Tune in tonight for the Spokane episode of “Drinking Made Easy” on HDNet.

Comedian Zane Lamprey and “stunt drinker” Steve McKenna check out libations at Steam Plant Brewing Co. and Pub (formerly Coeur d'Alene Brewing Co. at the Steam Plant Grill) where they try the Huckleberry Beertini. They also try the Monkey Gland at Bon Bon and sample the Blueberry Creme Ale at Northern Lights Brewing Co.

They also stop in to Dry Fly Distilling, Steelhead Bar and Grill (where McKenna pours a shot from a balcony above the bar into McKenna's open mouth) and the Baby Bar.

Easy.

The HDNet series features Lamprey and “stunt drinker” McKenna traveling the U.S. in search of local drinks and drinking customs, according to a news release. The show features Monterey, Calif., Miami and Tampa, Fla., Cape Cod, Washington D.C., Seattle, Santa Barbara, Calif., Aspen, Colo., and other cities.

“Drinking Made Easy, Spokane” airs on HDNet tonight at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. It also runs again on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Here’s a chance for a taste of dining purgatory.

Gordon Ramsay and crew will be shooting an episode his new Fox television show, “Hotel Hell,” at the Roosevelt Inn in Coeur d’Alene Feb. 20-24.

For those familiar with Gordon’s “Kitchen Nightmares” show, “Hotel Hell” has similar format with the celebrity chef offering ideas to help turn struggling business around.

While filming is happening, the restaurant and inn will be open to the public by reservation only. Producers are looking for people who want to dine or stay there during the filming and be a part of the show. It is not a free ride. Those who dine will have to pay for their meals and drinks. Rooms will only be available on a select night and rates have not yet been determined, but guests will pay for their room. Those who stay will be asked for feedback by Ramsay.

For a chance to dine or stay, email reservation requests to hotelshowrooseveltinn@gmail.com. Be sure to include first and last name, phone number and the size of your party in the request.

- Lorie Hutson

I guess you can't “boil” it down to seven deadly sins, or even Ten Commandments, but this list of the most common cooking mistakes from the folks and Cooking Light certainly reminded me of kitchen transgressions I occasionally commit and then must atone for. I plan to bookmark and read periodically.

Which ones are you guilty of committing most often? (I tend to crowd the pan, Mistake No. 10)

Comedian Zane Lamprey and drinking buddy Steve McKenna have hit Spokane with their “Drinking Made Easy” road trip.

The drinking duo checks out libations at the Steam Plant Brewing Co and Pub (formerly Coeur d'Alene Brewing Co. at the Steam Plant Grill) where they try the “Huckleberry Beertini.” They also try the “Monkey Gland” at Bon Bon and sample the “Blueberry Creme” Ale at Northern Lights Brewing Co.

They also stop in to Dry Fly Distilling and the Baby Bar.

The HDNet series featues Lamprey and “stunt drinker” Steve McKenna traveling the U.S. in search of local drinks and drinking customs, according to a news release. The show features Monterey, Miami, Tampa, Cape Cod, Washington D.C., Seattle, Santa Barbara, Aspen and other cities.

“Drinking Made Easy, Spokane” airs Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern on HDNet, which is available nationally via DIRECTTV and through Dish Network. Check local listings on Comcast, Concept Communications Corp. and Northland Communications for more details.

Last week, @epicurious posted a great list of reknowned and/or celebrity chefs who are on Twitter. I went one further and created a Twitter list to collate their tweets in one spot. Click here to follow this list. Lots of good stuff.

I know this list can and should be longer. Post other tweet-worthy chefs in the comments. (Spokane/CdA ones too)

A colleague told me this morning that she heard a local restaurant is advertising “SpoCasual” dining. (Or, is that SpoKasual?)

I'm a little worried about what diners might show up wearing, considering how casual we are with casual dress these days.

What do you think?

Pete Taylor is serious about spice - a passion he'd like to share with a new business called SAVORx.

Taylor, a Coeur d'Alene chef who trained at the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy, and I met last summer to talk about his plans to launch the business. But he later put the idea on the back burner as he considered a tantalizing job offer.

Now, he's ready to get his spice and recipe business rolling. Taylor launched a Kickstarter campaign this week, hoping to raise $12,000 for SAVORx. Kickstarter is a crowd-source funding website that allows innovators to post a video detailing their business idea and solicit start-up money from people who like the idea.

The would-be entrepreneurs usually promise a little something in return for pledges. Taylor is offering serious stunts and swag for pledges to help get the business off the ground. He's up to tattooing someone's name or business name on his body and a trip to India with him and his film crew as they sniff out the world's best sources for spice.

“It’s the least I can do for someone that is helping me achieve my dream”, Taylor says in a news release. “This is a win/win for both of us, the viral aspect of this is HUGE, and the person/company would get some amazing publicity.”

The idea behind SAVORx is to sell high-quality spices, along with recipes and videos of Taylor making the dishes. Taylor hopes to convince home cooks to toss the tired spices that have been kicking around cupboards since 1988 for whole, fresh spices that they toast and grind themselves.

Check out the video above for all the details. It might be worth pledging a little something just to see more of Taylor's reaction to the ghost pepper he eats in the video.

Here are some other places to get more details. The SAVORx website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie will fire up the kitchen tomorrow to serve a full menu for the first time since a Dec. 11 kitchen fire.

The grease fire caused $35,000 in damage and forced the restaurant to trim breakfast and lunch service, and eliminate dinner service while repairs were made. The reduced menu featured cold sandwiches, charcuterie, salads and soups made with temporary equipment.

The fire spared the historic Liberty Building, which the restaurant shares with Auntie's Bookstore.

On Thursday, Sante returns to full service starting at 9 a.m.

“We're thrilled to get back to our full menu,” says owner and executive chef Jeremy Hansen in a news release. “These past several weeks have been tough for us, but to be honest, they've also been extremely eye-opening to the level of community support we've received.”

The menu includes a return of Sante's Brasserie Menu, a Parisian bistro-themed menu featuring dishes that are $20 or less. Other options include the Grass Fed 50/50 Burger, made from Rocky Ridge Ranch's specially-bred Wagyu-Angus cross, the American version of Kobe beef ($16). House-made gnocchi served with sherry glaze, guanciale and mushroom duxelle ($10) is also on the dinner menu.

Breakfast options include honey wheat French toast ($8) and duck hash, made from duck confit, house-made cranberry sauce, duck egg, kale, potatoes and onions ($15).

Hansen and his wife Kate are on a culinary tour of Southeast Asia for the rest of the month. While they're gone, the cooks will be offering two special entrees each evening - including a fish du jour and beef du jour.

The restaurant, 404 W. Main Ave., will be open Sunday through Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through January 29.

Then, the restaurant closes temporarily to install new, upgraded kitchen equipment and additional counter space to help speed production.

When Sante reopens in time for Valentine's Day, they'll present a new menu and revamped wine list.

Reach the restaurant at (509) 315-4613.

There are more details on the restaurant's website or on Facebook.

What do you do when you have hot dogs, leftover chili and … no hot dog buns? Channel iCarly, the popular tween TV show on Nickelodeon and improvise. (For those unfamiliar with the show, Big Brother Spencer has cooked spaghetti tacos on numerous occasion. I've made these, and they are surprisingly good.)

Sub in corn tortillas and you have downright tasty chili dog tacos for a couple of hungry kids.

Needless to say, they were a hit. And I have shells left in the box for another night.

What's your strangest edible concoction that still manages to be a crowd-pleaser? Tell me in the comments section. I might want to give it a try.

Last Wednesday, Jennifer and Matt Sawyer were preparing to close their bakery.

It was a long road to open Sawyer's Artisan Bakery in Davenport, Wash but dwindling sales had made it clear to the couple that they weren't going to make it.

Jen says she had to swallow her pride to post a note on Facebook last week saying they would have to close by the end of the week if things didn't turn around. She says they had stopped paying their home mortgage to keep the bakery afloat and they simply ran out of money.

“I'm really great at helping others, but I suck at letting people do things for me,” she says.

When Jen posted the Facebook update at about noon, they had done about $40 in sales. Over the next four hours, customers streamed in to help. They finished the day with almost $260 in sales.

By the time virtual notes had been shared among Facebook friends and beyond, the bakery sales on Thursday and Friday were up again. On Saturday, they sold out. By the time the week was over, Sawyer's had doubled sales from the week before.

Jen says they were so grateful for the help. One woman has pledged the $20 she used to spend on her nails every other week to the bakery. People drove from Spokane and Waterville to buy breads, cakes and goodies. Other local businesses pledged support. Another customer stopped by their house to check on them and get an update on the bakery.

The support has continued this week. On Tuesday, a day they would typically sell about eight sandwiches at lunch, they had orders for 25.

Jen says they are hanging on… and with all of the community support they're hopeful that they can keep going.

Here's our story about how the bakery started.

Sawyer's Artisan Bakery is located at 508 Sixth Ave., just off the main highway through Davenport, Wash. Reach the bakery at (509) 725-1230. The bakery's website is here and the Facebook page is here.

The bakery is open 7 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday 8 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Opening a new business is never easy.

And Jennifer and Matt Sawyer stared down some serious challenges as they struggled to open their artisan bakery in Davenport, Wash. When I talked to them in August for this food section story, the bakery had been open for a little more than half the year and they were feeling like their longtime dream had finally come true.

However, Sawyer's Artisan Bakery may not celebrate its first anniversary.

“We are to the point where we haven't been paying our own mortgage,” says Jennifer Sawyer.

They announced on Facebook today that unless something dramatic happens, they'll close the bakery at the end of the week.

Jennifer Saywer says sales started to decline in September. They surveyed customers and got a lot of great feedback on their goodies, but some said prices were too high. They lowered prices, added lunch with free delivery in Davenport and tried some other fun offerings, such as decorate-at-home cookie trays at Christmas.

Matt Sawyer, who attended the Inland Northwest Culinary Academy at Spokane Community College, bakes the breads and pastries from scratch each day. They hired Belle Petty to bake and decorate the whimsical cupcakes and cakes.

Jennifer Sawyer delivers orders to people in Spokane everyday when she drives here for her job at a local real estate office.

Nothing is working.

After payroll and other expenses this week, they won't have the money to buy more supplies for the bakery. Matt Sawyer has never been paid for his work.

“I think what has been going on is basically people just forget that we're here,” Jennifer Sawyer says.

Sawyer's Artisan Bakery is located at 508 Sixth Ave., just off the main highway through Davenport, Wash. Reach the bakery at (509) 725-1230. The bakery's website is here and the Facebook page is here.

The bakery is open 7 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday 8 a.m.- 2 p.m. They'll stay open this week to honor gift cards and hoping against hope that they would get enough business to continue.

Jennifer Sawyer says they'd also like to hear from anyone interested in taking over the bakery at (509) 280-7142.
  

I'm not one for resolutions.

Especially those that pertain to food. I have found that outlawing anything gives me a sudden severe craving for the very food I intended to avoid. And that saying I'd like to drop a few pounds is a recipe for the face-stuffing episodes that keep my padded physique, well, padded.

However, I do have a food-related good intention for the New Year to share. (Notice I didn't say resolution?)

I hereby vow that I will stop hoarding food magazines both at work and at home in 2012.

I will not stack them up in corners, next to my bed, under my desk or in big plastic bins. I will not shuffle them around for years with the intention of looking through them again someday. I will not covet the pictures and recipes for more than a month. I will copy the recipes and stories that sound wonderful and I will recycle the remaining pages.

And I will cook those recipes.

What's your new year's food, uh, resolution?

They say you eat with your eyes first. I am adding to that bit of wisdom: You remember with your taste buds first. For me, that is punctuated by my family's traditional Ukrainian Christmas eve dinner — perogies. I cannot remember a Christmas eve without them.

I can't be home to share the meal with my family in Montana this year, but as we eat these Ukrainian dumplings here in Spokane, each bite reaches back to warm memories of home.

Here's my grandpa's recipe:

Perogie

Ingredients

• 6 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Beat eggs, add milk, water and oil. Add salt to flour. Gradually add liquid ingredients to the flour. Knead on floured board until dough is smooth. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. While dough is resting, prepare filling.

Roll out dough thin and cut in 2-inch squares. Place spoonful of filling and fold in triangle. pinch edges tightly to seal well. Drop in boiling water and boil gently until done.  (10-15 minutes) 

Potato filling

Ingredients

• Several cups mashed potatos
• Sauteed onion (to taste)
• Crumbled bacon bits (to taste, optional)
• Salt to taste

Mix.

A friend and former colleague needs a Christmas baking miracle.

Her little girl has a very specific request from Santa: a colorful cake, with sprinkles. But there's a catch… Her oven broke a couple of weeks ago and won't be fixed before Christmas.

She says she has heard about people in Japan and elsewhere using a rice cooker to bake cakes. And she's been scouring the Web for ideas about baking in a Crockpot.

She writes: “How does that work? I was hoping to make several small layers of different colors. Thanks for any suggestions. I sure wouldn’t want Santa to fail this early in her childhood. =) This experiment will be among the Christmas miracles this year.”

Any ideas?

I had a lot of fun hunting up gifts from local businesses for today's story in the food section.

Wrapsacks owner Kathryn Hapke shared a discount code for the Wrapsacks website for anyone who can't find what they're looking for at Huckleberry's. Type SPOKESMAN in to the discount code box for 15 percent off any orders over $35.

The bags are sealed down both sides with Velcro and can open to become a placemat. They come in an assortment of colors, with batik fabrics on the outside and polyester inside so they wipe clean.

I liked slowing down for a minute in the quiet tasting room at Knipprath to taste sherry, Spanish nudge, Alpine wine and ports. It was nice break from the traffic and lines. It's not always that quiet there, but Sunday afternoon there was a calm moment before the Christmas party.

I also spent a couple of hours at The Spokane Public Market and Sun People Dry Goods. Everyone there was so kind and helpful.

You can feel good about giving the “Every Woman Can Get Cook'n” Cookbook. The proceeds from the book, $10, will help women afford mammograms.

There are some inspiring stories and tasty sounding recipes inside, too.

Plus when I see local registered dietitian Patty Seebeck's smiling face on the cover I can't help but smile back.

If you were too busy this summer to put up jam and jellies from local fruit, some Green Bluff growers have done it for you. I'll be tucking Walters' Fruit Ranch jams and jellies into stockings. (And I'm experimenting with huckleberry jam filling for chocolates.)

A caller this morning says her favorite place to find local gifts is The Nut Factory which she says has fantastic holiday treats and more.

What is your favorite place to find local gifts?

I can't help it. I always go overboard on the holiday baking. 

Even with the promise of a cookie exchange with the talented bakers at my office, I still can't hold myself to baking just a couple different treats.

This year, perhaps my most restrained of recent memory, I only baked chocolate crinkles, peanut butter blossoms, sugar cookies and made caramels, turtles and kahlua. My husband also made his Mom's orange bread… for good measure and because he was missing the flavors of home.

I brought only the chocolate crinkles and peanut butter blossoms to the office exchange this afternoon…. Now, I have mints, truffles, biscotti, chocolate peanut butter pinwheels, spritz cookies, cherry cheesecake cookies, bourbon balls and more. Here's a shot of the spread just before we started swapping cookies.

There is no reason I should be consuming these treats, but it makes me happy to have a tray full of goodies to share with friends and family.

What treats make it Christmas at your house?

When the holiday season starts to explode, my eating habits tend to implode. Homemade cookies at work, chocolate goodies at home, candy, retirement cake, etc. I find myself longing for something wholesome and satisfying - at least for dinner. This recipe is my mom's. It is from my babysitter, Gladys, when we lived in Little Rock, Ark. My sister and I still love this dish, and I have brought it to potlucks, taken it to sick friend's families, and shared it with friends and relatives. It's simple and uses ingredients you probably don't have to run to the store for. What dishes do you go to for comfort during chaos?

Texas Hash

1 pound ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

2 cans tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup rice, uncooked

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Saute pepper and onion in some oil. Add meat and brown. Drain. Add remaining ingredients and bake 1 hour at 325 degrees in a covered casserole dish.

I had so much fun reporting today's story on healthier school lunches at schools in Othello and Cheney, Wash.

This picture of chef Tom French giving one of the kids a fist bump for trying some of the new foods presented to them in the library is at the heart of the program. I had to share it, even though it didn't make it into today's newspaper.

The schools switched from last year's processed, eat-to-serve menus, to a from-scratch effort this year. Although it took kids some time to get used to the new foods, most are loving it now.

It was so fun to see what they would try… many of them were eating foods my own children wouldn't even think about touching. It gives me the courage to start trying more foods with my kids again.

Confession time: My dad and I used to wait till my mom would move away from the mixing bowl so that we could sneak bites of her chocolate chip cookie dough. If busted, she'd issue a stern warning that we'd “get worms” if we ate too much of it. That warning was never scary enough to make us stop. But this bit of news might:

A study released today points the finger at ready-to-bake cookie dough for a 2009 E. coli outbreak. 

The most surprising finding was that eggs were not to blame. It turns out, it may be the flour is the most unsafe part. 

Tells us in the comments, will you still sneak bites of cookie dough?

If you have flown on Delta, you’re familiar with the spiced, crispy cookies they’ve branded “Biscoff.” These are well-known in Europe by their original name: speculoos. The Lotus brand Biscoff and Trader Joe’s Bistro cookies have been available at grocery stores for a number of years.

Recently, I learned they’ve made these cookies into a spread that has the consistency and look of peanut butter, but is a sweet new concoction altogether.
I managed to come by a jar of this stuff (at about the same time a similar product hit the shelves at TJ’s). Make no mistake. It is not peanut butter. It is not good for you.
But it is delicious.
Hoping to go beyond using it as a sandwich spread, I went in search of other inventive uses for this sinful stuff.
The Lotus website has lots of recipes.
Sifting through those listed, I chose the oatmeal pancakes. I had all the ingredients and pancakes always go over well with The Daughters.
This easy recipe made fluffy, lightly sweet pancakes. The kids dusted them with powdered sugar instead of drenching them in syrup. The only caveat is that the higher sugar content in the batter made them brown faster than I am accustomed to. I will definitely be making these again.
The second recipe I tried was for brown sugar bars. These pair a lightly sweetened pie crust with a brown sugar, flour, egg and speculoos spread mixture. When baked up, you can tinker with the amount of sugar and baking time to have either a softer center or a more cake-like consistency.
These were an even bigger hit than the pancakes. The flavor reminded us all of pecan pie, without the pecans. I was subsequently informed by our features editor, “You made a chess pie.”
Whatever you call them, I will definitely be making these again, and may also sprinkle some pecans on the top for a bit of crunch.

There are countless ways to use this stuff, and I had better experiment (perhaps these rolls and these treats?) some more. Otherwise, I might just get out a spoon and dive into the jar.