http://www.record-eagle.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_224095036.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_224095036.html I got to thinking about home cooks the other day. It occurred to me that there are good cooks who know they cook well and good cooks that don't know it. Likewise, there are bad cooks who think they cook well, but also bad cooks that admit they can't cook well. Further, some folks don't cook at all! Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_210095108.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_210095108.html How can one not like chard? Beautiful, enticing chard, and now in rainbow colors? Magical chard ... watching the half bushel of chard simmering down to a few cups of a spinach look-alike vegetable, only begging for a spoonful of butter, margarine or olive oil spread. Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_196095055.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_196095055.html Knowing that when my kids went back to school, the teachers' first assignments would center around, "What I did this summer," I always tried to give my children exciting and educational experiences to report. But my ploy never worked, in fact, it usually backfired. Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_182100023.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_182100023.html Good luck, bad luck, in an American summer, it's often potluck. We hear "potluck" and a long table laden with slow cookers and salads comes to mind. It's funny, isn't it? Common words do have specific meanings, but we hear them so often that the words are reduced to just a label. "Potluck?" Gotcha. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:51:00 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_168101458.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_168101458.html One June some years ago, He-Who-Must-Be-Fed made reservations for dinner at Ellsworth's Tapawingo, asking for our favorite table because it was our anniversary. When the menu arrived, the line across the top read "Happy Anniversary Ketchums!" Happy memories flooded back at the unexpected message printed on such an impressive menu. Call it true love, call it looking at love through rose-colored classes or naïve romanticism, but that dinner is part of a love story. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_154093711.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_154093711.html The cook has concern, even worry, about target diners. Cooking for yourself is easiest. Then, you might, as He-Who-Must-Be-Fed does, spoon chili from can to mouth over the sink. In this case, "fine dining" then means the right brand, with beans. My friend Glenn says that good cooks cook best for those they love. Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_140095025.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_140095025.html These are the days, the warm days of May and June, when women get spring fever of a feminine kind. It's a spring fever different from the lustier urge that men feel. In spring, men yearn to cast lines into cold waters, hear the crack of baseball bats, linger at motorcycle showrooms and bring out well-worn, but bright, short-sleeved shirts. But women yearn for gentler things. Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_112094656.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_112094656.html If you put Republicans and Democrats at the same dinner table, you might be apt to say that oil and water don't mix, as the old adage predicts. But then, there is also the saying, "Politics makes strange bedfellows." The handy thing about the old saws is that there seems to be one for every point of view. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_098094634.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_098094634.html The sun is bright today, so bright that the light reflecting off the snow is glaring -- a case for sunglasses. The fishery next door brought in heavy equipment this week, the kind needed to move the snow from the pier, and this morning I saw a truck going up and down the pier. These are signs of spring in far northern Michigan. Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:57 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_084095031.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_084095031.html I suppose we all pretty much watch what we eat. Certainly food writers are especially aware of their Peas and Quick breads. Most folks watch intelligently, not compulsively. Seems like common sense to me. But, sometimes, I like to extend "the watch" to watching other people eat, what they eat, and how they eat. Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:58 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_070094546.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_070094546.html March seems to have something for everyone; pessimists cite the Ides of March, optimists stretch to claim even a small amount of Irish luck. (He-Who-Must-Be-Fed claims his Welsh is close enough, and he champions leeks, the national flower-vegetable of Wales). Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:00:54 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_056100059.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_056100059.html My focus today is "niggles." I think of a niggle as something like a half-emerging idea that won't emerge fully. Frustrating. In some dictionaries, "niggle" means some sort of a peeve or complaint. Yes, my niggles are slightly peevish, but closer to annoying. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:00:55 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_042094549.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_042094549.html The first fish I recall seeing was a glowing red neon sign, a simply outlined lake fish, clearly a perch. I was about 4 or 5. Its head pointed to U.S. 23, near Bay City, northbound lane. Its tail pointed to Mike's, a popular roadhouse across the gravel parking lot. Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:00:57 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_028093050.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_028093050.html For me, a Detroit child, the greatest of adventures were in the magnificent dime stores on Woodward Avenue. The most exciting of all pleasures were the live demonstrations of cookware, which comes to mind with the advent of TV infomercials and catalogs that hawk devices to make "onion flowers." Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:00:55 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_014094548.html http://www.record-eagle.com/sallyketchum/local_story_014094548.html With the exception of the Christmas tree, which stays up until Valentine's Day, the holidays are over. What is left, besides my son's green sweatshirt with a strange logo and a half-knit sock, is the memory of the holiday. As I write on a fogged-in day, these are the things I remember most: