02/19/2007

Cook's Corner

Are visions of Thin Mints dancing around your head?

Cookies are coming to a Girl Scout near you

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time.

More than 3,000 girls from Girl Scouts of Crooked Tree will be taking orders for cookies starting Thursday and continuing through March 11.

New this year is the Sugar Free Little Brownies Cookie. Also new this year: All of the varieties contain zero grams trans fat per serving.

Thin Mints continue to be the most popular nationally and locally, with 92,000 boxes sold last year in the 11-county Crooked Tree area. Samoas come in second, with nearly 70,000 boxes purchased here last year. Other varieties available again include Tagalongs, All Abouts, Do-si-dos, Trefoils and Cafe Cookies.

Cost remains $3 per box. Delivery is slated for mid-April.

If you don't know a Girl Scout, call 947-7354 or (800) 968-5030.

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The Michigan Humanities Council has unveiled a Web site, michiganfoodways.org, as a cultural resource and interactive guide for all Michiganians.

Michiganfoodways.org was designed to help raise the awareness of Michigan's diverse food culture as part of an effort directed at the 2007-2008 tour of a pair of exhibits, "Key Ingredients” and "Michigan Foodways.” The tour will start on May 25, when the MHC will bring the Smithsonian exhibit, "Key Ingredients: America By Food” and a companion exhibit, "Michigan Foodways,” to Chelsea, followed by Calumet, Cheboygan, Whitehall, Frankenmuth and Dundee. In addition, the council will assist local communities in developing kiosks and other local programs.

Michigan foodways are the foods of many communities, ethnicities and occupations in the Great Lakes state. For instance, the typical Michigan meal varies by area. In Calumet it can consist of a pasty; down the road in Negaunee, one can find a cudighi sandwich. Those in the thumb area would consider the Bay Port Fish Sandwich for a meal. In the summer, the Traverse City region overflows with cherry pie and cherry sausage.

The Web site includes an online statewide recipe and story contest, at which the public can vote for their favorite of six recipes and stories. Each of the entries were submitted by Key Ingredients Michigan Foodways host sites. The recipes and stories include: Pasties (Calumet), Cranberry Apple Pie (Cheboygan), Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Hickory Nuts (Chelsea), Michigan Mom's Favorite Caramel Apple Pie (Dundee), Pretzels (Frankenmuth), and Asparagus and Red Pepper Tart (Whitehall).

Check it out at www.michiganfoodways.org.

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Here is the recipe from Cheboygan's Mary Ellen Enos that is on the site. She writes:

"I grew up in northern Michigan and have lived on a farm in Cheboygan for almost 40 years. I was a cook for the elementary school and now I work for MSU Extension in the family nutrition program. I learned to bake pies when I was a teenager and I love to do it. Both my grandmother and mother were great pie bakers. I like this recipe because it includes apples, which remind me of all of the apple orchards that have been in Cheboygan, and cranberries. Cranberries are so healthy and now we have a large cranberry farm in the area.”

Cranberry Apple Pie

• 2½ c. chopped cranberries
• 1½ c. peeled sliced apples
• Combine these ingredients with:
• 1½ c. sugar
• 3 T. quick-cooking tapioca
• 3 T. water

Prepare and unbaked pie shell.

Fill with the fruit mixture.

Cover it with a lattice top.

Bake the pie in a hot oven (425°) for ½ hour or more.

The exhibit comes to the Cheboygan Area Public Library Oct. 19-Dec. 2.

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Tapawingo pastry chef Carrie Root's Cherry Bread has long been a favorite with diners at Tapawingo. It's a sourdough bread (or Boule in French) with a rather dense texture, and includes some rye flour and dried Michigan tart cherries. Because the bread ships well, freezes well and remains fresh for several days Tapawingo is offering it for sale. Each 15-oz. loaf is $9, plus shipping and handling. Orders must be placed a week in advance. Call (866) 588-7881.

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If you are looking for a specific recipe; want to try and obtain the recipe for a dish you had in a restaurant; have a cooking dilemma — or have solved one and want to pass on what you learned; had good (or bad) luck with a food product; or have other information of interest to fellow cooks, please send it to: Cook's Corner, Traverse City Record-Eagle, P.O. Box 632, Traverse City, MI 49685; call (231) 933-1452 or (800) 968-8273; or e-mail kgibbons@record-eagle.com.