Tag: General News

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Toni Collette, 51; Jenny McCarthy, 51; Anthony Kiedis, 61; Lyle Lovett, 66.

Happy Birthday: Stick to the truth and use the bare minimum. Covering for others will set you back financially or emotionally. Concentrate on what’s important to you and turn your thoughts into a reality. Be the take-charge person who offers positive change and hope. Settle in for the long race and go the distance. Refuse to let your feelings interfere with decisions that can waste your time and money or damage your reputation. Your numbers are 8, 13, 22, 24, 31, 33, 46.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Pay attention to what’s happening around you. Someone you least expect will need emotional support. Extend a helping hand, and you’ll receive information that helps you let go of the past or something that isn’t working for you anymore. 4 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A change will excite you and spark your imagination. Share your thoughts with someone you respect, and you’ll receive input that leads to something concrete. Don’t ponder what to do next; act and enjoy the ride. A partnership looks promising, and romance is favored. 4 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Finish what you start and choose rest. Giving in to temptation or changing to please someone trying to control you will have repercussions you can avoid if you stand up for yourself. Keep your plans a secret and say no. 3 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Settle differences and choose a lifestyle you crave. It’s up to you to do what makes you happy and to adjust to whatever it takes to live life your way. Use your skills freely, and you’ll transform how you earn your living. 3 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Consider your best choice regarding investments and contracts. Don’t feel obligated to take a position based on someone else’s needs instead of how content you are with the arrangements. Turn a change you face at home or work into an opportunity. 4 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Someone will show insecurity if you are indifferent toward suggestions or a partnership. Keep the peace, but don’t let anyone lead you down a path you’ll regret. Call the shots and compliment others, and the changes you want to enforce will get the go-ahead. 2 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Review an expert’s research; you’ll stay on course and avoid interference. You may not favor a domestic change, but as the day progresses, benefits will unfold. A friendly gesture will keep others guessing and help get your point across and support in place. 5 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Listen to what others say and look for any hint of recklessness before sharing your thoughts and feelings. Don’t let the changes around you trigger anger or defuse your confidence. Your best defense is to follow your intuition and common sense. 3 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Participate because you want to, not to avoid a run-in with someone controlling. Set yourself free, share your feelings and head in a direction that offers peace of mind, puts a smile on your face and helps you get ahead. 3 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Spiff up your place, host an event or change your lifestyle to help you achieve your dreams. Use intuition to avoid losing or to dodge a problem with a friend or colleague. Be aggressive and pursue what’s important to you. 3 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Take time to hone your skills, do something you enjoy or rehabilitate your body, mind and soul. Don’t let anyone push you into something you consider exhausting or wasteful. Wish others the best and take a pass; honesty is the best policy. 5 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Dig in and finish on time. Don’t count on or wait for someone to step in and take over. Opportunity will surface based on how you take care of your responsibilities. Be forthright to avoid misleading someone. 2 stars

Birthday Baby: You are secretive, independent and wise. You are resourceful and charismatic.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

Visit Eugenialast.com, or join Eugenia on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn.

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Gretchen McKay | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)

The best Halloween costumes are usually the ones that sparkle — or scare — with creativity and imagination.

The same can be said for the post-trick-or-treat finger foods served at a Fright Night party.

Sure, you could set the table with an array of chips and dips or offer a big bowl of pretzels for snacking. But if you really want something that’s scary good, take a few extra minutes and whip up a ghoulish treat that conjures up one of the holiday’s most popular monsters — a mummy?

It’s easier than you might think.

All you need is a wheel of brie, a sheet of frozen puff pastry, a half-cup or so of your favorite red jam and a sharp knife to cut the rolled-out dough into strips of “cloth” to wrap the cheese up with its telltale bandages.

This kid-friendly recipe only takes about a half-hour start to finish, and includes a seasonal and super-easy homemade cranberry jam. I brought it to life with candy eyes, but you also could use pecans or small slices of apple topped with raisins or craisins.

Be sure to brush the wrapped dough with egg wash; that’s what gives the finished dish its shiny, golden-brown color and helps as a binder.

It’s best served warm and gooey right out of the oven, with water crackers, apple wedges or slices, crostini, pretzel chips or anything else that’s sturdy and spreadable. If you have leftover jam, put that on the serving platter too, for a bright and zingy finish.

Mummy Baked Brie

PG tested

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 shallot, peeled and finely minced

1 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed

Juice and zest of 1 orange

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of sea salt

1 8-ounce wheel of French-style brie

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Egg wash, for baking

Prepare cranberry jam: In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add minced shallot and cook until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add cranberries to pan along with orange juice, sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix to combine, then bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until cranberries explode and mixture gets jammy, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Slice brie in half horizontally, and set the top half aside. Spread cranberry jam on the bottom half of the brie. Replace the top half of the brie so that the jam is covered.

Roll out puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch square. Place brie in the center of the dough and make two cuts on both long sides of the dough, from the brie to the edges, to create even thirds. Fold the middle piece on each edge over the brie. (It will be mostly covered with dough.)

Now the fun part! Cut 1/2 -inch-wide strips into the short sides of the dough, from the brie to the edges. Gently stretch the strips over the top of the dough in a crisscross pattern so it looks like mummy wrappings. Tuck any loose ends under the pastry.

Transfer the wrapped brie to the parchment-covered baking tray. Brush the pastry with egg wash and place in hot oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until it’s golden brown.

Add large edible eyes, and serve warm (and gooey) with sliced apples, toasted baguette, crackers, dried fruit, nuts and any leftover cranberry jam.

Serves 6-8.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

©2023 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Each fall, Maruca Salazar prepares her home for visitors from another realm.

The 71-year-old scatters the walkway to her house on Denver’s Northside with the rich, orange petals of the cempasúchil — marigold — flowers. The blossoms, grown by Salazar, are synonymous with the traditional Mexican holiday of Día de los Muertos as they are thought to be fragrant enough to attract the spirits of deceased loved ones to their family’s homes and altars.

On Thursday, Day of the Dead, Salazar’s family will pack the matriarch’s home and gather around a sacred altar overflowing with photos of the dead and ofrendas — offerings — made up of the departed’s favorite earthly delights. The day serves as a reunion between the living and the dead when the veil between realms is considered thinnest.

“It is really peaceful,” Salazar said. “I am happy to know that when you’re gone, there is a beyond, and that beyond is powerful. It is a nostalgic day to remember where you came from and who you came from.”

Lit candles guide the path to Salazar’s front door. Garlands of marigolds and papel picado — colorful, decorative paper cutouts — line Salazar’s porch, letting passersby in this realm and the next know that a celebration of life, death and remembrance is brewing inside.

Salazar — a storied artist and former director of Santa Fe Art District’s Latin American art museum Museo de las Americas —  helped popularize Day of the Dead in Denver during the burgeoning Chicano movement in the 1970s. Even though the celebration is more widely recognized today, Salazar still enjoys teaching new celebrants the ancient ways of Día de los Muertos — the rites and rituals her grandmother passed to her that she passed to her daughter who now teaches her granddaughter.

While Día de los Muertos iconography like sugar skulls can often be found alongside witch hats and fun-sized candy bars at the grocery store, Day of the Dead is not simply a Mexican version of Halloween, Salazar said. The holiday, a blend of Indigenous and Latino cultural traditions dating back thousands of years, focuses on honoring ancestry and commemorating death as a part of life by building altars that serve as shrines to memorialize lost loved ones.

“I want people to remember me when I am gone, so I remember those I have lost,” she said.

Loss is universal

The leaders of the Latino Cultural Arts Center know the value of passing traditions on to youth, which is why the center brought Día de los Muertos programming to three Denver schools this year.

The art classroom at Denver’s Valverde Elementary School hummed on Tuesday with an excitement only attainable by a group of children given craft supplies at 9:30 a.m. As the arts center’s Mandy Medrano and Valverde art teacher Kristina Barboza passed out light-up butterfly replicas, faux marigolds and miniature clay pan de muerto — a type of Mexican bread baked for Day of the Dead — the fourth-graders squealed with delight.

Barboza has been teaching Día de los Muertos for six years at Valverde, where a majority of the student body is Hispanic.

“It started off small,” Barboza said. “We’d put an altar together, but post-COVID, it turned into a bigger family celebration because of the needs of our community. Because there was so much loss. Our parents asked for this, and it’s brought our whole community together.”

The students make art to display at a big altar honoring the school community’s lost loved ones. With the help of Latino Cultural Arts Center funding, families will be welcomed on Thursday for food, drinks and mental health resources.

Melissa Roybal, a Denver Public Schools social worker and trauma-informed therapist, volunteers with the arts center to provide mental health services at its Day of the Dead programming.

“We’re trying to destigmatize talking about mental health in the Latino community,” Roybal said. “That’s why it’s so important to have practitioners who look like the communities they’re serving.”

Normalizing mental health can be as simple as word reframing, Roybal said. Instead of using words like “therapy,” Roybal tells people she’s there to help talk things out.

“Everyone has loss,” Medrano said. “It’s universal. I’m never afraid to talk to kids about loss. It’s better to not sugarcoat things and be real about it. It’s a part of who we are as a people.”

Yulissa Robles, 9, was happy to share as she glued pink ribbon to her altar, which she was making to honor her uncle and aunt who passed away.

“My favorite part has been making something that represents my family,” Yulissa said. “At home, we make our altar, too, because we like to represent our culture.”

“A beautiful tapestry”

On Thursday, Salazar prepped her altar-making supplies in her santos — saints — room, a striking part of her home with walls the color of butter and covered from top to bottom in artwork spanning various religions, from crosses to New Mexican saints to tapestries and her own woodwork.

She blessed the offerings before placing them on the altar, bathing them in incense from burning palo santo.

Her fingers brushed the frames and delicate edges of generations-old photographs awaiting their time on the altar. As the day gets closer and Salazar’s preparations head into overdrive, she said she begins dreaming of her deceased family members and knows they are close. She awaits their reunion at the altar with a soft smile.

“Life and death is with you constantly,” Salazar said. “If you ignore that, you only live but half your life.”

Renee Fajardo, coordinator of the Journey Through Our Heritage program at Metropolitan State University of Denver, described typical altar components as elements of the earth: fire in the form of candlelight, water and air represented by feathers or the paper cutouts. Altars often offer salt to protect the body from breaking down as it travels from the world of the dead to the world of the living, Fajardo said. The marigold flowers, pictures of the deceased and sugar skulls are key components, as well.

“It’s a beautiful tapestry — a weaving of people and communities and a particular area coming together to say, ‘This is the way we are going to love and honor our departed loved ones,’” Fajardo said. “It’s really about our humanity as a people that live on the same planet with each other, that we all have families we love and communities, and we all have departed loved ones.”

Family members also add personal touches to the altars reflecting the visitors’ personalities.

Salazar, for example, would like her family to leave her favorite molé at her altar when she dies.

Thanks to Colorado’s Latino and Chicano leaders throughout the years, Day of the Dead celebrations can be found throughout the state, from Westwood’s street festival to the parade along Santa Fe Drive to live dancing and music at the Longmont Museum.

Fajardo, a Denver native with Chicana and Native American roots, said when she thinks about Día de los Muertos, she imagines a future where the sacred remembrance of one’s ancestors lasts longer than the holiday.

“Once you have these pictures and stories of people and ancestors who built the community, we want to encourage people to begin a repository, a history telling,” Fajardo said. “We want it to be more than just looking at the parade and building of altars. How do we collect these stories and make sure the people who come after us recognize who we are in Colorado is a big, historic tradition of people weaving in and out of each other for hundreds of years.”