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Los Angeles Times Food Editor Russ Parsons offers quick recipes ideas for those star summer vegetables: corn, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers.

Kathleen Purvis: A sunny Saturday morning is the perfect time to be a judge at the Blue Ridge Barbecue Championship in Tryon, N.C.

Dough New York-Style Bakery in Concord took the “Best Dessert” honor at this year’s Taste of Charlotte June 7-9. “Manhattan Snow” was an original recipe that pastry chef Dawn Adinolfe created: two layers of brownie with cheesecake and white chocolate mousse topped with crumbled chocolate cookie crumbs. Together with her parents and husband Brian, Adinolfe opened the bakery in summer 2011 after moving from the New York-New Jersey area. The bakery is in Afton Village, 360 Exchange St., Concord.

Simple syrup really is appropriately named: Combine equal parts (or thereabouts) sugar and water in a pan, heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Voila.

The world of green beans is split pretty neatly in two: the round and the flat.

Just to be clear: There is no coffee in coffee cake.

The country seems to be in the middle of a giant burger boom. Everywhere you turn, there is a new chef-owned burger joint promising the best beefy bite you’ve ever tasted.





If you're planning a shopping trip to Whole Foods, put June 25 on your calendar: That's 5% Day to...

I'll Bite
Mother Earth Brewing’s Windowpane series offers a treat for anyone’s palate.

Writers Eric Frazier and Kathleen Purvis try to answer this age-old debate: Which is better gas or charcoal?

Check out The Observer's recipe database and share your recipes.

Try this quick and easy barbecue pork salad for a summer weekend. It has a barbecue flavor without heating up the grill.

Now that words like 'local' and 'sustainable' have taken root, many Charlotte-area farmers' markets are evolving.

Bill Spoon's shows up July 31 on the Travel Channel's new "BBQ Crawl," in which Canada?s Danielle...

On Dining