Photo courtesy The River and Rail

The River and Rail, a new restaurant located inside the storied building that once housed Lipes Pharmacy in South Roanoke, will officially open on Thursday night (June 14) at 5 p.m.

The owners, two couples named Whit and Lauren Ellerman and Lee and Karri Atwood, have had the entire interior redone, right down to the beautiful hardwood floors. Everything was sourced as locally as possible, according to Whit Ellerman, including the furniture. You can see photographs of the finished interior on The River and Rail Facebook page.

Although they have not yet loaded photos onto the official website, you’ll find other information about the restaurant there, including a sample menu (meaning that it has likely completely changed since it was posted). Head Chef Aaron Deal is a rising star with a 4-diamond restaurant rating and a James Beard award nomination on his resume. He could also boast about his appearance on CBS’ “The Early Show” or accolades in such national publications as Gourmet, Southern Living and Travel + Leisure, but Deal is not that kind of guy.

In fact, when I asked him about that for this November 2011 article, he said, “I’m just a cook. Truthfully, the thing that makes me really excited about being a chef is doing it for other people and, I think, realizing that I can be creative and learn different things every day, every minute, by cooking.”

Here are a couple of highlights from the sample menu (likely to be different when you go, but this gives you an idea of the kind of food they’re doing):
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You are getting veeery sleepy….. you are forgetting that Lindsey screwed up the last blog entry because this picture she took at the ethnic market is so mesmerizing……

Here at the Fridge Magnet desk, I receive a great deal of information about happenings in the foodie world in Southwest Virginia. Not all of these rise to the level of a blog entry or a column, so I have created a list of tidbits that will from this point forward appear at the right of your screen.

See it there? How do you like that?

Please note that this feature is by no means the end-all-be-all of food events listings at The Roanoke Times. For all of your cooking classes, wine tastings and other wonderful happenings, please be sure to keep reading every Thursday’s issue of Inside Out.

This is just my way of highlighting a few events each month and making sure that some things don’t completely fall between the cracks. You may very well see an event listed on my blog and elsewhere in The Roanoke Times or on Roanoke.com. But that’s okay — duplications are far better than leaving something out entirely.

Feel free to offer me any feedback on this feature as it progresses. And thanks, as always, for taking a look at this blog!

This is an update to yesterday’s blog entry about Orange Dog’s re-opening on Campbell Avenue and the new, expanded menu they’ve brought to the table.

More exciting news: according to the staffer I talked to, they are also offering a decent-sized line of coffee beverages made with gourmet coffee. Those include espresso, iced coffee, coffee latte, cappuccino and the like.

Might be a nice option for those of us who work down on this end of Campbell at the paper, the municipal building, city hall, the court houses and the police department. Sometimes a few more blocks for a coffee fix makes a big difference on a busy day!

I’ll probably never again have the opportunity to title a blog entry like that. I’m taking advantage of it while I can.

As you may have guessed, today’s entry is about two different topics. First, I want to share news about a cool new product. Then we’ll move on to a reader’s question.

I’m intrigued by the Easy Whip, a new kitchen tool by a company called iSi North America that makes homemade whipped cream and dispenses it with the ease of a store-bought canister such as ReddiWip.

All you do with this device is pour in heavy whipping cream and a sweetener such as confectioner’s sugar, “charge the whipper” (whatever that means) and squirt it out. How nifty is that?

This is what the Easy Whip looks like. It reminds me of the Aunt Jemima bottle’s thinner, more elegant cousin. For more information about the Easy Whip, go to this Web site.

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Now that I’ve spent two evenings in a row processing tomatoes in my hot kitchen, it’s time to figure out what I’m going to do with some of the first batch of sauce.

I’m not a big fan of spaghetti, which continues to confound my husband, so I was toying with the idea of stuffed shells or something. But yesterday, a new friend placed a round, shiny amethyst-colored eggplant in my hands and I realized immediately what I must do: make eggplant Parmesan.

My mother used to make a tasty eggplant Parmesan on occasion. I seem to remember that she was forced to put ground beef in it because I had one of those fathers who insisted that every meal must include some sort of meat. I’m married to one of those men myself now, but I’m afraid he’s SOL. I’m making eggplant Parmesan without the meat, just like I had it during one euphoric meal in Little Italy two years ago.

Since Mom has threatened to start charging royalties for her recipes, I must strike out on my own this time and find one that looks just as good. If I had to fly by the seat of my pants, I guess I’d peel the eggplant and slice it thinly, then dip it in an egg bath and flour (or bread crumbs, I guess) before lightly frying each slice. Then I’d put it together in layers like a lasagna with sauce and cheese.

Of course, if Mom is reading this blog entry, she is welcome to contribute any tips…hint, hint.
See below for the recipes I dug up. And if you’ve got a better recipe, I’d love to hear it before I embark on this adventure.

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As long as we’re on the subject, I wanted to share a recipe I didn’t have with me at my desk yesterday when I wrote the asparagus entry.

This recipe originally came from my friend and co-worker, Natalee Waters. But like many recipes, this one traveled an unusual path. Natalee gave it to me, I gave it to my dad, I lost it and dad gave it back to me. Ha.

I first tasted this when Natalee brought it to a cookout at my house. It has a wonderful Asian flair and it’s a perfect dish for a potluck or a cookout because it can be eaten chilled or at room temperature. And it can be eaten with your fingers as described in yesterday’s blog entry.

Keep bringing on those great thoughts and recipes about this favorite veggie.

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I had such a hard time deciding who should win “Roadfood” by Jane and Michael Stern that I tried something new this time.

I wrote down the names of all the best entries on little slips of paper and had my co-worker, Stephanie Ogilvie, draw one from a basket.

And the winner is…….. Amy!!

Amy, if you’ll e-mail me your home address at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com, I’ll put this book in the mail for you.

Thanks to everybody who entered to win this time. The diner stories were awesome, from Marion’s 50s diner in Augusta to Lori’s honeymoon food at the Ohana diner in Hawaii. I also really enjoyed Greg’s story about being a newlywed and a stranger to Maine, where he found a friendly place that served killer seafood chowder. What I wouldn’t give for a bowl of that stuff today.

Thanks, everyone! My desk is stacked high with cookbooks right now, so stay tuned for the next giveaway!

Moving on, I wanted to address yesterday’s blog entry about the missing recipe for peanut butter fingers. According to Whitney, the reader who was looking for the recipe, we have found a winner!

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Remember last week’s blog entry about the mostly empty box of gourmet chocolates I found in the mail?
Well, the mystery was solved during a video training session at the newspaper today.
Apparently, multimedia editor Seth Gitner and Web producer Evelio Contreras shot a “training video” with editorial assistant Annie Johnson.
And here’s what I learned when I saw it…

And here’s what Annie had to say:

“OK, ok. After a substantial amount of peer pressure and some pretty incriminating evidence, I will step forward as the one who enjoyed these fantastic chocolates. Not all of them, though. And not alone.

You might be wondering if it was worth it. Well, Choclatique, you know your stuff.”

So the mystery is NOT solved….not entirely.

Okay, sorry for the rather graphic title today, but the truth is that I’m having a little trouble typing this blog entry due to a kitchen injury I sustained this weekend.
Have you ever had one of those nights when it seems that everything is going wrong in the kitchen? Last night was one of those for me. I think fate was flipping me the bird for picking on my friend Stacy about her ugly bundt cake.
First, while slicing onions for my black bean soup experiment, I sliced the tip off my finger instead. Not all the way, mind you. But it’s bad enough. How embarassing! My knife skills have gotten much fancier over the past year and I’ve never cut myself before in my life. There’s a first for everything.
Next, while explicitly following the recipe directions for my soup, I removed several cups and placed them in my blender to puree and return to the soup. Well, I don’t know if it’s because the soup was boiling hot or what, but it immediately blew the top off my blender and I had tiny black bean skins all over the counter. Clean-up on aisle 5!
(I’d love to know if anyone else has had problems pureeing hot soups. Maybe I should have let it cool for a bit, but that’s not what the recipe suggested.)
Finally, my rooster sauce seemed to have a bit of a clog in the nozzle, so it came shooting out exactly perpendicular to the bottle itself and sprayed across my kitchen floor. Much cursing occurred at that time.

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In case you didn’t already know, garlic is a superfood.
And according to this health blog entry in the New York Times, scientists have started to unlock the reasons why. One of their findings? To maximize garlic’s health benefits, wait 15 minutes after you crush it to cook it.
Who knew?

I have so much food and beverage news to share today that I thought I would lump it all together in one huge smorgasbord of a blog entry.

In this entry, you will find:
* A recipe for naan that you can make at home (at the request of blog reader Jay).
* A guide to beers that make perfect accompaniments to Thanksgiving dinner.
* A link to this week’s E-Cast, The Roanoke Times’ new entertainment Web cast, with an appearance by yours truly, who will wrestle with a pomegranate and drink some bubbly.
* A couple of extra soup recipes, as promised.

First up, the E-Cast. If you have not yet checked out this new endeavor by the crazy folks here at The RT, here’s a peek at this week’s version.

You’ll see that the last item is me demonstrating the proper way to open a pomegranate. I’ve lately been obsessed with the sweet, beautiful seeds of the pomegranate. They are delicious as an addition to a garden salad, over ice cream, in a fruit salad, on cold cereal or just right out of hand. The way they pop in your mouth reminds me of a sweet version of caviar. In this video, I demonstrate a very easy and attractive holiday cocktail. Check it out.

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Sorry for the delayed blog entry and comment approval, folks; I just returned from a Sunday wedding in Baltimore. Ahh, the crab cake appetizers and wedding cupcakes. The theme was both traditional and trendy. Trenditional!
Happily, I returned to one of the best responses EVER on the FM blog. Who knew so many of you were holding onto a fabulous chocolate memory? I’m not a huge fan of chocolate myself, but I should have considered that it’s one addictive food.
It’s going to be difficult to decide which reader is most deserving of the book, “I’m Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas” by Marcel Desaulniers. The contest isn’t even over yet. You have until Friday to join in the fun and share your own piece of chocostalgia.
In honor of the theme, here’s a recipe from one of my fave dessert cookbooks, “1,001 Low-Fat Desserts” by Sue Spitler: Don’t be turned off by “low-fat.” This recipes is still loaded with sin.

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This weekend, I whipped up the Apple Pound Cake with Cinnamon Apple Glaze that was featured in a blog entry last week. That’s the cake that placed third in the state pound cake contest in Richmond last month.

I know it’s odd for me to choose the third place winner when the first and second place cakes looked so good, but I’m a sucker for any dessert that includes apples. In fact, I’ve said before that I would choose apple pie over a piece of chocolate cake any day of the week.

This apple pound cake turned out so delicious that I had to eat two slices last night. I guess with that and all the Frank’s pizza I ate this weekend, my butt will be at the gym this week.

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Looks like the salad joint I talked about with much excitement in a previous blog entry has shut down. Over the past week or so, the Adobe Salad Works in the Roanoke City Market building has closed.
Not only have they closed, they’ve removed just about everything, including– or so it appears from the upstairs balcony– the countertops.
So much for my build-your-own-salad extravaganzas. And to think it was just May when I was rejoicing over the garbanzo beans and artichoke hearts.
I hate to see another restaurant fail in the market building. But the restaurant business in Roanoke has seen many failures before and will see many more, I’m sure. There are also simple retirements from the biz (in the case of Green Dolphin Grille) or the decision to move on before a business completely tanks.
Next week, I’ll write about a new place in downtown Roanoke that’s promising healthy dining options.
Meanwhile, do you know of any other restaurants that appear to have bitten the dust? You guys can be my eyes and ears.