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Show The Emery County Review, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 AT YOUR LEISURE Casey’s Pockets Swell Book Reviews Swell Recipes B3 Entertainment SWELL RECIPES The ‘Scooter Lady’ Shares Some Special Cake Recipes Chocolate Chip Funeral Cake Kathy Ockey Karen and Dan Huntsman were both raised in Castle Dale, then married and moved away for 20 years. Karen said they always wanted to move back “home,” and finally Dan’s employment brought them back to Emery County. Karen loves living in Castle Dale because it is home and she feels “safe.” She also has many family members that live nearby, including two sons that both work at the Huntington Power Plant. Karen said several years ago Dan decided they needed to get motorcycles so they would have “something to do together.” Karen started riding a scooter and now loves it. She wore one scooter out and got a new one that she has put 430 miles on in just one year driving around town. She said she is known as the “scooter lady.” Karen and Dan have four children, three boys and one girl. She now has 15 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She enjoys woodworking and finishing furniture. She also likes to take care of her garden, raise sheep and calves, cook, bottle and work outside in her yard. She says she loves her home, but she doesn’t spend much time in it in the summertime, preferring to be outside. Karen volunteered in her Relief Society to do something for the sisters that were having a birthday each month. She decided most women like to go out to eat so she invites the birthday sisters and anyone else that wants to join to have lunch at a café each month, and Karen provides the birthday cake. She said there are sisters that look forward to it and come every month There is usually a good crowd for lunch and a lot of good conversation and friendship. Following are several delicious cake recipes that Karen has made for the birthday luncheons. CASEY’S POCKETS The Madness of Teenage Girls Casey Wood Having both an older sister and a younger sister and the fact that I have been around teenage girls for the last six years of school, I have learned that teenage girls are a lot of things, and crazy tops the list. Not only do they do crazy things, but they think that they are acting completely normal, when in fact they are making guys question their sanity. I don’t know if they are in denial, or if they are just oblivious to what normal really is. The craziest thing about teenage girls is their friendships. For guys when you make a friend, unless something goes extremely wrong, you’ve made a friend pretty much for life, or at least until one of you move. It is not at all like this for girls. If one girl says the wrong thing to another, for example “I don’t like those shoes,” or “I like the boy you used to like,” the friendship is put on an extended, sometimes permanent hiatus. That’s not all that can end friendships for girls though. If one girl makes friends with another girl and the first girl’s friends don’t like the new girl, or if one girl doesn’t have as fashionable clothes as the others, the friendship will undoubtedly end. Another crazy thing about teenage girls is how much they care about their appearance. Have you ever asked one how long it takes them to get ready in the morning? Many say two to three hours. I once asked a girl why she needed that much time and her response was, “Well, I need about 45 minutes for my shower so I can shampoo and condition my hair twice, then I need at least 30 minutes to pick out an outfit, then another hour to do my make-up and hair and brush my teeth, and then I have to have a half hour to eat my breakfast, and then I have to come to school.” Now let me tell you how much time I take in the morning. Generally I shower at night, and I have to be at school by 7:25 for early bird, so I get up around 6:50, grab and put on some clothes, taking about 48 seconds, then I brush my teeth, put on deodorant and cologne, and do my hair, taking 10 minutes at the most, then I read my scriptures and leave home by 7:10. So why, you ask do girls get up two hours earlier than me to get to school by 8:15? I don’t know, probably the same reason girls can easily spend $1,000 school shopping when it takes $300 to $400 to pay for my clothes. You always hear how crazy women are about shoes, but my question is why? They are on your feet all day, therefore they probably don’t smell very good. You walk on them all day, you don’t look at them a lot, and many of the ‘fashionable’ ones are really uncomfortable, so why have five or six or 28 pairs of shoes laying around? Probably the same reason they use tanning beds in winter when they wear jackets and long pants all the time anyway. Now we all know the truth, teenage girls are nuts. The thing that worries me is that us teenage boys are crazy about these crazy teenage girls. Knowing that makes me question the sanity of us teenage boys, and so I’m not really too sure who’s crazier. I guess until I figure it out the battle of the sexes continues; one crazy teenager at a time. Pour 1 3/4 cups boiling water over 1 cup uncooked quick rolled oats. Let stand 15 minutes and add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cube butter, and 2 eggs. Mix well. Sift together 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon salt and add to mixture and mix well. Add 1/2 package chocolate chips. Pour into a 9x13 greased pan. Sprinkle with the rest of the package of chocolate chips and 3/4 cup nuts. Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Layered Toffee Cake 2 cups heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 9 Heath candy bars, chopped 1 prepared angel food cake Whip cream until it thickens. Gradually add ice cream caramel topping and vanilla. Beat until soft peaks form. Cut the cake horizontally into three layers. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate. Spread with 1 cup cream mixture and sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped candy bar pieces. Repeat for the next layer. Place top layer on and frost top and side with remaining cream mixture and sprinkle with the remaining candy bar. Store in refrigerator. Banana Cake with Special Frosting Prepare one white cake mix according to directions. Add two mashed bananas. Bake and let cool. Frosting: Karen Huntsman Whip and sweeten one cup cream. Mix together 4 packages of 8 ounce cream cheese, 1/4 cup milk, and 1 small package instant vanilla pudding. Add whipped cream. If too thick add a little more milk. Frost cake and slice bananas on top of cake. Store in refrigerator. SWELL BOOKS Artemis Fowl Series will keep you Entertained Kathy Ockey Kayden Parkins is 12 years old, lives in Cleveland and likes sports, mostly football and basketball. He said he has a photographic memory and this ability makes it easy for him to remember what he reads, as well as other things. Kayden said he has learned that you can be very smart, even when you are 12 years old, but you have to read and use your imagination. Kayden has been reading the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. His favorite character in the book is Holly Short. Holly is an elf and captain of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance). She is the target of Artemis Fowl, who intends to capture her and hold her ransom in a plot to continue the legend of his crime family. The book mixes fantasy and humor, and is the first in a series of six books that follows the adventures of the 12 year old genius. The latest, Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, was released in July. Kayden said this is the kind of book that he likes. It has lots of action, mystery and questions that are finally answered at the end of the book, and he thinks other kids would really like these books as well. He can’t wait to read the second book in the series, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, but said he has heard so much about the Twilight series he is going to read it first. Kayden Parkins SCANNING THE BOOKSHELF Right Now, His Art is an Open Book Robert L. Pincus He’s made 12 books thus far and continues to embrace the form. “Coverage” is a different type of work. It’s a cross between poetry and conceptual art, and it’s made to be mailed -- in installments. He just had his first solo exhibition in a gallery, at Harrington Fine Arts in San Francisco, which included paintings and assorted other works. Eric Baskauskas, now 23, grew up in Martinez, Calif., northeast of Berkeley. He finished his bachelor’s at University of California, San Diego in 2006, and has stayed to work as a graphic designer on campus. There’s even a chance you’ve seen one of his earlier projects traveling on highways. It’s a 1994 Nissan Sentra, with an arching row of buildings and a caricaturish figure filling the passenger side. His car aside, Baskauskas’ art is generally smaller in scale. In “Just Deserts,” his newest book, there are abrupt shifts in place and scale. People show up in vast empty spaces, while houses are densely packed on other pages. There is the sense of a world out of tilt, but he isn’t overly dramatic about it. This is true in “Coverage” too. Each of the installments looks like a packet of paint-chip samples, packaged in a folder with a room pictured on its interior. A single color dominates in each -- titles are “Meat Red,” “Dirt Green” and so forth. On the samples are phrases tinged with commentary instead of the names of colors: “Supply Demands,” “Demand Supplies,” “Implosionville” and so on. He also likes the link to house paint, which he uses in his work, and to suburban imagery in the chosen images of rooms. “My work could be heavy-handed, angry and one-dimensional,” he says, thinking back to when he first came to college. But his mentors in the art department -- Jean Lowe, Matthieu Gregoire and Kim MacConnel -- opened his eyes Photo courtesy of Nelvin C. Cepeda. Eric Baskauskas turned his car into an art project while he was studying at the University of California, San Diego. His more recent works include a limited edition book, “Just Deserts.” to other approaches. One comment by Lowe stuck with him in a profound way. Reacting to some of his work, she said, “It doesn’t have to be ugly.” Baskauskas embraced this notion and continues to integrate it into his work. Color matters a good deal now; so do recurring visual motifs. But he remains fascinated with suburban life as a subject. “What does it mean to be comfortable? That’s a question I ask myself and ask in my work. “The suburbs can be boring, they can lead to apathy, a dulling effect. But I’m ambivalent. I am happy with who I am and part of that comes from growing up in a suburban place. So, I’m ambivalent: How can something so wrong also be so right?” Baskauskas will likely leave for Los Angeles next year, lured by its sprawling art scene. He still thinks grad school is in his future too, probably for the fall of 2009. For the moment, he’s content to have his first solo exhibition in a gallery. It motivated him to make paintings again; and in style they adhere closely to his books. He has also painted on skateboards and old LP covers. The imagery is disquieting, but the colors can be bright, almost festive. Baskauskas titled the show “I Feel Fine,” but you just know that phrase has an ironic undercurrent. (Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.) |
