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Food Matters

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Food Matters: New food books for your summer reading list

BOOKSFood books to add to your summer reading listSince we’re talking about books from Michael Pollan and Michael Fracasso this week, I thought I’d throw out a few more recommendations while we’re at it.First up is Jessica Soffer’s first novel, “Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24) the ...

Ximena Guerra runs a catering company called Ximena’s Latin Flavors, and one of her most popular dishes in this Cuatro Leches cake.

Food Matters: NadaMoo! adds flavors, Les Dames raise money for Jill Lewis

NEW PRODUCTSAustin-based NadaMoo! adds chocolate almond chip, sweet cherry limeCoconut milk ice cream has come a long way since Austinite Amy Ramm started NadaMoo! in 2004 to give her sister, whose nutritionist recommended she avoid dairy to help with her allergies, a taste of one of her favorite foods. The ...

If you want to avoid the neon, chemically processed cocktail cherries you buy from the store, you can also make your own at home. The difference in color between natural and store-bought is striking.

Food Matters: The buzz about maraschino cherries; tomato and basil pie from Jack Allen’s

COCKTAILS Making (or buying) better maraschino cherries Did you see that Buzzfeed blog post about maraschino cherries that made the rounds last week? It showed the chemically altered path from tree to bottle that most of those artificially dyed cherries make from tree to bottle, and even though they are ...

Dry-aged steaks are prized for their flavor and texture.

Food Matters: Whataburger sells spicy ketchup in H-E-B, Thai Fresh owner publishes first book

NEW PRODUCTS Look for Whataburger, Boomerang’s Pies in local stores Now you don’t have to swing by Whataburger to get your spicy ketchup fix. The Texas-based fast-food chain has recently released a trio of condiments available for sale at H-E-Bs across the state, including the spicy version of its regular ...

An Austin company called 100th Monkey Mushroom Farm sells a variety of mushroom-growing kits, like this one in which I grew pioppino mushrooms. Not seen is a humidity bag that helps keep the moisture in.

Food Matters: Local company helps you grow your own mushrooms; summer cooking classes for kids

NEW PRODUCTS Austinites sell kits to help you grow your own mushrooms Growing a vegetable garden is one thing, but what about mushrooms? In the past few years, I’ve had several grow-your-own mushroom kits cross my desk, but even with what I thought was careful attention to watering and growing ...

Skillet asparagus with grapefruit is one of the dishes from “The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen” that Matt and Ted Lee will teach at a class at Central Market.

Food Matters: Barbecue bible from Texas Monthly editor, Epic meat bars, plus a recipe from Charleston’s Lee brothers

BARBECUE Bourdain’s favorite blogger-turned-author to speak about Texas barbecue By now, you’ve likely heard about Daniel Vaughn’s recent departure from a job as an architect in Dallas to become Texas Monthly’s barbecue editor, a new and much-publicized position where he’ll help executive editor Pat Sharpe assemble the magazine’s influential Top ...

Casey Smith and Gail Totten have started a series of cooking classes designed to teach English to non-native speakers called Cooking Up English through the University United Methodist Church on the UT campus. Cooking Up English just added Spanish classes.

Food Matters: Dark Rye wins James Beard, Cooking Up English adds Spanish classes

AWARDSOnline magazine Dark Rye wins James Beard Award for best group blogDark Rye, the online magazine that Whole Foods Market launched about a year ago, won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Group Food Blog at an awards ceremony Friday night in New York City.The magazine, spearheaded by Vadan ...

Hedy Goldsmith says her Junk in Da Trunk cookies, including in ‘Baking Out Loud,’ just might define her career as a pastry chef.

Food Matters: Big flavors in ‘Baking Out Loud,’ new chips and beer, plus Cinco de Mayo and fund-raising events

COOKBOOKSBig ideas, even bigger flavors in ‘Baking Out Loud’ May is a big month for Hedy Goldsmith. The Miami pastry chef will find out next week whether she has won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, an award for which she was a finalist last year. (Austin chef ...

Food Matters: Fundraisers for West, Passaporte Brasil, cooking classes and ‘Top Chef’s’ Fabio

FUNDRAISERS Citywide bake sale, barbecue fundraisers slated for West residents The food community was quick to respond after last week’s explosion in West. Within a few days, several fundraisers had already been set up, including a barbecue fundraiser with Man Up Texas BBQ (manuptexasbbq.blogspot.com) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ...

Duchman Family Winery has made two wines —Mandolin Red and Harmony White — for the upcoming Old Settler’s Music Festival.

Food Matters: Texas wines available through Amazon.com; Curtis Stone to appear at Tanger food event

Despite having some of the tightest, trickiest wine laws in the country, Texas is now on the list of states to which Amazon.com can ship wine. Amazon Wine (amazon.com/wine) launched in November, allowing customers in about a dozen states to buy wine through its site, but last week, the online ...

Food Matters: A recipe for El Monumento enchiladas; Qui honored at state Capitol

ASK ADDIE I wanted you let you know about a most unusual healthy enchilada. The new Monument Restaurant overlooking the San Gabriel River in Georgetown serves the best sweet potato and swiss chard enchilada with a walnut cream sauce. It is really something unique, and I think they might share ...

Bill Varney and Terry Thompson-Anderson are leading cooking and gardening classes at the new URBANherbal in Fredericksburg, which is also a retail outlet for many herb-based cooking and body care products.

Food Matters: New cooking classes in Fredericksburg, plus details on Austin Restaurant Week and a recipe for blueberry and coffee muffins

FREDERICKSBURGHerb farm family returns to roots with new storeBill Varney has been in the herb business for more than 20 years.In 1985, the former Houston landscape nursery buyer set up an apothecary shop called Varney’s Chemist Laden, which eventually grew, evolved and expanded to the four-acre Fredericksburg Herb Farm, which ...

Jaden Hair’s new book “Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites,” features a variety of family friendly Asian food, such as this Asian Slaw with Wasabi-Soy Dressing. Photo by Jaden Hair.

Food Matters: Slow Money Austin connects food entrepreneurs, investors at pitchfest; Beanitos launches new white bean tortilla chips

BUSINESSSlow Money Austin hosting spring pitchfest next weekThe television show “Shark Tank” has brought the process of how entrepreneurs pitch to potential investors into a very high-profile spotlight, but a local nonprofit has its own version, with nicer investors and fewer suits, taking place next week.Slow Money Austin, the local ...

Food Matters: Pati Jinich shares her chicken tinga recipe, plus SXSW food news

FOOD MATTERSWith PBS show, book, Pati Jinich makes regional Mexican cuisine accessible for American cooksPati Jinich didn’t grow up to be a chef, although she comes from a family of accomplished cooks. She dedicated her life to politics until seven years ago when she decided she would celebrate and demystify ...

Cherry-topped coffee-roasted pork tenderloin.

Food Matters: Seafood mislabeling widespread, including in Austin; three area farmers markets moving this week

SEAFOOD Study finds seafood mislabeling widespread throughout U.S., including Austin In a report released last week by Oceana, an international advocacy group that works to protect the world’s oceans, almost half of the seafood tested at 43 grocery stores and restaurants in Austin and Houston was mislabeled. The Texas samples ...

BOLO Patisserie is a relatively new Austin food company that makes a line of cocktail-inspired jams, including the Mai Tai, as well as granola, brownies and other baked goods, some of which are gluten-free.

Food Matters: Weeknight spaghetti recipe, plus cocktail-inspired jams

LOCAL COMPANY Cocktail-inspired jams are just the start for local baker Jenny Crossland used to work as a baker by day and a bartender by night, but when she moved from Dallas to Austin last year, she decided to focus her energy on her company, BOLO Patisserie. But instead of ...

Since 1975, Lorilee Dodson, left, has been making and selling peanut brittle through her company, Lorilee’s Gourmet. Her daughter Wanda Escobar, right, now helps her in a new storefront on Sam Bass Road in Round Rock, where they sell, in addition to peanut brittle, confections including candied walnuts, pecan brittle, cocoa mix and even chocolate-covered strawberries.

Food Matters: After almost 40 years, Lorilee’s Gourmet owner is the queen of peanut brittle, plus new projected opening date for Whole Foods at the Domain

LOCAL COMPANY Peanut brittle company almost 40 years in the making Lorilee Dodson has been selling peanut brittle, candied nuts and other confections since 1975, but it wasn’t until recently that she started to embrace the idea that candymaking was the right career path. In fact, she didn’t even know ...

Nita Garcia is one of the Austin winners of the 2013 Good Food Awards, which were handed out in San Francisco last weekend.

Food Matters: Martha Stewart goes meatless for new book, plus a new supper club at Franklin Barbecue

COOKBOOKS Martha goes meatless for newest book Behind the Martha Stewart empire are dozens of chefs and kitchen staff who create and test recipes for the many outlets within the Martha brand, and this month, they have released a new book, “Meatless: More than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian ...

Chunky chicken chili is one of the recipes in Nisa Burns’ new book, “Kitchenability 101.”

Cooking in small spaces and other classes, plus peace through pies for MLK

COOKING CLASSES Cooking without a stove or in a small space? No problem for ‘Kitchenability’ author Central Market has a slew of notable cooking classes coming up, including one with bestselling baking author Peter Reinhart, who will tackle gluten-free and sugar-free baking on Jan. 23 to promote his newest book, ...

The cheddar ale soup from Fredericksburg Brewing Company is one of the recipes in the new book, “Fischer & Wieser’s Fredericksburg Flavors.”

Food Matters: Fischer & Wieser share a taste of Fredericksburg history, recipes in new book

COOKBOOKS Fischer & Wieser share a taste of Fredericksburg history, recipes in new book Did you know that one of the country’s largest gourmet food companies started as a roadside fruit stand? It’s a tale that Mark Wieser has told countless times. His parents planted a peach orchard near Fredericksburg ...