PIGSKIN TIME — Hear the one about the little piggy who went straight to the Super Bowl party? At Lazybones Smokehouse, there's an entire family of piggy choices available for varying budgets on Super Bowl Sunday. Little Piggy has ribs, beans, slaw, wings and a whole chicken. Mamma or Big Pappa Piggy can help keep bigger groups satisfied with double and triple the portions. Lazybones is at 27475 Groesbeck Ave., Roseville; 586-775-7427.
TIME WARP — Eve: The Restaurant in Ann Arbor plans to throw a special dinner that will take us back to yesteryear: the Emily's Commemorative Dinner. The event will feature up to six courses from previous wine dinners at Rick Halberg's former restaurant, Emily's. It starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 415 N. Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor; $85 includes wine and taxes.
EAT THE PAGE
Since 1907, family-run, Illinois-based Nielsen-Massey Vanillas has been dedicated to providing pure vanilla products and other high-quality extracts — coffee, chocolate and lemon among them. The company's new cookbook A Century of Flavor (The Cookbook Press, $27.95) is a compilation of not only the sweets recipes that one would expect, but also savory dishes, all from the family's coffers and from well-known chefs, the likes of Frontera Grill's Rick Bayless, whose "flan classico de vanilla" looks and sounds luscious.
A TASTY BEVERAGE
Tasty, 100 percent agave Tequila that is not obnoxiously overpriced is tricky to find. So when we stumbled on Cuatro Cirios, we poured ourselves several glasses to celebrate. Aged a minimum of two years in white oak, the Añejo is smooth and drinkable with subtle aromas of smoke and roasted fruit. Produced in Mexico by Detroit businessman Rafael H. Lopez, you can try a glass of Silver, Reposado or Añejo at his Michigan Avenue restaurant, Señor López, or ask your local liquor shop to order a bottle.
IT WORKS
Speaking of vanilla, Madagascar Pure Bourbon Vanilla has, regrettably, no bourbon. Instead, it takes its name from the "Bourbon Islands" off the coast of Africa — including Madagascar, which supplies the majority of the world's vanilla. Nielsen-Massey Vanillas claims to offer the finest vanilla products anywhere, from whole vanilla beans to pure vanilla sugar. And not just the vanillas of Madagascar, but of Indonesia, Mexico and Tahiti, as well as orange, peppermint and almond extracts. See nielsenmassey.com for more.
