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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2003)
Page 2 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, August 13, 2003 Although I enjoy a certain amount of limited cooking, I’ve never been asked to wear a chef’s hat. It’s not that I’m totally a kitchen klutz. My chili concoction and my version of machaca have brought rave reviews. Or was it that after eating the stuff the eaters just started raving? Anyway, the first time I remember cooking was at a primitive Boy Sprout camp in eastern San Diego County. I was assigned to cook dinner one night. The entrée was fish, not sure what kind. Didn’t matter. When I got through cooking the heck out of it, every- one thought we were having large, misshaped potato chips for dinner. I was not assigned another meal. Another time, in Escondido, I decided to make bread pudding and surprise Jan. I took the messy mass of bread odds and ends we’d been saving, whipped up a batch of “bread pudding” with other ingredients and plopped the thing in the oven. When it was done we had enough bread pudding for maybe a battalion or two. When it was cool enough to eat, I proudly served it to Jan and the kids. They took first bites and then looked at each other. Oddly. Then at me. Also oddly. Jan said, “Did you put sugar in this?” And I had to admit that for some unknown reason I had forgotten sugar. Jan definitely was surprised. But not much. Tried all sorts of after-the-fact remedies, including honey. All to no avail. Ended up dumping my won- derful dessert into the garbage grinder. Haven’t had the heart to try that dish again. Sometimes I take directions too literally. When I worked in a cafeteria, the manager handed me a small salad to go and told me, “Plop a blob of salad dressing on this.” I took the salad to the 5-gallon bucket of dressing and, using a large ladle, deposited a huge glunk of dressing atop the salad. When the manager saw what I had done, he didn’t know whether to flip or go blind. He grabbed the salad from me, turned his back to the customer, and scraped off most of the dressing. Later he laughed about it. Sort of. And he never let me forget my culinary faux pas. And speaking of food, I was a judge for chili cook-offs in Brookings. Had some fun and some good chili. Except for one dish that I’m telling you tasted like the guy had put bleach, cat spit and gasoline in it. I mean, it was vile. He didn’t win, but he was so drunk that I’m not sure he knew it. Last Saturday I was privileged to be a judge for the Blackberry Festival cooking contest. So I got to sample several blackberry items: coffee cake, pie and cheese cake. Because of my diet I took extremely tiny bites. (Right - now I’ll sell you the $8 green bridge.) Here are a few food phrases you can use. *Say this to a waiter who brings stale rolls: Ex- cuse me, but this is not well bred. *Use this for a cup of bad coffee: Pardon me, but this provides grounds for a complaint. *And finally, here’s one for when you get a fine meal: Wow, what foods these morsels be. Now excuse me, I’m going to make one of my current specialties: Toast. Did you find it? The first person to bring the ‘hidden’ slice of pie in this issue to the ‘I.V. News’ office will receive one free piece of pie at Stevereno’s Family Restaurant & Lounge. Illinois Valley News An Independent Weekly Newspaper Co-owned and published by Robert R. (Bob) and Jan Rodriguez Bob Rodriguez, Editor El Jefe Entered as second class matter June 11, 1937 at Post Office as Official Newspaper for Josephine County and Josephine County Three Rivers School District, published at 321 S. Redwood Hwy., Cave Junction, OR 97523 Periodicals postage paid at Cave Junction, OR 97523 Post Office Box 1370 USPS 258-820 Telephone (541) 592-2541, FAX (541) 592-4330 Volume 66, No. 21 Staff: Cindy Newton, Britt Fairchild, Chris Robertson, Steve Fairchild & Becky Loudon Member: Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association DEADLINES: News, Classified & Display Ads, Announcements & Letters 3 P.M. FRIDAY (Classified ads & uncomplicated display ads can be accepted until Noon, Monday with an additional charge.) POLICY ON LETTERS: ‘Illinois Valley News’ welcomes letters to the editor provided they are of general interest, in good taste, legible and not libelous. All letters must be signed, using complete name, and contain the writer’s address and telephone number. The latter need not be published, but will be used to verify authenticity. The ‘News’ reserves the right to edit letters. One letter per person per month. Letters are used at the discretion of the publisher. Unpublished letters are neither acknowledged nor returned. A prepaid charge may be levied if a letter is inordinately long in the editor's opinion. SUBSCRIPTION RATES One year in Josephine County - $20.80 One year in Jackson and Douglas Counties - $24.40 One year in all other Oregon counties and out-of-state - $28 POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to P.O. Box 1370, Cave Junction, OR. 97523 (Editor’s Note: Views and commentary ex- pressed in letters to the editor are strictly those of the letter-writers. * * * Typed, double-spaced letters are acceptable for c o ns id e ra t ion . Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and highly legible also can be considered for publi- cation. Cards of thanks are not accepted as let- ters.) * * * ‘Roadless areas’ From Jim Nolan Cave Junction Many of the Illinois Valley residents may not be aware that one of the major reasons for letting the Biscuit Fire burn for several days was that much of the burn area was in- cluded in the disputed In- ventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs). These IRA designa- tions are essentially de- facto wildernesses man- aged by the USFS under the same guidelines as congressionally designated wilderness areas. In other words: “Let it burn.” Because of the USFS’s lack of understanding or willingness to respond to the fire as they should have, we damn near lost the whole valley. These so-called IRA’s are really not roadless. For years now, the Siskiyou National Forest has been systematically decommis- sioning roads in the sup- posed roadless areas for many varied reasons, such as the prevent of the spread of Port Orford root fungus, noxious weeds and inva- sive species control. The environmental groups, such as the Siski- you Project, have been steering the USFS toward road closures in favor of other means of controlling the fungus and weed growth, because it serves two purposes: To reduce, in a small but ineffective way the spread of these maladies, but more impor- tant, to put pressure on the USFS to close the roads and de-inventory them. Why are road closures so important to the Siski- you Project and the USFS? Because Congress cannot declare an area as “wilderness” until there are no roads or the roads that are there have been re- moved or decommis- sioned. It has become apparent to many that the “Clintonites” are still run- ning the USFS. The USFS support of the IRAs is evi- dence that it plans to con- vert nearly 58.5-million acres nationwide of forest lands to wilderness. How- ever, there is still some hope that this disastrous plan can be defeated. On July 14, the state of Wyoming and the U.S. District Court agreed that the USFS is using the IRA designations as a club to illegally expand the wil- derness areas across the American Continent. The judge states very clearly how the Dept. of Agriculture (USFS) has overstepped its bounds and mandate. It is a relief to me to know that there are peo- ple in high places that un- derstand what is at stake when rogue agencies try to assert their power in areas where they have no author- ity. (Continued on page 3) Desire to learn leads to fine art The Illinois Valley Fine Artists, Inc. an- nounced Leslie J. Blanche as Featured Artist for Au- gust and September. A Selma resident for the past two years, Blanche joined the artists soon after moving to the area. Blanche was born in San Diego, Calif. And has ex- perience in computer-aided drafting. For 14 years Blanche and her husband, Don, traveled on the water in a trawler. They had the op- portunity to travel the East Coast seeing Maryland, and spending several years in Florida and several years in the Bahamas. They have family on the West Coast and settled in Illinois Valley. The artist’s desire to learn how to paint pictures led her to pursue like- minded individuals in the community and she dis- covered Illinois Valley Fine Artists group in Sep- tember 2002 and says, “I came to the club one day with no experience, and with the exceptional guid- ance from the accom- plished artists in our group, Leslie J. Blanche I have gained so much confidence and am having a great time.” She now paints with the group on Mondays, when not horseback riding with her mom and friends, and prefers painting with acrylics. Blanche is displaying her paintings in the First Klamath Bank in Cave Junction through Septem- ber. The art group wel- comes anyone to come and watch the artists at their various activities. There are a wide variety of indi- vidual projects being worked on at their Monday workshops in the RCC Belt Bldg. in Kerby. New members are always wel- come and refreshments are available. For more infor- mation, phone Cassandra at 592-3949. at the Illinois Valley Lions Club Labor Day Festival Saturday, Aug. 30 - 10 a.m. Jubilee Park, Cave Junction CASH AWARDS! 1st Place Team - $300 2nd Place Team $200 3rd Place Team - $100 Entrance Fee: $10 per person Must be submitted by Saturday, Aug 30 Mail to: Wayne Whitfield, P.O. Box 183 O’Brien, OR 97534 (541) 596-2719 2003