Cooking at a higher level
What do you get when a couple of dozen of the best home cooks in the Mid-Ohio Valley (and beyond) bring their best dishes to one spot and present them for tasting and judging? A few very stuffed and somewhat immobile newsroom employees and helpers.
At this year’s News and Sentinel Cookbook Contest tasting party, judges were once again treated to the kind of food that makes you feel guilty for cracking open a can of soup or microwaving a frozen pizza later. We had appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and then (deep breath, run a lap around the building) breads, desserts and cookies.
I confess, I am suffering from one of those colds/sinus things that makes me sound a bit like Bea Arthur after a night at a metal concert, so one of my favorite dishes was one that everyone else thought was burn-your-mouth spicy. I loved it. I would have eaten the whole container if they had let me.
But I had enough sense of taste to realize the men and women who brought dishes to us Wednesday are in a league I probably will never reach. First timers had a little to learn about their presentation and/or figuring out how to keep their dishes warm (or cold) from drop-off time through tasting to judging time, but everyone brought food fit for royalty.
And, as our photographer put it, “I don’t care what it looks like. All that matters is how it tastes!” (That same photographer later had to admit that it might be necessary to check his blood sugar after the sampling he’d been doing.)
By the time judging had wrapped up, and we were ready to let participants pick up their dishes, the five of us (three newsroom employees and two family members who have always been generous with their time and a huge help on tasting party day) had to sit and drift in and out of disjointed conversation for about half an hour before we recovered ourselves enough to begin cleanup. It was a lot of very good — some of it very rich — food.
Thank you, to everyone who participated. Our cookbook will be published the Sunday before Thanksgiving, in time for the rest of you to try out and enjoy what we devoured this week. Believe me, it is worth the wait.
* * *
Readers will notice this weekend’s opinion pages are filled to the brim with political and election-related editorials, columns, guest op-eds and letters to the editor. In fact, they may spill into Monday’s edition. That is because I am cutting off such submissions until after the general election Nov. 8. I am doing my best to get everything in, but there were simply some that did not make it.
I want you to notice how much interest this election cycle has generated, and how much people care about the results of this year’s balloting. No matter which position you take, or which candidate you support, that kind of engagement in the political process should be encouraging. Now, let’s hope it translates to participation at the polling places.
Buckle up, everyone. Election Day is in sight.
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com