| What not to buy at supermarket
It goes without saying that I prefer shopping for my groceries at the supermarket more than any other type of store, particularly since I enjoy the game of grabbing the best bargains with store promotions, coupons and even the occasional rebate thrown in. You can't beat getting some items absolutely free when you know how to use supermarket promotions together!However, a TV reporter recently asked me to give her a list of items that you should not buy at the supermarket, assuming you are focused on getting the lowest prices for your groceries. I haven't been asked that question before, so I had fun giving it some thought and doing a little research. Some of the price comparisons surprised me, and have changed my mind about where I will buy some items in the future.To clarify, when I compared prices for these common supermarket items to other store alternatives, I assumed that the items were selling for their full price to compare apples to apples.
Pet owners seek answers amid recalls
Dog and cat owners don't know what to do anymore after yet another line of pet food was recalled for fear of possible deadly contamination.
They do know that they're frustrated -- and scared.
Del Monte Pet Products this weekend became the latest pet-food manufacturer to recall some products following on the heels of Nestle Purina PetCare Co., which pulled some of its popular Alpo brand products for similar reasons. That brought to more than 100 the number of dog- and cat-food brands that have been recalled since mid-March amid suspicious deaths of pets.
The brands Del Monte pulled are Jerky Treats Beef Flavor Dog Snacks, Gravy Train Beef Sticks Dog Snacks and Pounce Meaty Morsels Moist Chicken Flavor Cat Treats. Two other products Del Monte makes for Wal-Mart stores, Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Jerky Strips Dog Treats and Ol' Roy Beef Flavor Snack Stick Dog Treats, also were recalled.
Dining calendar
Today, Oakroom at the Seelbach Hilton executive chef Todd Richards will offer a special selection of new items, creative interpretations of comfort and snack foods. The three-course menu, with seatings between 5:30 and 7 p.m., will cost $45. The first course will be a choice of smoked quail breast, rock shrimp and scallop nacho with black bean puree or a grilled chicken satay with peanut barbecue sauce. .
LaFont hires lifelong chef
PASCAGOULA -- Greg Buschmohle got his first restaurant job in his hometown of Detroit when he was 10, and 43 years later he has brought all that he has learned to the LaFont Inn in Pascagoula. Buschmohle was recently hired as the LaFont's new executive chef after he turned down offers in New York and Boston. Although Buschmohle has either been owner or consultant with 68 different restaurants the past 30 years, the LaFont gig is only his fourth job. He became executive chef of Bayside Grill in Orange Beach, Ala., in 1995 and also owned Quality Restaurants, which had seven different operations. The hurricanes in 2003 and 2004 hurt much of his restaurants that were located in vacation areas of Alabama and Florida. Numerous Pascagoula residents have condominiums and other associations in Orange Beach, which is where Buschmohle and Ed Trehern, one of the LaFont owners, began a friendship several years ago after Trehern frequented Bayside Grill.
Bread pudding made in jiffy
Bread pudding doesn't have to be difficult. What started as a budget dessert to use leftover or ``day-old'' bread has become a gourmet, complicated dessert. But it doesn't have to be that way. Even a desperate cook can bake a beautiful bread pudding -- in fact, 12 of them. Today's recipe for Individual Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Puddings makes 12 servings with only about 15 minutes of active work. No double boilers, no standing over pots whisking and stirring, no temperamental, unpredictable maneuvers and no weird ingredients. It's just uncomplicated comfort food that even a novice baker can pull off in a jiffy. INDIVIDUAL CINNAMON-RAISIN BREAD PUDDINGS 1 lb. loaf cinnamon-raisin bread (see note) 4 tbsp. ( ½ stick) butter 2 cups heavy or whipping cream 1 cup low-fat or whole milk, or half-and-half .
Cooking show adds flavor to Flyer TV
Im no Rachel Ray, but I know a good cook when I see one. Or, rather, taste his or her food. Junior Becca Russo, public relations major, is the co-host of Flyer TVs newest addition, The Experimental Chef, which puts my scrambled egg making skills to shame. Russo, along with Amy Polomsky, junior electronic media major, had the idea for this one-of-a-kind cooking show when she and a friend were using their creative juices one day in Russos ArtStreet kitchen. We were bored at lunch and began experimenting with food, Russo said. I suddenly had the idea to create some sort of a show for college kids where the recipes are easy and based off of everyday food lying around the house. Russo credits her roommate junior Laura Wagner, a veteran at the Flyer TV studios, for getting her show off of the ground and running.
Creating food fusion confusion
I CAN appreciate good food. Indeed, I think if more did there would be fewer fatties in the world at the McDonald's drive-through claiming that genetics made them do it. But there comes a time when a line must be drawn, when food goes from gourmet to gour-maybenot. Such a moment occurred this week with the news that London's Fat Duck restaurant, voted the world's best, is to launch a new dish to be eaten while listening to "surf sounds'' on an iPod. Described as a blend of seafood on a bed of seaweed and "sand-like'' tapioca, the dish is the latest from a restaurant that brought us such classics as snail porridge and sardine sorbet. There are a few obvious points I wish to raise here; but when you have this much material it is difficult to know where to start. For starters, the words "sand-like'' belong in geology classes, not menus; and seaweed is a favoured food of fish, the Japanese and desert castaways, and as such should be avoided by anyone without gills, a Hello Kitty handbag or a house made of palm leaves.
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