Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 27, 1994 TAG: 9404270066
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Dawn Hoffman, with Candice Brown, co-owns the purple- and white-fronted Tasty Blooms shop in the Lamplighter Mall on Williamson Road in Roanoke, says the idea to put fresh-baked gourmet cookies on a stick, wrap them in colored plastic and incorporate them into floral-like arrangements just came to her one day while she was working on a carnival for a nursing home. It wasn't as easy to accomplish as it sounds, though. So once she found a formula that works, she had it properly patented and in 1990 opened her first shop in Asheville, N.C. That store was recently sold as part of a long-range plan to franchise nationally.
The roughly 4-inch diameter cookies used in arrangements are baked in-house within hours of preparing an order and include chocolate chip, maple walnut, peanut butter, fudge and toffee. Standard bouquets range from about $6 for a balloon, three or four cookies and cascading streamers, to about $30 for 12 cookies, baby's breath and a silk rose in a floral box with satin bow. Special orders, including stuffed balloons, are also available.
"If a container can hold styrofoam, we can probably turn it into an arrangement," Hoffman says, recalling one in particular that involved a pair of size 14 athletic shoes.
The shop also can make up to 1,000 varieties of novelty chocolate products, including false teeth, a tool box, records, golf balls, Masonic symbols, business cards and some X-rated numbers kept discreetly covered in a display case.
To store the cookies, or whatever, the shop carries a selection of cute ceramic "talking" cookie jars, including barking dogs, a choo-chooing train, a mooing cow and a school bus at about $25 each. Delivery and national shipping are offered. Call (800) 7-JUST-4U or 366-0477.
The cookie arrangements are billed as "The alternative with good taste"... presumably to bouquets that die or need dusting, which really get some people steamed.
Now, in the case of Tupperware's "Meals In Minutes," getting steamed is a wonderful thing. The three-part, dishwasher-safe microwave cooker can have a fresh-ingredients dinner for two ready in less than 10 minutes. And I'm talking Italian chicken and rice, shrimp and linguini, dill-flavored fish with rice or beef fajitas, which are among the seven recipes included in the utensil's accompanying cook booklet, "Fresh Food Fast."
Basically, you fill the cooker's bottom dish with liquids, seasonings and rice, pasta or potatoes. Meat or seafood and vegetables go into the colander compartment above; the top goes on, and minutes later you have a healthful, low-fat meal whose looks and taste belie its quick preparation time.
The $17.50 steamers look a little like an earlier product, but differ in that they are part of Tupperware's reheatable line. They're available only through independent Tupperware consultants, of which Southwest Virginia distributor Denise Pully says there are about 550 in this area.
For more information, call (800) 858-7221 or call Pully at All Star Party Sales, 345-3876.
It's been years since I've attended a Tupperware party. But I still fondly remember the containers as being great for storing foods and keeping them fresh. They might come in handy for storing all those top-brand cereals - including Cheerios, Wheaties, Golden Grahams, Lucky Charms, Total and Trix - on which General Mills recently reduced prices by an average of 11 percent. Since the average American family buys more than 30 packages of cereal per year, savings of from 30 cents to $1.25 per package could really add up as prices go down.
Something else gone down is the lactose content in a new offering from Edy's Grand Ice Cream. The first-of-its-kind product contains 70 percent less lactose than regular ice cream, or less than one gram of lactose per serving, which is probably tolerable to most of the estimated 50 million lactose-intolerant Americans.
Edy's Grand Lactose Reduced Ice Cream sells for about $3 per quart in vanilla, Cookies 'N Cream, almond praline, Rocky Road or Strawberries 'N Cream flavors.
To keep your cholesterol level down, a new study from the DeBakey Heart Center of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston suggests consuming a moderate amount of alcohol with a high-fat meal to boost an enzyme that increases the body's efficiency at metabolizing fat. Have a glass of wine with your steak, the study says.
Find that steak, or seafood, chicken, strawberries, cantaloupes and other foods around which evolve entire festivals in the updated Virginia Food Festival Directory. It's free by calling (804) 786-5867, or write Virginia Food Festival Directory, Suite 1019, Virginia Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, 1100 Bank St., Richmond, Va. 23219.
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.|
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