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Archive for the 'food' Category

White Castle sliding into Seymour

October 9th, 2009, 10:54 am by davis

Big news on the culinary front: White Castle has requested — and received — a sewer connection for a new store to be built on East Tipton Street.

That approval came during Thursday’s Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety meeting at City Hall.

The hamburger chain plans to build a store in the parking lot in front of Big Lots in the 2000 block of East Tipton Street.

Also going in that location is Buffalo Wild Wings. A sign in front of the store just east of Seymour Health and Fitness Club indicates the restaurent will be opening soon, although no date is posted.

Don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited about White Castle coming to town. I grew up with them in Indianapolis. And I love them.

Contrary to the experience many folks say they have with the small hamburgers, they’ve never irritated by digestive system in the least.

One of my nicknames in junior high and high school was Gut Man, based on my ability to eat sliders by the dozens. Thankfully, I’m not such a glutton anymore. But I do love them.

A couple years ago when a mover and shaker in town told me that Star Bucks would soon open a store in Seymour, he said that was another of those moments that indicated to him that “Seymour had arrived.”

Sorry, I said, Star Bucks won’t last here. Plant a White Castle in town, and that maybe would mean Seymour had indeed arrived and that I’d wager White Castle would survive here longer than Star Bucks.

I’d still wager that.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Sad afternoon in a melon field

August 21st, 2009, 2:45 am by davis

Walking through a field of rotting cantaloupes Thursday afternoon was a sad thing.

The rotting fruit and browning plants made it look more like fall, when the late-to-blossom fruit  fail to mature as the growing season runs out.

But not in August.

That, however, was the case in a field south of Vallonia farmed by Mark and Sue Kamman. They shared their story of how a wet, cool growing season is devastating part of the watermelon and much of their cantaloupe plants they set this srping.

You can read about it in Friday’s edition of The Tribune and online at Trib.Town.com.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to Tribtown.com.

Tomato meets the deep fryer

August 13th, 2009, 6:42 am by davis

Hoosier voters failed to disappoint in one of their last elections — choosing this year’s so-called Indiana State Fair Tomato Signature Foods.

Their top selection tapped two choice foods — tomatoes and the brown food group (that, of course, is anything fried, deep, pan or otherwise).
Voters chose the Deep-Fried Pizza from Urick Concessions as the top signature food at this year’s state fair. They’re being sold in front of the Grand Hall on the fairgrounds.

This year’s fair, which opened last Friday and runs through Aug. 23, pays a salute to that fruit-slash-vegetable known as the tomato, if not tomahto.

The corporate sponsor is Red Gold, an Orestes-based tomato processor in northern Indiana. It contracts with farmers around the state, including here in Jackson County, to keep its line of products, including ketchup, tomato sauces and canned tomatoes, on grocery store shelves.

Other tomato-based foods spotlighted by concessionaires this summer at the fair include the Pizza Cone, Ya Ya’s Tomato Balls, Sun-dried Tomato Pork Burger and the Tomato Bob.

Do you like tomatoes?

I love tomato sauce. I love ketchup. I love pizza sauce and salsa. I even love stewed tomatoes. It’s the one way I can eat zucchini that’s not been turned into bread.

But I have a confession. I don’t like raw tomatoes.

Ann Lentini, whose accent reveals she moved to Seymour from New York, urged me to try them again, telling me that’s what her grandfather once told her. She’s been eating them ever since.

But I have tried them, over and over, at least once each summer.

And much to my Pop’s dismay, I just don’t like them. Pop loved snapping a tomato off the vine and eating it like an apple.

I don’t know. I think it’s the texture. That usually gets a roll of the eyes from true tomato lovers. Lentini gave an understanding nod as we talked after she bought some tomatoes Wednesday at the Seymour farmers market.

“I don’t like peanut butter,” she said. “Although I can eat some on a cracker.”

I’m certainly not in the majority, however, in my disdain for raw tomatoes. According to the USDA, Indiana ranked second in U.S. tomato production in 2007. That year, Hoosier farmers planted tomatoes on 10,000 acres.

That’s not including the thousands of home gardens like Ed Mills’ plot on North Elm Street in Seymour. He was selling tomatoes, watermelons and blackberries produce Wednesday at the market.

“There’s nothing better than a big slice of tomato, green beans and corn,” Mills said.

I’m down with the sweet corn and beans. Just don’t make me eat a raw tomato.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Alton Brown, Food Network should sample these good eats

July 26th, 2009, 8:01 pm by davis

There’s nothing like July in Jackson County.

There’s first the anticipation of the arrival of cantaloupes, watermelons, sweet corn and the Jackson County Fair.

Then, slowly, the month progresses and you boil or roast that first ear of yellow, white or perhaps mixed ear of corn.

The butter and salt, of course, the gravy on the kernals. There’s nothing like it in the vegetable world, although of course there’s nothing green about it.

Then, you start asking the produce managers and vegetable stand operators the big question of the month — where are your melons from? They’re used to it. Those really in the know realize you’re not just interested in whether the cantaloupes and watermelons are from Indiana. They know you want to  hear the words “Vallonia” or “Brownstown” or “Jackson County” because we all know that while those melons grown in Davies or Knox counties in southwestern Indiana are good, so much better than the hard, almost inedible melons we must tolerate — or ignore — all through the winter and spring, they still don’t compare to the orange and red delights grown in the sandy soils of Jackson County.

No, they don’t. They can’t. Maybe it’s regional pride, but I don’t really think so, and that’s my story and it’s the story I’m sticking with.

And then, of course, there’s the arrival of the Jackson County Fair, a time when all three of the best — the fair, the melons and corn — all collide. You can enjoy the treats, sights and sounds of the fair, all the while knowing you can pick up a melon or two or three on the way home, with produce stands just a few miles out of the way down one road or another.

What’s your favorite treat of July? The corn? Do you favor cantaloupes over watermelons? Do you like the long, striped melons or those that are squat and dark?

Do you like salt or pepper, or maybe both, on your melons? I like mine plain, thanks, although as a kid I always used salt on watermelon because Pop and Grandpa Davis did.

And what about butter on a roasting ear? How do you spread it? With a knife, fork, fingers, bread or some other method unique to your family?

Surely Alton Brown of The Food Network could devote 30 minutes of his “Good Eats” to these questions if not just on the greater qualities of Jackson County melons.

Hope you enjoy the fair and the good eats that Jackson County has to offer.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com

The ‘S’ word triggers action

January 12th, 2009, 7:39 pm by davis

Our younger daughter stayed home from school today after a bout with a stomach illness.

She called this afternoon asking whether I could bring home a box of push-ups, those frozen treats that have sherbet molded around a stick and encased in a cardboard tube. My favorite is orange.

I said I could, so I stopped at a grocery on the way home for supper and picked up a box of Scooby Doo push-ups, which come in a variety of flavors. Still, the best is orange.

I was amazed at the amount of activity in the store.

Most of the registers were open. Lines were a few people deep.

“It looks like Saturday in here,” I said to the wearied cashier.

Someone, she said, had mentioned the “S” word, and I don’t think she meant the three-letter “S” word.

No, she meant “snow.”

“But we’re only expected to get an inch or two,” I said.

It doesn’t matter, she responded.

People, she said, seem to go crazy at the mere mention of snow being in the forecast.

The forecast have for Tuesday’s edition of The Tribune from the National Weather Service calls for Jackson County to receive 1 to 2 inches of snow overnight, with falling temperatures coming tonight and throughout much of the week.

I don’t quite understand the dash for milk and bread, but I suppose if we wake up to a foot of snow in the morning and no way to get to the grocery, those folks will have the last laugh as they have milk with their breakfast, including toast, and I chug down a glass of water with mine soda crackers.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

A face-lift at age 20?

January 12th, 2009, 6:11 pm by davis

At age 20, you generally don’t expect to hear about face-lifts.

But for Seymour’s Taco Bell, there’s more  than a face-lift on the way.

Walls at the store at 1529 E. Tipton St. are, to paraphrase a John Mellencamp son, gonna come tumbling down sometime next month to make way for a new building.

The restaurant, a popular eating place for area teens as well as adults, including late at night, will be closed about 90 days, the store manager tells Tribune reporter January Wetzel for a story that will appear in Tuesday’s edition as well as on TribTown.com.

Watch for the story. It’s one of several local stories we’re working on tonight.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Be your own economic stimulus: Become a Pantry Pal

January 12th, 2009, 12:00 pm by davis

Wanted: Caring people to adopt a cash-strapped, food-strapped pantry that provides much-needed food to a growing list of those in need as unemployment rises.

Deb Bedwell, director of Anchor House, Jackson County’s homeless shelter in Seymour, introduced me today to a new effort to draw donations of the center’s food pantry.

The Pantry Pal Program asks area residents, businesses and organizations — anyone, really — to “Adopt us or a food donation month.”

Adopting the pantry for a Food Month is simple.

You’re asked to donate specific items, although I’d guess they’d take anything or cash or check, as you can. Each month has a designated item.

January, for instance, is Mac & Cheese month. June? That’s Bean Month, both dried and canned. December? Anything will do. December, it seems, appears to be a tough month for area food pantries, officials at Anchor House, Community Provisions and Human Services Inc. have said in the past.

The pantry is also seeking volunteers to help operate it from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays.

If you have questions or want to learn more about how to help or volunteer, Bedwell is the contact person at Anchor House. You can reach her at 522-9308. The shelter and pantry are at 250 S. Vine St., Seymour.

FOOD MONTHS

January: Macaroni and cheese

February: Peanut butter and jelly

March: Canned meat, such as tuna and chicken

April: Canned or boxed potatoes

May: Canned vegetables

June: Beans, dried and canned

July: Fresh vegetables

August: Pasta and sauce

September: Donate a cow or pig

October: Canned fruit

November: Donate deer meat

December: Anything

‘As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly’

November 26th, 2008, 4:16 am by davis

What will you give thanks for today?

Your family?

Your friends?

Your health?

Your church?

Your job?

Our freedoms as Americans?

Those are among the things for which I’m thankful and that I’ll keep in mind today.
I’m also thankful for the laughter that my family and I share.

Sure, we have our moments that aren’t always that harmonious, but those don’t last. The good times — those times that almost always include a good laugh or two — are the ones that last, that stick in our memories and that are talked about for many years afterward.

I love hearing my kids and wife laugh, and I enjoy laughing with them, especially when they’re laughing at me.

Laughter’s a great thing.

It helps us share our senses of humor. It helps us say “I love you.” It helps us smile. It helps us share our joy and ease our fears.

And there’s more than our own anecdotal evidence that laughter is good for us.

A recent University of Maryland study contends the old saying about laughter being the best medicine is true. It reports that the blood pressure of those studied dropped while watching comedies. So don’t feel as though you’re wasting time today if you log onto the “WKRP” Thanksgiving episode where Art Carlson utters those famous, belly-shaking words, “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” What a hoot.

I’m thankful my family and I will share a heaping helping of laughter just as we’ll share a hearty holiday meal when we gather this afternoon.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

An early Thanksgiving

November 16th, 2008, 3:10 pm by davis

I love Thanksgiving.

There are fewer expectations. There’s less concern about the weather for those of us who travel. And there are so many great foods.

My siblings and I and our families celebrated Thanksgiving early.

We traveled Saturday to our older sister’s home in Lebanon, in Boone County north of Indianapolis, with our contributions to the meal.

There was turkey and pork roast. Cheesy potatoes. Dressing, with oysters and without, of course. Layered salad topped with deviled eggs. Broccoli casserole. Noodles. Sweet potatoes (our contribution). My sister-in-law’s wonderful homemade bread. And other things.

And you can’t forget the pies. Pecan. Apple. Rhubarb. And pumpkin, of course. Did I mention pecan? My sister rivals Mom’s crust, and her pecan pies are just something to save room for.

OK, OK.

I do have expectations for pecan pie, gravy and turkey and other things.

But generally, Thanksgiving is pretty carefree compared to Christmas, although of course I love Christmas for those things that aren’t wrapped up, so to speak, in presents and wants and desires.

What about you? Do you think Thanksgiving is more of a simple pleasure? Do you find Thanksgiving is easier to enjoy?

What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

Harvest dinners yield a few pounds, hard-earned cash for a good cause

November 10th, 2008, 12:17 pm by davis

This fall’s round of harvest dinners that our family generally makes is complete.

The meal Sunday at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Duleytown is the capstone dinner, although we didn’t make it out this year. My wife and daughters had eaten one too many turkey dinners this fall, including Friday night’s meal at our church, St. Paul Lutheran, also known as Borchers.

But we did make it out to St. Paul Wegan and St. John Sauers earlier.

We enjoy both the meal and the conversations we have at those gatherings.

The homemade turkey, dressing, taters, noodles, vegetables and desserts are pretty tasty, and I’m sure they add to my waisetline each fall. But I figure it’s for a good cause.

The churches use the proceeds for a variety of causes, including general expenses.

They’re a lot of work. Many people put in many hours baking those turkeys and hams, pressing and drying and cooking those noodles and baking those pies.

More time goes into plating them and serving them, as well as cleanup.

At Borchers on Friday night, we had what may be one of our biggest gatherings — more than 650 meals were served. We were even starting to run out of some things and had to quickly whip up more mashed potatoes and noodles.

We assume part of our increase this year is a result of some folks being curious about our new building. We had the dinner in the new fellowship room, which is roomier than what was torn down earlier this fall. The new sanctuary is still under construction, but we hope to be in sometime in early December.

Meanwhile, the fellowship room is also serving as our  temporary sanctuary.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks for logging on to TribTown.com.

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