By: Austin Bailey-Zimmerman

Are you in the mood for a fall themed dessert? These Pumpkin spice cookies are perfect for you then. This is a very easy recipe that won’t take up a lot of your time, and will leave you feeling satisfied on a chilly fall day.

I chose this recipe because it has the perfect fall feeling, and has perfectly balanced flavors with savory cream cheese frosting and sweet pumpkin flavored cookies.

I got this recipe from @tabiibakes on TikTok. She has created the perfect cookie, filling your mouth with a mix of smooth, creamy frosting and a moist, fluffy cookie. It will fulfill your cravings for a fall delicacy.

It’s a lovely thing to share with family, friends, neighbors, or anyone else you have in mind!! I had my family try it, and they thought it was perfect for this fall! Get in the mood for fall with this treat!

Ingredients

Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temp
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Cookie:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup pumpkin purée

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and lay parchment paper on two baking sheets.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and soda, salt, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl.
3. Stir together the wet ingredients; vanilla, butter, and pumpkin in a medium bowl.
4. Combine the dry and wet ingredients together and knead until dough forms.
5. Make dough into balls and set on baking sheets.
6. Put into the oven for 16 minutes.
7. Whisk together cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a large bowl for frosting.
8. When cookies are cooled, spread frosting on top, and sprinkle with cinnamon (optional).
9. Enjoy!

By: Jefferson Palma

Waffle House is located across America with around 1,900 locations with most of its locations in the South. It was founded on September 5th, 1955, by Joe Rogers Sr. and Tom Forkner. It is 2 years away from reaching its 70 year anniversary.

This casual dining restaurant has a service of being open for 24 hours/ seven days a week.

Waffle House has an unofficial index for government agencies to measure the conditions of a hurricane. As mentioned above, most of Waffle House is located in the South where hurricanes can hit. There’s a green sign, indicating that they can serve a full menu. Yellow sign meaning that they’re probably using a generator, or are low on supplies and cannot serve a full menu. And lastly, a red sign showing that the restaurant is closed and the storm is dire.

Waffle House is also known for its violence. According to ‘Rolling Stone’, Jessica Gantt, an employee, states that “I’ve had to clean up blood from the lobby area because people were cutting on each other. Just last week there were two shootings at Waffle Houses, one in Indianapolis and one in Dillon, South Carolina. I feel scared.”

For the employees they have to endure the threat of violence, minimum wage, and very short breaks.

Waffle House is famously known as a fight club in the social media world. There were many fight videos online that went viral. One employee was a ‘hero’ on the internet and was titled “Waffle House Wendy,” after she instinctively caught a metal chair that was thrown at her.

Having seen some of the Waffle House social media, it can be said that it is funny, and crazy, and that there is always some kind of argument or conflict going on.

Although the never closing diner has a crazy reputation of fights and a hurricane meter, the main website of Waffle House states, “Waffle House was founded on the principles of providing the friendliest service in town.”

For more information please visit:

• https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/waffle-house-viral-fight-labor-strike-123478 9822/

By: Aliana Baumgardner-Romo

Minnesota has an impressive amount of state parks and beautiful things to see. Overall, there are 66 state parks which make up more than 235,000 acres of land, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Minnesota is also bordered by Lake Superior which offers quick access to the beautiful clear water and many of the parks beside it. Overall, a lot of Minnesota is forests, lakes, waterfalls and rivers, most importantly the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi river is the primary river and the second largest river in the world, and it starts here in Minnesota. It starts from lake Itasca and flows all throughout the United States into the Gulf of Mexico. One of the most known state parks in Minnesota is Itasca State park. I’ve been going to Itasca with my family ever since I was around 6 years old. In my opinion the park is very beautiful and it’s fun to swim in the river, especially with family. There’s many things to do, learn about, see and explore. Many people like to camp, fish, and visit a lot of the historical sites around. Overall, Itasca state park is one of the best in Minnesota for family trips.

Another personal favorite of mine is Gooseberry Falls which is located in Two Harbors, only 30 minutes away from Duluth. Gooseberry Falls is one of the most popular and most visited parks on the North Shore of Minnesota. The park includes 20 miles of hiking trails, scenic waterfalls, Lake Superior shoreline and many things to see. This is a favorite for me because it’s very family friendly, you can swim in the water and get relatively close to the waterfall. Overall, it’s very beautiful and offers a lot of hiking, it’s also close to Duluth which also offers a lot of beautiful trails and Lake Superior access.

There’re many state parks that offer Lake Superior access and views, although one of the prettiest is Tettegouche State Park. Located in Silver Bay, this park offers a beautiful scenic view 300 feet above Lake Superior. Along with 60-foot waterfalls, hiking, camping and rock climbing.

Besides rivers and lakes, Minnesota has many prairies and land to visit. One of the best places to explore is Glacial Lakes State Park, which provides access to hills and the clear water of the Signals Lake. It’s perfect for camping, swimming and provides many hiking trails for views of cone shaped hills and water-filled depressions.

Overall, Minnesota has a rich history that provides a lot of new things to learn about and explore. It’s home to a lot of prairies, lakes, rivers, forests, waterfalls and much more that allows scenic views and access to hiking trails.

By: Cleo Newton           

Did you know that boba tea first came from Taiwan? The website Food&Wine says, desserts like tapioca pearls and shaved ice were pretty common in the 80’s, so was drinking milk tea. People decided to combine these things together to make boba tea. They put tapioca pearls at the bottom, added shaved ice, and finally filled the rest of the cup with milk tea.  

Over time, people who sold boba tea at the market created fruit boba by using fruit powders and syrups. After this, they created more and more different types of toppings such as egg pudding, grass jelly, red beans, and almond jelly.

Eventually, they also created popping boba. It’s exactly what it sounds like, it’s a type of boba that pops when bitten into. In the classic boba tea, they swapped out the milk for non-dairy creamer, because of this, boba tea is known for being very creamy and sweet.

Some other common boba tea flavors are taro, green tea, mango, and watermelon. This one isn’t a boba tea flavor, but did you know that there’s something called boba tea pizza? It’s just where they take the classic brown sugar tapioca pearls and put it on pizza. Boba pizza is only sold at Dominos in Taiwan, would you try it?

When Taiwanese immigrants came to the US in the early 90’s, so did boba tea. The shops they set up were a good source of money and kind of became a safe place for other Asian American immigrants. Boba tea became popular in the US. It seems like boba tea first appeared in Los Angeles, California.

According to hypebae, some of the most popular boba tea shops around the world are, Happy Lemon, Ten Ren, The Alley, YiFang, Chatime, Boba Guys, and Xing Fu Tang.

Visit these places to try boba if you haven’t already or if you want to drink good boba tea. Boba and Tea and Sencha are two places locally where you can also find boba. After reading this I hope that you learned a couple new things about how boba came to be.

By: Sophie Johnson & Addison Strack

As soon as the fall menu items were released for both Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, we were both ready to try them all. Fall is one of our favorite seasons and these drinks make the season even better. We visited both Starbucks and Dunkin’ in the Highland area to try these drinks right away. This article reviews five of the drinks, from coffees to teas, and we hope that these recommendations encourage you to find your favorite fall drinks as well.

Dunkin Donuts pumpkin chai: This past week one of the fall themed drinks that we tried was the iced pumpkin chai from Dunkin’ Donuts. Dunkin’ Donuts has many choices for different fall drinks and fall food as well. The iced pumpkin chai is one of our favorite fall drinks that we’ve tried so far. There is a strong pumpkin and cinnamon flavor mixed with the chai flavor, that makes the drink feel like fall. It is on the sweeter side, so if you aren’t a fan of sweet drinks then we wouldn’t recommend this drink to you. Although, if you do like sweet drinks and chai lattes, then this is the perfect drink for you. You can also adjust the amount of pumpkin you want in the drink to make it have a stronger or weaker pumpkin flavor. You can also add things like whipped cream, cold foam, and more. Overall, we would rate this drink a 4.5/5.

Starbucks iced pumpkin cream chai tea latte: Another fall themed drink that we tried this past week was the Starbucks iced pumpkin cream chai tea latte. This drink was very similar to the Dunkin’ Donuts pumpkin chai, but instead of having pumpkin flavoring mixed with the chai tea latte, the pumpkin flavoring was in the cold foam on top of the chai. This drink didn’t really have the strongest pumpkin flavor, but it was our favorite drink that we tried. The cold foam wasn’t too liquid, and had a sweet, but not too sweet flavor. When you mix the cold foam with the chai, it tastes even better. We liked this one better than the Dunkin’ Donuts pumpkin chai, because it wasn’t too sweet. The pumpkin flavor also wasn’t too overpowering, and you could still taste the chai. We would rate this drink a 5/5.

The Dunkin’ nutty pumpkin coffee was another delicious fall menu drink that we tried this autumn. This drink had an overall pumpkin flavor with notes of nuttiness and it was just the right amount of sweet. We really enjoyed this drink, but it was not our favorite out of the four we reviewed. We definitely prefer the Dunkin lattes over their coffee options, but we still liked this one. One thing that made this drink slightly better was the sweet cold foam that was added. This is one of our favorite things to add to drinks because it makes them more creamy and adds a little extra sweetness to the drink. Overall, we would rate this drink a 3.5/5.

If we are in the mood for a coffee, the Dunkin’ pumpkin latte is our go to drink on the fall menu. This drink is different from the nutty pumpkin coffee because it is less bitter of a drink and has an even more robust pumpkin flavor. We’ve gotten this drink several times because it is so delicious. Once again we added the sweet cold foam to this beverage which adds texture and a nice boost of sweetness and creaminess. This drink is a 5/5. There is nothing that comes to mind that would make this drink better, and we have all good things to say about it.

The Starbucks pumpkin spice latte is the last fall menu drink that we tried. This drink is about a 3/5. It has a good amount of sweetness but the coffee flavor is bitter. We definitely prefer the flavor of the Dunkin’ coffee over the Starbucks coffee. If there was pumpkin cold foam added to this drink, the flavor would improve a lot. Overall, this drink was good but we don’t think we would order it again.

By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

With colder weather approaching it is difficult to find fun places to go to. In this article, I will be talking about one of my favorite places to go to during cold weather. The place I will be talking about is called Hmong Village. Hmong Village is similar to a flea market but it is located inside a building. In this building, you can find plenty of different things such as groceries, food, clothing, and many other things.

The first thing I always head to when walking inside is the food court as the smell is very strong and pleasant. There are a variety of places to try, my favorites are Her Kitchen and Moon’s Kitchen which are located right next to each other. These Kitchens have very affordable prices and are also very enjoyable. I always order Pho, a short way to explain pho would be rice noodles in bone broth. The Pho always comes with a side of lettuce, mung beans, lime, and mint leaves. I have seen people add many different toppings and sauces to their liking. Adding toppings and sauces changes the flavor which makes it easy to not get bored of the taste. Pho bowls come in very different sizes but even a small one can be shared as the amount it comes with is a lot even for just one person.

If you aren’t interested in trying new foods that’s fine as there are also stores in the same building that you can explore and look around in. The ranges of the stores are a good amount. Some sell cultural Hmong dresses, some sell shoes, others sell beauty products, and if you are a Sanrio fan you will find a lot of merchandise in many of these stores.

Lastly, to finish off your visit at the Hmong market, you can stop by their fresh produce area. There is plenty of fruit and vegetables that are very affordable. Whenever I stop by that area I always have to buy some of their mango, it is always fresh and sweet, and it comes cut up and ready to eat for only $5. There are also a lot of products there that can be hard to find at normal grocery stores such as lychee, coconut, dragon fruit, and nances (which is a hard to find fruit).

If you are looking to explore something new and cultural, a visit to the Hmong Market is the perfect idea.

Hmong Village is located at: 1001 Johnson PkwySaint Paul, Minnesota 55106

They are open daily: 9am-9:45pm

By: Austin Bailey-Zimmerman

Are you looking to bake something delicious for fall? Well this recipe is perfect for you. The mouth watering pumpkin spice crumble muffin is a great treat, leaving you satisfied and in baking heaven.

I chose this recipe because it looked like the perfect pumpkin recipe for fall, and it was very easy to make. I got the recipe from: https://tutti-dolci.com/pumpkin-spice-crumb-muffins/ by Laura Kasavan. She has created the perfect ratio of perfectly spiced pumpkin muffins and delicious buttery golden crumbs. The muffin is moist and the crumbs have just the right amount of sweetness. You can eat it for breakfast, a snack, for dessert, or really any occasion.

I had my older brother try the muffins I made and he said “They were really moist and tasted very yummy.”

Get in the mood for fall with this treat!

Ingredients

Crumb topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Muffins:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin
• 1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled (or vegetable oil)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a 12cup standard muffin pan with baking cups, then spray baking cups lightly with cooking spray.
2. For the crumb topping, combine sugars, rolled oats, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Then add melted butter and toss the mixture with a fork until crumbly.
3. Chill in the freezer until needed.
4. Whisk together rolled oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl.
5. Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add to the flour mixture and fold in just until incorporated.
6. Fill each baking cup 3/4 full of batter and sprinkle evenly with crumb topping.
7. Place the muffin pan in the oven and bake for 5 minutes at 425°F. Reduce temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 13 to 15 minutes until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few crumbs attached.
8. Let muffins cool in the pan or on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

By: Oak Berg

The Minnesota State Fair is a food persons dream, with a shift scale of delights that deliver to all tastes and preferences. As a food person, I have walked  the fairgrounds and discovered some amazing meals that deserve recognition. In this article, I will share my top picks for the best Minnesota State Fair food.

First on the list is the basic corn dog, a simple yet delicious treat that never fails to please both young and old. The crispy batter and juicy hotdog create an amazing collaboration of textures that are irresistible.

Sweet Martha’s Cookies are a must-try for anyone with a sweet tooth. These warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies are freshly baked and loaded with chocolate chips, creating an amazing taste that is hard to resist.

The Pronto Pup is a tasty twist on the traditional corn dog, with a slightly sweeter batter that creates a unique and delicious flavor. The hot dog is encased in a golden, crispy exterior, adding another layer of texture to this delicious treat.

Last but not least, deep-fried cheese curds are an amazing pick that should not be missed. These bite-sized nuggets of cheese are coated in a light, crispy batter and deep-fried to perfection, creating a warm and gooey snack that pairs well with any other delicacy you choose to try.

Overall, the Minnesota State Fair offers a wide variety of mouthwatering treats that brings something to all tastes and preferences. From classic corn dogs and sweet chocolate chip cookies to unique twists on familiar favorites like the Pronto Pup and deep-fried cheese curds, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Make sure to invest in these foods during your visit to the fairgrounds.

By: Natalia Gercheva

Autumn in Minnesota is one of the best places to experience some of the most beautiful leaf colors. Luckily, there are many parks you can go to, and walks you can take to be surrounded by nature’s beauty.

In Minnesota, mid-September to mid-October is when the trees start to change color. The official first day of fall is September 23rd so if you have the chance, I highly recommend going outside to admire this annual glorious phenomenon.

1. Winchell Trail in Minneapolis
This hike is a 2-mile round trip on a mostly unpaved trail with a moderate climb. This beautiful hike goes right along the Mississippi River gorge, and it is popular with bird watchers and naturalists. There are many trees along the trail, and the lighting makes the leaves’ colors pop.

2. Lake Maria State Park
This state park has a wide variety of trails you can go on varying in distance. There are 9 trails that range from 0.5 mi- 5.3 mi long. Lake Maria is located in Minneapolis, and it is an easy drive from anywhere in the area. This would be a perfect state park to go to with your family or friends to enjoy being outside in nature.

3. Minnehaha Falls Regional Park
Minnehaha Falls is one of the oldest parks in Minneapolis, where visitors can enjoy not only the autumn colors, but also a luscious 53-foot waterfall, river views, and limestone bluffs. The park is 193- acres and contains oak, elm, silver maple, basswood, hackberry and cottonwood trees. There are also native and prairie woodland wildflowers.

These parks/ trails are my personal favorites, but some other noteworthy destinations are Taylors Falls, Fort Snelling State Park, and the Hyland Hills Ski Area. Although the time is limited, and the fall colors will change quickly, it will be a memorable experience, and definitely worth it if you decide to make one of these trips.