Category Archives: Food

2026, Business, Food, Uncategorized

Donut Departure

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The bad news actually came down before Christmas.  My favorite bakery, SunStreet Breads is closing.  The owners are moving back to their home town and want to pursue “a new business model”.  This coming Sunday is their last day; more importantly to me, yesterday was the last donut day (they only make their fabulous glazed donuts on Wednesdays).

I’ve been preparing mentally for this day for awhile.  I made the card a couple of weeks ago – a big shaker card in the shape of a stand mixer.  On Tuesday I headed to Michaels for a bit of black fabric and made an armband.  Touch too dramatic?  Well, I’ve been to SunStreet every Wednesday for 12 years for my donut fix.  Missed a few during the beginning of Covid when they were closed for a couple of months and there were never donuts on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving due to the high volume of other orders.  I figure I can mark this as a major passing if I want to.

Set my alarm early, headed down to Cub to get a small pot of pretty yellow flowers and was able to arrive at SunStreet by 6:15.  Waited in the car until 6:28 when the line started to form for the door opening at 6:30.  I was in line behind a father and son; the son was about 3 and cute as a button.  He informed me (if I understood him correctly) that they were having donuts before school. 

The head baker came out to say thanks for the flowers, although it was a short greeting and there was no shaking of flour-covered hands!  I was back to my car with my donut and scone by 6:35 and the line of customers was already out the door.  I might drive up there on Sunday morning to see what it’s like, but I expect that it will be a zoo and of course there won’t be donuts (I asked).  Definitely the end of an era for the neighborhood.  Wonder who will take that space next?

Have you ever gotten “verklempt” over a favorite store closing?

2026, Food, Gatherings, home, Kids, Uncategorized, Weather

Fuzzy Pi

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Big snow storms and big parties don’t go together.  I watched the weather like that proverbial hawk for a couple of weeks and was a little dismayed when just a few days ahead of Pi Day, the forecast took a turn for the worse.  For the next few days we were hoping the snow would hold off until Saturday night, but it became clear that our hopes wouldn’t be realized.  YA suggested that we move Pi Day up to 5 p.m. (instead of 6) to give folks a little more wiggle room so I sent out an email.

I was a bit worried about whether I could be ready by 5.  On Thursday and Friday I was… well a little fuzzy.  Just not firing on all thrusters.  Around noon on Friday, I had some pie shells par-baking; as I waited, I took a quick break on the sofa.  When the timer went off, I headed to the kitchen, faced the oven, turned off the timer, put on the oven mitts and then promptly turned right around and opened the dishwasher.  Just a smidge loopy I’d say.

YA was an angel and by the time the first folks arrived at 4:30, everything was done except for the whipped cream on the last three pies.  We had everything on the table and ready by 5.  Phew.  Of course not everybody got the email so there was a 5:00 influx and a 6:00 influx.  One friend came at 7:15!  No worries – enough pie for everybody!

Here is this year’s menu:
Blueberry
Dutch Apple
Peach
Pear Croustade
Oreo Cream
Double Lemon Chess
Nectarine Almond Crumb
Key Lime
Crack
Banofi
Fudge Pecan
Coconut Macadamia
Root Beer Float Whoopies

So you can have a Pi Day celebration when there is a storm and even if you’re a little discombobulated.  However I did make everybody who left after 7 call/text me when they got home safe and sound!

  What kind of pie is best eaten underground?

2026, Art, Food, Kids, Stories, Uncategorized

Julia!

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Last Thursday night, YA and I headed over to the Minnesota Historical Center to see the Julia Child exhibit.  It’s been there for a bit but we just got around to it… plus the free Thursday aren’t EVERY Thursday, so it does require a little pre-planning.

I’ve seen Julia Child’s actual kitchen at the Smithsonian, but this traveling exhibit if much more extensive, covering details of her childhood, how she met her husband Paul, their life in France and, of course, her culinary journey.  There are quite a few fun bits in the exhibit:

Pots w/ smells.  There were a few pots next to copies of her most famous recipes.  When you lifted the lid, that recipe’s aroma wafted out of the pot.  Ingenious.  There was a mock-tv studio and if you stood in certain parts of the room, your image was filmed and showed up on three different screens.  Another fabulous part of the exhibit was a 12-foot high copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking; the inside of the book was projected from two different screens and every minute or so, the “page” would turn, taking your to another recipe in the book.  What a marvelous idea. 

I guess I know more about Julia Child than I thought (couple of biographies); the exhibit didn’t have anything that was a surprise about her life but it was enjoyable nonetheless.   

I had been surprised that YA had wanted to come along but she seemed to enjoy it.  We then went on to see a couple of the other exhibits that are showing right now but she didn’t want to stay for the free concert that was going on that night.  Oh well, I take what I can get!

What’s the last museum you’ve visited?  Any good biographies lately?

2026, Business, Food, Kids, Mysteries

Derby Delights

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YA and I actually have a lot in common.  I probably mention the ways we are different more often than not – makes for better stories sometimes. 

Anyway, we both really like the Derby cookies that they make at Great Harvest Bakery.  Chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pecans (plus all the other good cookie ingredients).  And they are huge – really too big to eat one a day, but yummy enough.

Great Harvest doesn’t make the derby cookie very often.  They make four or five cookies a month but for some reason they only make the derby a couple of months during the year.  At the beginning of every month, both YA and I scour the bakery’s monthly newsletter to see the monthly cookie listing.  I was expecting that we wouldn’t see our favorite until May.  I don’t know much about the Kentucky Derby but I do know that it’s in May.  YA was the first to see the newsletter this month and when I asked her how many I should get (the packages of six are a much better deal), she responded, two now and then maybe two the end of next week and two more at the end of the month.  She figured we can freeze any “overage”.  Like the two of us can’t eat 36 cookies in a month.  Snort.

Anyway, I obediently went up to Great Harvest today… ended getting three packages because once you purchase a certain amount at the bakery, you get a discount.  Did the math quickly in my head (and had the math confirmed by the bakery clerk) that buying one extra package of cookies actually made the price go down a bit.  Win/win.  I put one of the packages in the freezer for now. 

The capper to this story is that when I bought all these cookies and bemoaned the fact that the bakery doesn’t make them very often, the clerk concurred and also said that since the base of the derby cookie is the same as the base of a couple other cookies, we can special order our favorite on any month those others are made.  Which is most months.  Wish I had known this any time during the last several years!

Will you watch the Derby this year?  Will you wear a fancy hat?

2026, Food, Kids

Full Cart

42 Comments

YA and I cannot be trusted at Trader Joes. 

As I mentioned in the past, I do not have the shopping gene; YA has double.  She has resigned herself to this and does all her window shopping and browsing on her own or with my good friend Brenda, who also has double of the shopping gene.  (Once they went off shopping at about 10 in the morning and came home at around 5.  When I asked what she had gotten, YA said “nothing but I did look at a sweater that I almost got”.)

My shopping Achilles heel is Trader Joe’s.  It’s big enough that any shopping excursion doesn’t take that long and all the stuff in there is edible, which makes it easier for me to plunk down money.  YA has discovered this and every couple of months says “I think we should go to Trader Joe’s” — she usually has a date/time in mind as well.

Last Friday, we headed off with only one thing on our list – salt.  We have plenty of rock salt for the grinder but were out plain old table salt.  Truly all we did was walk around and put things in the cart.  Three bags and a lot of money later, we headed home.  At that point YA wanted to stop at Taco Bell (yes, after just buying 3 bags of groceries) and I suggested that since I had ponied up all the money at Trader Joe’s, she should cough up for lunch.

This triggered a feisty discussion about who had put more in the cart.  For every item of mine that she mentioned, I countered with one of hers.  This did lead eventually to us going through the receipt and adding it all up.  Surprisingly, we were very very close.  I had put more things in the cart, but her items were more expensive.  We did agree to not count the ginger beer since we had both wanted it. 

The brioche waffles were the last thing to go into the cart.  They’re pretty good but I won’t rush out to buy anymore before they are discontinued – to be replaced by some other goodie that will tempt us.

In a surprising turn of events, Trader Joe’s doesn’t stock plain old table salt (except for one pitifully small bottle)!

Any establishments in which you can’t control yourself?

2026, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized, Weather

Blizzard Fare

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I have been reading with some amusement and sympathy for our East Coast fellow citizens dealing with the reality of snowstorms. I can’t imagine having to manage something like that with no experience. It would be like me having to prepare for and sit through a hurricane.

I was very tickled by the NYT cooking site yesterday posting a number of recipes titled “Cooking For The Storm”. If you have to stay in you might as well cook, was their attitude. They highlighted lots of filling soups, pastas, and stews. There was no mention of making a mad dash to the store for provisions, however.

My mother was a very dedicated Grade 3 teacher who didn’t like to cook. If we had to stay at home due to bad weather she always made rather complicated waffles that called for the eggs to be separated and the whites beaten into a meringue and folded into the batter. I absolutely loved them. We called them “Blizzard Waffles”, and I made them for years until I moved on to Husband’s sourdough discard waffles. They are the best.

In our ND town, the minute bad weather was predicted the main grocery store would be overrun with customers stocking up before the storm hit. I have yet to experience this in our MN town, but I imagine it is the same here.

Husband and I seem to go to the grocery store every day for one thing or another, but in a pinch we could manage for weeks with what we have in our fridge, freezers, and pantry. As long as the power stays on and the larder is full, how fun to be snowed in!

Quick! A blizzard is coming! How will you prepare? What do you need to get at the store? Any advice forEasterners on how to deal with the snow?

2026, Food, Health, Nature, Uncategorized

Go Fish

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One benefit of living in the oil patch in ND was found in our local grocery store. To entice oil workers who came up from Lousiana and other southern states, the Cashwise store made a point of having a wide variety of very fresh and frozen seafood.

I don’t care at all for oysters or shrimp (shrimp is no better than eating mice, in my opinion) but the cod, salmon, lobster, clams, mussels, halibut, and crab were wonderful. I especially came to like Chilean Sea Bass.

I am somewhat disappointed with the seafood choices around our new town. The local grocery store has no fresh fish. The larger stores in Sioux Falls are better, but no sea bass. When did tilapia become so popular? I like to make a North German Fischgulash with cod or sea bass, shellfish, and scallops. The sea bass makes it particularly good.

Tuesday Husband and I made a quick SF grocery run and went to a specialty gourmet grocery and there was sea bass! I bought 3 pounds of filets and they are all safely frozen.

Our town had an ice fishing derby for kids and adults on February 14 at a spring-fed pond in town. It was 60° but the ice was 10 inches thick. They hauled out pounds and pounds of crappie, bluegill, perch, and carp. I am not sure if it was catch and release or if some of them were kept and eaten. I won’t eat freshwater fish because of all the contaminants in the ponds and lakes. The seafood I eat is probably not much better, but I can only hope.

Who is the pickiest eater you know? When was the last time you went fishing? What is your favorite fish to eat?

2026, Art, books, crops, Food, History

Spice of Life

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I’m having fun churning through a bunch of “listicle” books in preparation for Blevins.   Shipwrecks, Nellie Bly, plants, more plants and Phineas Fogg.

The latest is The History of the World in 100 Objects, which was a BBC radio show awhile back.  I found the CDs through Interlibrary Loan and it’s prodigious – 20 discs!  It comes with a pamphlet that have 100 teeny little black and white photos of the items.  Luckily I was able to find a website that has nicer photos of the objects, so I’ve been keeping that open while I listen to the CDs.

It’s well done – not nearly as stuffy as I was expecting – and I’m enjoying it, although I’m having to keep at it since you can’t renew ILL items.

All the items are in the British Museum, including a statue of Chicomecoatl, the Aztec of Goddess of Maize and Sustenance.  The narration starts out with an overview of food having a divine role throughout history and then moves on to the history of maize, the plant it derives from and where it grows (just about everywhere).  Then came this funny bit:

“But crucially, maize is a rich carbohydrate that gives you a rapid energy hit.  But it is, let’s face it, pretty stodgy, and so from very early on, farmers also cultivated an ingenious – and tasty – accompaniment, the indigenous chili.  It has virtually no nutritional value but, as we all know, it’s uniquely able to liven up dull carbohydrates – and it shows that we’ve been foodies for as long as we’ve been farmers.”

I laughed out loud especially since I had just added a slug of frozen poblanos to a dish I had made about an hour before.  Now I want to go to Penzey’s to see if they have any good chili mixtures.

Do you have any “go-to” spices?

2026, Family, Food, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Decadence

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This past weekend has been one of fun and simple excess. My birthday is February 1. Son’s is February 10. We decided to celebrate together this past weekend.

Son had arranged a Valentine’s Day treat for his wife in Sioux Falls including a live production of Moulin Rouge at the Washington Pavillion and dinner at a really exquisite Italian restaurant. We watched the 7 year old and the 6 month old while they were in Sioux Falls. We celebrated with birthday cake when they returned after dinner and the musical. They all spent Saturday night with us.

Son and I agreed that we wanted a German/Central European cake to celebrate, and he found a lovely recipe for Schwartzvald Kirschtorte. It was a fairly easy recipe for an experienced baker, and I baked the three cake layers on Friday. Grandson and I assembled the cake on Saturday afternoon after I had made the massive amounts of sweetened whipped cream, excessive chocolate ganache, chopped dark, sweet cherries, and kirsch syrup that completed it. Grandson loves to bake and cook. He really loved licking the spoons. It was a 9 inch cake that served 12 people. The header photo is all that is left after we all had second and third helpings on Sunday. It was a decadent cake..

It was also decadent to spend so much time with grandchildren. Granddaughter frequently fell asleep in our arms after her bottles. She smiled and blew raspberries and cuddled. Grandson was so excited to play basketball and Scrabble with his Opa. He also got to roast marshmallows in our fire pit on Sunday morning. How decadent is that?

What is the most decadent thing you’ve eaten or done lately? When was the last time you took care of a baby?

2026, Business, Food, Uncategorized

Product Reviews

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Husband and I quite regularly purchase specialty foods from a Spanish and an Italian importer, as well as things now and then from Amazon. We also order quite a bit from King Arthur Baking Company. I usually ignore the pleas from these entities for reviews of our purchases.

I mostly have better things to do, and I would hope my continued ordering would let them know we are happy with their products. I know the reviews are all in the aid of marketing.

The other day, though, the King Arthur Baking Company hooked me with an offer of a possible $100 if I reviewed our recent purchase of all-purpose flour. I really do like their flour. I told them it is the only all-purpose flour we use. It was impossible to submit the review, however, and I finally gave up in frustration.

What products do you order on-line? Ever submitted a review? What products would you like to honestly review?