Tuesday, December 30, 2025
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Ambrosia Salad, Tropical

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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By the time most of you peruse the column it will be December 25th, and we will be looking towards New Year’s Eve! This past week, while doing lots of resting and reading I’ve been thinking about 2026 and my personal goals for the year. I’m excited about the year, especially after my new knee. Looking forward to returning to activities I’ve had to turn my back on for over 5 years or more.

As I chose the recipe for the week my mind was focusing on the burst of freshness this type of salad holds for the palate. It’s the pop of flavor coming from an uncomplicated presentation. Great for a closure or a main salad with a meal, this is totally one of my favorite ways to conclude a fine meal. It’s also about the presentation, grab a margarita glass, or something ‘fun’ from the local flea market to display the dish. I have lots of pottery and special serving pieces, and some of my favs are those coming from a trip to a flea market or antique store.

Speaking of flea markets and antique stores, this is probably top on my list as I recover from the the knee surgery. I can’t wait to go back to Hannibal, MO, see my girl friends and spend some time downtown at a couple of large markets. Usually; the first thing I’m looking for upon entering a market is where I can sit. Hopefully, those days are going to be behind me. Last March I took a good friend, back with me to Hannibal and now I want to go back and repeat that trip.

This week I plan on ‘standing’ a bit more in the kitchen in order to build up more stamina. The ‘newlyweds’ are coming over for the

traditional seafood chowder on Christmas Eve. I’m looking forward to it greatly. It’s a tradition my family has had for years. Usually we also have pizza on Christmas Eve too, I don’t know if I’ll get that accomplished, but I’ll give it a try. OK, so how did this tradition begin? On Christmas Eve my mother, Betty, would fill the pick up truck with yummy platters of Christmas goodies. She would leave home by 9am or so and deliver Christmas blessings as far away as Canton, Missouri, where they also happened to have a Pizza Hut. Thus she started picking up pizza for our lunch that day. It was also our first day out of school for the holiday, so we kids got to sleep in while she was out doing her deliveries. Then; dad came home from the bank by noon and everyone jumped in helping to get ready for family Christmas at our home that evening. It was usually 2 soups, oyster stew and chili or oyster soup and potato soup. Then all the accouterments were there with crackers, summer sausage and cheese platters, pickles, celery, carrots, dip. Then came the big ‘Lane Cake’ from the garage refrigerator. A beautiful presentation, and so yummy. (Lane Cakes originated in the great state of Kentucky.)

Christmas morning was filled with early cinnamon rolls upon rising followed by a full egg breakfast around 10. Through the years the meal for Christmas did lots of changing. When I was very small it was a big dinner at my grandparents. In latter years it was a nice meal, but not all the ‘foo foo’ stuff, so everyone could enjoy the day.

‘If’ the weather was snowy the afternoon may have also included sledding or ice skating.

Now days Ervin and I like to take a drive on local country roads on Christmas afternoon. Our breakfast is still quite an affair, but our main meal is simple, and we enjoy the ambiance of Christmas Day.

I hope the season brings you comfort, joy and anticipation for what

lies ahead in 2026. ‘It is in giving, that we receive.’ Ponder that small statement for just a bit, Merry Christmas, The Covered Dish.

 

Tropical Ambrosia Salad or Dessert

1 (20 oz.) can pineapple, drained

1 (11 oz.) can drained, mandarin oranges

1 large mango or papaya cut into chunks

3 cups mini marshmallows

1 (10 oz.) jar maraschino cherries, drained

1 cup shredded coconut

½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Dressing

4 ounces sour cream

8 ounces whipped cream

1 tablespoon honey

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Additional toasted coconut for garnish

Drain all fruits and place in bowl, along with nuts and coconut. In a separate bowl prepare the dressing. Carefully fold the dressing into the fruits. Sometimes I leave the mandarins til’ the very end because they are so easy to tear. Cover salad and toast the coconut for garnish over the salad or dessert.

Nutrients Needed for Plant Health

By
Guest Columnist
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Why do we fertilize our plants? For growth and sustained health and production! Nutrients most frequently lacking for growth are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K).

 

• N (Nitrogen). This nutrient element provides dark green color in plants. It promotes rapid vegetative growth. Plants deficient in nitrogen have thin, spindly stems, pale or yellow foliage, and smaller than normal leaves.

• P (Phosphorus). This nutrient promotes early root formation, gives plants a rapid, vigorous start, and hastens blooming and maturity. Plants deficient in this element have thin, shortened stems, and the leaves often develop a purplish color.

• K (Potassium). Potassium or potash hastens ripening of fruit. Plant disease resistance as well as general plant health depend on this element. It is also important in developing plump, full seeds. Plants deficient in this element have graying or browning on the outer edges of older leaves.

The content of N, P, and K is specified on fertilizer bags. The analysis or grade refers to the percent by weight of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium in that order. Thus, a 10-10-10 fertilizer contains 10 percent nitrogen (N), 10 percent phosphate (P2O5) and 10 percent potassium (K2O).

 

The winter before you begin to garden, you will want to get a sample of your garden soil tested to determine pH and nutrient content. The soil test provides a starting place for a soil improvement program. Unless you know the deficiencies in your garden soil, you are only guessing when you apply fertilizer. The soil test will tell you how much fertilizer you must add to your garden initially. It is then much easier to maintain a high level of fertility as you garden year after year.

KU News: Discoveries in particle physics, award for KGS scientist

By
Joyce Gilliland
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From the Office of Public Affairs | https://www.news.ku.edu

 

Headlines

 

Experiment nixes ‘sterile’ neutrino explanation of previous unexpected measurements

LAWRENCE — Neutrinos, the second most abundant particles after light, are among the least understood particles because of how little they interact. Experimental particle physicists working at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, including a University of Kansas physicist, have found evidence against the existence of a “sterile” type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments’ anomalous results.

 

Kansas Geological Survey assistant scientist receives early career award

LAWRENCE — Kansas Geological Survey assistant scientist Sam Zipper is the recipient of this year’s Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award from the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to hydrology through research, education or societal impacts.

 

 

Full stories below.

 

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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected]
Experiment nixes ‘sterile’ neutrino explanation of previous unexpected measurements

LAWRENCE — Experimental particle physicists working at the MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory have found evidence against the existence of a “sterile” type of neutrino hypothesized to be responsible for previous experiments’ anomalous results, as detailed in a paper recently published in Nature.

For one researcher at the University of Kansas, who was a co-author on the findings, the results hone the ongoing search to explain past anomalies in experimental data — for which a leading interpretation was that the three known neutrino types don’t represent the complete description of these plentiful particles (which are fundamental building blocks of reality, according to the Standard Model of particle physics).

“This experiment is part of a broad international effort to study neutrinos,” said co-author Maria Brigida Brunetti, assistant professor in the KU Department of Physics & Astronomy. “They are the second most abundant particle, after light. They travel through everything; they travel through us. Tens of trillions of them pass through your body each second, but you don’t notice them because they don’t interact much at all — they can only interact through the weak and gravitational forces.”

Because of how little they interact, neutrinos are among the least understood particles, which is why the international particle physics community is investing heavily in studying them.

“One of their peculiar features is that there are three types of them called flavors, and as they travel they transform between each other,” Brunetti said. “This phenomenon is called neutrino oscillation.”

MicroBooNE and other present and future experiments study these oscillations by capturing neutrinos after their journey and looking for differences from predictions.

“Because neutrinos only interact weakly, we need to produce a lot of them in intense beams in order for a few of them to interact in our liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) detectors,” Brunetti said. “These detectors allow us to capture very high-resolution representations of particle interactions. In the detector, neutrinos interact with the liquid argon atoms and produce charged particles. As these particles travel through, they strip the argon atoms of electrons. We put an electric field in the detector, and all these electrons drift toward the readout elements where we collect the signal.”

These can be pixel sensors or, like in MicroBooNE’s case, multiple planes of wires, providing data that will paint scientists a fuller and more accurate understanding of the oscillation of neutrinos, as well as shedding light on other fundamental physics questions.

“From the information on which wires or pixels were hit by the drifted electrons and from the electrons’ arrival time, you can build 2D images or 3D representations,” Brunetti said. “These are high-resolution — we really can photograph the interaction in very high detail. We then develop sophisticated software, such as the Pandora event reconstruction that the KU group is expert at, that tells what it sees in the images. For example, where the neutrino interacted, what particles emerged from the interaction and produced the different signals, and their energies, which enables analysis of our large and complex datasets.”

According to the KU researcher, MicroBooNE was studying whether it’s possible that neutrinos also transform to a fourth sterile type, which could have explained the previous unexpected results.

“Sterile neutrinos would therefore only feel one of the fundamental forces, gravity. The experiment was looking for new physics,” Brunetti said. “But if this was the case, that there’s a fourth type of neutrino we don’t yet know of, this would’ve changed what we saw in our experiment. Instead, MicroBooNE didn’t confirm the anomalies that the previous MiniBooNE and LSND experiments observed, and it ruled out several possible explanations, including one in terms of oscillations to a sterile neutrino in this paper.”

Brunetti said the findings all but ruled out the existence of a sterile neutrino as an explanation for these anomalies. While the mysteries of the anomalous data remain, the KU scientist said the search has been narrowed by the findings, allowing for more informed future investigations.

Brunetti’s group at KU that is primarily involved in the ongoing Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) program at Fermilab and the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), reconstructs and interprets LArTPC data. This allows the researchers to determine the neutrino flavor and measure its energy to study the phenomenon of oscillation.

“For MicroBooNE, this is part of what we call the Short-Baseline Program at Fermilab,” Brunetti said. “You can either design experiments that look at a short-baseline oscillation, meaning the neutrinos don’t travel as much, or you can study experiments that let the neutrinos travel a longer distance, which is what DUNE will do. DUNE will also use a neutrino beam with a broad range of energies. The combination of the long baseline and the broad neutrino energy range will give DUNE unique capabilities to study oscillations. We have a complex of accelerators and ‘Near Detectors’ at Fermilab, and then we have what we call the ‘Far Detector,’ which will study the oscillated beam. Both Near and Far Detectors are crucial to achieving DUNE’s physics goals, such as determining which neutrino is the lightest and which the heaviest, studying whether neutrinos and antineutrinos behave in the same way, and looking for exciting new physics possibilities. The Far Detector is in South Dakota, so it’s an 800-mile journey.”

While MicroBooNE and DUNE both use LArTPC detectors, DUNE’s detectors will be much larger and more sophisticated. Along with another major effort in Japan, DUNE, which has more than 1,400 collaborators worldwide, represents the forefront of neutrino research, ensuring Brunetti and her students a role in further refining scientific understanding of the most basic workings of the universe.

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For every $1 invested in KU, taxpayers gain $2.90 in added tax revenue and public sector savings.

https://economicdevelopment.ku.edu/impact

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Contact: Sam Zipper, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-0364, [email protected]
Kansas Geological Survey assistant scientist receives early career award

 

LAWRENCE — Kansas Geological Survey assistant scientist Sam Zipper is the recipient of this year’s Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award from the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to hydrology through research, education or societal impacts.

Zipper joins a distinguished group of scientists, leaders and communicators recognized by AGU for advancing science. Each honoree reflects AGU’s vision for a thriving, sustainable and equitable future supported by scientific discovery, innovation and action. Early career awards recognize scientists who are within 10 years of receiving their doctorates.

Steven Loheide, Zipper’s doctoral adviser and distinguished professor of water resources engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, nominated Zipper for the award.

“Sam is a really unassuming scientist and amazing to watch work through a problem,” Loheide said. “He has a particular knack for making an observation or hearing something and storing away that piece of information. Then, he sees the puzzle where that piece should fit. One of the really fun things that I enjoyed when working with Sam was watching how he was able to, in the end, bring together all of the information he had at his disposal.”

Zipper leads the HydroEcology of the Anthropocene Lab (HEAL) at KGS. The goal of HEAL is to understand how local, regional and global change will affect the water resources of Kansas and the Great Plains region now and in the future. Zipper is also an assistant professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas.

“In my work with Sam, I have been impressed by the breadth and depth of his knowledge, his energy level and his commitment to making contributions that have a strong societal relevance,” said Jim Butler, KGS senior scientist. “This is a well-deserved recognition of the quality of Sam’s work. It is also great recognition of the quality of the work that is done at the KGS and continues our tradition of national recognition of the strength of KGS hydrologists.”

Zipper was recognized Dec. 16 at AGU25 in New Orleans.

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KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

[email protected]

https://www.news.ku.edu

 

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

 

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

KLA Seeks Public’s Help After Horse, Cattle Reported Stolen in Kansas

By
Guest Columnist
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Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) officials are asking for the public’s help after reports of stolen livestock in two separate incidents in northeast and north-central Kansas.

A KLA member reported a horse stolen from pens near their home along K-4 Highway west of Topeka in Shawnee County. The theft occurred sometime between the night of Dec. 17 and the morning of Dec. 18. The missing horse is a 10-year-old registered Quarter Horse gelding, grullo in color, also described as a gray dun.

In a separate case, another KLA member reported two bred cows and two calves missing from a pasture near Concordia in Cloud County. The black crossbred cattle are branded with a rafter backward R, either on the left hip or both hips. The cows have yellow ear tags with the brand, while the calves have white ear tags and weigh between 550 and 750 pounds.

The Kansas Livestock Association is offering rewards of up to $5,000 in each case for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. The reward program applies only when the victim is a KLA member.

Anyone with information about the stolen horse is asked to contact the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office at 785-251-2200. Information regarding the missing cattle should be reported to the Cloud County Sheriff’s Office at 785-243-3636.

The Most Special Christmas

By
Dawn Phelps
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Dawn Phelps
Columnist

*I know Christmas is a few days in the past.  But I would like to share a true Christmas story from my childhood as I wish a healthy, happy New Year for each reader!

 

“Don’t worry,” my mother said.  “We will have Christmas.”  I still remember her words one Christmas when I was a young child, a Christmas when there was no money for the usual “Santa Claus” gifts for our family.  Farming had not been profitable for my dad that year, and his health was not good.

 

But first let me give a little background to my life in Tennessee.  I was the second of seven children.  At the time of “the special Christmas,” there were six children in our family—my youngest sister had not been born.  My grandmother also lived with us, making a total of nine in our household at the time.  

 

We lived in a large rambling thirteen-room house on 160 acres.  The house was heated by two fireplaces and a cook stove in the kitchen.  

 

I remember how cold it was to sleep in an unheated bedroom—how my oldest sister Joy and I, wearing our long flannel nightgowns, warmed ourselves by the fireplace in my parents’ bedroom until our nightgowns were hot to touch, then run down the hall, and dive into an ice-cold bed.  We would huddle in bed, shivering, our teeth chattering, until we warmed up.    

 

We grew up eating wild greens called poke salad, turnip greens, and wild game, including rabbits and squirrels that my daddy shot in the woods.  But we mostly ate white beans or pinto beans with cornbread which were baked in a black iron skillet twice a day.  But we also ate vegetables canned from own garden and wild blackberries that we picked, braving the rattlesnakes and copperheads!    

 

For breakfast, my mother baked biscuits 364 days a year.  But on Christmas morning, mother took a break from biscuit making—a part of my Christmas story.  

 

Each Christmas eve the children in my family would discuss where our “Santa Claus” gifts should be left.  We made name tags, leaving them in our chosen spots for our presents, such as on the couch or a particular chair.    

 

Our gifts usually were not big ones.  Sometimes we would get a new tablet or pencils for school, and sometimes new socks or a clothing item.  But we were pleased with anything we received.  

 

It was also a part of our tradition to have bananas, pecans, and tangerines on Christmas morning, but only on Christmas morning.  That was the day my mother got a break from cooking, and we were allowed to eat as many bananas or tangerines as we wished—they were so good!   

 

That particular year, up until the day before Christmas, there was still no money.  But my mother still stood firm that we would have Christmas.  To me as a child things did not look very promising.  

 

When the mailman brought the mail that Christmas Eve day, there was a card from my Uncle Douglas and Aunt Ruth in California.  Inside the card, there was a twenty-dollar bill—a lot of money for our family!   

 

On Christmas Eve my mother and my oldest sister took the twenty-dollar bill to Columbia to shop.  Somehow, with the sales, the twenty dollars stretched to provide gifts for everyone in the family!  We also had our traditional bananas and pecans and tangerines.  

 

My Uncle Doug in California did not know there was no money for Christmas that year.  He did not know that his twenty-dollar bill would provide the most memorable Christmas of my childhood.  

 

Looking back, Christmas to our family was not just about the “things” we received.  Christmas was about memories made as we helped cut a cedar tree from the pasture and about decorating the tree with bubble candles and the same decorations used through the years.

 

It was about being together.  It is about Aunt Mary’s “cup salad” and jam cake, made from the wild blackberry jam.  It was about my mother’s homemade coconut cake and boiled custard.  And, yes, it was about a special Christmas.  To a child that twenty dollars was a miracle provided by God through an uncle in California.    

 

But even more, Christmas is about family, relatives, and friends.  But most of all Christmas is about the birth of Jesus—the biggest miracle, the most special Christmas of all!

 

I hope you have already had a wonderful Christmas and that you will have a blessed year in 2026!  Happy New Year!

 

[email protected]

 

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