My first post at Just Baking

Stollen is a traditional German fruitcake made to celebrate the Christmas season. Although many recipes exist, the most famous is the Dresden Stollen ("Dresdner Weihnachtsstollen" in German). The city of Dresden is also where Stollen was first created in the 15th century and sold at the Striezelmarkt Christmas market. Originally called Striezel, the once folded over shape of the Stollen was meant to represent the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes. Later miners renamed it because they thought it looked like the opening to a mine or Stollen.

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Sources I used are available at Cookies and et cetera...

Happy Birthday Lorrie!

Happy birthday!

Other people born this day:
Kaley Cuoco - 1985 - John Ritter's TV daughter on sitcom "8 Simple Rules"

Elisha Cuthbert - 1982 - Played the daughter of agent Jack Bauer on TV's "24"

Clay Aiken - 1978 - "American Idol 2" finalist adored by eager Claymates

Ben Stiller - 1965 - "Meet the Parents" star, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara's son

Bo Jackson - 1962 - Athlete played two pro sports--football and baseball

Billy Idol - 1955 - British punk rocker hit #1 with "Mony Mony" (1987)

Shuggie Otis - 1953 - Blues guitarist son of "Hand Jive" singer Johnny Otis

Mandy Patinkin - 1952 - Actor on stage ("Evita") and screen ("Chicago Hope")

David Mamet - 1947 - Playwright/director of "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

Abbie Hoffman - 1936 - Chicago Seven radical upset 1968 Democrat convention

G. Gordon Liddy - 1930 - Watergate conspirator became a radio talk show gadfly

Dick Clark - 1929 - Host of "American Bandstand" and New Year's Eve shows

Robert Guillaume - 1927 - Emmy-winning actor on "Benson" and "Sports Night"

Richard Crenna - 1926 - Popular actor from "Our Miss Brooks" to "The Real McCoys"

Shirley Chisholm - 1924 - First black U.S. congresswoman ran for president, 1972

Efrem Zimbalist Jr - 1923 - Best known as Inspector Lewis Erskine on TV's "The F.B.I."

Gordon Parks - 1912 - African-American photographer directed "Shaft" (1971)

Winston Churchill - 1874 - British prime minister inspired courage in World War II

Mark Twain - 1835 - American icon wrote "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn"

Jonathan Swift - 1667 - Irish author of satirical adventure "Gulliver's Travels"

How I spent my Thanksgiving vacation by Paul

I was fortunate enough this year to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Florida. I flew down on Tuesday and Tori and I had dinner at Raglan Road™ Irish Pub and then hung out at Jellyrolls. Wednesday we made Thanksgiving dinner for the family and celebrated my dad's 60th birthday. Thursday we spent the day at Epcot in Walt Disney World. All in all, a lot of fun.

This was my second time at Epcot. This time I did go on Spaceship Earth. It definitely had some 'Small World' qualities about it. My favorite was the World Showcase, specifically Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

More pictures of my trip are available here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This picture was taken in 2002 by Del Merritt while on a golf trip. We were playing Peninsula State Park Golf Course when this picture was taken.

My first post at Sugar Savvy

My first post is up over at Sugar Savvy.




Peppermint Bark

I don't think this officially makes me a writer...

I enjoy doing my blog Cookies, Et Cetera. Coming up with ideas for posts and then actually making them is a lot of fun. They say that when you do something you love it shows. I don't know who 'they' are but the sentiment is correct. Somebody did notice. The good people over at the Well Fed Network noticed and offered me a chance to be a contributor on two of their sites: Just Baking and Sugar Savvy. The Well Fed Network is a collection of fifteen food and wine orientated sites dedicated to bringing you high quality articles and ideas you can use.

I will let the sites describe themselves:
Just Baking - Fresh from the oven, we’ll be talking about cookies, cakes and breads, and we won’t stop there.
Sugar Savvy - Fabulous content on chocolate, the latest candy bars, gum flavors and much more in the world of sweets.

So come on by, check them out. I should have my first posts up in a short while. I've added links to those sites Links section on the right side of your screen (umm, Del, your other right. There you go.)

New post at Cookies, Et Cetera about our Halloween project

Lots and lots of cupcakes. Lots.

Cookies, Et Cetera

I have another blog. This one is called Cookies, Et Cetera and is about all the treats and sweets Lorrie and I make. Check it out!


The image here is from the cookies we made at Easter.

Richardson Corn Maze

This past Saturday Lorrie and I went out and solved the Chicago Baseball Maze at Richardson Corn Maze. They stay open until 2AM on weekends when there is a full moon. We found all 24 checkpoints in the maze. In my opinion the "Ivy" maze was the hardest because everything was curved and it had shorter walls so it was tougher to translate between the map and what you actually saw. In fact we did get "lost" in that maze. Point 21 is just below the "S" in Cubs. We found that no problem. The next point we wanted to find was point 22, which was just below the "C" in Cubs. After going a little bit to where I thought (I was reading the map through this part of the maze) point 22 was, we did find a point. It was point 23 which was in the lower left hand corner of the map, just left of the baseball player's foot. Whoops!

Facts about the Chicago Baseball Maze from their website:

• The Chicago Baseball Maze has 4 separate mazes covering 28.5 acres.
• The “Ivy” Maze is 2.1 miles of trail – 6 checkpoints, 30 – 40 minutes to solve.
• The “Glove” maze is 0.8 miles of trail – 4 checkpoints, 15 – 20 min. to solve.
• The “Cubs” maze is 3.8 miles of trail – 7 checkpoints, 45 – 60 min. to solve.
• The “Sox” maze is 4.0 miles of trail – 7 checkpoints, 60 – 90 min. to solve.
• Within the mazes are 24 checkpoints (a wooden post along the trail) with a different shaped hole-punch at each station. Guests keep track of their progress through the maze by punching the numbered holes along the bottom of the map, which you receive with admission. Solving the maze becomes a game by seeing how many checkpoints you can find. If you find any 20 checkpoints, take the map to the information center for a priceless, full color, suitable-for-framing Certificate of Completion.

All in all it was a lot of fun. A little chilly that night but they sell hot chocolate and hot cider and provide a number of campfires so you do get a chance to warm up. It did have that spooky children of the corn vibe being out in a cornfield hearing people yelling and only seeing dried corn stalks and darkness.

Bavarian Inn

The Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, MI is a restaurant, a hotel, and a number of shops all centered on German culture. We went here for lunch while Lorrie and I were in Michigan over the Labor Day holiday. The dining room we were in was decorated with scenes from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, including Schneewittchen and Aschenputtel. The food here was very good too, we enjoyed it very much. I had a sausage combination plate that had weisswurst, knockwurst, and bratwurst, all of which are made in-house or locally. This meal also included a big side of sauerkraut and Kartoffelkäseknödel (potato cheese puffs). Lorrie had the Wunderbar Pretzel Sandwich, a Bavarian smoked ham sandwich with Colby cheese on a pretzel bun and her mother Diane had the Chicken Salad Mini Puffs. The appetizer was a delicious cheese and artichoke dip served with toasted homemade pretzel bites. Frankenmuth stollen (candied fruit and nut bread) and weissbrot (white bread) with peach preserves were also provided.

After the meal we went through the shops which are your typical tourist town souvenir shops, with a slight leaning towards the German culture.

Outside is a 50-foot high Glockenspiel, complete with a 35-bell carillon. The Glockenspiel's revolving figures act out the classic story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin several times a day.

All in all it was great place to visit and someplace I'd definitely go back to.

Labor Day Weekend 2006

For the Labor Day holiday weekend, Lorrie and I went to Sandusky, MI to visit her parents and enjoy their homestead without snow on the ground. Sandusky is in the thumb of Michigan so it was quite a drive. It didn't help that both I-94 and I-69 were under construction. Activities included bonfires and riding the ATV, as well as sightseeing. On Monday Lorrie, her mother Diane, and I took a trip to Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, as well as doing some shopping in town and eating lunch at the Bavarian Inn. We definitely had a good time, it was hard to come back for work.

Interesting things from our trip to the Stevens Point - Plover area

While up in the area for my cousin's wedding, Lorrie and I were able to do a number of other things. We actually drove up on Friday so we wouldn't be rushed and it was just easier to have a room there on the morning of the wedding.

Alright, things of note:

1. I have traveled many of the roads in the state of Wisconsin but this is the first time I have taken I-39 up through the center of the state.
2. We did see the Good and Evil Watertowers, though we didn't stop.
3. Sunday morning we had breakfast at the IHOP. (Note: It's really not that interesting, I just thought it was funny they had a picture of it on the Plover website. It's at the bottom of this page.)
4. I-39 is the Veterans Memorial Highway and in Plover there is the Korean War Veterans Memorial at Lake Pacawa. We stopped there on Sunday before leaving.
5. If you are staying overnight in the Stevens Point area, I recommend Rudy's Red Eye Grill. It is attached to the Holiday Inn though it's more like a large convention center complex.
6. Stevens Point is home to Sentryworld, the famed golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. This course is a must play course and is always ranked highly by golf magazines and websites. The signature hole is the 16th, a par 3 where 60,000 flowers act as a water hazard.
7. Stevens Point is home to the oddly enough named University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. U.S.News and World Report ranked UWSP seventh in the top public universities in the Midwest in its 2007 rankings.
8. Stevens Point also has a rich history of supernatural occurrences.

Justin and Lisa's Wedding

This past weekend Lorrie and I had the pleasure of being at my cousin Justin's wedding (that's him and his new wife Lisa in the picture). We enjoyed ourselves and are very glad we went. Most of the England family was there, including my Uncle Sidney and Aunt Julie, which is unusual nowadays. The wedding took place at Peace Lutheran Church in Amherst, WI on Saturday. The reception followed at the Elizabeth Inn in Plover. I have posted pictures on my Flickr account.

Congratulations Justin and Lisa!