All About Food

Quack Quack

February 11th, 2015

The fun about writing for the reader, for me, is finding these places I like to eat at and being able to brag about them to you.

I wanted to share with you a place in Bismarck that I was introduced to two years ago during their Street Fair. I was hungry for a really good salad and really nice, comfy soup, not street fair food. I have nothing against street fair food (I like a good hot dog and I will fight for the last cheese curd too) but because it was pouring rain and cold, I needed…

Say ‘Cheese,’ darling: Quality cheese is worth the price

February 7th, 2015

There is cheese and then there is cheese: hand-crafted and aged well to allow all the microbes to work their magic; or mass produced as a stodgy yellow substance stored as slices between sheets of plastic with a nuclear half-life.

Cheese is very much a part of the daily American diet and the economic darling of the National Dairy Management office.

America is ranked as the 11th largest cheese consumer on an international scale with the average personal consumption of around 30-plus…

Cooking With a Friend

January 29th, 2015

My friend Barb wanted me to teach her how to make my version of falafels. It really is the version that a coworker from my Full Circle Restaurant days shared with our staff.

For those of you who do not have a clue what I am talking about, falafels are made from garbanzo beans (some call them chickpeas). Fava beans can also be used.

Falafels are full of delicious spices and served on pita bread, or in my case I like to put them into a wrap. They have humus, tahini sauce and lettuce too. I…

Introducing sommelier Jean Taylor

January 21st, 2015

Photo by Dan Francis

Fargo’s flourishing dining scene has reached a new high.

Jean Taylor, of Mosaic Foods (parent company of Mezzaluna and Rustica), recently became the region’s first certified sommelier after passing the Court of Master Sommeliers’ difficult three-part, Level II exam.

As a professional wine steward, a sommelier works as a trained and highly knowledgeable spirits guide for restaurants and their patrons.

“I can have a conversation with you and understand what you like and why you like…

Road Trip Cuisine

January 16th, 2015

Welcome back, all you HPR readers, from the holidays. I hope you had a great holiday, as much as I did.

Over my next four articles I will talk about (1) All the food I surrounded myself by on my break, totally shameless (2) Some new people I met and that love they have for cooking so they shared their favorite items with me (3) The importance of feeding yourself through relaxing and (4) A very BIG lesson I learned in the world of catering.

“Road Trip with Lora”

I'm so excited to share…

The Ultimate New Year’s Eve Guide

December 23rd, 2014

Cover by Max Morlock

Plenty of free champagne, rowdy music, swanky parties and exquisite food will be going around this Wednesday, December 31. Whether you want to treat yourself to a fancy meal, party along with your favorite rock band or play dress up, we’ve done our best to give you the most comprehensive guide to all things New Year’s Eve in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

Highlighted are some of the folks behind the most above-and-beyond dinners and/or parties in town. Don’t hesitate to book…

Plum Pudding a Christmas Tradition

December 23rd, 2014

When it comes to re-gifting I think the number one item would be fruit cake. That boat anchor of technicolor dried fruits and maraschino cherries bound together in a molasses-based cake mixture that has a nuclear half-life. The problem with fruitcake, outside of being inedible, is people get it confused with plum pudding, a rich dense alcohol soaked masterpiece that adorns every British Christmas Day table.

It is a bit late in the day to make one for this Christmas, well that is if you…

Gotta-Have-It Cookbooks

December 12th, 2014

I collect, or amass, cookbooks the way squirrels stash nuts for the winter. Our family room, perched at the uppermost part of our house, is part workout room, part artsy office and is dominated by a wall of cookbooks. Importantly, those books have all been read, earmarked and referred to frequently over the years.

With the advent of the Internet it is easy to just type in a search phrase and a number of recipe options will pop up. I have done that in a pinch, but I prefer my trusted…

Going “Nuts”

December 10th, 2014

So let's talk about nuts and the holidays. I do mean the nuts you eat of course. “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” definitely comes to mind as I write this, and now it is continually looping and stuck in my head! I think it's really interesting that, for me, the first thing I grab is holiday candy, any kind for that matter. It’s everywhere, but there's so much more out there to munch on that you can get your sweet fix from, something a little healthier. I'm…

From Asian to Mexican

November 28th, 2014

Usually I write about my food adventures to Minneapolis or Jamaica. But, hey, we drove 45 minutes due east and found some yummy food in the home of our friends Lucy and Tom of Detroit Lakes.

My husband and I have lucked out twice this month eating really, really well due to Lucy.

One weekend, she taught us how to make sushi, and another weekend she made some amazing Mexican food.

The first time Lucy invited us and a few of her friends over, to learn how to make sushi, it was really fun.…