Historical November 1990 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
This year (my journalistic year starts in the fall) I’m leading off with a culinary tip every month.
This is being written within a week of the Edible Art Exhibit that the West End Arts Council sponsors every year. so this month’s tip stems from that affair. Those of you that were able to attend may have noticed one of the entrants that featured a giant pretzel in the shape of the Gateway Arch. That was my baby and here’s how to make your very own Giant Pretzel, the easy way. I bought some frozen bread dough at the grocery store.
After letting an exposed loaf stand at room temperature for an hour or so. I started rolling it while it was still semifrozen. That way, I figured it wouldn’t rise while I was working with it.
Once I had it rolled to about two-thirds of the diameter I wanted. I let it set and rise for an hour or so.
In the meantime, I heated the oven to 475 degrees and made up a mixture of one egg white and two tablespoons of water.
When the oven was ready, I coated the dough with the egg mixture and sprinkled the pretzel with rock salt (you’ll want to use kosher salt). Then I popped it in the oven for ten minutes or so and—voila!
A custom pretzel, suitable for the centerpiece at any special occasion. I hope Gus will forgive me for printing this.
I was fortunate enough to win a prize or two at the Edible Art Exhibit, one of which consisted of a gift certificate at Charlie Gitto’s downtown restaurant.
I have lived in St. Louis for nine years now: and this is the first Italian restaurant I could find that serves my favorite pasta. gnocchi.
I know that doesn’t look like a very appetizing word and the pronunciation is even less encouraging, but these miniature pasta dumplings are absolutely delicious and I hope you all have a chance to try them.
I was walking through the television department of a department store a couple of days ago. when I had a Cosmic Insight that I thought I’d like to share with you.
Some Expert on a TV program was declaiming on her particular area of expertise. I never did find out what the subject was, but that’s unimportant.
She maintained that “We evolved as a species of Hunter-Gatherers. Nature obviously never equipped us to sit in front of a computer console and do 20,000 keystrokes each day!’ I guess no one ever told this gal about evolution. Think about it; is it impossible to imagine that, over the course of ten thousand years or so, we could have evolved from a race of Hunter-Gatherers to a race of Hunter-Peckers? I took the kids down to Forest Park to feed the ducks about three weeks ago.
It was fun for about ten minutes, then we noticed that one of the ducks had his head stuck inside of a plastic six-pack retainer. Part of it was jammed inside his bill. Several of us tried to lure the bird into shore where we could help him, but he was too cagy for us and I daresay he’s dead by now.
The moral’s kinda obvious, isn’t it? Bill and Lisa Horner (of 6IXX Westminster) are in Belgium, visiting expatriate West Enders Tom and Ginny Klevom, who still own a house on 61XX Washington. They’ll be back by the time you read this and I hope that Lisa, my predecessor in this column. will have a story for us next issue.
While the Horners are in Europe, we have two charming guests from Hungary staying in our neighborhood for awhile. Both Lila Vekerdy and Elizabeth Vasbanyai are here from Budapest, attending the Foreign Language Institute. Lilla, who is staying on Waterman, is a university teacher and researcher. Elizabeth, who is on Pershing, is an English teacher.
This is a fascinating time to have visitors from Eastern Europe of course; I was shocked to learn that Hungarians were forced to study Russian for 12 years under the old regime.
One year was plenty for me. Kudos for the month go to Bob Mahon of 63XX Washington, who was just recognized by Farmers Insurance as the top homeowners’ insurance producer in Eastern Missouri. I talked to him after the recent Earthquake preparedness clinic.
Getting earthquake insurance is apparently becoming more difficult, as many companies are getting out of the business.
Most insurance companies will not take on new business for a period following a moderate shock, so be warned.
It also seems the deductible is increasing.
A couple of years ago. you could get an earthquake policy to cover 98% of your loss: today’s policies only cover 95%.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November 1990.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1990_11.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
