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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (May 12, 2020)
B Tuesday, May 12, 2020 The Observer & Baker City Herald BOB’S THOUGHTS Scrumptious Potato Pancakes BOB BAUM Nobody was better than Mike I covered the NBA for 42 seasons and witnessed well over 1,000 games. Michael Jordan was the best I ever saw. ESPN’s excellent “The Last Dance,’’ a 10-part documentary centered on Jordan, got me thinking of the years I was privileged to watch him play. I didn’t see Jordan play in person as often as I would have liked. I covered the Portland Trail Blazers for 22 years and the Phoenix Suns for 20, so I would only see the Bulls when they came to town once a season. But for a half-dozen years I covered the Western Conference Finals regard- less of what teams were in, then stuck around to help with coverage of the West team’s home games in the Finals. So I saw Jordan perform when the stakes were highest, and nobody played better in the clutch than he did. My fi rst extensive experience with Jordan came in the 1992 NBA Finals between the Bulls and Trail Blazers. I didn’t travel so I, like so many oth- ers, saw Jordan’s famous “shrug game’’ on television. It was Game 1 in Chicago and Jordan was extra-motivated. It seems many in the media had compared the Blazers’ Clyde Drexler to Jordan. Jordan was not happy, but that gave him added motivation. And when you aggravated Jordan, look out. The fi rst half of that game was arguably the most dominant individual performances in NBA history. Jordan scored 35 points in the fi rst two quar- ters, sinking six straight 3-pointers out of the gate in a 122-89 rout, tying the Finals record for most 3s in a half. See Mike/Page 3B BETWEEN THE ROWS WENDY SCHMIDT Lilacs to smell, fungi to forage Gorgeous lilac fragrance is in the air and I’d give anything for a long road trip. I think I can manage an undetected short road trip to the local forest or woods, though. The mush- room hunting regulars have their secret places. Others of us just have to stumble upon hordes of mushrooms by accident. Persistence often pays. No commercial mushroom pickers will be out this year to compete with individuals. If you wish to can your own mushrooms, a pressure canner must be used. You can only do pints and smaller. Pints get 45 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. Half-pints get 30 minutes. Happy hunting! Garden chores • Continue to remove dead bulb foli- age. Bulbs can be moved or divided as the foliage dies. • Take houseplants outdoors when nights will remain above 50 degrees. Locate where they receive direct sun- light only in the morning. • Prune unwanted shoots as they appear on fruit trees. • Mow tall fescue lawns at least 3 to 4 inches in height. Bluegrass should be mowed to 2 to 3fi inches. If you have garden questions or comments, please write to green gardencolumn@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading! Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune-TNS Making potato pancakes can be a family project, with extra hands helping to peel and grate potatoes and onions. T ASTY T ATERS By James P. DeWan Chicago Tribune Merriam-Webster defi nes the potato pancake as a “lobe-fi nned fi sh known chiefl y from Paleozoic and Mesozoic fossils.” Sorry. That’s a coelacanth. Regardless, while both the potato pancake and the coelacanth go great with sour cream and applesauce, that’s where the similari- ties end. In fact, I’m not even sure why we’re talking about coelacanths in the fi rst place. This is a family newspaper, for the love of Mike. Potato pancakes, on the other hand ... Why you need to learn this Well, taters are totally tasty and a whole heap cheaper than those 50,000-piece jigsaw puzzles you’ve been stockpiling of late. And speaking of stockpiling, I noticed that 20-pound sack of russets in the background of your latest live-streamed video rant. Before they spontaneously turn into vodka, why not get the whole family involved and rustle up some potato pancakes. What with all the peeling, the grating, bandaging the cuts and cursing the darkness, there’s a job for everyone. Now, like Satan, potato pancakes come in many forms and go by many names. The The steps you take Swiss, for example, mostly omit the bind- Most of you already know potatoes. Per- ing ingredients and call it rosti; the Irish haps, like me, you’re of good Irish stock with combine raw and cooked potatoes and call it a nurtured if not natural predilection for the boxty; Satan himself calls them “scrapey fl at starchy tuber embedded deep in your psyche. browns” (it’s in the Bible; look it up). On the other hand, perhaps you hail from a Here’s the thing to remember, no matter potato-free culture, like the Moonish or the the nomenclature: In a world where monkeys Zombiesians. In which case, listen up: play canasta and vampires rule the night, it’s Like you and me, potatoes are comprised not a bad idea to fl atten a potato and cook it primarily of water and covered in a thin skin. in fat to a golden brown. Unlike us, though, with our bone and blood Let’s examine more closely the ingredients: and grotty bits, potatoes are pretty much • The potatoes. Most potato pancakes are just starch. And here’s why that’s important: made from grated raw potatoes, but you Different potato varieties have different can also use cooked, pureed potatoes. The amounts of starch, which affects how they texture’s different, more like a syrup-soaked react to cooking. breakfast pancake, but, what the hay. You Happily, for potato pancakes, any potato could also combine raw with cooked potato, will work, and I wouldn’t worry about those like the aforementioned boxty. Or — and differences. Save your worry for things that you’ll want to remember this next holiday matter, like how you’re going to pay the season — you can get all Nutsy Fagan and robber barons who run the college your kid use your leftover mashed potatoes. Figure wants to attend. about a quarter- to a half-pound of potato per Other ingredients include binders and person. fl avor enhancers, but, we’ll get to those after See Pancakes/Page 3B I’ve prattled on a little more. The wonder of homemade waffles By Jeanmarie Brownson Chicago Tribune This Mother’s Day, in an era of social distancing even from our children, our family celebration was virtual. The kitchen table was set with laptops or tablets for seeing our loved ones living in different states. The menu was be the same at all our homes. Waffl es, we agreed. Crispy, hot and slath- ered with fruity goodness. A kitchen fi lled with sweet aromas. Oh, and some mimosas — we are drink- ing more these days. We love a mimosa with fresh grapefruit juice and sparkling rose wine, but orange juice works, too. Plenty of strong, black coffee for me. Our daughter and her husband have a waffl e iron to make homemade. We have one electric waffl e iron. (Does anyone have more?) I hover over it as the waffl e bakes into crispy, brown, cranny-fi lled sweet treats. We divvy up the squares as the next waffl e cooks. For a larger gathering, the wait can feel excruciating. Perhaps there are advantages to cooking for two. Waffl e irons vary in size and shape. The classic waffl e iron produces a crispy waffl e about 1/2-inch thick with 1/3-inch deep crannies. A Belgian waffl e maker has larger, deeper crannies that hold more syrup. Check your manufacturer’s directions for heating the iron, amount of batter to add and cooking times. My classic Black & Decker electric waffl e iron bakes a generous cup of batter Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune-TNS Serve cornmeal waffl es with the pineapple orange compote, or use fresh berries and blueberry syrup. Chicken breakfast sausages, a grapefruit and sparkling rose mimosa, and plenty of coffee round out the meal. into four squares in about 10 minutes. Cooking during a pandemic should be a judgment-free zone. Using a boxed waffl e mix is fi ne — just read labels to avoid artifi - cial ingredients. If you have the ingredients, know that homemade batter is easy to pull together, and nearly always tastes better. The recipe that follows uses a minimum of leavening for a less metallic-tasting waffl e; yogurt adds tang and lightness. I combine the dry ingredients ahead of time, then add the wet ingredients to them while the waffl e iron heats. See Waffl es/Page 2B
