With their honeyed scent and succulent flesh, peaches are the darlings of the summer stone fruit. Second only to apples as the largest commercial fruit crop, peaches are one of the most popular fruits in America, and with good reason. When you bite into a perfectly ripe peach, there’s almost nothing more delicious and satisfying to have the juice run down your arm while you enjoy all of its lip-smacking goodness.

Let’s face it. Any time of the year, cooking outdoors is just plain fun, but summertime is when we all want to get out there and spend time with family and friends enjoying great food. We’ve all sent out those Fourth of July invitations for a backyard barbecue, but chances are, what you’ve really been doing is grilling. Confused? Probably, but some local experts are going to explain the different outdoor cooking methods and will have you out there impressing the crowd in no time.

You don’t have to be a chemist to brew the perfect cup of coffee at home, but you do need to know a few basic dos and don’ts. Follow these very simple steps, and you can have that simply amazing cup of coffee!

You don’t have to be a coffee lover to appreciate all of the nostalgia behind brewing a great cup of coffee.

When you walk through the doors of 4 Seasons Coffee Company, the wonderful aroma of roasting coffee beans surrounds you and you can’t help remembering the times you spent sipping coffee and reading the Sunday paper with your family or staying up all night cramming for college exams. Everyone has a story about coffee.

If you could live a long and healthy life, without experiencing age related diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular problems, would you do it?  Of course, you say.  
But what if you had to give up something you really liked - like eating?

A cooperative Grocery shoppers searching for the freshest, locally grown food in the area need to look no further than the Main Market in Downtown Spokane.

Fall in Spokane means many things to different people. Back to school and the end of summer fun for the kids, another start to the Cougar Football season and the chance to see Mother Nature in all her glory when the leaves change. But for young and old alike, one of the best places to be in the Fall is up in Green Bluff during the Harvest Festival. Especially at Beck’s Harvest House and Orchard.

Bob Hemphill is exactly what he appears to be - friendly, gracious and genuine. What you don’t expect is the passion for life that he applies to the delicious BBQ being served up in his Chicken-N-More and CHKN-N-MO restaurants in Spokane and Spokane Valley.

Salsa on French Toast? Sure. Juanita Carmack, owner of Taco Chic Salsa, didn’t know you were supposed to eat it any other way until she grew up and got married. This 54-year-old entrepreneur from Rathdrum grew up in Southern California with salsa and other freshly made Mexican foods as a staple of her diet. Her great-grandmother brought with her the traditional dishes of Mexico, and passed on those dishes to her daughters and granddaughters.

When Lindaman’s Gourmet to Go opened almost 25 years ago, the South Hill bistro advertised itself as offering “farm food.” Its menu of casseroles, potpies and soups definitely fit the phrase, but customers insisted there was something more sophisticated about the food than what they’d expect to find on a farm.

When Spokanites want an unusually shaped cake for a wedding or birthday party, they often turn to Marcel Kopplin, owner of Marsells Cakes & Desserts Bakery. She transforms the simple ingredients most people use to make round or rectangular cakes into 3-D locomotives, penguins and big fish, among other figures.

The Germans call it glühwein, or glow wine. The French call it vin chaud. The Italians call it vin brûlé. And the Brits call it wassail or ipocras. Call it what you will— mulled wine is in season.

When autumn rolls around, many Americans go crazy for pumpkins.

They buy a few to adorn their front porches; they decorate dining-room tables with miniature varieties; and they carve them with their children and grandkids.

The kitchen staff at Mizuna restaurant in downtown Spokane is a fan of the orange squash, as well, but not just as a decoration.

Yes, it’s September. Yes, the cold months are on their way. But no, that doesn’t mean you have to pack away your grill just yet.

There’s plenty of time to squeeze in some more outdoor cooking. If you’ve exhausted the variety of ways to cook a burger, though, consider grilling a meal that can be quite innovative despite having been around for millennia: the shish kebab.

Making ice cream at home can be rewarding—and easier than the churning process of the past. A couple dozen people huddled around a demonstration kitchen at the Williams-Sonoma store in downtown Spokane recently as cooking instructor Kris Lindenblad held up a sorbet mixture she’d made.

Great diversity of berry types thrives in the Northwest. When Mother Nature gets it right—as she usually does—she really gets it right. The Grand Canyon. The aurora borealis. Sunrises, sunsets, rainbows. And don’t forget berries—strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, you name it. To many, they’re summer’s perfect treat.

Farmers markets, envisioned co-op provide food that’s grown, raised nearby.

Norman and Kristen Six, the owners of Lovitt Restaurant, in Colville, go to great lengths to serve dishes made from locally grown produce and locally raised meats.

They freeze vegetables, can fruits and grow herbs on the restaurant’s grounds. They smoke their own bacon and cure their own prosciutto. They even buy whole animals to be slaughtered and butchered. Consequently, the meat they prepare for customers travels fewer than 20 miles to reach their plates.

“It’s a shame that all this great food was being grown here and being shipped out of town,” Norman says.

“Why should the big cities have all the good food?” Kristen says.

Once a month, Spokane residents Rick and Margot Havermann travel to a foreign country. New Zealand. France. Ireland. Lebanon. They’ve been just about everywhere. Of course, they don’t actually board airplanes and step foot in those faraway lands—it’s their taste buds that do the traveling.