Like mother, like son.

Not long after we learned that Short Pump resident Beth Royals is a finalist in a Hungry Jack recipe contest, we received word that her 11-year-old son, Easton, is one of the finalists in the Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich contest. (Note to Richmonders, Henricoans, etc. who are 13 or older: Easton needs your help to improve his chances of winning a $25,000 college scholarship, so go to jif.com by Friday and cast your vote.)

When he’s not playing baseball or football or riding dirt bikes, the fifth-grader at Henrico’s Carver Elementary School says he enjoys experimenting in the kitchen with his mom.

That’s where he thought up his recipe for Berry Peanut Buttery Cinnamon Bun Sandwiches (copied below). “I came up with the idea while I was rolling cinnamon dough with my Mom,” he says. “I wondered if I could make a sandwich like that.”

To make it taste more like a cinnamon roll, he mixed cinnamon with blueberry spread and added dried cranberries for additional flavor and nutrition. Then he drizzled vanilla yogurt on his sandwich rolls for a healthier version of icing. Read full story

As New Orleans and FEMA continue reconstruction à la Andrew Johnson’s postbellum South, it’ll be a while before the city’s jazz-kissed splendor is totally restored. However, the Saints have indeed come marching in, and thanks to gridiron grit and a gaggle of fleur-de-lis, the Crescent City shall likely enjoy a reprise from post-Katrina hassles by sending the formerly woeful ’Aints to Super Bowl XLIV in the Sunshine State in February. Since I penned this piece Read full story

The partners in Dora’s Brazilian Grill (1331 E. Cary St., 269-3697) bring a variety of accents to their new Shockoe Slip churrascaria. It’s named after Brazilian-born Dorinha Laubach, who manages the restaurant with her husband, Rolf, a native of Germany. Their accents mix with the North Carolina twang of Freya Goins, the chief financial officer, and the Dutch tones of partner Robert van der Meulen, Goins’ fiancé, who divides his time between Dora’s and his Read full story