A business owner and chef brings her fine dining expertise to a high school hospitality and food service class.

Twice as many wannabe chefs are cultivating their cooking skills at the Saginaw Career Complex, 2102 Weiss, thanks to the addition of a second instructor.

Award-winning chef and restaurant owner Shari Smith of Auburn has teamed with longtime food service instructor Julie Ivan to train high school student in the restaurant business. There's still a waiting list of 40 to 50 students eager to get into the hospitality and food service curriculum.

David A. Sommers | The Saginaw NewsTeacher Julie Ivan, 47, left, of Freeland and Chef Shari Smith, 49, of Auburn, work with Saginaw Career Opportunities Center student Cherish Nichols, 17, of Thomas Township. They are part of the culinary program at the school.

Most stores try to keep prices down, especially for the turkey, but the fixins are extra.

The nation's economic whirlwind will keep shoppers guessing about how much it will cost to give thanks at the holiday table Thursday.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal for the average gathering of 10 will cost $44.61 this year, up 5.5 percent to 6 percent from last year. That includes a 9-cents-a-pound increase for turkey -- still less than the same meal 20 years ago, when adjusted for inflation.

"It's probably the biggest sticker shock of the year because it's probably the one time of the year where you buy so much," says Jim Sartwelle, an economist at the Farm Bureau, which since 1986 has released an annual Turkey Day tally based on an informal survey of volunteer shoppers across the country.

Experts offer their tips on a pumpkin pie worthy of thanks.

Retailers may have skipped the Thanksgiving holiday and gone straight to Christmas specials, but home cooks haven't.

Instead, they're digging out favorite family recipes and deciding on menus for Thanksgiving Day.

Many will include a pumpkin pie for the holiday dessert table.

Dessert is the star of a fundraiser, but the winners are the children inspired to stay in school.

David A. Sommers | The Saginaw NewsPastry Chef Scott Brewer, 38, of Saginaw Township decorates a chocolate cake at the Patisserie. They are one of three bakeries serving decadent chocolate recipes at Delta's Chocolate Affair Fundraiser on Nov. 13.

The food, wine and chocolate dessert taste is Thursday, Nov. 13, at a new location -- Valley Plaza Resort, 5221 Bay City Road in Midland. Festivities for the patron level ticketholders are from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and includes a red-carpet entrance, premium menu selection and a raffle of artwork.

Ticket cost is $125. General admission cost is $65 from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are available in advance and at the door that night.

Unique chocolate creations from three mid-Michigan pastry chefs will highlight the evening. Participating this year are The Patisserie in Saginaw; Petit Four in Essexville; and Linda Lewis Catering in Midland.

A box filled with discounted meat, frozen vegetables and other kitchen staples is only a bargain if you're able to fashion it into meals your family will eat.

Even though recipes are promised, so far the Angel Food Ministries Web site doesn't have any posted for preparing each month's selection of food.

"That part of the Web site is still in the works," promised Doug Metcalf, director of media and marketing for Angel Food Ministries.

A Georgia-based ministry sells a monthly food basket priced at half its value.

Stretching shrinking food budgets has mid-Michigan cooks looking for ways to reduce the cost of feeding their families.

Some are finding help through Angel Food Ministries, which operates distribution sites throughout the country, including several hundred in Michigan. For $30, the Monroe, Ga.-based organization provides enough food to feed a family of four for at least a week.

"It's totally a good value for the money," said 31-year-old Shari Smolchuck-Flora of Saginaw Township as she loaded her SUV with several boxes of food in the parking lot of Saginaw Valley Church of the Nazarene in Carrollton Township recently.

Hair salon staff and customers cook up a plan to benefit the United Way.

Jeff Schrier | The Saginaw NewsCheryl M. Hadsall, owner of The Willows Hair Salon and Day Spa, 5820 Gratiot in Saginaw Towsnhip holds a copy of "A Cut Above the Rest," a cookbook she and her staff published to raise money for the United Way.

Those were exactly the kind of recipes Cheryl Hadsall wanted when she and her staff started gathering recipes for "A Cut Above the Rest," a collection of recipes from friends and patrons of Hadsall's business -- Willows Salon & Day Spa, 5820 Gratiot in Saginaw Township.

The cookbooks cost $20 and will benefit the 2008 United Way of Saginaw County campaign. The charity is in the midst of raising $2.6 million through the end of the year.

"We wanted to get more active in the community," explained Hadsall, a Saginaw County commissioner who serves on the United Way's board of directors. "We decided to give the proceeds to the United Way so a variety of agencies would benefit."

A child of the '60s, Laurajeanne Kehn couldn't wait to get away from her family's farm in Vassar.

"Back then we canned everything -- beans, beets, corn, peas -- just everything," recalls Kehn, 56, market master at the Frankenmuth Farmers Market.

"I wanted my Mom to buy corn from the supermarket. I couldn't get away from the farm fast enough. Now I'm finding myself running back to that way of life."

Cooks who concoct original recipes at home cash in at national contests.

Melanie Sochan | The Saginaw NewsMona A. Newman, 41, of Chesaning with her pesto bean stuffed manicotti at the Showboat Restaurant, 242 W. Broad Street in Chesaning, where Newman works as a chef. The recipe won Newman first place in a Do More With the Vegetable with More contest sponsered by Bush's Best beans.

Pairing the perfect recipe with the right competition could net those who enjoy creating meals some extra cash and prizes.

It did for 41-year-old Mona A. Newman of Chesaning. Recently Newman and her husband, David, won an all-expense paid trip to New York City after she won first place in a national recipe contest sponsored by Bush's Best Beans. Newman works at the Showboat Restaurant in Chesaning.

While Newman is just coming off a win with her recipe for "Pesto Bean Stuffed Manicotti," Saginaw Township's Catherine McMichael is preparing to compete for a $20,000 grand prize in "Cooking Light" magazines annual Cooking Light Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest.

U.S. households lose nearly a quarter of the fruits and vegetables purchased to spoiling.

What's worse than the rising cost of food?

Watching your in-season purchases wilt and waste away when you buy more than you can consume or you forget they are hidden in the back of the fridge.

One thing is certain: It gets expensive. The most costly edibles in your kitchen are the foods you buy and end up tossing into the garbage.

Jessica Scott | The Saginaw NewsLinda Steele, 44 of Vassar and employee of Meijer, stocks fresh spinach and rappini in the produce section of Meijer, 3360 Tittabawassee.

After a long summer, Michigan's corn returns to the dinner table.

It will cost you a little bit more to bite into an ear of Michigan sweet corn.

Fans as well as growers of the summertime favorite say it's worth the cost. Depending on where you shop, markets are offering a dozen ears of sweet corn for an average price of about $4.

This year's crop is more expensive because it's costing farmers more to grow as they pay more for the rising prices of fuel, fertilizer and labor, explained Mark Seamon, an agriculture educator with Michigan State University Extension in Saginaw County.

Jeff Schrier | The Saginaw NewsFarmer George Hemmeter stands in one of his sweet corn fields behind his farm store, 4040 Lawndale in Saginaw Township.

Midland's H Hotel sets up The Table as a premiere gourmet restaurant.

One of the first hints that much has changed at what was once Midland's Ashman Court Hotel is the new streetfront entrance to the venue's gourmet restaurant.

The Table, an impressive upscale dining room, is part of a brand spanking new $25 million renovation and expansion to Midland's the H Hotel, 111 W. Main.

The elegant and beautiful new restaurant opened for business in June. It's one segment of a major renovation at the H Hotel. Owner Dow Chemical Co. hired Dolce International of Montvale, N.J., to manage the property.

Jeff Schrier | The Saginaw NewsChef Anthony Demes displays Maine Diver Scallops with asparagus, risotto, sweet pea sauce and summer truffle salad from his menu at Table restaurant at The H Hotel, (formerly Ashman Court), 111 W. Main in downtown Midland.

The recent contamination scare has some people asking where their food comes from.

It's safe to eat tomatoes, but don't touch those hot peppers.

The Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to put hot peppers on the "don't eat" list, just as the record outbreak of salmonella linked to tomatoes was finally slowing.

Food inspectors still haven't found the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul on any farms in suspect areas of south Florida and parts of Mexico, where they've managed to trace tomatoes eaten by consumers.

Children learn their way around the kitchen at a daylong camp.

MIDLAND -- Sleeping bags and hiking boots aren't needed when youngsters head off to summer cooking camp.

Six children -- 7- to 11-year-olds -- were among the first enrolled in Kid's Cook-N-Camp offered by The Menu Manager, 4983 Eastman, Midland. Owner Kelly Biggs of Bullock Creek normally caters to adults who stop at her shop to assemble meals to take home and store in their freezers, ready to heat and eat.

The summer sessions offer pint-size campers a chance to prepare non-traditional camp food -- lasagna, chicken penne alfredo, pizza, dirt cups for dessert and a camp snack of cookies and strawberries dipped in chocolate. They make enough to feed a family of four to six, at a cost of about $3 a meal.

Soups are a healthy and fun way to enjoy the summer.

Pit cold soup against hot soup in the dining room of the Saginaw Club in downtown Saginaw and the steamy version wins every time.

However, Matthew Fitchett, executive chef at the private club, 219 N. Washington, Saginaw, said some of the club's more adventurous diners enjoy the cold recipes when he adds them to the summer menu.

"Club members like a hot lunch, but they eat up the cold soup, too. My members love healthy foods so they're open to trying new things. We offer three different soups daily. During the warmer months cold soups go over pretty good. I like to serve gazpacho finished with an avocado sorbet," he said.