WHITMAN – She’s in the finals.
Whitman baker Justine Rota wowed the Food Network’’s Holiday Baking Championship judges Carla Hall and Nancy Fuller on Monday, Dec. 11 with her Kwanzaa-inspired plantain upside-down cake.
“This is another challenge where I have no idea what I’m doing, but [in] those challenges, I’ve been hovering in the top two, so I must be doing something right,” Rota said as she got to work on her cake. As she said that she is adept at upside-down cake, she opted to basically not try to fix what wasn’t broken.
Her sugar cookie kinara with the traditional red, black and green candles depicted on them for her preheat challenge, drew Hall’s special raves. The dessert had to depict the kinara in some way.
“You sure have done a good job,” Fuller said. “The upside-down cake, oh, my word – the carmelization and that battah…”
“The kinara sugar cookies? Perfect,” Hall said. “They’re so clean, the drips, the flames, the movement. Beautiful.”
They liked the taste even more.
“That carmelization that you’ve got on those plantains and into this cake is absolutely amazing,” Fuller said.
“What I love about your whole dessert, [is] it gave us all these different textures,” Hall agreed. “You get this chewiness from the plantains [and] then your cake is a dense cake that’s still moist with big crumbs, and then you finish with your sugar cookies … it’s really well done.”
Rota was the winner of the preheat challenge.
But, as sometimes happens with the advantages in such victories, Rota and her selected teammates Kevin Conniff of Alberta, Canada and Javier Trujillo of Chicago in an extra challenge to create an edible “ornament,” ran into production problems that cost them a win – and a loss of 10 minutes in the final – a Christmas-tree themed pull-apart pastry with a complimentary dipping sauce.
Celebrity baker Duff Goldman returned from his absence in time to judge the final challenge.
Rota picked raspberry for the filling flavor in her pull-apart pastry tree with an orange carmel dipping sauce.
“Last time I made a blitz puff pastry I did not bake it enough,” Rota said of an earlier challenge in the competition. This time, Goldman had a question for her.
“I don’t understand what happened.” he dead panned. “I leave for a couple weeks, I come back and all your pastries are amazing. What did you do with Justine? I’m kidding. This is really out of this world.”
“I think it’s bautiful,” Fuller said. “The colors are absolutely gorgeous. It’s so cohesive. I’m very impressed.”
Hall’s main criticism was that the trunk of Rota’s tree was a bit thick, limiting the size of the pull-apart branches, she also thought the sauce was a little acidic as a dip for a raspberry pastry.
“Delicious,” Fuller said as her eyes widened.
In the end, Rota was the second-place contestant, after Coloradan Thua Nguyen, with both of them, along with Conniff and Ashley Landerman of New Braunfels, Texas, head to the final round of baking challenges next week.
Holiday Baking Championship. Food Newtork. 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 18.
The top prize in the contest is $25,000.

The well-attended Hanson Holiday Fest was held on Saturday, Dec. 2 at the Town Hall Green, featuring photos with Santa and the Grinch. Many local businesses, restaurants, and groups provided free goodies for all attending, and fireworks followed at 7 p.m., all compliments of the Hanson Fire Department. Above, Mark and MaryAnne Brown take a selfie with the Grinch as it ‘snows’ on them and others. See more photos, page 6. Photos by Carol Livingstone

HANSON – American Legion Post 226 needs you – especially if you are a veteran who might be interested in joining their ranks.
The post is now conducting a membership drive as its membership is aging and it’s become more difficult to attract younger members.
While there are currently about 250 members on the books, many are elderly and rarely attend events.
“We’re trying to get the younger generation in here,” said David George, Post 226 vice commander and a Select Board member. “I think everybody associates the American Legion with old World War II veterans and Vietnam veterans. We need younger veterans.”
George said a recent meat raffle fundraiser, in which a small crowd raised about $1,5000 provided a reason for optimism amid a troubling trend of dwindling membership.
Another meat raffle is planned for Veterans Day – starting at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11 – with an additional raffle of a 40-inch Amazon Fire TV, 50/50 scratch ticket raffle, other door prizes, food, and Veterans Agent Joe Gumbakis to provide information on veterans services, among the highlights.
“There’s a lot of good things that we could do here,” George said, noting that Gumbakis could hold informational sessions, or hours in which to answer veterans’ questions.
Recent news reports from around the country show the post is not alone, as younger veterans seem to be looking elsewhere for the post-service comradeship the Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) posts used to attract.
“The young guys don’t want to come in here because they think its all old grumpy people sitting at the bar, drinking, and it’s not that way,” George said.
Younger vets from all over the U.S. are pointing to generational differences over minority memberships, including issues such as race or the attitudes toward LGBTQ veterans in the wake of the 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as some of the reasons behind falling membership in established veterans’ organizations, accoring to news reports.
For George, none of that is a concern, if veterans are looking for a place to gather, socialize and reminisce about service days, he said the Hanson legion has the welcoming space and events.
“There’s no discrimination here – male/female, black/white – anybody could come here,” said George, an Army and Army National Guard veteran.
Post bar manager Richard Wassell sees a national trend in dwindling participation in groups of all kinds at work.
“A lot of people lose interest,” he said, adding it’s a great place for veterans and a great place for the public.“A lot of people don’t want to go out much anymore. Who knows? It’s not an exclusive veterans’ club,”
There are ways to join the Legion even if one is not a veteran, as well.
“We have three memberships here,” George said. “Veterans – and you could be male or female. This isn’t like a fraternity.” Sons of veterans is a male auxiliary and the Women’s Auxiliary round out the membership categories.
While there are challenges in attracting members, it’s not your dad’s Legion Hall, anymore, he said.
But the national Legon, in its membership tab on the website legion.org, sees enough cause for concern to post in June 2023, to post an article about how posts might attract younger members. The Legion had hosted a story about a training session on boosting membership based on getting posts involved in the community and, as a result, attracting community involvement with posts.
For example, Post 257 in Battle Creek, Mich., had 55 members in 2017. Since then, the post has grown each year thanks to its community outreach and engagement efforts. For 2023, Post 257 has about 268 members.
“You have to go out into the community and let them know what you’re doing or else you’re not going to attract new members,” The Legion’s Department of Michigan Membership Director Brian Mohlman said. “If you don’t go out in the community, your community doesn’t see you.”
George is looking for that kind of spike in interest.
One of its steps will be a Veterans Day meat raffle at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11.
Recreational outlets could also be expanded at the post, George said.
A pool league could be convinced to include the post if there was enough interest and the Minuteman Dart League, which Post 226 had been part of once, could return. Recreational league participation do not require Legion membership.
With the burgeoning popularity of cornhole, George said forming a team for that could also be popular.
“We have so much stuff to offer,” he said, noting the hall at 92 Robinson St., in Hanson has a full kitchen including two pizza ovens, a second bar downstairs in the function room, and an outdoor pavilion. “It’s a place for people to meet and have a good time. It’s all good people here.”
Members may rent the hall for $25 to $50 right now, and non-members can rent spaces for from $100 to $200 – and that can include bartender service.
New members can also help, through dues, with the materials needed to repair the roof – estimated at a cost of about $10,000.
“If we had the materials, we have the manpower that would put it on,” George said. “We have carpenters that are members here. There’s a lot of good people here, and there’s a lot of good things that can happen here,” George said. “We need more members to make it happen.”
For more information about joining the American Legion or its auxiliaries, email [email protected].

It’s not how you start but how you finish. 
The Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team learned that the hard way last Friday night. 
The Panthers roared out to a 9-6 lead on Marshfield at the half. 
W-H got on the board first with a Tim Brown blocked punt for a safety in the first quarter.
Marshfield would then retake the lead until Johnny Walker punched it in from 1-yard out and a 9-6 Panthers advantage at the half. 
The Rams edged ahead in the third with a pick-6, before W-H answered with a 20-yard TD from Ryan Nash to Brendan Moore to regain the lead, 15-13.
It didn’t last. In fact, that was the last time the Panthers scored. 
That’s because Marshfield responded with 31 unanswered points to pull away for the 44-15 victory.
W-H finished the regular season at 3-5. 
Walker and Cam Beltramini led the way for the Panthers on both sides of the ball. They combined for 160 yards on the ground, with Walker finding the end zone once. Defensively, Walker had 14 tackles and Beltramini added an interception.

— Nathan Rollins