I inherited the whip-up-something-out-of-nothing gene from my mother, a talent for creating ingenious meals out of necessity. We grew up in a woodsy, secluded neighborhood in Minnesota, and my father drove our only car to work. That meant Mom had no way to get to the supermarket during the week and had to improvise. ...more

November 11, 2009

City officials trying to balance community needs with safety at the annual Gasparilla Parade have come up with these compromises: ...more

November 6, 2009

A handful of Manatee County convenience stores and gas stations have spent the day dubbing surveillance tapes from Monday evening, the night Dr. James Briles came home from work and reported finding his wife, Kathleen, dead. Pulling surveillance video is common in the search for a criminal. Detectives have not released the name or description of the person they are looking for in the videos. The sheriff's office did confirm today that Sheriff Brad Steube has returned from vacation to help handle the case. Steube met with Kathleen Briles's family. ...more

August 5, 2009

Police say Leon Brooks stole more than $5,000 worth of cigarettes in April and sold them on the streets of Clearwater. ...more

May 1, 2009

I'm considering trying to make some strawberry jam. I read the directions in the package of pectin and I'm curious; it says to crush the berries before measuring. Wouldn't it be quicker to just chop them in a food processor? Wouldn't doing it quickly keep them brighter red? ...more

March 15, 2009

Ban Gun Control There is a bill that liberal congressmen would like passed to remove weapons from the average responsible citizen. ...more

March 14, 2009

A collection of consumer questions about kitchen- and food-related issues. ...more

March 11, 2009

Which comic book character was the top selling comic book of 1969, with over a half-million copies sold? ...more

March 6, 2009

Australia ** When you name your movie after a country, it's pretty obvious that you're not trying to make a grungy little indie about, say, convenience stores. Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" is a big, bold historical epic with sweeping cinematography, grand passions and lots of cattle. Nicole Kidman is the starchy English chick who inherits a big spread, as well as hunky cow man Hugh Jackman. ...more

March 5, 2009

Several companies announced voluntary recalls of products containing peanut butter which may also be contaminated with salmonella. They follow hundreds of other recalls of products in which peanut or peanut paste has been traced back to a factory in south Georgia. No reports of illnesses have been reported in the recalls announced today. ...more

February 4, 2009