Ah, the Internet. What would I do without it? Certainly I would not find out about all these crazy little happenings around Cleveland. For example, did you know that there is a great blog being written by a local Ohio chef/food lover? No? Well, neither did I, so who can blame us. But here's a link to Michael Ruhlman's site (which is quite good, if much smarter than me), and if you scan back a little ways, you will find his post called "For Those Who Can't Get Enough Televised Paintball," which was posted on what appears to be December 27.

In that post, Mr. Ruhlman challenges Anthony Bourdain (celebrity chef, author of Kitchen Confidential, and star of own show "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel) to do a show in Cleveland! Apparently, Mr. Ruhlman knows Mr. Bourdain, they've cooked together, they scrap, etc. Well, after Bourdain was challenged (and rightly so, as Ruhlman says: "Come to Cleveland, Mr. Soft Palms. We gotch ya cultcha right heah, pal."), he commented back on Ruhlman's blog. If I can correctly quote Mr. Bourdain here: "I am taking you up on your challenge. There WILL be a Cleveland episode of NO RESERVATIONS." This was posted on December 28, and if my hawk-eyed watching of the other comments is accurate, although Ruhlman and Bourdain have apparently had way too good of a time in Vegas, Bourdain didn't take it back!

Pay attention, Cleveland. It's time to step up and offer awesome food. And let's think of something other than pirogi, hmm? I think everyone knows that Cleveland is a somewhat Polish town. Just a bit.

A reader commented on my Marysville blog that he thought Mrs. Renison's Donuts is a chain. Hmmm. I never heard of it. So, I did a Google search. The only two donut shops I came up with that name is the one in Marysville and one in Richwood. I did find a Mrs. Renison's Crispie Crème Donuts establishment for sale in Portsmouth, OH. You can put your hands on that for $365,000. This is not to be confused with Krispy Kreme donuts. I thought there might be some connection between Mrs. Renison's and the K spelling version, but I don't think so. Mrs. Renison's recipe is from 1929. Krispy Kreme is later than that. So, who is Mrs. Renison? What is the recipe? I may just have to call the store and ask but it's night and no one is there. There is a colored sketch of Mrs. Renison on the Marysville sign, but perhaps Mrs. Renison is like Betty Crocker, a pure made up name. But, honestly, I only found the two listed in the on-line yellow pages.

Still curious about the donuts in Ohio subject, I Googled "Ohio Donuts" and found this other yellow pages website with this heading "Most Popular City for Ohio Donuts-Doughnuts." Notice the two spellings. Marysville is not listed as a city where donuts are popular, however if you click on the "M", Mrs. Renison's comes up with the two listings: the Marysville one and the Richwood one. The site though does list business that don't have anything to do with donuts as well--like car repair or something.

Here are some other donut establishments that were listed with names I haven't seen in other places.

Jo Jos Donut Shop, 2620 Valley Pike, Dayton. 937-233-1253

Hinkle's Donuts, 6636 W Bancroft St., Toledo 419-720-7565.

Rods Doughnut Shop, 208 N Main St., Uhrichsville. 740-922-4767

One of my favorites is Buckeye Donuts, 1998 N High St. Columbus, 614-291-3923 across from the OSU campus. You can order from them on-line through campusfood.com. This website, it seems, devoted to getting college students fed without them stepping foot out of a dorm room.

And what is my favorite kind of donut? Plain old-fashioned every time.

Hum that to the tune of, "Where does all the time go?"

Holy cow. I'm quite busy, and I wanted to apologize to you, Blogging Ohio, since between my horrific cold (my voice is two steps away from being gone) and baking 5 pans of brownies for work, I've been swamped! You may have recently read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer an article in the PDQ section about people at work swooping in on food in your kitchen/common area/what have you. They chose some classics (cookies and candy) and some not-so-classic food items (pickled pimento loaf), and timed how long it took for the food to disappear. Obviously, some things went faster than others!

In the spirit of that article, and in light of the fact that I have zero energy but wanted to write something to you guys, here's a recipe that I've thematically christened Buckeye Brownies (with a slight variation, they could be OSU Brownies, which I'll explain at the end.) Please don't hate me, Blogging Ohio: take my offer of brownies and patiently wait for me to come back to you!

As I loosened my belt another notch to compensate for the holiday gorge, I thought about January back in the days before Ohio's European invasion, when the native Americans lived through much more harsh winters than the current one.

At this time of year, they'd need food that was dense and caloric, to help keep them warm, and food they could store in the event they were trapped inside by a heavy snow. One of the foods they depended upon was pemmican.

Pemmican is a mixture of dried meat, fruit, and rendered fat, pulverized together into a thick paste that lasts for a long time. It could be wrapped in leaves and easily carried, and became a common item to swap with fur traders.

Any meat could be used to make pemmican, although the bison, elk and deer were most common. Wild fruit such as chokeberries and cherries and the fat from bone marrow were also preferred ingredients.

Want to make your own pemmican? Check out this recipe.

I doubt the Indians would have gone to such trouble to make pemmican if they had a Wendy's drive-thru window available. Is that a curse or a blessing?

A report just issued by marijuana-activist John Gettman claims that marijuana is the most valuable cash crop in the United States. According to his statistics, at $35.8 billion, pot is almost 50% more valuable than corn and almost thrice that of soybeans. As the report states, the income from pot exceeds that of peanuts in Georgia, cotton in Alabama, and grapes in California.

His report is an extrapolation on seizures by law enforcement of pot and plants. Totals assume the value of an indoor plant at $702 and outdoor plant at $351, or about $175 per ounce.

I wondered how these highly-debatable conclusions would play out in the Ohio economy. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2005 the top-yielding legal crop in Ohio was soybeans, worth about $1.1 billion, followed by corn ($836 million) and hay ($386 million).

By contrast, Gettman estimates the value of the Ohio marijuana crop at $457 million, not including the increases in pizza and Pink Floyd sales. He estimates Ohio is 11th in outdoor production, with 521,000 plants producing almost 230,000 pounds of herb. We rise to 10th in indoor production, 250,000 plants producing 55,000 pounds.

Southeastern Ohio has long had the reputation as a source of some of the area's most potent pot. In 2004, the bulk of the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation's 50,000 plant seizures took place in that area.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, based on 2002-3 stats, the most recent available, slightly over 1 million Ohioans have smoked weed in the past year. About half were 26 years of age or older.

As with any illegal activity, these statistics are highly questionable. If this were true, however, I have to feel sympathy for the farmer who busts his hump to cultivate a few hundred acres of corn.

Now, I know Starbucks may seem to have corner on the coffee market, but I have to say that if I'm going to treat myself to a cup of coffee, I'm heading to White Castle. When I happened to be in White Castle two days in a row last week buying White Castle coffee for myself, plus for some friends of mine (yep, I know, nothing but the best) I noticed a vintage poster on the wall. It was circa 1941 with the missive that White Castle had sold 15,629,162 cups of coffee. I don't know if that means it sold that many in 1941 or since then. I'd say iit means in 1941 due to the fact that White Castle was one of the first fast food establishments.

As a person who visited my grandparents who lived right over the border of Ohio in Northern Kentucky, going to White Castle when we came on a visit was a real treat. The White Castle in my neighborhood at the edge of Clintonville is one of the first White Castle sites in Columbus, if not the first. I went hunting for some White Castle information on the White Castle website and I have to tell you, if you want to have fun, head to White Castle in cyberspace. Did you know that there is a White Castle cookbook? You can get recipes on the website. There are actually White Castle cooking contests. One picture looks like someone made some sort of dessert out of White Castle hamburgers. Seriously. The other fun thing about the website is the commercials-clever and fun. The type you expect to see in a commercial festival that pulls in commercials from overseas. Pure marketing genius. No one has to market the coffee to me though; I love it.

A friend of mine who I work with told me that one of his best Christmases was when he went to a Chinese restaurant while everyone in his family was out of town. Perhaps you remember the scene in the movie A Christmas Story when Ralphie's family went out for a Chinese dinner because the dog took off with the Christmas turkey. In case you're interested in Chinese food this Christmas, here are some places to consider. I'd call though to make sure they're open. You never know, the owners may be staying home making turkey.

These are places I've eaten and recommend.

For fancier:

Try Pearl of the Orient. There are two locations. One is in Rocky River and the other is in Shaker Heights. There is no MSG in the food and they serve brown rice if you want. I've eaten at the on in Rocky River at least 3 times.

For great food, but not so fancy.

Fortune Chinese Restaurant on Olentangy River Rd near Ackerman in Columbus. Quite good. Not as fancy as Pearl of the Orient, but great food.

For eat until you pop.

Our favorite is China Buffet in Columbus. Hey, there's nothing like a buffet when you have a four year-old. This was my daughter's pick for her birthday dinner outing with friends.

I did find this link to Chinese restaurants in Ohio. The names, addresses and phone numbers are listed.

Let's say you're looking for the perfect something for that four-legged family member of yours. You know, your best friend. There's a store in Grandview that fits the category of best places to buy your pet a treat. Sure you can troll the aisles of Petland, but it's the holidays so why not make what's under the Christmas tree a bit more upscale than that rawhide bone or the same ol' same ol' catnip ball you were thinking of?

Heidi's Homemade: Dog and Cat Treat Bakery, an establishment that will be 10 years old in 2007, cooks up homemade organic pet treats for both cats and dogs that sounds good enough to eat yourself. Zara's Peanut Butter Dog Treats for one. You can also buy commercial organic dog and cat food. The idea of organic dog and cat food came about after the owners' dog, Heidi developed cancer. They treated her by feeding her organic food, and sure enough, enhanced her life so she was able to live for two more years. She never did have that chemo.

In the truth is stranger than fiction department, the Cincinnati Post reported today that Hamilton County resident Ted Dres was found strangled to death yesterday with his 13-foot pet boa constrictor wrapped around his neck. His body was lying face-down in the snake's cage. The SPCA was called in to help remove the snake and take it for safekeeping.

In captivity, the boa lives on a diet of small animals such as mice, rats and chicks, although adults are sometimes fed rabbits. The snakes are native to the Americas, from northern Mexico through the Amazon of South America.

Boa constrictors are thought to live 25-30 years. Handlers recommend that two adults be present when handling an adult boa, due to its strength. Deaths due to boa attacks are rare, but they do happen. I'm sure this story will be making the rounds for quite a while.

My policy has long been to not keep any pets that might view me as emergency rations. Although, come to think of it, my cats have been giving me funny looks lately.

Imagine going into Mozart's Café on Indianola in Columbus to meet up with a contact for a magazine article interview only to find it half-filled with 5th and 6th graders-very well behaved 5th and 6th graders. Pressed and dressed and charming. At first I wondered if this was a deportment class I'd read about in the paper a month or so ago, the kind of class that teaches manners and social skills to youngsters. Nope, these folks were on a Victorian Christmas field trip from West Liberty Salem which is about 50 minutes from Columbus. Mozart's was their dinner stop.

As a person always looking for things to write about, my interest was piqued. Here was a ready-made travel itinerary tailor-made for anyone ages 10 and above. One of the co-teachers in charge, Tonya McGuire , who along with Mrs. Wartman, the gifted teacher, planned the trip, passed along their plans to me. In case you want your own Victorian Christmas, follow in their footsteps.

First stop was the Kelton House Museum and Garden at 586 E. Town Street in Columbus. The museum, run by the Junior League, used to be owned by the Kelton family that, by the looks of the house, owned a boatload of money and were living a fine life during the Victorian era. A trip to the museum is a chance to look back in time at the decorative arts, imagine the family's comings and goings, as well as, learn about the house's role as a stop on the Underground Railroad. I can't believe I haven't been to this place before. Historic houses are right up at the top of the "Things I like to do list."

Then Mozart's Café for dinner. By the time I was done with my interview, I was salivating from the yummy smells and sorely tempted to start sneaking bites off these kids' plates. I just looked at the Mozart's menu and think this might be a fine eating night out. Schnitzel is their specialty and Mozart's serves it from traditional Weiner Schnitzel style to a Greek version. Their food also ranges from soups and salads to specialty sandwiches.

After Mozart's the kids with chaparones in tow were heading to Ohio Village for a tour. School groups can make arrangements for tours outside of the special event hours-I'm pretty sure. If you can't visit the village though, the Ohio Historical Center right next door has exhibits that provides some information about "way back when." The way back goes as far as the geological history to more modern times through permanent and rotating exhibits.

I had no idea that Maggiano's Little Italy (located in Beachwood Place, which is located in scenic Beachwood, Ohio) was a chain restaurant! Seriously, I thought that the restaurant was a local one that had done really well. Even knowing that it's a chain restaurant doesn't make me too sad, because it is one of the two that are in the whole of Ohio (the other one is all the way down in Cincinnati!). That makes it still pretty special.

You know what else made it really special? The food and the service. Oh good lord, the food. Now, I can't speak to what a normal restaurant experience at Maggiano's is like because I was there for my work's holiday party, and we got to hide upstairs in a lovely banquet room, and have a personal bar/waitress come to me to get me a drink, a delightfully well-made vodka tonic. Maybe sitting at a table downstairs in the restaurant is less classy. But I doubt it!

One of the gimmicks at Maggiano's is that the food is served family-style, i.e., in one big dish that you pass around your table, theoretically like in your own house (not my house, where I leave it on the stove and announce to my roommate and guests that it's done, get it yourself). But the food that we got in the banquet room was amazing! Our main dishes were pork loin with sauteed mushrooms and french-fried onions, and some sort of pesto-pine nut-chicken noodle dish. Side dishes included caesar and house salads, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, meatballs and rigatoni. All of which was very, very good, especially the pork loin. It was almost creamy, which is an odd thing to say about meat, but it was! The side dishes were good, and not obviously Italian. That is what tells me that this is a good Italian restaurant: that my first thought wasn't, "Oh, this is Italian food," but rather, "I want to marry whoever made this artichoke dip. I will propose to them right now!"

Whether you're giving Chanukah presents, a Christmas gift or bring a hostess present to someone who has been kind enough to invite you over for dinner, you can either ask them to "Close your eyes and open your hands," like I've been known to do from time to time; slap on some wrapping paper if you happen to have some; look for a gift bag from a present someone gave you last year; or actually put some time into presentation and come up with a nifty gift basket. I've received gift baskets and have bounced around ideas for gift baskets, but haven't managed to put one together, myself. It's not rocket science, but it does take a bit of planning. With the Ohio gift ideas, Blogging Ohio has been passing along, you could buy a few of them and put them into a basket with an Ohio theme. Aha! Great idea.

Luckily, there are some Ohioans who are experts in the gift basket category, if making one yourself sounds like too much work.

Check out Basketfanfare in Canton; Baskets by Bonnie in Columbus; Baskets for All Occassions in Cincinnati and Buckeye Baskets in Akron. The beauty of ordering a gift basket, is that you can have it delivered as well, so you don't actually have to live in any of these places--or around the person who you are giving the gift to. Order now though. If you miss out on the holiday deadline, there are plenty of giving opportunities in 2007. These companies can pull together something for any occassion.

Since I've written so many blogs about Christmas, I wanted to make sure I gave attention to Chanukah as well. With the first day of Chanukah on December 15, there is no time like now to pencil in an event or two. Lighting giant menorahs is happening across the state. To find more specifics about these events, check out the chabad.org calendar. These are events that would be fun for the whole family.

Dec. 16 – Columbus - Grand Chanukah Menorah Lighting Ceremony at Easton Town Center. 4004 Gramercy St.

Dec. 16 – Bexley. Grand Chanukah Menorah Lighting Ceremony- The lighting of a 13 ft. menorah, dancing, a raffle, doughnuts, etc. etc., etc.

Dec. 17- 5 p.m. Cleveland. Family Menorah Lighting for the whole family. This one involves a giant outdoor menorah. University Square Waterstone Medical Center on Cedar and Mirmar

Dec. 17- Toldedo. Chanukah in the Mall - menorah lighting, latkes, etc.

Dec. 18- Akron. Chanukah at the Mall - Giant menorah lighting ceremony
children's Choir, latkes, donuts, music and a juggler at the Summit Mall
West Market St.

Dec. 18- Dayton. Chanukah at Fairfield Commons

Dec. 20 – Mason.Chanukah Family Game Night N' Latkes by POPS The Jewish Discovery Center

Dec. 21 – Cincinnati. (Evendale) Chanukah-On-Ice at Sports Plus. Skating and more. There's Chanukah music, Chanukah Gelt and dreidels plus raffles and a kosher food stand. A giant ice menorah will also be lit and you can help build a giant 8-ft. Menorah out of Legos. 10765 Reading Rd.

The Centers for Disease Control has some interesting graphs about our state's state of health. I think these sobering stats are very instructive as we celebrate the holidays. Perhaps a little attention today to what we eat and drink when we party could help us feel a whole lot better about ourselves after the New Year.

Waaaa! I had heard that Scottie MacBean is closing this coming January, but I just received an email that says that as of tomorrow at 3 P.M. it is officially no more. Scottie MacBean is a place that I frequent. I actually was there with my writing group Saturday before last. We are supposed to meet there this Saturday, but I wonder if anyone knows that? Now, that I have heard this, I suppose I'm going to be a messenger of bad news. What will my writing group do this coming Saturday? We'll just have to find someplace else, but if you've ever been to Scottie MacBean you know that it is perfect for meetings. There are two separate rooms from the main room.

Scottie MacBean is actually not Scottie MacBean any more. It had a recent name change to Thatcher's. But it hasn't been Thatcher's long enough to get a sign change except for a banner that is fastened over the old sign.

Well, rats! There have been so many poetry readings and music events at Scottie MacBean aka Thatcher's (if that's what it's been called) that will have one less venue. A real bummer. Now, what's the culprit of this closing? Rumor has it that it has to do with not having a beer and wine license. I don't know if this is true or not. I know that they don't have the license, I just don't know if this is a truly accurate assessment. Probably. Why Scottie MacBean can't get a license to sell alcohol while down the road, not even a mile away, other establishments can, is a bit of a mystery. I am sorely disappointed and that's what I have to say about that. If you want more information, read the article that was in the Suburban news. It seems like the big franchises have also hurt the little guy once more, although people need to frequent the places they'd like to keep.

Here is a sample of music that was played at Thatcher's by Micheal Joseph on Dec. 9. I wonder if he will go down as one of the last people to perform there? Michael Joseph is an acoustic guitar and flute player.