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It must be a bad week for Roanoke restaurateurs.

If you read the Business section today, you probably saw Jenny Kincaid Boone's story about the closure of the Roanoke Weiner Stand on Brandon Avenue. Nobody connected with the restaurant would comment on the closure, but Jenny found a lien against the establishment for unpaid taxes, suggesting that they may have been having financial problems. The downtown Roanoke location remains open.

But that's not all: Just before we were about to run a fairly nice review of Izumi, the Japanese steakhouse out near Bonsack, I hear it is closed. Dark inside, locked up tight. I don't know at this time why they shut down.

Finally, say goodbye to the barbecue place in the City Market building. They've got a sign hanging up that says June 5 (Next Friday) is their last day. That place used to be owned by the couple who own Burger in the Square. They sold it to new owners, who have since put it up for sale again. I guess this means there were no takers. Hmmm... with the threat of a building-wide shut down in the future, I'm not sure I can blame folks for keeping an eye out for their financial health.

Anyone got any thoughts on these closures?

Update: The New River Notebook blog has details about the Gobbler restaurant being up for sale.

Also today, I walked past Thai Orchid on 1st Street in downtown Roanoke. There's a closed sign on the door even though they are supposed to be open on Fridays and the special board was still set up on the sidewalk. Maybe they are on vacation?

Word has it, too, that the Midtown Picnic Club (formerly Orange Dog, Star City Coffee and a number of other things across the street from Zak's Cafe on Campbell) is closed. I looked in on it one day this week and it was indeed shut up tight during normal business hours.

Perhaps we should stop writing restaurant reviews at The Roanoke Times and start writing restaurant obituaries!?

The new raised bed

Remember the sad little patch of red dirt outside my side door that I posted a picture of a few months ago? If not, click here for a reminder of what it looked like then. Now, you can see why I am pleased with the development that has occurred since.

Having never built a raised bed before, this required some book consultation, many trips to Lowe's, some cursing and one smashed thumbnail. But Voila! Now I have a place for my kitchen herb garden and a few vegetables.

Granted, it's not a big enough garden to have a corn crop, or even a row of zucchini. But I think it's often better to start slow and learn as you go along rather than tilling up a whole chunk of the yard and blowing money on a bunch of plants you can't take care of.  So far, I have two green pepper plants and four yellow tomato plants. For experimental purposes, I've planted two tomatoes in this bed (on the very sunniest end) and put two in pots on the other side of the house. I'll probably round this out with a few bush beans.

The best part, so far, is the kitchen herb garden (below). As you can see, I have rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, common sage and Greek oregano. I'd like to eventually add dill, parsley and cilantro. I also put in a clematis just because I wanted one and it seemed like a good place for it. Let the pinching and cooking begin! Who else has planted an herb garden right outside the door closest to their kitchen? If so, how is it going? Below the jump, I'm going to share a recipe that I plan to try very soon with my fresh herbs.

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Have you ever heard someone say "I'd love to eat fresh, local foods, but it's just too expensive?" Now imagine how cost-prohibitive it would be for someone who can barely afford groceries to begin with.

But according to a Washington Post story today, an organization called the Wholesome Wave Foundation is giving grants to farmer's markets in different places around the country, including the Abingdon market, which is run by the non-profit group Appalachian Sustainable Development. The way I understand it, the grants will allow the markets to give low-income mothers and senior citizens twice the amount of fresh food they could usually buy with the food stamps they have. It does, in essence, double the value of their food stamps.

The Wholesome Wave folks figure it is a win-win situation: not only will underprivileged families have greater access to nutritional foods, but farmers, another hard luck group, will benefit from increased sales. On its surface, it sounds like a pretty cool idea to me. Read the whole story and let me know what you think.

In other Web news:

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Most beauteous wonder

This weekend, my husband, friends and family gave me the most awesome birthday present I've received in a long time. I'm trying to remember a better birthday present, actually... other than the Barbie dream house or something, I just can't come up with one.

And of course, the Barbie dream house was not a wondrous machine of great strength and intrigue. It was not the 5-quart Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer with 325 watts of sheer cream-whipping power. I have basically wanted one of these ever since I was a teenager and my mother bought herself a cobalt blue, 300-watt Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Now, I need to create an attachment fund. First item of business: a pasta maker. Second item of business: an ice cream maker. Actually, hubby did such a good job of shopping for this mixer that I get a rebate deal for a free grinder or chopper, my choice. I'm leaning toward the chopper... I don't grind much meat. But what if I decide I want to make sausage? Oh, the decisions!!

Anyone out there own a Kitchen Aid mixer? If so, what have you found to be some of the best uses for it? I broke it in by baking this cake. I guess you could say I baked my own birthday cake, even though I'd already had one cake! This is just a basic strawberry cake, but when I made the cream cheese icing I used fresh strawberry juice in place of milk. It gave it a pretty pink hue and a strawberry flavor.

Strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese icing

The benefit of having a 2009 Paula Deen planner is that while I am flipping through the pages of deadlines and obligations, I also get to check out some delicious seasonal recipes. In January, for example, there was a chili recipe. At Valentine's Day, it was chocolate cheesecakes for two, and as soon as spring sprang, I flipped to grilled salmon burgers and pecan chicken salad.

On this week's page, there's a pie recipe that is impossible to ignore. And since this is Memorial Day weekend and lots of us will probably be cooking up summery treats, I thought it would be the perfect time to share this cool concoction. Key lime plus ice cream -- how can you go wrong?

Have a great holiday weekend!

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It's time to polish up your favorite fruit salad or vegetable salad recipe for the chance to win $25 at the Vinton Farmers' Market on June 13. Okay, maybe that's not exactly a windfall, but just think of the fame you will achieve when your salad is judged to be the best at the market!

"Song and Salad at the Vinton Farmer's Market" runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. Market manager Mary Beth Layman said the rules are not strict and creativity is encouraged. Just bring enough salad to feed two judges and bring your recipe to share. "Song and Salad" is part of an effort by Layman to draw more crowds to the market. On the second Saturdays in July and September they will have art on the market, and on the second Saturday in August there will be a salsa contest (the food, not the dance).

Vendors interested in selling produce, crafts, plants, and artwork should contact Mary Beth Layman by calling 983-0613 or mblayman@vintonva.gov.  Visit www.vintonva.gov or Town of Vinton on Facebook.

In other news, check out this announcement about a great food event in the New River Valley, "Taste of the 'burgs." You are being directed to our new community blog for the New River Valley, so maybe you'll find even more to enjoy over there than this announcement.

Also in the NRV: the 5th Annual Food & Wine Benefit Auction for the YMCA. It takes place June 5 from 6 to 9 p.m. and features an evening of South American food, wines and a "foodie" auction. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door. For more info, hit www.vtymca.org or call (540) 961-9622

Finally, don't forget to mark your calendars for the 11th Annual Lebanese Festival at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church on Cove Road in Roanoke. It happens May 29, 30th and 31st. If you've never been, you have been missing a gastronomic treat. Lots of Lebanese favorites. For more details, check here.

I have exciting news that I can finally spill! Bread Craft, the artisan bakery out on Peters Creek Road in Roanoke, is moving downtown to the former site of Milan Tobacconists next door to Frankie Rowland's Steakhouse.

The bad news is that Bread Craft will close the Peters Creek Road location on June 1 and there will be a period of time where you bread-heads will have to do without this particular bakery until they are ready to open downtown this summer. I believe they need to move their huge oven and get the former tobacco shop set up as a bakery, which ought to take a bit of work.

Fortunately, we have another good bakery, On the Rise, that is also downtown. And once Bread Craft opens, those of us who live, work or love to visit the heart of the city will be able to carb load to our little hearts' content! Alex Eliades, Bread Craft's owner and head baker, says they will expand their offerings to include sandwiches and drinks.

Check out their Web site or their Facebook page for updates on the move.

Just think, scones for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and kalamata olive bread for dinner... mmmm! What do you think of the move?

I would like to introduce a new and very exciting feature on the Fridge Magnet blog. This journey along Nostalgia Lane is brought to you thanks to a junk drawer clean-up in the Nair/Swank household.

While engrossed in this clean-up, I came across a plastic grocery bag stuffed full of restaurant to-go menus. A certain male someone in the Nair/Swank household has an affinity for to-go menus and seems to collect them voraciously and then keep them for years after a restaurant served its last meal.

As we went through them and sorted out all of the ones for restaurants that no longer exist, it occurred to me that perhaps these menus might be of interest to somebody. Somebody like my hubby, who has lived in Roanoke for all of his life and can remember eating at just about every restaurant that ever opened -- and then closed.

Introducing Retro Menu Madness! On an occasional basis, I'll put up an old menu on the blog and see how many readers remember eating at that particular restaurant. Drumroll please for the first ever retro menu, below the jump...

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Yesterday, I saved $19 on my grocery bill at Kroger. And it was all because of coupons.

Lots of people don't use coupons because they think it is a nuisance to clip them, or because it just isn't worth all of the extra time and planning in the end. But I have grown to be a big coupon user over the years, particularly with the recent plunge in the economy.

A few of my co-workers and I recently started up a little coupon exchange. On Sundays, we go through the coupons from the newspaper and clip out what we want. On Mondays, we bring the leftover coupons to work and tell each other which ones we were interested in. Then, we trade off. And it works out well because while some of them have children, I don't. And while I have cats, some co-workers don't. And, of course, everyone has their own preference for name brand food products.

Photo editor Natalee Waters delivered a small stack to me last week with the words, "that's nine dollars worth of savings!" Indeed, much of my savings at the store yesterday came from the exchange. Three dollars off some contact lens solution, three dollars off some disposable razors, a free tube of Crest, 45 cents off cheese, 25 cents off juice... it all adds up in the end!

If you are looking to save money on the grocery bill, consider a coupon exchange with coworkers, neighbors, church members or other members of your moms' club. If you find a better way to do it than we have, please pass that on. And if you have other great coupon tips, please share!

A mock apple pie

I can't help it. As a devoted lover of a good apple pie (I'll take a piece of apple pie over any other dessert any day!), I just can't get it through my thick skull that someone would want to make an apple pie without the apples.

I'm talking about the Ritz cracker "Mock Apple Pie" recipe, which has been around for years but is being touted again as Ritz celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. If you haven't heard of this recipe before, it basically calls for crackers, flavored with sugar and cinnamon, in place of the apples.

Aren't apples the BEST part of an apple pie? What does one accomplish by leaving them out? OK, maybe some people are allergic to apples. I myself get a really itchy throat when I eat them raw, but cooked ones don't bother me. Is it to save money? Compare a box of Ritz crackers with a bag full of apples. Even if it is cheaper, you are not going to convince me that the new "Chocolate-Walnut Mock Apple Pie," which calls for walnuts and chocolate chunks, is cheap to make.

I wouldn't mind trying one of these pies sometime, just to see if I'm wrong. But I cannot bring myself to make one in my kitchen. If I make a pie, apples are going in it. What say you all? Am I being too hard on the mock apple pie? Just in case I am, I will attach the recipe below.

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