The Emery County Review, Tuesday, September 2, 2008 YOUR LEISURE AT Casey’s Pockets Swell Book Reviews Swell Recipes C3 Entertainment SWELL RECIPES Fay Roper Shares Some of Her Canning Secrets Kathy Ockey Fay Roper has a wonderful knowledge of homemaking skills that most women would love to have. She not only knows how to sew, crochet, quilt, garden and can and bottle both fruit and vegetables, she loves to do it. Fay was born 92 years ago to John and Ruby Brasher and has lived in Huntington all of her life. She is the mother of four children, two sons and two daughters. Fay said she can’t work in her garden like she used to because she is having problems with her back, but when she could, she would go out early in the morning and do the weeding and pick the vegetables she would need for the day. Fay has a very good friend, Esther Cheshire, who would help her in her garden and in canning the produce. She said they enjoyed each other’s company and spent many hours working together. Esther moved to Brigham City recently, and Fay said she misses the friendship they share. Fay said she was still able to bottle seven different kinds of pickles last year and is known for her delicious pickle recipes. She also likes to bottle fresh fruit when she can get it. She has a peach tree on her property and said one year someone stole all of the peaches off from it while she was at church. Another of Fay’s favorite pastimes is crocheting and she has beautiful items to show for her labors. She has a lovely hand-appliquéd quilt on her bed she is very proud of and she also taught 4-H for many years. Fay said her mother taught her how to crochet and quilts and she wishes she had kept track of all the quilts she had made for her family. It is canning season and the following are several of Fay’s recipes she is sharing. Pickled Beets “These are the best you will ever have” Syrup 2 quarts vinegar 1 quart cooking water from beets 4 pounds brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 1 Tablespoon pickling spices Cook cleaned beets in pressure cooker with 4-5 cups water. Bring to whistle. Put on petcock and bring to 10 pounds. Cook 8 minutes. Run cold water over skins and they will slip off easily. Slice or dice and put in CASEY’S POCKETS Video Games on the Net Casey Wood Video games have grown vastly in popularity, as I have commented in previous articles, but I have previously failed to mention a highly influential reason in their growth. A reason which for many is one of the soul reasons they play video games: online play. The idea of online video games has only become an important concept and driving selling point in recent years, although the idea of online video games has been around for a relatively long time. Online play began with computer games. Games where players from all around the world could connect, communicate and compete in a massive simulated reality. A lot of popular online video games for the PC are RTS (real time strategy) games or RPGs (role play games). Some popular titles are World of Warcraft, Runescape, Warcraft III, Diablo II, Starcraft, and Age of Empires. The same concept has only recently has come to home consoles, in fact, only since PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube have consoles been built for the purpose of playing online. The fad really didn’t take off until the new-gen consoles of Wii, PlayStation 3 and of course the most widely used online console, Xbox 360. The strongest selling games for consoles are RPGs, First Person Shooters, sporting games, and Racing games. Some popular titles for console online play are Halo 2, Halo 3, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Madden ’09, the Guitar Hero Franchise, Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Kart Wii. The online environments used in these new consoles can be set to strict or loose security depending on the desires of parents and account holders. For instance on Wii users must have the “friend code”, which is imbedded into another person’s console, added to their friends list, to play against competitors. As for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 the online networks allow restriction of access to play against unknown people. They also allow a feature that automatically mutes conversation between the user and unknown gamers worldwide through the headset. Online play is quickly shaping up to be one of the most important factors in video games today. The ability to compete with friends locally is no longer sufficient. Gamers want to be able to compete with gamers across the globe and show their ability, or lack thereof, at a video game. The online competition allows gamers to learn and increase their abilities at video games through help from others, and through practice against other human players. Video game companies have also imbedded online abilities into their handheld consoles, the Nintendo DS and the PSP (PlayStation Portable). Access is granted through wireless internet and allows gamers to play online wherever they go. Online capability will certainly be a driving force in future consoles, both home and handheld. Without online play video games would not be as widely used throughout the world. Whether that is a good or bad thing is for you to decide. bottles. Cover with boiling syrup. Seal and cold pack for 30 minutes. You can cook beets the conventional way, but using a pressure cooker saves time. You can also cut down the amount of sugars, but the beets will not be as tasty. Sweet and Sour Dill Pickles “I was given this recipe from Sharlene Roundy and it is delicious” 4 1/2 quarts cucumbers – sliced or speared 6 cups vinegar 6 cups sugar 6 tablespoons salt 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed Add dill and bottled onions with cucumbers if you want to. Boil vinegar, sugar, salt, celery seed and mustard seed. Pour over cucumbers. Seal and process in hot water bath for 7 minutes. Broth makes 5 quarts. Easy Dill Pickles Fill quart jars with cucumber. Add garlic bud and dill weed to jars. Add to each jar: Fay Roper 1 teaspoon turmeric 1 tablespoon salt 1/8 teaspoon alum 1/2 cup vinegar Fill jars with water. Cold pack for 20 minutes and then cool as soon as possible. *1/2 teaspoon garlic and 1 teaspoon dill seed may be substituted for garlic bud and dill weed. Citron Marmalade “This is delicious if you can find the citron” 1 large citron (about one gallon-ground) 2 oranges 1 lemon 1 quart crushed pineapple (20 ounces) Peel and remove seeds from citron. Grind citron, orang- es, and lemon rinds and all. Measure juices from lemon and oranges and add equal amount of sugar. Bring to a boil stirring often. Turn down heat and cook slowly for about two hours. Fifteen minutes before time is up add pineapple and cook the remaining time. Bottle to seal. Makes about 12-15 pints. SWELL BOOKS Percy Jackson Series Captivates Future Writer Kathy Ockey Jennifer Jensen lives in Cleveland and is the daughter of Annette and Kevin Jensen. Jennifer not only loves to read books but she wants to be a writer and has started writing a book of her own. Jennifer loves to read in her spare time and said she likes books about science fiction, mythology or simply books that have nothing to do with reality. She also enjoys watching adventure and mystery movies. Jennifer is a junior at Emery High School and seminary is her favorite class. Jennifer is also looking forward to swimming in the new aquatics center in Castle Dale and trying to stay under water for as long as she can. One of her goals is to run in a marathon. Jennifer is reading the Percy Jackson series of books by Rick Riordan. In the books Percy Jackson discovers he is a demigod of an ancient Greek god, Poseidon, the god of sea, earth- quakes, horses and is one of the three greatest Greek gods. In the first book in the series, “The Lightening Thief,” he has to find Zeus’s thunderbolt. In the second book, “The Sea of Monsters,” he has to find the Golden Fleece that will save his camp. His challenge in the third book, “The Titan’s Curse” is to find the god Artemis and stop Titan. The fourth book “The Battle of the Labyrinth,” finds him navigating an ancient maze that covers all of the United States and can change at any time. Through all of these books he knows there may be mythical creatures coming after him from anywhere and at anytime. The Percy Jackson series of books really took off when the Today Show’s Al Roker selected “The Lightening Thief” for his Book Club for kids. Jennifer said, “I like these books because they have things in them you would never think about, and it has some new excitement whenever you turn the page. You go places in the United States you wouldn’t think you Jennifer Jensen would need to go. The books have adventure, mystery, and of course that little bit of romance,” she said. Video Game REviews Look Out for Yoda in ‘Soul Calibur 4’ Jeb Haught Ever since the popularity of fighting games started to dwindle in the early 2000s, several different series’ have gotten the axe. Fortunately, “Soul Calibur” isn’t one of them because the developers constantly push themselves to create an innovative combat experience. As the first weapons-based fighting game on currentgeneration systems, “Soul Calibur 4” provides intense action, gorgeous visuals, and tons of features. More than 30 high-resolution characters make up the roster, with favorites like Kilik, Voldo, and Sophitia making a welcome return. Newcomers include Hilde, Algol, and Yoda. Yes, you read that correctly. Yoda’s combat moves mimic his fast and furious combat from the recent Star Wars movies. DEVELOPER: Namco Bandai I can’t help PUBLISHER: Namco Bandai but crack a SYSTEM: Microsoft Xbox 360 smile every PRICE: $59.99 time the pintESRB RATING: Teen sized pugilist REVIEW RATING: 4.5 (out of 5 stars) uses the force to bounce around while carving enemies with his trusty light saber. “Severely Pwnd, you shall be.” As if that isn’t enough, “Soul Calibur 4” introduces an in-depth character creation mode to let players design their own customized combatant. Everything from the character’s appearance to their fighting style to their actual move set can be modified. This feature is easy to use, but players can easily spend hours creating the fighter of their dreams, or even re-creating their favorite video game character. New combat features include the ability to break opponents’ armor, which Continued on Page C5.