An 'Oldie but a Goodie' Thanksgiving Dessert

Pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon-sour-cream icing has become a holiday staple at the Chmiel house.

For Paula Chmiel, Thanksgiving traditions often come in the form of cooking up those tried-and-true favorites that make it such a special holiday. The South Orange resident is a professional chef. In her family, pumpkin cheescake is one of those recipes that people talk about for weeks both before and after the holiday, so give this one a try if you want to impress! Originally published in Gourmet in 1990, it was a recipe Paula noticed on the magazine cover while at college and she just had to make it. Jump ahead 21 years and the same recipe is still alive and well both in the Chmiel house and online (www.epicurious.com), though she has changed it up a bit here and there. While Paula isn't working in a restaurant kitchen these days—she's a…

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Local Bank Helps the Hungry

Provident Bank collected food and toys at its Morris County branches.

To help feed families in need this past holiday season, Provident Bank's Morris County branches, including its Parsippany location, collected nearly 300 pounds of groceries for local food pantries. In addition to food collections, several branches served as toy drop-off locations for local service organizations. 

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From First Night to First Nine

An unseasonably warm Jan. 1 allows Mount Tabor golfers to tee off for the new year.

Few Parsippany golfers ring in the New Year with a round of golf, but that's precisely what happened for about a dozen members at the Mount Tabor Country Club last Sunday. After the success of a Christmas Eve Santa Claus Scramble golf event, a group of members met up on the links to play golf on New Year’s morning. Club President Doug Kehoe initiated the uncommon gathering via a New Year's Eve email. “Course conditions are excellent and the weather is practically Spring-like”, Kehoe wrote, inviting members to the club for a nine-hole New Year's Day round of golf. Ultimately, just under 20 members appeared. The gathering gave Kehoe pause to consider the 111-year-old Mount Tabor club's tumultuous 2011. The president noted that while last …

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Day Tripper: Out of Town, But Worth the Trip

Think Warm Thoughts At Polar Bear Plunge

New Year’s Day event raises money for breast cancer research.

There is so much to do in New Jersey during the winter holidays: visit farm markets, spend your Christmas money at various area malls, head to the shore and jump into the ocean. Wait. What? It’s true. The Mad Hatter Pub & Pizzeria, 10 E. Ocean Ave, Sea Bright would like you to come on down and take a dip for the third Polar Bear Plunge on the first day of 2012— that's tomorrow. “This event started two years ago, [and] this year is the third annual plunge,” said Deana Rosenthal, president and founder of the Next Generation Foundation, which is the beneficiary of the event. "NGF and Mad Hatter have been teaming up for the past six years making huge strides in the fight against Breast Cancer," Rosenthal said. "Funds raised at our events …

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Get Out

Ring in the New: Parties, Dancing, Pancakes

Your to-do list for the first weekend of 2012

Surely you've heard the old adage that the way you enter the new year is the state in which you'll spend the new year. Assuming you want your 2012 leisure time to be spent engaging in rich, educational, entertaining experiences, what better time than the first weekend of the new year to get out of the house? A wide range of activities follow. Pick your fancy and enjoy. Happy New Year, and ring in the year safely. Zumba When/Where: Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Reformed Church of Kinnelon Why Go: To start working off those holiday pounds and learn some latin moves. Cost: $10 to just drop in; $7 per class with a package "Hike Out the Old Year" When/Where: Saturday at 1 p.m. at Pyramid Mountain Why Go: So you can shake off 2011 and …

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Holidays Are Giving Season for Area Faith Communities

Parsippany houses of worship maintain usual outreach programs while adding new ones for the holidays.

As we are reminded often, the holiday season is a time for giving in all its forms—in thought, in time and in material or monetary assistance. Houses of worship, which reflect the collective giving of a community, are often the center of efforts to give back to the communities they support. That is certainly the case in Parsippany. Serving others is business as usual for local faith communities, but during the fall and winter months, they kick it up a notch to embody the generous spirit of the season. Patch talked with leaders of a representative sample of the area's churches, mosques and synagogues to find out about their 2011 holiday activities. Perhaps their efforts, along with the efforts of other local faith communities, will inspire …

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PHHS Winter Concert Presents Holiday Joy

The high school musicians' performance in its entirety