Taste of Windermere: Calories for good cause
Mark your calendars for the Fourth Annual Taste of Windermere, an evening of food and fine wine presented by the Central Florida Women’s League. This year’s event — 6-9 p.m. March 29 at The Pines of Windermere, 3409 Maguire Road — will celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary. You can check out the complete list of participating restaurants at OrlandoSentinel.com/thedish. Tim’s Wine Market of Windermere will be pouring the wines. Cost is $60 advance, $65 at the door. VIP tickets are $125. Proceeds support Central Florida charities. For more information, call Michelle Greene at 321-945-4476. In the meantime, let’s dish:
Housewares Design Awards. Celebrating excellence and creativity in new product innovation, the Housewares Design Awards announced the winners of its 2014 competition. The highlights:
Whirlpool’s EveryDrop Water Filter won gold. For use at home or on the go, the product can filter a gallon of water in two minutes. It has a 60-gallon filter capacity and, the company said, keeps 450 plastic water bottles from landfills.
Linden Sweden’s twixit! Seal & Pour Bag Clip won silver. Its pour spout with closable lid makes pouring from a bag easy and quick.
Wusthof’s classic 9-inch Double Serrated Bread Knife won bronze. The blade features an additional serration inside its traditional serrations, which reduces the number of crumbs produced when slicing bread. The knife also can be used for delicate ingredients.
World Kitchen’s Snapware Eco-Flip won the Green House Design Award. The portable beverage container for outdoor use is made of borosilicate glass and features a twopart leakproof flip cap that is easy to sip and reseal.
Good read. “The Southern Slow Cooker Bible” by Nashville food personality Tammy Algood offers 365 slow-cooker recipes ranging from cakes and chocolates to beans and breads. Algood also teaches readers how to convert oven or stove-top recipes to slow-cooker equations. Published by Thomas Nelson, a Harper Collins imprint, the book is priced at $24.99.
Farm patrol. Grower Jim’s Plants and Produce in Apopka specializes in fruit trees, potted herbs, vegetable plants and edible ornamentals. Check out Jim Ford’s operation at grower jim.blogspot.com. Produce is available at the Sanford Farm Swap Meet in Building Y at Flea World on U.S. Highway17-92 (9 a.m.-1 p.m. second, fourth and fifth Saturdays of every month); Orlando VA Clinic Farmers Market at 5201 Raymond St. in Orlando (8 a.m.-1 p.m. first and third Wednesdays); and Homegrown Local Food Cooperative at 2310 N. Orange Ave. in Orlando (Home grown.locallygrown.net).
What’s in season. In the produce bin look for bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, carambola, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, grapefruit, guava, lettuce, mushrooms, papaya, peanuts, potatoes, radishes, snap beans, spinach, squash, strawberries, sweet corn, tangerines and tomatoes.
At the fish and seafood counter look for alligator, clams, oysters, pompano, snapper, stone crab, tilapia, tilefish, flounder and yellowfin tuna.