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I often experiment with recipes and rarely make one exactly as it reads. I am definitely a kitchen witch . . . a little bit of this, a little bit of that (no, I don’t use eye of newt). My one-of-a-kind cast iron cauldron makes whatever I cook turn out wickedly good. And recently, Condon resident Rick Knoernschild carved me a lovely soup ladle out of juniper so now the cauldron is complete. Thank you, Rick, for such a thoughtful gift. When I met with Rick to pick up the l...
Oh how I love living in a small town! I have lived in urban areas most of my life and I appreciate the friendly and neighborly small town atmosphere (though the gossip I could live without). These little towns seem much like extended families. Everyone knows everyone else, and they have one another’s backs. You can’t be in a hurry to go to the post office or the store because someone inevitably will strike up a conversation. When I went to the holiday bazaar in Fossil las...
My friend Jerry’s birthday was on November 20th and I wanted to make him a fancy cherry pie with a lattice top. I could wear a red and white checkered apron and deliver the pie in a picnic basket. Classic Americana! Pie crust is simple enough to make; it’s just flour and butter and water. All the ingredients have to be cold and a food processor helps to chop the butter into the flour. When the crust rolls out, you want to see little patches of butter and the more patches the...
For a few days in my musings, I felt so thankful that Thanksgiving is the only holiday that hasn’t been commercialized. But those thoughts quickly vanished when the whole slew of Black Friday ads started to coattail on Thanksgiving and bombard my tablet. BUY ME NOW AND PAY ME LATER!! Black Friday isn’t just one day anymore, it’s morphed into a whole week. I often contemplate on the excess in our society. Everyone I know – and that includes me – struggles with too many thin...
Last week I wrote about the Fill Your Pantry event in Redmond and how I burst with joy to see such bounty, especially the 25 pound bags of colorful produce. That event reminded me of the time that my friend Rachel and I took a class from the OSU extension service on agriculture in the Willamette valley. We toured many commercial farms, orchards and processors. One of the farms we visited was the Montecucco family farm in Canby, Oregon. The farm has grown rhubarb, beans,...
Last week, my neighbor Geoff Brownell told me about the 9th annual “Central Oregon Fill Your Pantry” event at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds. The event was a bulk buying farmer’s market and food was being sold in 25 and 50 pound bags and boxes. Jerry and I were already planning to go shopping in Redmond on Saturday so we decided that I would attend the event while he shopped at Walmart. This was an opportunity to stock up for the winter, just like folks did back in the “olde...
Suddenly the weather has shifted and now we start to think about food that sustains and soothes. What better comfort food is there than warm macaroni and cheese? A restaurant in Southeast Portland named Noble Rot is famous for their macaroni and cheese. My friend Sunny once lived near there and we would often take a stroll to get Noble Rot’s famous macaroni and cheese. They served it piping hot along with a delightful twist on this classic dish – a sweet condiment made out...
A while back, I bought a bag of potato chips and they were unlike any I had ever eaten. Their texture was firmer and crunchier than what is usually found in potato chips. They had a lovely tawny golden brown color. The explosion of flavor was savory and salty and a slight sweetness hummed in the background. They not only tasted good, they felt great, all the way down to my toes. That bag brought me pure pleasure! Why were these chips different? Curious, I read every word on...
I was saddened to hear of Jon Bowerman’s death last week but oh what an adventurous and colorful life he had! Jon was a longtime Fossil resident and the son of Bill Bowerman, one of Nike’s two founders. The Bowerman family goes way back in Fossil and Jon was somewhat of a legend. He was a Marine, a rodeo rider, an Olympic ski team coach, cowboy poet, horse trainer and a track coach at both Condon and Fossil high schools. I met Jon about 18 months ago at the Wednesday com...
One of life’s greatest sensory pleasures is extraordinary food, the kind when after the first bite, all conversation stops and you fully immerse yourself in the deliciousness. Or, if you are by yourself, all thought vanishes and nothing matters but the present. Maybe sometimes even a week later the memory of that meal will drift through your mind in a pleasant reverie. Times like these offer wonderful solace from the craziness of the outside world. For a few fleeting m...
Almost every week, my friend who has moved away still helps me edit my columns. We met during the summer of 2021 when we were both staying at the fairgrounds RV park in Fossil. Our friendship developed when we went together to the laundry mat in Condon every couple of weeks. She is a fabulous editor who catches things that I totally overlook, even after I have read and re-read my columns multiple times. I especially appreciate that she spots my really embarrassing errors like...
I often speak of the simple little things that add joy to life. We tend to think that bigger is better and capitalism has programmed us to want more, more, more when sometimes less is more. Great beauty can be found in simplicity. One of those beautiful, joyful little things is a gift of food, especially if that food is homemade or grown with a big dose of love. A couple of weeks ago, Maryhelen Peterson of Fossil gave me a jar of her homemade elderflower jelly. Since I had...
I recently ate one of Dawn Garcia’s yummy power bars, a healthful cookie packed full of nutrient-dense superfoods. You can eat these cookies with a guilt-free conscious, knowing you are providing your body with true nourishment. One of the reasons I like this recipe is because there is only one bowl to wash. Power Bars 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup sugar 2 large eggs 2 tbsp heavy cream or half and half 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda ½ cup almo...
Last week I wrote about the joys of blue paper towels, the kind used by mechanics in automotive shops. I discovered they are fabulous for around-the-house cleaning chores. If you have read this column for awhile, you know that I speak of the little joys in life. These occur frequently throughout the day when you look for them. And yes, joy can be found in something as simple as the “just right” paper towel that makes an unpleasant cleaning task easier and more pleasurable. I w...
You may think I’ve gone off the rails when you read this, but I hope that you will find this amusing and helpful, too. I’m veering off from the topic of food and writing about cleaning instead. Oh how I love to clean! My friend once said “Isabel, your idea of going on spring vacation is to find something yucky to clean that has dirty corners”. My son used to say “Mom, you are on continuous cleaning cycle”. Years later, I still laugh at that. It’s true though! I was quite sur...
Last week I wrote about Tina Adam’s champion award-winning cake. I was the lucky recipient of this perfect cake and two weeks later, visions of Champion Cake still dance in my head. You too can make this delicious cake because sweet Tina shared the recipe with us. I just hope that when I make this cake, mine will be as delicious as hers. Tina puts some kind of wonderful magic into her baked goods. How else could she win champion awards, for four years in a row now? Maybe if I...
My favorite thing about the Wheeler county fair is the giant bake sale that occurs after the baked goods are judged. The fanciest bakery in the world couldn’t possibly compete with the entries at the Wheeler county fair. The cakes and decorated cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pies, yeast and quick breads, biscuits, rolls and cinnamon rolls and brownies all sparkled with love. We have some talented bakers here in the middle of nowhere! My first experience of the county’s giant bake s...
On Monday, I chatted with Theresa Byars and Betty McNeil of Fossil, Oregon. I thanked them for their kind invitation to attend the Sunday service and picnic lunch at the Global Methodist Church. The event was a special occasion to honor the presence of guest pastor Dave McCue who drove six hours from Colville, Washington to deliver a well-prepared and engaging sermon. I commented on how good the cooks are in Fossil and what a lovely addition the lunch was to the event. Betty...
Wow, the fires were intense, weren’t they? They certainly forced many of us to consider what we would take given a moment’s notice and limited space. I guess I’m not the sentimental type because the first thing that came to mind was to grab my cookware. Being able to eat a warm, home-cooked meal at least once a day centers and settles me, no matter how chaotic the world around me gets. One evening during the fires, Randal and I sat on the porch to watch the constant procession...
Last week I wrote about the conundrum so many of us face when we ask ourselves the age old question “What’s for dinner?” What a strange irony it is that even with our incredible bounty of food, at five o’clock we still stroll into the kitchen and wonder what to eat for dinner. If I don’t know in the morning, that question will repeat itself throughout the day like a woodpecker that hammers on my shoulder. Eating dinner is more than just eating dinner. It’s the period at t...
A couple of weeks ago I wandered up and down the aisles of a Safeway and felt an odd combination of awe, appreciation and overwhelm. That’s quite a bubbling stew of emotions, isn’t it? Why so many? The vast amount of food choices we have in our society is truly something to behold. Yet despite this overflowing cornucopia of plenty, most people struggle with the question of what to make for dinner. Wow, that’s a strange paradox! The scholarly and academic people have concl...
A while back, my friend Lorraine Smith of Spray told me about her quick and easy cheesy crackers recipe and I finally got around to making them last week. They were dangerously delicious! I suggest you make these only if you can eat the whole batch in one fell swoop because they are like Fritos and potato chips that way – why stop before they are all gone? These crackers remind me of leveled up Cheez-Its. They are versatile, too. I crumbled some over a tossed green salad which...
One evening I dropped by to visit my friend Randal Miller who had just pulled a pork roast out of the oven. The delectable aroma greeted me like an airborne welcome mat. My mother used to tell me it was very bad manners to go visiting during the dinner hour but apparently I had forgotten. Randal graciously offered me dinner and it was so delicious I had three helpings. I wanted a fourth but eating like a lumberjack in front of other people is not very ladylike, is it? But...
Some of my very favorite pantry things are the two bivg boxes of glass jars and bottles that I’ve rescued from the garbage. I clean them up and remove the labels so they are like new. I noticed a long time ago that food lasts longer in glass than it does in plastic. I often decant food that is packaged in plastic into glass containers. Just say NO to random food clutter and all the mismatched packages that don’t seal properly. Those invite staleness and attract bugs, mot...
I love to eat granola for breakfast, the kind stuffed with goodies like nuts, seeds and dried fruit. That is really a crumbly, healthful cookie in disguise! However, the luxurious, loaded-with-nuggets granola typically sold at high-end grocery stores can cost upwards of $15-$17 a pound. A while back, I learned to make granola and after some trial and error now have a reliable recipe that is, of course, easy to make. You can mix and match this recipe to suit your own tastes;...
