All About Food

Pastry Palooza breakfast with Nancy Olson

February 15th, 2017

Imagine the scent of freshly baked yeast, cinnamon, butter and vanilla wafting through a kitchen in the early morning. Now imagine extra soft and moist muffins with lemon glaze or ham and cheddar scones waiting for you on a kitchen table. It’s tempting to have a bite.

Nancy Olson, pastry chef, recalls her memories of grandmother’s kitchen, church basement potlucks and Parisian patisseries. The warm and comforting scent gives us strength to get through this severe winter in the…

Plans that bear fruit

December 21st, 2016

Photo by Sabrina Hornung

With winter finally beginning to kick in, some people might want to escape to the refuge of memory. Recollections of warmer, sweeter times, of climbing a ladder to pluck fruit from the trees of the family farm’s apple grove, provide a brief respite from winter’s barren chill. Wouldn’t it be nice for those fruit trees to be not only a memory, but a future promise, something to look forward to rather than something to look back on?

Until January 20, the North…

Lefse, krumkake, rommegrot, yum!

December 7th, 2016

For many of us, the holidays bring with them distinctive memories of traditional Scandinavian dishes. Fond recollections exist of lefse spread with butter and sugar, or sweet krumkake patterned with distinctive designs, that crumble to pieces in one’s mouth. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn how to create those treats yourself and carry the tradition forward?

Crooked Lane Farm in Colfax, North Dakota is providing an opportunity to learn traditional Scandinavian treat-making with its…

God Jul to Fargo

November 30th, 2016

By Amy Venn amy venn86@gmail.com

The Traditional Norsk Christmas Event celebrates its 12th year on Friday, December 2nd, from 6pm at the Sons of Norway in downtown Fargo (but the bar is open from 5:30pm). The event, hosted by Norwegian immigrant Frode Tilden, celebrates Christmas Norwegian style with traditional food, a silent auction, and some American music.

The event, according to Tilden, began with 20 or so of his friends as a nod to the Norwegian tradition of julebord, meaning…

Adventures in the coffee trade

November 22nd, 2016

By Tom Bixby and Nicole Mendoza

tom@hpr1.com, nicole.i.mendoza@ndsu.edu

You find a place like Young Blood Coffee by accident. In the morning they unlock their door, write in chalk on an A-board and put it out on the sidewalk in front.

Tim and Elisha Griffin have lived and worked in some of the best big cities in the country: Portland, San Francisco, and West Los Angeles. Recently arrived in Fargo-Moorhead, they are coffee pioneers and already feel at home. Elisha is from Portland and…

Hot toddies for cold nights

November 2nd, 2016

As much as we hate to admit it, cold and flu season is in our midst, and there’s nothing we can do about it other than load up on Vitamin C, hunker down, and hope for the best.

But if you get sideswiped by the bug, I can definitely suggest a few libations that may aid in the recovery process. I’m not an expert on the matter by any means, but I’m a firm believer in home remedies.

The first on my list is the ever classic Hot Toddy, Grandma’s go-to. Though we’re at the tail end of…

Young Blood Coffee: masterpieces in 12-ounce cups

November 2nd, 2016

By Nicole Mendoza

nicole.i.mendoza@ndsu.edu

Tim and Elisha Griffin rolled in and found their niche in Fargo, and they share a yearning even stronger than a cup of their best, a passion for the process of coffee production and ingestion. By Jove, we think they’ve got something!

They’ve lived and worked in some of the best big cities in the country: Portland, San Francisco, West Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, but here in Fargo-Moorhead they are coffee pioneers and they already feel at…

An iron in the fire

October 26th, 2016

Jonny B’s Brickhouse is not just a hotspot for fine wood fire pizzas, wings, sandwiches, and craft beers. Proprietor Jon Beyer also has a nose for community. When Jamestown North Dakota’s Pizza Hut closed its doors after 30 years Beyer saw an opportunity to reinstate a pizza-fueled reading program in the town of less than 16,000 called “Jonny B's Book Buddies.” much like Pizza Hut’s “Book it!” program in which students are rewarded with a personal pan pizza once they could…

Sampling the local flavor

October 20th, 2016

By Ben Haugmo

benhaugmo@yahoo.com

Wild rice is a crop that is marked by its “terroir,” or the unique texture, flavor, and other characteristics that are impacted by its growing environment. It’s a food that tastes like where it comes from. Each strain of wild rice is different, depending on the body of water it’s raised in. It stands to reason that in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, there’s a lot of room for variance.

The Nemath Art Center in Park Rapids, in partnership with…

Fargo-Moorhead VegFest picking up steam

October 13th, 2016

By Suzanne Carroll

suzanneehanson@yahoo.com

It has been one year since Fargo-Moorhead hosted its first annual VegFest. Since that time, the area's vegan scene has been picking up steam. In May, the Toasted Frog paid homage to plant-based eating by offering a day of vegan menu items and drinks, including Bloody Marys without the usual fish fillers.