Saturday, November 19, 2016 • Page 1B
‘Tis the season of giving to show thanks By Kim Hogstrom For The Leader
While it is a time of gratitude for many, not all are so fortunate. Members from the community have taken it upon themselves to organize a free fried turkey dinner for about 50 families in need on Thanksgiving day. Jennifer Figueroa, owner of Spaghetti Western Italian Café, teamed up with Manna Food Pantry, located in Oak Forest, and some big-hearted community members to serve hungry folks on Nov. 24, at T.C. Jester location. The popular restaurant will be closed to the public on Thanksgiving, but open to those Manna clients in need of a free meal, companionship or a place to share the holiday. “We will have two seatings and serve many holiday favorites,” Figueroa said. “The seatings are from noon to 2 p.m.; and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Manna Food Pantry is supplying much of the food and frying the turkeys, and we will cook the rest. This is our first year, but we feel that when we can give back to our community, we must.” Figueroa is donating everything necessary to the effort. She gives her crew Thanksgiving day off, so the people doing the cooking, serving and cleaning will be local volunteers. Harry Millirons played a starring role
Recipes with my Tia
Contributed photo Turkeys fresh from the frier from last year’s Thanksgiving-Manna event. This year’s event will be held at Spaghetti Western at 1951 W. T.C.Jester Blvd.
pulling the turkey fry at Spaghetti Western together. Millirons is fondly known as “Harry the Curb Painter” by many; he is the artist behind the personalized, painted curb addresses seen throughout the neighborhood. Weeks ago, Millirons started collecting donations from local businesses.
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“The business people in our area are wonderful,” Millirons said. “Shawn from Mytiburger, Billy from Hartman & Associates, Naro from Hartz Chicken, Jennifer from Spaghetti Western, they are all so generous. All I have to do is ask and they step up. They do it every year, they help those in our area who are less fortunate.” The Executive Director of Manna Food Pantry has her hands full with this holiday. Patricia Dornak understands how many hungry families there really are in the community; the non-profit agency is in its 28th year. Dornak decided Manna will fry 150 turkeys on Wednesday, before the holiday this year so qualified families can pick them up at the agency, and 30 more on Thanksgiving day for the dinner at Spaghetti Western. She estimates they will serve more than 1,000 people. “If members of the community would like to help, we still really need food,” Dornak said. “They can drop it off at our location at 2101 W 34th St. Or people can cook or volunteer time. Everyone is welcome. Anyone who is interested can email me at pdornak@gmail.com or call 713-504-5486. It’s a wonderful event.” Organizer Millirons agrees. “There is no better way to make it through the holidays, than helping make someone else happy. No better way,” he said.
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I stepped in the kitchen this week with my Tia Lupe and our recipe talk left me feeling thankful in more ways than one. If there is something that my family can agree upon, it’s Tia’s pie. And whatever the occasion – birthday, anniversary, good grades or Sunday morning breakfast – you can bet Tia has a fruit pie in the oven and there will be debates on who gets the last slice. This week, we made an old-fashioned cherry pie. A recipe just in time for Thanksgiving. The crust Ingredients 1 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ½ cup shortening 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water First, sift together your flour and salt. Next, to get the right texture, you’ll want to divide up the shortening measurement and not mix the shortening in all at once – thirds is ideal. Cut in your first bit of shortening and mix until the mixture looks like corn meal. Repeat until all shortening is added. My Tia Lupe notes that Crisco baking sticks - butter flavored - are ideal for shortening. Next, is our water. Again, we will want to avoid pouring the full measurement of water in all at once. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to your mixture at a time. My Tia Lupe notes that sometimes you might need more water than the recipe calls for. For our pie, we used more like eight tablespoons of water versus the five. Once your dough is nice and moist, form into a ball. Split your ball in two balls for your lower and upper crust. Lastly, on a lightly floured surface, roll one ball to roughly a ½ inch thick. Set the other ball aside for your top crust. Roll your crust out and place over your pie plate; adjust your crust to fit the plate. Cherry filling Ingredients 1 cup sugar ¼ cup all-purpose flour ½ cup juice from cherries 3 cups drained, canned, pitted, tart red cherries 1 tablespoon soft butter 4 drops almond extract Pastry for 9-inch lattice top pie Combine sugar, flour; stir in juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick; cook one minute longer. Add cherries, butter, extract, and 10 drops red food coloring. Let stand. This recipe can also add in ¼ teaspoon of salt to the filling, but we opt out of the salt because we don’t need the extra sodium, according to Tia Lupe. Out of all of Tia’s fruit pie recipes, this is the only pie she chooses to use canned fruit and the reasoning is simple – cherries are tedious to pit. So for this recipe, Lucky Leaf canned cherries work great. Add filling into your crusted pie dish See Pie P. 2B
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Photo by Betsy Denson Sylvia Lanz decorates a gingerbread house at the Kindli Haus, located at 4525 North Main.
Swiss gingerbread houses come alive in the Heights By Betsy Denson
betsy@theleadernews.com
Sylvia Lanz of Kindli Haus comes by her gingerbread house expertise honestly. From the 1960s to the 1990s her Swiss parents Roland and Lotti Lanz operated Roland’s Swiss Pastry on Del Monte Drive where they served up Black Forest cake, apple strudel, and gingerbread men, while Sylvia grew up and helped out. In 1992, the family sold Roland’s Swiss Pastry to Gerhard Schaefer and wife Elvira - the Schaefer’s retained the name - and until this year Roland, now in his 80s, was busy making gingerbread houses. Now, Roland’s Swiss Pastry is a wholesale bakery which supplies Sylvia with gingerbread houses and gingerbread men to use in her own business. Last year, she was stationed in a house on White Oak Avenue where she offered decorating classes and kits to go. This year, she’s at 4525 North Main St. in the same location as Mighty Sweet Mini Pies selling houses and premade decorating kits so you can do it yourself. Due to family illness, Lanz is not doing the classes on-site this year, but she will provide customers with the expertise and supplies to make a successful creation. “We’re here through Christmas,” said Sylvia. “This is turning into a seasonal thing for me.” What’s different about Sylvia’s Lebkuchen gingerbread houses is that they are 50 percent honey. The honey acts as a preservative so the decorated houses will keep
up to three months, although she recommends covering them at night to ward off bugs. The extralarge gingerbread men are a new addition to the line-up. Another advantage to the products in a box one might get in the grocery is that by the time you
A finished Kindli Haus gingerbread house.
get a Kindli Haus gingerbread house it is already assembled. “You can’t just put it together and start decorating,” Sylvia said. “The icing needs to sit for a day.” Another tip: placing your candy pretty soon after you squirt your icing as it does harden rather quickly. While Lanz does do decorated houses for banks and hospitals, she thinks that part of the fun is letting people do it themselves. That’s not to say she doesn’t have any ideas for you. Like pretzels make an excellent “bonfire” outside your house, and red hots are the perfect “flame”. Kindli is Swiss for Children and Sylvia says she loves to see what children come up with. She also loves reconnecting with former customers like the time a woman came into a class and was thrilled C
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to find out that Sylvia could hook her up with her beloved Black Forest cake. “I just love the community I’ve found through doing this,” Sylvia said. Swiss Specialty Saturdays are every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A Ginger house kit with candy and icing is $25. A house only is $20 or two for $30. On small business Saturday, houses will be on special for $15. For those who celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 6, where the patron saint of children and the cheerful giver of small gifts leaves small tokens such as candy and fruit, Kindli Haus has you covered. For more information find them on Facebook Free-Eggs_Coming_3-col_GTP.pdf or visit https://www. kindlihaus.com/.
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