Good Press

One way to put a special touch on a holiday table is to mold the butter. I used my collectible Pampered Chef stoneware cookie molds that were just taking up room in my cupboard to make molded butter for Thanksgiving dinner. We set six tables at the community feast and each table got it's own heart-shaped butter. The technique is simple. 1. Place your stoneware mold in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. 2. At the same time, set out a stick of butter to soften for 20-30 minutes. 3. Remove the mold from the freezer and unwrap the butter. 4. Using the heel of your hand or the back of a metal spoon, smoosh the butter into the mold evenly. 5. Refrigerate the mold with the butter until the butter is firm. 6. Run a knife's thin blade around the outside of the butter, then use the tip of the knife to carefully pry up the butter in corner. Turn it out onto a plate. I wrapped my butter hearts individually to protect them from odors. I packed them in a plastic lidded container to store and tr

This year we are sharing Thanksgiving dinner with at least two others families at our church, as I mentioned in an earlier post. I'm roasting two donated turkeys and bringing the dressing, four blueberry pies and many gallons of iced tea, plus a special touch I'll dedicate the next post to. Another church member gave me the blueberries that he had picked and frozen this summer. Here are the recipes and photos. Traditional Bread Stuffing With Herbs (forefront of photo) on last year's Thanksgiving buffet TRADITIONAL BREAD STUFFING WITH HERBS 1/2 cup margarine or butter (1 stick) 5 large celery stalks, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 1 teaspoon dried thyme 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon dried sage 1 14 1/2-ounce can chicken broth 2 16-ounce loaves sliced firm white bread, lightly toasted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, chopped Preheat oven to 325. In 12-inch skillet, melt margarine or butter over medium heat. Add cele

by guest blogger Tracy Strother The fridge is mostly empty right now, in anticipation of the turkey and the ham and the other festive foodstuffs that will soon be taking up residence inside it. I'm still trying to figure out where all the sides will go to warm up! Last year I tried to fit casserole dishes full of sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, green beans, and two different kinds of stuffing all together in my little oven with a turkey that was STILL COOKING well after it was supposed to be finished. This year, the turkey and the ham will be done early! I hope. I'm making my Dad's Jack Daniels Ham recipe, because he was always in the kitchen when I was a kid, cooking all kinds of special things for us while the Macy's Parade flickered on the TV in the background. Now that he's laid up and can't cook, I plan to make enough so I can take him some leftovers. Dad's Jack Daniels Ham Ingredients : one ham, whatever kind

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. -- Psalm 126:3 This year, we are doing Thanksgiving a whole new way. At least it's new to us. We've been talking about doing something like this for a couple of years. Our first Thanksgivings we prepared our share of the big meal and schlepped it 20 miles across the county to my mother's house, where my home-bound uncle also resided. When he died in 2009, we decided she could come to us. Besides, no one really wanted to spend Thanksgiving there without him. On Thursday, we will hold another first: We'll join with two other families and host a free community dinner at our church. We have wanted for a couple of years to serve food at a soup kitchen. This will not be a soup kitchen, nor will it feel like a handout. Organizers have worked hard to make the church multipurpose sanctuary/fellowship hall feel like a home. The tables have centerpieces. Crayons are on the tables for children to color the place ma

This appetizer is one of my most requested recipes: BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened 1 cup blue cheese or ranch salad dressing 1/2 cup hot sauce 1/2 to 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 2 chicken breast halves, cooked, shredded Heat oven to 350°F. Mix cream cheese, dressing, hot sauce and cheddar cheese in a saucepan. Heat and stir to combine. Stir in the chicken. Pour into a baking dish. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips, slices of toasted baguette or crackers.

I'm fortunate to be virtual friends with today's guest blogger, Kara Glenn, because we share a love of food. I ogled her photos of Thanksgiving dinner one year and sent her a Facebook friend request for that reason (though I had met her in person when we worked for the same company years ago.) And I'm excited to share with you the cooking contests her family holds. Without further delay, meet Kara. Kara Glenn lives in Morgantown with her husband Trevor and Golden Retriever Kelsey. She currently works for the Department of Energy doing design work, and enjoys cooking, reading (mostly Harry Potter), blogging, gaming with her husband and spending time with her family. Here's her story of a recent family get-together over Columbus Day. One of my family's favorite activities is eating. OK, actually it's our favorite. My mom went to culinary school in New Orleans, and good food has always been the centerpiece of our gatherings. With the growing popularity of the Food

The cover of the Betty Crocker Christmas cookies supermarket aisle cookbook is disturbing. Why is he winking? And am I the only one who reads it as "bite me" instead of "bake me" on first glance?

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE (AP) Hide the chocolate milk behind the plain milk. Get those apples and oranges out of stainless steel bins and into pretty baskets. Cash only for desserts. These subtle moves can entice kids to make healthier choices in school lunch lines, studies show. Food and restaurant marketers have long used similar tricks. Now the government wants in on the act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced what it called a major new initiative Tuesday, giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology to improve kids' use of the federal school lunch program and fight childhood obesity. A fresh approach is clearly needed, those behind the effort say. About one-third of children and teens are obese or overweight. Bans on soda and junk food have backfired in some places. Some students have abandoned school meal programs that tried to force-feed healthy choices. When one school district put fruit on every lunch tray, most of it ended up in the g

We ate these so quickly, I didn't take a photo. I lifted this one from Taste of Home, where I found the recipe in the October/November issue. The recipe was part of a feature suggesting quick breakfast burritos, fruity granola bars and sweet potato muffins for grab-and-go pre-dawn nourishment on Black Friday. They made a perfect Monday brinner (breakfast for dinner). Sammie's Breakfast Burritos for Two 4 eggs 1/4 cup salsa 1/8 teaspoon chili powder 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin 1/8 teaspoon pepper 3 breakfast turkey sausage links, casings removed 1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese 4 fat-free flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, salsa, chili powder, cumin and pepper; set aside. Crumble sausage into a large skillet; cook over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain. Push sausage to the sides of pan. Pour egg mixture into center of pan. Cook and stir until set. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Remove from the heat;

We had this for lunch Saturday, actually. Everyone -- even the 7-year-old and her 11-year-old cousin -- liked it. I picked up the ingredients for it partly in celebration that Walmart in Oakland, Md., has Boboli now and that my daughter discovered she liked feta and black olives. I didn't have lemon-pepper seasoning and I saw no need to buy it for one recipe so I used Cavender's Greek Seasoning. We still had some chicken, onion, spinach, sauce and cheese left over so on Sunday I made mini versions using tortillas. They needed to bake for only 5 minutes. Easy Greek Pizza 1 prebaked 12-inch pizza crust 1/2 cup pizza sauce 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning, divided 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach 1 small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings 1/4 cup sliced ripe olives 3/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese Place crust on an ungreased baking sheet; spread wi

Meet Good Press's first guest blogger, Mali Gank. Mali Gank lives in West Virginia with her husband, two bonus children, and 9 pets that may or may not be trying to stage a coup at any given moment. She is currently finishing her degree in education, and in her spare time she reads, writes, and tries to create something from nothing whenever she can. She shares with us her review of Organic Batter Blaster: Original Pancake & Waffle Batter. The store locator on the product Web site says it is sold at Walmarts around north-central West Virginia and western Maryland and Kroger in Morgantown. While vacationing with family in Michigan this summer, I was skeptical when my sister in law pulled the pancake mix out of the grocery bag. I’m not a pancake purist by any means…I have been known to turn to Aunt Jemima or Hungry Jack for a quick dinner fix. However, even my time-saving mentality had ever imagined what I was looking at. It looked like a can of squeeze cheese, the sort my youth

I'm not flawless in the kitchen, but we rarely waste food or have to eat my mistakes. I can usually save whatever I've flubbed. One recent weeknight dinner is a good example. I was making Chicken Balsamico with hot orzo, a recipe I learned at this fall's Taste of Home Cooking School. I'm sure I heard the culinary expert say to cook 1 cup of orzo in 1 can of chicken broth. Maybe she said a half cup of the rice-shaped pasta? Maybe I was supposed to put a lid on it? Reduce the heat? Remove it from the heat? Stir frequently? Maybe I was supposed to add a can of water to the chicken broth before boiling? Whatever I did wrong left me with undercooked orzo that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Hating to waste food, I stirred in water -- about a cup -- hoping to deglaze the pan and get the orzo al dente. It worked and the water either cooked off or was completely absorbed. Disaster averted. Dinner was served. Dinner was all right. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't left craving

I live 30 miles from good Indian food. (OK, I live 30 miles from ANY Indian food.) So I am excited to see Amy's frozen meals for sale at the Walmart in Oakland, Md. I picked the Palak Paneer with a side of Rajmah dal for $3.77. I ate the kidney beans in ginger-garlic sauce first so I could savor my favorite part: the creamed spinach with cheese (the paneer) and basmati rice uninterrupted. Was it as good as Ram's at Mother India in Morgantown, WV? No. But it was a reasonably priced and accessible substitute.

Monday started off better this week thanks to pre-planning and this recipe for a nourishing baked apple oatmeal. I didn't have wheat germ so I reduced the milk to 3 cups. I also mixed it on Sunday night and refrigerated the dish. When I woke up, I put it in a cold oven and turned it to 350. It baked in the 45 minutes it took us to get ready for work. There was no school and our daughter had a friend stay over. We all had a good, hot breakfast -- on a MONDAY! We will be making this recipe often this winter. BAKED APPLE OATMEAL 4 cups milk 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 cups old-fashioned oats 2 cups chopped peeled apples 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup raisins 1 cup toasted wheat germ In a large saucepan, heat milk, brown sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon. Add remaining ingredients; mix gently. Spoon into a greased 2-quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Yield

If you need to know what buckwheat cakes are, go here . My family eats buckwheat cakes with butter and maple syrup and a side of sausage. But I've seen people heap on sausage gravy or applesauce or apple butter to complement -- or maybe cover up -- the taste. I have heard of people smearing them with peanut butter or elderberry jam. I gotta ask: How do YOU eat your buckwheat cakes? Tell me in the comments.

This was a popular dish I took to potlucks last summer. It's best in situations where you can keep it cold -- even on ice in a cooler. If you need something for a Memorial Day get-together, I recommend this. BANANA SPLIT CAKE 1 1/2 sticks margarine or butter, divided, softened 2 cups crushed vanilla wafers 2 cups confectioners sugar 1 8-ounce package light cream cheese 1 large can crushed pineapple, drained, reserving 1/4 cup pineapple juice 1 tub Cool Whip 3 medium bananas, sliced chopped walnuts maraschino cherries Melt 1 stick butter and mix with vanilla wafers. Press into a 9-by-13 pan and bake 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool. Beat 1/2 stick margarine and sugar together. Whip in cream cheese and pineapple juice. Fold in 1 cup Cool Whip. Spread over cooled crust. Layer with sliced bananas. Top with crushed pineapple. Spread with remaining Cool Whip. Sprinkle with nuts. Evenly space cherries on top.

This is the second full week in a row that our county's schools have been closed because of bad weather. My daughter's teacher sent home work to be completed on snow days. To supplement that, she reads and has Play-Doh and crafts and she loves to write stories and letters. She gets a little bit of screen-time to go on PBSkids.org/go and to watch the occasional PBS cartoon. One morning this week she watched a "Sid the Science Kid" episode about nutrition. That, and the Olympics, spurred a full day of discussion about eating right and exercising to be strong and healthy. She worked out to her Denise Austin "Fit Kids" DVD and afterward said, "My heart is happy." Our "unit" included printables from the USDA and a story book about sneaky rabbits published right here in Terra Alta by Headline Books -- for which I am the new publicist. Every children's book Headline Books publishes has an educational component. "Grandfather's Garde

Today marks the 4th annual celebration of World Nutella Day . These scrumptious rolls are easy and inexpensive to make for any occasion -- especially if you make one up. I sometimes celebrate a Friday morning alone in my house with these. The simple pleasures of working from home. CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BRUNCH ROLLS 3 tubes of crescent rolls dough (If it's the traditional triangle cut, you'll have to push the perforations together. For this recipe, try to get the new variation where the dough is in strips or one big sheet.) Jar of Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread (look for it near the peanut butter and jams) chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts if you wish Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Place one tube of the crescent roll dough out flat. Spread evenly with Nutella. Sprinkle with nuts. Cover with the other whole piece of crescent roll dough from the second can. Cut it into eight long strips. Pick up one and gently twist it a few times before twirling it