Gourmet weeknight meals without the hassle
Want some help preparing dinner this week? Linda Illsley of Linda’s Local Food Café is at the ready.
She’s offering her cooked-food service once again, but this time without a minimum weekly order requirement. Almost every dish is made with organic produce from local farms, including beets, greens, pumpkins and potatoes.
Some examples of her order-ahead dishes are pumpkin soup with fried sage leaves, chicken curry in coconut milk, polenta with poblano chiles and breakfast-perfect banana-walnut muffins. Most dishes are gluten-free and can be made dairy-free.
Illsley is focusing on winter-warming curries. A recent one featured potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots with a fragrant coconut sauce and pureed lentils. And she’s also continuing to make her authentic tamales, in chicken and green chile and zucchini and corn versions.
You can order at cosinalinda@yahoo.com or call 259-6729. Pick-ups can be arranged at the restaurant in Albertsons parking lot.
Sutcliffe wines win again
Food and Wine magazine honored the Four Corners’ own Sutcliffe Vineyards in its 2015 Wine Guide, naming it as one of America’s 500 best wine producers.
The vineyard uses mostly grapes grown in Colorado, which produce intense wines showcasing the unique characteristics from where they’re farmed. The wines are processed using gentle techniques to express the true aroma and flavor of the grapes.
The local vintner, located just outside Cortez, also recently received a 90-point rating for its 2011 Cabernet Franc Colorado from Wine Enthusiast magazine.
Former Durangoan opens Denver brewery
New craft brewery Declaration Brewery opened last week in Denver, owned and run by Durango native Michael Blandford.
If you’re looking for a hot, new place to check out on your next trip to the state capital, check out his 2,000-square-foot tasting room and his 5,000-square-foot beer garden, one of the largest in the state.
Blandford, a former physics student at Fort Lewis College, touts the tastiness of his Belgian-style tripel, although sip slowly, because it packs a wallop at almost 9 percent alcohol. Also a big seller on opening weekend was his Scottish Strong, a malty Scotch ale.
Should you just want to taste his brew without leaving home, Blandford is already lining up restaurants and bars in Durango to carry his cans and kegs.
“We’re going for it full-steam,” he said of his new enterprise. “With so many breweries in Colorado, you have to stand out.”
Declaration Brewing is open from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 2030 S. Cherokee St. in the Platt Park neighborhood of Denver.
Pamela Hasterok
