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SPRING 2021

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TTER | CCUTTER@ THE SCOOP BY CODY CU

d’s, a popular hat do the origin of McDonal m scoops have malt mixer and square ice crea in common?

Sterling is part of their story. a time when Younger folks don’t remember ere ice cream there was a place in Sterling wh so was a meal – a cones were a square deal, and ask an older burger for a dime? You bet. But dly the days of the generation and they’ll recall fon the “One-in-a-Million” distinctive scoops atop a cone, re er one small roof that looked mo malts, and Steakburgers, all und g. rlin Ste wn aurant: Prince Castle in downto like a castle than a fast food rest

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Continued from page 5 In the photos on the Digging into an ice-cold creamy treat was a special occasion for a generations of kids in previous pages ... town, and their parents, too. For some it was a daily ritual.

A photo of Earl R. Prince and his Twin Cities’ ice cream lovers have Earl Prince to thank for that – two Earl Princes, in Prince Castle restaurant in Sterling. This fact, father and son. limestone structure, seen circa 1940, sat at In addition to serving food, Prince Castles also manufactured its own line of ice cream the southeast corner of West Fifth Street and equipment, namely, the square scoops and the Multimixer – a machine that proved to Avenue B, an area that now is the back loading be the seed to the establishment of McDonald’s by a Multimixer salesman. dock for County Market. In the background are the The elder Prince started the Prince Castles chain – officially Prince Ice Cream Casformer C&E Glass building (right) and a two-story tles – in DeKalb in 1928, and after just a couple of decades, more locations popped brick house (center, behind restaurant) that still is up throughout northern Illinois and Chicagoland. After he died in 1960, his son Earl standing, next to the Sterling Fire took over the business and ran it for a couple of more decades until the 1980s. The Department. The former Woods younger Earl died Nov. 26, 2020, at 93.

Funeral Home was off to the The younger Earl’s daughter, Cyd, remembers going on many of her father’s business right of the picture. Dutch trips throughout the state, and there always seemed to be some ice cream involved.

Elm disease killed many of “He was always working during the week,” Cyd said. “He would travel into the Chicago the trees in this picture by area often and visit all of the castles often. He wanted to make sure things were going the the 1960s. way they should be.”

Between the time Earl spent with business and family, he was active in the community and enjoyed teeing off with the best golfers at Rock River Country Club.

“I’ve never heard a negative word about Dad ever, ever,” Cyd said. “Everybody seems to love Dad. He was just one of those guys who just gotcha.

“He was the best dad ever. He was always the good guy. Mom was the one who would be mad with us.”

Prince Castles formed with the combination of several ideas, and it ended with several businesses and tools it developed growing stronger even after the restaurant chain’s demise.

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Earl Prince, originally from Downers Grove, moved to Sterling in 1930 to establish the western headquarters of his share of the Prince Castle chain; the other half was operated by business partner Walter Fredenhagen in Chicagoland. Prince’s base of operation was on the northwest corner of East Second Street and Second Avenue. Note the Lawrence Building and current Midland States Bank building in the background to the left.

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The elder Earl Prince and Walter Fredenhagen, both originally from Downers Grove, each had an early liking to the creamy ice cream treat as children. Fredenhagen later operated an ice cream plant in the west central Illinois town of Rushville, and Prince went into the restaurant business in DeKalb.

DeKalb’s folks loved their new restaurant, and it attracted customers from outside the community. The success inspired Prince to open multiple locations throughout northern Illinois.

The winning ingredient? Fredenhagen’s Frozen Gold brand of ice cream out of Rushville.

The friendship between Prince and Fredenhagen not only paved the way for their business’s success, but also the growth of Prince’s family. One particular trip to Rushville, before Prince started his restaurants, proved to be special: Earl’s wife, Marion, gave birth to their son, Earl, there on Nov. 13, 1927.

The Great Depression couldn’t cool off Prince’s business dreams and when he set off to create his own ice cream plant in 1930, Sterling became the place and Prince moved his headquarters there. The plant sat at the end of Second Avenue across the railroad tracks from Lawrence Brothers, and its headquarters and warehouse was on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Second Street.

Prince also dealt in ice and coal sales early on. He oversaw the Prince Castles locations west of Chicagoland, and Fredenhagen took care of the rest.

Prince didn’t start a restaurant in Sterling until shortly after he came to town, and the one he built at the southeast corner of West Fifth Street and Avenue B looked like the rest of the Prince Castles buildings – small, limestone blocks with crenellations at the top. The small structure eventually gave way in the late 1940s to a larger one with similar stone, which came from the Emerson quarry. By that time, Prince’s menu expanded from creamy treats to standard American restaurant fare such as hamburgers and french fries.

Sterling’s Prince Castle is shown here in a 1965 Sterling High School yearbo ok ad.

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Distinctively different and still delicious … One of Prince Castle’s claims to fame was its patented square ice cream scoop, developed in the late 1940s. The scoop not only made for more consistent portions and reduced waste, it was a novelty with customers.

After a few years in business, Prince Castle was struggling to churn out its famous “One-InA-Million” malts quick enough for customers.

That’s when the idea of the Multimixer started forming. The Multimixer could make several malts at once. Its invention also was influential in the origin of the McDonald’s restaurant franchise. Multimixers are still made today by Sterling Multi Products in Prophetstown. Read more about their history at sterlingmulti.com/multimixer_history.html# Prince Castle also sold wholesale ice cream in addition to running a chain of restaurants. Each container held 16 cube scoops of ice cream, plucked out by staff in familiar pink uniforms.

Prince Castle cups, including one for its “One-in-a-million” malts.

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The birth of a promotion ... Like the rest of the nation, Prince Castle was swept up in the mania surrounding the birth of the Dionne Quintuplets 1936, adding a quintuplet banana split to its menu, seen in the ad at left.

Right: An ad for the Sterling Prince Castle, from the Oct. 4, 1930, Daily Gazette.

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Prince Castle used square dippers for better portion control and to reduce waste. The square scoop could get more ice cream out of a container than a round one.

“Dad was a total perfectionist,” Cyd said. “He wanted everything to be just right, and he wouldn’t stop until it was.”

It also was the first ice cream business to have see-through cabinets that allowed customers to watch the ice cream being scooped.

In its earliest days, two pints of ice cream cost just 10 cents.

The chain also created treats based on special occasions. The Dionne Quintuplets were born in 1936, and the nationwide fascination with the blessed event inspired Prince and Fredenhagen to create the quintuplet banana split: five scoops of ice cream with two slices of bananas and choice of fruit; and chocolate, butterscotch, or marshmallow toppings.

In an effort to find a more efficient way to keep up with the growing demand for the chain’s ever-popular “One-In-A-Million” thick malts, Prince developed a multi-mixing machine that could make as any as six malts at one time.

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The machines were manufactured in Sterling and used at the Prince Castles locations, and eventually many other restaurants that sold ice cream. World War II manufacturing limitations reduced subsequent models of the Multimixer to five spindles.

One of Prince’s salesmen tasked to sell the Multimixer throughout the country eventually became famous for his own popular fast food restaurant: Ray Kroc.

Kroc, then a paper cup distributor, approached Prince one day about paper cup business. During that visit, Kroc was fascinated with the Multimixer and eventually worked for Prince to sell them. On a trip to California in the early 1950s, Kroc sold these mixers to a family chain of restaurants owned by the McDonald family. Like he did with his initial meeting with Prince, Kroc came away fascinated with Sterling’s Prince Castle the business model of the McDonald family, and eventually opened up a McDonald’s hamburger stand in was eventually sold and suburban Des Plaines in 1955. The rest is fast food history. renamed The Kastle. It opSterling’s fast food history, however, isn’t complete without Prince Castle. erated until 1991 when SterCyd and her brother, Pat, worked for their father at times; Pat more than Cyd, who has fond memories ling’s downtown was targetof serving hungry customers for one summer in the early 1970s while a junior in high school. ed for redevelopment, and “The smell of the food, I loved making those hamburgers and fries,” Cyd said. “Letting people just the iconic building was in have fun. It was a fun place to me. There was no stress, and everyone was always so happy when they were the crosshairs. After an effort coming in. They just loved the food, they really did.” to preserve it fell through, it Ironically, the growth of fast food chains like McDonald’s eventually eclipsed that of Prince Caswas razed in 1992. tle by the 1980s. By then, Prince Castles restaurants all but disappeared; only five were left by 1980. The Sterling location was sold and renamed The Kastle and operated until 1991 when Sterling’s downtown was targeted for redevelopment, and the iconic building was in the crosshairs. After an effort to preserve it fell through, it was razed in 1992.

Once upon a time Several hints of Prince Castles’ legacy continue to exist. Several former castle-shaped buildings have in a castle ... been preserved, including ones in Dixon, now BBY Chicken; Rockford and Ottawa. Manufacturing Prince Castle starte d nearly 100 years of the Multimixer eventually was passed over to Sterling Multi Products in Prophetstown, which ago when Earl Princ e and Walter Fredencontinues to make the machine. The original toffee recipe that gave Prince Castle ice cream its dishagen teamed up to op en their distinctive tinctive flavor, in topping form, continues to be sold seasonally as Z-Best Toffee, made in Amboy. ice cream stores mad e fro m limestone and The last vestige of Prince Castles restaurants ceased to be in 2008. The elder Prince died resembling a small ca stl e.

Naperville Comin 1960, and Fredenhagen split his group of Prince Castle restaurants closer to Chicagomunity Television pr od uc ed a documentary land into Cock Robin – its last location was in suburban Brookfield. in 2015 about the his tory of Prince Castl Memories of deliciousness still are fresh in the minds of many in the Twin Cities. The restaue, and its later suburban his tory as Cock Robin. rant is a popular subject on a Facebook group dedicated to the history of Sterling and Rock Go to nctv17.com/d ocumentaries/one-in Falls, and the Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society has a display of Prince Castles artifacts.

-a-million-doc to watch it .

“People still talk about the Prince Castle all of the time,” Cyd said. “It’s just amazing, just amazing after all these years, and they still talk about it and post memories of it. It was quite a thing, for sure.

“It’s been 40 years, and people are still talking about it. It’s crazy.” n

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hen Jordanna Devine decided she wanted to help people look their best and feel their best, she knew she could do it; she just needed to make sure the people she helped had some skin the game.

She also needed a place where she could turn her talent into a trade. She found it at Extreme Hair Day Spa in Sterling, where her skill for skin care is paying off at her part-time business, Wellspring Medical Spa. Devine set up shop in January and since then the board-certified nurse practitioner has put her expertise in chemical peels, microneedling, lip flips, dermaSTORY planing and other services to good use.

CODY It all starts with some face time.

CUTTER “I can do an assessment of their skin, and CCUTTER@ SHAWMEDIA. talk about what they’re wanting,” Devine said.

COM “I like to ask people what the favorite feature of their face is, and what is bothering them the most or why they decided they’ve made the appointment with me. We’ll talk about what we can do to maintain those characteristics that they like, keep a natural appearance, or just to enhance what they got.”

Devine, 34, of Dixon, has been in the medical field for more than a decade. She worked as a nurse at CGH Medical Center and currently does double-duty between her spa and working as a nurse at Morrison Community Hospital. After 250 continuing education hours and more than 4,000 hours in clinical practice, Devine gained full practice authority in Illinois, which allowed her to open her own clinic.

She had been thinking about opening a place of her own when she found the perfect fit while driving to work at CGH. All she had to do was go to Extreme.

Driving past the spa each day, she thought: What better place to set up shop than a place where looking good and feeling good go hand in hand? Extreme Hair Day Spa offers a whole host of beauty services: haircuts, perms, manicure and pedicures, massage, tanning and more. Space was available, so she made an arrangement with Extreme owner Dawn Schmall and she was in business.

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Devine said her services dovetail neatly with Extreme’s — “My services are going to be desirable to people who are going to be taking care of themselves in other ways in wanting to look good,” Devine said — and even better, people don’t have to make an hour’s drive to get those services.

“Previously, people would have to drive to the Quad Cities, or the suburbs, or Rockford for all of these things,” Devine said. “Now, with the [COVID-19] pandemic, it’s more important that we are staying local and not going everywhere.

Right here it makes it a lot easier on people.”

One of the more popular services she offers is Botox injections. Usually offered through a dermatologist, Botox temporarily paralyzes facial muscles, resulting in the smoothing of the overlying skin. Treatments are safe for all skin types.

“A lot of people don’t want people to know that they’ve got Botox, and they want to keep looking natural,” Devine said. “That’s my goal, is just to keep everyone safe and natural-appearing.”

Dermaplaning is another popular treatment.

It uses an exfoliating blade to skim dead skin cells and hair from the face, removing fine wrinkles and giving the skin an overall smoother appearance.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Wellspring Medical Spa’s Jordanna Devine shows the skin pen she uses on her clients. The pen is microneedling device that helps erase fine lines, acne scarring, stretch marks and other skin issues.

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“It removes the fine ‘peach fuzz’ that we have all over our bodies,” Devine said. “It creates a smoother complexion and it helps when you’re applying products; it helps them penetrate better. If you’re using anti-aging products or acne fighting products or even just a moisturizer, it’s going to penetrate better because those dead layers of skin cells that accumulate over time are removed with dermaplaning.”

Another of her offerings, medium chemical peels, penetrate the dermis and epidermis, causing skin to exfoliate and eventually peel off. The new and regenerated skin usually is smoother and less wrinkled than the old skin. It also helps reduce fine lines, wrinkles, signs of aging, and acne.

Microneedling is done with an FDA-approved skin pen device; the procedure can treat acne scarring, helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and helps with pigmentation concerns.

Among the tools of the trade at Devine’s fingertips: Dermaplaning uses a fine surgical blade (right) to shave off fine hairs and remove layers of dead skin. Though some of the treatments sound extreme, there is virtually no pain through the use of a gentle hand, numbing cream and other management methods. Wellspring also offers skin peels (inset photo), which penetrate the dermis and epidermis, causing skin to exfoliate and eventually peel off, leaving behind a smoother layer of skin.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

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“Whether the pigmentation is from acne scarring, melasma, or sun damage, it can help reverse those signs,” Devine said. “It also induces your body’s natural production of collegen, which, as we age, it slows down.

Microneedling stimulates your body to bring growth factors to the skin so that you can maintain and regenerate that overall youthful appearance.”

Wellspring is open by appointment only, typically on Tuesdays and Wednesday through Saturday. The setup has given her flexibility to balance her other job with family life, spending more time with her husband, Open by appointment Andrew, and their two daughters.

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and It also provides other perks – like Saturday at Extreme Hair and the camaraderie she shares with others Day Spa, 1411 E. Fourth St. in in the spa, and the feedback she gets Sterling. Book appointments online at wellspringmedicalspa. from her customers. com, or call or text nurse “I love the interactions with my practitioner Jordanna Devine patients and with the women here at at 815-973-7916. the day spa,” Devine said. “In my preCash, debit/credit and Venmo vious jobs, I didn’t really get to make are accepted; insurance is not accepted. connections with patients because it Go to the website or find The was all walk-in care: They came in Wellspring on Facebook for when they didn’t feel good, and I treatmore information. ed them, and I didn’t see them again until their next visit.

“Now I get to see people, and they’ll text me to let me know how great they’re looking or feeling after a few days, and then they book again and I get to see them again. I’m really enjoying those connections.” n

According to WebMD.com ... The skin is the largest organ of the body, with a total area of about 20 square feet. The skin protects us from microbes and the elements, helps regulate body temperature, and permits the sensations of touch, heat, and cold. Skin has three layers: The epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, provides a waterproof barrier and creates our skin tone.

The dermis, beneath the epidermis, contains tough connective tissue, hair follicles, and sweat glands.

The deeper subcutaneous tissue (hypodermis) is made of fat and connective tissue.

What’s so important about skin care?

“You’ve got one body, and you’ve got to take care of it for an entire lifetime.

It’s got to last you an entire lifetime. Our skin is our barrier to infection, it’s our protection against the sun, it’s the way that we show our expressions to the rest of the world. Over time, as you’re working, studying or living life, you constantly make certain expressions, and your physical appearance may not match how you’re actually feeling inside. You may get an angry face, or a sad face, and that may not actually match how you’re feeling on the inside, and people may perceive you as angry or sad or tired.

“With my treatments, you’re just going to better reflect the way that you feel on your inside on your outside. That’s going to make you happier when you look in the mirror, and when you’re happier, everyone around you is going be happier when you’re feeling good.

“When I was younger, I wanted to look pretty, and as I got older and became a mom, skin care was important to me because I wanted to be putting things on my skin that were safe for my family, and my children. As we age, it’s more important to keep that appearance – the way that you feel on the inside.”

– Jordanna Devine, Wellspring Medical Spa

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He started the club not only to offer lessons to local youths, but help his son, Alex Mazzarisi, 19, continue his path in boxing.

Steve had been training his son at Westwood, but decided he wanted a place of his own to teach kids how to put up their dukes. He didn’t have look far to find the right spot; after all, there’s no place like home. He began converting his garage into a training area and Gladiator was born.

“I hung up a bag, and then I hung up another bag and I started getting kids in here,” Steve said. “I thought, ‘What a way to go!’ I can get kids in here and I’ll work with all of the kids.”

The garage has two rows of punching bags, and a boxing ring marked off by grids. The grids are meant to help students with their footwork: a perpendicular cross helps students work on their pivots, and a mix of triangles on rectangles teach a twostep move.

The garage-turned-boxing club can keep boxers on their feet year round in its climate-controlled confines. Safety is a priority, too, especially during the pandemic. Every piece of equipment is disinfected nightly.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

When he’s not hitting the bags in the gym, Alex Mazzarisi hits the books as a student at Sauk Valley Community College. “You get to meet new people and actually work out so you won’t be out of shape,” he said.

“You go to school, then go home and have nothing to do, but I can get in a gym and do stuff, and then come home and be happy.”

Continued on page 21-22

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Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

Students take a break from their workout to watch a sparring match at Gladiator Boxing Club. The garage-turned-club has two rows of punching bags, and a boxing ring marked off by grids. The grids are meant to help students with their footwork: a perpendicular cross helps students work on their pivots, and a mix of triangles on rectangles teach a two-step move.

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ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Boxing isn’t all about just throwing punches. It’s also about getting into shape, working on footwork, strategy, punching efficiency and other techniques designed to get the most out of students’ time in the ring. Here, Louis Muniz and other students do sit-ups.

During some recent sparring sessions during one of his 2-hour classes, boxers sparred with one another to enhance their skills while rest of the boxers took notes.

“It helps the kids build some confidence,” Steve said. “It keeps your mind motivated and always focused to do the right thing.”

Boxing has been part of father-and-son combo for most of their lives. Steve, a native of Sicily, moved to America when he was 5 years old and fought bouts as a teenager in his hometown of Rockford, training at the Lincoln Park Boys Club on West State Street. Steve “didn’t go too far,” he said, as work life took over, but his love affair with the sport continued as he watched big fights on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and the occasional pay-per-view special.

“I love the sport of boxing,” Steve said.

“Growing up watching Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and all of those good fighters and fights. [ABC’s] Howard Cosell, I remember him. Sugar Ray Leonard. Watching all of those older fights as much as I could.”

Steve’s gym picks up a Twin Cities boxing mantle that was carried in years past by clubs operated by Jack Russell and Al Silva, who have trained several locals to state and regional successes over the past 50 years. One of Steve’s first matches in Rockford was against a fellow teenager trained by Silva.

Continued on page 23

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Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

Continued from page 22

Alex is making a name for himself in the local boxing scene, too. Perhaps Steve’s biggest boxing accomplishment is teaching his son to learn and love the sport to a degree that far eclipsed his father. One wall of the Gladiator gym is dedicated to Alex’s numerous state and national accomplishments over the past decade.

Alex grew up living near and training at boxing gyms throughout northern Illinois. The 2020 Rock Falls High School graduate keeps busy competing on cards on a regular basis, all while balancing that with his studies as a student at Sauk Valley Community College.

Boxing, Alex said, is a great way to stay active.

“It gives you something to do,” he said. “You get to meet new people and actually work out so you won’t be out of shape. I’m not going to get fat because I have a pretty good digestive system, but I do like to work out because it’s something to do. You go to school, then go home and have nothing to do, but I can get in a gym and do stuff, and then come home and be happy.”

Alex began fighting in December of 2010 and found success early, having won a 60-pound division at an event in Coal Valley in less than a year’s time in the ring. Within a couple of years, he began to compete in silver gloves and junior Olympic competitions, all while he racked up more medals and trophies from smaller regional tournaments. In December 2014, competing at 85 pounds, Alex won the Illinois State Silver Gloves Tournament in Rockford, followed by a regional win in the Quad Cities. He didn’t lose until the national tournament in Independence, Mo. After taking a couple of years off from boxing, the gloves are back on for Alex. He stepped outside the ring for a few years to

concentrate on school, but when he got better grades and came back to the sport, it didn’t take him long to renew his goals: Alex has hopes of turning professional, and wants to compete in the amateur Golden Gloves, or maybe even qualify for the Olympics.

Helping his family is another reason Alex returned to the ring; he wants to help his mother recover from health issues, and the money that can be made in the boxing scene can do just that if he continues to succeed.

“I want to do boxing to help my mom out to get surgery, and to help us get a better life to have a nice, great time,” Alex said.

Alex also helps train some of the club members, most of them young children who find the sport fascinating and enjoy the physical challenge.

Cousins April Avalos, 9, and Jade Ruiz, 10, both of Sterling, enjoy throwing punches at the bags. By the end of February, the cousins were working on perfecting their footwork in Steve’s ring.

The punching bags, though, are the most fun, the cousins said.

“It’s fun to do,” April said. “If someone punches with you [on the other end], you can punch it back. It’s really fun.”

“It makes you feel more confident about yourself, and that’s what I like most about it,” Jade said, adding that’s it’s also a great way to work out any frustrations and anger one might have.

Steve enjoys seeing the local youth get outside of the house more often and engaged in physical activities, something he hopes his club will be able to help them do for a long time to come – and to continue a long tradition of boxing in the Twin Cities.

“Our goal is to be a world champion and come back here to help out the community,” Steve said. “We want to be an influence. I think we can do it. We just have to keep on working.” n

1112 W. LeFevre Road, Sterling Group boxing classes from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and open gym sessions on the weekend.

Flexible personal training times also are available any day of the week. Fees for lessons vary; call for details Find Gladiator Boxing Club on Facebook or call 815-2750461 for more information.

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RUSTY SCHRADER/SVM ILLUSTRATION

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Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

Teresa Sanders, owner/baker of Rolling Pin Confections, shows off a batch of her edible art. “I like the creative part of it,” she said. “I like being artsy. It’s super fun when someone loves what you did, and they come to get it and are so excited or can’t wait to have it at their party.”

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Some artists express themselves with pencils and paper, others use palette knives and paint brushes.

Teresa Sanders uses a tube of frosting and a cookie.

Armed with a cookie cutter and creativity, the Rock Falls baker has been turning out eye-popping and palate-pleasing treats at her home-based baking business, Rolling Pin Confections, for nearly a decade. Like clockwork from a small room in her home – in a kitchen licensed by the Whiteside County Health Department – cookie after cookie after cookie takes shape, gets baked, and is topped off with frosting.

Her work has become so popular that it’s turned into a full-time job for the 57-year-old – but she wasn’t always pulling cookies out of the oven.

STORY INGREDIENTS MI XED TOGETHER BY CODY CUTTER CCUTTER@ SHAWMEDIA.CO M

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ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

The shapes of things to come ... Sugar cookies provide a perfect canvas for getting creative. The shapes are almost endless, limited only by the number of cookie cutters, and they provide a good base for frosting and decorations. Here, bins of cookie cutters await their call to duty with the dough in Sanders’ kitchen.

“I started off just really doing birthday cakes and things like that,” Sanders said. “I took a cake decorating class and just kind of felt my way through it and figured it out. I had friends that I was doing it for. I kept doing Christmas things for them and they would always tell me, ‘You should do this all of the time.’”

Once Sanders swapped cakes for sugar cookies, things really started taking off.

Of all of the types of cookies out there – chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar, gingerbread, and more – sugar cookies, she said, are the best canvas for getting creative. The shapes are almost endless – limited only by the number of cookie cutters – they provide a good base for frosting and decorations, and of course, they taste good.

It’s a perfect balance for the color palette, and the taste palate.

“It’s a thing you can make into something else, it’s not just a round cookie,” Sanders said. “It’s an actual design … It’s a type of dough that you can manipulate and cut out. It holds its shape and ends up tasting real good.”

Continued on page 27

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Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

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Continued from page 26

But don’t get the idea that her cookie cutter creations are all the same. Turning a cookie into something that looks too good to eat takes time and talent.

It’s not just a squirt of frosting here and a dollop there. She has to translate customers’ ideas and requests onto a small canvas.

Most customers let Sanders do her own thing, but some have specific requests. Sanders has a Rolling Pin Confections page on Facebook where customers can send her images through Messenger and bounce ideas back and forth.

Orders should be made at least 2 weeks in advance before pickup. Once the designs are figured out, Sanders can go to work.

“It’s a process,” she said. “You got to make sure you have all of the dough made and get them all cut out, ice them, and wait for them to dry, and them put maybe another layer of specific decorating on them.”

While holidays are time off for most folks, that’s when things really get busy for Sanders. Her kitchen turns into an assembly line with a whirlwind of activity – mixing, baking, cutting and creating day and night.

Continued on pages 28-30

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Thanks to all the cookie cutter options on the market, Sanders can whip up an almost endless number of shapes.

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If Teresa Sanders can draw it, she can put it on a cookie, from coffee to cars to candy corn. She can also whip up a cookie bouquet for that special occasion (facing page).

If you want to see more of her work, check out the photos on Facebook page, at Rolling Pin Confections.

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1403 W Route 30 • Rock Falls Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

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“The holidays are always real busy,” Sanders said. “Nuts!”

When those orders are delivered and picked up, Sanders can let out a big sigh of relief. Take this past Christmas for example: 150 dozen cookies– that’s 1,800 sweet treats – came out of her kitchen in the 2 weeks leading up to the holiday.

“It felt like 60 dozen too many,” Sanders said about the Christmas orders. “It was all day, all night working. I was swamped.”

She typically puts the brakes on holiday orders about 3 to 4 weeks before the date. She always makes sure that she never gets so busy that she lets her customers down. For her, that’s just not the way the cookie crumbles.

In addition to holidays, Sanders also makes cookies for special events, graduations and even gender reveals.

She’s glad she made the decision to focus her business on sugar cookies.

“I was super, super, super busy,” Sanders said of her time baking cakes. “I still am, but that was such a different process with different ingredients and stuff, and going back and forth between the many things in that small, little area that I have, it just started seeming like, if I could just focus on one thing, it would be better.”

In addition to a Facebook page, Sanders also has a page on the craft website Etsy, further broadening her reach to customers throughout the nation. She’s made several orders that have been shipped to California and other states off of the coasts – and she doesn’t plant to slow down any time soon.

“I like the creative part of it,” she said. “I like being artsy. It’s super fun when someone loves what you did, and they come to get it and are so excited or can’t wait to have it at their party.”

While some artists want their work to stand the test of time, Sanders is OK if hers just lasts until dessert.

She often hears about how her cookies look “too good to eat,” but she has just one request of her customers: Just eat them.

“That’s part of the deal. When I do hear ‘It looks too good to eat,’ I always say, ‘Please do,’ because it’s not going to be very good if you don’t eat it.” n

HOW SWEET IT IS ...

Creations from Teresa Sanders of Rolling Pin Confections should be placed at least 2 to 3 weeks in advance.

Examples of Sanders’ work can be found at Etsy, a craft and vintage item marketplace website; go etsy.com and search for “RPConfections.”

Call 815-590-0692, go to the Etsy page, @rollingpinconfetions on Pinterest, or find Rolling Pin Confections on Facebook.

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Sterling Rock Falls Living | Spring 2021

Long before bar music filled the iconic downtown Rock Falls building at the northwest corner of First Avenue and West Second Street, opera music was its main attraction. What now is the La Bella Notte bar and Touch of Thai restaurant originally was home to Frank’s Hall Opera House when brothers Jacob, James and Samuel Frank opened it in 1900. The building was constructed 1899. The main floor portion was converted to commercial use more than 75 years ago and housed several businesses, including the S&K and Innovations clothing stores. The upstairs portion housed offices and later apartments until recent years, but its turret still looms large in the local landscape, sitting above the entrance to the bar. Turrets were first used on castles and forts as a way to see approaching enemies. As the need for defensive turrets faded, they became popular as decorative elements on homes and buildings. They saw a resurgence in the 1800s with the popularity of Victorian architecture and were especially popular in America from the late 1880s to the early 1900s.

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