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Tuesday, March 1, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Arctic explorer
Will Steger
shares recipes
and reflections
from his
Minnesota
homestead
DOROTHY
FLESHMAN
DORY’S DIARY
‘Tis the
season
for spring
fever
Simplicity and sustainability are
the main themes running
through a new cookbook,
written with his niece Rita Mae
W
e in the lowlands are getting
eager for signs of spring. Let
the snow remain in the moun-
tains for outdoor sports and to melt
slowly to share its water supply and to
lead in the fight against wildfires, but we
yearn for the sight of flowering blooms,
warm air to caress bare arms coming
out from under heavy winter wraps. We
are tired of being cooped up and are
also anxious to be able to see friends,
dine out, and all the goodies that go with
nice weather.
It will come in time, we know, but
at the same time thinking that it is
long overdue, for it has been tough on
everyone these last two years going on
three with the pandemic of COVID, omi-
cron and all. We seek release.
To brighten this day as I write, I
must say that the sun is shining brightly
in spite of the 8 degrees of the night;
the morning has already reached the
20-degree mark by 10 a.m. Who knows
how warm it may be by the coming
Tuesday when you read this. It makes
us even more eager to preview a good
spring and summer, worth previewing
for everyone’s sake.
But, before actually doing so, we
really should take a quick backward
view to what our winter was really like
and what we oldsters see in our rear-
view mirror to the past in order to com-
pare our reactions to the cold season of
the year.
With heat from my furnace and food
readily available from refrigerator and
shelf, I feel so deeply grateful to have
been so blessed in the later years of
my life.
I forget not those who suffer in all
respects and especially so in this very
cold winter that may have taken so many
by surprise after the gentle winters we
have had prior.
My memory accepts this winter as it
slowly works its way toward spring as
just part of the norm when most Janu-
arys to March in my youth brought just
such weather and temperatures to this
corner of the world regularly.
We prepared for it as best we could
with wood-burning stoves for heat
and ricks of wood summer-gathered,
chopped, and piled in the backyard.
Also, the shelves, bins, and pantries
were filled with eatables dug from the
garden or tree-picked fruit and canned
into jars to get us through the long spell;
candles or lanterns to burn when the
electricity went out, and heat from our
stoves that needed neither electricity
nor blowers.
Were we as comfortable then as we
are now with all the advancements?
I remember cold bedrooms and hov-
ering by the heating and/or cooking
stoves, the heavy wool clothing, and
the trials of those having to tend to the
stock, dig paths through heavy deep
snow with handheld shovels, the emer-
gency crews, and/or business folk
needing to keep wheels of safety or busi-
ness turning. We walked to school and
home again. No buses so we didn’t know
the difference.
In spite of the advances of modern
living, we knew nothing of what the
future comfort would provide, so we
adjusted to make the most of what we
had and went on with living knowing
that spring and the heat of summer
would come in time.
Today is a beautiful day as I look
out the window where snow piles still
resist the sun-melt that still teases, and
folks drive in their warm cars to and fro
to do business or pleasure on machin-
ery-plowed dry streets.
I’m too old or unnecessary to join in
and wonder if I’m glad or sorry.
The daffodils by my house are already
up through the soil by several inches
and are never worried by snow or cold
temperatures.
They know what I can only hope for
— that my impatience to see their yellow
bloom is just the usual thing and comes
ever year about this time — I think is is
called SPRING FEVER.
———
Dorothy Swart Fleshman is the author
of Dory’s Diary occasionally published
in The Observer and Baker City Herald.
She is a resident of La Grande.
By SHARYN JACKSON
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS
This quick and easy tofu stir-fry features colorful vegetables and a spicy chili garlic sauce.
By GRETCHEN McKAY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Stir-fries can be a
boon in a busy cook’s
kitchen — quick to pre-
pare and incredibly versa-
tile, they dish up a whole
lot of flavor without a
whole lot of fuss (though
you may have to do some
chopping).
Meats can gener-
ally be swapped out for
vegan proteins like tofu
or tempeh, and likewise
with any vegetables you
might include. If you don’t
like beans or carrots, for
instance, peppers or broc-
coli are an easy substitute;
the only rule is to make
sure you add hard vege-
tables to the pan before
quick-cooking ones so
they’re crisp and tender at
the same time.
This recipe pairs tofu
with crispy, pan-fried
mushrooms, celery and
paper-thin slices of ginger
in a sauce infused with
chili pepper — a welcome
punch of gentle heat on a
chilly winter day.
Extra-firm tofu (or
firm, if you can’t find
that) works best in this
dish, because it will keep
its shape during frying;
soft or silken tofu will
fall apart. Also be sure to
press as much water as you
can out of the block before
cooking it by pressing
it between two layers of
folded paper towels or a
clean kitchen cloth.
I like the spicy, gar-
licky kick of chili oil with
crunchy garlic, but it’s
completely optional if
you’re not a fan — if you
omit, simply add a little
more soy sauce to get a
good glaze on the tofu. If
you use gluten-free soy
sauce, the dish will appeal
to those with gluten sensi-
tivities or allergies as well.
Serve with white or
brown rice. For lunch the
next day, I reheated the
leftovers in a cast-iron
skillet in a 350-degree
oven until the tofu and
veggies crisped up, about
10 minutes.
STIR-FRIED
TOFU WITH
CRISPY
GARLIC CHILI
1 14-ounce block extra-firm
tofu, drained and pressed
3 tablespoons vegetable
oil, divided
12 ounces baby bella or button
white mushrooms, stems
trimmed, cut into thick slices
3 celery stalks, thinly
sliced on a diagonal
2-inch piece ginger,
peeled, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño chile, thinly sliced
2 green onions, sliced
on the diagonal
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon crunchy garlic with
chili oil, or more to taste
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Juice of 1 lime
Handful coarsely
chopped cilantro
4 cups cooked short-grain or
brown rice, for serving
Cut block of tofu into thirds
crosswise, then cut each piece
crosswise again, and then into
1/2-inch pieces. Pat dry with
paper towels.
Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable
oil in a large nonstick skillet
over medium-high. When oil is
shimmering and easily slides
across surface of pan, carefully
add tofu in a single layer and
cook, undisturbed, until golden
brown underneath, about 4-5
minutes. Flip each piece over
and continue to cook until
browned on second side, anoth-
er 4 minutes. Transfer tofu to a
plate, leaving oil in pan.
Pour remaining 1 tablespoon
vegetable oil into skillet and
heat over medium-high until
shimmering. Add mushrooms
to pan and cook, undisturbed,
until crisp around the edges and
browned underneath, about 5
minutes. Give mushrooms a toss
and continue to cook, tossing
often, until browned and crispy
in most spots, about 4 minutes
longer.
Add fried tofu, celery, ginger,
chile, green onion, soy sauce,
crunchy garlic and sesame oil to
pan. Cook, tossing often, until
celery is crisp-tender, about 3
minutes.
Remove from heat and add
lime juice. Scatter cilantro over
and toss once more.
Serve over or alongside
cooked brown or white rice.
Serves 4.
— Adapted from bonappetit.
com
What do you eat when you’re a larg-
er-than-life polar explorer, kayaker, dog-
sledder, educator, homesteader and cli-
mate advocate? Like many people, Will
Steger enjoys a good apple pie, meatloaf
and ice-cold watermelon.
It’s where he ate those favorite foods
that sets the Minnesota-born explorer
apart.
He devoured the melon on the banks
of the Mississippi River after a motor-
boat adventure from Minnesota to New
Orleans at age 15. The meatloaf was
stuffed into sandwiches that would last
him through three days of hitchhiking
and hopping freight trains, his preferred
way to get around as soon as school let
out for the summer.
And his beloved apple pie, a gift from
his mother Margaret, dropped from a
resupply plane delivering provisions to
the North Pole. The frozen pie sprung out
of the box and rolled down the runway.
Steger chased it until it landed in a
snowbank.
“That thing was destined to make it,”
said Steger. “It was thoughtful, as she
always was.”
Stories about the sustenance that pow-
ered Steger through his awe-inspiring
achievements in exploration accompany
recipes for these dishes and more in “The
Steger Homestead Kitchen: Simple Rec-
ipes for an Abundant Life.”
There are the homemade granola bars
he’d pack for students on his Outward
Bound expeditions. The warming stew
he would serve his friends who come
up once a year to help him cut ice from
nearby Picketts Lake and haul it to the
icehouse at his Ely homestead as an alter-
native to refrigeration. The gingersnaps
— one of many recipes from his moth-
er’s spiral notebook — that he puts out for
guests on retreat at his isolated confer-
ence center, the Steger Wilderness Center.
This transporting collection, which
Steger wrote with his niece Rita Mae
Steger and local cookbook author Beth
Dooley, is as much a cookbook as it is an
argument for eating whole, clean and local
during a time of environmental strife.
“I think one of the solutions of climate
change is to be sustainable as a life, as a
person,” Steger said. “You don’t have to
look at coal or whatever the polluters are.
It’s a matter of living sustainably. That’s a
joy, and that’s the life we need to survive
what’s ahead of us.”
The recipes are rooted in simplicity.
Most dishes ask for few ingredients and
fewer steps. Because when delivery
doesn’t reach your address, be it Ely or
Antarctica, working with what you have
is the only way to survive.
See, Book/Page B3
How to lower your grocery costs when prices are soaring
By NICOLE NORFLEET
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Even with high inflation,
there are plenty of ways to
save money on your next trip
to the grocer.
Grocery runs have gotten
more expensive.
Anyone who has taken a
look at their receipts in the
last few months can tell that
prices have gone up on nearly
everything from chicken
wings to milk as inflation
levels reached heights we hav-
en’t seen in decades.
The cost of food that
people eat at home rose 6.5%
in December compared to the
same month the year before.
That’s well above what people
were used to. Over the last 20
years, the cost of supermarket
purchases rose about 2% a
year on average.
“If you are not careful, you
are going to have a full cart
and be shocked at how much
you spent,” said Haley Nelson
of St. Paul, Minnesota, who
has shared low-cost recipes on
her blog Cheap Recipe Blog
for more than a decade.
Inflation may slow this
spring and summer from last
year, but price increases may
still be higher than normal.
Here are some ways you
can plan and shop to better
stretch your grocery budget:
Plan your trip and don’t
get distracted
When is the last time you
really looked in your pantry?
The first step is to taking
stock of what’s in your fridge
and cupboards. That will pre-
vent you from buying items
you already have.
Do you plan your meals?
Or do you pick up whatever
strikes you in the store?
“Impulse is the grocer’s
best friend and temptations
are everywhere,” said Steven
Plant, a financial planner at
Raymond James in Way-
zata, Minnesota, who owned
a local grocery store for 15
years.
Go to the grocery store
with a list
“This is really not the
time to wing it,” Nelson said.
Having a list helps you stay
focused on what you need so
you don’t overspend on extra
items.
Don’t shop while hungry
and avoid picking up
unplanned processed foods
such as frozen dinners.
Learn your store
Discover your grocery
store’s hidden finds such as dis-
count sections. Many grocery
stores have sections or bins
with soon-to-expire food or
bruised fruits that are still good
to eat, said Jamie Pfuhl, presi-
dent of the Minnesota Grocers
Association.
Two of the best places to
get deals is the bulk section of
spices at local food coopera-
tives and the salad bar at gro-
cery stores where you can get a
small scoop of ingredients like
bacon bits, Nelson said.
Having a better grasp on
prices of your everyday items
and the pricing of an array of
stores instead of relying on just
one can also be helpful.
“Broadening your horizons
See, Groceries/Page B3