Food Adventures of a Comfort Cook

Sweet and sour acceptance

During the 1860s to 1890s, thousands of Chinese immigrants entered the United States. Landing in San Francisco, they made their way throughout the western states in search of work, focusing on mining and railroad construction. Approximately 12,000 Chinese workers traveled from Sacramento, CA to...

Food love at Peace Tree Juice Café

When it comes to the restaurant business, true success is based upon the love and passion owners, cooks, chefs, and employees have for what they do. No one knows this better than Karen Whipple, owner of the Peace Tree Juice Café, located in Moab and Monticello. Loyalty from customers and employees...

Ode to the odiferous onion

FOOD ADVENTURES OF A COMFORT COOK “Memories of the meals we’ve made before. Misty, watering, burning eyes. While dicing onions from the store.” If Barbra Streisand sees what I’ve done with her “The Way We Were” song lyrics, I am a dead woman. Whether a home cook or restaurant prep...

Another 60 years at Patio Drive-in

FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour In the early 1950s, A&W opened two franchises. One in Blanding, the other in Monticello. While Monticello’s franchise went bust due to lack of business, Blanding’s was booming, so much so that the owner decided to cut ties with A&W. In 1959, Patio...

A new holiday favorite

FOOD ADVENTURES OF A COMFORT COOKby Mary Cokenour November, December, January... three months full of holidays that bulge the waistline and begin a new year of promises to get back into shape. Thanksgiving is the first holiday; we give thanks for our lives full of family, friends, good...

Feasts and fun at Doug’s Steak & BBQ

FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour Knowing I was moving to the Southwest, my biggest anticipation was, “Yes! All the barbeque I could ever want!” But that was not to be. In fact, there was a severe lack of this form of culinary delight within San Juan County. Karen and Doug Whipple,...

Blue Mountain Foods enters a new age

FOOD ADVENTURES OF A COMFORT COOKby Mary Cokenour In June, 2017, Doug Allen, the owner of Blue Mountain Foods and former mayor of Monticello, heard the call of retirement. He heeded that call by handing the reins and ownership over to his daughter, Stacy, and her husband, Jeramy Young...

Enjoying “Death by Chocolate”

FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour The term “death by chocolate” is so often used for extremely chocolate desserts, it made me wonder though, can it truly happen? When it concerns dogs, the answer is yes. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. Chocolate contains substances known as...

Cow tipping

FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour The first time I’d ever heard the term “cow tipping” was in 1990 when first moving to Lancaster, PA. Our residential neighborhood was surrounded by Amish farmland with local, bored teenagers bragging about this nighttime exploit. What exactly is “cow...

No wrong way TDs with these appetizers

FOOD ADVENTURESby Mary Cokenour First and ten, huddle; tension in the air as the players take the field; captain calls off numbers, “13, 9, 45…hut, hut, hut”, the ball is thrown, no…wait…hidden pass off to the running back, tight end guarding his flank down the field…..going, going…holy...