Holiday sweets

By Jo McCulty Blackwell chefs Pauline Perkins, Roger Garland and Steve Van Stone put final trimmings on their gingerbread village construction.

The Blackwell features gingerbread in lobby display

By Anna Rzewnicki, Fisher College of Business

The lobby of the Blackwell at the Fisher College of Business has a bit of rural America on display this holiday season -- in the form of a gingerbread exhibit complete with barns, silos and farmhouses.

The rural community scene borrows from an old German tradition in which people made representations of their homes and brought them together to create a village scene. Roger Garland, executive chef for 2110, the restaurant at the Blackwell, drew on his fond memories growing up in a rural Midwestern community in developing the theme for the Blackwell.

Garland, pastry chef Pauline Perkins, and others on the chef's staff put about 50 hours into the project, baking, constructing and decorating the gingerbread structures between their other restaurant creations.

"I thought this would be a fun, unique and interesting experience for the staff, since only a few of us had ever had the opportunity to build these in the past," Garland said of the project, even though it was challenging to create the pieces and put them together during a busy holiday season.

Garland said he is glad to share not only the history of gingerbread structures but the recipes used for the display.

The history of gingerbread houses dates back to the 11th century, when those returning home from the Crusades introduced ginger to the Europeans. Subsequently, the English used it to create a therapeutic candy. And about 200 years later, breadcrumbs were added to the mixture, resulting in the first gingerbread.

Gingerbread recipes can be found dating back to the 14th century, Garland said, with the now-familiar cake-like form showing up in the 1600s, after molasses was introduced to Europe following the discovery of the new world. The sturdy baked dough style became prevalent in the early 18th century.

While spices were expensive for most Europeans, Germans near Nuremburg -- the main port for spice trade -- were the exception, precipitating the gingerbread tradition. Gingerbread was so highly regarded that craftsmen specialized in baking intricate representations, often weighing hundreds of pounds and decorated with gold leaf. Even now, in some areas of Germany, people make representations of their homes and bring them together to create a village scene. The display at the Blackwell follows that tradition.

Another tradition is to build and keep the houses intact until New Year's Day, when the children, using small mallets, break them up and eat the pieces to usher in the New Year.

Garland has just two basic tips for those planning to make a gingerbread creation:

• While anything you can imagine can be made with gingerbread, start simple and make it fun instead of a chore.

• Buy or make a simple pattern for your structure, and take advantage of books as a resource.

Implements and supplies

Electric mixer, mixing bowls, rolling pins, parchment paper, cooling racks, spatulas, ruler, tracing paper, scissors, pastry bags, pastry tips, plywood squares (on which to assemble the house).

Basic construction directions

1. Have a pattern developed before you start; take advantage of the many good books now available as a resource.

2. Start simple.

3. Identify, purchase and gather the decorations you will need. Remember to keep them edible if you wish to have the display edible.

4. Have baked, cooled dough and icing ready to use.

5. Set aside some time with limited distractions.

6. Have fun.

Decorating ideas

Roof materials: Necco wafers, whole pecans, licorice stick, Smarties, Chex cereal. Fencing: pretzel sticks, snack pretzels. Walkways: chocolate sprinkles, Pez candies, crumbled Oreos, graham cracker crumbs, mocha beans. Miscellaneous extras: cocoa powder, Tootsie Rolls, candy canes, shredded coconut, gumdrops.

Gingerbread dough recipe

6 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups light corn syrup

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine light corn syrup, brown sugar and margarine in a 2 quart saucepan. Heat and stir constantly until margarine is melted. Stir liquid mixture into dry mixture with clean hands until dough is mixed and stiff. Chill dough until easy to handle. Roll dough out to 1/8 inch on parchment paper. Using your patterns, cut out desired shapes. Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Check for air bubbles and poke them out if they occur. When done, slide onto a flat cooling rack.

Royal icing recipe

1 lb. powdered sugar

3 egg whites at room temperature

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Sift sugar to remove lumps. Place egg whites in mixing bowl. Add sugar and cream of tartar to whites while mixing with a mixer on a low setting. When sugar mixture is well-blended, turn mixer to high and beat until thick and bright white. It will form firm peaks when done. This should take about 5 minutes. When finished, cover with plastic wrap as it will dry quickly. The mixture can be dyed. Add food coloring in small amount until the desired color is obtained; divide plain icing into batches first if you desire different colors.

Academic inspiration

Graduate Jane Frysinger is a horse trainer and studied equine therapy as part of her B.S. in nursing.   Photos by Jo McCulty

New crop of graduates are tomorrow's leaders

By Shannon Wingard, Media Relations

More than 1,700 degrees were awarded at Ohio State's 362nd commencement ceremony Dec. 13. Louis Sullivan, founding dean and first president of the Morehead School of Medicine and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, was the commencement speaker.

Among the students, including 21 who are summa cum laude, 49 magna cum laude and 107 cum laude, who are inspirations in the community and in the classroom are Craig Bennetts and Michael Weinman.

Craig Bennetts, electrical and computer engineering

As an undergraduate, Craig Bennetts of Moreland Hills, interned with a team of biomedical engineers to design a 3-D-imaging machine. The 3-D Microscopic Computed Tomography machine, built at the Cleveland Clinic, provides images of tissue, muscles and organs of mice. Helping to understand the composition of mice, Bennetts said, can lead to information on people because the biology is similar.

Brad Clymer, associate professor of electrical engineering, said Bennetts focused his honors thesis paper on his internship. "In his thesis paper, he paid attention to detail and it ended up being twice as long as my dissertation," Clymer said. "Craig tends to downplay how important his research is. He has already contributed to the medical world by helping to develop the imaging tool."

Now Bennetts, who graduated cum laude with distinction in electrical and computer engineering, will take part in a research project to find medicinal purposes of plants in South Africa. He plans to spend from six months to a year there, hoping the research will eventually "provide better health for others."

Bennetts said he is excited to live in his parents' homeland. In 1975 his parents moved from South Africa to the United States. Since then, Bennetts has visited the country several times, but has never lived there.

"I think living in another culture will teach me a lot about the rest of the world," Bennetts said.

Michael Weinman, political science

As a child in Elwood City, Pa., a traumatic event helped Michael Weinman decide to put "bad guys away" for a living. The new Ohio State alumnus continues his quest to serve, even after a tragic event temporarily altered his life's course.

"I've always had a desire to help others," he said. "Police work is a great way to accomplish that desire. Weinman joined the U.S. Air Force after high school. Through the Community College of the Air Force, he earned an associate's degree in 1997 in criminal justice. After seven years, he left the service to enter the Columbus Division of Police Academy. He graduated in 1998 from the police academy and began working as a third-shift officer. Seven months later and a month after he married his wife, Ann, his life changed forever. Responding to a traffic accident, the then-28-year-old was shot twice, including once to his neck that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Still, his testimony helped put the assailant behind bars for years.

Political science graduate Michael Weinman is congratulated by Karen Bell, dean of the College of the Arts.

Weinman, who works part-time in the fraud and forgery unit for Columbus Police, began pursuing his bachelor's degree in 1999 at Ohio State. He decided to study political science and minor in criminology, combining his passions for politics and law enforcement. Now, he is pursuing a position that will combine his passions and someday intends to pursue his master's degree in public policy and management.

Kenneth Mulligan, a doctoral student in political science, who taught a class on modern political ideologies that Weinman took, said he thinks his former student is determined enough to accomplish his dreams.

"When I think about him, I don't think about his injury," Mulligan said. "I think he is passionate, smart and a nice person. In our class, we dealt in depth with a number of controversial and philosophical issues. He had a strong grasp of the issues and his experience as a police officer added enormously to the class."

Weinman said he has learned much from the experience.

"You don't really know until you face a test how you are going to react to a situation," he said. "I have drawn a lot of strength from my wife over the years. And I wasn't going to let what happened stop me from succeeding in life."

Traci Lyn Lewis receives her doctoral hood for her degree in human ecology. Lewis is wearing Ohio State's new scarlet and gray robe.

Doctoral graduates don new robes

The 140 doctoral students who graduated at autumn quarter commencement inaugurated a new tradition at Ohio State by wearing scarlet and gray robes. The colorful robes replace the traditional black generic gowns that previous graduates have worn, and are unique to Ohio State in the colors and other features, such as the sleeve design and crests embroidered on the front.

The variety of robes worn at commencement by faculty and administrators reflect the many institutions where they received their doctorates.

Before introducing Ph.D. recipients, Susan Huntington, dean of the graduate school, told guests and graduates: "We hope that today's doctoral graduates will wear Ohio State's unique regalia at graduations at the colleges and universities where many of them will soon assume faculty positions. Given the fact that the Ohio State University grants 2 percent of all doctorates awarded in the United States, we can soon look forward to our scarlet and gray colors brightening the commencement exercises of other colleges and universities across the nation within a very short time."