Star Tribune
Kay Emel-Powell, a real-life Betty Crocker, dies at 76
Her name never made the cover, but Kay Emel-Powell was the creative power behind a number of popular Betty Crocker cookbooks that landed on supermarket shelves and other retail outlets in the 1980s.
As a 20-year veteran of Pillsbury, Emel-Powell was a key figure in the Betty Crocker Kitchens, where she wrote and tested hundreds of recipes that appeared in such publications as “Harvest Time Pies” and “Creative Holiday Recipes.”
The booklets sold for as little as $1.98 and were routinely placed in magazine racks at supermarket checkout lines across the United States. Before retiring in 2003, Emel-Powell also helped launch Bettycrocker.com, which continues to provide kitchen tips to 12 million visitors each month.
“We personified Betty Crocker,” said Mary Bartz, who worked with Emel-Powell and now coordinates the canning and baking competitions at the Minnesota State Fair. “The essence of Betty Crocker was to offer a warm, friendly approach … We appealed to Middle America.”
Emel-Powell of Bloomington died Aug. 9 after two decades of living with progressive multiple sclerosis. She was 76.
She grew up in rural Kansas, where she won her first cookbook by becoming the local 4-H baking champion at the age of 16. After graduating from Kansas State University with degrees in foods and nutrition and business, she was hired in 1969 as a home economist at Pillsbury, which launched the iconic Betty Crocker brand in 1921.
“At the time, Pillsbury was looking for employees who came from different parts of the country to represent what those places were doing in the kitchen,” said Karen Sorensen, who joined Emel-Powell at Pillsbury in 1969. “I was Illinois and Kay was Kansas.”
One of their jobs brought them into people’s kitchens, where they observed mothers baking brownies and biscuits to see if they had trouble opening the packages or following the directions. They also conducted so-called “tolerance tests,” seeing how much they could mess up a recipe without ruining the end result.
“If a product was so sensitive that it failed if you were off by a teaspoon of water, we’d go back and say we may need to reformulate the mix so it is more forgiving to consumers,” said Anne Klein, another former Pillsbury colleague.
Emel-Powell left Pillsbury for 15 years to sell housewares and establish her own consulting business. She returned to the company in 1986 after working on the Pillsbury Bake-Off and developing several Betty Crocker cookbooks as a freelancer.
Colleagues said one of her passions was developing and testing recipes for the company, which required constant monitoring of food trends in restaurants, bakeries and competing cookbooks.
“Betty Crocker was aiming at the average cook, and it was a constant question of how far do you push into the gourmet world,” Sorensen said.
To keep things simple, many dishes were limited to three or five ingredients. Another factor: recipes should promote Pillsbury products, such as biscuits or rolls.
“It has always been the premise that if you get recipes in front of the consumer, they will buy your product,” Sorensen said. “You just had to have the right recipe and the recipe had to be good.”
Some of the books are now collectors’ items that sell for many times their original price online. One fan of Betty Crocker’s Smart Cook, which Emel-Powell edited in 1988, said she has given several copies of the cookbook to friends.
“This is a super great cookbook for the cook who wants to put something special on their table, but has time constraints,” the buyer said in a 2009 review.
Emel-Powell is survived by her husband, Mark Moore Powell. Services have been held.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will auction off state lands in popular northern counties next month.
The public land — in Aitkin, Cook, Itasca, and St. Louis counties — will go up for sale during the Department of Natural Resource’s annual online public land sale from Nov. 7 to 21.
“These rural and lakeshore properties may appeal to adjacent landowners or offer recreational opportunities such as space for a small cabin or camping,” the DNR said in a statement.
Properties will be available for bidding Nov. 7 through Nov. 21.
This all can trim for print: The properties include:
40 acres in Aitkin County, with a minimum bid of $85,000
44 acres in Cook County, minimum bid $138,000
1.9 acres in Itasca County, minimum bid $114,000
Minneapolis city officials say razor wire, concrete barriers and fencing will be removed from around the former Third Precinct police station – which was set ablaze by protesters after George Floyd’s police killing – in the next three weeks. The burned-out vestibule will be removed within three months with construction fencing to be erected closer to the building.
This week, Minneapolis City Council members have expressed frustration that four years after the protests culminated in a fire at the police station, the charred building still stands and has become a “prop” some conservatives use to rail against city leadership. Most recently, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a stop outside the building and criticized Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of the 2020 riots.
On Thursday, the council voted 8-3 to approve a resolution calling for “immediate cleanup, remediation, and beautification of the 3000 Minnehaha site including but not limited to the removal of fencing, jersey barriers, barbed wire, and all other exterior blight.”
Council Member Robin Wonsley said the city needs to acknowledge that many police officers stationed in the Third Precinct “waged racist and violent actions” against residents for decades.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said the council wants the building cleaned up and beautified “immediately.”
“We cannot allow for this corner to be a backdrop for those who wish to manipulate the trauma of our city for political gain,” Chowdhury said.
Council Member Katie Cashman said the council shouldn’t be divided by “right-wing figures posing in front of the Third Precinct and pandering to conservative interests.”
“It’s really important for us to stay united in our goal, to achieve rehabilitation of this site in a way that advances racial healing and acknowledgement of the past trauma in this community, and to not let those figures divide us here,” she said.
It’s MEA weekend — the four-day stretch in mid-October when educators traditionally flock to St. Paul RiverCentre for a conference organized by the statewide teachers union as students and their families take an extended break.
Some orchards offer visitors the opportunity to pick their own fruit, while others operate sprawling general stores that sell a variety of apple-themed goodies.
Tiger cub twins Amaliya (female), left, and Andrei (male), right, who were born in May, hang out with their mother, Amur tiger Sundari, after making their debut in their new public habitat at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minn. on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. ] LEILA NAVIDI • leila.navidi@startribune.com (Leila Navidi)
October is usually a happenin’ month at the Minnesota Zoo. The annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular is chock-full of meticulously decorated gourds, and this year’s event runs until Nov. 2. Tickets start at $18 for adults and $14 for children (kids younger than 2 get in free but must still register for tickets). The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular begins at 6 p.m.
But there’s another new attraction at the zoo these days: the pair of Amur tiger cubs born to 7-year-old mom Bernadette just a couple of months ago. This week, zoo officials named the young felines Marisa and Maks. The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.
Patrons enjoy drinks and dinner on the patio Thursday evening, July 18, 2024 at Lola’s Lakehouse in Waconia. Lola’s Lakehouse in Waconia features a large back deck/patio area with views of Lake Waconia. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
With so many people out of town, there’s no better time to visit some of the Twin Cities’ most popular eateries.
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