TV chef Joanne Weir will be at Davidson College on Wednesday, Feb. 8, for a talk and Mediterranean lunch. Ms. Weir is host of the public television series “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Class” and a new series titled “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence.”

She’ll be here to meet fans, talk about cuisine, and offer a Mediterranean luncheon she has inspired. The event will continue from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in Davidson College’s Vail Commons dining hall.

The cost of the luncheon is $9.75. For information call 704-894-2600 or email crmombert@davidson.edu.

“I dig pig,” says Tanner Latham of WFAE-FM. He recently led a group of co-workers to Historic Brattonsville, in York County, S.C., for an old-fashioned hog-butchering – once a common sight in hog country at this time of year. Historical interpreters demonstrated the skills and activities of an 18th-century hog butchering.

Among those in on the action was Dan Huntley, sometimes known as Dan the Pig Man – a barbecue maven who has sold his wares at the Davidson Farmer’s Market.

Organizes gave “visitors a look at how 18th Century locals would have used as much of a pig as possible. There was obviously the salt curing and smoking,” Mr. Latham writes on the WFAE-FM blog, WFAEats.

Read more: Jan. 20, 2012, “Cuttin’ Up in Brattonsville.”

WFAE is a news partner of DavidsonNews.net.

I recently interviewed 100-year-old Billie Thomason about her holiday memories, and she mentioned her favorite food at Christmas was always Chicken and Dumplings. That inspired a search for a recipe so we could try the treat.

We landed on a basic recipe by Paula Deen from the Food Network. It’s been delicious the few times we’ve made it recently. Continue Reading

Paddy’s Pour House opened this month in the Shops on the Green shopping center, offering upscale pub food in a friendly atmosphere. Owner Tim Flynn recently moved to Cornelius from New York and aims to make Paddy’s a neighborhood pub where everyone knows your name, he said. Meanwhile, Big Bite’z Grill continues to draw crowds after 10 years in business, showing that small, family-owned businesses can survive – and thrive. Read below for details. Continue Reading

Judging from our feed on Facebook, a few people around here this week have been trying out that unusual caramel-crusted slow-cooked pork recipe from last weekend’s New York Times Magazine. It’s a Korean dish called Bo SSam, and it’s described in a headline accompanying it as a “miracle.”

Our friend Jenny Brule writes about her experience over on her Finding Tasty food blog. She altered a dinner party menu after seeing it. Bo Ssam requires planning a day ahead, “which is what I found so intriguing about the recipe,” she writes. At the end of the preparation, you cover the cooked pork in brown sugar and salt and put it back in a 500-degree oven, creating, Jenny writes, “the mutha of all savory-candy shells.” Continue Reading

More than 100 eateries, including a long list of Lake Norman area favorites, will join the Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week beginning next Friday, Jan. 20. Alton’s Kitchen in Cornelius is getting a jump on the festivities, offering its special menu in a “preview” a week ahead of the festival. Also, the Davidson Housing Coalition has announced the lineup of restaurants that will vie for the best local soups in its 2012 Souper Bowl fundraiser Feb. 4. Continue Reading

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Thomas Marlow has cooked at big restaurants, worked as a personal chef, and studied cooking in Asia. Now, at 25, the Johnson & Wales trained chef is taking over the kitchen at Flatiron Kitchen + Taphouse in Davidson.

He’s making his debut just as Flatiron gets ready for the Queen’s Feast, working on new lunch and dinner menus and cooking up new ways to reach diners in north Mecklenburg and south Iredell. He comes to Flatiron from Mimosa Grill in Charlotte, where he worked as sous chef under Jon Fortes. Continue Reading

By EMMA BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

For Christmas I got an ice-cream maker. I’ve always been interested in ice-cream making. However, it always seemed like an impossible thing.

I’ve gotten cookbooks with recipes for exotic looking ice creams, everything from green tea to brown bread. But I couldn’t make them because they all needed a special device. Now that I finally have one, I’m trying out a variety of recipes.

The first recipe I decided to try was vanilla. The ice-cream maker came with a  booklet with a few easy recipes, and I’d heard that homemade vanilla ice-cream is to die for. It turns out people are right: It is to die for. Continue Reading

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Summit Coffee Co. is in its 14th year supplying coffee and more on Main Street in downtown Davidson. All is well at the popular community gathering place, but owner Tim Helfrich and marketing manager Brian Helfrich recently decided it was time for a little sprucing up. So over the New Year’s weekend, they and their coworkers slapped on some fresh paint and rearranged the furniture. And that’s not all.

The shop has a new logo and website, new beer and wine selections, and this week will introduce a new feature: a Friday night “pub” in the rearranged upstairs. Tim’s calling it the Freckled Dog Pub, in honor of his family’s 6-year-old Australian Shepherd/Lab mix Otis, and in homage to the pubs of England he has visited often in recent years. Continue Reading

Davidson Housing Coalition’s 8th annual Souper Bowl, a feast of soups that raises money for affordable housing, is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 4. Meanwhile, Charlotte Magazine has picked its Restaurateur of the Year, and she is Cassie Parsons, of Grateful Growers farm and Harvest Moon Grille fame. Continue Reading

The Winter 2012 edition of the semiannual Queen’s Feast: Charlotte Restaurant Week will run Friday, Jan. 20, through Sunday, Jan. 29, with a record 101 participating restaurants, including many favorites in north Mecklenburg and south Iredell. (List below)

Charlotte Restaurant Week is a regional event, where numerous upscale restaurants offer a prix fixe, three-course (or more) dinner for $30 per person (not including tax and gratuity). Restaurants stretch across many neighborhoods of Charlotte and the region, from Matthews to the Lake Norman area and Concord to Gastonia. Continue Reading

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
DavidsonNews.net

For the last two weeks, Smithville residents have enjoyed free, hot meals Thursday nights, thanks to Bread of Life Ministries, an initiative based out of Lake Norman Baptist Church. The group has partnered with the Smithville Community Coalition to provide the free meals weekly to neighborhood residents, and also is partnering with Union Bethel AME Zion Church to provide lunch food for neighborhood students while they are on winter break. Continue Reading

Bonsai Grill on Depot Street in Davidson will close by the end of January as Davidson College prepares to renovate the building for its student book store. Meanwhile, we have news of menu changes at Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Huntersville and at The Capital Grille in downtown Charlotte. Continue Reading

Plus, New Year’s food and drink events at area eateries

Flatiron Kitchen + Taphouse in Davidson is changing chefs with the new year. Also, area restaurants are planning events for New Year’s Eve, ranging from an “all you can drink” night at Galway Hooker Irish Pub to Jeffrey’s Restaurant’s annual New Year’s party with drinks and dancing. We have some ideas as you plan the big night. Continue Reading

Reporter Julie Rose of our news partner WFAE-FM writes about her family tradition of eating sauerkraut with the holiday turkey — a nod to her Czech heritage. It’s part of National Public Radio’s ongoing series about unique holiday dishes.

By JULIE ROSE
WFAE

My great-great-grandma Mary Dusek kept alive the Czech heritage of her parents and immigrant husband through food. In the one photo I’ve seen of her, she’s wearing a crisp, white apron. Our signature holiday dish comes from Mary’s kitchen. Continue Reading