Cooking Show Sizzles Again

Inland Northwest foodies are about to get another taste of the Taste of Home Cooking Show.

The popular cooking demonstration and trade show returns for a third straight year April 5 at the Spokane Opera House and Ag Trade Center.

It begins with a trade show from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Ag Trade Center, featuring food product displays and samples and the latest in appliances, gadgets and cookware.

Then, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Opera House, home economist Sunnie Renshaw of The Homemaker School in Greendale, Wis., will present her patented blend of practical cooking advice and humor.

Similar shows are staged throughout the country by Reiman Publications, which produces magazines including Taste of Home, Country Woman and Quick Cooking. The Spokane event is sponsored by The Spokesman-Review, which will publish a special section April 1 featuring recipes and offers from participating sponsors and advertisers.

Tickets are $7 and available at all Spokesman-Review offices, or by mail; for complete details, call (509) 459-5233.

That’s a flap, Jack

A few fun facts from Aunt Jemima syrup in honor of National Pancake Week, which runs (the week, not the syrup) through Saturday:

* Pancake Day actually was yesterday, Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Since eating fat or eggs wasn’t allowed during the Lenten period in olden times, families would make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday to use up the forbidden ingredients.

* Ralf Laue of Germany holds the title of World’s Fastest Pancake Tosser, according to the Guinness Book of Records. In 1997 in Lintz, Austria, Laue flipped one flapjack 416 times in two minutes.

* The Japanese serve pancakes with minced oysters in the batter or dipped in hot chili sauce, while the Finnish army eats pancakes every Thursday following a first course of pea soup. (Makes you wonder how far they can travel with that on their stomachs.)

Hot Bake-Off the presses

Pancakes - well, at least, Cheesy Potato Corn Cakes - even were among the winners in last week’s Pillsbury Bake-Off.

All 17 recipes that finished in the money, including the $1 million grand prize-winning Cream Cheese Brownie Pie, are posted on the Internet at www.bakeoff.com. And a booklet containing all 100 finalist recipes is available at various supermarkets and newsstands; to order by mail, send a check for $3.99 to Pillsbury Publications, Dept. 8077, P.O. Box 2063, Harlan, Iowa 51539.