OCR Text |
Show The Emery County Review, Tuesday, September 30, 2008 AT YOUR LEISURE Casey’s Pockets Swell Book Reviews Swell Recipes C3 Entertainment SWELL RECIPES Delicious Recipes Straight Off the Ranch Kathy Ockey Shelia Lemon is a remarkable woman. She is as comfortable cooking a meal, bottling peaches and tomatoes, or crocheting as she is herding cows and baling and hauling hay. Sheila was born in Provo and lived in Mapleton until she was 4. She was raised in a family of seven children and horses are her passion. She is married to Ferron native John Lemon, and she said she not only loves him but loves his horses. They have two children, six grandchildren, and she has one step-son. Sheila said, “My life is the farm. I love to farm with John, but I also love to crochet to relax, especially when I travel. I like to can and cook, but I don’t like to clean.” She said John is very good to her and helps her a lot, but he also gives her time to do what she needs to do. She is a primary teacher for the 5 and 6 year olds and also over funeral luncheons in her ward, which can be a very interesting job. She said they live a very normal life: they “work on the farm, visit John’s son, go to church and work on the farm.” Family is very important to John and Sheila. She said their grandchildren absolutely adore John and he makes time to spend with each one. Shelia concluded by saying, “John and I not only love each other, we ‘like’ each other. We also have his and her tractors!” Following are some of Sheila’s favorite recipes: Spaghetti Casserole 1 26.5 ounce can Hunts Traditional Spaghetti Sauce 1 pound hamburger 6-8 ounces uncooked spaghetti (I prefer angel hair) Cook hamburger, crumbled, season with garlic salt, pepper to taste, and add spaghetti sauce. Simmer while preparing the following: Cook spaghetti according to package directions, rinse when done. Pour half of the sauce mix in a 9 inch by 13 inch pan and top with cooked spaghetti. Make the following white sauce to pour over spaghetti: White Sauce: CASEY’S POCKETS It’s a Pack Rat Life Casey Wood Have you ever wondered where the term pack rat came from? I believe that Templeton the Rat in Charlotte’s Web is the model of what a pack rat is. The image of him in his hole, surrounded by junk and covered in the slime of a rotted egg has always made me fear such a fate, and because of this I vowed to myself as a child that that I would never become like him. As I cleaned out my bedroom over the weekend I learned that I indeed had become just that, a pack rat. Not just your average everyday pack rat though, I am such a pack rat that by the time I was through taking out the garbage bags and boxes, I had more than filled up one of our two outside city garbage cans. There were many items, such as posters, old toys and the remains of a broken guitar, but the most disturbing fact about the whole ordeal was that the majority of the garbage I took out was school papers and old clothes. I found countless papers from my years as a sophomore and junior at Emery High, and many more papers from my junior high school years at San Rafael, but the strangest of all were the papers I discovered in my room dating back to my years at Cottonwood Elementary. I found multiple notebooks, some sub-par assignments, and even a letter from my fifth grade teacher, Stephanie Roper, introducing herself at the beginning of the new school year. Now this may not seem very strange to some, but in my case it proved that I am truly a pack rat. It is not too unusual for papers to get lost or set aside and never rediscovered or disposed of when you live in your room from birth to age 18, but the fact of the matter is that I have not. I moved into my bedroom only three years ago, meaning when I changed rooms, I brought and stashed away those already extremely outdated papers when I made the change. As I got rid of a lot of them, I found that I was still unable to dispose of a few of the papers I found, and so I set them aside to undoubtedly be rediscovered and destroyed at a later date. I have two dressers and a huge closet in my bedroom, all of which were extremely full of clothing. I outgrew a majority of that clothing more than a year ago. As I cleaned out my dressers I discovered clothes from as far back as seventh grade and Halloween costumes from further back than that. I also found shirts that I haven’t worn since junior high, some of which I kept because I can still wear them. I even found a scout uniform that I wore in the days of Cub Scouts. I probably spent two hours going through old clothing and forcing myself to throw out clothes that, prior to that day, I had forgotten I owned, but now that I knew still existed, I could not bring myself to get rid of. Looking back on the experience I realize that I am certainly no better than Templeton. In fact I am not sure I can even be considered a pack rat, for a rat only has a small hole to hide things away in. I have more of a lair. 1 square butter or margarine 1/2 cup flour 2 cups milk Melt butter, stir in flour until smooth. Add milk and cook over medium heat until thick and smooth Grate two cups shredded cheese (I mix mozzarella and Colby) and sprinkle over white sauce. Top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand a few minutes before serving. Serve with garlic toast and tossed salad. Mac’s Louisiana Shrimp “John’s favorite” 1 pound large raw shrimp, deveined and rinsed 1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1 large red onion, sliced thin 1/2 cup or 1 stick butter (no substitutes) 1 pint sour cream 1 ounce cooking sherry Cajun seasoning to desired taste Sauté mushrooms and onions in butter until tender. Coat shrimp with flour, add to veggies and cook until pink. Stir in sour cream, sherry and Cajun seasoning until thickened and smooth. Serve over hot rice. Clam Chowder for a Crowd 5 cans clams (6.5 oz.) chopped* 1 large onion 4 cups chopped celery 8 cups cubed potatoes White sauce: Melt 1 cup butter and add 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper Drain clams, reserving juice. Set clams aside. Put veggies in stock pot and cover with juice from clams, add enough water to cover. Cook until tender. Gradually stir in white sauce over medium heat and stir until thick and smooth. Add clams and heat until clams are hot. * 8 slices bacon cooked and crumbled or ham cut into small cubes can be added with clams for a variation. Shelia Lemon Corn Bread Deluxe “If you can find blue corn meal, it is awesome to use” Add ingredients in order given, mix well after each addition 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted 2/3 cup sugar or brown sugar, packed 2 eggs 1 cup buttermilk or milk soured with 1 tablespoon lemon juice 3/4 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup corn meal 1 1/4 cups flour Mix for a few minutes and pour into greased 11 inch by 7 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees oven for about 30 minutes. Recipe can be cut in half and baked in bread tin for two people. SWELL BOOKS Student Enjoys Adventure of Children of the Lamp Series Kathy Ockey People are always hearing bad things about the youth in the world today but teenagers like Corbin Barnett will revive your hope in the upcoming generation. Corbin is the son of Bodie and Julie Barnett and said, “School is one of the best things a kid can do. School is very important to me.” Corbin attends San Rafael Junior High School and is a member of FCCLA, and was on the basketball and football teams last year, but he said he is going to focus on basketball as his sport of choice. Corbin wants to be a veterinarian or a marine biologist in his future. His parents took him to Sea World so he could see the marine life, and he was especially fascinated with the dolphins. Corbin said his siblings have been good examples for him. He has a brother at Duke University that is going to be a physician’s assistant. Corbin said he not only likes to read, he likes to read a lot. He just finished reading the third book in the Children of the Lamp series by P.B. Kerr, “The Cobra King of Kathmandu.” He said these books are part of the accelerated reading books at San Rafael Junior High and he wrote the 20 questions for the accelerated reading tests on the first and second book in this series. This is the first time a student has written the questions for the tests in this program. The Children of the Lamp series tells the story of twin djinn, or genies, John and Philippa Gaunt, and their challenges with adapting to the world of djinn. The two children live in New York with their wealthy father and their mother who owns a banking business, and each book in the series puts them into fantastic situations that keep the pages turning. In “The Cobra King of Kathmandu,” midnight intruders and murder by snakebite sweep John and Corbin Barnett Philippa into their third fantastic adventure. Can they uncover the venomous secrets of an evil Snake Cult to find the long-lost talisman of the Cobra King? Corbin said, “There are sad parts, intense parts, and a mix of everything. These are really good books.” SCANNING THE BOOKSHELF Author Christopher Reich Plays by His Own ‘Rules’ John Wilkens Christopher Reich writes thrillers, so he understands the formula. Put your hero in a race against time and have something important hang in the balance. What he didn’t expect is that his own career would follow a similar plotline. The Encinitas, Calif., author started out huge. His 1998 debut novel, “Numbered Account,” spent six weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and sold more than 1 million copies. Four more books followed, but sales dwindled. Publishers lost interest. “All of a sudden, I didn’t have a paycheck,” he said. “I’m living in this nice house, I’ve got a family to support. I had to do something differ- ent.” He called his agent and said, “I’ve got an idea. I’ll call you back in a year.” And then he set out to write a book like the ones he had enjoyed when he was younger -- thrillers by John le Carre and Robert Ludlum. The story featured Dr. Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, who loses his wife in a climbing accident in the Swiss Alps, and then learns that she was a secret agent. Trying to figure out her real identity lands Ransom in the middle of a spy game involving pilotless drones, plastic explosives, poison-dipped bullets, $1,600 cashmere sweaters, cruise missiles and a flash-drive hidden in a bracelet. “I wanted to write the page-turner to end all pageturners,” Reich said. When he was done, he shipped it to his agent, Richard Pine, who liked it. They reworked it for three months, and then Reich made plans to take his wife and two daughters on a vacation. Three days later, Pine called and told him not to go on the trip. “Why not?” Reich remembered asking. “Because all those publishers who wouldn’t touch you with a 10-foot pole -- every one of them wants to buy this book.” Reich flew to New York and listened to eight publishers make pitches about how they were going to market “Rules of Deception.” He chose Doubleday, which released the book in July. It went to No. 3 on The New York Times’ bestseller list, his best showing ever. Film rights have been optioned by Paramount. Foreign rights have been sold in nine countries. “This is a redemption story for me,” Reich said, relaxing in his home office. “I’m back.” How Christopher Reich became a writer is the kind of story that keeps hope alive in every wannabe author. He was working as an investment banker in Switzerland, traveling all over the world (22 countries in one year) -- and he was miserable. He told his wife, Sue, that he wanted to be a novelist. Continued on Page C6. |