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Tuesday, August 2, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
DOROTHY
FLESHMAN
DORY’S DIARY
Tomato time
Houses
without
cupboards
(Writer’s note: This is
not a late April Fool’s joke.
It’s for real. Ask someone
older than I at 95.)
very long time ago
when I was barely
able to be aware
of it, the cupboards on the
wall were of my Dad’s own
doing regardless of where
we lived. And, we moved a
lot just like other folks did
in those days.
What I am saying is that
there was a time when cup-
boards like the ones now
on the walls of my home
wouldn’t have been left
behind by the previous
owners — as they were in
my case when I purchased
the residence — a most
unusual gift.
If that still isn’t clear,
I need to say that a newly
purchased, or usually
rented, house didn’t natu-
rally come with cupboards
in which to store dishes and
pans or clothing. Silverware
came separate in their own
boxes. You had to provide
your own storage units.
These built-ins were the
property of the persons just
moving out.
That’s true — they took
the cupboards with them
just as they did their tables
and chairs, beds, and other
furnishings.
This also included
the heating and cooking
devices such as the wood-
burning kitchen range and
the pot-bellied stove from
the living room.
Moving from one house
to another was not an
easy thing, but it seems to
have been systemized by
everyone in those days.
In fact, I know that
rooms themselves could be
moved from one house to
another by a carpenter to
fit the needs of the family.
That happened to one of
the houses in which we had
left. The house across the
street needed an extra bed-
room for the family moving
in, so the carpenter just
took out the nails, moved
the room on skids, and fin-
ished up both houses to
look as though they had
always been just that way.
Maybe house plans were
similar and the remod-
eling not requiring a major
undertaking.
Whatever it was,
needs were handled by
the average homemaker,
including installing elec-
tric lights without the pres-
ence of a licensed elec-
trician. They just seemed
to know how to do all of
the necessary jobs, maybe
learning by doing. Those
were the days before
licensed installers were a
requirement.
It is barely on the fringe
of my remembrances that
I see my father attaching
a dish cupboard to the
kitchen wall of the rental on
B Avenue in Old Town into
which we were moving. He
was making the big wooden
structure fit into the two
walls of the corner and
nailing it into place, saying
that the walls of the house
weren’t “plumb” in a not
happy voice. Maybe that’s
why I remember it.
People in our community
seemed to move from house
to house in those days,
fairly often within the same
neighborhoods. Sometimes
they just traded houses for
a while and, occasionally,
traded back again.
A
See, Dory/Page B2
123rf
Celebrate the season with a
tomato and chicken recipe
By LINDA GASSENHEIMER • Tribune News Service
R
ipe tomatoes are in season. Here’s an easy way to use them. To keep their fresh flavor, the
tomatoes are not cooked. Their juice and seeds are blended into a sauce and mixed with
mayonnaise. The remaining tomato pulp is cut into cubes and added to the sauce.
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are used for the recipe. I like to flatten them so that the thick and
thinner sections cook evenly.
seeds and tomato liquid into a food
Helpful Hints
processor or press through a sieve.
• You can use fresh
Process until smooth. There should
parsley or cilantro instead of
be about 1/2 cup of tomato puree.
basil.
Mix tomato puree with the may-
Countdown
onnaise. Cut the remaining tomato
• Make the sauce and set
flesh into cubes. Divide the cooked
aside.
chicken between two dinner plates.
• Make rice salad.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to
• Saute the chicken and
taste. Spoon the sauce over the
complete the recipe.
chicken and add the tomato cubes
Shopping List
on top.
To buy: 3/4 pound bone-
Yield 2 servings.
less, skinless chicken
thighs, 1 large tomato, 1 jar
Per serving: 342 calories (50%
reduced-fat mayonnaise, 1
from
fat), 18.9 g fat (3 g saturated,
Linda Gassenheimer/TNS
can olive oil spray, 1 package
5.4
g
monounsaturated),
156 mg
microwaveable brown rice, 1 Summer chicken with sauce Aurore (tomato mayonnaise sauce).
cholesterol, 34.1 g protein, 6 g carbo-
bottle reduced fat oil and vin-
hydrates, 1.1 g fiber, 375 mg sodium.
egar dressing, 1 cucumber
and one bunch fresh basil
CUCUMBER RICE SALAD
Staples: salt and black peppercorns.
Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer
SUMMER CHICKEN WITH
SAUCE AURORE (TOMATO
MAYONNAISE SAUCE)
Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer
3/4 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
Olive oil spray
1 large tomato
1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flatten chicken thighs with a meat mallet or bottom of a heavy skillet
to about 1/4-inch thick. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Spray with olive oil spray and add chicken. Saute 2 minutes. Turn and
saute 3 to 4 minutes or until a meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees
Fahrenheit. While chicken sautes, cut tomato in half and scoop out the
1 package microwave brown rice to make 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
4 tablespoons reduced-fat oil and vinegar dressing
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cucumber cubes, cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Microwave rice according to the package instructions. Measure 1 1/2
cups and save any remaining rice for another meal. Place rice in a bowl
and add the dressing and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat the rice
with the dressing. Add the cucumbers and basil leaves and mix into the
salad.
Yield 2 servings.
Per serving: 217 calories (15% from fat), 35 g fat (0.5 g saturated, 1.2 g
monounsaturated), 2 mg cholesterol, 4.7 g protein, 41.5 g carbohydrates,
2.9 g fiber, 16 mg sodium.
Do’s and don’ts of deadheading flowers
JENNIE
HAGEN
GRANDMA’S GARDEN
F
or years I scorned dead-
heading my flowers as abso-
lutely unnecessary. And as
my gardens grew and more flow-
ering plants were added to the
assorted collection, by July they
looked pretty ragged. I had to do
something different.
Deadheading is simply the pro-
cess of removing blossoms that
have finished their blooming cycle.
For some plants, it’s an easy read.
They may be in focal points of
your yard or line a flower bed in
the front of your home that is vis-
ible to those passing by. But what-
ever the reason, when this part of
your routine maintenance is kept
up with regularity, it makes all the
difference.
Most annuals don’t need dead-
heading. Think of a large pot filled
with petunias — if you endeavored
to remove the spent blossoms each
day, that would be all you would
do. Not very practical.
There are annuals that appre-
ciate regular deadheading, and
their growth structure makes for
easy trimming. Marigolds and
zinnias are two good examples,
as their upright habit and large
flower size keep your trimming
time to a minimum. Certain types
of marigolds are an exception.
Tagates marigolds may have hun-
dreds of small, dainty blossoms
at one time. Think of “Tangerine
Gem” and “Lemon Gem,” both
prolific bloomers. They require no
deadheading.
A word of caution is in order.
It makes sense to trim as many
plants as possible in one round of
your garden. But there is a nasty
catch here about doing too much
without a purposeful break. Trim-
ming foliage on some of your
tomato plants increases the day-
light amount to the fruiting bodies
in the interior of the plant, but
trimming rose blossoms may
transmit tobacco mosaic to roses
if trimmers are not cleaned. Toma-
toes may carry the mosaic, but
they are relatively benign to the
virus. Once infected with the
mosaic, if not treated, rose blos-
soms will have brown spots, shriv-
eled stems, and blossom mor-
tality. So, after trimming your
tomato leaves, wipe the blades
with a paper towel soaked in rub-
bing alcohol. Soap and water do
not always remove the disease. I
keep rubbing alcohol in my garden
room. Dry thoroughly before
moving on!
See, Flowers/Page B2