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Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Desserts So Decadent They’re Worth Every Calorie
BOB’S
THOUGHTS
BOB BAUM
Those
frenetic
Phoenix
Suns
As the NBA playoffs in the Orlando
“bubble’’ move toward the conclusion, I
decided to write another column on pro
basketball.
I estimate I’ve covered at least 1,200
NBA games, certainly more than 1,000.
I ought to be able to get a few columns
out of that.
My earlier column focused on my 23
years with the Trail Blazers. This time
I’ll focus on my 20 years covering the
Phoenix Suns, specifi cally the frenetic
“Seven Seconds or Less’’ teams with
Mike D’Antoni as coach Steve Nash as
the on-court maestro.
It was a high-speed, highly enter-
taining style.
The Suns drafted Nash out of Santa
Clara with the No. 15 pick in 1996.
But two years later, with Phoenix deal-
ing with a crowd at point guard, he was
traded to Dallas, where he teamed with
his good friend Dirk Nowitzki.
See Hoops/Page 2B
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Refreshed
by cooler,
clearer air
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS
Blue Hill Buffet’s cheesecake.
(D IS )C OUNTING
T HOSE C ALORIES
By Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The weather is cooling down a lot.
The hot weather promised to us was
snuffed by smoke. Looks like it may be
a cool Indian summer. It would be nice
if we could order a nice soaking rain so
that the “Tree City” trees could better
last the winter. It’s really time to drag
the hose around to serve our yard trees
a long drink before winter arrives.
The roses are really into cooler
weather as they are now blooming. The
brisk mornings are certainly refresh-
ing. There’s nothing like fresh air to lift
your spirits!
The end of summer does not mean
fresh fruit abruptly stops. There are
still prune plums to consider.
See Plums/Page 2B
It’s so disappointing.
You go to a restaurant or a
friend’s house for dinner. All
meal long, you are anticipating g
the grand event, the crowning
glory — a superb dessert, rich
and sweet, the perfect ending to an
enchanting meal.
And then the dessert comes. And it’s,
you know, OK. Could be better. Mediocre
or not even that. Suddenly, the meal is no
longer quite as enchanting.
lly when you con-
It’s so disappointing, especially
dlessly consumed on
sider the calories that you needlessly
un of the mill. Inad-
a dessert that was ordinary. Run
equate.
Fortunately, you don’t have to take it
anymore — at least not when you’re
is
cooking at home. To remedy this
plague of defi cient desserts, I decided
to cook four dishes that are fi lled with
all the decadent things that make desserts so sublime.
I made four desserts that are worth the calories. I would have
made fi ve, but I’ve already written about my carrot cake.
Of the ones I made, my favorite is the Lemon Marscapone Layer Cake.
This is a (relatively) towering four-
layer cake worthy of any restaurant or
bakery. It is made with three different
types of lemony goodness, but they are
light and airy and subtle so they blend
i into a happy, soft harmony.
The base of this cake is a plain old
ordi
ordinary sponge cake, but don’t let that fool
you. F
First you make a simple lemon syrup
that y you brush on each layer, which eagerly
soaks it up. Then you spread each layer with
a fi lling m
made from mascarpone cheese, whipped
c cream
ream and lem
lemon curd — homemade lemon curd is
best (I’ve thoughtfully included a
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-
recipe) but you can use the store-
Dispatch/TNS
bought version if you like.
Pearl tapioca pudding
And then each layer of fi lling
is further topped with a thin
spreading of more lemon curd. Because why not?
It’s a sturdy cake, but also delicate in taste
and te
texture, topped with a gossamer-like
frostin
frosting. It takes some time and effort to
make — I wouldn’t recommend it to a baking
novice — but each forkful is sheer bliss. That said, my favorite of the
four desserts is the Raspberry and Chocolate Tart.
See Decadent/Page 3B
An old building reveals one of its long-held secrets
By Ginny Mammen
When the Orpheum Theatre was
completed in 1910 it took up all of
lot six and a part of lot seven on
Adams Avenue leaving a vacant
space between the theater and the
next building.
One thing Stephen Gardinier
could not tolerate was an empty
lot. So in the latter half of 1911, he
started construction on a 2-story
building to fi ll the gap. The lower
story would be for commercial oc-
cupancy with housing on the second
fl oor. The front portion of the second
story was developed into a cozy
living quarters for Stephen and his
wife Madlin. It was said that Ste-
phen could go from the mezzanine
of the theater into his apartment
next door. But how could this be
since they were on different levels?
Buildings, just like ghost signs,
can hold information from us only
to be revealed in due time. When
1012 Adams was recently being
Fred Hill collection
Stairs led from the front apart-
ment to the mezzanine level of
the building Stephen Gardinier
built on Adams Avenue.
readied for renovation, it was dis-
covered there had been a stairwell
going from the front apartment
down to the mezzanine level of the
theater on one side of the com-
mon wall and then allowing entry
through the common wall into the
theater. This also created a branch
to the stairs from the theater mez-
zanine going down to the street
level. Over the years remodels of
both buildings had erased the origi-
nal sets of stairs.
The fi rst occupant of the lower
fl oor of the new building was the
Dalton Cash Store, which carried
everything from clothing for the
whole family to sewing notions,
household items to groceries. In fact
he carried so many items that the
following fall Mr. Dalton expanded
his space by adding a balcony
that he planned to have ready for
displaying a large exhibit of holiday
goods. That year he also advertised
that Santa would make an appear-
ance and would have 2,000 sacks of
candy for the “little folks.”
Dalton was Sixton Hjalmar Dal-
ton, born in Blackford, Sweden, in
1879. He immigrated to the United
States in July 1899, just before his
20th birthday. Sixton arrived in
Minnesota and went to work as a
brickyard laborer. Between 1905
and 1910 he married, and left Min-
nesota with his wife Annie Marie
(nee Satterberg) and young son
Walter to move to La Grande. The
Daltons were in La Grande only
until October of 1913 when they
moved to Naches, Washington, to be
nearer to relatives of Anne Marie.
In November 1913 it was an-
nounced that the George A. Ander-
son Company of Boise would open
a branch house in La Grande in the
former Dalton Cash Store loca-
tion. They would carry a full line of
ladies’ ready-to-wear and would be
open on Nov. 19. Then the unthink-
able happened — fi re broke out
in the basement of the Gardinier
building. Thanks to quick thinking
by the fi re department, chemicals
were used instead of water to
quench the fi re and the new stock of
clothing was not damaged.
However, by winter of 1914, the
George A. Anderson Company was
out of business and the new occu-
pants coming in were A. B. Cherry,
the fl orist, and Eastern Oregon
Produce, who were going to share
the space.
We have covered a number of
years and businesses and we still
don’t know why the name of the
building at 1012 Adams listed on
the National Register of Historic
Places is shown as C. D. Putnam’s
Ready to Wear. (You will note
throughout the following, the name
of C. D. Putman is spelled “Putman”
and “Putnam” in various places.
However, though his businesses
had his name spelled in two ways,
this was the same person. Even
offi cial documents differed in the
spelling.)
See Secrets/Page 2B