Briefs: Let a search engine be your culinary helper
By Compiled from staff, wire reports
Published November 10, 2004
When you are challenged by what to throw together for dinner from the contents of your refrigerator, consider consulting your favorite search engine instead of your favorite cookbook.
Type the ingredients on hand into the search box of most search engines - Google, Yahoo, Safari, Netscape, Lycos, AltaVista, Infoseek, Ask Jeeves and HotBot - and see what ideas pop up. A Google search for tuna and olives turned up 48,800 hits, including recipes from such diverse sources as an Australian pasta company and the Food Network.
Cover bird
Turkey is the November star on at least six lifestyle magazines now on newsstands. He doesn't seem to have a bad side, though we question the bed of grapes on Country Living. Can the Christmas cookie covers be far off?
Illuminate the menu
Are you having a difficult time reading menus in dimly lit restaurants? Then you might benefit from a new device known as Menu-Mate. It's a compact battery-operated illuminating magnifier. Priced at $19.95 plus shipping, Menu-Mate can be purchased online at www.menu-mate.com or by calling toll-free 1-877-636-8628. Keep it in mind for holiday gifts.
Make your own Julio's
Hungry for veal Marsala, stuffed shells or chicken Florentine the way westside St. Petersburg loved them at Julio's Italian Restaurant for 23 years?
Now, four years after closing the restaurant, Joyce and Julio Pereiro have put their recipes into a cookbook, Sharing Our Best. The Pereiros tell how to make their tiramisu, braciole, escarole and white beans, as well as other favorites.
"It was not easy trying to break down large recipes to smaller portions. Hopefully, I succeeded," Joyce Pereiro said. "The only thing they can't duplicate is my tomato sauce because they can't get the tomatoes I got from my wholesalers and make it in the quantities I did. The recipe I give is a good one, though. I used it before I went into business, and it's easy to make in smaller quantities."
Although they still cook at home (and vacuum-pack extra servings), the Pereiros like to go out and dine on the other side of the kitchen. Their preference is, no surprise, small mom-and-pop places.
Copies of the cookbook are $10 plus $3 shipping and may be ordered from the family at apereiro@tampabay.rr.com
Sweet tweet
As if a homemade pie weren't precious enough, here's Pfaltzgraff's 9-inch stoneware pie plate with matching pie bird to enhance your baking efforts. For baking rookies, a pie bird, set in the middle of a pie, is a vent that diverts steam from the filling and keeps juices from overflowing. The set is safe to use in the oven, dishwasher, freezer and microwave. It's $15 and offered in white, blue, red or green. To order by mail, call toll-free 1-800-663-8810 or go online at www.cooking.com
Zagat taps its tops
Beach Bistro in Anna Maria Island, Cafe B.T. and SideBern's in Tampa, and the Six Tables group head up 20 local restaurants in the new Zagat America's Top Restaurants 2005 ($14.95), based on ongoing polls of upscale diners.
Tampa Bay dining doesn't merit a little maroon book of its own but gets coverage in a Tampa-Sarasota section in the national summary (and the back of the Orlando-focused Central Florida guide).
On Zagat's 30-point scale, diners also gave high 26-point rankings for food at Pane Rustica and Armani's in Tampa and Black Pearl in Dunedin. Oddly, the book added the new and unsurveyed Pelagia at International Plaza and Water Unique Sushi in Tampa but misses Clearwater's stunning 3-year-old Cafe Ponte altogether. In popularity among surveyors (which is not the same as food ratings), Bern's, Columbia and Armani's ranked highest.
Beyond goulash
Pinellas gets a new helping of Old Country cooking at Bohemia Restaurant (1250 Main St., Dunedin; (727) 736-3881). Beyond goulash, kraut and Pilsner Urquell, there are chicken livers, Moravian pork and duck with cabbage. It's open for dinner daily, lunch on weekends; prices run from $7.95 to $13.95.
Heirloom holiday roasts
The Slow Food folks aim to celebrate the holidays, small farms and historic yet vanishing American breeds at the same time. In past years they promoted American Bronze turkeys with their red flesh and rich flavor.
This year they again have turkeys (starting at $69 for a 10- to 12-pounder) and much more, at premium prices. The group is offering American Buff goose (8 to 10 pounds, $72), Katahdin lamb (25 pounds for $225) and Berkshire pork (25 pounds for $225) plus rare beans, organic wild rice, mesquite flour and wild oregano. Shipping is $30. For details, contact (212) 980-6603 or Heritagefoodsusa.com.
- Information from staff writers Janet K. Keeler, Chris Sherman and Times wires was used in this report.
