Photo Galleries: So. Beach | Pillsbury Bake-Off

I’m constantly amused by how magazines write about food. At a certain point, their hoity-toidy attitude makes it easy to forget that you’re talking about manicotti and not Manolo Blahniks.

Mike Pound, a columnist at the Jopin Globe in Joplin, Mo., has the same issues with Food & Wine magazine.

I picked Food and Wine because I figured, “Hey, I like food and I like wine.” It seemed like a good match.

But, as it turns out, I may not be quite sophisticated enough for Food and Wine.

Don’t get me wrong. The folks at Food and Wine didn’t come right out and tell me I wasn’t sophisticated enough for them. Really, the folks at Food and Wine seem very nice. It’s just that we don’t have very much in common. It seems our tastes in both food and wine are not quite the same. For example, here is the name of a Food and Wine recipe for a salad: Shaved Sunchoke Salad with Parmesan and Arugula.

When I read that recipe name, I had a couple of questions for the folks at Food and Wine.

No. 1: What is a sunchoke?

No. B: Why do I need to shave it?

See, if I have to shave something, I don’t think I want to eat it.

---

Philip Wiezorek of Tampa, age 11, writes:

I love my mom’s cooking. It is the best food that I have ever had! 

My favorite food that she makes is her sweet potato casserole; this is no ordinary casserole though. My mom puts on brown sugar and oatmeal (she also puts a few other things in that mix, but I don’t know what. So take my word for it that it is really good.) She puts it on the top of the sweet potatoes to make a crusty layer that tastes like a kind of candy.

My second favorite meal is her potato soup. First she chops up the potatoes and then puts them in the bowl with a few onions.Then she plops in a few spices like salt, pepper and some other things, and then she lets it simmer for a while. Then when it is finally done you have in front of you one delicious bowl of potato soup. As you can see my mom’s cooking ROCKS and everyone who has ever had it says so too.

---

For Mother’s Day, we asked readers at TBO.com for their memories of Mom in the kitchen.

Amy S. Pierce of Brandon writes th is lovely note and includes the following recipes:

As we approach Mother’s Day, nostalgic memories of my mother cooking up a storm on a spring Sunday afternoon waft through my mind like Chicken Pot Pie and Blueberry Buckle. 

As the relaxing melodies of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby reverberate on the AM radio station, my mother happily fastens her apron strings and begins setting out each ingredient on the kitchen counter.  After reading the recipe to her step by step, I eagerly help her blend the essential ingredients together in a mixing bowl, pour them into a pan, and place it in the oven for baking. 

When the clock begins to buzz, my mother carefully pulls out the pan and cools it on the stovetop.  Then, it is time for the next recipe.  After everything is finally ready, our family sits down at the table to enjoy a delectable homemade meal of steaming Chicken Pot Pie topped off with an award-winning Blueberry Buckle, complements of the best maternal chef in town. 

There’s no place like Mom’s Kitchen.

BISQUICK CHICKEN POT PIE
1 package (16 ounces) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1 cup cut-up cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 400ºF. Mix vegetables, chicken and soup in ungreased 2-quart casserole. Stir remaining ingredients in small bowl with fork until blended. Pour into casserole.  Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.

BLUEBERRY BUCKLE

Cake ingredients:
2 cups and 1-2 tablespoons of sifted, all purpose flour separated.
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 pint blueberries

Topping ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease an 8-inch springform pan. Set aside.

Sift together the 2 cups of flour, the baking powder and the salt. Set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg. Add the flour mixtrue in 3 parts, alternating with the milk. Toss the blueberries with the remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour (to separate and scatter evenly throughout the batter) and fold in. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Set aside.

Combine ingredients for topping with a fork to make crumbly mixture. Sprinkle this over the batter.

Bake for one hour, then test for doneness by gently inserting a fork. If it does not come out clean, give the cake another 5 to 10 minutes to bake.

When the cake has cooled, run a knife around the edges and lift the cake out o the pan. Serve with whipped cream.

---

Oh my.

This video is wrong in so many ways. Although the teary eyed Gummi bear was a nice touch.

Hat tip: Rich

---

A while back, I wrote a feature on Cinnamon Bay Gourmet Sauces coming to local stores. The company’s executive chef, Greg Hurley, sends along new recipes from time to time that he concocts.

Here’s a new one:

Spinach & Arugula Seafood Salad with Smoked Salmon and Mango Shrimp
1/4 pound thinly sliced smoked salmon
3 large shrimp, shell on
2 cups small spinach leaves
2 cups arugula
1 1/3-inch thick slice of red onion
1/2 cup of finely diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup of finely diced yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup finely diced green bell pepper
1 1/2 cups of Cinnamon Bay Gourmet Sauces Passion Fruit Vinaigrette
3/4 cup of Cinnamon Bay Gourmet Sauces Mango Tarragon Vinaigrette
3 slices of French bread coated in Cinnamon Bay Gourmet Sauces Passion Fruit Vinaigrette and Toasted

Marinate (in the refrigerator) the red onion overnight in 3/4 Cup of Cinnamon Bay Passion Fruit Vinaigrette. Remove from the marinade and grill until tender and brown.

Marinate (in the refrigerator) the shrimp for 1 hour in 3/4 cup of Cinnamon Bay Mango Tarragon Vinaigrette. Remove from the marinade and grill until translucent.

Toss the spinach/arugula mix in a bowl and toss with the Cinnamon bay Passion Fruit Vinaigrette. Save a little to drizzle over the Smoked Salmon. Place the mixture in the center of the plate.

Divide the sdalmon up evenly and place on the 3 toasted pieces of french bread. On top of each piece of salmon place 1 grilled onion ring. Plate.

Place the grilled shrimp on the plate

Mix the diced red, yellow and green bell peppers together and use as a garnish. Serve

---

If you haven’t yet found your way to meeting the BBQ Pilgrim, you really should stop by the site.

Photographer and former professor Mark Dolan is criss-crossing this great land of ours on a sacred mission: to find the best stories that barbecue chefs have to offer.

Full disclosure: Mark and I worked together in Alaska at the Anchorage Times, where he was photo chief and I was a columnist.

But I digress.

Mark’s sold everything and gone on the road, staying with friends, driving to various places in pursuit of barbecue’s holy grail. Whatever that may be. And since he’s a Gator and warm and friendly man, he’s never without a place to stay.

His approach to the Web site: to mix video and stills and text in a Ken Burns-ian kind of way. What you get is a multimedia experience that is powerful and, well, mouth-watering. You can almost smell the smoke.

My favorite: Curtis Tuff.

As Mark writes:

Curis Tuff has been cooking and serving up BBQ in Putney Vermont since 1965. “After 39 years I’m starting to get the hang of it,” Curtis joked. “another five more years and I should have it down pretty good,” he added. Curtis said the part of his business he most enjoys is being able to meet and talk with his customers. Curtis, along with his pet pot-bellied pig C.J. are known to people from all over the country who make his barbecue a regular stop when they visit Vermont between April and October, the months they are open for business.

It’s worth the click just to hear Tuff talk about his “supervisor,” an 80-pound pot-bellied pig, C.J.

---

How much would a satanic lemon be worth?

Exactly $51.

---

Don’t try making this Russian Roulette drink at home, kids.

Or, what the hell… try it. I don’t care. Just don’t sue me for showing it to you when you become the Richard Pryor of bartenders.

---

After much anticipation Burrito Brothers Taco Co. - the hole-in-the-wall eatery favored by every drunk student in Gainesville - is now open in Carrollwood at 11417 N. Dale Mabry Highway.

Sean Ledig wrote a great story earlier this week that gives you a sense of how much the taco cafe is beloved:

CARROLLWOOD - Weeks before Burrito Bros. Taco Co. opened, Ryan McDonald could tell it was generating a buzz, especially among University of Florida alumni.

“When I wear a Burrito Bros. T-shirt, people stop me and say, ‘Hey, have you heard they’re coming to town?’” McDonald said. “That little 300-square-foot hole-in-the wall [in Gainesville] is so popular with people.”

When the first sign went up in Carrollwood, McDonald, the licensee for the restaurant, said Burrito Bros. fans started stopping by to find out when it would open. When others found out about the opening, they would tell him, “I’m taking off from work that day!”

To get a sense of what the big deal was about the Gainesville eatery, click here.

---

Which mascot’s story would you most like to be made into a movie?
A. Cap’n Crunch
B. Sugar Bear
C. Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Franken Berry
D. Snap, Crackle, and Pop
E. Diggum
F. Tony the Tiger
G. The Honeycomb Craving

Got an answer? Go here to cast your vote. You can also suggest who you’d want to see play your lead cereal character on screen.

Here are a few of my favorite cereal boxes:

---

Advertisement

Write a letter to the editor | Subscribe and get two weeks free | Place an Ad Online