Youth Ambassador Applications Open!

Minnesota Students: Youth Ambassador Applications Due Jan. 17

Partners of the Americas, through a program funded by the United States Department of State, is looking for U.S. youth between the ages of 15 and 18 to travel to South America and the Caribbean next summer.

Your mission is to:

Participate in promoting mutual understanding between the people of Latin America and the U.S.

Develop a greater sense of civic responsibility and commitment to community development

Build leadership capacity

Foster relationships among youth from different ethnic, religious and national
groups

Explore local and national issues and become involved with or contribute to those issues

Selected youth will receive grants covering travel and expenses to Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, Ecuador or Paraguay for 4 weeks in July and August 2011. Applicants should be between 15-18 years old, currently enrolled in a public high school as a Junior or younger, have Intermediate-level Spanish skills and meet other criteria.

Download your application (due Jan. 17) today.

Contact Erik (erikbrand10@gmail.com) with questions.

Minnesota's German Christmas traditions

Christmas Market at Germany's Annaberg-Buchholz in the Erzgebirge.

Longing for Light: Ore Mountain miners influence the world
Christmas traditions throughout Minnesota, the U.S. and even the world can be traced back to the woodcarving of miners in need of more income near the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1800s.

They, in particular, craved and treasured light during the cold, dark season of winter and brought more of it to their homes with wooden candle arches (Schwiboggen), carved miners and angels (who represented their wives), elaborate chandeliers, and grand windmill-topped pyramids that spin from the heat of candles and lights.

Schwiboggen

Other beloved crafts: delicately curled boughs on wooden pine trees (Spanbäume), smoking Santas and figurines that puff curling wisps of incense, and the well-known Nutcrackers, a wink-wink, nudge-nudge way of mocking the stern mining officials from the Erzgebirge (also known as the Ore Mountains).

You can read my whole feature on Christmas traditions from the Erzgebirge in the Nov. 27 Star Tribune travel section. 

Find hand-crafted German ornaments in Minnesota

While it's a dream trip to see these crafters and the area that inspires them, it's also enchanting to find these Christmas crafts closer to home.

The two best places to find "Echte Erzgebirge" or "Authentic Ore Mountains" ornaments? Käthe Wohlfahrt store in Stillwater and several shops in New Ulm.

Stillwater features most famous Christmas store
The Käthe Wohlfahrt store is one of those mandatory stops in Rothenburg, which ranks as one of Germany's most picturesque (and touristy) medieval towns. Stillwater, Minnesota, claims a rare U.S. branch of this Christmas store.

It complements an already beguiling and historic downtown with its unique blend of boutiques.

Heirloom ornament sets.

Christmas reigns in New Ulm 
In New Ulm, several stores sell one of the greatest wedding gifts I've seen: heirloom sets of holiday ornaments. What a great idea and nice twist on the usual sets of pans and home decor brides and grooms put on wish lists.

Try these stores for all things Christmas:

Lambrecht's Gifts, 119 N. Minnesota St., is an efficient one-stop shop for unique women's wear and accessories, home decor and baby gifts with two stories and multiple rooms that make it fun to explore. You'll find a Christmas village and more than one upstairs room filled year-round with German ornaments from elegant to playful.

Guten Tag Haus, 127 N. Minnesota St., has the nicest display of Erzgebirge Christmas crafts such as nutcrackers, the smoking Santas, candle arches and pyramids. They also have colorful displays of German blown-glass ornaments that glitter and catch the light, along with German and Czech cut-glass vases and bowls. If you have Norwegians and Irish in the family, too, you can find gifts for them as well--just not as many. Germans rule New Ulm.

Domeier's German Store, 1020 S. Minnesota St., sits along a residential stretch rather than downtown so you have to go looking for it. They pipe in the oom-pah-pah music and cram the store with ornaments, clocks and sweets galore. It's not the best choice if you have kids bundled in bulky winter gear, but it's fun in a folksy way. Don't miss looking up at the ceiling that's covered in postcards.

Shop Minnesota museums for the most unique holiday gifts

If you crave gifts that are unexpected and go up a notch on the cool factor, skip the big retailers. Head to your local museums instead.

Museum gift shops celebrate regional artists, authors and local flavor in a ways you won't get at most stores. By shopping at museums, you're supporting Minnesota's cultural scene as well as taking a breather if you're able to enjoy the exhibits, too.

Mill City Museum, Minneapolis
The Mill City Museum (left) in particular melts into the holiday mood thanks to its focus on Minneapolis' history as the flour capital of the world for half a century. General Mills with its Betty Crocker icon and Pillsbury with its Dough Boy continue the homey kitchen legacy. I always leave with an urge to go bake cookies.

What you can find here: Lip balm scented like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, stuffed Dough Boys, hot dish cookbooks, Minnesota-invented Bundt cake pans, wonderful junior chef bakeware for kids, and aprons with attitude: "I'm not Betty Crocker. Deal with it!"

Minnesota History Center,  St. Paul
Visitors to the Minnesota History Center will find top-of-the-line local treats that tie into its new show, "Chocolate: The Exhibition." On loan from the Field Museum in Chicago through Jan. 2, it follows the history of how a humble cocoa bean became one of the world's most sought-after flavors.

It's also an ideal place to pick up something for book-lovers such as Peg Meier's "Wishing for a Snow Day: Growing Up in Minnesota," beautifully photographed "Paddle North: Canoeing the Boundary Waters-Quetico Wilderness" from Greg Breining and Layne Kennedy, and novels such as Dean Urdahl's "Uprising," the first in a trilogy about the U.S. Dakota War of 1862.

Need stocking stuffers? Look for light-hearted loon flutes, ladyslipper socks and Ole and Lena fortune cookies.

Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul
This is the greatest shop for nature and biology kits, guidebooks, rocks and minerals, dinosaur puzzles and other wonderful hands-on gifts for curious kids (or adults).

A sampling of goodies for under $20: hand-held, take-apart brain-teasers similar to Rubik's Cube; origami kits for folding bunnies that hop and birds that can flap their wings; a build-your-own kaleidoscope kit; and DVDs of favorite IMAX movies.

To shake things up a little, you can pose with Anubis (left), a 26-foot-tall replica of the Egyptian god erected this week at Landmark Plaza. It makes for an enchanting Christmas outing with a stop at the free Wells Fargo ice rink. Anubis precedes the upcoming King Tut exhibit, "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs," that opens Feb. 18. Tickets went on sale this week and can make great stocking stuffers, along with tickets to the general museum or Omnitheater.

Tip for parents: If you have kids ages 10 and under, stop by the Mississippi Visitor Center in the museum's lobby. Like other national park sites, you can get a free workbook to learn about the river and earn a Junior Ranger badge.

Art museums
Art museum gift shops have always been spot on for unique jewelry, art cards, journals, whimsical umbrellas, puzzles, prints and posters, funky desk toys and, of course, art supplies. The Walker Art Center's Totem building cards and crayon rocks for kids look especially intriguing. The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts also is worth a look. Plus admission is free with the exception of special exhibits. Check out its family center and look for monthly family days.


Regional museums
Don't forget smaller regional museums either. They're especially good for older relatives who enjoy memoirs, nostalgic gifts and the funny ones. Our favorite find one year was from St. Cloud's Stearns History Museum: Nunzilla, a stern, wind-up nun who walked and shot sparks from her mouth. It was perfect for an aunt who attended a strict Catholic school and spent many Halloweens dressed in a habit.

For more information on museums statewide and art centers, go to Explore Minnesota.

For additional gift ideas, check out some of the best Minnesota-made apparel and accessories.

Add wild rice to your Thanksgiving menu

Just harvested grains of wild rice.

I'm deviating from travel posts to share a few recipes after seeing the huge interest in earlier wild rice posts.

One dish become almost as important as turkey and mashed at our family Thanksgivings since friends shared the original recipe in the 1970s. It has since spanned the globe from Hawaii to Germany.

It's designed for cultivated wild rice, which requires longer to cook. If you're using the hand-harvested truly wild rice, it only takes about 20 minutes. We usually double the recipe so there is extra to freeze or make creamy wild rice soup with the leftovers.

Read more about great restaurants serving wild rice or the difference between hand-harvested and cultivated wild rice in earlier posts.

Wild rice soaked overnight.

Wild rice with mushrooms & pecans

This recipe has followed us from Hawaii to Germany as we've shared it with everyone. We often double it and use leftovers for a creamy wild rice soup.

4 T. butter

2 T. grated carrot

2T. finely diced celery

2 T. finely diced onion

1 C. wild rice (let it soak overnight & drain it)

1 tsp. salt

2 C. chicken broth

½ lb. mushrooms, coarsely chopped

2 T. finely chopped fresh parsley

¼ C. finely chopped pecans (or almonds)

Melt 2 T. butter over medium heat until it foams. Add vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, 10-15 min. They should be soft but not brown. Stir in cup of rice plus salt. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Cover pan tightly, turn heat to low and let cook undisturbed for 45 minutes until rice is tender and liquid absorbed. About 10 minutes before rice is ready, melt remaining 2 T. of butter. Add mushrooms and parsley and cook about 5 min. Add pecans & cook 2-3 more minutes. Add to rice and fluff with a fork. Enjoy!

Wild Rice with cherries and red pepper

This is a more unexpected version of a wild rice side dish that's served at Quivey's Grove, a restaurant in Madison, Wis. It's one of my most memorable dining experiences for the historic atmosphere and their focus on traditional Wisconsin ingredients. The dried cherries sweetly complement the nutty taste of wild rice.

2 T. olive oil

3 T. white wine

1 minced shallot

1/2 leek (the white part) cleaned and finely diced

1 finely diced celery rib

1/2 half finely diced red bell pepper

1/2 t. coriander

1/2 T. fresh sage

1/2 C. dried cherries

1 C. wild rice

3 C. chicken broth

Rinse the wild rice well in a colander under cold, running water. Saute the leek, celery, and pepper in the olive oil and wine. Heat the stock. Add the rice and stir to coat thoroughly. Add the spices and dried cherries. Add the simmering stock and cover. Simmer gently until all the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. 4 servings.

Christmas chocolate cravings

Canelake's delightfully old-fashioned Iron Range candy shop.

Upper Midwest's best candy shops

It's a pregnant woman's fantasy: chocolate-covered dill pickles and even chocolate-covered green olives. How can you not give in to curiosity and give them a try?

My mom and I found these savory, strange sweets at Carole Widman's Candy Company in Fargo, North Dakota, last winter. It takes a bit for your tastebuds and brain to process an utterly unpredictable taste combination--mostly with the olives. It requires you to chew slowly, let it linger, say "Hmmm..." and then try it again. It's a strangely addicting combination of sweet and salty, and I'd have to say I preferred the olives. The dill of the pickles seemed too overwhelming.

Since we're probably all recovering from the sugar and calorie comas of Halloween's predictable treats--Reese's, M&Ms and Kit Kats--it's a good time to seek and celebrate what's different and what creative candy makers at small chocolatiers are serving.

Think of it as a sensory gift, too, a sweet hit of aromatherapy. Remember that magical French mint whiff you'd get walking past Fanny Farmer stores?

If you're not drooling yet, give it a minute. Here are a few tasty picks from Minnesota and the Dakotas. Most offer mail order for Christmas if you can't get there in person.
Watertown Confectionery, Watertown, SD

This store nestled into a wonderful old-fashioned  downtown serves my favorite chocolate-covered potato chips. The kettle-style Dakota chips are thick and crunched up for maximum density and texture. Even better: try the clusters jalapeno-flavored potato chips drenched in chocolate. It's a surprisingly brilliant combination: a kick tempered with sweetness and a dash of salt.

Owners Mike and Vickie Marotz also are known for their South Dakota cow pies and chocolate mints you can smell throughout this tidy, spacious shop--unless it's coffee roasting day. Breathe deeply and enjoy.

Carole Widman's, Fargo, ND
If the novelty of chocolate-covered pickles and olives seems too out-there (or you can't eat them right away before they expire), go for a fresh take on traditional hand-dipped chocolates. We loved the sunflower-seed-studded bars of chocolate (a perfect nod to local crops) and the crisp-crunch of chocolate with flax seed. That, too, gives a nod to local farming and bites like a more delicate Nestle Crunch Bar with a nutty, fun kick of roasted flax.

Their most famous chocolates? Chippers, chocolate-covered potato chips, heavy on the chocolate.

The pink-themed store seems like a candy newcomer buried in a strip-mall by big-box stores, but Widman's business has been around for about 100 years. Other family members run stores in Grand Forks and Morris, Minn.

Canelake's, Virginia, MN

If you love that stick-in-your-teeth butterscotchy goodness of Butterfingers, you'll love Canelake's "Hot Air," an old-fashioned foam candy dipped in chocolate. Of course it's much airier and more puffed up than a Butterfinger with its unusual texture. 

This downtown Virginia institution with its vintage red-and-white-striped storefront screams nostalgia in the best way possible. The Canelake's candymakers have been stirring buttery caramel, adding real cream, roasting nuts, and cooling hand-dipped chocolates on marble tables since 1905.

You can buy assortments by the box or put together your own mix with minty Swiss chocolates, chocolate-caramel-pecan frogs, glazed and chocolate-dipped apricots and just about any nutty, fruity or creamy candy-store combination.

Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen, Knife River, MN
 You'd never know this adorable red-and-white shop used to be Mel's Fish store. This long-time Knife River icon seems like such a natural fit for a sweet little candy shop. Pamela and Patricia Canelake and Pamela's husband, Dennis--grandchildren of the Canelake's founder--bought the building and replanted the family's chocolate roots in 2007.

Like Canelake's, one of Great! Lakes Candy Kitchen's best-known sweets is the chocolate-covered sponge candy dubbed "Air Crunch." Among their other standouts are spicy ginger caramels with a hint of cinnamon, a maple cream bar covered in chocolate-covered peanuts, chocolate-covered sea salt caramels, and the wittily named U Betcha Bars--a generous caramel square dipped in chocolate and rolled in walnuts. It's on a stick, which is a fun nod to Minnesota's legendary on-a-stick state fair food.

Indecisive? A Knife River Nibbler box can take care of that. And if you're missing Mel's Fish, you'll have to go to Russ Kendall's for your smoked fillets, but grab the candy shop's tribute to Mel first: a chocolate fish.

New articles in El Pais about Minnesota Partners!

Two articles were published last week about the visits of two Minnesotans, Judge Leslie Metzen and John Carmody, currently in Uruguay on Partners projects. "Both visits were a complete success," reports Willy Lockhart, the president of the chapter in Montevideo.

See Judge Metzen's coverage

See John Carmody's coverage.

Weekend fun: Anoka's Halloween parade

Anoka's Light Up the Night Parade

Halloween capital of the world
You can go throughout the Twin Cities and beyond to find plenty of good scares this month (Duluth's Ship of Ghouls, anyone?). But for a light-hearted look at Halloween and the creativity it inspires, head straight to Anoka, the so-called Halloween Capital of the World for more than half a century.

At 7 p.m. this Saturday you can enjoy what's pretty much a classic summer parade (minus marching bands), but lit up and with a ghoulish twist. You know how we've all seen the royalty floats from neighboring towns with their prom dresses, crowns and elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist waves? This Light Up the Night Parade has those princesses morphed into zombies, dancers from "Thriller" or something tamer, like "The Wizard of Oz."

The vibe is fun and perfect for kids since it doesn't last more than an hour.

Halloween costume ideas on parade
If you want to see the big event, you have to return on Saturday the 30th for the 1 p.m. Grand Day Parade. That's almost worth it just for the hilarious costumes worn by the 5K Gray Ghost Run participants who lead the parade down Main Street. Isn't it taxing enough to do a run without wearing, say, a giant sneaker, full body stocking or a torso-riding fish? I bow to these folks: they're fit and can cook up awesome costumes.

Anoka has nailed the infectious, playful spirit that pervades the best Halloween events and makes it easy to understand why the town has wholeheartedly embraced this favorite fall holiday.

Best costume: Pinata man
How can you not love a guy who dresses like a pinata and lets a girl beat on him for 5 kilometers? Here's hoping they snagged a prize last year.