The opinions expressed in these blogs are solely those of the people who wrote them, and do not represent the views of WPSU or Penn State University.

Local Food Journey

Three great (and easy) Thanksgiving sides recipes, part 3: Homemade cranberry sauce

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/23 at 11:08 AM

Editor’s note: This week in the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, we will feature three ideas for sides that you can pull together with a minimal amount of ingredients and little stress. Today’s third recipe is cranberry sauce.

For whatever reason, in my experience it seems that many people feel that cranberry sauce is beyond their cooking abilities. This is something I really don’t understand, because cranberry sauce is extremely easy to make.

While Cranberry Sauce a la Bart (aka Bart Simpson’s name for cranberry sauce out of a can) is pretty much as simple as can be, homemade cranberry sauce (surprise surprise) is so much better. You can up your cranberry sauce game with a variety of additions, such as raisins, currants, nuts, etc. This cranberry sauce recipe gets some flavor from traditional holiday flavors, and toasted walnuts.

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Local Food Journey

Three great (and easy) Thanksgiving sides recipes, part 2: Pennsylvania Dutch baked corn

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/22 at 10:21 AM

Editor’s note: This week in the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, we will feature three ideas for sides that you can pull together with a minimal amount of ingredients and little stress. Today’s second recipe is Pennsylvania Dutch baked corn.

If you grew up in York, Pa., like me, then you grew up around a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch food. A lot of this stuff is not found elsewhere in the country, or even in parts of Pennsylvania away from Amish country. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I looked forward to family holiday visits because I knew there would be at least a few PA Dutch items on the table, and one of these was baked corn.

Baked corn is actually a sort of savory hot custard, and to some it may seem a bit odd (like many PA German dishes). However, it is absolutely delicious, slightly sweet, and buttery. It is made with dried corn, a culinary treat that is not found outside of our region. John Copes is the brand we used, and the cartoon Amish man on the package makes me instantly think of family Thanksgiving dinners. Dried corn’s flavor is a bit more intense than regular corn, and is best described as nutty.

Plus, it’s very easy to make. If you can mix things together in a baking pan and put it in the oven, you can make baked corn.

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Local Food Journey

Three great (and easy) Thanksgiving sides recipe, part 1: Sautéed Swiss chard

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/21 at 11:09 AM

Editor’s note: This week in the three days leading up to Thanksgiving, we will feature three ideas for sides that you can pull together with a minimal amount of ingredients and little stress. Today’s first recipe is sautéed Swiss chard.

Swiss chard is a perfect Thanksgiving side dish. A truly cold-hardy vegetable, Swiss chard can be still found as a fresh vegetable, and it’s a staple of many fall gardens.

It’s also a very tasty vegetable, and in fact, is sort of two vegetables in one. The stems of the Swiss chard leaf looks a lot like celery, and you can chop them up and cook them much in the same way. The leaves are quite delicious, sort of in a sweet spot between the delicateness of spinach and the toughness of kale. The slight bitterness of chard is an absolute plus.

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Local Food Journey

Local cooking expert to teach NHS students how to make healthy snacks

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/14 at 11:41 AM

LaCreta Holland, owner of Happy Valley Learn to Cook and Local Food Journey contributor, is offering her cooking skills and expertise to teach students from the State College NHS school how to cook healthy and tasty after-school/weekend snacks.

The NHS School provides educational programming for autistic students. They are partners with Penguin Packs, a weekend food backpack program started via a partnership between the State College Food Bank and the Faith United Church of Christ.

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Local Food Journey

Local Food Notes for Nov. 11

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/11 at 11:16 AM

First off, Happy Veteran’s Day, and thank you to all who serve or have served in our nation’s armed forces. Here’s Local Food Notes for this week:

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Local Food Journey

Be a high-information voter in the 2016 Friends and Farmers Board Elections

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/04 at 09:38 AM

In lieu of our usual weekly local food notes, we figured we would give you some election news (no, not that other election). On Saturday, Friends and Farmers Coop members can vote in person at the Annual Member Meeting, held at the State College Friends School from 4:00-6:30 p.m. All voting will end on Saturday, November 5th at 5:00 p.m. Board candidates will be announced at the Annual Meeting. 

It’s always better to know who your candidates are so you can make an educated choice, and Friends and Farmers have made that easy for you.

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Local Food Journey

Pumpkin chili…yes, pumpkin chili

Posted by Jamie Oberdick on 11/01 at 10:27 AM

First things first…if you are one of those who run screaming from anything pumpkin because you’re sick and tired of the pumpkin spice world we’ve been living in the last three months, take heart. There’s no “pumpkin spice” in this recipe, just pumpkin. Because let’s be honest, most of the “pumpkin spice” products out there have no pumpkin in them.

Second, pumpkin chili sounds strange and counter intuitive, but it’s actually quite tasty. You can’t really taste “pumpkin” in this recipe, just a subtle sweetness, and a very nice thickness added to the chili.

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