Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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‘Recipe for Love’ Strawberry Crepes

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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So; I’m not sharing my new soup recipe this week. It came out just fine, but I’m not sure it displays the quality I like to share, so it is on hold a bit longer. Instead I’d like to focus a little on our upcoming Valentine’s Celebration, tips & ideas to make it a joy for the cook and the recipients.

I’m actually doing a dinner for the event this year. There were a number of reasons why I decided to host a Valentine function. Probably the biggest was my desires for quality and cost. By the time the Valentine dinner is wrapped the bank account will still be in tact, the dinner crowds will have been left behind and the quality of the evening will have soared.

As I always point out ‘simplicity’ is your friend for a comfortable-stress free night of entertaining. Everything on the menu does not have to be made from scratch. In fact, I highly recommend it not be. I recently found a local who sells delicious sour dough (mine is dormant at the moment) and I plan on picking up her bread for my dinner.

You don’t have to make the dessert, it could be purchased from another local individual.

Make as many things in advance that you can. Table decor should be done ahead of time. (I made mine last week.) The fewer do’s for the dinner night the better. Beverages can be ahead of time with small garnishes made in advance. This is a night for real napkins, DO NOT use paper napkins! Strategically place candles around the home, and if weather allows have the fire going. Plan the music while you’re driving to work one morning. Have ‘fresh’ cozy blankets in the living room for dessert and coffee. Also make the bathroom a little special with a fresh flower or candle.

The meal can be as simple as spaghetti, salad and bread or as elaborate as steak and seafood. I’ve chosen shrimp and grits as my

entree with an elaborate salad and bread. For dessert I’m serving 2-3 presentations. One being this week’s feature strawberry crepes. Everything about crepes can be made ahead of time. Be sure and pull out a special plate for the dessert. I use clear glass dessert plates which shows off the dessert nicely.

While many reach for heavier Valentine desserts like cheesecake, (Which can also be made in advance.) heavy chocolates and the like I prefer a lighter approach to the closure of a meal. Don’t think I’d turn down the cheesecake, not happening, Under no circumstances do you use Valentine’s Day or any other dinner party as an experimenting ground for new dishes. This is a time for signature dishes, and no big surprises. Oh boy, I’m going against the grain here, as my shrimp dish will be a bit new, which is why we are having it for just the 2 of us ahead of the dinner party.

This dessert is not difficult, you can make the crepe shells, it just takes time ahead of the event. I’ll be making mine at least a week to 2 weeks ahead of the event; then putting them in the freezer. The filling can also be made 4-5 days before the event, adding the fresh fruit at the end. Let’s get rolling on Strawberry Crepes! Simply yours, The Covered Dish.

Basic Crepe Batter

2/3 cup unsifted flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons, cooled, melted butter

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk or light cream

Oil of choice for cooking the crepe shell

Mix all batter ingredients together with only ½ cup of the milk. Use a submersible blender or small mixer, as ingredients need to be very smooth. After blended well add the remaining ½ cup of milk. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 3 hours. Slowly heat up a 7 inch skillet brushing with the oil of choice. Usually it take me close to 3 tablespoons to cover the bottom of the skillet, lifting and turning to cover. Use medium heat, when lightly brown lift with tongs to turn, browning other side. Remove to cool. Stack with parchment paper or

wax paper between each shell. Should yield a dozen shells.

Cream Filling

8 ounces softened cream cheesecake

1 cup sour cream

6 ounces strawberry yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon grenadine

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

3 cups fresh strawberries for fill and for garnishing

Hold back strawberries with stems in tact, for the top garnish.

You will fill the crepe with a row of cream and then layer on a few sliced berries, before rolling and placing on the serving plate. Squirt a little of the filling over the top with an angle cut strawberry, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. Other additions could be chocolate, whipped cream, mint leaves, etc.

Yep, ‘A Recipe for Love’.

Our Home on the Prairie

By
Dylan Yoder
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If you were anything like me as a kid you probably disliked growing up and living in
“flat, boring” Kansas. As a kid full of  imagination at the possibility of exotic places, my mind was always wandering to the ideas of mountains, oceans, and great tall rainforests. That being said, it’s important to remember that we too come from a place full of wonder and amazement.

While the Great Plains may not look like much to outside eyes, it’s important to remember how our homeland was. We are prairie folk, and the land we come from is home to miles and miles of grassland, agriculture, and the most unpredictable weather patterns in North America. With this past week being Kansas’s 164th birthday, I’d say it’s high time we pay it a little bit more attention.

Starting off with the history of the prairie land. In a time before our grandparent’s
grandparents, the great plains were home to miles and miles worth of natural prairie land.
Occasionally, a tree-dotted the landscape, but for the most part, open grassland was the way of this land. Upon this grassland, we all are well aware of the millions and millions of American Bison that roamed the untamed land. Wind swept through this sea of green completely unobstructed, reaching incredible speeds that we don’t really get with modern wind blocks. That being said, the incredible wind is no foreign concept to us prairie folk.

Additionally, something that people don’t often know about our home is the fact that grass fires were a very natural and vital part of our ecosystem. In ancient times, there were no firefighters to put out said fires, so the ecology of the land adapted to replant itself over and over again, regardless of what setbacks it feels. A trait that is shared by the people of this land.

This land shapes how we feel about our home, but I would venture to say that it also
shapes the way we are as people. The people of the Plains are hardy and have the ability to stick it out in the midst of great struggles, much like the ability of the prairie to survive and come back year after year of fires. We’re hardworking and can weather even the hardest storms. In the prairie, we get the weather of all other lands, and as such, we experience some of the most diverse forms of stormy and clear days. Yet, despite all of that, we’re still here, just as the grassland from years past remained ever-present.

In today’s world, it’s hard to observe the natural prairie. Only 4% of the Great Plains
remains from years past, with a loss of 2.5 million acres of prairie land alone in 2015 and 2016. These natural grassland areas are primarily lost to agricultural expansion, as well as complete disregard for prairie life in general. Instead of cultivating the natural, plentiful plants and grasses of the prairie, we continually plant exotic species such as fescue grass in our lawns, and what for? Foreign grasses and plants may look nice during the fall season, but require incredible amounts of water and force the destruction of natural grassland ecosystems. If you’d like to know more about sustainable planting and lawn use in the Great Plains, please see Dyck Arboretum in Hesston, Kansas.

Overall, we should be proud of the land that we’ve all grown up on and lived off of for
generations. We are prairie folk, and the land we come from is home to miles and miles of grassland, agriculture and the most unpredictable weather patterns in North America. And there is pride in being able to call this place home.

Pruned to be Productive

By
Guest Columnist
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Lots of homeowners will plant a few fruit trees in the back yard in hopes of harvesting delicious tasting fruit! We often forget that they need to be pruned to be productive so they get neglected.

 

Apple trees that are not pruned for several years will often produce so many branches that little energy is left for fruit production. Overgrown apple trees are also difficult to harvest and spray. Gardeners who have such a tree are often at a loss as to how to get it back in shape.

 

Often the best recommendation for such a tree is to make one pruning cut at ground level and start over with a new tree. However, trees may have sentimental value that will make revitalization worth the time and effort. Realize that this will be a multi-year process because no more than 30 percent of the tree should be removed in one year. Here are some steps to follow:

1. Remove all dead wood. This does not count toward the 30 percent.

2. Remove suckers from the base of the tree.

3. Choose approximately six of the best branches to keep as scaffold branches. Remove all others.

Branches should be cut flush to the branch collar without removing the collar. The collar is the natural swelling that occurs where a branch connects to the trunk or to a larger branch. Removing the collar would leave a larger wound that would take additional time to heal.

Do not paint wounds. Wounds heal more quickly if left open.

Candidates for removal include branches with narrow crotch angles, which are more likely to break in wind and ice storms, and those that cross branches that you will save. This may be all that is possible the first year if the 30 percent threshold has been reached.

4. Thin the branches on each scaffold branch. Remove crowded branches to open up the tree to light and allow humidity to escape. Shorten each scaffold branch by cutting back to a side branch. When you are through, the tree should have enough wood removed so that a softball can be thrown through the tree.

Severe pruning often will cause an apple tree to produce vigorous side shoots from the trunk called suckers. Main branches will also produce water sprouts that grow straight up. The suckers and water sprouts should be removed throughout the growing season so the center of the tree stays open. Do not wait until spring to prune out water sprouts and suckers as this will stimulate the tree to produce more. Removing water sprouts and suckers is the most time consuming and difficult practice necessary to bring an overgrown apple back into shape.

“What can we learn from the dying?”

By
Guest Columnist
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For the last five years, I have had the great privilege of serving my local health system as Medical Director for Home Hospice. Every week I sit in a meeting with the multidisciplinary caretakers on this team – the nurses who provide the great majority of the hands-on care, social worker, pharmacist, dietician, and pastor. We discuss all the patients currently under our care and discuss how we can improve each patients suffering and maximize their quality of life.

The patients we care for on home hospice are those we believe to be at the end of life. Some are actively in the dying process; others are stable, still going about their lives, but have a terminal disease with a high likelihood of death in the next six months. On home hospice, most patients either stay in their own home with help from a caretaker, often a family member; or they might choose to reside in a care facility where they can get more extensive needs met.

Our nurses and other staff get to know these patients and their families extremely well, and I truly enjoy hearing our patients’ stories relayed. I don’t always get to meet the patients cared for by our team, as most continue to stay under the care of their primary care providers while on hospice. But even when I am hearing their stories second hand, a theme stands out as a common sentiment of our patients – the desire to reflect on their lives.

Patients facing their own deaths want to talk about their lives. Our staff frequently tries to facilitate what they call a “ review” in which a patient can openly talk about their childhood, family, career, service, and sometimes their regrets. This is therapeutic for the dying patient and their loved ones. Even some patients with dementia, with no memory of recent years, can delight in recalling a story from their childhood, looking through old photographs, or listening to music they once loved.

I have recently thought about this particular human need – to reflect and remember ones life. I take this as a reminder to both seek those stories from my own loved ones (gosh, I wish I had asked my grandmother more questions about her life) and, perhaps, to tell and write about the things in my own life I would want to be remembered after I am gone. For if there is another thing I’ve learned serving patients on hospice, it is that my death is also inevitable; but, I think, life’s finality is what gives it beauty and meaning.

Kelly Evans-Hullinger, MD. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices Internal Medicine at Avera Medical Group in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org, and on social media. Watch On Call with the Prairie Doc, most Thursday’s at 7PM on streaming on Facebook and listen to Prairie Doc Radio Sunday’s at 6am and 1pm.

“Teen Mental Health”

By
Guest Columnist
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The most recent survey of teen mental health by the Centers for Disease Control in 2023 revealed that 20.3% of adolescents in the United States have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. This reflects a 35% increase since 2016. The survey also found that 40% of teens reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 20% seriously considered suicide, and, tragically, 9% attempted suicide.

These statistics should alarm any parent or grandparent of a teenager. As the mother of a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, I often think about my children’s mental health and how to best support them. They are growing up in a world far different from the one I knew. Today’s teens face the challenges of social media, cyber bullying, academic pressure, and the struggle to fit in with their peers, all while navigating the changes of puberty.

Like every parent, I want my children to be happy, resilient, and safe. The first step is creating a space where they feel safe sharing their thoughts and feelings. Listening to them without immediately jumping in to solve their problems or dismiss their emotions is a crucial skill for parents to practice. Taking the time to talk and ask open-ended questions about how they feel can make a significant difference. What might seem minor to an adult with years of experience and perspective can feel overwhelming to a teenager. It is essential for our kids to know we are here to support them, no matter the size of the problem.

Another key parenting strategy is modeling good self-care and emotional regulation. That can mean working on improving our own mental health. Showing teens how to be kind to themselves and handle life’s setbacks teaches them invaluable lessons. Mental health is not a one-time fix; it is a lifelong process. Adolescence is the ideal time to equip teens with healthy coping strategies. Teaching them how to handle stress and overcome failures prepares them to become thriving, well-adjusted adults.

Parents should also trust their instincts when something feels off. If your teen shows a sudden drop in grades, stops enjoying activities they once loved, or seems persistently sad or angry, it’s time to seek help. If teens become more withdrawn or secretive, having a discussion about your concerns is warranted. Resources like pediatricians, school counselors, and therapists can provide support and guidance.

As a mother, I am committed to walking this journey alongside my children, every step of the way. Together, we can navigate the challenges, celebrate the victories, and build the tools they need for a happy, healthy future.

Jill Kruse, D.O. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices as a hospitalist in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org and on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc®, a medical Q&A show, 2 podcasts, and a Radio

program, providing health information based on science, built on trust, streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central and wherever podcast can be found.

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