Food

You can hear me attempt to pronounce that headline at the end of this Food for Thought. It's the Polish for Bon Appetit, literally "eat well" and we certainly did.

Wouldn't it be great to have chocolate Easter octopuses instead of bunnies?

Just think -- eight legs to bite off  instead of just a couple of measly ears.   But of course we're not talking about dessert today.  Today we're talking about main course holiday eating for  Passover and Easter.

What kind of kid prefers crepes to pop tarts for breakfast? 

Northwest milk industry leaders are hustling to allay fears about radiation in their products. The Environmental Protection Agency found small amounts of radiation in a milk sample taken from a Spokane-area dairy last week.

The agency has stepped up its monitoring program earthquake and nuclear plant disasters in Japan. Blair Thompson is the spokesman for the Washington Dairy Products Commission. He says Northwest dairies are concerned about the findings, but there is no immediate risk to residents.

The headlined question can be further refined -- and refined is the word -- to "Light, Tex-Mex, Salsa Con Queso, or Italia?"

One of Washington's oldest and most recognizable wine brands, L’Ecole, is growing up a bit with a new, sleeker label.

L'Ecole is French for "the school" and that's because the winery operates out of a nearly 100-year-old school house. The old label was a child's colorful drawing of the facility. The new label sports a sepia-toned oil painting of the historical school house soon after it was constructed in 1912.

It's a giant veg-out!

And for good eats call his Aunt Vera.

What a great time Nancy and I had hanging out with Pizzarelli and talking about food, food movies and his aunt Vera's cooking -- immortalized in song in this segment.  One of the food movies we discussed, Big Night, about an Italian restaurant in the '50s, features a deliriously over the top multi-course feast prepared for an expected visit from Louis Prima. 

The only difference between John Pizzarelli and a real ham is...

And the winner is...

I like it straight out of the bottle, no ice, no glass.  And with apologies to Fast Eddie Felson, I don't mean JTS Brown bourbon.

Created for a Medici, it was the dessert of choice for Venetian working girls.

Our diets lay bound, gagged and locked in the trunk as Nancy and I sped toward our date with Wretched Excess.

The shrink-ray is insatiable. First it came for our donuts. Now it focuses on pies. These days you can get ‘em so small they should come with postage stamps instead of napkins.

In this Food for Thought, Nancy Leson tells about two of the new mini-pie joints recently opened in Seattle: Pie, located in city's Fremont neighborhood, and High 5 Pie on Capitol Hill. 

They’ve looked in the mirror, and the mirror’s not only looking back, it's talking back. Dick “The Big Eater” Stein and Nancy “All You Can Eat” Leson both say it’s time to diet. In fact, they've already started.

Have you noticed your local grocery clerk asking you more personal questions of late? "Plastic or paper?" is giving way to "What are your weekend plans?"

This wicked turn toward what they call a 'charade of intimacy' doesn't sit well with Dick and Nancy. They've had it up to their squeaky shopping carts with faux familiarity!

And what about those frequent shopper cards that populate your wallet? Are they really 'saving' you money, as you're told at check out? 

The end (and the beginning!) of the year often marks change in business of all kinds, and the restaurant business is no exception. 

Nancy and Dick lay down the latest on some noteworthy Seattle restaurateurs who have opened - or are about to open - new kitchens. Other famous spots have new names, or new owners.  Nancy says look out for:

It's the first Food for Thought of 2011, so Nancy and Dick put the spotlight on a little morsel associated with the start of a new year from the Japanese tradition: Mochi making.  

A lot of folks around these parts lately have become experts at cooking during a power outage. A listener asked Nancy and Dick to offer their own tips on making do when the juice shuts off.  

This week's Food for Thought makes sure your covered when the lights go out. 

Picture your favorite cookbook, and how you have come to savor the experience of its splendor.  This week’s Food for Thought reveals new favorites that rank in that class, and Nancy and Dick are naming their top picks,   in time for Christmas.

Seattle Times Food Writer Nancy Leson is back from her KPLU Travel Club trip to Paris, where she ate…and ate…and, well, you get the idea.  

Northwest farmers--like all farmers, really--are known for their grit. A few decades ago, nobody thought you could grow wine grapes in Oregon. But the early growers worked hard at it and made some great wine. Today, it’s a $1.4 billion a year industry. Now, there’s a new crop on the horizon.

Ever wonder how your favorite restaurants make sure they have the freshest seafood ready to serve to you? Dick and Nancy take you on a journey from the boat (and the airfreight cargo office) to the table, and follow one of the regions top seafood proprietors on this week's Food for Thought.

Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson and Dick Stein usually get together at the KPLU studios each Tuesday to record Food for Thought -- but given Tuesday's hazardous driving conditions it seemed more prudent for Dick to just get Nancy on the phone for their Thanksgiving chat.

It shakes, it shimmies, sometimes it's got marshmallows in it. It's that wiggly dessert Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson recently rhapsodized about in her blog.  But KPLU's Dick Stein is a fellow who's not so mellow about Jell-O.

Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson and KPLU's Dick Stein get good n' greasy as they attempt and fail to exercise ground beef control in this installment of Food for Thought.

Additional Content

Ingredients:

• 1 hard-boiled egg
• 1 not hard-boiled egg, beaten
• Some flour
• Some breadcrumbs
• Some bulk sausage

Preparation:

1. Roll hard-boiled egg in flour.
2. Dress egg in a kilt and post pictures on the intrawebz.
3. Dip in beaten egg.
4. Roll in breadcrumbs.
5. Ignoring screams for mercy, eat hot or at room temp with sharp mustard and pale ale.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of quail eggs (available at Asian supermarkets everywhere), hard-boiled
• 1 pound of Italian bulk sausage (spicy or mild, you decide)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fine breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg, beaten
• water, for dipping

Preparation: