Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 30, 1994 TAG: 9403310279
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Families of four are the basis of many Department of Agriculture programs, such as the food distribution one underway at the National Guard Armory on Reserve Avenue in Roanoke through Thursday. During the limited recipients give-away, Virginia Cooperative Extension agents will show how to make from the ingredients being given out a low-cost, multipurpose mix that easily converts to cornbread, muffins or pancakes.
To make your own Gold-N-Good Mix, in a big bowl combine 4 cups flour, 4 cups cornmeal, 11/2 cups instant dry milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup baking powder and 1 Tbsp. salt. Cut in 11/2 cups hydrogenated vegetable shortening until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
Combine 2 cups of the mix with 1 egg and 2/3 cup water to make cornbread or muffins. Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. Increase the water to 1 cup for pancakes and drop by double tablespoonsful onto a hot, greased griddle or skillet.
Agent Sondra Wertz, who at another recent demonstration served the delicious, light pancakes with syrup, apple butter or cream cheese blended with honey, said the mixture, which is very similar to popular commercial brands, has nothing in it to spoil and so may be mixed in large quantities and stored in an airtight container for up to a month without refrigeration.
But look in the refrigerator anyway because therein, according to Julia Busch, lurk almost all the ingredients you'll ever need for a "fabu-lishous face."
Busch - who also wrote "Facelift Naturally" in her fun new "Treat Your Face Like A Salad!" - serves up assorted recipes for food-based masques, cleansers, toners, tighteners and treatments, to be applied in conjunction with an instant, self-applied pressure-point facelift and sensible eating and lifestyle practices, such as lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, water and rest.
Some rules of thumb: Oatmeal soothes; yeast stimulates; vegetable oils add emollients; honey and eggs hydrate; citrus juices are astringents; and eggs tighten.
The book, whose cover bears a young-looking and reportedly unretouched photo of 50ish Busch literally wearing a salad, is available for $14.95 from Anti-Aging Press Inc. Call (800) SO-YOUNG.
Wonder what the Culinary Historians of Virginia would make of Busch's inclination toward wearing foods? The scholarly Chester-based group comprises people nationwide who are interested in the histories of various aspects of food from collection and presentation to preparation and consumption.
The group publishes a quarterly newsletter, "The Porringer," and offers events including lectures, demonstrations and tastings year round. April's agenda will include CHVA's president, Nancy Carter Crump, cooking on a hearth and baking in the brick oven of a mansion's winter kitchen to prepare and serve authentic "receipts" from early Virginia plantations. Crump will also lecture on the transition from hearth to cookstove. For information, write P.O. Box 1303, Chester, Va. 23831-8303, or call (804) 733-5257.
Herbs for eating, maybe for wearing and definitely for landscaping will be discussed April 9 by Blue Ridge Public Television's "The Victory Garden" co-hosts Jim Wilson and Lucinda Mays during a program at Virginia Western Community College. A $10 donation is suggested for admission to the event, which is being underwritten by several area nurseries and the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, VWCC's community arboretum and the Herb Society of Southwestern Virginia. For details and information, call 344-0991 or (800) 221-0991.
And while you're in that phone-dialing mode, call the folks at Nabisco, (800) EAT-OREO, and tell them whether you're a twister, a nibbler, a snapper or what. In return for people telling how they like to eat their Oreos, the makers of the classic vanilla-filled chocolate cookie sandwich is promising every 100th caller an Oreo Gift Pack containing a T-Shirt, bendable toy characters and a supply of cookies to eat any way they choose.
Speaking of classics, Looney Tunes cartoon characters and Welch's, in honor of the 20th anniversary of their first collaboration, are reuniting on a new series of jam and jelly jars. According to a Welch's spokesman, some of the original jars-cum-glasses from 1974, featuring 'toons favorites Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil, Daffy Duck and Sylvester and Tweety, now bring up to $25 at auctions and fairs. Perhaps this new crop will one day gain classic status, too.
"Eating" has classic status, at least among certain cult connoisseurs. The semi-improvised film, about 10 women at their friend's trendy 40th birthday party discussing their relationships with food and its effects on their lives, loves and each other, airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on Lifetime Television. It offers intensity, soul searching, creativity, laughs and revelations - much like a can of Spam.
Shelf Life runs twice a month in the Extra section. If you have an interesting new product, cookbook, contest, gadget or gew gaw, tell us about it. Write to Shelf Life, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.|
by CNB