Food & Drink category, Page 111
South Side Soup Contest guarantees to warm your belly
The popular South Side Soup Contest that brings more than 1,200 participants into the Pittsburgh neighborhood for an afternoon of soup sampling is taking a cue from Disney World with the modification of its VIP ticket to include a FastPass feature. “This year’s VIP FastPass ticket will allow ticket-holders to...
Shake things up with these Valentine’s Day cocktails
It doesn’t matter if it’s surf and turf, a heart-shaped pizza or death by chocolate, Valentine’s Day meals should be chased with a special libation or two. Soft drinks and tap water just won’t do. If you are looking to capture your loved one’s, or your intended’s eye, along with...
Heart-shaped pies turn pizza into romantic Valentine’s Day fareVideo
Making dinner reservations or preparing a home-cooked meal for Valentine’s Day can be stressful. No worries. Numerous area pizzerias will play Cupid for you, rolling out a heart-shaped pie that you can share with your sweetheart. And as Feb. 14 approaches, their phones start ringing. Holiday pizzas popular Area pizzerias’...
Check out these Valentine dining deals
From romantic meals to schussing with your sweetheart, celebrating with your gal pals or putting your romantic thoughts on paper, regional Valentine’s Day deals abound. Breakfast in bed Spoil your sleepy sweetie on Valentine’s Day with the hot or cold beverage of their choice and a heart-shaped bagel from Bruegger’s...
Rethinking Chicken Florentine with clearer, brighter flavors
Chicken Florentine is a buffet-line favorite featuring chicken breast and spinach in a mild cream-and-Parmesan sauce — sometimes stuffed inside, sometimes stacked on top. All of these components are good, but this dish can often be stodgy or fussy (involving dredging chicken in flour and sauteeing). We wanted a simplified recipe...
Can this Hempfield couple ‘Bake It Like Buddy?’ Tune in and find outVideo
Some husbands and wives might throw in the (dish) towel if asked to enter a test kitchen and make a technically difficult cake from scratch in four hours. While being filmed. And while competing against another couple. And being judged by television’s Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro. Hempfield’s Gabrielle “Gigi,” 57,...
Couch Brewery’s Known Cheater beer honors local Super Bowl controversy
A Pittsburgh brewery poked fun at a local Super Bowl controversy with a beer called Known Cheater in honor of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the former KDKA producer who took a now-infamous jab at him. Couch Brewery co-owner Darren Gailey said he was surprised to see the joke take...
Valentine’s chocolate bars may hold ‘golden tickets’ for Westmoreland Cultural Trust partyVideo
The Westmoreland Cultural Trust and McFeely’s Gourmet Chocolate in Greensburg are partnering for a Valentine’s sweet treat, offering milk and dark chocolate replicas of the Palace Theatre’s marquee. The bars’ edible gold dusting emulates the downtown Greensburg theater’s glowing lights. Bars are priced at $6, with $2 from each purchase...
Monterey Bay, Altius among Open Table’s most romantic spots for Valentine’s Day dinner
If you were hoping to snag a table at one of Pittsburgh’s most romantic restaurants for Valentine’s Day, you might have to pick another day. Altius and Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, both located on Mt. Washington, were just named among the 100 Most Romantic Restaurants by Open Table, the popular...
Collaboration gives Valentine’s Day truffles a Pittsburgh flavor
A collaboration between Good Food Pittsburgh and Millvale’s a519 Chocolate makes for a “hometown” Valentine’s Day chocolate box of truffles featuring some flavorful Pittsburgh businesses. The 15-piece edition includes the following flavors, among what might best be described as decadent: • Burnt Almond Torte, inspired by Pittsburgh’s (and Greensburg’s) Prantl’s...
Don your dancing shoes for Community Kitchen Pittsburgh benefit
Get a head start on Valentine’s Day and support Community Kitchen Pittsburgh’s mission at “Dance With Me” from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at Pittsburgh’s Graeme House. The evening of dancing, dining, and cocktails will help support Community Kitchen Pittsburgh programs and students. The nonprofit’s website states it supports the region’s...
Kids cooking up mid-century treats in Heinz History Center
Kids in Mariruth Leftwich’s upcoming “Cooking Up History: Mid-Century Treats” class at Senator John Heinz History Center weren’t born yet when foods like Spam and Swanson’s frozen TV dinners first appeared on supermarket shelves. They missed the heyday of mom’s tuna noodle casserole, the peak of popularity of Strawberry Jello...
A sweet opening for new Oakmont Bakery
For everyone else, the opening of Oakmont Bakery’s new home sandwiched between Oakmont’s Third and Sweet streets was, well, sweet. For Marc Serrao, the bakery’s owner, the emotions ran a bit deeper as he fought back tears before cutting the ceremonial ribbon to start a new chapter. “This is all...
Bonfire Food & Drink is heating up the South Side
The South Side has added another restaurant to its stacked roster: Bonfire Food & Drink, a much- anticipated new culinary concept by Chris Bonfili, the chef and owner of Shadyside’s former Avenue B and Sewickley’s B Gourmet. After closing Avenue B last year, Bonfili scoured the city for a location to...
Hold up! Candy hearts will be available for Valentine’s Day after all
If you’ve been holding out for a hero to save your Valentine’s Day from being devoid of those candy conversation hearts … well, your hero has arrived. Recently it was revealed that the iconic SweetHearts candy with phrases like “Be Mine” and “Let’s Kiss” wouldn’t be available this season because...
Turn a plain brown paper bag into the perfect popcorn maker
Microwave popcorn is a great idea—in theory. But most packaged options have a long list of unnatural ingredients and don’t taste very good. This fun recipe turns a plain old brown paper bag—the kind you might use to hold your lunch—into a microwave-safe package for popping corn kernels. Make sure...
Passion fruit is a tart, tropical MVP ingredient
I’ve gone on record here as an avowed Anglophile who thinks there are plenty of things that Brits do better than us. Scones. Tea. Cooking competition shows. I have something else to thank them for: Introducing me to the wonders of passion fruit. In the few weeks I’ve spent across...
Can Hempfield’s Gigi Thomas ‘Bake It Like Buddy?’ Tune in to find out
Hempfield professional baker Gigi Thomas, owner of Gigi’s Signature Bakery, and her husband, non-baker Randy Thomas, will appear on “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro’s television show “Bake It Like Buddy” at 9 p.m. Feb. 16. The couple will compete against another husband and wife team from Chester, Pa., according to Discovery...
A cookie in a skillet? Skeptical? Just try it
A cookie in a skillet? We admit this Internet phenom made us skeptical—until we tried it. Unlike making a traditional batch of cookies, this treatment doesn’t require scooping, baking and cooling multiple sheets of treats; the whole thing bakes at once in a single skillet. Plus, the hot bottom and...
Buffalo Wild Wings offering free wings if Super Bowl goes into overtime
Are you watching the Super Bowl? Do you like wings? Do you like free wings? If Super Bowl LIII - featuring the New England Patriots vs. the Los Angeles Rams — goes to overtime, everyone gets free wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. The chicken wing chain says everyone gets free...
What’s Brewing? Don’t judge a beer by its glass
There are a lot of odd-looking glasses from which to drink beer. There are tall glasses that you might accidentally slam against your front teeth until you acclimate yourself to the approach. There are behemoth beer mugs that will have you feeling like you’re drinking and lifting weights at the...
Pittsburgh chef, former Steelers player team up for ‘Taste of the NFL’ to benefit food bank
In a way, Scott Walton and Andy Russell have been a part of the same team — only at different times. Russell was a linebacker and part of the “Steel Curtain” defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s until he retired from professional football and went into business. Walton...
No Steelers? No problem. Super Bowl Sunday is all about the food
When you’re a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, Super Bowl LIII is all about wings — and chips and dips, pizzas and guacamole — but not so much about football, at least not this year. So while New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams fans will be cheering for their teams at...
‘Cubcake Wars’ to help Norwin Lions support Kitty Sack Project
The Norwin Lions will hold their seventh annual Cubcake Wars fundraising event from 1-4 p.m. March 3 in the Norwin High School cafeteria. Numerous bakers will make “cubcakes,” available for a $2 donation, all the while competing for best cubcake, best decorations and most funds raised for best in show....
Most popular conversation hearts won’t be available this Valentine’s Day
The conversation is over. At least this Feb. 14. America’s most beloved Valentine’s Day candy — SweetHearts, those cute conversation hearts with phrases like “Cutie Pie,” “Say Yes” and “True Love” — won’t be on the shelves this year. Why? Well, despite SweetHearts being the No. 1 Valentine’s Day candy,...
