B
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
The Tofu Of Meat
WENDY SCHMIDT
In memory
of my
mother:
1928-2020
In memory of Betty Evanglyn Morse,
1928-2020.
My mom was one of my fl ower
friends. That’s how I think of my
gardening buddies. No matter where
or when, she was always ready to talk
about fl owers and plants. What the
plant was and how to grow it. She was
an avid reader and loved all kinds of
plants and she wanted to learn every-
thing.
I learned the difference between
fl owers and weeds before I went to
grade school and learned the names of
all the wildfl owers when we went walk-
ing in the woods. All of us went hiking
in the woods together.
The love of gardening is contagious,
and Mom inspired us to love nature
and nurture all living things.
As I remember my mother I also
give thanks for all gardeners. There’s
a special place in heaven for those who
till the earth with love and care and
the ones who nurture all of life.
Thanks for reading and making and
caring for gardens to beautify the earth
and bring forth sustenance. Let’s care
for God’s creation and all His plants
and creatures in our care.
If you have garden questions or com-
ments please write to greengardencol-
umn@yahoo.com.
J.E. Foley’s
legacy
lingers in
La Grande
By Ginny Mammen
J.E. Foley was born into a poor
family in Illinois in 1850. Early in his
life the family moved to Missouri. As
a young man with little education, he
went to work for Union Pacifi c Railroad
where he developed a talent for bridge
building. His work with the railroad
brought him farther west until he
fi nally landed in La Grande in 1881,
working with the OR & N Railroad.
Jerome Foley, Jerry as he was called
by his friends, saw promise in this
fl ourishing town of nearly 3,000 resi-
dents and he decided this was the place
for him to settle down. It was on his
birthday, July 7, 1886, when he mar-
ried Mary Theresa Gangloff of Union.
Foley was also an entrepreneur. It
was said that nothing appealed more to
Jerry than to erect buildings and that
he could not stand vacant lots. After
the construction of the railroad station
one of his fi rst known ventures was the
two-story wood Golden Rule Hotel at
the corner of Depot and Jefferson. Then
in 1891 he built the Foley House, later
called the Foley Hotel, at the corner of
Adams and Chestnut. As the town kept
expanding, so did Jerry. In 1904 he
added more rooms to the hotel.
In 1912, across Chestnut Street
from the Foley Hotel, he constructed
the 5-story Foley Building for $40,000
as the fi rst skyscraper in La Grande.
From the beginning it was planned to
be an “up to the minute” offi ce building
including a relatively new concept —
an elevator. This was only eight years
after the fi rst electric elevator had been
installed in New York.
The original intent for the building
was to serve as offi ces for the Union
Pacifi c Railroad.
See Foley/Page 2B
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Ground turkey tamale pie.
V ERSATILE B IRD :
G ROUND T URKEY
■ Because it absorbs other flavors, ground turkey can be the basis for all sorts of dishes
By Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
After a day of taking pictures of dishes
made with ground turkey — the same pic-
tures you see on these pages — photographer
Hillary Levin had an insight. In a moment of
clarity and understanding usually attain-
able only by solitary meditation on a remote
mountaintop, she said, “Ground turkey is the
tofu of meat.”
Lightning split the heavens. A dense bank
of clouds parted, allowing a blinding ray of
sunlight to shine brightly through. Some-
where, a distant church bell chimed.
Ground turkey is the tofu of meat.
It has no particular fl avor of its own, and
no one would want to eat it by itself. But it
absorbs the fl avors of the food around it, and
amplifi es them and adds texture. It acts as a
catalyst; you add it to other ingredients and
it makes them taste better.
It is also inexpensive. To my eye, that
makes it an ideal base for lunch or dinner.
For this week, I made four entrees with
ground turkey. Why? Because I could.
One thing I did not make was turkey
burgers. Turkey burgers are fi ne in their
limited way, but in the end they are just ...
turkey burgers. They are only worth eating
if you put something interesting on them or
in them (because ground turkey is the tofu
of meat).
When I was doing research for this story,
however, most of the recipes I found were for
turkey burgers. They were always dolled up
in some way — jerk turkey burgers, Asian
turkey burgers, Southwest turkey burgers —
but you couldn’t hide the fact that they were
still just turkey burgers.
So I made four decidedly unburgerish
dishes using ground turkey. And they were
so much better than their pattied and grilled
cousins.
I started with a dish I make frequently
as part of my regular lunchtime rotation.
I never gave it a name before, but it looks
kind of sloppy so I am calling it Dan’s Turkey
Mess.
Essentially, it is chili, but without the liq-
uid. It’s the meat — ground turkey instead of
ground beef — seasoned with a few essential
seasonings and mixed with canned diced
tomatoes and beans.
Yes, it is a bit of a mess. But it is hearty
and quite satisfying. I like to make it spicy
and serve it on rice.
For my next dish, I made a recipe that
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Dan’s turkey mess.
I was frankly embarrassed to try: Three-
Cheese Turkey Manicotti. It takes shortcuts I
am loath to take. It uses ingredients I prefer
not to use (Italian seasoning, onion powder,
garlic powder). It uses a bizarre amount of
sweet onion. It puts sugar in tomato sauce.
But I had already bought the ingredients
apparently without suffi ciently examining
the recipe. So I begrudgingly made it, after
cutting the sweet onion in half, eliminating
the sugar, making my own tomato sauce
instead of getting it from a jar, using chopped
onion instead of onion powder and going to
the store to buy Italian seasoning.
See Turkey/Page 3B