At our house it wouldn’t be Christmas without a large platter overflowing with delicious cookies. However, as I lamented last year at this time, those tasty morsels take a great deal of time, effort and patience, things that are already stretched to the limit by the myriad of other holiday preparations.

After last year’s column I proposed a challenge to my friend Kyle, a master cookie baker. What if we were to create a class that illustrated ways to have your cookies and eat them, too, with far less stress. With Nicolet College’s Continuing Ed program as our host we did just that.

Besides a fun class that produced thirteen kinds of cookies in less than four hours (ok, there were 12 bakers and 8 ovens), we developed a list of hints designed to help make your holiday baking merrier and brighter.

Here are our Twelve Tips of (for) Christmas Baking. Interspersed among the suggestions are recipes that illustrate that particular ...

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Autumn is high season for festivals and the first weekend in October appears to be prime time. There’s Cranberry Fest in Eagle River, Apple Festival in Bayfield, even the little town of Thorp gets into the act with their Pumpkin Fest. There are probably many more that I don’t know about, all on the same weekend. It creates quite a dilemma for would be fest goers.

For years Cranberry Fest was my festival of choice. A group of us started doing the Cranberry Fitness Walk. We showed up in the early morning, dressed in warm coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. It was cold enough to see our breath and until we finally got walking it took stomping feet and other jittering about to keep us warm. If I remember right, it was a lovely route, what I could see of it from underneath my hood and above the scarf.

Then, when I had a student whose family owned a business in Eagle River, our culinary club was encouraged to man the funnel cake booth for the E. R. Chamber....

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There was simply no question about it. I had to see the movie "Julie and Julia." It had nothing to do with Meryl Streep starring in the film, even though I am a fan and she was fantastic. It was all about who it was about, my mentor, my inspiration, Julia Child.

As I watched the film, no offense to darling Amy Adams, I couldn’t wait for parts about Julia. The scenes of their car, Paris, the shopping for those exquisite ingredients, the dining, those touching moments between Julia and Paul, oh mon Dieu, how wonderful! If "Mama Mia" created travel lust for Greece surely this film will do the same for France.

The film has provided a perfect opportunity for us to become reacquainted, or perhaps for the first time acquainted, with the joy of Julia and her passion for everything to do with French cuisine. It isn’t surprising that "Mastering The Art of French Cooking" has now topped the New York Times Bestseller List in the “how to” category, the first time ever, almos...

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The three summer holidays of Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day, plus all the weekends in between provide ample opportunities for the gathering of the clan. And, gather we do, whether in bigger extended family reunions or more scaled back immediate family get-togethers.

Regardless of size, the venue for these events is most often the picnic. The casual format allows for lots of mingling for catching up as well as ease of coordination and hosting. The food, always important, has certain requirements depending on the family.

Ask people what food they have at these occasions and you will likely get something along the line of, “Well, we always have to have Grandma’s this, Mom’s that or Aunt Mable’s famous something or other. It wouldn’t be a family picnic without it.”

Growing up my family had at least two of these picnics every summer. The first was on or around the 4th of July and the other later in August when the sweet corn crop was at its seasonal height...

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Shortly after the mid-point of June I start watching for the advertisement. It will read, “Opening Soon! Tomahawk Berry Farm,” Then I know summer has really arrived in the Northwoods and it's time for my annual jaunt to the strawberry fields.

I am very careful to select just the right day. The best is not too hot, slightly overcast, with a nice breeze. The perfect weather makes picking a delight. Believe it or not, most years there’s at least one such day during the first week the farm opens.

After unearthing the cardboard berry basket from the garage, I don visor, long-sleeved shirt, sunscreen, maybe bug spray if the year requires it and off I go. In 20 minutes I am there joining families, couples and grandparents with the grandkids. Half the fun is listening to the youngsters experiencing strawberry picking for the first time.

For most years my foray was by myself. Last year, however, I enticed my husband to join me. Offering to go out to breakfast first was real...

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The eagerly anticipated season for onion lovers nationwide has arrived. It’s Vidalia onion time! For a few short weeks this gourmet treasure will fill stores and markets providing us the opportunity to add their savory sweetness to any recipe requiring onion – or not, adding some anyway.

Vidalia onions have a very interesting history. According to the official website, the onions came about by happenstance. Looking for a new crop to replace cotton and tobacco Georgia farmers planted onions.

At harvest time they were amazed by the sweetness present in their onions. The mild climate together with the sandy, low-sulfur soil created a very special product.

The onions’ popularity grew and since most of them were sold at a farmer’s market located in Vidalia, Georgia, they became known as “those sweet onions from Vidalia.”

In the 1980s the farmers sought state and fede...

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On April 22 we will celebrate Earth Day. Begun in 1970 by Wisconsinite Sen. Gaylord Nelson as a way to place the environment in the political spotlight, it has evolved from a small teach-in to nation-wide awareness ceremonies and activities. It is the perfect month to review our ecological lifestyle footprint and for me, that begins in the kitchen.

I like to think that we employ many “green” practices in our kitchen. Back in my college days I was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Frances Moore Lappé in her book Diet for a Small Planet (1971). Her premise that if we changed the way we eat we could change the world was based on our American addiction to a high meat based diet.

Limiting the beef

Lappé’s research discovered that for every 16 pounds of grain and soy fed to beef cattle yielded only one pound of edible meat. Grain and soy beans could be directly consumed as protein sources to feed many more people.

There wer...

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Spring’s coming. I know this for a fact, because it always does, eventually. When you live in “God’s Country,” as the Northwoods is often referred to, it does take faith at this time of year to believe it. Just when we had a nice bit of warm weather and snow melt we are catapulted back into snow and chilly temperatures.

There are signs. The amount of daylight is increasing with promising speed. During the recent warm weather, it actually smelled like spring. And, we are in Lent, the weeks preceding  Easter, a true harbinger of spring, after which we can all wear white shoes and not be subjected to ridicule by the fashion police.

In the foodie arena, weekly grocery store ads are featuring Spring Lenten seafood specials. As our world lightens up we feel like lightening up our diets as well. Fish and seafood fit the bill perfectly. There are also strong religious factors involved in these offers but I wasn’t always cognizant of that.  

The first year I taugh...

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There’s nothing wrong with flowers. They are beautiful and I love them. But, on Valentine’s Day, or actually any gift giving holiday, I prefer chocolate.

Judging from the throngs of people attending Downtown Rhinelander’s recent “Taste of Chocolate” event, I am not alone in my passion for things chocolate. In fact, in both giving and receiving Valentine’s gift polls, chocolate came in second behind flowers (pugadam.com) and a nice dinner (make5.com). Trailing way behind were jewelry, perfume and lingerie.

Why do we love chocolate so much? There is, of course, the taste. It can play the gambit from the bitter, earthy and sometimes even smoky flavors of organic dark to the sweet delicate seductions of milk chocolate with dozens of delightful nuances in between. It compliments so many other flavor...

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Mirrors don’t lie regardless of what we want to hear. Just ask the queen in Snow White. Right now my cruel mirror is telling me that I am wearing post-holiday pudge from six weeks of thoroughly enjoying the foods of the season.

Yes, I read all those well-meaning articles that sprouted up in every written form starting in October on how to avoid the typical holiday weight gain. They were great reading—for a laugh. The articles suggest that you drink wine spritzers at parties.  The recipe:  Place 4 drops of dry white wine in a large wine glass. Fill it to the top with seltzer.  Add a twist of lemon zest (a whole slice would add calories). Nurse all evening. I ask you, where’s the cheer in that?

They further recommend munching on two baby carrots, four sticks of celery and limit the dip, non-fat, of course, to one-half teaspoon. What kind of parties do those writers attend? At the parties I attended there wasn’t a raw vegetable to found, much less fat-free di...

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