Jane Simon Ammeson is a freelance writer who specializes in travel, food and personalities. She writes frequently for The Times of Northwest Indiana, Mexico Connect, Long Weekends magazine, Edible Michiana, Lakeland Boating, Food Wine Travel magazine , Lee Publications, and the Herald Palladium where she writes a weekly food column. Her TouchScreenTravels include Indiana’s Best. She also writes a weekly book review column for The Times of Northwest Indiana as well as food and travel, has authored 16 books including Lincoln Road Trip: The Back-road Guide to America’s Favorite President, a winner of the Lowell Thomas Journalism Award in Travel Books, Third Place and also a Finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Travel category. Her latest books are America’s Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness and Classic Restaurants of Northwest Indiana.
Her other books include How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away with It, A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana and Murders That Made Headlines: Crimes of Indiana, all historic true crime as well Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Brown County, Indiana and East Chicago. Jane’s base camp is Stevensville, Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan. Follow Jane at facebook.com/janesimonammeson; twitter.com/hpammeson; https://twitter.com/janeammeson1; twitter.com/travelfoodin, instagram.com/janeammeson/ and on her travel and food blog janeammeson.com and book blog: shelflife.blog/
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FIBEGA, THE PREMIER WORLDWIDE GASTRONOMY TOURISM FAIR, COMES TO MIAMI MAY 2019
FIBEGA, the premier worldwide gastronomy tourism fair, will take place in the states for the first time in May 2019 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This is the third edition (inaugural fair took place in Merida, Spain followed by Buenos Aires, Argentina) and due to Miami’s status as an international hub, all future editions…
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Fabio’s 30-Minute Italian
“Good cooking and a lot of flavor don’t have to take a lot of time,” says Fabio Viviani, chef, restauranteur and TV personality, explaining why he wrote Fabio’s 30-Minute Italian (St. Martin’s 2017; $27.99), his beautifully photographed cookbook filled with wonderfully accessible recipes. “The whole premise is easy.” Viviani, who lives in the Chicago area…
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Blissful Basil: Over 100 Plant-Powered Recipes to Unearth Vibrancy, Health & Happiness
Stressed out during her last term of graduate school when she was counseling clients 30 hours a week, Ashley Melillo returned to her love of cooking, combining it with creating healthy plant-based recipes and creating Blissful Basil, a blog to share her experiences of cooking plant-based meals. “I was taking my work home with me,”…
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King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World
For her book King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World (Alfred A. Knopf 2017; $35), Joan Nathan, the multiple James Beard award winner, followed in the footsteps of Jewish traders as they circumvented the globe centuries and even millenniums ago. As they traveled, they brought the food cultures…
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It’s All About the Cherries: The Annual Eau Claire, MI Cherry Baking Festival
It was all about the cherries, as it is every year at the Eau Claire Cherry Festival, held each July 4th in downtown Eau Claire. Michigan. This year, I was asked, along with Sara and Hanns Heil, to judge the festival’s 31st annual Cherry Baking Contest. Of course, loving small town food events, I had…
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Making Maultaschen at Maulbronn Monastery
In a room where flickering flames highlight low beamed ceilings blackened with centuries of smoke and glass windows wavy from almost a millennium of time give views onto a cobblestone courtyard bordered by half-timbered buildings. I am at Maulbronn Monastery learning to make maultaschen, a centuries old dish that originated here. If I succeed, I’ll…
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Tastings: The Japan Pavilion at the National Restaurant Association Show
Several weeks ago, when the National Restaurant Association (NRA) was holding its annual international show, my friend Kimiyo Naka, who lives in Chicago, asked me to stop by the Japan Pavilion where 19 companies from that country were presenting a range of both modern and traditional Japanese foods and beverages. On hand also, were several…
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The Japan Pavilion: An Intro to the Best of the New and the Traditional
Several weeks ago, when the National Restaurant Association (NRA) was holding its annual international show, my friend Kimiyo Naka, who lives in Chicago, asked me to stop by the Japan Pavilion where 19 companies from that country were presenting a range of both modern and traditional Japanese foods and beverages. On hand also, were several…
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Magnolia Springs, Alabama
On a languid afternoon after too much time in the sun in Gulf Shores, Alabama, I decided to follow the coastline along the Eastern Shore through Fairhope to Magnolia Springs, a small town along the headwaters of the Magnolia River. With jasmine and bougainvillea in bloom, it seems like a true Southern Gothic (in the…
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Spargel: A Vegetable Fit for a King
It’s spargelzeit in Schwetzingen. For those of us, including me, who don’t speak German, that translates into white asparagus time in Schwetzingen, a celebration of the royal vegetable that takes place each year in the quaint town of Schwetzingen, known as the “asparagus capital” of Germany and a stop on Baden Asparagus Route, an 85-mile…
