If you live here in the great Northwest, it does rain a bit, though not as much as you hear. NYC gets 46.6 inches per year, Austin 35.5", Berlin 23.3", Boston 43", and Seattle 39.34". The only difference is that our precipitation is over 9 months, not just a few months.

The rain today, though, is a Seattle winter rain. That is best described with one word: miserable. It is wet. So when you walk, your face and the front of your pants get wet, and that is with an umbrella. This "rain" is like walking through a misty rain shower that you might pay lots of money for at a spa, except it is icy cold and you have your clothes on, which are now also clammy and cold.

If I look out the window, the nearest structure I can see, the Space Needle, has a halation effect like a #4 soft fx filter which is created by the moisture in the air.

The temperature is unbearably cold here, and the chill skips the outer layers and goes right to the bone. 28 degrees feels warmer than 38 degrees does!

The usual warming comfort food just doesn't help even if it warms you up internally. Pho works but not hearty enough. Stew works, but a little bit too thick.

A good soup would be nice, something with carrots and rice or a few potatoes. A classic chicken soup would work. Just enough broth to slurp and just enough stuff to make it interesting and satisfying.

With lots of options it sure feels like everyone across the country is thinking about soup! One of the best things about soup is that you can almost always make it with what you have in the pantry.

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A classic soup to make. It is easy to do and comes out great! It is the details that make the difference and the cheese you choose can really mix it up.

My first French Onion Soup was in a fancy French Restaurant in Boston. I remember the cheese stretching from the bowl to my mouth...it was delicious. And embarrassing. Not what you want when you're on a first date in high school....

See the French Onion Soup Recipe here!

Sweet potatoes (not yams) may have properties that can help combat viruses like shingles. This is an easy way to get those nutrients into your body. Make a potful and reheat small portions every day.

This is so simple and very little labor is involved in making it. Be sure to cook the onions before you add the sweet potato and you will have success. Save salting until plating. Then you or your guests can add the amount of salt they wish. Maple syrup or balsamic is a nice drizzle addition.

See the easy Sweet Potato Soup Recipe here!

This recipe has more cheese and a little more work. The results are cheesy good. Cut the onions from top to bottom instead of in rings as this will result in a more tender bite.

See the 3 Cheese French Onion Soup Recipe here!

Gather all the ingredients so that they are all ready to go. Once you heat the WOK everything comes together quickly.

See the Coconut-rice Soup recipe here!

When you open this can you see white coconut milk. Without any water added, just coconut makes this a wonderful cream.

When you really love the flavor of coconut this is a great way to get it. Add richness with this cream to many dishes.

Filled with lots of B vitamins and other good stuff, coconut milk is a versatile and surprisingly useful ingredient to have in your essential pantry.

Coconut milk is essential for desserts such as coconut cream pie, coconut cupcakes, coconut hot white chocolate, and of course, coconut ice cream.

It is a wonderful ingredient in savory dishes, as well. Think of Thai Curry for your shrimp, coconut rice (if you use coconut milk to cook the rice), or a wonderful curry garlic pepper milk sauce for your fresh fish!

Shop now for Ayam Premium Coconut Cream!

The first whiff: A fruity, round, sweet smell that tickles the nose. The smell of quince makes for the fruity flavor and the tingle in your nose is from the acid.

If you don't know the quince fruit or the quincy flavor, this vinegar has it.

Dip your tongue into a spoonful of quince vinegar and your tongue is enveloped by this rich liquid. It feels thick, and as you lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth, the flavor of the quince comes through.

Repeated sucking of your tongue allows the flavor to roll around as your senses enjoy the taste. Be careful not to squeeze too hard, as the acid in the vinegar may roll to the back of your throat and inflict a tiny bit of pain.

This vinegar compels you to chew, in a sense, to capture, feel, and taste all the different nuances of the flavorings the quince has.

It turns and shapes and moves within your mouth. It feels alive! As the flavor of the quince dissipates off the tip of your tongue, the taste moves to the edges and up to the roof of your mouth. As you suck in your cheeks, you will squeeze the flavor and fully enjoy this vinegar.

If you take more than a tongueful, there's a stronger hit of the acidic side of the vinegar. You will get moments of pointy pokes and sharp, crisp twinges. But, in the end, this quince vinegar is sweet, sour, smooth, and round!

Once you taste this quince vinegar, you will be drawn to it, like a fly to honey, and want to taste it over and over again. Trying to discern all the flavors and nuances, just like you would do with a complex balsamic vinegar. This quince vinegar is quite a treat! One of the best joys we have had in a really long time!

Shop now for Acetoria Quince Balsamic Vinegar!

If you've never been Hey Boo'ed with any of her dairy-free, coconut treats, you've been missing out on something pretty special.

These srikaya coconut jams are delicious. Smooth, in this case, mango—you get a flavor-packed spoonful of fun and a brightness that's hard to describe.

Dip your spoon in and cautiously take half a spoonful out. It's pretty sticky, not runny by any means, and really holds its shape.

Lick the bottom of the spoon with the top of your tongue, and you will get the smooth feel and the joyous creamy flavor.

If you fill your mouth with a spoonful, you will get the full experience of both the mango and the coconut combined to make the sweet flavor combination come through.

The simple flavors play so well together that they pair with just about anything. Think of cheese on top of a cracker topped with mango coconut, and you have an appetizer fit for a queen!

Have some on hand when someone surprises you, have someone have some on hand to surprise someone—an appetizer in an instant and a joy that can last all night long.

Even better when it's chilled and you warm it up with your mouth!

Shop now for Hey Boo Mango Coconut Jam!

One of the special qualities of Tarbais beans is that they don't fall apart when reheated, all the whilst maintaining that melt-in-your-mouth texture. This also makes the Tarbais perfect for bean salads and any soup or casserole that calls for white beans.

The cost of production is high and the supply is limited every year.

With their balanced flavor, a thin skin, and a sweet, almost buttery flesh that is truly delicious.

Traditional recipes include garbure and cassoulet, and they pair nicely with fish (seafood cassoulet with cod or tuna), for instance.

The history of French Tarbais Beans

In the early 1700s, the bishop of Tarbes, a town located in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, had the chance to witness the cultivation of crops from the New World while on an extended stay in Spain. He was quite taken with maize and the many varieties of kidney beans.

Upon his return from Spain in 1712, he decided to introduce this bean in the Adour valley: the beautiful river originates in the Pyrenees, flows through Tarbes and ends its run in the Atlantic ocean near Bayonne.

The local farmers adopted the tasty crops with much enthusiasm in the plain of Tarbes. The bean that became most popular looked like a cross between a lima and a white kidney bean. It is flatter and shorter than a kidney bean and yet not as wide as a lima and has been known forever since as the Tarbais bean.

Traditionally, the Tarbais bean grows jointly with corn: because the Tarbais is of the climbing variety, farmers would seed one bean and one corn kernel side by side so that the bean would use the corn stalk as a stake.

The arrival of intensive farming—hybrid corn varieties, machine harvesting, and all that—in the 1960s almost wiped out the production of the famous bean of Tarbes. It seems few had time for a bean that was harvested by hand.

Fortunately, the precious seeds were not completely lost and got transferred from one generation's bean patch to the next.

During the 1980s, a handful of farmers decided to jump-start the traditional production of the Tarbais on a larger scale in the terroir it liked best.

The Tarbais is still harvested by hand, only when it is at peak ripeness. This labor-intensive process is the only way to ensure the quality of the final product.

All the hard work has paid off: the "Label Rouge" was granted to the Tarbais in 1996, the first time the coveted recognition was awarded to a bean. It also benefits from an IGP (Indication Geographique Protegee), which specifies the exact area where it can be cultivated, essentially on the Adour plain of the Hautes-Pyrenees department.

Shop now for Tarbais Beans - Label Rouge!

The Family Reserve by Conservas Ortiz is a very special product: It has been aged for at least one year. Like a good wine, aging is a benefit. The olive oil continues to enhance the flavor of the tuna, almost as if it were curing it. The flavor becomes richer, more pronounced. Note: actual age of product sold may vary and will not match photo shown.

Shop now for Ortiz Bonito del Norte Reserva Tuna tin!

These days I consistently pop at least one of these in my mouth during the day, maybe even more. They are so delicious!

Though we automatically pop these particular prunes into our mouths right away because they are such a treat, prunes are a special way to naturally sweeten your recipes.

Prunes do especially well with pork in savory dishes. Even simple ones like bacon-wrapped sausages with prunes are super easy to make and celebrate the prune.

California is the source of most of the prunes in this country, but France is the home of the most splendid prune of all—Pruneaux D'Agen from Agen, France.

When you try one of these pitted sun-dried plums for the first time, you realize that not all prunes are the same. Those dried, wrinkly, chewy ones I grew up with are nothing like these, which are a totally different eating experience.

I've been very lucky in my time in the food business to try a lot of food, and in a previous life to have traveled around the world, and there are many foods that are interesting, exciting, delicious and special. But when it comes to food—and travel—Agen, France is at the top of my list to visit for the prune harvest.

With their micro-thin skins, they are absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and just as good for snacking as they are for sweet or savory dishes, like Bruce Aidells' and Denis Kelly's Braised Pork with Port and Prunes, or rich North African-style tagines, which incorporate warm spices like cinnamon or allspice with prunes and meat, often lamb.

What's so special about these Agen prunes?

They come from plums that are a hybrid of a local fruit and the exotic damask plum, first brought to France from Syria in the 12th century. The plums are shaken from the trees, dried first in the sun, and then finished in a barely warm oven. The result is a large, plump prune with a deep spicy aroma and rich, lovely flavor—a summer harvest that's ready to be enjoyed all winter long!

Shop now for Favols Pitted Agen Prunes!

Crepes, those wonderfully thin treats, that are a challenge to do just right and outright fun to make. What makes them perfect? It is this French buckwheat flour from the region where they make the best! Even the label says it. Flour for "pancakes"!

Shop now for Treblec French Buckwheat Flour!

This tin is quite fun! It draws you to it with its embossed labeling. With 40 classic tea in bags it fills one's cup with wonderful smells. For the tin lover, the tea lover, whether that is for you or a friend.

Shop now for Traditional English Breakfast Tea in a Tin!

We add new products rapidly, often because they fit a chef's needs, or more importantly our own personal needs (read cravings) and they don't make it to the newsletter to announce.

This flavor-filled white chocolate bar is one of them. It's gorgeous to look at; each cube is beautiful in its own right. You might feel compelled to put this bar in a shrine to chocolate art mastery...but resist, it's meant to be eaten!

Of course, this only lasts for a day or two before you break off three squares to try. And then, well it is just a bar and it needs to be eaten.

Shop now for Chocolat Moderne Passion Fruit and Cardamom Caramel White Chocolate Bar!

Cullen Skink is a traditional Scottish dish, a soup that originates from the town of Cullen in Moray, on the northeast coast of Scotland.

Skink is a Scots word for a shin, knuckle, or hough of beef, which were the parts used to make soups. When beef scraps became tough to find, the Scots in the north used fish, specifically smoked haddock.

The skink soup transformed from beef to fish whilst the name remain unchanged.

The simplicity of the ingredients, the combination of smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions, is a practical traditional Scottish recipe. If you use smoked fish, the smokiness of the haddock will impart a distinctive flavor to the soup.

See the Cullen Skink Recipe here!