Sylvia Anderson has been a lifestyles reporter with the St. Joseph News-Press for almost five years. She writes features on food, home and garden, travel, parenting and other lifestyle subjects for the paper, along with articles for Josephine and Kin magazines.
She also reviews new products once a week for Sylvia Says, coordinates the Young at Heart section and writes the Eats restaurant reviews in St. Joe Live. Sylvia has a bachelor's degree from Northwest Missouri State University in public relations and previously worked for The Kansas City Star and the Platte County Landmark newspapers.
Recent Stories
Omaha Children's Museum
If you have already discovered the Omaha Zoo, you know it makes a great family day trip. Even though it’s in Nebraska, it’s only a two-hour drive from St. Joseph. But a lesser known destination you’ll want to check out, especially for younger children, is the Omaha Children’s Museum.
No-fail gardening
This is the year for vegetable gardens, as interest continues to grow in raising our own healthy, fresh food. Vegetable gardening is up 19 percent and seed sales are up 30 percent to 50 percent, according to a Garden Media Group 2010 garden trends report. But unlike previous generations, many of us don’t have hands-on gardening experience from working with our parents on the family plot.
St. Joseph’s rite of spring
If you live in St. Joseph, you don’t need a groundhog to tell you when spring will be here. That’s because on the first weekend in May, spring comes marching down Frederick Avenue with bands playing and beauty queens waving in the form of the Apple Blossom parade. It’s been an annual tradition in St. Joseph since 1924. And although there have been short periods when the parade didn’t happen, such as during World War II, for the most part, the parade has continued like clockwork.
Sylvia Says: New Spa Cuisine entrées offer taste and fiber boost
Lean Cuisine recently added a little more to chew on to its popular Spa Cuisine entrees. The line has added 5 to 6 grams of dietary fiber per serving, which is 20 percent of the recommended daily amount. If you have never tried a Lean Cuisine meal, they make an extremely convenient, healthy, low-cal lunch or dinner.
We recommend for March 12, 2010
We recommend for March 12, 2010
The incredible, economical egg
When Sheri Caldwell cooks meals for her family, her goal is to make something they’ll like to eat. But she also wants to keep costs down and nutrition up. With four children, that’s not easy. Fortunately, as a dietician with Hy-Vee, she has learned some ways to do that. And one is by using the incredible edible egg.
Weekender: Little Switzerland
Haunted hotels, award-winning architecture, music shows, spas, tree houses and some really big cats — that’s just the start of what you’ll find in Eureka Springs, Ark. It’s a tiny little town hidden away in the Ozarks, but there’s so much to do in the area, it’s worth a trip — several times. “It’s not on the beaten track, so you really have to want to come here,” says Ken Rundel, a publicist. “But once you do, you’ll feel like you’ve been to a magical world in the northwest corner of Arkansas.”
Sylvia Says: AMP Energy drinks will get your juices flowing
You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to try a product with caffeine. There are days I wonder if I could make it out the door without it. However, I was a little hesitant to try the new AMP Energy Juice. That’s because I don’t really care for the AMP energy drinks.
Eats: Head down to Holt’s for a burger
In the 1989 movie “Road House,” a fictional bar in Jasper, Mo., called the Double Deuce was so rough they had to hire a guy named Dalton (played by Patrick Swayze) to clean things up. The movie could have been based on Holt’s Place in St. Joseph, if you talk to locals who haven’t been there for awhile. The movie is similar in that when owners Robbie and Tammy Wheeler took it over five years ago, they had their hands full cleaning it up.
The perfect blend
Collin Ryan is a nice guy and all, but don’t ask him for his chili recipe. The talkative meat manager at Apple Market North grocery store in St. Joseph will become silent pretty quickly. It’s not one of those things he’d have to kill you over — maybe — but he’ll only share that information with the co-workers who will be helping him at the 24th annual Chili Challenge, a fundraiser for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation to be held March 7 at Civic Arena.
