ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609130177
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES FOOD EDITOR
"What's For Supper?" promises to answer many questions about planning and preparing that all-important meal. The Southern Living Cooking School presentation, Friday and Saturday at the Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium, will tackle supper toughies such as how to fix your dinnertime feast faster - in an average of less than 40 minutes; how to spruce it up for special celebrations or pack it up for potlucks; what works well for after-work weeknights; and much more.
"People are looking for kitchen shortcuts. They want meals that only take about 30 or 40 minutes to get on the table," Southern Living foods and entertaining specialist Cynthia Briscoe said recently by phone from the magazine's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters.
Briscoe will demonstrate 17 recipes and offer tips and ideas for entertaining during the two-hour sessions, where she'll be co-host with program coordinator Stacie Hughes.
"I grew up in the South," Briscoe said, laughing as she stretched the name of her home town, Louisville, Ky., into an almost unintelligible drawl. "To me, Southern hospitality is a good room of caring and devoted friends, true-blue people with a lot of warmth at the table and in their hearts."
To keep the hospitality tradition alive, she said, she wants to make life in the kitchen easy and enjoyable.
Briscoe gets ideas for topics for her schools by brainstorming with Southern Living's staff or by taking suggestions from the school's audiences.
"People have definite interests in low-calorie, low-fat, low-cholesterol and diabetic cooking," she observed. "Mediterranean and Southwest-style cooking are also popular trends."
The 160-recipe Southern Living Cooking School cookbook, part of the gift bag package given to each school attendee, includes a number of Southwest-flavored recipes.
"People think of Southwestern food as hot to the taste, but it's not, really. It has a lot of flavor," Briscoe said.
She explained that retaining flavor is important as people try to make their diets healthier.
"We really try to teach how to modify by using herbs and spices for variety. If the foods lose flavor, people will lose interest in them," she said.
But she doubts that people will lose interest during cooking school.
"We're going to talk about potlucks and supper clubs, which are very popular in the South, about Christmas and holiday gatherings. A few people will be invited up onto the stage to sample. We want everybody to learn and have a good time, too, and I think they will," she said.
Briscoe has been offering Southern Living cooking schools for nearly seven years; this is her second visit to Roanoke.
The cooking school will start at 11 a.m. Friday and Saturday at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium. Advance tickets cost $3 at Kroger supermarkets or $4 at the door and include admission to the Roanoke Home Show. For additional information, call Brenda Liles, FunTime Productions, 562-3141.
Following are sample recipes from the Southern Living Cooking School cookbook.
recipes for:
GRILLED ONION APPETIZER PIZZAS
ARROZ CON POLLO
EASY TACO CASSEROLE
TANGY ORANGE RIBS
PESTO POTATO CAKE WITH RATATOUILLE SAUCE
TURTLE TRIFLE
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Cooking time for Arroz Con Pollo (rice with chicken)by CNBis under a half an hour. 2. Grilled Onion Appetizer Pizzas reflect
the Meditteranean influence
in cooking today. color. (headshots) 3. Briscoe. 4. Hughes.