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Recently The Somerville News Group announced new additions to our ever growing Newspaper Publication Group with the recent opening of The Cambridge News Weekly.

  Now we are proud to announce once again after popular demand the openings of our thirty five newest news publications which will be opening online in 2012 and shortly after that hitting the streets across the state in print. The new Massachusetts editions are The Medford News, The Everett News Weekly, The Malden News, The Melrose News, The Tewksbury News, The Stoneham News, The Arlington News and Boston News weekly, Burlington News Weekly, The Woburn News, Wilmington News Weekly and Winthrop News Weekly, The Revere News, Wilmington News Weekly, The Newton News, The Billerica News, Reading News Weekly, The Andover News, Lexington News Weekly, The Foxboro News, The Waltham News, Lawrence News Weekly, The East Boston News, The Charlestown News, The Belmont News, The Newton News, The Watertown News, Wakefield News Weekly, The Dracut News, Lowell News Weekly, The Marshfield News, The Methuen News, The Salem News, The Lynnfield News, The Peabody News, The Saugus News and The Chelsea News thus forming Boston News Group. 

Thirty seven new varieties of cites and towns with thirty seven times the power of local News! Look for us soon in many more cities and towns near you as we continue to grow!

Best regards,

The Publishers of The Boston News Group
Bostonnewsgroup.com

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Cook by the Book

On December 25, 2011, in Latest News, by The News Staff

 

The Gingerbread Book by Allen D. Brogdon

By Betty B. Levin

As the jacket of this newly re-issued book from 1984 announces, it contains “54 cookie-construction projects for party centerpieces and holiday decorations, 7 full-sized patterns, plans for 8 structures, over 100 color photos, recipes, cookie shapes, children’s projects, history, and step-by-step how-tos.”

Beyond that succinct description are the detailed, luscious-looking creations for classic gingerbread houses or the equivalent of today’s McMansions. The book is packed with ideas for table decor, Christmas tree ornaments, Valentines Day, and birthdays, plus it provides the motivation to dream up your own reasons to bake  and decorate these favorite nostalgic goodies. You’ll be surprised at the wide  range of accompaniments: the expected chopped nuts, crystallized ginger and jelled fruit slices to licorice and strawberry laces to name just a few. Three pages  are filled with color photos of these and dozens of other examples.
For year-round fun, chessboards can be made using the patterns given for all the chess pieces starting with the King. For other projects there are also many cookie cutter outlines of animals, flowers, people and even a guitar, among the array that can be copied and used wherever desired. Walls, fences and other necessary elements to build Noah’s Ark or to make Ukrainian Easter Eggs are also detailed. Walls, fences and other directions for building your constructions are complete with measurements.
For the very ambitious, or with a team of helpers if time is short, there is the Circus Train with instructions for each car from engine to caboose, along with the animals and clowns to be placed – all aboard!
The basic recipe for gingerbread dough is given here, but the book provides more than a dozen variations as well recipes for gingerbread cake, sauces, gingersnaps and even gingerbread waffles…and oh yes, eggnog with ginger. It’s a book that will engage all ages and will undoubtedly be handed down from generation to generation. It’s available through bookstores. Author Bragdon has thought of everything to make these projects less frustrating and a lot of fun.

Basic Corn Syrup Gingerbread Dough
9 cups unsifted flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
½ teaspoons of salt
2 cups light corn syrup
1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 ¼ cups butter or margarine

• In large bowl, combine flour, lemon rind, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
• In 3-quart saucepan, stir together corn syrup, brown sugar, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter is melted and ingredients are well mixed.
• Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and stir until well blended.
NOTE: Have your plan for what you’ll be rolling, cutting and baking before proceeding with this recipe.
• Form dough into ball and knead until smooth and pliable.
• Roll out dough on foil-lined cookie sheets to ¼-inch thickness using lightly floured rolling pin.
• Cut out cookie pieces, remove and reserve excess dough.
• Bake in 350F-degree oven 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned.
• Cool cookie sheets completely on racks before removing cookie pieces from foil.

 

Lyrical Waltham – December 28

On December 28, 2011, in Latest News, by The News Staff

 

In the winter we need poetry of the days of summer to warm us. So I decided to make the Lyrical a literal “day at the beach,” with a poem by  local poet Denise Mostacci Sklar.  Sklar  is a dancer who has taught and performed in New York City and Boston.  She is a personal trainer in the Gyrotonic method of body work. She practices Tai Chi and has recently begun to write poetry, studying with Marc Olmsted  and  Dan Sklar.

 

ELEPHANT ROCK

smooth concrete wall
tall and tan
rises to meet sidewalk
big water, sky, beach wall
climbing down long steps
tiny figures on the prowl
we walk the cat walk
broken and crumbling
in parts leaping across
with sandy childhood
bathing suits, skinny legs
stumbling and barefoot
high tide, seaside city,
Lynn Beach
water touches, teasing toes,
grabs at ankles-
tired old bear, a father playing,
our Uncle Joe
fear, excitement  laughter
all at once
cold water spraying

and Elephant Rock
tucked away into skyline,
resting heavy-
familiar shadow

Our eyes are school pencils
tracing
contour
carefully watching for shape
to shift as it secretly does
between blinks,
we know where we are…
this is the place where we
drop our blankets on
Fourth of July night with
color exploding into

“oohs and ahhs”

in blackness

sinking in
to ocean-

Endless Finale.
– Denise Mostacci Sklar

 _______________________________________________
To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to:
Doug Holder, 25 School St.; Somerville, MA 02143.
dougholder@post.harvard.edu

THE WALTHAM NEWS.com Coming January 2012