Lincoln graduate's culinary creation wins first place at state expo.

 

To say Miranda Peyketewa is a busy college student would be an understatement. The 27-year-old alumnus of Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids holds three jobs while seeking two associate degrees and two certificates in culinary arts at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton. And she's hungry for more.


Peyketewa, who grew up in a family of five brothers and seven sisters, recently was rewarded for her hard work, taking first place honors in the cold plate competition during the Wisconsin Restaurant Association Expo in Milwaukee. Entries in the category actually start out as hot dishes but are then covered with an aspic, or gelatin, and served cold. Peyketewa's award-winning dish had multiple layers.


"The requirements were to use ground veal and beef tri-tip, so I pan-smoked the beef, coated it with a spicy chocolate rub, and then used the ground veal for a chocolate cabernet (wine) sauce with it," Peyketewa said.
Peyketewa, who graduated from Lincoln in 2002, got the idea to use chocolate in a savory dish while attending a Red Cross fundraising event in Menasha a few years ago. "There they made prime rib and put chocolate in a (spice) rub," Peyketewa said. "I thought it was really good because it was surprising; chocolate has so many complicated flavors, but I would've never thought to do that before I came here. "Peyketewa, who enrolled at Fox Valley Tech in 2008 and plans to graduate in December, also helps serve or prepare food at the campus cafeteria, at a nearby Olive Garden and through an internship at Bella Vita, an Italian restaurant in Appleton.


The award-winning chef first made her mark in baking, said her twin sister, Sabrina. "She always did a lot of baked goods, like cookies and cakes," Sabrina said. "People would pay her to bake for their potlucks, and we really liked her coffee triple chocolate cookies." Peyketewa loves to cook, but her long-term culinary future could be on the management side of the industry because she has carpal tunnel syndrome, which can cause numbing or weakness of muscles, in both wrists.

Review | Celtic Woman: Singers deliver emotional renditions.

Celtic Woman, a group that features three female singers and a female fiddler, dazzled an all-ages crowd in the first of its two concerts yesterday in the Ohio Theatre.

People who knew the group from its public-television specials, its CDs that top the world-music chart or its DVDs gave Celtic Woman several standing ovations and didn’t mind shelling out $20 for concert programs. Photography was strictly prohibited in the Ohio, but one parent had the right idea by snapping a photo of her daughter beside the logo on one of the group’s trucks parked on State Street next to the Statehouse.

The group’s 21/2-hour (including intermission) “Songs from the Heart” show stressed emotional renditions of pretty songs in Irish and English. Even when the words weren’t understood, the tunes were either lively ( Mo Ghile Mear, Nil Sen La, Non Ce Piu) or, in the case of Dulaman, came with an amusing anecdote: New member Lisa Lambe said the title is Irish for seaweed, and the folk tune is her favorite love song about seaweed.

Lambe acted out the song as she sang it, trying to decide which of the two male bodhran players she really loved. She had just as much fun deciding between a rich man and a poor man in the ensemble piece At the Ceili.

The other singers were also strong. Chloe Agnew had a soulful voice that made Galway Bay and When You Believe shine, and sometimes she seemed as if she might spontaneously start dancing and disrupt the concert’s careful choreography. Lisa Kelly had a pretty voice and gave fine readings of Fields of Gold and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Fiddler Mairead Nesbitt pranced about the stage like an impish pixie as she sawed away, smiling and waving her bow in the air to get people to clap along on tunes such as Granuaile’s Dance.
The quartet changed costumes a few times and spent a lot of time going up and down a couple of steps of the drapery-laden stage. A six-member choir that also changed costumes and frequently entered the stage holding lighted candles filled out the vocals.

Above the singers were the two drummers, who had a variety of types of percussion, and to their left was musical director/keyboardist/mastermind David Downes. On the right were three male musicians (playing guitars, bass and Uilleann pipes).

That piper, Tony Martin, switched to bagpipes and joined another bagpiper, Anthony Byrne, as the women sang Amazing Grace with such beauty that it brought some to tears.
There were several other high points when the harmony of the women’s voices sparkled: Orinoco Flow; Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears; My Heart was Home Again; Goodnight My Angel; You Raise Me Up and, of course, Danny Boy.

In a fine sendoff, the kilt-wearing Byrne serenaded the crowd with his bagpipe as they exited.

Seaweed cultivation to take off soon in Orissa.

Seaweed cultivation in the state is set to be taken up for the first time in coastal villages of Ganjam.

This is being done under the 'Green Micro Finance Project', implemented jointly by National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard) and Orissa Rural ORRA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which was launched recently at Langaleswar under Khallikote block in Ganjam district, for taking up seaweed cultivation, particularly the red algae, on commercial basis. 

"As the red algae is in much demand in agar-agar, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries in the country, we hope that the lower income groups (LIG) of the coastal villages, particularly the fishermen in the coastal villages, will get an opportunity to earn additional income,” said Smita Sucharita Nayak, executive director of ORRA.

The demand for seaweeds is increasing worldwide as its extracts are widely used in tooth-paste, ice-cream, textile printing, teeth filling, cosmetics, tissue culture, plywood, packaging and several other industries. Besides, bio-fuels are manufactured from sea weeds.

“Despite low investment, seaweed cultivation is very profitable. It also helps to combat global warming,” said Nayak.“We would start cultivation of seaweed on commercial basis by involving around 150 womenfolk of 16 SHGs in three villages. The harvest will be made after 45 days of the cultivation. We would also explore the possibilities of taking up this operation at Bhitarakania in Kendrapara district,” she added.
ORRA has entered into an agreement with the MS Swaminathan Foundation to buy all the dry red algae harvested by the womenfolk in the area.“It will provide an alternative livelihood for the fishermen families when the fish landing at the Chilika is dwindling,” said MLA (Khallikote) PC Sethi.

He launched the project in the presence of several other dignitaries including the Chief General Manager of Nabard, CR Patnaik and the State Information Commission, Jagadananda.

The cultivation of red algae was started on a pilot basis about two years back as a part of the research project of Berhampur University on 'Development and Demonstration of Appropriate Strategies for Marine Algae Cultivation and Processing for Livelihood Generation in Coastal Areas of Orissa'. Sailabala Padhy, former professor of Botany, Berhampur University, was the principal investigator of the project.

cousin the chef brought some unusual chocolates.

My cousin the chef brought some unusual chocolates home from Korea, including chocolate-covered seaweed (shown here), chocolate-covered kimchi, and chili pepper chocolates.

My family had an impromptu tasting of these atypical treats after Boxing Day dinner.

White kimchi placed dead last, narrowly beating out chocolate seaweed for the bottom spot. Some tasters managed to swallow the chocolate chili pepper candy, which disappointingly tasted more like wax than chili pepper.