Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9403190005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
My friend exaggerates sometimes, and I thought this might be one of them. But it turns out she might be right.
I first suspected it when a random sampling turned up digital display panels on all manner of appliances. Most of us have come to expect and even grudgingly accept their persistent flashing from alarm clocks, stereo receivers, coffee makers and microwave ovens following every power outage. It was scary, though, to find the glowing numbers on food timers, which I always think of as little gadgets on which you just turn a dial to however many minutes you want; they tick, tick,tick away and at the end go "ding." One deluxe timer at Montgomery Ward costs about $14, comes with a five-year warranty, can measure up to 15 hours and emits warning beeps 10 and five minutes before time is up. A couple of similar timers at Lechter's Houseware run about $20. They have multiple-time capabilities; they have to be programmed, for goodness sake. Mercifully, there is no need to fret over power outages. The timers run on batteries, and I've mastered changing those.
A $10 (nondigitalized) sifter at Hecht's also runs on batteries. At first the idea seems silly, but actually it might be good for people with weak or limited manual dexterity. A $20 battery-powered peeler at Great Additions Heironomous and a $15 electric vegetable peeler at Heironomous' downtown basement also might be useful, as might most of the "Good Grips" kitchen products available at both Great Additions and Lechter's. At the opposite end of the spectrum, though, at Lechter's I found a "high tech" $1.79 "pickle picker" - a thingy resembling a drinking straw from which emerge little prongs with which to pick up pickles - and a $9.99 ladle-shaped fat skimmer that actually requires some assembly. Guess if you try hard enough, you can complicate anything.
My personal vote for complicated gadgetry goes to video cassette recorders. For those technologically gifted people who can actually get theirs to play, a world of food technology awaits. Many small appliances, such as convection ovens, juicers and bread makers come with both printed and audio-visual instructions. A $180 pasta machine at Hecht's that, according to its package, "mixes, kneads and dries 11/2 pounds of dough in minutes and generates 11 kinds of pasta," does. And there are more instructional cooking videos available than you can shake a remote at. Saturday Matinee has tapes for sale ranging from about $10-$20. "Bon Appetit" magazine's "Too Busy to Cook" series run about 60 minutes and cover easy entertaining, light and fresh cooking, festive desserts and weeknight inspirations. Each video package includes recipe cards, menus, shopping lists and wine recommendations. Upscale offerings from the California Culinary Academy run about 30 minutes each and feature Chef Don Woods frying, grilling, poaching, steaming, sauteing, making ice cream and frozen desserts, light cuisine and pasta. TV celebrities Dom DeLuise, Richard Simmons and Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith also do their respective things on tape - DeLuise, Italian; Simmons, low-calorie/light; and Smith, sourdough.
Available through mail order is "The New Road To Being A Vegetarian," a delightful and informative tape/cookbook package on vegan cooking, demonstrated by Chef Paulette Vu. For price and product information, write Good Seed Productions, 9852 W. Katella Ave., No. 260, Anaheim, Ca. 92804.
There is one catch to the cooking tapes: Most people's VCRs aren't in their kitchens. Nor are most computers, but that doesn't deter production of food software packages. Babbage's carries an IBM-compatible electronic edition of the "Betty Crocker's Cookbook," containing over 300 Betty Crocker heritage recipes. With it, users can plan their time in the kitchen; adapt recipes for microwaving, grilling or broiling; or resize recipes up to 999 servings. Babbage's also has fitness guru Joe Weider's "Health and Diet Pro," which allows users to analyze the caloric and nutritional content of over 3500 foods, customize meals and otherwise monitor their eating. Both programs are in the $30 range. Weider's software is similar in function to computerized "Recipe" and "Recall" analysis services available through Cooperative Extension offices.
If you have windows - not in your walls, but the kind associated with Macintosh computer graphics - Truly Friendly Software in June released a Macintosh-compatible version of its "Recipe Manager" (already popular in its IBM-compatible form) that enables users to look up recipes by any portion of the recipe's name or by type of recipe and to index the locations of recipes in cookbooks and magazines so there's no need to retype them. Babbage's doesn't carry the software, but it can be ordered for roughly $35 by calling (800) 926-6096. For windows, Babbage's does carry Lifestyle Software Group's "Betty Crocker's Cookbook" and "Betty Crocker's Old Fashioned Cookbook," ($19.99) featuring dishes like Brunswick stew, fried chicken and gravy, and strawberry shortcake; and offering microwave and food-processor options and stereo-sound hookup capability. For a complete list of Lifestyle's other foods packages, call (800) 289-1157.
If you're curious about computer cuisine but not yet ready to cough up the cash, you can test a free copy of "Building a Better Salad: Good News at the Top." You need an IBM-compatible computer running MS-DOS v 3.3 or higher, a VGA graphics card and monitor, a Microsoft-compatible mouse and a 31/2-inch floppy drive and hard drive with at least 3M free space. Write to Wish-Bone Healthy Sensation! Dressings Computer Disk Offer, P.O. Box 1246, Grand Rapids, Minn. 55745-1246.
The final affirmation of my friend's technology lament came at Sears, where salesman Troy Eichelberger agreed with me that a shiny black $1,200 Amana quartz halogen stove, which cooks 30 percent faster than a radiant or coil burner, does sort of look like something off of a starship. But quartz models have been around for at least five years, he explained, so they're a little old hat. Now, the $850 Kenmore induction cooktop, only available for about two years, in stove time is new. It features solid-state touch control, has 10 power levels, goes from boil to simmer or vice versa in an instant and automatically shuts off. Heck, it won't even shut on unless something's on it, and the something must be made of metal. Sure, that might mean replacing the glass cookware sets that not so long ago seemed so "new age." But that's the price of progress.
In technology talk, I needed to download from my foray. I went to Montgomery Ward and for $3.99 bought a hand-operated egg beater - no bells, no whistles and no digital displays.
by CNB