Table Talk, June 7

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

COOKBOOK NOOK

Over the Open Fire

by Pamela Alford with Johnny Nix (EMG Productions, $34.95)

While many will be backyard barbecuing this summer, a few hardy souls will be roughing it "out on the range" with Over the Open Fire. This 264-page coffee-table cookbook does a good job of introducing us to open-fire cooking. Most recipes include "kitchen directions" too, for when you are not up to cooking from a chuckwagon. Through words and pictures, Alford makes you believe that open-fire cooking is fun and easy.

Peter D. Franklin, Universal Press Syndicate

FLASHBACK

1920: When Edward Perkins came up with a drink called Fruit Smack in 1920, he was inspired by a powdered dessert mix that his father sold in the family's general store. That product was called Jell-O, but Perkins' product would also find a place on the grocery shelves. Fruit Smack, a concentrated drink mix sold in bottles, was so popular that by 1927, Perkins had to find a way to make shipping the bottles more cost-effective. He discovered how to deep-six the liquid, leaving a dry powder that he could repackage in an envelope. He called it Kool-Ade (and later changed the spelling to Kool-Aid). The smiling pitcher didn't show up until Perkins sold the product to General Foods in 1953.

ASK FOOD NETWORK

Q: What is couscous? Is it a pasta? Angi Allender, Wichita, Kan.

A: Couscous is a pasta. Like pasta, it's made from semolina flour mixed with water. Though the process of making couscous used to be extremely labor-intensive, requiring hours of drying in the sun, most couscous is produced by machines nowadays. It's properly prepared by repeated steaming; most couscous that you buy at the store already has been steamed and dried, meaning all you have to do is plump it up with boiling water.

Food Network Kitchens

GADGET DU JOUR

Kitchen and Herb Scissors $9.95, available at kitchen stores

You know how you just hate it when you have to strip those rosemary leaves from that tough woody stem? OK, so maybe it's not as aggravating as, say, those pesky bunny rabbits in the 'burbs that are eating everything except the rosemary, but still . . . These snippy scissors from Silvermark cover a multitude of kitchen tasks with one added feature - an herb stripper. Pull the herb through the middle and the leaves will fall off neatly.

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?

1 billion Insulair paper cups, with built-in sleeves that keep those hot foods hot and those cool fingers cool, have been sold since 2000. According to the Foodservice and Packaging Institute, there are 44 billion hot beverage cups sold annually. Insulair cups are available at supermarkets, discount and party stores.

PICK AND PAN

• Pick: Brown Paper Chocolates

Don't be fooled by the packaging. They come in unadorned brown boxes and the chocolate is a big chunk like fudge. But the chocolate is anything but bland, combining ingredients that you'd never expect such as dark chocolate with ancho chiles, almonds and aged tequila; milk chocolate with caramel, cashews, Jack Daniel's and fleur de sel; and white chocolate with Meyer lemon, Myer's Dark Rum and thyme. Whole Foods or www.brownpaperchocolates.com

• Pan: "Healthy" snacks

OK, I know they're trying, but the companies that make "snacks" are trying to up the health quotient by reducing saturated fats in their products, switching in part to more heart-healthy oils. But anyway you slice it, a potato chip is never going to make it to the five-a-day plan. And if they could do this all along, what were they waiting for?

Jennifer Rosen's weekly wine pick

• Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier 2005 (California), $13.50

Luscious, fragrant wine with layers of grapefruit, pear, melon and honey set in a meadow of wild herbs and flowers. All with no help from oak. Take that, Chardonnay!