An Introduction During summer 2023, I am cooking my way through The Joy of Sharing: Oak Valley A.L.C.W. Centennial Cookbook, published in 1985 by the Oak Valley American Lutheran Church Women in Velva, North Dakota. Now a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or the ELCA, Oak Valley Lutheran Church is the church…
First, a description of the structure and content of the The Joy of Sharing: Publishing Details The copyright page states that the cookbook has been “published and printed by Cookbooks by Morris Press” based in Kearney, Nebraska. This publisher remains an ongoing concern: https://www.morriscookbooks.com/, and the banner on its website proudly proclaims its status as…
Like many people who live in climates with multiple seasons, I use those seasons to guide my food habits. As Nancy Silverton remarks in The Cookie That Changed My Life and More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, and Pies That Will Change Yours, eating with the seasons changes our experience of food. Speaking…
As I noted in my post about “Irma’s Chicken Tortilla Casserole,” I prepared both that casserole and Susan Wolff Anderson’s “Fruit Dip / Fruit Platter” to serve to my daughter and her friend for a playdate lunch. This dip was a hit! Process The recipe for this fruit dip was very easy to both make…
When my daughter had a play date with her friend from down the street, I decided to make Mary Harness’s recipe for “Irma’s Chicken Tortilla Casserole” for lunch, along with Susan Wolff Anderson’s “Fruit Dip / Fruit Platter” to encourage ample fruit consumption (stay tuned). “Irma’s Chicken Tortilla Casserole” is quite a name for a…
To teach paragraphing strategies to college students, I use “When is a Paragraph?” published in College Composition and Communication by Arthur A. Stern in 1976. Weaving together a history of paragraphing theory and textual analysis of paragraphs in well-respected national publications, Stern helps students see that though they’ve been taught a useful formula for learning…
Looking for a quick way to make use of some thawed ground beef, I paged through The Joy of Sharing and realized I already had all of the ingredients in my pantry to make “Crouton Hot Dish Casserole.” Submitted by Irene Ave, this recipe is fascinating. It’s also surprisingly delicious. No wonder, since it’s full…
Early this summer I made two baked goods with rhubarb, my favorite “vegetable that often masquerades as a fruit” (McGee 367). As I explained when writing about last summer’s rhubarb recipes—a pie and a crunch (https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2023/07/15/243/ and https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2023/06/27/rhubarb-pie/), I love rhubarb—its tartness, its color, its juiciness—really, I love anything and everything about it. My July…
Caution: Spoilers ahead In the new Garfield movie released in May 2024, Garfield orders $600 worth of takeout, all delivered by drone, to create an onslaught of flying objects designed to destabilize the villains attempting to harm him and a family member while all attempt to remain on the top of a moving train. It’s…
As I noted in the introduction to my Movie Night Recipe series (https://blog.cord.edu/karlaknutson/2024/05/22/a-prelude-to-movie-night/), the main event of our Puss in Boots movie night was lasagna, the quintessential Italian-American dish of ooey-gooey baked cheesy pasta, beloved of orange cats everywhere. Or at least of the orange cat on Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid…
I decided to try the recipe for “Simply Dilly Cukes” again, but with two adjustments: 1) smashing the cucumbers and 2) making a homemade Italian dressing. Popularized in Asia, smashing “cracks the vegetable’s taut skin and creates inroads for the dressing,” according to Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record…
The green salad feels ubiquitous as a precursor to pasta in American dining—at home and at restaurants, particularly the Italian-American restaurants famous for their salad and breadsticks, like the Olive Garden. However, as travelers may remind you (often pedantically), the salad course is a finale, not the opening number when dining in Italy. In On…