NEWS
By Julie Rothman | October 8, 2008
Ann Sillitto of Winchester, Va., was looking for a recipe for Molasses Fruit Bars with raisins. She says that they are a favorite of her 91-year-old mother and she wanted to make them as a treat for her. I found an easy recipe for the bars on a recipe-sharing Web site called Recipelink.com. It was adapted from the Brer Rabbit Book of Molasses, first printed in 1956. The recipe does not specify a pan size. I tested it using an 8-by-8 inch baking pan. It was ready in 25 minutes. Naturally, the cooking time will vary according to pan size.
NEWS
By DAN CONNOLLY | September 9, 2008
After Sunday, the Ravens had one more win in September than the Orioles. Call me an optimist, but I think the Orioles will eventually pass the Ravens for victories this month. Though I wouldn't bet the bar on it. We have a new drink at the bar this week: The Flat-footed Flacco. Whiskey, rum, Mountain Dew and a dab of molasses. It goes down slow, but effectively packs a punch. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/cornersportsbar)
NEWS
By ROB KASPER | March 19, 2008
One of the pleasures of writing about food and drink is the reaction it evokes. You take a stand in favor of molasses and readers respond, calling and sending e-mails. In some instances, they communicate using that almost extinct form of correspondence, a letter. I got one of those recently. Not only was it a personal letter, it was typed. The typewriter, I learned later, is an Underwood No. 3 and is 95 years old. The typist, M.V. Runkles III, is 69 years old and is still practicing the skills he picked up in a typing class in the mid-1950s at Mount Airy High School.
NEWS
By ROB KASPER | February 6, 2008
I have been hitting the bottle again - the molasses bottle. This time things got saucy. Readers might remember that, in keeping with my New Year's resolution to eat better cake, I grabbed the molasses a few weeks ago and made a terrific gingerbread cake. Only a few days ago my wife and I made that cake again, twice. She baked one version, I made the other. Her cake turned out a little better than mine, which sank in its middle. But neither of them overflowed our square cake pan, a problem some readers have reported experiencing.
NEWS
By ROB KASPER | January 9, 2008
Every January, I regularly confront a list of things I "should" be doing over the next 12 months. Among the suggested "shoulds" recently aimed in my direction have been exercising more, eating a better breakfast and rotating my tires. I am not opposed to any of these prescriptions, although there seem to be several schools of thought on which direction -- front to back or on the diagonal -- that the tires should move. In prior new years, I have started off walking the road to reform, only to wander in a more interesting direction by St. Patrick's Day. So I began 2008 by shooting for more hedonistic goals.
NEWS
By ROB KASPER | December 5, 2007
I am a fan of fruitcake. I used to make my own -- a process that required a lot of nuts, a lot of candied lemon peel, a sizable amount of molasses, and brandy. As a result, I have a healthy regard for real fruitcake, and virtually no tolerance for would-be comedians who think they are so clever when they recite the line about fruitcake making a good doorstop, or how there is really only one fruitcake that gets passed from home to home. Berger's Bakery Address --Lexington Market, 400 W. Lexington St. Phone --410-727-3685 Hours --6 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday Brightly wrapped in red and green ribbons, this long, blond loaf, $3.99, was chewy and mild.
NEWS
By Jill Wendholt Silva | November 21, 2007
It's raining 100-calorie snack packs. In 2004, Kraft launched the skinny-mini craze with teensy-tiny Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies. Since then nearly every snack company has downsized a line of goodies. Portion control is a good idea, but sometimes the final dimensions can seem rather absurd. For instance, last summer Pepperidge Farms shrunk its chocolate chunk cookies to the size of a nickel. The pouch contains 11 tiny morsels, which pieced together equal about one average-size cookie.
NEWS
By Erica Marcus | October 24, 2007
I just bought a cookbook that has various recipes calling for brown sugar. One recipe wants light brown, another, dark brown. Then, I also need white. I just can't see myself buying three types of sugar. You can make do with two: dark brown and white. Brown sugar is a funny product, and to appreciate the joke you need to know how sugar is made: After sugar cane is crushed, the impurities in the "juice" are filtered, boiled and skimmed off before the clear liquid is crystallized into white sugar.
NEWS
By McClatchy-Tribune | September 30, 2007
Ready to go organic? Now is the perfect time to take the plunge. Late September to early October is the time to fertilize for fall and winter. Most of us have more pressing concerns than which fertilizer or weed killer we strew across our lawns, right? It's worth putting in a few minutes of thought. If you've been thinking of going organic in the garden, fall is a great time to get started. Organic gardening is all about the soil. Think about it: You aren't really fertilizing the grass.
NEWS
By Rashod D. Ollison | July 21, 2005
IT'S LIKE his words are sticky with molasses . They come slow and unhurried. It's that slightly slurred Southern way of talking you hear down in Atlanta, the place where Bobby Valentino grew up. The epicenter of crunkness and So So Def-ness, the city is still his home. "It's real soulful here," says Valentino, who's calling from his beloved hometown. "What I learned from living here is just how to be very soulful." If you've paid any attention to urban radio lately, you've surely heard the urgent crooning of this short 23-year-old pretty boy. His charming hit, "Slow Down," topped the R&B charts last month and helped catapult his debut, Disturbing Tha Peace Presents: Bobby Valentino, to No. 3 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart.