Bringing back the local menu

For those that know me, you know that when I say "it is with great excitement that I take over as editor of the weekend menu page," it is said with the utmost sincerity. From my family members that know how easy I am to shop for each holiday season, cook books never get old to me, to my coworkers that must listen to my daily babbling about what I cooked the night before in my endless quest to find balance between healthy food and what my 4-year-old son, Declan, deems good food for him. Let's not forget about those random citizens of McCook I have harassed out of the blue, simply because they "looked" like someone I thought should know whether or not you peel fresh ginger before dicing it, or whatever my current recipe ignorance was, many of you already know my excitement is genuine.

My intention is to bring back a local feel to the page, to tout as many local recipes as possible and in time to get our local restaurants and their chefs involved as well. When I moved here last September from Seattle my first order of business was to have breakfast at a local restaurant. What I found at Fuller's Family Restaurant was a breakfast far better than anything I had encountered in countless restaurants in Seattle over the previous four years. While I have repeated that experience several times already and plan to continue to do so regularly, I know there are more great food experiences in our area and I would like this column and page to not only enhance our home cooking experiences, but shed some light on some of our local dining gems as well.

So please accept this invitation to share your local recipe treasures, tips and food knowledge. Placing the highest priority, of course, on those recipes or meals that you feel can qualify not only as healthy in a parent's eyes, but that will win over the ever-critical and over-opinionated palate of my 4-year-old son.