Wingspan owners take wing for Costa Rica
June 18, 2009 by Sharon Thompson
Livia Theodoli-Wing and Carlton Wing are going on an adventure.
The owners of Wingspan Gallery & Dinner at Wingspan are off to Costa Rica to run a bed and breakfast inn.
“We were contacted three years ago about this opportunity, but it fell through. Then we were recontacted back in February and we went down in May to check it out again. The B&B is owned by four guys from Lexington who bought the place about 15 years ago as a great place to vacation,” Theodoli-Wing said.
“We are very sad to close, but sometimes one has to take opportunities when they come along. We are calling it a ’sabbatical’ because it does imply return, at some point,” she said.
Take a look at where they are going at www.sueno-del-mar.com.
Before they head to the tropics, the couple will serve dinners June 18 and 24, and July 2 and 16. Call (859) 225-5765 or go to www.wingspangallery.com.
Memories of blackberry picking and eating lead to a winning recipe
A recipe created by Allen Carter of Lexington appears in the June issue of Southern Living. The blackberry corn bread recipe was inspired by Carter’s memories of picking blackberries as a child.
“One Friday after a long week of work and traveling, I got home and went to the mailbox and collected the mail,” Carter said. “As I was sitting in the kitchen reading the mail (Blackberry Farm news letter and Southern Living magazine), I started to reminisce (about) spending time with my grandparents in the summer. One of my favorite summertime pies was blackberry cobbler.
“I would go out and pick a bucket of wild blackberries for my grandmother and aunt. They would prepare a large blackberry cobbler for supper and a separate small blackberry cobbler for me.
“As I flipped through the pages of Southern Living magazine, I ran across a article saying submit your recipe and win. I picked up a pen and paper, and the inspiration started. I just made up a mixture of two of my favorite things, corn bread and blackberries,” Carter said.
Here’s Carter’s recipe.
Blackberry corn bread
2 cups self-rising white cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
5 large eggs
16 ounces sour cream
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups fresh blackberries
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir together cornmeal and sugar in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together eggs, sour cream and oil; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in blackberries. Spoon batter into a lightly greased 12-inch cast-iron skillet.
Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, shielding with aluminum foil after 25 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary.
Blackberry corn bread muffins: Prepare batter as directed. Coat two muffin pans with vegetable cooking spray; spoon batter into muffin pans, filling 3/4 full. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 to 17 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack. Makes 2 dozen muffins.
Note from Southern Living editors: “We also tested this recipe using 1/2 cup melted butter in place of the canola oil and loved the rich pound cake-like flavor it gave to this sweet corn bread. It’s delicious with peach preserves.”
Kids can take a stand
The Salvation Army will kick off its annual LemonAiD benefit at 10 a.m. July 2 at Cheapside, Phoenix and Triangle parks. Children can pick up their packets with registration forms and instructions for setting up a lemonade stand whose proceeds benefit homeless children.
Registration also is available at www.lemonaiddays.org, The Salvation Army at 736 West Main Street, or at any Whitaker Bank in Lexington or Georgetown. Call Rayann White at (859) 252-7706 Ext. 117.
Deals at Dream Dinners
Dream Dinners is offering two new programs: Invite a Friend and Taste of Dream Dinners.
The Invite a Friend promotion rewards existing guests for individual referrals on a one-at-a-time basis. Each time a new guest is referred and attends a Dream Dinners meal- assembly session, a reward of as much as $10 toward future purchases is given to the customer who made the referral.
Taste of Dream Dinners is a private event at a Dream Dinners store and is hosted by a Dream Dinners guest. The guest, who invites friends to the event, may earn as much as $10 in referral credit toward future purchases, as well as 50 percent off. Call (859) 269-3463 or go to www.dreamdinners.com. The store is at 115 Codell Drive, Suite 120.
Keeping fresh tomatoes fresh
Local tomatoes will arrive soon at farmers markets, and when they are at their peak, we want to keep them around as long as possible. Here’s a tip from the July issue of Cook’s Illustrated on how to prolong the shelf life of a tomato.
The testing team said: “We’ve heard that storing a tomato with its stem end facing down can prolong shelf life. To test this theory, we placed one batch of tomatoes stem-end up and another stem-end down and stored them at room temperature. A week later, nearly all the stem-down tomatoes remained in perfect condition, while the stem-up tomatoes had shriveled and started to mold.
“Why the difference? We surmised that the scar left on the tomato skin where the stem once grew provides both an escape for moisture and an entry point for mold and bacteria. Placing a tomato stem-end down blocks air from entering and moisture from exiting the scar. To confirm this theory, we ran another test, this time comparing tomatoes stored stem-end down with another batch stored stem-end up, but with a piece of tape sealing off their scars. The taped, stem-end-up tomatoes survived just as well as the stem-end-down batch.”
