B
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
The peculiar
pineapple
Bromeliads are a group of plants
which include such diverse members
as the small gray air plant, the Spanish
moss which hangs from trees in the
South, and pineapples.
All bromeliads are tropical (all die in
temperatures below freezing) and none
is poisonous to humans.
High humidity is also necessary to
bromeliads.
When western Europeans fi rst tast-
ed pineapples in the 1600s, it started
a search for the right kind of heat/hu-
midity combination so that pineapples
could be grown in their colder climates.
Many experiments were tried which
included hotbed modifi cations using
manure for heat. The fi nal combination
of a hotbed using both manure and
rotting oak bark (a plan adapted from
tanneries) was found to work. This pro-
vided their glass houses with constant
even heat year-round.
The primary motivation for develop-
ing a system for heating their glass
greenhouses was their desire to grow
pineapples.
Pineapples have never lost popu-
larity. Now we do not think of all the
troubles and trials Europeans went
through to gain convenient and local
access to the pineapple’s wonderful
fruit.
Used in main entree meat dishes as
well as desserts, there seems to be a
recipe containing pineapple for every
occasion. Pineapple upside down cake,
Asian sweet and sour dishes and even
Hawaiian pizza.
Propagating a pineapple is easy.
Simply cut off its top and set it in a pot
full of moist potting soil. Keep it damp
not wet. It will take 2 years to root
and produce a very small pineapple.
Patience is a virtue.
GARDEN CHORES
• Overcrowded or unproductive rhu-
barb plants may be divided now.
• Fallen, spoiled, or mummifi ed
fruits should be cleaned up from the
garden and destroyed by burying.
• Mulch strawberries for winter with
straw. This should be done after several
nights near 20 degrees, but before
temps drop consistently to the teens.
Apply straw loosely but thick enough to
hide the plants from view.
• Shop now for perennials and trees.
Nurseries have sales in the fall.
• Rake and collect fallen leaves.
• Set up bird feeders. Birds also need
a source of unfrozen water for winter’s
duration.
• Shut off and drain outdoor water
pipes and hoses.
If you have garden questions or com-
ments, please write to greengardencol-
umn@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!
C OOKING W ITHOUT A N ET
By James P. DeWan
Chicago Tribune
Oh, how we’ve fallen. Why, twern’t too long
ago that, come supper time, Pa would tote
his shootin’ arn out the back forty and fi ll a
couple varmints with enough buckshot to
tenderize their eatin’ bits, if you know what I
mean.
No?
How ‘bout this, then: People used to know
how to feed themselves. Presently, not so
much.
Sure, we can follow recipes like a chimp
and drop F-bombs like Gordon Ramsay, the
shouting, often profane TV chef; but when
it comes to turning with breezy insouciance
the contents of our fridge into something
delectable, we seem to have lost our collective
woo. Too many of us, raised without proper
culinary learnin’, fi nd ourselves all growed
up with nary a clue as to how to manage the
kitchenly arts.
Let’s see if we can at least start to fi x that.
Why you need to learn this
Numerous studies have confi rmed the cor-
relation between diet and health. People who
eat tend to stay alive longer than people who
don’t. Just sayin’.
The steps you take
First, forget all your troubles. Second,
c’mon. Get happy. Third, remember that cook-
ing, like nearly everything else, is learned be-
havior. It’s not just following recipes. Imagine
your surgeon, scalpel in one hand, copy of “So,
This Is The Brain” in the other.
If you haven’t had the good fortune to have
learned from a culinary expert — a beloved
parent or grandparent, for example, who
could cook the pants off the aforementioned
Chef Ramsay — don’t take this the wrong
way, but, it’s conceivable you simply may not
know what you’re doing. And if you don’t
know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t expect
success, much less perfection.
To become a good or even great cook, then,
treat the task like any other subject: Study.
Practice. And learn from both your mistakes
and your successes.
My advice is to start with foods you know.
It’s why it’s easier for an English speaker
to learn French than, say, Welsh, because
French is more familiar because of its simi-
larity to English. The English word “student,”
for example, is “etudiante” in French, whereas
in Welsh it’s “myfyriwr.” I tried pronouncing
that word and bit my tongue.
To learn to cook without a net, then, start
with things you already know, like a simple
tomato sauce, or French toast, or a vinai-
grette. And think about the following, in no
particular order:
1. Knowing what something’s supposed
to be before you start gives you a fi ghting
chance of reproducing it. Like that simple
tomato sauce. Do this: Brown some bulk, hot
Italian sausage over medium-high heat in
a little oil, then add some canned crushed
tomatoes and simmer. The spices in the sau-
sage will season the tomatoes and the result
will both look and taste like what you’d call
spaghetti sauce.
2. Look for ratios. For example, long grain
and parboiled rice are 2 parts liquid to 1
part rice. And a lovely sauce to decorate said
rice can be obtained with a ratio of 8 parts
liquid (like fl avorful chicken broth) to 1 part
roux. (Roux itself is a ratio: equal weights of
Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune-TNS
A key element of cooking without a net is paying attention to ratios. Take French toast:
At the heart it’s a mixture of eggs and milk in about equal parts, plus fl avorings. That’s it.
fat and fl our cooked together).
Or what about when you want a nice, fresh
salad, but that grotty bottled dressing serves
only to enrage. A basic vinaigrette is a 3-to-1
emulsion of oil to vinegar. Pour it all into a
screw-top jar. Add a pinch of salt and shake
like Charo’s hips. (That line would have killed
in 1974.) Not necessary, but, you can stabi-
lize the emulsion with a little mustard, and
complexifi ze the fl avor with a bit of honey or
maple syrup, a spill of hot sauce, some fresh
herbs, or a little minced garlic or onion.
Here’s one more: Let’s say Mags and crew,
fresh from their negative COVID-19 tests,
have arrived at your place and, their senses
of taste and smell intact, they’re craving
French toast. You recall that a couple eggs
whisked with an equalish volume of milk, a
splash of vanilla extract and a dusting of cin-
namon will produce about half a dozen pieces
of French toast. Doing the math in your
brainiac head, you scale up that “recipe” with
more eggs and an equal measure of milk.
See? Math is our friend.
3. Salt. Generally, added salt comprises
approximately 1% of a recipe’s total weight.
Consider this, then: A teaspoon of table salt
weighs about 6 grams. That means that a
teaspoon of salt will season 600 grams, or
about 1.3 pounds, of food, enough for two
moderate humans. Note that different types
of salt — table, kosher, sea — and even dif-
ferent brands, have different weights per
volume. Thus, taste as you go.
4. Herbs and spices, which we’ll confl ate
into one word: spices. Typically, spices are
used somewhat sparingly. Look through a
handful of random recipes and you’ll see lots
of half teaspoons. Consider that different
containers of the same herbs and spices will
have different potencies, and you’ll under-
stand that it’s just this side of random. Again:
Taste as you go. You can always add more
basil, right?
5. Learn to eyeball: Measure a quarter
teaspoon of salt or spice into the palm of your
hand to see what it looks like. Add another
quarter teaspoon to see a half teaspoon.
Add another half teaspoon to see what one
teaspoon looks like. Finally, add two more
teaspoons to see what a tablespoon looks like.
Dig? Eyeballing allows you to cook without
wasting precious minutes searching for your
consarned measuring spoons.
CURSINGLY TASTY VINAIGRETTE
Prep: 5 minutes
Makes: 1 cup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons mustard
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
Dashes of hot sauce as needed (optional)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 clove
garlic, minced (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
To make in a bowl:
1. Whisk fi rst seven ingredients in a small
bowl.
2. Whisk in a couple teaspoons of olive oil
to create emulsion. Continue whisking as you
drizzle in remaining oil in a steady stream.
Or, to make in a covered jar:
1. In a small, lidded jar, shake fi rst seven ingre-
dients with great vigor.
2. Add a couple teaspoons of olive oil and
shake to create emulsion. Add about a third of
remaining oil and shake to emulsify. Add remain-
ing oil and shake again.
Or, if you’re in a hurry or simply not worried
about the homogeneity of your emulsion, simply
combine all ingredients in a lidded jar and shake
like one of those paint mixing machines at the
hardware store.
Note: Vinaigrettes can keep several days in the
fridge, but the oil likely will solidify. Simply take it
out 30 minutes before using, then whisk or shake
everything together again.
FRENCH TOAST
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Makes: 6 pieces
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter or oil as needed
6 slices bread
Maple syrup, sour cream, powdered
sugar, fresh fruit
See Without A Net/Page 2B
Buy nothing, sell nothing, gift anything
■ Facebook group helps those in need as well as those who want to give
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Whether
you need clothes, furniture or
help with mowing your lawn,
the Buy Nothing La Grande/
Island City and Surround-
ing Areas Facebook group
has you covered. The group
is part of an international
movement focused on giving.
“The ‘Buy Nothing’ move-
ment is meant to create a
local gift economy, designed
to build community,” said
Tammy Hintz, founder of the
La Grande chapter. “People in
the group benefi t in so many
different ways.”
Rebecca Rockefeller and
Liesl Clark started the hyper-
local gifting network in July
2013 in Bainbridge Island,
Washington. Since then its
has spread to 30 nations,
according to the Buy Nothing
Project website. Hintz started
the La Grande network in
2016, and now counts 442
members helping in any way
they can.
Posts are not restricted to
people making offers, and
anyone can ask for what they
need, as long as there is no
price. The idea, Hintz said, is
people have resources they
may not even realize they
have, and by creating a plat-
form to share these resources,
the community can grow and
come together.
“I think this group is
important to have because
it reminds us that behind
each post is a human being
and that you don’t always
need to receive anything in
return when giving,” group
member MacKenzie Reisner
said. “In a community as
small as ours it is important
to help our neighbors when
we can. Learning by example
and teaching our youth that
an item’s value isn’t always
monetary will only strength-
en our community now.”
Reisner joined the group
less than a week ago and said
she loves the generosity she
sees in posts.
“I just think the exchange
of a need being met with
generosity of the giver, fol-
lowed by the gratitude of
the receiver is super cool,”
Reisner said. “I enjoy seeing
the kindness in the group.
People are so willing to help
out and give to others. I also
love the vulnerability within
each post. Asking to be gifted
something you need versus
asking to purchase something
can be so hard for a lot of
people, and this group takes
the pressure or obligation to
pay out of it.”
See Gifting/Page 2B
Screen capture from Facebook
Buy Nothing La Grande/Island City and Surrounding Areas
Facebook group administrator Anah Harvey posted Oct. 29
she is gifting a box of bath powder for small critters.