredible wine tasting while visiting Livermore, California, wine... Full story

A rriving in Park City, Utah, I was met by staff of the Washington School Inn Bed and Breakfast who drove me to the B & B where I was booked to stay for the week of the Sundance Film Festival. I'd been hired to cook by a private group of guests who b...

While visiting wineries along the North Coast this week, I had the fortune to dine with friends in Mendocino, who served a wonderful Chicken Tandoori. I love this dish and always thought I needed to have a Tandoori pot to make it in. I guess figurati...

This morning I watched a gaggle of snow geese honk their way over the house, flying north. I looked up between their feathered underbellies, little orange legs tucked tightly under their bodies, and caught a glimpse of the lavender sky, dappled in vi... Full story

Feeling a little blue this weekend having not been able to celebrate the holidays with family in California due to booked engagements, I pulled myself together and caught the 7:45 out of Pasco to Phoenix. I had agreed to speak to a room of guests at...

Greetings from another winter food and wine event, in glorious Aspen, Colorado! Yesterday it was demonstrations in Agra-Agra, the vegetarian red ocean algae made into a gelatin used in making liquid-dessert molds. Tonight I cooked dinner for 16...

While attending a champagne tasting last week in Manhattan, New York, I was blown away by the exceptional differences in tastes and styles of the all-French tasting. After a visit and dinner with associates, I returned to my room with the nagging tho...

I am a pear lover! That's right. I love a good winter pear, and what constitutes a good pear is simple: ripeness without bruising. I was in Andy's earlier today, and the produce clerk came around the corner with a box of beautiful Washington State Or...

The first winter snow recedes, and what do we find? Mushy gardens. So what now, weather person? Maybe more rain, wind, even another good dusting of snow? Are we experiencing global warming or just a mild winter? Even the Farmer's Almanac can't seem t... Full story

When long-time cohort Desi Kitchens unexpect­edly strolled up nodding her head in agreement about our winter Cabernets, I thought, who better to pal around with during Barrel Tasting Weekend than Desi, who equally loves wine. First Up: Foundry Cellar...

Recently, someone asked me about the validity of Califor­nia Cuisine in today's restaurant market. I was surprised by this question because without California Cuisine, we'd still be eating canned foods, meat and vegetables dusted in DDT. In fact,... Full story

The holidays are quickly approaching, and I have a quick recipe here I think you readers might appre­ciate along with a great wine pairing. When Wine Guy mentioned that one of his clients asked if I might share a quick, cold-processed, pickled food... Full story