B
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
NUTRITION:
IT’S ALL GOOD
Fresh Vegetables Add Color To The Dinner Table
ANN BLOOM
Chill in the
air makes
comfort food
especially
enticing
As the days grow shorter and the
nights a little chillier, we get a sense the
seasons are changing. With the change
in seasons, we also tend to change our
eating patterns. We start to think of
warm, heartier types of food; many
people call this comfort food. One may
start wishing for meatloaf and mashed
potatoes, or macaroni and cheese, or
soups and stews for those blustery days
when only comfort food will do.
Comfort food can be healthy as well
as satisfying, without being laden with
heavy sauces or using a lot of expensive
and hard to fi nd ingredients. Some-
times the simplest dishes are the most
fl avorful and therefore most satisfying.
Take, for example, pasta. On its own it
may seem very bland. However, by boil-
ing it in salted water until it is not quite
done, then adding a fl avorful sauce of
warm tomatoes, oil and herbs, and some
sautéed garlic and onions, suddenly
pasta is elevated to a comfort food.
Soups and stews also represent com-
fort food during fall or wintry weather.
If you have, and use a slow cooker,
you are on your way to a freezer full of
comfort food.
See Comfort/Page 2B
Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Grilled golden beets center a colorful fall salad with sauteed beet greens, red onions, bell pepper, herbs and crumbled feta.
F LAVORS OF F ALL
By Jeanmarie Brownson
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Getting
excited
about
grafting
It is high time for a vacation escape
to different scenery and adventure. Not
that the vacation will last long, but they
always say that a change is like a vaca-
tion. In any case, it will have to do.
In view of widening knowledge of
gardening and creating an abundance
of variety on what you have, I’ve been
talking to my friends Anne and Luis.
Luis is profi cient in the art of grafting.
Most things in the garden can be
grafted. The most popular is grafting
apples (and other fruits) and roses. I’m
hoping to learn the art of grafting from
Luis (he seems to have enough patience
to be able to teach me that skill).
He’s talking of grafting a couple
branches of my wild peach tree onto one
of their apricot trees. I’m excited about
the prospect of grafting. When I took
the master gardener program in 1997,
one of the horticultural professors gave
us a mini-seminar about grafting and I
purchased a grafting knife from her.
Now I’m not sure where that special
knife is, but will be able to learn with
or without it I’m sure. A few different
varieties of apple trees would be handy
to have grafted onto the quince trees.
Often a few apples is enough and you
don’t need a whole tree of the same
kind of apple.
I’m sure you are all aware of the fall
yard work needing to be done without
my listing them to remind you. Take
time to enjoy the colored leaves in spite
of the fact you’ll be raking them soon.
If you have garden questions or com-
ments, please write to greengardencol-
umn@yahoo.com. Happy gardening!
Chicago Tribune
My anxieties subside when three things
align in my world: a full gas tank, cash in my
wallet and plenty of food in the refrigerator.
Specifi cally, fresh fruit and vegetables.
Luckily, fall farmers markets and produce
stands overfl ow with goodness. Think squash,
onions, potatoes, sweet peppers and hot
chiles. The variety of tubers and root veg-
etables can be intimidating, but rest assured
most take to simple cooking methods, such as
steaming and roasting, beautifully.
I’m particularly fond of the mild-mannered,
pale green globes of kohlrabi. Especially
when they sport bright-green, leaf-topped
stems. Not only does that mean they are very
fresh, but also those leaves are edible. I treat
the greens like lacinato kale — steaming or
sauteing them.
Kohlrabi is technically not a root vegetable
or a tuber; rather it is an enlarged, above-
ground stem. I prefer to purchase kohlrabi
when it’s the size of a baseball because it can
be enjoyed raw in thin slices or fi ne shreds,
or quickly steamed in the microwave. Some
kohlrabi varieties can be as large as a softball
— these are best steamed to tenderness. I
always peel the globes to remove any tough,
fi brous skin.
Kohlrabi, with its mild, broccoli-stem fl avor,
absorbs other ingredients, such as herbs, gar-
lic, soy sauce, olive oil or butter, beautifully.
Beets, on the other hand, sport loads of
their own unique, earthy fl avor. Cooks and
chefs have embraced the once-maligned
burgundy-red root and now feature them
prominently on menus and in cookbooks.
Farmers markets prove a good source for
non-traditional types, such as candy stripe,
golden and white beets. I like how well all of
them pair with fl avored oils and smoky bacon
fat. Sharp additions, such as tangy cheese,
vinegar, onions and garlic help mellow their
inherent beetiness. So does oven-roasting or
grill-steaming them in foil packets.
Like kohlrabi, the freshest beets are sold
with their green leafy tops intact. Do not
discard the greens — instead saute them in
a skillet with a little olive oil and enjoy as a
side or addition to scrambled eggs or grain
bowls. To motivate me to cook the greens be-
fore they wilt terribly, I remove them as soon
as I get the beets home. Rinse, spin dry and
they are good to go.
The kohlrabi and sausage skillet supper
that follows can be made with other vegeta-
bles as well. I often sub in diced parsnip and
turnip as well as cubes of golden potatoes.
The foil-packet roasted beets taste good hot
or chilled. I spoon warm leftovers onto toasted
naan for a casual meatless main dish.
KOHLRABI AND CARROT
RIBBON SALAD
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Makes: 4 to 6 side servings
3 medium-size kohlrabi, about 1 1/2
pounds, trimmed, peeled
2 medium-size carrots, trimmed, peeled
2 1/2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons honey or sugar, to taste
1/2 to 1 tablespoon piri piri hot sauce (or
other hot sauce), optional, to taste
1/2 teaspoon dark Asian sesame oil
Salt
Chopped fresh green onions or chives
Sesame seeds
See Flavors/Page 2B
A small change welcomes the new season
In the corner of my
living room there is a little
round lamp table on which
I change the décor every
month.
I used to redecorate the
whole room every month,
but since I reached age
94 I decided to just acknowledge
the changing season with a token
observance of turning over the
calendar page.
This may not seem like a big
thing to most folks who still hurry/
scurry everywhere and accom-
plish great things, but it wouldn’t
surprise me to fi nd that there are
those reading this Dory’s Diary
column who know what I’m talk-
ing about — how important it is to
keep a hand in things, even from
behind one’s window at home that
seems to hold one hostage for the
time.
Never give up, I tell myself —
even with something as simple
as changing a calendar page or
a small tablecloth square, by
accepting old age, the continuing
birthdays, I also put a bouquet of
artifi cial sunfl owers in a vase on
DORY’S DIARY
the table to tie it all together with
the lamp and the embroidery.
DOROTHY SWART
I was pleased, but it led me on
FLESHMAN
to place a multicolored crocheted
afghan on the daveno; then on
to the hutch with pictures of my
threat of the COVID-19 virus, or
family, heirloom china in fall
just a rocking chair rest on a day of colors, all fronted by the remains
vacation.
of a once fresh yellow rose from a
Stay in touch, I say. Don’t give
good friend and standing birthday
up.
cards to be better seen. Doing one
Back to the tablecloth, a small
thing fi rst when you feel tired or
square that fi ts over the top of the depressed leads one to doing some-
round table and hangs partway
thing else; then another task and
down, a plain fl oor-reaching
yet another. Amazingly, one feels
tablecloth. The one there as I
so much better when day is done.
wrote had beautiful embroidery
It took such a little effort, really,
of a handful of yellow sunfl owers
to change the room from summer
on green stems against a light-
greens to gold of early autumn,
colored background. It pleasured
and now I chose to do it again as
me to see it there and so it seemed October came on the scene with
that I should share it with others varicolored falling leaves, orange of
through words. It had served its
pumpkins, and the bringing in of
purpose for September.
sheaves of wheat.
At the beginning of the month
It all brings back yearnings for
when I had put it there in honor
the past as I put away the Septem-
of four of my family’s September
ber items, but then excites with
the appearance of the new colors
and the wonder of what the future
will bring.
Dory’s Diary started out in the
newspaper in 2009 and went on
over the ensuing years; now, only
once and again. On occasion I still
feel the urge to share with those
who still respond to those days of
the past and still face the future’s
challenges regardless of whether
from behind a window or out there
in the danger zone. But, one must
question the need for what was,
despite desire, and what will help
or hinder.
We are all in this changing
world together and we’ll accept the
challenges together. But, once in a
while, it may soothe the soul to just
enjoy the look of a new tablecloth
in changing colors on a little lamp
table in the corner of the living
room. And, in the evening, turning
on the lamp may help spread the
beauty of the season in one’s life.
Readers can reach Dory by email at
fl eshman@eoni.com