Regular reader of my column,which I am sure you are (wink,wink), know weekends at the lake house are frequently used for material. How could I not? I have free use of a lovely cabin on a beautiful lake, less than an hour’s drive from Tacoma and nature’s bounty is everywhere. 

 

Terry, the owner of the cabin and father of my best friend, Paul, is quite the chef, and comfort food is his genre. Saturday’s dinner was a paella-inspired soup with chicken, large shrimp, veggies, brown rice and saffron. It was just the perfect amount of saffron as not to overwhelm the other flavors. I had two large bowls.

 

I was warned ahead of time about the dinner menu, so I chose one of my favorite commercially produced breads for the meal, a rosemary round from Le Brea. The soup screamed for wine so I obliged with a Colombard Sauvignon Blanc blend from Australia called La Biondina by Primo Estates.

 

Australian Colombard is tropical and slightly rich, so the addition of the Sauvignon Blanc imparted a cool crispness that balanced out the wine perfectly. This wine also enhanced the seafood and saffron elements of the soup, while the bread helped sop up every last drop.

 

The next morning, Terry was up at 5 a.m. making Pillsbury Grands® Monkey Bread. There’s no actual monkey in this cinnamon-scented pull-apart, but it is filled with lots of yummy goodness like brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts, buttermilk biscuits and LOTS of butter. Check out their Web site at www.pillsbury.com for the recipe. You won’t be sorry. 

 

I didn’t think the weekend could get any better, but I was wrong. For years my mother has extolled the virtues of the huckleberry. This tasty fruit is much like the blueberry but smaller. It takes a lot of huckleberries to make a pie, and I found the mother load.

 

The husband and I have been coming out to the lake for years and never have I notice all the huckleberry bushes. They are literally everywhere. I waded so far into the gnarly overgrowth to covet these tasty treasures, my intense fear of spiders couldn’t even prevent me from pushing onward. I just didn’t care. 

 

So get moving! These berries won’t pick themselves. There are muffins, pies, crisps, jams and jellies waiting to be made. Best of all they’re free and everywhere. At least I know where …

 

Eat out, Tacoma. We need your love.