Sip with zip
Mobile and thirsty? Try quenching that thirst with sparkling juice drinks from Ocean Spray. Sparkling Cranberry or Sparkling Pomegranate Blueberry (90 calories each) or sucralose-sweetened Diet versions (10 calories each) come in 8.4-ounce cans, four to a pack.
Its suggested price is $3.79 at grocers nationwide or at oceanspray.com.
BBQ boot camp
Faculty from North Dakota State University's Animal Sciences Department and NDSU Extension Service are holding BBQ Boot Camps, including one July 14 in Grand Forks and another July 13 in Devils Lake. Camps run from 5 to 8 p.m.
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The camps introduce participants to grilling methods, describe the merits of various meat cuts and explain how cooking temperatures, humidity and meat composition from different animals affect success. Participants also learn about nutrition, food safety and techniques such as using rubs, marinades and seasonings.
Cost is $30 for individuals or $50 for couples. The fee includes a book with info and recipes and a meat thermometer.
For more information or to register, go to www.ndsu.edu/bbqbootcamp . Preregistration is required.
That's Italian
In "How Italian Food Conquered the World" (Palgrave Macmillan, $25), John Mariani, longtime columnist for Esquire, has written an intriguing history of how Italian cooking took hold in the U.S., how Italian restaurants struggled for respect and how the growth of international shipping improved the quality of Italian food.
Mariani does a fleet-footed job of explaining how culinary cross-stitching made Italian-American cooking the most popular cooking across Italy itself, how red sauce over macaroni wasn't particularly common in Italy until the middle of the 19th century and "while southern Italians increasingly enjoyed pasta with tomato sauce," it was in the U.S. where it became ubiquitously Italian-American.
Many pages feature dinner-party-ready-factoids -- marinara sauce was so named "because it was made quickly, as soon as mariners' wives spotted their husbands' returning fishing boats."
Squeeze enhancement
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Not content with selling you powder to pour into your water, Kraft now offers six flavors of Mio, a liquid "water enhancer," which you squeeze into your water from a little bottle that contains 24 servings. It's sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium. Mio sells for only about half as much per serving as single-serve regular Crystal Light.
