Tag: christmas

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The Christmas Medals

By Dan Jorgensen

Dean Jorgensen was not my biological father, but he was my dad in the truest sense. That was cemented the first Christmas he shared with my younger brothers and me. We three boys were Mom’s from a first marriage; ultimately there would be seven boys in our new blended family. For Dean, all seven were”his boys.”

Our first Christmas together was in 1955. Dean and my mother Virginia had married after a courtship that seemed to include us boys as much as the two of them.

When he came to our home in Hurley to pick up Mom for dates, he would be greeted by joyous shouts of”Dean! Dean!” We were just as taken with him as was our mother. Often, while waiting for her, he would share stories with us, some about superheroes he named Starkhans and Johhny. Other stories were about his childhood, or his Army days.

After their marriage and our move to Dean’s Spring Valley farm, those Army stories included tales about medals and military insignia that he treasured from his time in service. Each medal had a story. Mom often implored us to”leave poor Dean alone,” especially after a hard day of farm chores or fieldwork. But regardless of how tired he might be, he would share them.

As our first”family” Christmas approached, we also were excited that Mom was having a baby. Our new brother or sister might even be born on Christmas!

Mom went into labor on December 23, and we all raced to the hospital 50 miles away in Yankton where our brother was born. We spent that night and Christmas Eve morning with Mom until our grandparents offered to drive us back to the farm.”We’ll take you home and then come back to get you tomorrow,” Grandma said.”We can all share Christmas with Virgie and the baby at the hospital.” Dean, who was very tired, readily agreed. We piled into Grandpa and Grandma’s car and headed to the farm.

We didn’t have a telephone, so Dean told our grandparents we would see them on Christmas morning and off they went. We boys bounded inside, not at all tired.”Yay!” we shouted.”We’ve got a new brother! And tonight Santa Claus is coming!”

Many years later, Dean told us that he then realized he had forgotten about Santa and that the Christmas gifts planned for our stockings were in the trunk of the car, 50 miles away. So, after dinner and checking the livestock, he quietly tucked us into bed and smiled at our excitement over Santa’s pending arrival. He had a plan.

When we raced from our beds Christmas morning, our stockings were bulging. But before we could look into them, Dean lifted a letter off the table.”Look! A letter from Santa,” he said. He opened it and read:”Hello boys! I know how much your Mom and new brother want to see what you’re getting from me for Christmas, so I’ve taken your presents to the hospital so you can open them there after you go back with your Grandpa and Grandma.”

“Ain’t that nice of him boys?” Dean said.”Your Mom will be so happy.” We all looked a bit skeptical at that but could still see that our stockings seemed pretty full of something.

“What’s in our stockings?” I asked.

“Well, let’s take a look.” Dean stepped aside and we reached in to pull out apples, oranges, nuts, toothbrushes and a shiny piece of cardboard. Affixed to that cardboard in each of our stockings were Army medals and insignia.

“Well, would you look at that,” Dean said.”Just like mine. Santa must’ve heard me telling you about them and knew how much you liked them.”

They were Christmas gifts beyond our wildest dreams, a memory created by our new dad to last a lifetime.

About the Author: Dan Jorgensen began his writing career with the Sioux Falls Argus Leader at age 19. He is also the author of several books, including Killer Blizzard, And the Wind Whispered and Rainbow Rock, all set in South Dakota. He and his wife Susan live in Milliken, Colorado.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2024 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Joyful Noise

By Chad Coppess

Mike Pedersen treasures opportunities to entertain visitors at his vintage general store in tiny Nora. His annual Christmas season sing-alongs have become a tradition in southeastern South Dakota.

For 34 years, Mike Pedersen has opened the doors of the historic Nora Store and beautiful music has flowed out onto the cold and wintry prairie. His Christmas season singalongs have become a tradition for people of all ages who enjoy the melodies, fellowship and the sense of stepping into the past.

With a current population of two at the intersection of Union County Roads 25 and 15, Nora never was much of a town, but it did have a creamery and blacksmith shop at one time, along with the store. Pedersen describes it as”the Walmart of its era. It had a lot of things, but only one of each.” The store opened in 1907 and included gas pumps for a while but closed in 1962. Pedersen moved into the store in 1973 and lived there for 15 years before building a home next door.

Walking into the store is a bit like stepping into The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie; the store’s shelves and walls hold antiques, many with Christmas flair, and carolers gather around a vintage wood stove on chilly winter evenings. The centerpiece is the large, 1907 pipe organ, originally housed inside the Lake Preston Lutheran Church. Pedersen first saw the organ after it had been donated to the National Music Museum in Vermillion, but it was in pieces scattered in a storage room.

Seven years later the museum decided it didn’t need the organ and offered it to Pedersen if he would reassemble it and play it. Friends helped him complete the installation in the Nora Store; the first song played on it was a tearful version of”Jesus Loves Me.”

Guests at the Nora Store sing-alongs are greeted at the door as friends and thanked as they leave.

From there Pedersen’s childhood love of Christmas songs took over and he ran an ad in a local newspaper asking people to join him for singalongs. Around 3,000 people attend each year over several weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He invites school and nursing home groups in mid-week. Guests are welcome to play the organ or piano, or ring sleigh bells passed throughout the crowd.

Pedersen has never missed an open house.”There’s never been a person that’s come that I haven’t greeted,” he said proudly. One 2023 evening saw visitors from South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio. He has hinted for several years that the singalongs might be nearing an end, but he hasn’t stopped yet.”I don’t take any day for granted,” he says.”For the future, I don’t know. I live in the moment. The building is kind of like me. It’s starting to wear out.”

For now the event seems in good hands, with several longtime friends taking turns on the organ and piano. Free will offerings are accepted, but there isn’t much of a budget. Friends and neighbors bring cookies and other treats to hand out along with hot cider and coffee. In the last few years friends have organized fundraisers to help purchase new siding and roofing.

“Where else in America will you find an event like this?” Pedersen asks.”There’s no real good way to describe it other than something you don’t forget. It’s been called a living Norman Rockwell painting. If I can bring a smile to a face, it makes my day. I think an hour or two here cures a lot of lonely.”

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2024 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Mulled Wine, South Dakota Style

By Katie Hunhoff

The warmth and spiciness of mulled wine makes it a favorite winter drink.

Our South Dakota Magazine crew started a coffee house called Muddy Mo’s in downtown Yankton a few years ago. On a frigid Saturday last winter, we decided to make mulled wine, both to warm our customers as they came in from the cold and also to try something new, which was the very inspiration for the shop.

Mulled wine is warmed wine with spices added, but a quick Google search shows recipes from across the world using varied ingredients and techniques. Not one to overthink, I quickly decided to mix an affordable red wine with some mulling spices from my local supermarket. Soon after pouring the simple concoction into a crockpot, a delicious cinnamon and orange aroma wafted through Muddy Mo’s — and it quickly drew customers who were happy to weigh in on my makeshift recipe.

“This is strong, too strong for mulled wine,” observed one kindly woman, who nevertheless drank several $2 glasses. Another visitor suggested that we add honey and offered to share his recipe. Someone asked if we could mix in a little apple cider next time. I don’t remember when something on our menu inspired so much conversation and interaction among customers.

Humans have been warming wine and adding spices since the dawn of the Roman Empire. The spice worked wonders to hide the taste of inferior wine, but it was also believed to strengthen immune systems during winter. Early recipes included saffron, pepper, laurel, dates, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, marjoram and cardamom.

Part of the fun of mulled wine is taking the ingredients and creating your own recipe. But, to ensure better success at the coffee shop this winter, I spoke to wine experts from across South Dakota. They were happy to share their recipes, along with ideas on what makes mulled wine the perfect winter drink.

SchadÈ Vineyard & Winery

VOLGA

Similar to our experience at Muddy Mo’s, Nancy Schade enjoys the community that mulled wine creates.”When you make it, it just brings people together. And there are opportunities to share recipes, because everyone has a different recipe,” she laughs. Jim and Nancy Schade founded the winery in 2000, and recently passed it on to new owners Dillon and Shelby Ringling.

Nancy recommends using SchadÈ’s Raspberry Apple Wine for mulling. The raspberries and apples are grown in South Dakota, giving a local taste to an internationally enjoyed drink. Nancy’s recipe is simple. She uses a 1:1 ratio of the Raspberry Apple wine and apple cider.”The cider gives the finished product a fuller flavor,” she says. Next, add mulling spice packets and warm the wine and cider in a crockpot (not to a boil). The winery sells its own mulling packets, but in a pinch, you can also find them at many supermarkets.

Prairie Berry

HILL CITY

Laura Schluckebier

Laura Schluckebier, the sales and hospitality manager at Prairie Berry, grew to love mulled wine during her time at the Hill City winery.”It’s made to share with other people,” she says.”As soon as the leaves change, people come in to have mulled wine next to our fireplace. The guests expect it.”

Mulling wine has also evolved into a family tradition for Schluckebier.”We go skiing at Terry Peak, then go home to drink mulled wine. Or we will split wood and then make mulled wine. It’s a tradition to do things outside in winter, then to share the drink. When you make it, it smells wonderful and it’s warming all around.”

Sandi Vojta, owner of Prairie Berry, became a fifth-generation winemaker at the age of 4 when she experimented with yeast and fermentation, she told us in a 2011 story for South Dakota Magazine. Her dad would take her out to pick chokecherries for wine, tying a piece of twine with a pail attached to her waist so she could pick berries with both hands.

Schluckebier recommends using Prairie Berry’s Pumpkin Bog for mulling. Made with South Dakota grown pumpkins, it’s slightly sweet with”undertones of cranberry and lemon zest.” Pour one bottle of Pumpkin Bog into a slow cooker on low heat. Add two tablespoons of light brown sugar, two tablespoons of mulling spice and orange slices. Leave on low for 45 minutes, making sure it does not boil.

After 25 years of producing internationally-award-winning wines, Prairie Berry will be closing soon. Sandi and her husband, Matt Keck, will continue selling as long as they have inventory. Pumpkin Bog was still available for purchase as this magazine went to print.

With the Wind Vineyard & Winery

ROSHOLT

Lisa Klein

Lisa Klein, who owns With The Wind along with her husband, Jeremiah, uses their Sacred Solitude wine for mulling. Made with locally grown Frontenac grapes, this dry red is complemented by Lisa’s recipe that includes orange juice and brown sugar.

Klein says mulled wine helps her embrace winter and everything that comes with it.”I’ve spent evenings wrapping presents while having mulled wine simmering on the stove,” Klein says.”We drink it while gathering with friends. During a frigid winter, it’s such a warm thing to serve your guests. You can’t get away from winter, so you have to embrace it.”

The Kleins have operated With the Wind for over 10 years. They hold wine tastings and events at their vineyard, where they tend to over 5,000 vines.

Sacred Solitude Mulled Wine

2 bottles of With the Wind Sacred Solitude wine

2 cups orange juice

3/4 cup (or to taste) brown sugar (or substitute maple syrup or agave)

2 oranges, sliced

1/2 cup fresh cranberries (optional)

10 whole cloves

6 cinnamon sticks

  1. Place a medium saucepan over medium-high heat on the stove.
  2. Add the orange juice and granulated sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
  3. Add the red wine and all of the spices and fruits. The spices will be whole, not ground in a container, so their flavors will infuse into the liquid.
  4. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the mulled wine for 30 minutes. At this point, taste and adjust the flavor as necessary. You can simmer for up to a couple hours. Garnish with cinnamon sticks, orange peel or cranberries.

Mulled Wine can be paired with many foods. In Europe, it is often served at festivals with roasted chestnuts, and it’s also common to serve with roasted meats during the holidays. We asked Prairie Berry and SchadÈ wineries to share their favorite recipes to make with mulled wine.

Nancy Schade’s Never Fail Apple Dessert

Mix and put in a 9×9 inch pan:

4 cups sliced apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon flour

pinch of nutmeg

3/4 cup sugar

Mix together and spread over apples:

3/4 cup oatmeal

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Prairie Berry Kitchen’s Classic Cheese Fondue

1/2 pound imported Swiss cheese, shredded

1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, shredded

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 garlic clove peeled

1 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cherry brandy

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Pinch of nutmeg

Coat cheese in cornstarch. Rub fondue pot with garlic, then discard. Over medium heat, add wine and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer. Gradually stir in cheese, melting slowly to encourage a smooth texture. Stir in brandy, mustard and nutmeg. Serve with French bread, Granny Smith apples or blanched veggies.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the January/February 2025 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Christmas Cookies With a Twist

By Laura Johnson Andrews

Deb Mehrer demonstrated her family’s ammonia cookie tradition at a gathering of the Germans from Russia Society in Kaylor.

Don’t eat the cookie dough if Deb Mehrer of Scotland is running the mixer. It’s not due to any health scare, like salmonella from raw eggs or E. coli in the flour. What you want to watch out for is her secret ingredient. Before it’s baked, dough made with baker’s ammonia, also known as hartshorn or ammonium carbonate, is guaranteed to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Ammonia may seem like a rather toxic cookie addition, but the unusual ingredient has been used in Germany and Scandinavia for centuries. Once made from deer antlers, ammonium carbonate acted as a leavener in the days before baking powder and baking soda. The white powder, which is a close relative to the smelling salts used to revive fainting ladies, has a nostril-piercing aroma that bakes off in the oven, creating cookies that can be thin and crispy or soft, thick and cakey, but leaving no unpleasant cleaning fluid aftertaste.

Ammonia cookies are a beloved tradition in Mehrer’s family — one that she recreated last June for a meeting of the SoDak Stamm chapter of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society in Kaylor. The aroma generated by the baking cookies was very familiar to the livestock farmers in the audience.”When you get that smell in the chicken barn you clean it out,” joked Eugene Weidenbach of Lesterville, as he watched Mehrer prepare her dough. Another audience member recommended moving pet birds out of the house before baking a batch, as the ammonia fumes might kill them.

But the end result is much more appetizing than that first hot blast of ammonia gas escaping from the open oven door might indicate. Not overly sweet, the thick, pale, frosting-coated cookies are so soft that they won’t hold up to a good coffee dunking.”It’s almost a little cakelike,” Mehrer says.

A nurse at the Scotland Medical Clinic, her love of her culinary heritage started young — she’s been baking since she was 10 years old. Though her mother, Betty Faller, gave Mehrer a handwritten cookbook containing the recipe for ammonia cookies, she had to experiment a little in order to recreate that childhood taste.”It was missing some key instructions, like how much flour, at what temperature and how long you bake them. I remembered the taste of them, so I had to try it out for myself,” Mehrer says.

Mehrer’s family celebrates their Germans from Russia heritage at their annual holiday feast, which they dubbed German Fest. The menu is a mouthwatering assortment of German-Russian dishes. Kuchen, sausage from the Blue Bird Locker in Delmont and German potato salad are always served.”My sister-in-law is 100 percent Dutch and makes the hot potato salad — not bad for a Dutch girl,” Mehrer says. Butterscotch pan dumplings are another favorite, prepared in a cast iron pan by her 83-year-old aunt, Rosemary Laib of Armour. Fleisch kuechle, deep-fried pockets of dough-covered meat, knoephfla soup, cheese buttons and spaetzle have also made appearances on the German Fest table. German flags, Oktoberfest napkins and German beer add to the festive atmosphere.

“We wanted to celebrate the foods my mom used to make for us growing up,” Mehrer says.”The first bite takes you back to your childhood.”

Ammonia Cookies


Recipe by Betty Faller

1 teaspoon baker’s ammonia

1 cup milk

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening or lard

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3+ cups of flour — enough to
stiffen the dough

Soak baking ammonia in milk for 10-15 minutes. Cream shortening or lard and sugar together. Mix in milk, eggs and vanilla. Add three cups of flour, then add more flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough stiffens but is still somewhat sticky. Use your hands if you have to. Place dough in the refrigerator to rest — at least overnight, but four or five days is even better.

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough out to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick and cut with a flour-dipped cookie cutter, glass or a tin can without the lid. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake about 6 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned on bottom but still pale on top.

Let cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then remove to a baking rack. When cool, frost with white frosting and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. These cookies are better if you wait a couple of days before eating. Store in a sealable plastic container or freeze. Makes approximately six dozen.

Note: Baker’s ammonia probably can’t be found in your local grocery store’s baking section. Check with your local pharmacy, a specialty food store or order online. Because baker’s ammonia evaporates with prolonged exposure to air, store it in a tightly sealed container.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2016 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Mitchell’s Gingerbread Architect

By Laura Johnson Andrews

Barb Feilmeier does some of her best dreaming in grocery store snack aisles, envisioning new ways to use cookies, crackers and other foods to decorate her intricate Christmas creations. The Mitchell woman has been building with gingerbread for 50 years, but these are not your ordinary cookie houses. Feilmeier has recreated everything from the Corn Palace to the South Dakota State Capitol.

Feilmeier was at home with four young children when she made her first gingerbread structure, a church, in 1970, based on instructions she found in Family Circle. It’s been part of her holiday routine ever since. Her early efforts were relatively simple, but that changed after she retired from her job as a medical technologist in 2005.”I got carried away,” she says.

A lot of prep work goes into Feilmeier’s most elaborate buildings. First, she chooses a subject, which usually has personal significance. She recreated Ireland’s Kilcolgan Castle after taking a family trip there in 2018 and commemorated her and husband Leon’s 50th anniversary in 2011 by replicating the Church of Saint Mary in Sioux Falls. Feilmeier takes reference photos and plots out the dimensions of each piece to scale. Then she makes a model out of paper to make sure each section fits together perfectly. In 2016, when she made her son-in-law Kelly Kramer’s Chevrolet dealership — complete with fondant people, a candy Lego counter, Life Savers toilet and a baby grand piano fabricated from melba toast — she made multiple passes through the building to understand the layout.”I couldn’t figure it out. I used my kids’ Lego blocks to figure out where it was all supposed to be.”

Once the pattern has been worked out to her satisfaction, the mixing, baking, decorating and assembly begins. These steps come with their own hazards. One year when her children were young, she went to assemble her house, only to discover a section of gingerbread was missing.”Some little darling came along and ate one of the sides,” Feilmeier remembers. (Decades later, the crime remains unsolved.) Then there was the year a wayward nudge sent a fully-decorated section of gingerbread shattering to the floor.”I broke the whole front of St. Peter’s Basilica,” she says.

Feilmeier keeps a detailed scrapbook containing plans and photos of each year’s creations and has given presentations on her gingerbread architecture to local groups, but when the holidays are over, she’s ready to say goodbye to the buildings themselves.”I have no problem getting a garbage bag and smashing them and throwing them out,” she says.”I’m already thinking about what I’m going to do next year.”

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the January/February 2021 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

Barb Feilmeier of Mitchell celebrated her 50th anniversary of making gingerbread houses for Christmas by constructing an 1880s village, incorporating the first pattern she made, a gingerbread church, plus other new additions. The village was displayed at the Carnegie Resource Center in Mitchell in November 2020.
Barb Feilmeier of Mitchell celebrated her 50th anniversary of making gingerbread houses for Christmas by constructing an 1880s village, incorporating the first pattern she made, a gingerbread church, plus other new additions. The village was displayed at the Carnegie Resource Center in Mitchell in November 2020.
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A 66-County Tree

By Steve Riedel

Steve Riedel turned weathered wood gathered from across the state into ornate Christmas ornaments representing every county.

I was stranded at home during the bitter cold winter of 2020-2021 and the isolation that came with the COVID-19 pandemic made matters worse. I desperately needed something to do. My thoughts turned to Christmas at the Capitol. My wife Marietta and I rarely missed the annual festival in which dozens of colorful and brightly illuminated Christmas trees fill the halls of the Capitol in Pierre. I thought,”I wish I could decorate one of those trees.”

My boredom collided with inspiration. What if I made a collection of wooden Christmas ornaments, crafted out of wood gathered from each county in South Dakota, in the hope of displaying them in Pierre? As soon as the weather allowed — and being mindful of social distancing — Marietta and I set out to visit the 66 counties in the state and ask South Dakotans if they would donate a piece or two of old wood.

Asking for our first donation was an anxious moment. I was so nervous that I planned the first stop at the home of acquaintances in Beadle County not far from our home in Huron. We drove into the farmyard and parked in front of the house. Nervously, Marietta asked,”You aren’t really going to walk up there and ask for wood, are you?”

Riedel’s Minnehaha County ornament.

I nodded and walked timidly to the home’s front door, where I found myself talking to both husband and wife.”That’s actually a good idea,” they said, and then gave me directions to two large piles of old wood.”If you don’t find enough wood this time, you can come back for more.” We scoured the piles and left with four posts and a sense of optimism.

I quickly learned that I needed to explain what I meant by”old wood.” While I was merely hoping to collect short pieces of wood that most people would think to be rotten and useless, folks seemed to think I was asking for more. I also learned that people almost universally liked my idea. While I sheepishly laughed at myself when explaining my project, others listened intently and took the idea to heart. Before we finished, people had donated weathered wood from broken fence posts, fallen barns and buildings, cattle corrals, rodeo grounds, original family homesteads, broken telephone poles, horse tack and collapsed bridges.

One rancher plucked several fence posts from a retired manure spreader. Another gave me a horse yoke complete with a double tree. We also came home with a few dozen fresh eggs, though we turned down some turkeys that were free if we butchered them ourselves.

As we traveled door to door, we marveled that people placed such trust in us. We were often sent off on our own, completely trusted on private property. At one farm, I knocked on the door and explained my purpose.”We’d love to help you,” said the gentleman who answered the door,”but I can’t right now. We need to go to town to have our picture taken.” He got in his car and, speaking through his car window, encouraged us to search through his old wood pile.”Take a look around and if you see something that will work, help yourself. If not, there’s more wood behind the barn,” he said as the family drove away.

The more people donated, the more meaningful my ornament project became. People proudly gave us pieces of South Dakota history. We were given the very wood that our ancestors used to build South Dakota. In some cases, I suspect the wood helped build South Dakotans. As a rancher handed me an old fence post, he said,”You can take this. It was hand-split by my grandfather when he was a young man.” His grandfather was former Governor Tom Berry.

Faulk County ornament.

Another elderly donor, while digging through a small collection of posts hiding under a rusty truck fender, came up with a unique piece.”Would this post work? I’ve been saving it forever but don’t know what I will ever do with it.” As it turns out, it was a post he had saved from the World War II era.”We couldn’t get round posts during the war,” he said. Remarkably, the ornament I made with it has two dark holes left behind by a staple driven into it sometime during the war years.

When cold weather did not permit traveling, I worked obsessively at making 66 ornaments. Creating one to represent Lake County was especially meaningful. My ancestors settled there in the 1890s, and I was raised on a homestead established by my grandfather in the early 1900s. I had searched his homestead nine years earlier to find a post to make an ornament that would be our only grandson’s first Christmas ornament. That was one of the first ornaments I ever made. The post I found was comprised of wood with a rich burgundy color. I made Lake County’s ornament from that same post. The wood was so brittle that during my first attempt, it imploded in my lathe. Fortunately, I learned a lighter touch, and I have since made an ornament to give to both my son and daughter from that same old post.

After thousands of miles on the road and as many hours in my workshop, the only question that remained was whether my Christmas at the Capitol wish would come true. Marietta and I summarized the project and our experiences on the road and sent it to the committee in Pierre. Their approval arrived shortly thereafter. I got misty-eyed when I read the news.

The abundance of wood I collected actually allowed me to make more than one ornament from some counties. By the time I was finished, I had crafted finial ornaments, candles, Christmas trees, snowmen, bells, candy canes, Christmas baskets, bird houses … all related to the spirit of Christmas. Some aren’t perfect, but each ornament — like the many South Dakotans we met — is unique.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the November/December 2021 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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A ‘Savory Delight’

By Fran Hill

Here in South Dakota, prime rib is popular for Christmas dinner. Why wouldn’t it be? South Dakota reportedly has the most cattle per person in the United States. Agriculture is the bread and butter for so many across the region and beef is absolutely what’s for dinner.

What do you serve with that delicious, slow roasted hunk of beef? Personally, I have always leaned into twice baked potatoes, buttery rolls and a fresh, crisp salad. This year, I am adding Roasted Onions to the menu.

Roasted Onions are a savory delight that complement not just prime rib, but could accompany turkey, holiday ham, brisket and just about anything from the grill. The other night, I served this tangy, but rich dish alongside some grilled lamb brats and creamy mashed potatoes. The sliced onions are marinated with red wine vinegar and brown sugar before being baked. I am always amazed at how the slow cooking process releases that natural sweetness of onions and creates such a rich deliciousness.

This recipe is adaptable. The kind and size of onion you choose will affect its cooking time. Of course, larger onions will need more time, but a sweeter onion also cooks slightly faster. The amount of marinade works well for three to four large onions but could easily bathe more smaller onions as portion appropriate sides. Fresh rosemary and red pepper flakes add an earthiness to the dish that aside from a little planning ahead prep is almost fix-it-and-forget-it easy.

Anyone that is a fan of French onion soup will love these simple and flavorful Roasted Onions on the holiday table.

Savory Roasted Onions pair well with Christmas prime rib.

Roasted Onions

3-4 large yellow, white or red onions (or more smaller onions to fit a 9×13 pan) {I used Vidalia onions.}

Marinade:

1 cup water

1 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 pinch red pepper flakes

Roasting:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

Trim root and stem ends from onions. Slice in half horizontally and remove skins from onion halves.

Combine all marinade ingredients in a 9×13 (or similarly sized) pan. Arrange onions in the marinade cut side down.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Pull onions from the fridge and allow pan to warm closer to room temp (alternatively, transfer to a different baking dish to avoid possible accidents from temperature shock of cold pan/hot oven).

Flip onions in the marinade for the wider side to be up. Top each onion with a pat of butter and an additional sprinkling of fresh rosemary.

Bake, covered, for 1 hour. Uncover, baste onions with the reduced marinade and continue baking 15-20 minutes until onions are desired tenderness. (Larger onions may require more time but watch that smaller onions don’t scorch.)

Before serving, again spoon the reduced sauce over the cooked onions and garnish with additional red pepper flakes (if desired) and sprigs of fresh rosemary. (Serves 6.)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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The Art of Gingerbread

By Laura Johnson Andrews

For the January/February 2021 issue of South Dakota Magazine, we talked to Barb Feilmeier, a Mitchell woman who has elevated gingerbread architecture to lofty heights by crafting everything from the grand Victorian Beckwith House in Mitchell to the South Dakota State Capitol out of flour, sugar and spice.

After making gingerbread houses for 50 years, Feilmeier has amassed a wealth of tricks to make the process run smoothly while stretching the bounds of her creativity. One year, that involved making domes for the Corn Palace out of giant Hershey’s Kisses, whittled down to size. Another time, she built a stone wall for an Irish castle out of Rice Krispies bars and rock candy.”I have to do something that I haven’t done before,” she says.

Feilmeier kindly shared photos of gingerbread houses past from her massive scrapbook, as well as her recipe and many tips. Perhaps they will inspire you to think outside the gingerbread house kit next year.


Gingerbread

(Adapted from Family Circle, December 1970)

5 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 pinch baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 egg

Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices onto wax paper. In a large bowl, beat shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. Stir in flour mixture to make a stiff dough. Chill several hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle with flour. Roll out 1/4 of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness on the foil, covering the whole cookie sheet. Arrange as many pattern pieces as possible, allowing at least 1/2 inch between pieces, and cut out with a sharp knife, saving the trimmed dough.

Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes, or until cookies feel firm to the touch. Remove from oven and trim pieces while still warm. Let cookie sheet cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove sheet and let cookies cool completely.


Royal Frosting
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
food coloring, if desired

Beat egg whites and lemon juice until foamy. Slowly beat in sugar until frosting stands in firm peaks and is stiff enough to hold a firm line when cut through with a knife. Divide and tint with food coloring, as desired.


Sugar”Cement”
Spread 1 cup sugar in a small, heavy skillet and heat slowly until sugar melts and turns pale golden. Use immediately.


Building Tips

  • When designing a house, make sure that the pieces you need won’t be larger than the interior of your oven.
  • Don’t be afraid to use flour when rolling out the gingerbread.”You want it to get stiff,” Feilmeier says.
  • After baking the gingerbread, trim each piece to square. Feilmeier uses an old serrated bread knife as a saw.
  • Crushed LifeSavers make great stained glass windows. Before baking, make a hole in the gingerbread dough and drop the candy crumbs in. They will melt during baking and cool into swirls of color. Gelatin sheets (available online) work for clear windows.
  • If your gingerbread goes soft before you put your building together, check the humidity in your home. You can re-dry the dough in your oven if need be.
  • Feilmeier recommends decorating the walls before assembling the house because it’s easier to work on a flat surface.
  • If you’d like to light up your gingerbread house, try battery-operated mini lights. Just be sure to put them inside before you put the roof on.
  • Want columns? Try rolled wafers, wafer cookies or candy canes. Intricate railings can be crafted from spaghetti that has been cooked to al dente, rolled in food coloring or tinted frosting, then dried.
  • Royal icing “snow” covers a multitude of ills.
  • Gingerbread houses aren’t an ideal project for young children. It’s best to wait until they are about 10.
  • Not up to baking? Try building simple houses out of cheap graham crackers — the more expensive brands are better for eating than for building.
Barb Feilmeier of Mitchell celebrated her 50th anniversary of making gingerbread houses for Christmas by constructing an 1880s village, incorporating the first pattern she made, a gingerbread church, plus other new additions. The village was displayed at the Carnegie Resource Center in Mitchell in November 2020.
Barb Feilmeier of Mitchell celebrated her 50th anniversary of making gingerbread houses for Christmas by constructing an 1880s village, incorporating the first pattern she made, a gingerbread church, plus other new additions. The village was displayed at the Carnegie Resource Center in Mitchell in November 2020.
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Hill City’s Trees and Trains

All who love Christmastime and trains should rendezvous in Hill City this holiday season. (Anyone who doesn’t love Christmastime and trains might plan to see a doctor.) The South Dakota State Railroad Museum is fun any season of the year, but the locomotives and train exhibits truly shine during the holidays when Rick Mills and his crew add tinsel, holly and lights. The museum’s annual Trees & Trains exhibit is open December weekends and Christmas Eve day. It’s alongside South Dakota’s 1880 Train, which transforms into the Holiday Express every December. Families make lasting memories on the two-hour journey, steaming through the Black Hills in winter. The 1880 crew has implemented many COVID-19 policies to keep you and your family safe. All aboard! Several of Hill City’s favorite restaurants are open year-round, including the beautifully decorated Alpine Inn, a Black Hills staple, and a new place, Pizzeria Mangiamo, that features artisan wood-fire pizzas — one of South Dakota’s very few new restaurants to open during the pandemic.

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Christmas for White Swan

By Bernie Hunhoff

Chris and Shelly Saunsoci and their daughter, Chloe, stand by a dike that was built to hold back floodwaters at White Swan.

Lake Andes has receded slightly, but it is still at record levels and the surrounding land is soggy.”High water” marks are visible on many of White Swan’s structures, including an old stone shed near the pow wow grounds. Many homes, though still inhabited, are black with mold. Children and adults are suffering respiratory diseases, ringworm, impetigo and other infections and ailments associated with moldy conditions.

The original White Swan community was flooded when the U.S. Corps of Engineers finished Fort Randall Dam in 1952. It was in the bottomland forest on the east side of the Missouri River, just a few miles above old Fort Randall. Named after a Yankton chief who lived there in the 1860s, the community had a dance hall, stores, two churches, two cemeteries, a cannery, post office and ferry in the first half of the 20th century. The residents gardened, hunted, fished, raised livestock and generally lived off the land. They were not consulted on plans for the dam, and then forced from their homes by the BIA and Corps of Engineers.

Today’s White Swan community was rebuilt on the southern tip of Lake Andes. This year, Lake Andes suffered major flooding and White Swan was flooded once again. The water woes continued all summer and fall, and even today groundwater continues to plague the homes and buildings. “Our community is literally drowning,” said tribal leaders in August.

Shelly Saunsoci, a local woman, took on the responsibility of running a food kitchen so the White Swan people would at least have a hot meal and a safe, healthy place to eat and socialize. She was feeding about 100 people a day until mid-December, when children came home from boarding schools. Suddenly, she and three other volunteers were feeding more than 200.

Members of the YHS Humanitarian Club who helped at White Swan on Saturday included (from left) Kelsie Faulk, Cecilia Kouri, Aly Fedde, Josie Krajewski, Krystabelle Kosters and (center) Jon Syla.

“YOU SAVED OUR CHRISTMAS”

How Yankton came to the aid of White Swan

When Aly Fedde started the Humanitarian Club at Yankton High School, she could not have imagined how it would end up changing the holidays for families at White Swan, a flood-ravaged community near Lake Andes on the Yankton Sioux Reservation.

The club began to help the people of White Swan in November when they delivered 48 cases of drinking water and other supplies. They followed that up with a project to make bookmarks and collect books as gifts for the children. Several adult members of Yankton’s United Methodist Church got involved to help the teens, including retired physician Tom Gilmore of Utica, who provided OB/GYN services on the Yankton Sioux and Rosebud reservations for decades.

Gilmore and his wife Jane became acquainted with Shelly Saunsoci, a native of the reservation who has been running a food kitchen to provide nutrition for the families at White Swan.

“You delivered me,” grinned Saunsoci. It turns out, the retired doctor delivered many of the young adults in the area.

“You looked different then!” laughed Dr. Gilmore.

“So did you!” Saunsoci retorted.

Tom Gilmore (far left), a retired doctor, delivered Shelly Saunsoci (front, center) 43 years ago. They met again this month as the Gilmores and other Yankton area peoples rallied to help Saunsoci, who leads a food kitchen at flood-ravaged White Swan.

Laughter has resumed at White Swan, in part because of the connections that the community has made with the people of Yankton, many of whom were oblivious to the tiny community’s situation until the YHS Humanitarian Club began its outreach.

In mid-December, Saunsoci was worried what the Christmas season might bring for the children — especially those who would be coming home from boarding schools at Chamberlain and Flandreau. Would she have enough groceries for the food kitchen? Would there be any gifts for the young children?

When the Yankton teens, the Gilmores and others brought those concerns back to Yankton, the entrepreneurial nonprofit Onward Yankton volunteered to start a fund drive for food supplies. An online Go Fund Me page was created on Onward’s Facebook page. Local media spread the word, and within days people from near and far had donated over $7,000. Donations are still coming.

Lisa Ryken, chief volunteer at Yankton’s Toys for Tots, heard about the efforts and called to say that her organization had some surplus toys. She packed dolls, footballs, trucks and games for White Swan even as she and her team were still wrapping gifts for Yankton families.

Last Saturday, the Humanitarian Club members and other Yankton residents traveled to White Swan with the toys, other donated supplies and grocery funds. Then they spent the morning helping Saunsoci and others sack candy and peanuts as gifts for area families. After completing nearly a thousand sacks, the teens took a break and shot baskets in the White Swan community center gym, where Sansoci has been running a food kitchen for weeks.

Saunsoci, wearing a Santa Claus apron, watched the Yankton youth playing basketball and smiled.

“You saved our Christmas,” she said quietly.

No one knows what the New Year holds for White Swan. The houses are flood-damaged and moldy. Roads and other infrastructure are deteriorating from the flood waters and high ground water. Another wet spring would be a devastating blow.

But this week, the children are enjoying gifts and hearty meals and their parents and grandparents many find some peace in knowing that — thanks to a sequence of events that began with students in Yankton — they are not forgotten.

Eunice Penton and other White Swan residents have been busy sorting and wrapping toys delivered for the children of the community.