A cookie table is a wedding tradition where in addition to a wedding cake, a large table with different cookies is presented to guests at the wedding reception. [1] Cookies are generally prepared by family members in advance of the reception. It is typically a tradition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, [2] and Youngstown, Ohio. [3]
Cookie tables are included in primarily Italian, Polish or Catholic wedding receptions. Other groups that also have cookie tables or cookie platters are the Greeks, Slovaks, Serbian Orthodox, Austrian/Hungarian, and Scandinavians. The inclusion of a cookie table is more widely known where those of Italian ancestry settled, and also in some cases, of the other groups mentioned above. Where a settlement did not consist of sizable numbers of Italian or Eastern European groups, the number of those who were familiar with cookie tables decreased. Cookie tables were better known in the east than in the mid-west, south, southwest or west. [4]
Research by the Arms Family Museum of Local History in Youngstown discovered the dominant areas for cookie tables were northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, including New Castle, Pennsylvania. Cookie tables were also well known in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. States where they were unknown or not present included Washington, California, Texas and Nevada. [1]
The world record for the largest cookie table was set on August 11, 2019 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania with 88,425 cookies. [5]
A wedding reception is a party usually held after the completion of a marriage ceremony as hospitality for those who have attended the wedding, hence the name reception: the couple receive society, in the form of family and friends, for the first time as a married couple. Hosts provide their choice of food and drink, although a wedding cake is popular.
Interstate 79 (I-79) is an Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States, designated from I-77 in Charleston, West Virginia, north to Pennsylvania Route 5 (PA 5) and PA 290 in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a primary thoroughfare through western Pennsylvania and West Virginia and makes up part of an important corridor to Buffalo, New York, and the Canada–United States border. Major metropolitan areas connected by I-79 include Charleston and Morgantown in West Virginia and Greater Pittsburgh and Erie in Pennsylvania.
Marshall County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 30,591. Its county seat is Moundsville. With its southern border at what would be a continuation of the Mason-Dixon line to the Ohio River, it forms the base of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Mahoning County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 228,614. Its county seat and largest city is Youngstown. The county is named after the Mahoning River and was formed on March 1, 1846; the 83rd county in Ohio.
The history of Pittsburgh began with centuries of Native American civilization in the modern Pittsburgh region, known as Jaödeogë’ in the Seneca language. Eventually, European explorers encountered the strategic confluence where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio, which leads to the Mississippi River. The area became a battleground when France and Great Britain fought for control in the 1750s. When the British were victorious, the French ceded control of territories east of the Mississippi.
Youngstown is a city in and the county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 60,068, making it the eleventh-most populous city in Ohio. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which had 430,591 residents in 2020 and is the seventh-largest metro area in Ohio. Youngstown is situated on the Mahoning River in Northeast Ohio, 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Cleveland and 61 miles (100 km) northwest of Pittsburgh.
The Monongahela River, sometimes referred to locally as the Mon, is a 130-mile-long (210 km) river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania. The river flows from the confluence of its west and east forks in north-central West Virginia northeasterly into southwestern Pennsylvania, then northerly to Pittsburgh and its confluence with the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River. The river includes a series of locks and dams that makes it navigable.
Interstate 76 (I-76) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. The highway runs approximately 435.66 miles (701.13 km) from an interchange with I-71 west of Akron, Ohio, east to I-295 in Bellmawr, New Jersey. This route is not contiguous with I-76 in Colorado and Nebraska.
The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio, in the Haselton neighborhood in the west and Connellsville, Pennsylvania, to the east. It did not reach Lake Erie until the formation of Conrail in 1976. The P&LE was known as the "Little Giant" since the tonnage that it moved was out of proportion to its route mileage. While it operated around one tenth of one percent of the nation's railroad miles, it hauled around one percent of its tonnage. This was largely because the P&LE served the steel mills of the greater Pittsburgh area, which consumed and shipped vast amounts of materials. It was a specialized railroad, deriving much of its revenue from coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel. The eventual closure of the steel mills led to the end of the P&LE as an independent line in 1992.
Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Giant Eagle, Inc. and stylized as giant eagle) is an American supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and incorporated on August 31, 1931. Supermarket News ranked Giant Eagle 21st on the "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on sales of $11 billion. In 2021, it was the 36th-largest privately held company, as determined by Forbes. Based on 2005 revenue, Giant Eagle is the 49th-largest retailer in the United States. As of summer 2014, the company had approximately $9.9 billion in annual sales. As of fall 2023, Giant Eagle, Inc. had 496 stores across the portfolio: 211 supermarkets 8 standalone pharmacies, 274 fuel station/convenience stores under the GetGo banner, and three standalone car wash under the WetGo banner. The company is headquartered in an office park in the Pittsburgh suburb of O'Hara Township.
Eat'n Park is a restaurant chain based in Homestead, Pennsylvania. As of April 2024, the company operates 56 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The chain is known for its Smiley Cookies and has adopted the motto, "the place for smiles".
Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania counties: Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland in Western Pennsylvania, which constitutes the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area MSA as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Martin Francis Hogan, nicknamed "the Indianapolis Ringer", was an English born right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1894) and St. Louis Browns (1894–1895). After leaving the National League, Hogan moved on to the minor league Indianapolis Hoosiers. Some sources suggest he set a national baserunning record in the 1890s.
The Ohio–Pennsylvania League (1905–1912) was a Class C and Class D level minor league baseball league that featured franchises based in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The league was founded by Charlie Morton and operated for eight seasons, with the Akron Champs winning four league championships.
The Youngstown Ohio Works baseball team was a minor league club that was known for winning the premier championship of the Ohio–Pennsylvania League in 1905, and for launching the professional career of pitcher Roy Castleton a year later. A training ground for several players and officials who later established careers in Major League Baseball, the team proved a formidable regional competitor and also won the 1906 league championship.
The Pittsburgh Folk Festival is a large multicultural celebration of diverse international ethnic heritages, which has been held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since 1956.
The Pittsburgh crime family, also known as the LaRocca crime family or Pittsburgh Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The LaRocca family is one of the original 26 mafia families in the United States. In 2021, the boss Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti died, he was also the last known made member of the family.
The Youngstown–Warren, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, typically known as the Mahoning Valley, is a metropolitan area in Northeast Ohio with Youngstown, Ohio, at its center. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties. As of the 2020 census, the region had a population of 430,591, making it the 125th-largest metro area in the country.
Pittsburgh Penguins Confidential, sometimes called Pens Confidential, was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based half-hour TV sports series that aired on various local stations throughout Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia. Its main subject was the Pittsburgh Penguins, the National Hockey League franchise in Pittsburgh. The show ran from 1996 until 1999 and was hosted by Jake Ploeger and Jeanne Blackburn.