The Week In Eats

Get Out!

by Amy Strauss

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Let's take stock of our fridge: Half-and-half, Chinese leftovers, ketchup and, um, batteries. If your cooler is as pathetic as ours, we could both benefit from Food Network star Robin Miller's easy mealtime tips for kitchen-weary cooks. She promises that if you "spend an hour on the weekend (or less), you'll enjoy weeknight meals in a fraction of the time it would take to start from scratch." Her new cookbook, Quick Fix Meals (Taunton Press), reveals how once-a-week supermarket trips followed by once-a-week prep sessions can provide enough sustenance for the week to come. At this book signing, she'll demo some quirky time-saving tricks, which include morphing roasted chicken topped with smoky apricot sauce into recipes for chicken and wild mushroom quesadillas, and Thai chicken, peanut and lime salad. Kitchen Kapers, East Gate Square, 1341 Nixon Drive, Moorestown, N.J., 856-778-9828, www.kitchenkapers.com.

How does Amada chef Chad Williams lure the hungry public with his lobster paella, roasted suckling pig and seasonal sangrias? Williams journeys to West Chester's Dilworthtown Inn to divulge the tapas bar's spicing techniques, which he and chef-owner Jose Garces use in myriad dishes, plus cut-to-order meat and cheese plates. In addition to razor clams, lamb chops, scallops and fresh sardines, the generous tasting portion of the course may include dishes that incorporate Williams' trade secrets for cooking up Peruvian, Cuban and Mexican-style eats. Reservations recommended. Dilworthtown Inn, 1390 Old Wilmington Pike, West Chester, 610-399-8165, www.dilworthtown.com.

Mother always said liquor was quicker. Or was that Ogden Nash? This Mother's Wine Bar & Restaurant tasting, led by The Wine Merchant's Cosmo Mullen, pits six anonymous vintages against chef Cindy Coll's tapas-style five-course spread. On the menu: roasted almonds, parmesan crisps, smoked salmon and Venetian crab; lobster canapes and wild mushroom and goat cheese bruschetta, duck and quince chutney; ham and cheese croquettes; and sausage and porcini-stuffed manicotti. Mother's Wine Bar & Restaurant, 34 N. Main St., New Hope, 215-862-5857, www.mothersnewhope.com.

Was your grandma tricked into loving Betty Crocker? Monmouth University history professor Katherine J. Parkin investigates in Food Is Love: Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press), which zones in on food advertisers' influence on household purchasing habits. Parkin argues that since the early 20th century, culinary ads have encouraged women to cook for their hubbies. Over the years, she's spotted ads in magazines like Ladies' Home Journal, Ebony, The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping, which she says "promised [the food] would help win a man's love and made women feel guilty if they didn't cook." Parkin unwraps the complexities of stereotyping through food products, and dares you to challenge your—and your grannie's—shopping cart compulsions. Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., 215-898-7595, www.upenn.bkstore.com.