The organizers of Stillwater Harvest Fest have found the perfect recipe for a successful fall festival: giant pumpkins, giant pumpkins and, yes, even more giant pumpkins.
“Giant pumpkins make people smile,” said Cassie McLemore, event coordinator. “They are a smashing good time. It’s all for fun, and fun for all.”
The 19th annual Stillwater Harvest Fest, this weekend in Lowell Park in downtown Stillwater, will feature a giant pumpkin weigh-off, a giant pumpkin regatta, where participants paddle hollowed-out gourds down the St. Croix River, and a giant pumpkin drop from a 100-foot crane.
This summer’s rainy weather and a couple of hailstorms mean the likelihood of a world record again being set at Stillwater Harvest Fest are slim, but there will still be several giant pumpkins weighing in at more than 2,000 pounds, said McLemore, who works for Summer Tuesday Inc., the organization that puts on Harvest Fest, Summer Tuesdays and Best Wings in the Valley.
Also on tap for Stillwater Harvest Fest: a child costume parade, a variety of local food vendors and performances from Joe Flip, Jacuzzi Puma, Jennifer Grimm & Free and Easy.
A free shuttle will be provided from Stillwater Middle School, Cub corporate headquarters and Pioneer Park.
The Stillwater Harvest Fest takes place 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, at Lowell Park in downtown Stillwater. Admission is free.
I adore beets of all kinds: the earthy sweet, the lurid magenta, the striped pink and the goldens. Sure, they’re not to everyone’s taste, but their strong character stands up to a range of intense flavors — vinegar, horseradish, mustard, piquant dairy sauces, vinaigrettes, smoked fish.
I like them best either steamed or roasted. Cooking mitigates the effects of geosmin, the natural earthy compound that beets contain that is associated with the vegetable’s smell of “fresh rain” and “forest soil.” Early in the season, beets are mild and sweet; as they mature, they become more assertive, more themselves.
Preserving your summer harvest: Keeping tomatoes, peaches, berries and more all year long
Beets are like sponges and absorb flavors quickly, especially if dressed while still warm and left to cool before so the flavors are fully absorbed and then re-dressed before serving to give them a boost. The same applies to other root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, rutabagas and turnips.
It’s hard to beat the beet-goat cheese salad combo, but there’s plenty more to love. Toss beets with your favorite lemon or lime vinaigrette, curried yogurt and horseradish sauce. Beets pair nicely with salty cured meats and smoked fish. Cooked beets will keep at least five days in the refrigerator in a covered container, ready for last minute side dishes, salads and grain bowls.
Red beets “bleed” and stain ferociously, so roast them wrapped in foil until just tender; cooking times will vary depending on the size and age of the beet. Leave the skins intact until the beet is cooked, then peel them in the skink (ditch the white shirt). Those pink and white striped Chioggia and golden beets hardly bleed at all, but a red-stained cutting board is the mark of a trusty home cook.
Roast Beet Salad With Horseradish-Yogurt Cream
Serves 4 to 6
Succulent chunks of roast beets are drizzled with a robust horseradish-spiked yogurt cream. You can prepare the beets and the dressing ahead and hold them in a covered container in the refrigerator for four days then assemble the salad right before serving. From Beth Dooley.
2 small bunches (about 2 lb.) beets, washed, leaves removed
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ c. plain whole milk Greek yogurt
2 tbsp. prepared horseradish sauce, or more to taste
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. minced parsley, plus more for garnish
3 scallions, trimmed and sliced into ⅛ in.-sized pieces
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle the beets with the oil, season with salt and pepper, and wrap in aluminum foil. Set on a baking sheet and roast until the beets are tender (a skewer should easily slide through), about 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the beets.
While the beets are roasting, whisk together the yogurt, horseradish, lemon juice and parsley. Set aside.
Remove beets from oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, peel the beets over the sink. Cut into ½-inch size chunks and arrange on a large serving plate or individual plates. Drizzle the dressing over, garnish with scallions and additional chopped parsley.
Beth Dooley is the author of “The Perennial Kitchen.” Find her atbethdooleyskitchen.com.
Pork is a versatile and nutritious alternative to chicken or beef, lending itself to everything from stir-fries and tacos to gyoza and barbecue sandwiches. Yet when it comes to one of its most recognizable and popular cuts, the humble pork chop, it can also be a bit frustrating.
Because it’s such a lean source of protein, with less marbling than a shoulder cut, pork chops cook pretty quickly. In fact, they’re ready so quickly that it’s super easy to overcook them, resulting in a dish that’s dry, tough and hopelessly chewy.
Preserving your summer harvest: Keeping tomatoes, peaches, berries and more all year long
This Vietnamese American dish from “Top Chef” alum Tu David Phu’s new cookbook, “The Memory of Home,” cracks the code. I’ll go as far to say they might be the easiest and tastiest pork chops I have ever made.
While the chops are pan-fried, they’re first marinated overnight or all day in a savory-sweet mix of fish and oyster sauces, honey, garlic, shallot, lemongrass and five-spice powder.
When the meat hits the hot pan, the marinade — bursting with umami — quickly caramelizes as it cooks, creating both a wonderful char on the chops and a sticky, garlicky sauce to spoon over it. It also helps keep the meat both tender and juicy.
Once the chops are removed, day-old rice is added to the hot pan of pork drippings. As it cooks, it absorbs all the flavor along with any bits of browned pork that stuck to the pan. Fabulous!
I served it, as suggested, sliced across the grain into chop stick-friendly pieces, with cherry tomatoes and thin slices of cucumber.
Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Fried Rice
Serves 4, PG tested
These caramelized, pan-fried pork chops are made in the same cast-iron pan as the fried rice. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)
For marinade
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon minced lemongrass
1/4 cup sliced green onions, white and green parts
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons orange marmalade or honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
For dish
4 bone-in pork shops, cut 1/2-inch thick
2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as vegetable
2 1/2 cups day-old rice
Sliced cucumber and whole cherry tomatoes, for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Combine fish sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, green onions, five-spice powder, sugar, marmalade or honey, and sesame oil in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
Add pork chops to the bowl with the marinade, then give them a 5-minute massage.
Place bowl in fridge and allow to marinate for at least 8 hours or overnight. (I let them rest while I was in the office.) Half an hour before you plan to start cooking, take the bowl out of the fridge and allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Get started cooking pork chops. Set a large, heavy frying pan over medium heat. Give the pan 3 minutes to heat through, then add in the neutral oil.
Once the oil starts to shimmer, tilt pan away from your body and gently lay in the pork chops. Place each chop in the frying pan starting with the part closest to you so that the pork doesn’t splash oil in your direction.
Fry for 5 minutes on each side, or until they register an internal temperature of 145 degrees on a probe thermometer.
Remove the pan from heat and transfer the chops to a cooling rack or cutting board. Rest them for a couple minutes.
Throw cooked rice into the pan with the drippings so it absorbs them as it cooks.
Keep cooking rice for 5 minutes, or until most of the moisture is absorbed. If it seems too dry, add a splash of water to the pan and let rice cook another minute or until absorbed.
Cut pork against the grain into pieces that you can pick up with chopsticks. Garnish with cucumber and tomato and serve immediately.
— “The Memory of Taste: Vietnamese American Recipes from Phu Quoc, Oakland and the Spaces Between” by Tu David Phu and Soleil Ho (Random House, $32.50)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Vigils, commemorations and acts of remembrance were planned across the world on Monday to mark one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel as world leaders called for an end to antisemitism and the release of Israeli hostages.
Last year’s surprise cross-border attack, which killed about 1,200 people, caught Israel unprepared on a major Jewish holiday, shattering Israelis’ sense of security and leaving many countries, already on edge over Russia’s war in Ukraine, facing the prospect of another major conflict in the Middle East.
The nations of Europe, home to many Jewish and Muslim communities, have sought to tamp down both antisemitic and anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent war against the combatants in Gaza, which has killed over 41,000 people and displaced around 1.9 million in the embattled coastal territory. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Candles and flowers are laid at the entrance of the synagogue to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Candles and flowers are laid at the entrance of the synagogue to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
People attend the reading the names of the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel during a commemoration to mark the first anniversary of the attack, at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
A Yellow Ribbon displayed as the facade of the German Chancellor to show solidarity with Israel marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People light candles at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People embrace after lightning candles at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Survivor Alon Gat, Rabi Yehuda Teichtal and Berlin mayor Kai Wegner, centre from left, hold a candle-lighting ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Hamas spearheaded attacks on Israel, at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Rabi Yehuda Teichtal speaks at the synagogue of the Chabad community in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Two women console each other after making a makeshift memorial as members of the Jewish community gather at a park to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
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Candles and flowers are laid at the entrance of the synagogue to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The Vatican marked the anniversary of the attacks by taking up a collection for the people of Gaza and publishing a letter from Pope Francis to Catholics in the region, expressing his solidarity.
Francis made no mention of Israel, Hamas or the hostages in the letter dated Oct. 7. He referred to the “fuse of hatred” being ignited one year ago and the spiral of violence that has ensued, insisting that what is needed is dialogue and peace.
“I am with you, the people of Gaza, long embattled and in dire straits. You are in my thoughts and prayers daily,” he wrote.
After some comments that upset Israel early on in the conflict, Francis has usually tried to strike an even tone. But he recently suggested Israel was using disproportionate and “immoral” force in Lebanon and Gaza.
He said he was particularly close to those who have been forced to flee their homes to find refuge from bombing, to the mothers weeping over their dead children and those “who are afraid to look up for fear of fire raining down from the skies.”
The German chancellery in Berlin was adorned with a yellow ribbon commemorating the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, around 100 of whom remain in captivity, with many of them feared dead.
The names of the people killed and kidnapped in the attack on Israel were read out in front of the Brandenburg Gate starting at 5:29 a.m. local time in Germany, when Hamas’ onslaught began a year ago.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said to Germany’s “dear friends in Israel” that “we feel with you … we stand beside you.”
But he also pointed to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and said “the daily experience of violence and hunger is not a basis on which good things can grow.”
Scholz said in an address to a conference in Hamburg that Germany is pressing for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages and “for a political process, even if it is further away than ever.” He said the aim must be a two-state solution that is only possible if a wider conflagration in the region is prevented, adding that Hezbollah and Iran must cease their attacks on Israel.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who has voiced strong support for Israel, commemorated the Oct. 7 anniversary by visiting the main synagogue in Rome and reaffirming Israel’s right to defend itself.
She denounced the “latent and rampant antisemitism” she said has arisen since the Hamas attack, citing in particular pro-Palestinian protests in Italy this past weekend, some of which turned violent.
While asserting Israel’s lights to live safely within its borders, Meloni insisted it respect international law and lamented the devastation unleashed by Israeli forces in Gaza. She said Palestinians in Gaza had been “victims twice over: first of Hamas’ cynicism, which uses them as human shields, and then of Israeli military operations.”
French President Emmanuel Macron took to social media Monday to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attacks. “The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity,” he said.
“We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts,” Macron wrote on the social media platform X. He was later expected to receive in Paris some of the family members of hostages held by Hamas.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attended a memorial service at the site of the Nova music festival, in Re’im, Israel, where hundreds were killed. Speaking to the families of victims, he expressed France’s support in the face of “the worst antisemitic massacre in our history since the Holocaust.”
“The joyful dawn of what should have been a day of celebration was suddenly torn apart by unspeakable horror,” he said.
In Poland’s capital, the Jewish community paid tribute to Alex Dancyg, a Polish-born Yad Vashem historian who was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz on Oct. 7 and killed by Hamas. He was remembered as a man who worked for reconciliation and understanding between Poles and Jews, and between Israelis and Palestinians.
In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended a vigil in Melbourne, where he walked with members of the Jewish community and lawmakers from across party lines. Thousands attended the vigil.
Earlier in the morning, Albanese said the day carried “terrible pain,” and that his government “unequivocally” condemned Hamas’ actions.
“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day, and as a nation we say never again,” he said. “We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred.”
In Sydney, opposition leader Peter Dutton — who has vehemently decried Australia’s acceptance of Palestinian refugees — arrived to cheers at a vigil also attended by thousands at which he reiterated his party’s support for Israel.
Dutton’s remarks to the crowd echoed those he made earlier Monday, in which he said the Oct. 7 attack “awoke and exposed an antisemitic rot afflicting Western democracies.”
“Israel has every right to defend its territory and its people from existential threats,” he said.
Hundreds of people gathered amid a heavy police presence Monday night at Sydney town hall for a vigil for Palestinian lives lost in the conflict. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters had rallied across Australia’s cities on Sunday.
In Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi, school children took part in a rally on Monday organized by the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League party to protest Israeli airstrikes in the Middle East and show solidarity with Palestinian people living in Gaza and Lebanon.
Japanese officials expressed condolences to the Israelis who lost family members in the Hamas attacks, renewing their condemnation of terrorism and demanding the immediate release of all hostages. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Japan is seriously concerned about the continuing critical humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and urged all parties including Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and work toward a cease-fire.
Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Diane Jeantet in Paris, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
