Until I really started exploring some Asian recipes during the pandemic, the ginger in my spice cabinet was pretty much only for baking sweets. If you would have asked me, I would have said it was there merely for projects like pumpkin bread and ginger snaps. Boy, was I missing out on an entire, delicious …
Continue reading “‘Rice’ to the occasion with tasty caramelized pork”
If you didn’t know, we recently celebrated the first-ever “Local News Day” on April 9. The effort to observe local journalists around the country came from a push in Montana. In Newton, we had a small, but mighty, group of community members who stood outside our office with signs, touting the importance of having a …
Continue reading “There’s no doubt you should cobble together dessert this week”
When I look at my bookshelf of cookbooks, I often think of a lady I never got the opportunity to meet in person but whom I feel connected to through a very sweet gift: Merna Snay. Merna, a former resident of the Mount Hope and Haven area, was a prolific cook—and by all reports, a …
Continue reading “Vintage crunch recipe gets two ‘plums’ up”
I generally make the exact same New Year’s resolution each year. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure my resolution messes up some of your resolutions, so I’ll apologize in advance for the calorie-laden recipes that will continue to grace my column in the coming months. It’s necessary, though, in order for me to meet my ultimate goal: …
Continue reading “Try as you ‘maple,’ you can’t avoid these delicious bars forever”
On Jan. 23, 1940, the United States awarded a patent to inventor Irving Nachumsohn’s newest creation: the crock pot. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, it was originally marketed as the “Naxon Beanery,” with its name coming from a shortened version of Nachumsohn’s last name. With the public’s opinions of German last names during the mid-1940s, …
Continue reading “Easy recipe proves the crock pot is no has-‘bean’”
In 2024, the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University released a study about the ongoing popularity of pumpkin spice lattes. Apparently, according to their study, apple spice was starting to edge out pumpkin on the popularity scale last …
Continue reading “Bake a ‘cinn’sational treat to celebrate autumn weather”
“Those apples were kind of pricey, weren’t they?” Joey asked me as we exited the grocery store recently. “They’re honeycrisps,” I told him. “So, they’re high-end apples?” “I mean, kind of.” It’s amazing that after 15 years of marriage, I can still discover new things about my husband. Case in point: he has no knowledge …
Continue reading “Can’t tell the varieties apart? You just have to ‘apple’y yourself.”
Last weekend, our house was the scene of an end-of-season party for Joey’s bowling team. I always love when that crew comes over. They are a super nice group, and it’s always fun to share a big meal and hear them tell stories and tease each other about their bowling gaffes. It’s also a great …
Continue reading “Earn brownie points with your friends with these awesome cookies”
Someone told me last week that I don’t really qualify as an amateur baker, since I’ve been writing this column way too long for that, but I still claim the title, especially after taking on a recent huge project. A dear friend of the newspaper, Debbie Pierce, celebrated her retirement last week, and since we …
Continue reading “Cupcakes the best way to say ‘auf Wiedersehn’ to a good friend”
Any time I find pork shoulder at a great price at our local grocery store, it’s a no-brainer for me to put it in the cart and let Joey know that I wouldn’t mind if he threw it on his smoker over the weekend. That’s why it was a little weird last week when Joey …
Continue reading “You ‘nita’ stop what you’re doing and try this pressure cooker recipe”
