www.roanoke.com

www.finecooking.com

Do kids still make those Popsicles out of frozen Kool-Aid? With the Tupperware molds? Or am I showing my age now?

Well, even if they don't, it's time for adults to start thinking about making their own Popsicles. The recipes I've found are not for the kiddos, because these are spiked! How cool would a late summer party be if you could pass out these tasty, ever-so-slightly naughty treats?

I got these recipes for Bittersweet Chocolate-Bourbon Pops, Lemon-Vodka Cream Pops and Sparkling Peach Bellini Pops from the Fine Cooking Web site. And these are no Kool-Aid quality recipes, either, they are made with the finest ingredients, such as real peaches, bittersweet chocolate, lemons and heavy cream.

One question: Where do you find Popsicle molds these days? I did a little Googling and found an array of cool shapes and sizes on Amazon.com. Here's the link.

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My Great Uncle Bill used to call my sister and me "the little chappies." He also called our legs "white snakes," because we are both redheads. Ah, the memories.

But I'm off course. What I really want to talk about is how you feed YOUR little chappies when you take them out to dinner. I'm referring to my Front Burner column, which ran in yesterday's newspaper and detailed a study of restaurant children's menus by a team of Virginia Tech researchers. I've heard from a lot of parents since the story ran, so apparently it struck a nerve.

If you haven't seen my column, click here and have a look. And then, please share your thoughts on whether restaurant kids' meals offer appropriate choices or should be healthier.

www.leaperrins.com

Paul Griffin and his family, of Roanoke, are one of 10 finalists in a Lea & Perrins Worchestershire sauce video contest! Apparently, Lea & Perrins is launching a new product, the Thick Classic Worchestershire Sauce, and they held a contest asking customers to write, shoot and produce a 60-second "wRAP" video to help introduce the new sauce. The "wRAP" part is a play on words, because Lea & Perrins bottles come in a paper-wrapped bottle and the videos were supposed to feature a rap about the sauce.

The Griffin family outdid themselves. I have not had a chance to get in touch with them yet because the voting closes at midnight tomorrow, so I wanted to get the word out as quickly as possible so folks from this area can support our local contestants. I watched the Griffin video on the Lea & Perrins Web site and had to laugh. The shot of them walking across the yard in slow motion like some bad-a** group of rapper thugs was hilarious.

If they win, the Griffins stand to score $5,000 in cash, $500 worth of beef and a case of Lea & Perrins Thick Classic Worchestershire Sauce. In my home, we dress our steaks with nothing but worchestershire sauce and freshly ground pepper, so this stuff sounds really tasty to me. The only annoying part about the contest is you have to register on the Web site to vote, but it only takes a second so don't let that stop you from taking part. The Griffin video is the one titled "Non-stoppin Poppin Toppin."

Oh, and if you hail from closer to Charlottesville, you may want to check out the video by Danny Vigour of Crozet. He is also one of the 10 finalists, and his "Dawn of Flavor" video about a Neanderthal family that is civilized by their discovery of the new sauce is VERY giggle-worthy.

A Salem boy has invented one of the sandwiches that will be featured in Red Robin's latest cookbook. For the whole scoop, check out this Q & A on the So Salem blog.

At the beach one year, my husband, his best friend, Mike, and I decided to have a fish cook-off. Each of us would purchase a different kind of fish at the market and cook it a different way, then we would try all three and decide whose fish was best.

I bought tuna and tried to create a marinade off the top of my head using ingredients on hand like orange juice and honey. Howard bought salmon and went with a store bought marinade (which I now believe should have been against the rules) and Mike bought some kind of flaky white fish, halibut perhaps, and simply smeared it with mayonnaise and seasoned it with salt and pepper. It was one of his favorite ways to prepare fish, he said, but I had my doubts.

When the finished products came off the grill and we dug in, who do you suppose emerged the victor? Yep, it was Mike with his mayonnaise-smeared fish. Since then, I've discovered that lots of people like to cook fish that way. It seems mayonnaise and fish play very well together. No wonder mayo is the leading ingredient in tartar sauce.

Here are a few fish recipes from the folks at Duke's Mayonnaise. Try one out and see what you think!

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Last night, I made the barbecue-braised chuck roast from the Fine Cooking article I wrote about Friday. It was supposed to be bourbon-mustard beef, but somehow I managed to be out of bourbon and didn't notice until it came time to make the dish. Alas, I had to use extra chicken broth and a little bit of apple cider vinegar, but this recipe still has so many flavors (fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, Dijon mustard, dry mustard, garlic, onion) that it was quite delicious.

The purpose of the article, I believe, was to show home cooks how to make what are essentially heavy, winter dishes in the summertime without heating up the kitchen. But my cheap self decided I didn't want to braise the beef on the gas grill for three hours, thus depleting my tank of fuel. So I seared it on the grill, braised it in the oven at 300 degrees and then glazed it back on the grill. It worked, but my kitchen was pretty uncomfortable all afternoon.

The beef was almost fork-tender, and the mustardy onions were a great topping. We had this with grilled slices of red potato and sweet potato, along with some Brussels sprouts roasted with olive oil and kosher salt.

To see the recipe, look below the jump. What was your best dish this weekend?

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www.finecooking.com

One of the most hunger-inducing food articles I've seen in a long time appears in the June/July issue of Fine Cooking magazine. Writer Bruce Aidells details a "new way to grill" tougher cuts of meat such as brisket or country spareribs without heating up the kitchen at all. He calls it "barbecue-braising," and although braising meat in a pot on the gas grill for a couple of hours will sure burn up some fuel, it looks fun and the recipes look so good I could almost eat the pages of the magazine.

Basically, Aidells' method involves first smearing a rub all over the meat and searing it on a hot grill to brown the outside and add that nice flavor. Next, he advises placing the meat in a covered pot filled with braising liquid and letting that simmer on the grill for a long time at a low temperature. Finally, he finishes the meat off directly on the grill with a glaze "for a final layer of flavor."

Recipes in the article include Country Spareribs with Beer and Mustard Glaze, Thai Chicken Legs with Lemongrass Glaze, Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Honey-Mint Glaze, Bourbon Beef with Mustard Glaze and Vietnamese Short Ribs with Sweet Vinegar Glaze. For each dish, there's a recipe for the rub, the braising liquid and the glaze. Are you drooling yet? Uh-huh, I thought so.

If you'd like to read the entire article, you can do that right here on the Fine Cooking Web site. But you have to become a member on the site or buy the magazine to access more than just the lamb recipe, so I think I'll share one right now. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo... let's go with the Vietnamese Short Ribs.

A word about English-style short ribs: If you cannot find these at Kroger or Ukrop's, I know they carry them at Fresh Market. You can also check your local independent butcher shop. O'Brien's in Salem will order them for you. English-style short ribs are different from flanken-style short ribs in that the latter is cut across the bone and the former is cut parallel to the bone. Fine Cooking says you can use flanken-style if you must, but the cooking time might have to be reduced.

Have a great weekend!

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I recently spoke to a group of stay-at-home moms about cooking, and it was clear to me that they were most interested in fast, easy recipes that are both nutritious and delicious. We all know how difficult it can be to get those kinds of meals on the table with jobs, chores, kids and other obligations.

Not long ago, I got an e-mail about a new Web site just for moms called Mamapedia. Mamapedia is geared toward mothers of all ages and descriptions, and the content is primarily driven by those readers. Wondering how old your daughter should be before she's allowed to shave her legs? What to do about a toddler son who wets the bed? Questions like these are asked and answered on Mamapedia.

For our purposes, though, the cooking section is the most interesting. Here's an example of some of the moms' comments I saw on there recently:

I'm verrrrry tired of cooking and planning meals nothing sounds good anymore. Do you ladies have any recipes that are quick and tasty...?

My newborn decides to stay awake from 5-8 and my 3-year-old has his cranky, freak out time right as I'm trying to start dinner almost every night!

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Simply Recipes

Hey guys, sorry for the late posting today. My editor, Kathy Lu, is out of town and I am filling in for her and have been buried under proofs until now. Does anyone have a tiny violin they could play for me? Ha!

Kathy is back tomorrow, so I promise to inundate you with foodie happenings then. For now, however, I'm going to pass along a recipe that caught my eye today. It does look like an awesome recipe, though -- it's for zucchini breakfast casserole. Might sound odd at first, but it contains eggs, zucchini, tomato, basil and cheese -- perfect for highlighting the fruits of the July and August harvest.

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www.redlobster.com

Those of you who watch "The Next Food Network Star" know that this week's episode had the final four contestants creating wood-grilled seafood dishes with the promise that one dish would be featured on Red Lobster menus across the country. The winner of the contest was Jeffrey Saad, who invented a tilapia dish with spicy soy broth.

I thought it looked very delicious. Tilapia, which is generally affordable and very quick to thaw and cook, is a weekly staple in our home. So I'm always looking for new ways to prepare it. When Red Lobster sent out Saad's recipe, I thought, "Why not make this myself sometime and save money on our entertainment budget?" I'm sure that's not what Red Lobster was hoping I would be thinking, but that's life.

I'm sharing the recipe for anyone else who would like to try it at home.

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