The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about the overuse/misuse of the word artisanal,

Even real artisans need to lay off the word artisanal for a while. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you are trying to do the right thing, and we do appreciate your craftsmanship. But do we really need to know that the bread you just made came from wheat sown by your great-great-grandmother Clara and was made with a recipe passed down from generation to generation in a Mason jar stored under the floorboards of your Uncle Ned’s log cabin? (Was that an artisanal log cabin?)

an article about Roger Doiron and Kitchen Gardens International, and a piece about a new locally produced cookbook.

In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Nigerian Yam Porridge from the director of The Museum of African Culture Oscar Mokeme (read the recipe and see the photos).

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a set of holiday food gift ideas,

Think of these items as hostess gifts you can take to all the holiday parties you’ll be attending this year, or as not-so-last-minute stocking stuffers. Some of these ideas are things I’ve written about earlier in the year, while others are brand new items I have given as gifts myself.

The common denominator: I promise you I have tried them all and liked them.

an interview with the Maine delegates who attended the Slow Food conference in Italy in October,

Fellow farmer and Maine delegate Sarah Bostick works for the New Americans Sustainable Agriculture Project at Cultivating Community, where she teaches Maine farming techniques to immigrant farmers from warmer climates. In addition, she runs a permaculture design business.

Bostick went to the conference looking for specific ideas that could help her in her work with immigrant farmers.

a report on a hog butchering workshop scheduled to take place at Local Sprouts in December.

Also in today’s paper is an update on restaurant health inspections,

The Wok Inn, which was shut down after failing four health inspections since April, is among four Portland restaurants to be closed in the past two months for health code violations. The other three — Sapporo Restaurant, The Loft and Mekhong Thai — have reopened after correcting violations.

and a report on a program that’s teaching Portland Pirates players how to cook healthy meals for themselves.

Chris Brown, a 21-year-old forward from Flower Mound, Texas, who calls himself “a sometimes cooker,” credited his ease with a knife to a lifetime of hunting deer. “I’m not a big vegetable person, so all these greens are freaking me out a little bit,” he said.

Brown said he is trying to eat better, and hopes the cooking class will help.

Scratch Baking has published issue No. 4 of their in-house magazine,Baker’s Notes.

Our fourth issue, all about cookies, includes a whopping 23 recipes (the most of any Baker’s Notes issue). We are excited to share all of our favorite cookie recipes with you from chocolate chip to shortbread and macaroon to peanut butter. Bakery favorites, sweet memories and big cookies are all within these pages. Who doesn’t love a cookie, right?

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald gathers some new ideas on Thanksgiving dessert from the pastry chefs at Grace and the Sea Glass (with recipes) as well as from local cheese expert Shannon Tallman.

Whether it’s served right after the big dinner or a couple of hours later, a great dessert after everyone’s come out of their turkey coma is an essential part of the Thanksgiving Day meal.

Here are three ideas for the Thanksgiving table that go beyond the traditional choices and will impress your guests.

In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Costa Rican Chicken and Rice from her new neighbor Susana Contreras (read the recipe and see the photos).

Delicious Musings has published an interview with cheese expert Shannon Tallman about planning a cheese plate, storing, cheese, cheese equipment and cheese books, and her current favorite cheeses.

Cheeses for an intimate holiday dinner cheese plate? **And, would you serve before or after dinner?
You could go either way with whether to serve before or after. I like to have something to snack on if I’m going to spend the afternoon in the kitchen cooking, so putting out a cheese plate for yourself and guests to nosh is never a bad idea. It’s also something that you don’t really have to worry about–like has it gotten cold or too warm.? do you have to refill it?–while you’re off doing other things. One of the loose rules of cheese plating is to work in odd numbers (but no more than 7) as it stands out to the eye on a plate. I tend to work in 3′s to keep the plate focused and to make it easy on myself, but I will occasionally plate up 5 if there are cheeses that I’m really excited about and can’t wait to share.

Shannon is one of the guest speakers from Portland participating in the Winter Food Series at the Captain Fairfield Inn in Kennebunkport.

The Press Herald checked in with 10 Southern Maine chefs about what they typically do on their Thanksgiving day off,

Do they hang up their pots at work only to have to take them down again at home? Does their family expect them to create some spectacular spread every year like the ones you see in the Thanksgiving issues of glossy food magazines?

Or are they allowed to chill on the sofa, for once, and watch football while someone else does all the work?

The Food & Dining section also includes an article about WGME news anchor Jeff Peterson’s conversion to a vegan diet,

The change to an all plant-based diet literally happened overnight. He and his wife, Laura, watched the 2011 documentary “Forks Over Knives” in February of this year and it opened their eyes to the health consequences of the standard American diet and the healing powers of vegan food.

“I remember looking at my wife and I thought that would make a good story for News 13,” Peterson recalled.

and Joe Appel’s wine column makes recommendations for your Thanksgiving meal.

You get a twofer today. I want to introduce more people to an importer of exceptional French wines, Cynthia Hurley, and it’s time to think of wines for Thanksgiving. Happily, several of Hurley’s wines I’ve recently drunk are not only remarkable in their own right, they also will make a splendid show at a Thanksgiving table.

The Wall Street Journal has published an article by Portland author Kate Christensen about the Pho at Saigon on Forest Ave.

But now, I just got out my laptop and Googled. I found a Vietnamese place called Saigon that delivered, and on the menu was beef pho. I gasped with joy. Within a half-hour the paper bag arrived, containing two huge plastic containers of broth, piping hot and smelling incredible. We squeezed in lime juice and added cooked rice noodles, then thin slices of raw sirloin, which cooked instantly in the steaming soup, then slivers of onion and chili, crunchy mung bean sprouts and fresh basil and cilantro. We fell on it with chopsticks and spoons, too impatient to wait for it to cool. The broth was rich and beefy and very clear, full of the delicate flavors of cinnamon, black pepper and a familiar yet mysterious mix of other spices I’d come to associate with this warming soup.

the article includes Saigon’s recipe for Pho.

In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make La Bandera from Angel Ferreras (read the recipe and see the photos).

“What are we having?” I asked. His teenage daughter, Pamela, responded, in English and in Spanish: “Vamos a comer la bandera.” The dish name translates to “the flag” and consists of rice, beans and meat with twice-fried plantains, called tostones, on the side. Dominicans eat la bandera so often that it apparently defines the country as much as the flag.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about 3 new Maine cookbooks,

Here’s a first look at the Standard Baking Book, followed by the latest on Maine home cooking from food writer and food historian Sandy Oliver, and a new cookbook featuring nearly 50 Portland restaurants from Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz.

a guide to eating vegan (with restaurant recommendations),

In the past month, I’ve had a host of people – old and young, men and women, professional chefs and novice cooks – ask for advice on how to eat a totally plant-based diet.

So it must be time to provide a basic starter kit on eating vegan in Maine.

and a profile of the Old Port Wine Merchants.

Owner Jacques de Villier loves wine and cigars but his true passion is people, and that’s what makes him the shopkeeper’s shopkeeper. He’s old school. Plenty of people open stores because they love their product or want money, but neither the product nor the cash is the heart and soul of it. Anyone who doesn’t like de Villier is a wretched misanthrope who needs serious professional help.

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make French Ratatouille from Stephanie Looten-Caceres (read the recipe and see the photos).

My houseguest, a sixteen-year-old French brunette, pointed at the French toast we were serving for breakfast. “What is it?” She asked.
“It’s French toast!” I cried, baffled. “What – it’s not French?”
“Non.” She said, as confused as I was.

The Food & Wine section in today’s Press Herald includes an article on lobster bakes, traditional and otherwise.

Sandy Oliver, a food historian who lives on Isleboro, says she’s willing to bet that in every Maine coastal town there’s still two or three people who are known for throwing a lobster bake the old-fashioned way, but most people just don’t want to go to the trouble anymore.

“It’s very labor-intensive,” she said. “You’re hauling rocks, you’re hauling wood, and you have to go out and harvest seaweed and haul that to wherever it is you’re going to have this bake. You could have it in somebody’s field. It doesn’t have to be at the beach.”

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Mexican Chilaquiles from Azminda Cansino (read the recipe, see the photos and watch the video).

For days I looked forward to this. “Life is good” shirts and spare tire covers didn’t look sarcastic anymore. We’re going to get to learn chilaquiles, whatever they are, and I know they are going to be out-of-this-world amazing because real immigrant food always is. On Wednesday an hour before we were to cook, I was in downtown Portland when I got a foreboding email from Azminda. “I have two drawbacks,” she wrote. Her blender broke, and she couldn’t find green tomatoes at Hannaford, Shaw’s, or Walmart. Of course she couldn’t, poor thing! I had to save our cooking session

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a report on this year’s blueberry harvest and some recipes for putting the blue fruit to use,

Allen Crabtree of Crabtree’s Blueberries in Sebago has a bumper crop of highbush blueberries this year as well.

“I have never seen so many blueberries,” Crabtree said. “We’ve had a pick-your-own operation since 2001, and this is by far the best crop we have had, the most berries on the bushes.”

The Food & Dining section also has a list of blueberry festivals across the state and a directory of pick-your-own blueberry farms.

There’s also a very interesting article on how farmers are trying to attract wild pollinators to to assist with the blueberry crop.

“It looks like a bee, but it’s the size of a housefly,” he said.

But size doesn’t matter when it comes to this hard-working, native pollinator, he said. “They’re about four to five times more effective as spring-season pollinators than honey bees,” said Van Horn, who has tended the organic blueberry fields for more than 35 years.