8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Local
Recipes for Hunting Season Durkee Steak
and place on
paper towel to
drain off oil.
Saute the mush-
rooms in the
same pan then
return the meat
to the pan.
Whisk tomato
paste and wine
together in small
bowl then add to
the pan.
Homemade Goodness
Coat the
venison
with
By Eileen Driver
the sauce, then
cover and sim-
Hunting season is upon
us and since grass fed non- mer for 30 or more minutes
antibiotic or non-GMO-fed till meat is done to your
preference.
meat is the very healthiest
This is great served with
meat we can possibly eat, I
either mashed potatoes
figured it was time to talk
or noodles. And since I
about some mouth water-
love garlic on just about
ing venison recipes.
everything and it’s really
If you are really adven-
easy to grow, I thought I
turous and know your
would share with you how
mushrooms, you could go
to make it at home.
pick some of those for this
Homemade Garlic
one as well, but beware
Powder
of mushrooms that look
Peel garlic cloves and
tasty but are really poison
slice into thin strips. Place
in disguise. Since I have
yet to learn all the different on cookie sheet and place
into 150- degree oven for
mushrooms I usually just
1 to 2 hours turning often
buy them, but I have also
until dry and crumbly.
grown my own, which is
Place in blender and
kinda fun too.
grind. Sift to separate fine
Venison & Mushrooms
powder from the chunks.
in Red Wine Sauce
Store the chunks and
2 pounds venison sliced
powder in airtight contain-
½” thick
½ teaspoon garlic powder ers or freeze for long term
storage.
1 teaspoon onion powder
The chunks of dried
2 pounds mushrooms,
garlic are really good on
sliced or whole
pizza or in sauces and of
¼ cup oil
course the powdered garlic
6 ounces tomato paste
can be sprinkled on almost
Flour for dredging
everything. Of course we
1 cup dry red wine
all know how much I love
Salt & pepper
my crockpot so this next
Season venison with
one is perfect and it works
garlic and onion on both
equally as well with elk or
sides.
moose.
Dredge in flour and
Venison in Mushroom
brown on both sides in
Gravy
heated oil.
2 cans or equivalent
Remove meat from pan
homemade cream of mush-
room soup
1 envelope or homemade
dry onion soup mix
2 cups beef broth
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
½ tsp parsley
Salt & pepper
1 cup fresh sliced mush-
rooms
3-4 pounds venison roast
⅓ cup sour cream
Put a crockpot liner in
the crockpot.
Add the cream of mush-
room soup, dry onion soup
mix, beef broth, garlic
powder, onion powder and
parsley whisking together
till smooth.
Add salt and pepper to
taste.
Stir in mushrooms.
Place the venison roast in
the crockpot and coat with
sauce.
Cook on low 8 hours if
roast thawed or on high
8-10 hours if frozen or
until meat falls apart.
Stir in sour cream just
before serving.
Serve over rice, noodles,
potatoes or buttered bread.
As long as we are mak-
ing homemade garlic
powder we might as well
make homemade onion
powder as well, that way
we will know for sure that
there are no weird fillers in
there.
Homemade Onion
Powder
Slice enough onions in
thin slivers to evenly cover
a parchment lined cookie
sheet. Cook at 150
to 200 degrees ( the low-
est your oven will go) for
about 2 hours until onion is
completely dry.
Let cool.
Grind with spice grinder
or blender.
Store in an airtight con-
tainer in a cool dry place
or freeze for long term
storage.
This is a really good
venison stew recipe that
I hope you will enjoy so
don’t put away that
crockpot just yet.
Venison Stew
2-3 pounds venison roast,
cut like stew meat
1 can size homemade
condensed cream of mush-
room soup
1 cup cabernet wine
1 tablespoon beef bouil-
lon granules
3 cloves garlic minced
1 ½ teaspoons oregano
1 ½ teaspoons basil
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 large onion chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mush-
rooms
5-7 potatoes, peeled and
quartered
4 or so carrots cut to bite
size chunks
1 bay leaf
⅓ cup cabernet
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Heat slow cooker on
high and put in liner.
Combine condensed
soup, 1 cup cabernet, beef
bouillon, garlic, oregano,
basil, hot sauce, onion and
mushrooms in crockpot.
Add venison, potatoes,
carrots and bay leaf. Cook
on high 5-6 hours.
Before serving mix ⅓
cup cabernet and corn-
starch together. Stir into
sauce till thickens. Serve
with nice warm garlic
bread or rolls.
As you can probably tell
from these recipes I love
mushrooms any way I can
get them. If you don’t you
could leave the big ones
out but iIcan’t imagine
wanting to do that. Either
way, enjoy the season and
the recipes.
feed a success
BY CHUCK BUCHANAN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
The 2016 Durkee Steak Feed, held August 27th, 2016
at the Quail Ridge Golf Course in Baker City was a great
success.
The Steak Feed is organized and presented by the
Durkee Community Corp, a non-profit group that uses
the funds raised by the Steak Feed to maintain the Durkee
Community Hall. As in the past, the Steak Feed was held
in conjunction with the Baker City Memory Cruise car
show, and many of the classic cars, trucks and hotrods
were parked on the fairway at Quail Ridge for Steak Feed
attendees to admire and drool over. A new event on Steak
Feed day this year was the Baker City Open golf tourna-
ment. Both events contributed to the number of hungry
diners. According to Cheryl Buchanan, Steak Feed
Chairman for the Durkee Community Corp, six hundred
fifty two, 14-ounce Certified Angus Beef rib steaks were
served to those diners, an increase of one hundred eighty
over last year, as well as a large number of hot dog plates
for those with a smaller appetite.
For the past several years, the steaks for the Steak Feed
have come from Baker County Custom Meats, and this
year was no exception. Though Certified Angus Beef
costs a bit more, it was decided that, in the interest of
serving the public the best possible steak, it would be
worth the extra dollars. That decision turned out to be
a wise one. This reporter heard many good comments
about the steaks from the diners, who also were able to
fill up on fresh corn on the cob, baked potatoes, fresh cut
vegetables and the traditional cowboy pan bread prepared
by the Kirby family with help from many of the citizens
of the Durkee Valley.
The Durkee Steak Feed is a long-standing tradition
in Baker County. It originated in the 1940’s as a thank
you dinner for the haying crews that traveled the county
putting up hay for the local ranchers. Later, as ranches
acquired equipment and began putting up their own hay it
evolved into a fund-raiser for the Durkee Grange and was
held in Hindman Meadow on the banks of Burnt River.
For years, busloads of diners would travel from Ontario
and other distant towns to partake of good homestyle food
and a down-home atmosphere. Still later, as the economy
slowed, the Steak Feed was moved up to the Community
Hall were numbers continued to dwindle.
New life was breathed into the Steak Feed when it
moved to Baker City and was held alongside air shows at
the Baker Airport for several years. When the air shows
ceased, the organizers of the Memory Cruise approached
the Community Corp about holding the Steak Feed on the
same day as the car show but moving it to the golf course,
where it has been ever since.
Safe Communities Coalition meets
CONTINUED FROM
PAGE 1
Dennis said a youth
coalition is in the works
also to get high schoolers
involved in fixing prob-
lems not just leaving it all
up to adults.
Dennis said, “We want to
do more and see this com-
munity improve. That’s
why we did this tonight so
people could learn about
what this Coalition is and
does.”
Members of the Coali-
tion were on hand to speak
of their roles.
First to address the
group was Lynette Perry.
She spoke of her involve-
ment stating, “My true pas-
sion is community involve-
ment and volunteering. I
have a strong belief that
good old-fashioned values
and community events that
reflect those values solidify
a community.”
Perry has been involved
for years with events
such as the annual Kiddie
Parade and the Easter egg
hunt, which she thinks she
is into her “third or fourth
generation of kids.”
She spoke to the impact
of “seeing some of those
little ones out there and
you know there are no
parents with them, they’ve
managed to get there on
their own somehow and
you know they probably
don’t have a meal at lunch-
time but they’ve got their
stuff from their egg hunt. It
just does your heart good
to see that some of these
events can make an impact
on kids and they remember
it for years to come.”
Perry stressed the desire
to grow the coalition to
involve more to help with
events involving our youth
‘To keep those old-fash-
ioned values alive. We’re
old-fashioned town. We
have good strong moral be-
liefs and sharing that with
the rest of our community
is key.”
Speaking next was
Brandy Dougherty, Mental
Health Promotion and Pre-
vention Coordinator with
New Directions Northwest.
She addressed the group
advising that she mostly
deals with bullying and
suicide prevention within
the schools.
She did note other
groups, like the Baker
County Juvenile Depart-
ment and Mayday were
also involved in bullying
prevention.
Dougherty told the group
that she had a QPR (Ques-
tion, persuade and refer)
Gatekeeper training for
suicide prevention being
held this Saturday.
A gatekeeper can be a
parent, friend, doctor, case-
worker, just about anyone.
She stressed the impor-
tance members of the com-
munity could gain from
this hour and a half train-
ing from 10-11:30 a.m.
Any community member
is welcome but space is
limited. You can register
by calling 541.519.0525.
Ray Day, Youth Account-
ability Officer with Baker
County Juvenile Depart-
ment spoke to the group
about a program he is
involved in called Rewards
and Reminders tobacco
compliance checks.
This program enlists
teens to attempt to pur-
chase tobacco in various
locations around town.
If the clerk requires ID
and refuses to sell the
minor tobacco they are re-
warded often with a small
donated gift certificate to a
local business.
If the clerk fails to check
ID and is willing to sell
the item to the minor, the
decoy quietly slips them a
note telling them they were
about to sell to a minor and
reminding them to check
ID then leaves without the
item or drawing attention
to the situation.
According to Day there
are no punitive repercus-
sions unless after being
reminded on several
occasions the violations
continue local law enforce-
ment may be notified.
Dennis wrapped up the
meeting letting the group
know that he had provided
membership forms for
those interested in joining
and stated that the Coali-
tion meets the 3rd Tuesday
of every month at The
Little Bagel Shop located
at 1780 Main Street at 9
a.m. “I am very strict on
staying at one hour,” Den-
nis stated.
He went on to explain
that the members of the
Coalition, whether con-
cerned citizens, businesses,
or employed community
improvement persons,
everyone benefited from
the round table discussions
on matters of concern.
He cited instances where
two or more entities were
working toward a solution
to a problem but not get-
ting a beneficial result but
once those entities began
working with the coalition,
joining resources toward a
common goal that problem
was more successfully
resolved.
He said, “By work-
ing together that goal is
far more likely to be met
fully because of working
together. That is really
what a coalition is about.
It’s not about just doing
what the Coalition says but
its joining your resources
to get what you want
accomplished better and
more thoroughly. We’re a
small town, our resources
are limited and for us to
be spread out as much as
we are just doesn’t make
sense. Especially when we
could all come together
and do it better.”
If interested in learn-
ing more about or join-
ing the Coalition contact
Rob Dennis at rdennis@
ndninc.org or by calling
541.519.2379.
Rail Fire transitions back to local forests
The immediate suppres-
sion and repair work asso-
ciated with containing the
41,716-acre Rail Fire have
reached 90% completion.
As the risk of the fire
escaping, the variety of
firefighting tasks, and
the number of crews
and equipment that are
needed has gone down, the
management of the Rail
Fire can transition back
to the local units of the
Wallowa-Whitman and
Malheur National Forests.
This formally occurred on
Thursday, September 8 at
6:00 a.m.
Today several hundred
firefighters and equipment
resources are being demo-
bilized to return to their
home units for rest and
new assignments. Work
continues by approxi-
mately 100 firefighters and
equipment operators on
the fire area today. They
continue disposing of slash
created by the firefighting
effort, repairing roads, and
making fireline surfaces
less prone to future ero-
sion.
Although some smoke
will continue to rise from
the interior of the Rail Fire
area and the weather will
warm to 80 degrees this
weekend, the risk of future
escape is low.
Rail Fire information
will continue to be avail-
able from the National
Forest offices and Inciweb,
as changes occur.
The area immedi-
ately around the Rail Fire
remains closed due to
firefighters working, inte-
rior heat, weakened trees
and damaged roads. Forest
Road 16 remains closed
south and east of the fire
area.
Forest Road 2652 is
closed between 2640 and
FR13. As fire traffic in
the area subsides, some of
these roads will reopen.
Please check local For-
est Service websites and
offices for current Closure
information.
There is also a current
Road and Area Closure
map at http://inciweb.
nwcg.gov/incident/4914
It has been a pleasure
working with the local
firefighters, overhead
resources and communities
to complete suppression of
the Rail Fire. Brian Gales,
Incident Commander of
NW IMT #13 noted, “We
appreciate the hospitality
of the students and faculty
of the Burnt River School
who hosted our Incident
Command Post through
the summer and start of
classes. Thank you all.”
At present, 460 personnel
are on the fire, as well as
13 Crews, nine engines,
one dozer, and 10 Water
tenders. Aircraft include
two Type 1 heavy helicop-
ters and one Type 3 light
helicopter.
The cause of the fire is
still unknown and under
investigation.