My latest Northwest Edge post for Amazon.com’s Al Dente blog features a review of San Francisco author and friend Laura Werlin’s latest book, “Grilled Cheese, Please!: 50 Scrumptiously Cheesy Recipes,” along with her recipe for Hog Island Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Yum!

Cooking a recipe or three from Laura’s book would be a good lead-in to the Seattle Cheese Festival at the Pike Place Market, May 14 and 15.

My latest Northwest Edge column for the for the spring issue of Wine Press Northwest features URBAN enoteca, a totally cool new “wine center” just south of downtown Seattle.

My latest blog post for Amazon.com’s Al Dente blog features Seattle chef and caterer Lisa Dupar’s new book, “Fried Chicken & Champagne: A Romp Through the Kitchen at Pomegranate Bistro.”

This terrific tome has been nominated for two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards: First Book and American.

It includes Lisa’s recipe for Fried Chicken, which she’s been making since her high-school years.

Graham Kerr and fellow panelists at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2011

My latest article for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine features a story about Graham Kerr, a.k.a. The Galloping Gourmet, who lives in a small community outside of Seattle.

Graham Kerr, a.k.a., The Galloping Gourmet, being interviewed at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show 2011

He planted a kitchen garden and, by so doing, hopes to change the world (again) thanks to his latest book: “Growing at the Speed of Life: A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden” (Perigee, $27).

(Second photograph courtesy of Amy Muzyka-McGuire)

My latest Seattle Times article for Pacific Northwest magazine features a love story about local cocktail king A.J. Rathbun.

He and wife Natalie, and their two 80-pound dogs, Sookie and Rory, set out for Italy last fall, and will be back stateside in April.

Meanwhile, they’re enjoying la dolce vita in a rented villa in Italy.

Here’s their story and a recipe for a Spanish-Cava-based cocktail called “The Very Vernalagnia.”

Cin cin to lovers everywhere!

Ever wonder how to muddle a margarita? Stock your home bar? Shake up the perfect martini?

My latest article for Amazon’s Al Dente blog, entitled, A Bevy of Bartending Books, features mini book reviews on two valuable tomes: “Bartending for Dummies” and “The Bartender’s Best Friend.”

Either or both should be on every cocktail-lover’s bookshelf!

A blind comparative tasting during “Dairy 101” at Darigold

Yesterday, one of my articles entitled, “Strength in Numbers,” ran in The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine. It featured Darigold, a Seattle-based dairy co-operative that is made up of more than 500 regional farmers and has been in business since 1918.

“Dairy 101” class at Darigold

There is also a recipe for Dill Compound Butter that is really worth trying, and a gorgeous photo of compound butters by award-winning local photograph E. Jane Armstrong.

Cottage cheese is the most artisan product made in the dairy

My latest article for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine–Good Grub–was really fun to research, write, photograph (and, I hope, to read). It highlighted one of the monthly Saturday-morning cooking classes for kids and their parents offered in partnership by Premera Blue Cross and Tom Douglas Restaurants.

Here are some photos that Spencer took during the class I chronicled on a sunny-bright day in early March at the Palace Kitchen in downtown Seattle.

The two young men in the class watch intently as garlic sauce whirls in the commercial-sized food processor

The fruits of our labor. . .a groaning-board buffet of all the dishes prepared that day

A special shout out to all the mothers in the world. Today is your day to shine!

And to commemorate this special day, here’s my latest story for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine.

It features a very special mother and woman–Food Network star Melissa d’Arabian–cooking with her two twin daughters, Margaux and Ocèane, and was quite a fun one for me to write and for Spencer and Seattle Times staff photographer Ken Lambert to shoot. (These are Spencer’s adorable shots.)

Here’s the beautiful Pain Perdu (Chocolate French Toast) that mère (mother) and the girls whipped up the morning we visited.

And here’s the final product fresh out of the oven with unsweetened whipped cream oozing over the top. Très magnifique!

Yesterday my article on Emmer Farro, an ancient grain that’s winning new respect in modern kitchens, came out in The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine. The article included a wonderful recipe for Butternut-Squash, Black-Currant and Blue-Cheese Farro Risotto created by executive chef Angie Roberts of BOKA Kitchen + Bar, located at the Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle.