Page 4C
EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Saturday, December 16, 2017
CHURCH: Will look for property on which to build a smaller building
Continued from 1C
Getting to the place of
acceptance took months of
soul searching. Over the past
couple of years, Lisa Pierce,
the pastor’s wife, took on the
mission of finding a way to
save the building.
“Lisa went from one end
of the church to the other and
brought in her son who is a
contractor from Arkansas,”
Pierce said. “She talked
to plumbers, electricians,
roofers and an architect.”
Lisa approached two tele-
vision shows specializing in
rehab (“Holmes on Homes”
and “Rehab Addict”) and
gave a tour to a Restore
Oregon representative. None
helped.
“This place has such a
good spirit,” Lisa said. “I fell
in love with the people here.”
Her son, Nick, did repairs
around the church and Lisa
said she started to have hope
that the church could be
saved. She remembers the
day she lost that hope. Nick,
his voice full of dismay, called
his mother into the sanctuary.
He pointed to the wall directly
behind the organ.
“Water was coming
through the wall,” she
recalled. “It glistened on the
wall behind the organ.”
Moisture had infiltrated
through a leaky roof and into
the main walls of the sanc-
tuary. It would cost around
$100,000 to fix the damage.
The church launched
a professional assessment
of the building to get a
clearer picture of what it
was up against. The picture
wasn’t pretty. Addressing
the most pressing problems
(wall damage, mold, leaky
foundations and such) would
cost $300,000 — money the
church just doesn’t have.
Church members slowly
came around to the reality
that the building couldn’t be
saved.
“It’s just a thing, but
it’s such a beautiful thing,”
Remington said. “We try to
remember that the church
is not the building, it’s the
people in it.”
That doesn’t mean they
aren’t heartbroken.
“It’s such a classic
old structure,” said Dave
Remington,
Wanda’s
husband. “It’s really part of
the identity of Pendleton.”
Church member Harold
Nelson has a special relation-
ship with the building. He’s
the guy who oversees the
vintage boiler and the boiler
before that. In earlier days, he
said, the church was heated
with wood, then coal and then
oil. Nelson is also the guy
who changes the lightbulbs
in the sanctuary and does
anything mechanical.
“This church has been a
home for me for 48 years,”
Nelson said. “I’ve spent many
hours here looking after it.”
One of the church’s
missions is looking after
the poor. Each Sunday, the
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Talon Anderson helps decorate the Christmas tree at
the Pendleton United Methodist Church last Sunday
morning.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Harold Nelson, a member of the Pendleton United
Methodist Church, looks after the church’s boiler and
does other maintenance around the building.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Worshipers sing a hymn on a recent Sunday at the Pendleton United Methodist
Church.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
A stained glass window
in the chapel at the Pend-
leton United Methodist
Church glows on a recent
Sunday morning.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Rev. Jim Pierce preaches at the Pendleton United
Methodist Church. Pierce, a veterinarian-turned-pas-
tor from Tennessee, came to Pendleton four years ago.
The organ at the Pendleton United Methodist Church
will go to whoever buys the deteriorating building,
along with stained glass windows and stone.
church provides space for
Veda’s Breakfast, which
offers a meal to people who
are homeless or others who
can’t afford a meal. When
the congregation leaves, the
breakfast will need another
location.
Louise Thompson grew up
in the old church, which had
hundreds rather than dozens
of members in past decades.
On Christmas, there were two
services.
“It was one of the strongest
churches in the community,”
Thompson said. “It was a
wonderful place. It was an
amazing time.”
The congregation decided
to sell the church in a package
with two houses on the
property and a parking lot for
$410,000. Pierce expects the
property on which to build a
smaller building. Pierce said
other churches have offered
space in the interim for
members to gather.
One thing is certain, they
say: The church will stay
together. Most of the parish-
ioners go out to breakfast
together at The Saddle after
each week’s service.
“We do a lot of laughing,”
buyer to salvage the stained
glass, organ and other items
and sell the two other build-
ings (one houses Legal Aid
Services of Oregon and the
other is the former parsonage)
and the parking lot.
“It’s a steal,” Pierce said,
adding that he’s already had
inquiries.
Once the church sells, the
congregation will look for
Chocolate peppermint cookies are a holiday treat
By SARA MOULTON
Associated Press
If, like me, you’re a fan of
dark chocolate peppermint bark
at Christmastime, you’re going to
love these cookies. Your friends
and family will, too. But you’ll
have to plan ahead because the
batter is so soft it needs to chill
overnight before scooping.
The main ingredient here
is 1 ½ pounds of chocolate,
which guarantees an intensely
chocolate-y flavor. The cookie’s
base is made of a combination
of unsweetened and bittersweet
chocolate. Afterward, additional
chunks of the bittersweet choc-
olate — along with the crushed
mint candy — are folded in.
The key to this recipe’s success
is good quality bittersweet
chocolate — that is, a brand
that contains at least 60 percent
cacao. The higher the percentage
of cacao in a chocolate bar, the
darker and more intense the
flavor. That’s why we’re adding
chunks of chocolate instead of
chocolate chips — bittersweet bar
chocolate contains much more
cacao than most chips.
Chopping the chocolate will
take a little time. I recommend
using a serrated knife for the job.
As for crushing the peppermint
candies, the best way is to put
them in a re-sealable plastic bag
and then gently whack away at
the bag with a rolling pin. The
easiest way to portion out the
batter is with a 1-ounce ice-cream
Sara Moulton via AP
Chocolate peppermint cookies.
scoop rather than a spoon — and
it’ll make the size of the cookies
more consistent, too; just dip it in
hot water between each scoop.
I suggest baking a single tray
of cookies at a time because
the cookies don’t cook evenly
when there’s more than one tray.
Finally, be careful not to overcook
them. The cookies should be soft
to the touch when you pull them
out of the oven. That way they’ll
remain nice and gooey.
As you might imagine, these
cookies are delicious year-round.
If you decide to make them
during a season when peppermint
candies are scarce, just leave
them out and add 1 ½ tablespoons
of powdered espresso. You will
end up with outstanding mocha
cookies.
———
Sara Moulton is host of public
television’s “Sara’s Weeknight
Meals.” She was executive chef at
Gourmet magazine for nearly 25
years and spent a decade hosting
several Food Network shows,
including “Cooking Live.” Her
latest cookbook is “HomeCooking
101.”
Chocolate peppermint
cookies
Start to finish: 1 hour and
45 minutes, plus 8 hours chilling
time
Servings: Makes about 3
dozen cookies
• 1 pound bittersweet
chocolate
• 4 ounces unsweetened
chocolate
• 8 tablespoons unsalted
butter, cut into tablespoons
• 4 large eggs, at room
temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 60 grams (about ½ cup)
all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup hard red-and-white
peppermint candies
Coarsely chop one-half of
the bittersweet chocolate and all
of the unsweetened chocolate.
In a medium metal bowl
combine the coarsely chopped
chocolates and the butter; set the
bowl over a saucepan of barely
simmering water, making sure
the bottom of the bowl is not
touching the water, and melt the
mixture, stirring often. Remove
from the heat as soon as all of
the chocolate is just melted.
Meanwhile, in a medium
bowl with electric beaters (or
in a stand mixer), beat the eggs
and sugar on medium speed
until the mixture is very thick
and pale, about 10 minutes.
said Virginia Conrad. “But
behind the laughing is a lot of
emotion.”
Pierce, following the lead
of his congregation, stays
upbeat and focused on the
positive, even when talking
about moving from the
beloved church.
“We’re going to have the
mother of all yard sales,”
Pierce said.
Beat in the vanilla. In a small
bowl sift together the flour,
baking powder and salt.
Chop the remaining bitter-
sweet chocolate into choco-
late-chip size pieces. Chop or
crush the peppermint candies
into ¼- to ⅓-inch pieces.
Fold the melted chocolate
mixture into the egg mixture
using a large rubber spatula.
Add the flour mixture and fold
it in until it is just incorporated.
Add the chip-size bittersweet
chocolate and the peppermint
pieces and stir gently, just until
incorporated. Cover and chill
the mixture overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350
F. Line 3 large baking sheets
with parchment paper, scoop
out the batter into balls about
1 ½-inches wide (the size of a
walnut shell) and arrange them
on the baking sheets, leaving
an inch of space between them.
Working with one sheet pan at
a time, bake the cookies on the
middle shelf of the oven for 9
to 11 minutes, until they are
shiny on top and set around the
edges but still soft to the touch
on top. Let them sit on the sheet
pans for 5 minutes and then
transfer them to a rack to cool
completely.
Nutrition information per
serving: 164 calories; 90
calories from fat; 10 g fat (6 g
saturated; 0 g trans fats); 31 mg
cholesterol; 32 mg sodium; 20
g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 14 g
sugar; 3 g protein.