.....Advertisement.....
.....Advertisement.....
Fridge Magnet

And the winner is...

I would like to award this week's free cookbook, "The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You'll Ever Need" by Laurie Goldrich Wolf and Pam Abrams, to blog reader Rebecca!

As usual, you all made it incredibly difficult to choose a winner. In case you missed it, here's Rebecca's poignant comment about her dad:

My best 'peanut-related food experience' would be Every Day With My Dad! My dad was a peanut addict! His favorite food was anything with peanuts or peanut butter. (I even got him to love Thai food because of the peanuts) He always had a can of Virginia Diner peanuts by his 'chair' and ended every day of his life with saltines and peanut butter. I always told my husband and kids that I would never worry about dad's health as long as he was still eating peanut butter and saltines before bedtime. Dad died in July of 2005 after a four month battle with stomach cancer. He ate those saltines and peanut butter until just a week before his death! Dad was a Baptist preacher who said even though it wasn't biblical, he knew that the streets of heaven were paved with peanuts, not gold.

Thanks, Rebecca! E-mail me your address at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com and I'll put this book in the mail.

Here's one last peanutty recipe from the cookbook before we move on to less nutty topics:

Read more »

Today's the deadline!

bakebook%20002.jpg

5 p.m. today is the deadline to enter to win the latest free cookbook on the Fridge Magnet blog.
I'll announce a winner tomorrow morning.
For more details about this week's book and what you have to do to win it, click here.

How many licks...?

tootsiedrops%20003.jpg

Do you all remember the Tootsie Roll Pop commercial with the owl who talked about how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

Well, after I received a press package from the Tootsie Roll company, a few of us back in the Features department reminisced about that commercial. Of course, in typical Features style, the conversation quickly veered off course to why owls would know how many licks it takes, if owls even have tongues, that owls usually eat mice and then...well, I'll just stop there.

Back on subject, the Tootsie Roll folks have rolled out a new product called Tootsie Drops. The drops are basically miniature versions of a Tootsie Roll Pop except without the schtick...er, stick! The round, lozenge-sized hard candies have a tiny Tootsie Roll center and come in pouches with about 20 candies per pouch.

Read more »

Easter's mystery meat

lambleg.JPG

No, I'm not talking about tongue.

Although, given the wide variety of meats that families choose to serve at their Easter table, I suppose we could be talking tongue.

My Easter plans include a visit home to the Alleghany Highlands for some quality time with mom and dad. Mom and I are going to have a nice dinner together on Saturday night and crack open a bottle of wine.

While chatting on the telephone about what we wanted to cook for dinner, Mom commented that "You can get away with cooking just about any meat at Easter -- lamb, ham, turkey, chicken, beef," etc.

If I had to put money on it, I'd say most families probably serve lamb or ham. My maternal grandmother is a HUGE fan of lamb, and I can also remember Dad's mother fixing a roast leg of lamb and serving it with mint jelly.

Although Easter is a Christian holiday, they say lamb at Easter goes back to the first Passover of the Jewish people. Then, the lamb was sacrificed, roasted and eaten in hopes that the angel of God would pass over their homes.

The reason ham is popular in the United States is equally fascinating to me.

Read more »

A lucky find

keylimecake.jpg

My big sister, Kim, called me on Saturday with a question.

She was in her grocery store in Spartanburg, South Carolina looking for the ingredients she would need to make a cake she'd found a recipe for in her local paper.

Kim's a sucker for anything key lime, so when she saw the recipe for Key Lime Cake, she was all over it. Since it actually turns out green in color, it also seemed like an appropriate treat to make for her co-workers just before St. Patty's Day and Easter.

But Kim had a question. She couldn't find key lime juice at her store and wanted to know if I thought she could just use lime juice instead.

Read more »

Peanut month recipe...and a free cookbook!

bakebook%20002.jpg

It's that time again, folks -- time to give away a free cookbook to one lucky blog reader!
Since March is National Peanut Month and we live in one of the peanuttiest states in the country, if not THE MOST peanutty state in the country, I figured we might as well go with a peanut theme.
Peanuts can contribute in a fine way to just about every course in a meal. Pad thai is terrific with crushed peanuts, roasted peanuts are fab on a tossed salad and peanut butter...well, peanut butter is the king of all manners of cakes, pies and cookies. It can also be incorporated into sauces, marinades and soups.
Of course, some folks would say their favorite way of eating peanuts is roasted, salted and straight out of a can. Especially if that's a Virginia's Finest can.
The cookbook I'm going to give away today is called The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You'll Ever Need by Laurie Goldrich Wolf and Pam Abrams.
Conveniently, it contains a recipe for a treat called Everything Peanut Squares. It's got your peanut butter, your chopped peanuts and your peanut butter chips. It's chock full o' nuts!
You can find the recipe below. And if you're interested in winning this cookbook, write a comment about the best peanut-related food experience you've ever had. The deadline is Wednesday.
Have a nutty weekend! But not too nutty...

Read more »

Let's share food photos!

Ahi%20Tuna.JPG

Feast your eyes on this beautiful rare, grilled tuna.

This photo was submitted by blog reader Sean for my new feature, the Friday photo of the week!

Since I started soliciting your food photos, I've received nearly 20 tantalizing pics. They range from Rich's bacon-wrapped wild turkey breast to Nona's famous banana pudding to Carrie's colorful beef cacciatore.

Because I can't feature them all on the blog, I've decided to start a group on the photo sharing Web site Flickr.

If you want to see all the photos, all you have to do is go here.

If you'd like to join in the fun and add your own photos to the group, all you have to do is create a Flickr account and follow the directions from there. If you need any help, please feel free to let me know!

Those of you who would rather not mess with creating a new account but still want to send food photos are welcome to e-mail them directly to me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.

Of course, if you can also submit your recipe to the blog, that would make this feature even better!

Help out local chefs!

In case you're still looking for an exciting outing tomorrow night, here's an idea. This event benefits the Southwestern chapter of the American Culinary Federation:

ACF%20Fundraiser.jpg

Corned beef from the vault

brisket.JPG

Yesterday, we noticed that online hits on last year's corned beef story were going strong this week, so I thought I'd resurrect the old Q & A for those of you who are starting to crave corned beef for St. Patrick's Day and were wondering about its origins. I'll attach the Q & A after the jump.

Every year about this time, I start thinking about my dear Grandma Nair stabbing holes in the corned beef roast and stuffing them with whole garlic cloves. Mmmm, I can just picture the steaming slices of corned beef beside a pile of cabbage and potatoes.

For a good-looking corned beef recipe, check out the Meal Planner in this coming Sunday's Extra section. Meal Planner guru Susan Nicholson has a tasty honey-mustard glazed corned beef recipe that looks like a winner.

Also, in case you missed it, we published a few more Irish recipes in the Extra section today. They are for Irish Beef Stew, Dublin Coddle (a layered dish of sausage, cabbage and onions with bacon) and Irish Pound Cake. That pound cake recipe looks like it'll actually turn out a 3-pound cake. It calls for golden raisins, dried currants, dried cherries, chopped almonds and a brushing with Irish whiskey when it comes out of the oven.

If you missed those, you can still check them out here. Just look to the left of the page under my picture.

Does your family eat anything special for St. Patrick's Day?

Read more »

More likely to eat green?

Tomorrow's Front Burner column is about two local restaurants that have made an effort to be more environmentally friendly.
Fork in the Alley in South Roanoke has joined the Green Restaurant Association. They started recycling, cut out Styrofoam containers, installed air dryers in the bathroom and switched some lights to motion-sensored lights.
Hotel Roanoke is talking about composting its veggie and fruit scraps. This after they've already been addressing water and electrical usage and other issues for several years.
The Green Restaurant Association and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality say they think some diners are more likely to choose a green restaurant over a non-green restaurant.
What do you say? Would that make any impact on you?
To see a list of restaurants that have joined the GRA, go here.

« Previous

jobs.roanoke.com| homes.roanoke.com| cars.roanoke.com

Search

You are currently browsing the Fridge Magnet: Food columnist Lindsey Nair shares recipes, restaurant news and more - Roanoke.com weblog archives for March, 2008.

About this blog

Comments

    • Lindsey Nair: What a great story by Anna Mallory. I definitely want to hear from Robert about how it goes. Guy Fieri...
    • JulieP: As it happens, I had found a recipe on Cooks.com website that I wanted to try; it was for an all-in-one pie...
    • scott: Nice column, Lindsey! Once upon a time when money was flowing more freely, I acquired a set of Henckels...
    • Amy: Jamison’s Sharpening service does a great job. I would bet that the stores mentioned above send them out...
    • Joe in N. Calif.: Melissa, you hit it in the X ring. If you don’t have, or can’t afford apples, and want...