First Holiday Show Notes: Mifflinburg, Cookies, and Celly Drippins
The first holiday episode for 2025, #69, is up, and it’s one I’ve wanted to do from the beginning: a profile of Mifflinburg. Why Mifflinburg? Because their Christkindl Market, the annual recreation of an authentic German Christmas market on Market Street, has become a major part of our family holidays. There are crafts and goods for sale (many handmade, many unique), indulgent foods and drinks for the young and adult, music, entertainment, and Hilby the Skinny German Juggle Boy (click on that link for a New York Times profile of Hilby) all in one place, a wonderful festival.
We've also got a wonderful interview with Nikki Keister-Hornig, the proprietor of Gable House Bakery, where we wander surprisingly far afield (Hong Kong, Italy) but then bring things back home with Nikki's insights on cookies: it's hard to bake just three, so baking is so often a communal activity. She'll also tell you her secrets on how to bake great pastries with supermarket ingredients, and the best thing she's ever made at Gable House (BOURBON was involved!).
I'll also tell you about a trip I took to Asheville, NC for the release of Sierra Nevada Celly Drippins, a brewery-only beer made from the "drippins" from the huge hop sacks they use to dry-hop Sierra Nevada Celebration. There's a short interview with Sierra Nevada's Brian Grossman (chief brewer at North Carolina, and son of founder Ken Grossman) about how Celly Drippins is made, and a report on my first visit to Buc-ee's, the famously gargantuan Texas-based "convenience store" chain.
Hey, remember the scalloped oysters I told you about last episode? I made them for Thanksgiving, and had the leftovers for breakfast on Friday!
Remember: today is Small Business Saturday, and there's a growing list of central Pennsylvania small shopping suggestions for you right here. Shop local, and you benefit your neighbors and yourself, because more money stays in the local economy when you shop at a store that’s owned where you live. It’s like Dolly Levi says in Hello, Dolly!: “Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.” Tend your garden, spread that manure around in places you know!
What I'm Drinking Today is hyperlocal. Boal City Brewing Cream Ale is a delightfully delicate but flavorful way to savor a beer that won't fill you up; perfect with your big holiday meals. The Smack Dab In The Centre segment is getting into the cold: where to find the best cup of hot chocolate in State College!
I have notes about three American Whiskey Master Class signing events in central PA in December, including one next Sunday, December 7th, that's a fundraiser for one of our favorite local non-profits, the Penns Valley Conservation Association! You can get tickets for that one right here. Remember, a signed copy is a great holiday gift for your whiskey-loving friends that you can now buy at the new website!
Next episode is another holiday episode, back on the regular Thursday schedule.