Five holiday gift ideas for gardeners

Gardening season is over, but for the serious gardener, thoughts of playing in the dirt are never far from one’s mind. And that includes the holiday season. Finding the right gift for a gardener can be a bit of a challenge if you are not one yourself, but here’s five sure bet gifts that will be well-received by any gardener:

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Tags: holidays | gardening | gifts |

Winter Craft and Local Food Fair Saturday to benefit Taproot Kitchen

Taproot Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that brings adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities together to cook local food and socialize, will be holding a Winter Craft and Local Food Fair on Saturday, Dec. 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Meetinghouse on Atherton, located at 318 S. Atherton St. in State College.

The event will feature a variety of holiday gift ideas and local food. The crafts on sale will include handmade, locally sourced ceramics, wood block prints, hand-knit clothing, baby toys and mobiles, holiday ornaments and cards, specialty foods, and more.

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Tags: TaprootKitchen | holidays |

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

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

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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Tags: recipe | Thanksgiving | corn | PADutch |