Inside WSKG

Join WSKG this May!

This month proves as exciting as ever as WSKG heads into the community with several events and brings quality viewing into the living room with new local and national shows.

Highlights: Freedom Riders screenings, Off the Page live taping in Ithaca, The Cat in the Hat visits Binghamton's Jewish Community Center, The Moth Radio Hour returns, Pathways to Understanding: Our Energy Future and "Like" us on Facebook! 

Inside WSKG gives you a behind-the-scenes look at WSKG Public Broadcasting. From station events and new television programs to radio highlights and educational outreach activities, Inside WSKG keeps you informed about WSKG, the public media for your community.

Read with The Cat in the Hat! WSKG and The Cat in the Hat will visit the Early Childhood Learning Center at the JCC in Binghamton, NY for a family Preschool Literacy Day on May 5th starting at 1:15pm. Come dressed as your favorite book character for a costume parade at 1:15pm, plus interactive storytime and library card sign up. Free to all attendees! More Event Info

Listen for all new episodes of The Moth Radio Hour  this month. The show will return to it's usual slot at
8:00pm, immediately following This American Life at 7:00pm. Entering its 4th season, The Moth recently received a 70th Annual Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media for 2010.

WSKG TV presents all-new episodes of Pathways to Understanding: Our Energy Future on May 19th at 8:00pm and 8:30pm. Hear local experts answer questions submitted directly from our community on wind energy and biofuels in Part 3 and energy conservation in Part 4.  See Parts 1 and 2 online.

"Like" WSKG on Facebook for your chance at give-aways all spring and summer!  Plus, you'll receive daily station updates, events information and special web-only content. We've already had three lucky winners of gifts from our Radio and Education Departments, as well as the Expressions Summer Concert Series complete DVD set. Show your support for WSKG in the little ways, and Like us on Facebook

Join WSKG for three screenings of the upcoming documentary Freedom Riders from PBS and American Experience.  While the first screening on May 2nd at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, NY has already sold out, we'll host an encore showing May 9th starting at 6:00pm at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (contact Michelle Berry, michellecourtneyberry@gmail.com, for reservations). If you're in the Binghamton area, head over the the Cornerstone Community Church in Endicott, NY for a screening on May 7th starting at 5:00pm.  More details on the events

Join Community Conversation May 17th at 7:00pm for a discussion of the Freedom Rides. In 1961, seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C. on two buses headed for the Deep South, intending to challenge segregation in interstate bus stations. The ensuing chaos and violence sent shockwaves through American society and made an important and lasting contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.

Get the Math is coming to WSKG TV May 9th at 5:30pm! Get the Math is a multimedia project about algebra in the real world. See how professionals working in fashion, videogame design, and music production use algebraic thinking. Then take on interactive challenges related to those careers!

Off the Page is heading to Ithaca, NY! Participate in the live taping on May 6th at the Finger Lakes Wine Center at 5:00pm. Host Bill Jaker will discuss "Writing About Wine" with authors John Hartstock (Seasons of a Finger Lakes Winery) and Henry Stark (food and wine critic for the Ithaca Times and Ithaca Journal). Hear the broadcast May 10th at 1:00pm and 7:00pm on WSKG Radio.

Study in new ways with Regents Review 2.0. Regents Review 2.0 is a series of test-prep programs that use both TV and the Web to deliver a dynamic review session to high school students who plan on taking a NYS Regents exam this June. Check out a variety of interactive features, including a comprehensive website, on-demand videos, test prep on Facebook and watch May 16th-21st from 1:00am to 6:00am on WSKG TV.

Midsomer Murders returns to WSKG TV starting May 5th at 9:00pm with all new episodes! The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary British television mysteries. Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham, modern master of the English village mystery, the series stars John Nettles (Bergerac) as the unflappable Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby.

 

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Grünkohl mit Pinkelwurst

by Bill Snyder

My garden this year has been erratic.  The beets got no bigger than marbles, while the turnips, right next to them in the same soil, are huge. The okra produced next to nothing, while the kale, collards, and broccoli raab have me practically living on them -- and giving them away.

Frau Dodson, my high school German teacher is from Nordenham, Germany.  That's near Bremen.  In that area there is something akin to a cult developed around "Grünkohl mit Pinkelwurst" -- Kale with...well, you can't translate Pinkel, but the "wurst" part, of course, is sausage. 

I took her some of my curly kale a couple of weeks ago after the first frost. She showed me her recipe for Kale with Pinkel -- auf Deutsch.  It's a very rich dish and she adapts it into a more diet-friendly version -- which is certainly possible, since kale is a really healthy vegetable, and Pinkel actually has something like oatmeal in it.

At RIGOLETTO chorus rehearsal I asked Professor Bill Snyder from BU if he was familiar with it.  (He's not a relative as far as we know, but we often tell people I was named after him -- which is technically correct, since he was named first).

He found a recipe in English -- and some background on the "kale outings" which are an excuse for hiking, drinking and eating too much. 

Here's the recipe:

Kohl and Pinkel

3 1/4 lb curly kale
Salt
6 oz. smoked fat bacon
1 T drippings
2 large onions
1 bay leaf
4 slices of cured smoked pork (Kasseler)
1 1/2 C meat stock
6 oz. belly of pork
4 Pinkel sausages
Pepper
Nutmeg

Remove the wilted leaves and tough stalks and veins from the kale.  Wash thoroughly. Blanch for 2 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain and chop.

Cut up the onions and dice the bacon. Heat the bacon in the drippings in a large saucepan until the fat runs.

Add the onions and the bay leaf.

Add the kale and the cured smoked pork.  Pour on the meat stock, cover and cook for about an hour.

Add the sausages and belly of pork, and extra water as necessary

Cook together for a further 1 hour, stirring the kale repeatedly to prevent it from burning at the bottom. At the end of the cooking time, remove the sausages and keep hot.  Season the kale with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Serve with the meat and sausages.

Revision: 4 Pinkel sausages?   They are HUGE!  One is enough.  After you take the kale out of the boiling water, put in the Pinkelwurst to cook it while you are doing all the other stuff. Then when it is cooked, let it cook and open it into the kale and bacon and smoked pork mixture.

I found the cured smoked pork at the Giant.  In packages of 4 slices.

The un-smoked bacon seems to be redundant.  It was better when I left it out.

As for the meat stock, I've tried 2/2 beef/chicken and 1/3 beef/chicken.  Never thought of ham stock.  DOH!

USE MORE FRESH-GROUND NUTMEG!!!!!

Great. I’m dead, and they’re talking about wheat.

by Bill Snyder

"Gristmills once dotted the banks of streams and rivers throughout New York, mapping out settlement just as subway stations today chart New York City’s migratory patterns."

Flour That Has the Flavor of Home

More Upstate Food from the NY Times

by Bill Snyder

"On a beautiful Saturday morning in this village of 6,000 about half an hour from Ithaca, a group of friends and acquaintances gathered at Cold Brook Farms, which specializes in wild game and doubles as a hunting preserve. "

The Anti-Restaurants

Article on Local Food from the NYT

by Bill Snyder

"Although people who need a precise travel plan might go hungry using my approach, I discovered that winding through central New York armed with a few strong culinary guideposts and a willingness to risk lunch on vague directions was a great way to spend a weekend."

Finger (Lakes) Food

(I know that Sharkey's is iconic for their spiedies in Binghamton, but I'm a Spiedie and Rib Pit fan.)

St. George's Day

by Bill Snyder

12 recipes for St George's Day