12 Days of Small Businesses: McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store

On each of the remaining days leading up to Christmas, we’ll feature a different local business.

Looking for unique and creative holiday gifts? Throughout the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we're highlighting small businesses in the Cranberry area where you can find great gifts for loved ones. Today, the sixth day of Christmas, it's McGinnis Sisters Special Food Store along Route 228 in Adams Township. Sisters Bonnie McGinnis Vello, Sharon McGinnis Young and Noreen McGinnis Campbell run the family-owned grocery store, which has several locations in the Pittsburgh area. The sisters took over the business, originally opened by their parents as a small produce stand in Baldwin, in 1981. In 2008, they opened the Adams Shoppes location. If you’re cooking dinner for Christmas this year, the store offers a variety of holiday hams. The …

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No Better Time to Create in the Kitchen

It's so easy to dream up terrific dishes this time of year.

I love to cook, and it has nothing to do with my last name. Problem is, I also like to eat, but that's another issue. This time of year, with all those garden fresh veggies available, the possibilities are endless! Here's a dish I dreamed up Sunday night. Pan seared salmon with an Hawaiian glaze. Grilled eggplant topped with diced grape tomatoes (homegrown), fresh mozzarella cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, salt & pepper, and corn on the cob. What are you cooking up this summer? Share your favorite dishes on Cranberry Patch.  Upload your pictures by clicking the upload tab underneath the picture, and if you want, share the recipe in the comments box. ––––––––––––––– Like Cranberry Patch on Facebook or follow us on …

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Top Chef Winner Paul Qui to Appear at Pine Market District

Qui trained in classic French and Japanese cuisine and developed a no-boundaries approach toward food and his cooking.

Paul Qui, winner of Season 9 Top Chef and the executive chef at Uchiko restaurant in Austin, Texas, will make an appearance at the Pine Township Market District on Saturday. Qui’s 11 a.m. appearance is free to the public. Details and advance reservations can be made at www.marketdistrict.com. Qui also will visit the Bethel Park Market District at 4 p.m. Born in Manila, Philippines, Qui trained in classic French and Japanese cuisine and developed a no-boundaries approach toward food and his cooking. His passion for food began as a child working for his family’s grocery store. Qui fell in love with the sweet smells of freshly baked breads in the morning, and the diverse culture of the Philippines. Qui received his Associate in Culinary from …

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Recipe: Patriotic Memorial Day Trifle

Serve this pretty, all-American dessert at your picnic.

Memorial Day is a time to honor our fallen heroes and veterans, and to spend time with our loved ones during what's consider one of the most perfect times of the year weather-wise. And lately, it's been proving itself. This weekend, weather in the Cranberry area is predicted to be mostly sunny with temperatures in the upper 80s, according to the National Weather Service. Try this pretty, patriotic dessert at your picnic. It'll go quick!  Ingredients: Directions: Yield: 16-20 servings. This recipe hails from TasteofHome.com. ––––––––––––––– Like Cranberry Patch on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Don't forget to sign up for our daily email newsletter by clicking here.

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Simply From Scratch

Home Cooking is Key to Making Resolutions Come True

Here are five easy steps to a healthier New Year.

This column orginally appeared on Pine-Richland Patch at the start of 2011, Cranberry Patch decided to re-post because the advice is timeless. The new year traditionally brings resolutions, and the most popular are to lose weight, improve health, spend more time with the family, get organized and save money. Getting more comfortable in the kitchen can help you achieve all five of these goals. 1. Lose weight.  People who cook for themselves tend to make food with fewer calories than restaurant or packaged food. Even if they don't actually eat less, the chances are they're ingesting fewer calories. 2. Improve health. Cooking for yourself allows you to control the ingredients and make healthy substitutions, such as whole wheat bread for white…

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Simply From Scratch

The Top 13 'Simply from Scratch' Recipes of 2011

Patch columnist Kelly Burgess' recipes are easy and delicious. Here, we offer 13 of the yummiest from 2011 — all made with ingredients easily obtained at local shops.

Want to start cooking healthier this New Year? Or just want to freshen your recipe book? Patch columnist Kelly Burgess' weekly columns are devoted to preparing easy, healthy meals from scratch — but with the understanding that "from scratch" doesn't mean what it did when our grandmothers were cooking. Her recipes include helpers like canned, jarred, frozen and pre-cut and washed basics, making the recipes just as fast as ordering a pizza or hitting the drive-through, but the results so much better for you and your family. As for those who "can't" cook, the fact is that cooking is a skill, Burgess says. "You gain confidence and competence the more you practice," she wrote, in her very first column for Patch. "Cooking isn't brain surgery, …

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Simply From Scratch

Holidays Can be Sweet Without Sugar

Pretty cheese wreath makes a great gift or family snack.

Got cookies? I know I do. And candy. And pastries. And fruitcake. And chocolate-covered anything-you-can-think-of. 'Tis the season to be overloaded with sweets, and the closer it gets to Christmas, the more sugar shows up at your door. I'm not complaining or saying you should slam the door in the face of the next neighbor who comes over with a tray of gingerbread men. That would just be rude. What I am suggesting is that — because everyone else is handing out cookies, fudge and chocolate-covered pretzels — you do something different. That might be easy for me to say because, I must confess, I don't have a sweet tooth. I've gone months without so much as a nibble of anything sweet and not missed it at all. My weakness is the salty snacks…

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Simply From Scratch

Ole! for Mexican Food

Carnitas make a delicious entrée or a base for several meals.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about saving time by making big batches of food, having one main meal and using the leftovers for several different, quicker meals. The recipe that accompanied that column was chili, but I received several emails asking me for a recipe for something I had only mentioned in passing -- carnitas. Carnitas are a pork main dish and are as ubiquitous in Mexican cuisine as ground beef is in American. It's no secret that I absolutely love Mexican food. The best Mexican foods are the fresh seafood dishes and the slow-roasted meats, such as the skirt steaks that, in Mexico, is cooked on a spit outside restaurants all afternoon. They have so much flavor you don't need anything more than maybe a bit of salsa for fun or …

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The Unhip Chick

Kitchen Dreams: Be Careful What You Wish For

A new kitchen can carry a hefty price tag.

My mom likes to tell a story from early on in my parents’ marriage about how she helped my dad understand the cost of groceries. Theirs was a typical marriage for the time, when most women did not work outside of the home and the men earned the income for the household. When Dad griped one too many times about how much money she was spending on groceries, Mom decided to give him a lesson in home economics: She took him to the grocery store with her. He had no idea just how much milk, eggs, bread, meat, cheese and all the other essentials cost. Only when he saw with his own eyes the price of the items on her grocery list did he finally comprehend that she was not frivolously wasting money at the store. Reality has a way of opening our eyes…

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Simply From Scratch

Nothing Evil About Eggs

They might be called deviled, but stuffed eggs are divine.

My daughter and I love to grocery shop. She’s a fine cook, much more adventurous than I am, and definitely more willing to try something new. Thanks to her, I've tried many recipes and foods that I would never have tried on my own. Ah, youth. We also love our local Giant Eagle on sample days. The best sample day ever? The day the store was giving out tiny, bite-sized samples of cake and ice cream. It was like attending an elf birthday party. We were in heaven. But I digress. A few weeks ago we were shopping on sample day while a very nice lady was offering up two different types of sweet mustard. She had cubes of cheese on toothpicks, and you dipped the cheese in the mustard. Our test of the first mustard was OK, but our second (the hot …

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