Monthly Archives: July 2020

Located 17 miles outside of Seattle, the Herbfarm has become a celebrated destination for seasonal Northwest cuisine. For Chef Traunfeld, a James Beard Award winner, inspiration comes from the restaurant’s own farm and on-site gardens. Angelica flavors the just-picked rhubarb in springtime, and needles of native Douglas Fir might infuse a sorbet. This delicious eggless gratin pairs basil and zucchini. Over 200 of his prized recipes are included in The Herbfarm Cookbook (Morrow Books, HarperCollins Publishers) available through your local bookstore or www.amazon.com.

In the Netherlands, "hangop" was an old-fashioned dessert made by "hanging up" a double-cloth sack filled with buttermilk overnight. The thickened buttermilk was then folded into thick whipped cream topped with brown sugar, cinnamon and crumbled "beschuit" (rusk). Here is our updated version that can be enjoyed for special breakfasts, healthy snacks or even dessert.

Shelburne Farms is a 1,400-acre working farm, National Historic Landmark and nonprofit environmental education organization whose mission is to cultivate a conservation ethic by teaching and demonstrating the stewardship of natural and agricultural resources. Created in 1886, it has a magnificent inn on the shores of Lake Champlain with a renowned seasonal restaurant and a breathtaking landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. whose vision guided the development of the farm, fields and forest. Purchase their award-winning farmhouse cheddar cheese and new cookbook, “Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont” by Melissa Pasanen with Rick Gencarelli, Viking Studio, at www.shelburnefarms.org.

The Ohms family loves a good juice bar. It's tradition. We always include little pitchers of spiced roasted pineapple purée, watermelon purée and ginger simple syrup; bottles of chilled seltzer; and a colorful bowl of sliced lemons, limes, oranges and maraschino cherries. Can't forget the cherries. If you love melons of all sorts, you can modify this easy recipe so that it is half watermelon and half cantaloupe.

This dressing is good with firm, cool-weather greens such as spinach, radicchio, endive or escarole. They can withstand a bit of warmth without wilting and the sweetness of the dressing takes the edge off any slight bitterness, for those who don't love that chicory tang.

Here's a new twist on mixed vegetables. It works with any vegetables that can be cut into long strips, but I like to use ones of contrasting colors. This winter version works well as a side dish served with meat, and is a good starch substitute. (A summer version might combine yellow summer squash, red peppers, green peppers and onions.)

Nestled in the foothills of the Absaroka Mountains in Montana’s Paradise Valley, Chico Hot Springs Resort is a rustic oasis where we floated in steaming hot springs, and feasted in their quaint 100-year old dining room. The service was impeccable and the food divine. Most of the produce was harvested from their own organic garden and geothermal greenhouses. We so enjoyed their signature Fennel Breadsticks, Vegetable Tower and irresistible Orange Flambe. If you can’t visit soon, you must get “A Montana Table: Recipes from Chico Hot Springs Resort” by Seabring Davis (ThreeForks, an imprint of the Globe Pequot Press).