THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Frances Price, amid a 30-year career of cooking and writing about it, has authored a remarkably distinctive just-published cookbook.
The title - ``Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You)'' - defines a part of its diversity.
It aims to answer a need when more than half of our nation's households are occupied by busy single- or two-person families.
She offers wholesome recipes to be done in less time than it takes the delivery of a pizza to your door.
She will sign books in Norfolk on Monday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at Prince Books. Published by Rodale Press, the book costs $27.95.
Her recipes are not for special occasions, she says, but for quick, easy preparing of everyday nourishing dishes for people too busy or simply too impatient, as some of us are, to hover long over a stove.
I disagree on one point. I would regard as a very special occasion, no matter how swiftly it materialized, a breakfast of fried green tomatoes with country milk-gravy.
Fran revised her grandmother's recipe so that her shortcut to that delicacy is as tasty as it was of yore and less fattening. Other quick-fix dishes become gourmet:
Fire & Ice Bisque packs for cold sufferers a double dose of vitamin C in tomatoes and orange juice. It can be had steaming hot or ice cold.
Savory onion jam adds caramelized essence of onions to meats, steamed vegetables or even pizza.
To lighten Southern greens, omit fat. Season with minced garlic, red pepper and a hint of olive oil. Even collards can be tamed in minutes.
For Honest Meatloaf she favors the larger version to allow leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches.
She discloses the secret of lower-fat burgers, shaping the leanest beef possible into 4-ounce patties and melting away fat by cooking them until they are well-done.
Fran sings of strawberry shortcake biscuits, peach dumplings, deep-dish cherry cobbler. One recipe after another entices. Many stem from Virginia classics: scalloped oysters, lightsome crab cakes, spoon bread muffins, skillet corn bread, sweet potato pudding.
Each recipe includes a nutritional analysis. Her menus carry calorie and fat totals. Tips on shopping and storing advise how to economize without sacrificing quality.
She began learning to cook as a child, watching her mother and grandmother. Under Fran's eye, her daughters, all four redheads like herself, became fine cooks.
She has experience in every link of the food chain, from working as a consultant for food manufacturers to writing for a Madison Avenue advertising agency and editing Food Management Magazine. She was production manager of Emory University food service.
As chef-owner, she guided the Red Heads' Cafe in Norfolk with creative recipes using fresh produce from local farms.
Should I, who failed to warm a pre-baked holiday turkey, follow Fran's lead to quick, easy meals?
In a way, yes. I shall make a wide distribution of her book among cooks who might feel inclined to invite a famished guy to dine. by CNB