Reporter | Dining and Food

Rick Nelson joined the staff of the Star Tribune in 1998. He is a Twin Cities native, a University of Minnesota graduate and a James Beard Award winner. 

Nelson and Taste editor Lee Svitak Dean are publishing "The Great Minnesota Cookie Book: Award-winning recipes from the Star Tribune's Holiday Cookie Contest" (University of Minnesota Press) in October 2018.


Need a baking project? These two cookie recipes are your answer

Takes on baklava and stollen were adored by the judges, but are too complex for average bakers. We're trying them anyway.


10 favorite recipes from 20 years of the Star Tribune Holiday Cookie Contest

Of the 100-plus recipes that we've published since 2003, these 10 are Rick Nelson's favorites.


Winners of the 20th annual Star Tribune Holiday Cookies Contest

These five bakers won us over with sugar, spice and everything nice.


Nicollet Mall, once an urban oasis, is now flowerless

The parklike greensward of the rendering for the planned remake doesn't match the current stark reality.


The story behind the makeover of the 50-year-old IDS Crystal Court

How the $5 million makeover, five years in the making and a model of sensitivity and ingenuity, came to be.


The story behind the makeover of the 50-year-old IDS Crystal Court

How the $5 million makeover, five years in the making and a model of sensitivity and ingenuity, came to be.


Minnesota honeyberries are bursting with flavor and possibilities

They're at home anywhere you'd use a blueberry.


'Gay Pride was invented here': The origins of Pride in the Twin Cities

As the celebration marks its 50th anniversary next week, we trace its history through the words of the people who lived it.


The skyscraper that could have redefined downtown St. Paul

When a promising office tower proposal fizzled in 1970, it set off a dispiriting architectural chain reaction.


Nostalgia helped fuel a second career of baking for an American in Paris

Author Frank Adrian Barron was missing home when he moved abroad, so he took to seasonal baking.