No place in America has more Carpatho-Rusyns than Western Pennsylvania, says John Righetti, organizer of perhaps the nation's only Rusyn Food Festival, today through Saturday, at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in Ambridge.
This ethnic group, which emigrated from the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe, will serve popular Rusyn foods, such as pierogies, dumpling or noodle haluski, potato pancakes, kielbasa and kraut, stuffed cabbage, borscht, bean and potato sour cream soup, chicken soup and summer salads.
One long table will hold a rich variety of baked goods, from traditional favorites such as nut, apricot and poppy seed rolls and Paska breads to Righetti's special palachinke (fruit and cheese-filled crepes), which he makes all day long.
The fest also will feature demonstrations of native arts, such as icon writing, woodcarving, Easter egg decorating and weaving by members of St. John's parish.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. For details, call the church hall, 724-266-2610, until 8 p.m.
Peach festival
Soergel Orchards, Wexford, is holding its first ever Peach Festival -- rain or shine -- from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The menu is a peach lover's dream -- fresh peach pie, peach praline pie, peaches and cream tarts and peach cobbler, along with recipes to take home and make your own.
Sounds peachy to me.
For the heartier appetite, the farm will serve its famous quarter-pound, all-beef hot dogs and chili cheeseburgers hot off the grill.
Pony rides, hay rides, a balloon chase and a duck pond should keep the kids happy.
The farm on Brandt School Road also holds a Corn Roast from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Sunday featuring roasted corn and hot dogs.
For details, call 724-935-1743.
Contest happy
Pat Harmon of Economy has struck again.
The tireless cooking-contest entrant has been chosen as one of 20 finalists in the National Beef Cook-Off, slated for Sept. 28 to 29 in Tucson.
She's hoping her recipe for Tex-Mex Smoky Beef Chili Hash will win her the grand prize of $50,000.
Last week she was delighted to hear that she'd won a $1,000 prize in the Rice Federation's "Rice to the Rescue" contest for her Cheesy Poblano Chile Rice Soup.
"I was happy about that," she said. "It will more than pay for my husband's [Paul] airfare to Tucson."
Other contests Harmon has either won or been a finalist in were sponsored by Pillsbury, Quaker Oats, Mrs. Dash, Kretchmer's Wheat Germ, Lawry's Marinade and Reddi-Wip.
Cooking Web site
Aspinwall resident Faith Heinauer, author of "Cooking FUNdamentals," has a colorful Web site where you can order her cookbook, look up food terms in a dictionary (with pictures), talk about food on a message board and read recipes (untested) sent in from her "pallies."
Check it out at bitchin-kitchenonline.com.
Pasta donations
Mueller's donated 55,000 servings of its Pasta LaBella, the company's new pasta line, to the Greater Community Food Bank yesterday.
Pittsburgh is one of 20 cities to receive the contribution. In all, Mueller's is donating 1 million pasta meals nationwide.
Grab-n-go faves
Convenience stores have found a secure niche in American life. The run in, grab and run out method of shopping seems to satisfy our need for instant gratification.
What packaged foods sell the most at our 119,751 convenience stores?
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (they report a 15.1 percent increase in sales over last year), it's packaged sweet snacks such as pastries, muffins and cookies, up 54 percent.
Juices and juice drinks are also good sellers, up 30 percent, followed closely by bottled water sales, up 26 percent.
Convenience stores with gas pumps sell a whopping 60 percent of all motor fuels sold in the U.S.
The last word
"It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking. "
-- French chef X. Marcel Boulestin
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