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Features
Recipes add flavor to the holiday season
■ A very B reyne -C artwright
Staff Reporter
To spice up the holiday
season, students and their
families were asked to submit
their special recipes or
cooking tips, and a few were
chosen to be shared.
Submitted by Kathleen
Skoczylas, freshman:
Tips to improve recipes
1. Make chocolate chip
cookies in cupcake wrappers
in a cupcake tin. Get bakers
size Hershey's milk chocolate
and melt. One bar should
cover 10-12 cookies. They're
delicious!
2. Make white cake, but
separate the batter into three
containers. Use food coloring
to make one red, one green,
and leave the other white.
Drop dots of each into your
cake pan until it is full. Then
take a knife and swirl the
batter into a festive marbled
look.
3. Make plain sugar cookies
and decorate them. I suggest
white chocolate as icing
because you can dye it any
color you want, and a little
bit goes much farther than
frosting when it comes to the
taste.
Submitted by the Wood
family:
Night Before Christmas
Mice
Makes 3 dozen
3 /4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine,
softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
legg
2 1 / 4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
*Semisweet chocolate
minichips
*Red or Black string licorice,
cut into 2-inch pieces
vanilla and egg; blend well.
Stir flour, cocoa and baking
powder into the sugar-butter
mixture. (When measuring
flour, lightly spoon into
measuring cup and level off.)
Mix well.
Shape dough into 1-inch
balls. To form a mouse, pinch
one end of the ball to form
a nose. Make two tiny balls
of dough and flatten slightly
for ears. Gently press into
dough on upper front of each
mouse. Press two chocolate
minichips into dough below
ears, for eyes. Place the
mouse figures two inches
apart on ungreased cookie
sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes
or until set. While dough
is still soft, press a piece of
licorice (I use the thin red
kind) into each mouse for a
tail. Remove and cool on wax
paper.
(From "Old Fashioned
Christmas Favorites" by
Vickie Flutchins and Jo Ann
Martin.)
Staff Reporter
Job losses, bad credit and
inflation may contribute to
Grinch-like attitudes this
holiday season. Retailers will
be facing a lower revenue
stream because of the current
financial crisis even though
Black Friday sales figures
were noticeably better than
the past few years.
For students-it may
mean no Xbox 360s, iPods
or laptops wrapped
in bright cheerful
paper this year.
The economic
downfall
has been
staggering
for months
now and
most
retailers—
large and
small—are
hoping for the
holiday sales to
save businesses
by bringing in
customers and income.
"Sales are really down and
most people are shopping in
the clearance section," Serena
Paape, senior, said.
This year may turn out not
to be a winter wonderland
because of thé depressing
economic state. In November,
retail sales fell 1.2%, which
is the worst decline in three
years and according to CNBC
the number one cause of this
downturn is unemployment.
However, state economists
think Oregon's generally
strong economy that has
held up through the past few
stock market declines should
continue through December.
September through
December is when retail
hiring traditionally peaks and
Oregon could add as many
as 12,000 jobs in seasonal
holiday hiring-a 4.4%
increase from
iuk
WÊÊÊBÊm
SNliRI
According
to Yahoo! News
the growth in holiday hiring
is evaluated by looking
at different retail sectors,
including food and beverage,
department and clothing
stores. Other industries
that tend to hire during
the holiday season include
Makes 10 to 12 servings
1 pound brie, well-chilled
1 /2 cup pesto sauce
4 to 8 green onions, use
about half of the green tops
1 /2 cup chopped sun-dried
tomatoes packed in oil
1 /2 cup chopped pecans -
optional
Scrape the outer white rind
off the brie. Cut the brie in
half horizontally and place,
cut sides up, in a heatproof
serving dish. It is not
Staff Reporter
Christmas tree farms, the
U.S. Post Office; couriers and
messengers and winter sports
areas.
"I was hired as a seasonal
worker and I think it's
important because when
you receive a gift, you can
understand how much
it's worth and how hard
someone had to work. I
worked 29 hours this past
week and even though it
takes up a lot of my time—it
keeps me busy and it's good
time management," Sara
Sebastian, senior, said of
her job at Dosha Salon in
Bridgeport Village.
Sebastian started
in November and
added that business
has really picked up
because of special
discounts and the
holiday season.
A trend that has
become increasingly
more popular in the last
few years with the times
of need is families choosing
to focus more on helping
others more unfortunate than
them during this holiday
season and donating items to
those in need.
"I donated a bunch of
clothes to a group of refugees
from Bhutan. I felt a need to
donate because they didn't
have anything and I had
some old clothes to get out
of the way," Anik Shrestha,
junior, said.
NOTE: You need to remove
the rind because the cheese
melts more easily and
doesn't leave white flecks in
the mixture.
Season of sickness
spreads; prevention
procedure provided
L ex ! W elp
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Beat sugar, butter and
shortening until fluffy. Add
Happy holidays not so merry
with increasing financial woes
T amra S chelot
Brie Decadence
necessary for the brie to fit
neatly in the dish — just
pile it in! Top with the pesto,
green onions, sun-dried
tomatoes and pecans if using.
Bake uncovered at 350
degrees until the cheese
starts to melt and gets soft
enough to spread, about 15
to 20 minutes. Serve hot with
sliced sourdough French
bread.
It's that time of the year
again—runny noses and
hacking fits are a common
distraction. Teachers pull
out the tissues and class
sizes become smaller and
smaller. How to avoid the
aching joints, headaches,
stuffy sinuses and annoying
coughs? Taking the right
precautions and being aware
of how viruses are spread
may help you avoid the
all too common flu.
"The flu is spread
by direct touch; like
shaking hands
with someone
who has the
flu
and
/
then
touching f
your
own mouth,
nose or
eye," Dr. John Steeh, Doctor
of Osteopathy, said.
The flu is commonly
spread through breathing
in the virus where someone
has recently coughed or
sneezed. Above all, it is very
important to wash hands
often, especially during the
height of the flu season,
(November and December).
It is also a good idea to
receive a flu shot to prevent
contracting the illness.
"You can get a flu shot for
around $20, but a lot of places
will do it for less," LaVonne
Leighton, retired nurse, said.
Flu shots were also available
in early November at WLHS,
and at many pharmacies
around West Linn.
"If people would get them
and take other protective
measures during the flu
season this would really help
with prevention," Leighton
said.
There are other ways
to stay healthy during flu
season without actually
receiving a flu shot though.
To maintain a healthy
lifestyle and to avoid illness,
it is important to sleep at
least eight
hours each
night and
to eat a
balanced
/
diet
including
a minimum
of three
meals a day.
Following a
daily schedule
like this will help
the body stay alert and
healthy according to the
medical community.
"Taking steps to prevent
the flu is going to be a lot
cheaper than treating the
flu, guaranteed," Leighton
said. "So even if you
don't have insurance it is
important to find a place
that gives people shots at a
discount or for free." Most
commonly if not treated, the
flu will develop into a case
of pneumonia; this usually
accrues in patients with
weaker immune systems
according to Leighton.
"The worst case of the flu I
ever saw was an elderly man
who got the flu which made
him very weak and then he
ended up with a pneumonia.
He had to go to the Intensive
Care Unit and needed a tube
and a machine to breathe for
him for several days," Steeh
said. While it may seem like
these types of situations are
uncommon, they can occur
if the immune system isn't
taken care of.
"The most important thing
to remember is to wash your
hands, sleep, and take care of
yourself," Leighton said. "If
you do that, you're going to
be just fine."