The Northwest's Cookbook Queen

My old friend Cynthia Nims is at it again, making everyone hungry and taking our minds off of important things, like the Lakers and Hillary, in order to devote our attention to food. Cynthia is an author and chef extraordinaire who collaborates on great cookbooks devoted to the fare of her Seattle base. She has written whole volumes about cooking juicy, delicious Dungeness crab and stone fruits; foraged for mushrooms; collaborated on a cookbook for Rover's, the best French restaurant in town; and raided the kitchens and menus of the area's top restaurants to produce the Best Places Seattle Cookbook.

She also appears at cooking demonstrations and conferences, including guest spots on cruise ships, where she's often accompanied by her husband Bob, who can't cook worth a darn but seems to quietly eat everything in sight, and then some. They're practically the perfect couple.

If you're planning to travel to this area and you literally want to whet your appetite for the food choices you'll have to make, you should start with Cynthia's website. You'll certainly not want to leave Seattle without one of her books tucked into your carry-on, in order to bring the flavors of the Northwest home with you.

This comes to mind because today she sent out her mostly-monthly newsletter, a warm, friendly account of her cooking and her travels, and she wrecked my day by writing eloquently about the huge meatballs she makes for her spaghetti. And I've done little else all day but think about making meatballs, although I doubt that I can make them as well as Cynthia.

Besides all this, she is an unbelievably lucky pool player who is legendary in these parts for clenching her eyes shut, jabbing wildly at the cue ball, and making balls carom all over the table until one finds a pocket. Much the same way as her meatballs find the sauce. Oops, there we go again with the meatballs; excuse me, but I have some cooking to do.