4 Sep 2024

Four easy dinners for a new school year

by | posted in: Adventure | 0

No one likes to say goodbye to summer, but there’s no denying a new school year can be pretty exciting.

After chilling by the pool, sleeping in late and traveling with family on vacation, it’s fun for kids to be back with their friends. And what parent or caregiver doesn’t like the predictability of returning to weekday routines?

That said, getting back to a dependable daily schedule can take some time for mom or dad, who often are rushing home from work to prepare dinner, help with homework or get kids to and from practices.

One easy out is takeout. Nobody is going to judge you for grabbing a supermarket rotisserie chicken or bag of drive-thru burgers and fries. All five of my kids ate Sir Pizza — every single Friday — from kindergarten through high school, and it’s a must-have dish whenever they’re in town for a visit.

Yet, a homemade dinner is almost always cheaper than feeding the family with fast food — even with today’s high grocery prices. And it’s often just as quick, if not faster.

Plus, it just makes your house smell great. And if you get the kids to pitch in, kudos to you for helping them learn important life skills and encouraging family bonding.

The four simple, economical recipes that follow take 30 minutes or less to prepare. That leaves you free to finish up the week with Pizza Night on Friday.

Easy Sweet and Sour Pork

Canned pineapple, soy sauce, and a drizzle of honey create a lip-smacking sweet-and-sour sauce in this simple pork dish. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Who doesn’t like a tasty stir-fry? This one hangs its hat on boneless pork tenderloin, a tender cut that is easy to find in any grocery store. If you’re feeling adventurous and it’s on sale, substitute fresh chopped pineapple for canned. Serve over white or brown rice or noodles.

INGREDIENTS

2 cloves garlic, halved

1 1/2 -inch piece root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons tomato puree

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

15-ounce can pineapple chunks in juice, drained, juice reserved

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 red onion, chopped

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound 2 ounces) thinly sliced

2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, deseeded and chopped

DIRECTIONS

Make sauce: Put the garlic and ginger in a mini chopper or blender with the tomato puree, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey and pineapple chunks with their juice, and blend until smooth.

Put sesame oil in a saute pan over high heat and stir-fry the onion until tender, about 2 minutes.

Add pork slices and peppers. Reduce heat to medium. Stir-fry for 10 minutes.

Add sauce from the mini chopper or blender to pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with noodles, rice or side dish of your choice.

Serves 4.

— “Easy Meals Every Day: Healthy Dinners for the Whole Family” by Pip Payne (Hamlyn, $26.99)

Cheeseburger Quesadillas

Tuck ground beef and cheese into a flour tortilla for an easy cheeseburger quesadilla. Pickles and secret sauce optional. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

Quesadillas can be customized to any taste or flavor combination. Here, the hand-held comfort food is made with all your favorite cheeseburger fixings folded inside a flour tortilla — ground beef, cheddar, onion and dill pickles. They’re served with a mayonnaise-based “special sauce.”

INGREDIENTS

For the special sauce:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons minced dill pickles

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

1 tablespoon minced white onion or shallot

2 teaspoons white vinegar

For burger:

1 pound ground beef (80/20 blend)

8 8-inch flour tortillas

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 small white onion, chopped

Dill pickle chips and/or pickled jalapeño peppers

Shredded lettuce, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Prepare sauce: In small bowl, stir together mayonnaise, ketchup, minced pickles, mustard, onion, vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Cook beef until browned and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes, in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain well.

Wipe out skillet with a paper towel, then lightly coat with nonstick spray. Bring pan back to medium heat. Working with one tortilla at a time, add to skillet.

Fill 1 tortilla with 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1/4 of the cooked beef, chopped onion, dill pickle slices and pickled jalapeño, if using.

Top with a second tortilla and cook until cheese is melted and tortilla is golden brown on one side, about 2 minutes.

Using a spatula, flip quesadilla and continue cooking on other side until all the cheese is melted and the second side is golden brown.

Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Repeat with remaining tortillas, cheddar, beef, onions and pickles. Cut each quesadilla into four pieces and stack on each of the four plates.

Garnish with shredded lettuce, and serve with special sauce for dipping.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Honey Lemon Chicken

This one-pan honey-lemon chicken can be served over rice or your favorite pasta. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

This fresh and zesty chicken saute takes less than 20 minutes to prepare. It can be served with pasta, rice or any other favorite grain. For added heat, add a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce or a dash or Sriracha.

2 large chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup chicken stock

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons honey

1 lemon, sliced into half moons

1 tablespoon chopped parsley, for garnish

Cooked rice, spaghetti or orzo, for serving

DIRECTIONS

Place chicken fillets on a plate or a metal tray. Mix together flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Coat both sides of the chicken with the flour mixture.

Heat oil and butter in a large frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat until butter melts.

Add chicken to the pan and cook for 7-8 minutes, turning once, until both sides are golden brown.

Add garlic, stir for 30 seconds (don’t let it burn), then add the chicken stock, lemon juice, honey and lemon slices.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce is slightly reduced. (Simmer for a few minutes longer if you want it thicker.)

Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with rice or pasta.

— “Quick & Easy: Delicious 30-Minute Dinners” by Nicky Corbishley (Kyle Books, $26.99)

Skillet Eggplant Parmesan

This vegetarian dish is so good and so easy! Made in a skillet instead of a casserole dish using canned tomatoes and sandwich bread, it’s both quick and economical.

Look for eggplants that are lightly firm and have shiny skin; they won’t continue ripening after they’ve been picked.

INGREDIENTS

For sauce:

2 14.5-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained, with juice reserved

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

For eggplant:

6 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, torn into quarters

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided

3 large eggs

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 globe eggplants (about 12 ounces each), sliced into 1/4 -inch-thick rounds

1 cup vegetable oil

8 ounces shredded mozzarella

1/3 chopped fresh basil, optional

INGREDIENTS

Make sauce: Process tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and salt together in food processor until pureed, about 15 seconds.

Transfer mixture to liquid measuring cup and add reserved tomato juice as needed until sauce measures 2 cups.

Prepare eggplant: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

Pulse bread in food processor to fine, even crumbs, about 15 pulses. Transfer crumbs to pie plate and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Beat eggs in a shallow bowl or plate.

Combine flour and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper in large zipper-lock bag.

Place eggplant slices in bag of flour, shake bag to coat, then remove eggplant from bag and shake off excess flour. Using tongs, coat floured eggplant with egg mixture, allowing excess to drip off.

Coat all sides of eggplant with bread crumbs, using your fingers to help them adhere. Lay breaded eggplant slices on wire rack set over rimmed baking sheet.

Heat half of the oil in 12-inch, oven-safe, nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering.

Add half of breaded eggplant slices and cook until well browned on both sides, about 4 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking.

Transfer eggplant to wire rack and repeat with remaining breaded eggplant, adding oil as needed. (You might not need the entire 1/2 cup oil.)

Pour off oil left in skillet and wipe out skillet with paper towels. Spread 1 cup of tomato sauce over bottom of skillet and layer eggplant slices evenly, overlapping them slightly.

Dollop remaining 1 cup sauce on top of eggplant and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and mozzarella.

Transfer skillet to oven and bake until bubbling and cheese is browned, 13-15 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with basil, if using, and serve.

Serves 4.

— adapted from “The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook” (America’s Test Kitchen, $34.99)

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4 Sep 2024

Starter David Festa continues to progress, but Twins fall to Rays

by | posted in: News | 0

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Twins’ chances to get where they want to go rest largely on a rotation now filled with three rookies.

So if there’s something positive to take from Tuesday night’s 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, it’s the fact that rookie David Festa has started looking every bit the top pitching prospect that the Twins thought he would be.

Festa went five innings on Tuesday, struck out seven and gave up just two earned runs. Since returning to the big leagues in early July, he now has a 3.13 earned run average and has struck out 50 in 37 1/3 innings.

The two runs he gave up both came in the fourth inning, the first scoring on a slicing hit towards Austin Martin in left field that he seemed to get a late jump on. The second run scored a couple batters later when a ball deflected by first baseman Carlos Santana wound up in the outfield.

On some nights, that kind of performance might have been enough.

Not on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Festa had limited run support as the Twins’ offense mustered just four hits through the first eight innings off starter Jeffrey Springs and reliever Drew Rasmussen. They finished with six hits total.

Two were from Santana, who hit his 19th home run of the season in the second inning and led off the ninth with a single.

That single was the Twins’ first hit since the fifth inning and began a ninth-inning rally that saw them put two runners on base with no outs. But they were unable to advance either runner with Brooks Lee and Willi Castro striking out and Christian Vázquez grounding out to end the game.

Austin Martin #82 of the Minnesota Twins can’t make the catch on a ball hit by Jonathan Aranda (not pictured) of the Tampa Bay Rays in the fourth inning at Tropicana Field on Sept. 03, 2024 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
Tampa Bay Rays’ Christopher Morel dives back safely to first base ahead of the tag by Minnesota Twins’ Carlos Santana (30) on a pickoff attempt during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher David Festa delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

4 Sep 2024

Charges: Extremely intoxicated motorist crashed into St. Louis Park restaurant patio, killing 2 and injuring 9

by | posted in: Society | 0

A motorist who authorities say had a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit was charged Tuesday in the fatal crash that killed two people and injured nine others on the outdoor patio of a popular St. Louis Park restaurant over the Labor Day weekend.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that Steven Frane Bailey, 56, of St. Louis Park, was charged with two counts of criminal vehicle homicide for intoxication and negligence and nine counts of criminal vehicle injury. The nine counts will have varying levels of severity, depending on the injuries of each victim, she said at a Minneapolis news conference. In addition, authorities are asking any other victims to come forward.

Surveillance footage captured a man driving a gray BMW sport utility vehicle into the patio of the Park Tavern, 3401 Louisiana Ave. S. The footage shows the man initially entering the restaurant parking lot shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday and attempting to park. He is shown driving past an open parking spot and hitting a parked car when he tried to back into that spot, the criminal complaint said. He then pulled out and accelerated toward the patio, barreling through a metal fence onto the crowded patio. His SUV, which was going an estimated 30 to 45 mph, was stopped by several landscaping boulders.

The two fatally injured victims were a Park Tavern server and a patron. The customer was a staff member at nearby Methodist Hospital, who was gathered on the patio with colleagues after work.

Children were also on the patio at the time of the crash, Moriarty said, noting that some children had left the patio just before the SUV plowed through the fence. Partly because of that, Moriarty said, she has told the court she will possibly seek a greater sentence if Bailey is convicted.

When police arrived, Bailey was still in his SUV. As officers approached him they allegedly heard him on the phone saying, “I hit the gas instead of the brake and went right through a thing” and “I’m probably going to jail.”

According to the criminal complaint, Bailey “appeared calm but was slow to respond to officers’ directions … (his) speech was slurred, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. As he exited the vehicle, (Bailey) was unsteady on his feet and fell to his knees.”

In addition, he made several “spontaneous” statements such as saying when he was told they were going to perform a field sobriety test he said, “You don’t need to do fields. I know what I did.”

A preliminary breath test showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.325, more than four times the 0.08 legal standard in Minnesota.

When he was booked into Hennepin County jail and told he was being held on criminal vehicular homicide charges, Bailey allegedly said, “You got to be kidding me” and “My life’s pretty much (expletive) now, isn’t it?”

Moriarty asked any other victims to come forward, saying the charges against Bailey will be amended if they discover that more people were injured.

Bailey is being held on $1 million bail. His first court appearance is set for at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Sunday’s tragedy was made even worse, Moriarty said, because it could have been prevented. She noted that there are always numerous options to choose instead of driving intoxicated.

“This did not have to happen,” she said.

Suspect’s DWI record

Minnesota court records show that Bailey has previous drunken driving convictions: a fourth-degree misdemeanor DWI in Waseca County in 2014 and a third-degree gross misdemeanor DWI in Hennepin County in 2015.

Commenting on Bailey’s prior DWI convictions, Moriarty said that for most people, getting just one drunken driving conviction is all they ever get because it’s a wakeup call and they don’t do it again.

The victims

Several GoFundMe accounts have been created to support the victims and their families.

A server at Park Tavern, Kristina Folkerts, was killed, along with patron Gabe Harvey, who was at the restaurant celebrating a Methodist Hospital colleague’s last nursing shift. That nurse is now hospitalized with serious injuries.

Folkerts, 30, had a longtime connection to Park Tavern, the restaurant said. Before Folkerts’ mother died, she was also a server at Park Tavern. She died when Folkerts was 14, and restaurant employees came to the teenager’s aid and would occasionally baby-sit her.

Park Tavern established her GoFundMe page and wrote that “Kristina was a loving mother of 3 young girls and friend to many in the community. We are at a deep loss and thank you for your support during this challenging time.”

Methodist Hospital colleagues also established GoFundMe pages for their injured colleagues and Harvey, 30, who is survived by his partner. The colleagues wrote that Harvey worked as a health unit coordinator at the hospital while attending nursing school.

“There was not a soul that Gabe met that he didn’t leave an impression on. He always had a smile and a kind word for everyone,” they wrote on his GoFundMe page.

Laura Knutsen was celebrating her last shift as a nurse in the Methodist ICU, her colleagues wrote on her GoFundMe page. On Tuesday, she was going to begin training at St. Mary’s University to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist. She was said to have suffered extensive fractures and numerous traumatic injuries and has a long recovery ahead.

A GoFundMe page for nurse Tegan D’Albani said she was celebrating with Knutsen, her best friend. Tegan also suffered extensive fractures and numerous traumatic injuries.

Nurse Theo Larson suffered “multiple skull fractures, facial fractures, and orbital fractures,” according to his GoFundMe page.

The other six victims, including one other Methodist Hospital nurse, suffered lesser injuries, including bruises and abrasions, authorities said.

Park Tavern and Methodist have supported each other for years. The restaurant sent meals to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic as medical workers were overwhelmed. And those same workers would frequent the restaurant after shifts.

The St. Louis Park Police Department is asking anyone who was injured or witnessed the crash or has video or photographic evidence of it to contact them at 952-924-2165.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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3 Sep 2024

Harris to propose tenfold startup tax incentive increase she says will spur small business creation

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris plans to propose on Wednesday a tenfold increase in federal tax incentives for small business startup expenses, from $5,000 to $50,000, hoping to help spur a record 25 million new small business applications over her four-year term should she win the presidency in November.

She’s set to unveil the plan during a campaign stop in the Portsmouth area of New Hampshire — marking a rare deviation from the Midwestern and Sunbelt battlegrounds the Democrat has focused on in her race against former Republican President Donald Trump.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a policy plan that hadn’t been released publicly, said Tuesday the change would cover the $40,000 it costs on average to start a business. The proposal would let new businesses wait to claim that deduction until they first turn a profit, to better maximize its impact lowering their taxes.

Such changes would likely require congressional approval. But a series of tax cuts approved during the Trump administration are set to expire at the end of next year, setting up a scenario where lawmakers may be ready to consider new tax policies. The proposal can help Harris show her support for entrepreneurs even as she’s called for higher corporate tax rates.

Since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris in July, the vice president has focused on campaigning in the “ blue wall ” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that have been the centerpiece of Democratic campaigns that have won the White House in recent decades.

She’s also frequently visited Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, all of which Biden narrowly won in 2020, and North Carolina, which last voted Democratic in a presidential race in 2008 but which she’s still hoping to flip from Trump. Biden won New Hampshire by 7 percentage points in 2020, though Trump came far closer to winning it against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“The cost of living in New Hampshire is through the roof, their energy bills are some of highest in the country, and their housing market is the most unaffordable in history,” Trump posted last week on his social media platform.

Harris’ team says securing 25 million new business applications in four years if she wins the White House would exceed the roughly 19 million such applications filed since Biden took office. And those were millions more than the previous four years under Trump. The vice president’s goal would be a record for new small business applications — but records only go back about 20 years.

Applications to start a business don’t always translate to small businesses actually being formed. Still, Harris’ plan could keep new small businesses that do come to fruition from otherwise incurring more debt which, at a time of high interest rates, might help them better succeed.

In the weeks since Harris took over the top of the Democratic ticket, she has offered relatively few major policy proposals — attempting to strike a political balance between injecting new energy into the race and continuing to support many of the Biden administration proposals she helped champion as vice president.

Harris’ small business plan follows her announcing last month proposed steps to fight inflation by working to lower grocery prices, and to use tax cuts and other incentives to encourage homeownership. The vice president has also proposed ending federal taxes on tips to service industry workers, an idea Trump proposed first.

The plan she’s introducing Wednesday further calls for developing a standard deduction for small businesses meant to save their owners time when doing their taxes, and making it easier to get occupational licenses — letting people work across state lines and businesses expand into new states. Harris also wants to offer federal incentives so state and local government will ease their regulations.

In an effort to spur business investment outside urban and suburban hubs, Harris is pledging to launch a small business expansion fund to enable community banks and federal entities to cover interest costs while small businesses are expanding or otherwise creating jobs. Her team says those efforts will focus especially on areas that traditionally receive less investment.