FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5 Local Christmasy recipes for you PD has an 3 large Golden Delicious apples peeled,cored, and finely chopped 12 slices firm white bread cut into 1/2 “ pieces (about 8 cups) ½ cup apple juice 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning 1 large egg Homemade Goodness ¼ cup apple brandy By Eileen Driver 3 tablespoons flour I’ve always been a 1 can (14.5 oz) chicken stickler for tradition. broth Turkey for Thanksgiving Preheat oven to 325 de- and Christmas, Ham for grees. Rub pork inside and Easter, Corned Beef for St. out with 1 teaspoon salt Patrick’s Day, etc. When and ¼ teaspoon pepper. others wanted to change Place pork, rib ends the traditional holiday down, in a large roasting meals I have always been pan. Roast pork 1 hour. the one to object. Meanwhile, in 5-quart This past year has dutch oven, melt butter brought a lot of changes over medium heat. Add to my life and I may have celery and onion and cook, got my seasonal clock stirring often, about 10 messed up some, but I minutes. have been doing a lot of Add apples and cook 6 “spring cleaning” and that to 8 minutes longer, until included going through all tender. Remove from heat, my cookbooks. I have a lot stir in bread, apple juice, of cookbooks! poultry seasoning, egg, 1 So to make a long story teaspoon salt and ¼ tea- short, the perusal of all spoon pepper. these many, many, many When pork has roasted recipes has got me wanting for an hour, remove from to blow tradition out of the oven and turn rib ends up. water and make a totally Spoon 4 cups of stuffing different Christmas Dinner. into roast cavity. (Place So here goes! remaining in greased 1 Pork Crown Roast with ½ quart casserole, bake, Apple Stuffing uncovered, during last 30 1 (7 lb.) pork rib crown minutes). roast, well trimmed Return pork to oven and 2 ¼ teaspoons salt continue roasting about ½ plus ⅛ teaspoon pep- 1 hour longer, until meat per thermometer inserted be- 6 tablespoons butter tween two ribs into thick- 4 medium stalks celery est part of meat registers finely chopped 155 degrees. If stuffing 1 large onion finely browns too quickly, cover chopped loosely with foil. Remove from oven, transfer to platter and let stand 15 minutes to rise in temperature to 160 degrees and to set juices. Meanwhile prepare gravy. Pour pan drippings into medium bowl, set pan aside. Let Stand until fat separates from juices. Spoon 3 tablespoons fat from drippings, ( add melted butter if necessary to get 3 tablespoons) into 2 quart sauce pan. Add apple brandy to roasting pan and stir around until brown bits are loosened. Add to pork juices in bowl. Into fat in saucepan, stir flour, remaining salt and pepper; cook over medium heat, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually stir in meat juices and chicken broth, cook, stirring until boils and thickens. Yum! My mouth is water just thinking about it. I just can’t give up my mashed potatoes, since I love them so much, So I will just have to change them up a bit. Mashed Root Veg- etables 2 pounds assorted root vegetables ( carrots, celery root, parsnips, white turnips and/or rutabaga), peeled, and cut into 1 inch pieces. (5 cups) 1 pound all purpose potatoes prepared as above (3 cups) 2 ½ teaspoons salt 3 tablespoons butter ¼ teaspoon pepper Pinch nutmeg In 5-6 quart saucepan combine root vegetables, potatoes, 2 teaspoons salt and enough water to cover: heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook 15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Return vegetables to pan; add butter, pepper and ½ teaspoon salt. Mash with potato masher until smooth. Spoon mixture into 1 ½ quart casserole, cool slightly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover casserole and bake 30 minutes, or heated through. Sprinkle with nutmeg. To shake things up even more it’s out with the green bean casserole, which I love but my husband does not, and in with the aspara- gus. This recipe makes the perfect asparagus, in my opinion, warm and soft (but not mushy) and full of flavor. Roasted Garlic Parme- san Asparagus 2 bunches fresh asparagus 10 garlic cloves minced 6 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese Bend asparagus gently until it snaps, discard end pieces. Place asparagus spears onto cookie sheet or roast- ing pan. Sprinkle with olive oil, garlic and salt & pepper. Toss around to coat. Line up asparagus in single layer, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked to your liking. Serve at once. I am looking forward to cooking some new and exciting dishes this year. I also most sincerely want to Wish Everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a New Year full of Joy and Happiness. Spay and neuter stats released Mollie Atwater and Friends Spay/Neuter Fund is in its 12th year of operation and is under the non-profit umbrella of Baker County. It continues to work with the commu- nity to reduce the number of unwanted and homeless cats and dogs in Baker County and North Powder by assisting folks with spay/neuter surgery costs and providing information on the benefits of spaying/ neutering one’s animals. As of December 5, 2017 the Fund has helped 2502 animals: 1,934 cats and 568 dogs. The table below shows the numbers helped by town. Spaying and neuter- ing feral cats and our pets makes a huge difference in the health and well-being of our community and our animals. Both males and females contribute to unwanted puppies and kit- tens being born. There- fore, if these animals had Submitted Photo. Mollie Atwater and Friends recently released the above numbers. not been spayed/neutered and each had contributed to a litter of 6 puppies or kittens, then a minimum of 15,012 animals would have needed homes over the last 12 years. This would have been a large burden on our community. The monies raised for this program are spent locally, enhancing the social and economic well-being of the County. Currently we have 21 animals on our waiting list. People want- ing to contribute to the local effort can send their tax-deductible donation to: Mollie Atwater and Friends Spay/Neuter Fund, P.O. Box 402, Baker City, OR 97814. Man arrested for assault On December 2, 2017 the Department of Human Services-Child Welfare received a report from staff at Saint Luke's Medical Fa- cility involving a juvenile with suspicious injuries. A DHS caseworker reported this information to Baker County Dispatch. A Baker County Sheriff's Deputy responded to the juvenile's residence and spoke with the mother. Deputies then went to Halfway, Oregon to speak with the juvenile's father, Jeffery V. Apple (DOB 7/20/85). After speaking with Apple about injuries the juvenile had sustained, Deputies placed him under arrest. He was transported and lodged at the Baker County Jail. Apple was charged with Assault III and Criminal Mistreatment. Wolf plan draft now online A working copy of the revised Oregon Wolf Con- servation and Management Plan is now available on- line at http://bit.ly/2j1w4nt. This working copy shows the edits staff have made to the April 2017 Draft Wolf Plan as a result of comments from stake- holders, the public and commissioners. ODFW staff will brief the Fish and Wildlife Com- mission on this Working Copy of the Draft Wolf Plan at their Dec. 8 meet- ing in Salem. Angel Tree The Baker City Police Department is once again host- ing, in partnership with the Salvation Army, an Angel Tree decorated with Angel Tree gift tags located in the lobby of the Department (1768 Auburn Avenue). Angel Tree gift tags are special wished-for items given during the holiday season to children in need within our com- munity. In addition, donations of non-perishable canned/ boxed items for Christmas food baskets are also being accepted at the Police Department. If you would like to pick up an Angel Tree gift tag and purchase the wished-for gift for a local child, you can then return the unwrapped gift to the Police Department. Donations of non-perishable food item(s) for the local Christmas food baskets can also be dropped off at the Police Department. If you do wish to have an officer pick up any of these items, please call the department reception desk at (541) 524-2014. The lobby is open Monday thru Friday, from 8:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. The last day to turn in a gift is Thursday, December 14, 2017. Senate seat Kerry McQuisten / The Baker County Press ORP vice chair and chair, Chris Barreto and BIll Currier. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Then Chair Currier moved to the first order of business, which was establishing the rules for the convention. The only real point of contention was how many nominees out of the six candidates to move forward in the process— three or five. The delegation selected three in a vote of 47 to 40. Each of the six candidates spoke briefly about their backgrounds, then moved to the front table where ques- tions previously submitted by PCPs in writing were read from notecards. Each question had a maximum of two minutes allowed in response, and the total time limit established in the adopted rules meant that by 1:20 p.m., questions came to an end. (Credentialing, or verifying by I.D. the PCPs present, had begun at 10:15 a.m.) The differences in the candidates were vast—ranging from dentist Shirtcliff to Baker County Republican Chair and rancher Jones. Perry is a retired marketing manager for the Gillette corporation. Wattenburg is a radio talk show host and physician. Huston serves as a county com- missioner in Jefferson County. Bentz is currently seated as a State Representative. The candidates typically responded in agreement on questions ranging from right to life to health care; how- ever, Bentz remained the odd man out when it came to views on tax increases, particularly associated with the recently passed Transportation Bill. Bentz believes his bill, which has ushered in a broad range of new taxes and at least one lawsuit, was a com- promise with state liberals that will eventually save Or- egonians even deeper taxation. The other five candidates believed the bill was poorly written, unnecessary, and resulted in little benefit to those in their senate district. Bentz became quite heated at the microphone, caus- ing a murmur to roll through about half the audience. He stressed repeatedly what he felt were the benefits of hav- ing a politician with many years of experience in office in that senate seat, rather than a newbie who “didn’t even know where the bathroom was.” The other candidates stated a belief in term limits and the need for new blood in the legislature. The ballots were passed out, allowing up to three can- didates to be written down, with PCPs all highly aware they were representing the voters in their precincts— just under 15,000 voters were represented at the convention. PCP votes were weighted depending on the population of their precinct. PCPs who voted for only one candidate cast all of their votes for that person—those who voted for three split their representation among the three. By statute, a candidate must obtain 25% of the total representation in order to move forward. In the first bal- lot, Bentz and Jones both hit that mark. One PCP, a taxi driver, unfortunately had to leave before balloting, leav- ing only 86 ballots. A second ballot, on which only one candidate could be written, was then distributed to select the third nominee. Wattenburg was successful in that slot, with Perry secur- ing the alternate position should any of the three nomi- nees drop out. After the convention, the three names are submitted to commissioners in all SD30 counties. Each commissioner or member of the county court, depending on their struc- ture, has one vote to select the appointee.