Butter

SMITHSBURG - It was a question that stumped many fourth-graders at Smithsburg Elementary School. Which milk product - heavy cream, light cream or buttermilk - can be turned into butter? Students in Richele Gift's class, working in groups of two and three students, learned the answer firsthand April 16. Under the direction of Wayne Buckingham, a teacher with the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, the fourth-graders conducted an experiment called "Cream to Butter. " First, Buckingham passed out maps of Maryland, showing how many cows are in each county.

School's out, the hot weather has hit, meaning one thing - time to hit the beach! Walking the boardwalk, amidst the salty/smoky/french fried air, you smell . mmmPOPCORN. You know you can't resist. So you walk over to get some of the mouth-watering goodness, only to be floored by the selection. 90 flavors!? Sure, there's good old salt and butter, but there are also flavors such as BBQ, Hawaiian delight, bubble gum, and watermelon. But let's face it, it's just not practical to go to the beach whenever you want popcorn, although most of us would probably do it if we could.

by Joe Crocetta / staff photographer see the enlargement A few years ago, television commercials told us "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. " The shtick was that the margarine being advertised tasted so much like butter, even Mother Nature thought it was the "real thing" - which is what the dairy people like to call it. What's important in the butter vs. margarine debate is to make sure you're not fooling yourself. Fat should be kept to 30 percent of the total calories you consume each day, according to Edith Hogan, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for American Dietetic Association, an organization of 70,000 food and nutrition experts.

1 1/2 pounds asparagus 3 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup freshly gratedParmesan cheese Cook's note: The quality of your Parmesan will make a big difference here. If you get yourself a microplane grater, you'll find yourself grating fresh Parmesan easily. Snap the ends off of the asparagus where it wants to break naturally. Put it in a microwaveable casserole with a lid, or in a glass pie plate - anything microwaveable that's big enough to let your asparagus lie down.

Being on my own for so many years, my idea of Thanksgiving had always been to put a slice of pumpkin on my Slim Jims. But now things are different and on the holiday I not only found myself surrounded by people, but actually helped cook. This was frightening business. Fortunately, a famous chef once told me the age-old secret to successful cooking: Add butter. If you're out of butter, add bacon. Yup, that's about it. Turkey drying out? Add butter. Sweet potatoes not everybody's favorite vegetable?

Hollandaise, the traditional sauce made with eggs, is the most difficult sauce for me. Not for the reason you think, but one of taste, because I do not like eggs. I can cook them, add them as ingredients to recipes, hard boil them or throw them at someone who drives me crazy, but I will not eat them.   I think it goes back to a day in my childhood when my mother made them for me and I got really sick.   The first key to a good sauce is starting with quality butter because it's made by an emulsion of melted or clarified butter, and acid such as lemon juice or vinegar with partially cooked eggs.

3/4 to 1 pound hamburger 1 tablespoon butter 2 tablespoons flour 2 to 3 beef bouillon cubes 1 1/2 cups water 1 onion, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour to make a paste. Slowly add water and bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil while stirring. Cook a few minutes until sauce is thickened. Add the chopped onion and pepper. Cook hamburger separately, drain fat and add to the sauce. Serve over potatoes, noodles, biscuits or toast.

Photos, recipes from Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk Want to make the grade in the "treat" category? Here's this year's assignment - treat the kids to lunchbox snacks that are as easy as 1, 2, 3. Kids like to find something special in their lunchbox. Give them a piece of home with quick and easy snacks made with sweetened condensed milk. Candy Crunch, Double Delicious Cookie Bars and No-Bake Fudgy Brownies are the perfect answer to any test. Just don't forget to pack extras for sharing with classmates.

Washington County | May 1 to 5 Elementary Monday - hot dog, peaches, seasoned potato wedges, celery sticks with peanut butter dip and milk. Tuesday - chicken nuggets, frosty fruit bar, whipped potatoes with gravy, butter bread and milk. Wednesday - steamer, buttered green beans, cinnamon applesauce, frozen yogurt and milk. Thursday - baked lasagna with school roll, fruited gelatin, tossed salad, Italian ice and milk. Friday - shrimp poppers, broccoli, cheese and rice casserole; apple, fruit pie and milk.

This recipe for flavored nuts is wonderful because it will stay fresh for several weeks. You can use walnuts, blanched almonds or pecans, or a mixture of nuts, to make this recipe. SWEDISH NUTS 1 pound unsalted nuts (about 4 cups), walnuts, blanched almonds, pecans or a mixture 2 egg whites 1 cup sugar Dash salt 1/2 cup butter Spread the nuts in a 10-by-15-inch jellyroll pan. Place the pan in a 325-degree oven and toast the nuts until they are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

I love seafood, mostly any seafood. However, mussels are the most enjoyable seafood in my family. My family enjoys mussels steamed, grilled and usually with lots of butter to dip.  This recipe is a very easy recipe to follow and one that is loaded with tons of flavor. Make sure to purchase fresh mussels from a reputable location. Also, presoak the mussels in water salted to taste of the ocean for at least 10 minutes. Throw away any mussels that are open and won't close when touched and look for any strands of thread that are hanging from the mussel.

Retired teacher Marilyn Hembrock worked with the youth group at Trinity Lutheran Church in Smithsburg to make chocolate candies for a fundraiser. One of the popular candies they produced was a version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. "We adapted them just through trial and error," Hembrock said. "We tried different things, because the kids love peanut butter cups. " Reese's comes in paper liners similar to those used for cupcakes, so Hembrock used those in her recipe. The kids also wanted to try different flavors, such as mint and chopped nuts.

I started this recipe with a bunch of peanut butter cups and a cup of espresso in my hand. I reworked two older recipes I've used to build this new recipe, featuring Nespresso espresso coffee. I love the added kick in flavor you get when you add excellent coffee to chocolate, cookies, creams, and rubs, so I thought why not try to add coffee to peanut butter cup cookies. What you see before you is the final product, tested and approved by my family and my two sous chefs during the experiment, Jenna Rose and Jaelyn Grace.

In 2002, the committee organizing Old Tyme Christmas in Funkstown published a cookbook of family recipes. The book included a lot of old-style recipes, such as cheeseburger pie, stuffed meatloaf and pork chop casserole. Paulette Sirbaugh submitted this recipe for the cookbook. She learned this recipe from Funkstown resident Geraldine Ridgely. "She was my neighbor. Her husband was a great dessert lover. He wanted dessert after every meal," Sirbaugh said. "This was her pie. After she passed away, whenever we needed a pie, we used this one. " For the month of December, The Herald-Mail will publish dessert recipes from the "Funkstown Old Tyme Christmas Cookbook.

Celebrating together is a tradition for many families that attended Saturday's 39th annual Apple Butter Festival. Kathryn Eppinger, who has lived in Berkeley Springs for 81 years, said she attends the festival every year with her family. Eppinger was at the festival with her daughter, Carol Suker, a Berkeley Springs High School graduate who lives in Maryland “We always watch the parade, listen to the music, look at the crafts, visit with friends and eat festival food,” Suker said.

Heather Carter lives in Cascade. She is a member of One Mountain Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote educational programs, historical preservation, community improvements, cultural activities and projects that benefit the greater Cascade-Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., area. Carter was born in Hagerstown, but grew up on or near U.S. Navy bases across the country. Her family came back to Hagerstown for holidays to visit relatives. She said she remembered her aunts' cooking - cold pickles, molded salads and shrimp casseroles.

When looking through the pantry and cupboards, I came across a few ingredients that can create the most deliciously moist sweet bread. The key was to use the carrots' natural sweetness accompanied by a little bit of pancake syrup, and then cook them down until they are nice and tender. A key point here is that many call the small carrots, baby carrots, when in fact they are normal-sized carrots simply shaved down on a vegetable lathe. Try experimenting with maple syrup or honey in place of pancake syrup, or completely eliminating the syrup all together and increase the sugar up to 2 1/2 cups, or even 3 cups if you want a really sweet bread.

Brant Ridenour of Hagerstown entered this walnut cookie recipe in The Herald-Mail's 2011 Cookie Exchange contest. "I retired from the Maryland Correctional Institute 2 1/2 years ago after 33 years. I don't cook a lot," he said. "But since I retired  I've dabbled in it and other things to keep busy. This recipe has been in Ridenour's family since the late 1800s or early 1900s. "It's from Edith (Ridenour) Baker, my great-aunt. She and my great-uncle, Ed Baker, raised my dad," he said.