Home and Garden Show begins

Who can resist a weekend in the garden — or the home — all while beating back cabin fever? The Minneapolis Home and Garden Show runs through Sunday at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and will include more than 30 cooking demonstrations at the Ikea Kitchen Stage. Featured celebrity chefs include Sara Johannes from this season's "Top Chef" as well as local favorites Marjorie Johnson and Sue Zelickson. Also, look for demos by Corner Table's Thomas Boemer, Smack Shack's Josh Thoma, WSK/Saffron's Sameh Wadi, and La Belle Vie's Diane Yang. The Star Tribune's Kim Ode of the monthly Baking Central feature will demo at 6 p.m. today. For all the schedule details, visit www.homeandgardenshow.com. Tickets are $13 at the door; $11 online.

A nod to local nominees

Two local writers are on the nominee list for the International Association of Culinary Professionals' annual awards.

Steve Hoffman of Shoreview is a finalist in the media awards for his article "From the wild (meals from a hunter)" in the Star Tribune's Taste section on Thanksgiving Day. Raghavan Iyer of Eden Prairie is a nominee for the e-cookbook version of "Indian Cooking Unfolded: A Master Class in Indian Cooking."

Winners will be announced March 15.

'ATK' tests gluten-free

"America's Test Kitchen Radio" was launched just two years ago so that host Christopher Kimball could delve more broadly into food issues, as well as roam the world. Last week, it aired its first radio special, "Breaking the Code of Gluten-Free Baking," about the 18 months of test kitchen work and scientific exploration that led to "a whole new approach to gluten-free baking, including new techniques, unusual tricks, and a different approach to ingredients." You can download the show here, http://bit.ly/1epH0P8. A book about this process, "The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook," with more than 100 recipes, will be published March 1.

Steve Hoffman

Where the buffalo roast

Kristin Olson thinks more people should feel buffaloed.

The young woman from South Dakota has written "Bison: My Way!," a collection of 25 recipes featuring bison as the main protein in entrees, salads, soups and stews. Olson grew up cooking, but honed her skills in the U.S. Army as a food service specialist. After attending cooking school, she worked as a personal chef before a desire to learn more about food nutrition led her to South Dakota State University in Brookings. There, she met Padmanaban Krishnan, a professor in the Department of Health and Nutritional Sciences, who mentored the cookbook project. Partial funding came from Olson's Griffith Honors Scholarship, and the bison for recipe testing was donated by the Intertribal Bison Council.

Olson strives to help home cooks feel less intimidated by bison's unfamiliarity; she stresses preparing the meat "with patience and care." Because she's also motivated by bison as a healthy food, she includes nutrition information for every dish — calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber and protein. Bison costs more than beef, averaging around $7 to $8 a pound for 93 percent meat, 7 percent fat, but Olson believes it's worth the extra money.

You can buy "Bison: My Way!" for $5 by contacting Olson via e-mail at bisonmyway@icloud.com or by calling 1-605-688-4040.

STAFF REPORTS