Casey Parks - Rodeo UGF

Casey Park – UGF rodeo team- Ask an Athlete April 2013 from Polly

     A transfer from Highline Community College (Washington), Casey Park, came to the University of Great Falls to wrestle.  When he arrived, he learned that UGF had a rodeo team, and he was game for that.  Growing up on a ranch in Enumclaw, Washington, both his mom and dad did rodeo.

     “We had five horses, an arena, cows, and what not,” says Park, but his dad would not let him do any of the rodeo events until he was eighteen.  Park was involved in high school wrestling at the time and didn’t have time for other activities.  He has been involved in sports for many years and is majoring in Health and Physical Education at UGF.  He hopes to become a Physical Education teacher.  

1.  How long have you been doing rodeo?

     I have done calf roping for a long time, and participated in that event until recently when my calf roping horse was injured.  I just started steer wrestling and have made a short go at it at three rodeos.  I’m coming along well.  I did my first spring college rodeo this weekend.  I did well.  Once I get the rodeo jitters out of me, I will do better.  

2.  Why rodeo?  How did you get started?

     I was around rodeo all the time growing up.  My parents were both involved in the events.  However, I was too busy with other activities and didn’t really take it up until I arrived here at UGF.

3.  What is your weekly training routine?

    I’m on the UGF wrestling team as well.  I work out a lot for that sport.  I have to keep my weight down. I do lot of cardio, running, weights. I do it all.  I work out every day.  And, there are days when I work out twice. I even do a run before class in the morning.    

4.  What other activities do you do?

     When I go home on break, I’m a wrestling coach at a club in Enumclaw.  Sometimes, I box.

5.  What keeps you motivated?

     I just like being around horses and the rodeo environment.  It is a long tradition in my family.  Sometimes, I want to be great at everything I do.

6.  Have you faced any setbacks and how did you overcome them?

     This last weekend I did two rodeos.  I was the second guy out on the steer wrestling.  I didn’t quite catch the steer and he put me on the ground pretty hard. I injured the AC joint in my shoulder and now, I am on a medical out for possibly a few weeks.  For steer wrestling, you have to toughen up.  It is physically demanding.  I have bruises and bumps.  It goes with the territory.  Those steers can be pretty nasty.

7.  What tips do you have for someone who wants to get started in rodeo?

     Well, it is not for the weak, but the rewards are great.  The people are a good group to be around.  It is an old sport, a lot of history here, and that makes you feel good.  I would stress that people come out to our college rodeo.  It is definitely a good experience and if you have never been to a rodeo, you can see what it’s like. 

8.  What health benefits have you seen through your participation in rodeo events?

     I can’t think of anything.  There is a sense of pride, and that does make you feel good.  You have to learn to be mentally tough.  You have to have a high threshold of pain.  You know it’s going to happen.

9.  Do you have any warm-up and cool-down tips?

     I always stretch before steer wrestling: legs, arms, run a few laps to get warm.  You are only out there for five seconds, and you don’t want to tear anything.

10.  How do you incorporate nutrition into your workout routine?

     During wrestling season I worry about my weight.  I have to stay healthy.  But basically, I always eat healthy.  I have a knowledge of what is good for me.  I also know what’s not good for me: pizza, cheeseburgers and fries.  During the rodeo season, I try to not eat garbage.  So, during the week, I cook for myself.  I eat mostly protein and vegetables, and a lot of meat.  When you are on the road with rodeo, it is hard to eat healthy in restaurants.

 

 

Hotel Lincoln

Parks has turned a Lincoln tradition into a must see and experience.

  

     The Hotel Lincoln and Log Gastropub have served overnight patrons and gourmet foodies since Laurie, her father, Don Tuschoff, and stepson, Kevin Parks, bought the business in 2011.

 

     It’s the ambiance of the food, the stay, and the passion for cooking that keep the satisfied tales coming from customers.

 

     The reputation that Parks, originally from Clarkston, Washington, has garnered in a short time, gained her the delight of being chosen the University of Great Falls 2013 Taste of Montana Chef. 

    

     “A gentleman asked if I would be interested and I was very honored and excited to say ‘yes’,” she says.

 

     Parks will be at the helm for the event Monday, May 13, at the UGF campus. 

 

     She will be in the company of all the great cooks in her life: her husband and Grill Sargeant Ed Parks; her brother and sous Chef, Jamie Tuschoff; and her favorite prep cook and baker, Kathy Bennett.

 

     Rolling up her sleeves to prepare and cook for a major event is hardly new to Parks.  From 1996 until 2001 she owned and operated “the Dill Pickle Deli and We’re Cookin’ Now!,” a catering business in Lewiston, Idaho.

  

     Later, she left the hospitality business and went back to study at the University of Montana.

 

    She readily admits, “I stalked my son Nathan to Missoula where we studied different fields until we graduated in 2008.”

 

     It was while she was working on a Master’s degree that she and her husband were out for a drive and stopped in Lincoln discovering the Hotel Lincoln which was for sale.

 

  “We walked in and instantly fell in love.   I could see the restaurant, the celebrations, the customers and my family happy in one beautiful place.   We moved to Lincoln in December of 2010.”

 

        Putting college studies aside, Parks’ passion from the eighties, when she started cooking, was resurrected.  And, she harkens to the past and the great chefs that have influenced her, though she hasn’t always followed the trends.  In fact, for a new dish (or an old dish) to make it on her menu it has to have the “OMG factor.”

      Today, she cooks with the freshest items available and starts with raw ingredients ninety per-cent of the time.  Three things that you won’t find in her kitchen are: a deep fryer, a microwave, or a mixer.

 

     Starting from scratch, Parks throws her hard working self in all the pictures.

 

     “No toques for me.  I have to run the hotel, the happy hour, and everything else as well.”  

  

     For the sixth annual Taste of Montana event, Parks has created a four course menu around wild caught salmon.

 

Logs Signature House Salad

Baby greens with pecans, Asian pears, huckleberries, balsamic vinaigrette and warm leeks.

 

Fresh baked baked demi-loaves of bread

 with balsamic reduction and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

 

Poached Atlantic Salmon with Wild Montana Skies Sauce.

 Wild caught Atlantic Salmon poached in court bouillion, served on steamed fingerlings with sweet peas, celery, green bean and leeks, topped with a blushing butter sauce the color of a wild Montana sunset.

 

Mango Mosaic

Haagen Daz vanilla bean ice cream, Haagen Daz mango sorbet and huckleberries pureed in Chambord, frozen artistically in a loaf pan, then sliced.  It looks like stained glass, but tastes like Haagen Daz!

 

 

If you go:

University of Great Falls

Fundraiser

Sixth Annual Taste of Montana

Monday, May 13, 2013

Tickets:  $100

Call: 791-5310   

 

    

 

 

From 96 until 2001 I owned and operated “We’re Cookin’ Now!” catering and “The Dill Pickle Deli. 

Rolling for Bon Buns

Rolling for Bon Buns – story by Polly Kolstad Published: Great Falls Tribune 5/21/2013 

 

     It’s seven thirty in the morning, and Susie Knight and Don Hanson are already kneading, punching, and revitalizing dough.  A couple of dueling “doughies,” they are out to get the sweet roll that rules them all: the cinnamon rolls and sticky Bon Buns from the old Parisian Room at the Paris of Montana which later became the Bon Marche in Great Falls.

     It’s a walk down memory lane, with a sweet bite from decades ago.  Knight’s father, Frank, had the homemade candy business on the first floor of the department store from the 1950s to the 1970s.  Hanson’s father was a sign maker and often penned posters and sales signage for the various departments within the store.  Cinnamon rolls and Bon Buns were part of the family; beyond compare.

       Laughter and reflection percolates as coffee is poured and a gregarious gang of old high school pals assimilate.  These serious bun lovers have finally tracked down the regaling recipe.  And though they are a couple of hours away from the showcase; the rolls of life, the ones to savor, dominate the conversation.

     Doubtful, a singular waft of cinnamon pervades the walls of what today is the NEW building on the corner of Fourth Street and Central Avenue.  Yet, the nostalgic essence strayed from bakers ovens for decades, even out onto the street where, according to John McIntosh there was a line that formed at ten o’clock every morning for the fifty cent privilege of getting a hot one with coffee.  For McIntosh whose family had McIntosh Taylors, a twenty minute coffee break was worth it if you queued up before they sold out.

     Steps away, Leslie Stafford would run from her work at Doris Photo Studio to get a roll for herself or purchase several for her parents, Cliff and Barbara Rumford who owned Great Falls Sporting Goods.  

     The real appeal is credited by some to Nadine Worth who worked at the Paris from 1955 through the 1980s. She learned how to make the rolls on her own, from scratch. Part of her secret success, according to Helen DeVoss, was her large hands.  She was a short, stout, jolly lady, who arrived at the café kitchen to begin assembling and kneading the sweet bread dough at 4:00 am.  Even at home, she baked.  She delighted in making her children’s birthday cake and surrounding the confection with cinnamon rolls.  Worth was 86 years old when she died in 2010.

    If there’s one pastry that rules them all, it was the cinnamon rolls that DeVoss remembers in the Parisian Room glittering glass case. You could pick which one you wanted and with each bite let it melt in your mouth while you looked down below to the action on the store’s main street level.

    In those days, few things were more immediately recognizable.

   For Paula Wilmot, employed for a time as a sales clerk in the store, the cinnamon rolls were a big deal.  “That was lunch,” she said.

     “They were huge,” recalls Noreen Udall who waitressed at the Parisian Room throughout her high school years in the 1960s. “And, we were never shy with cubes of butter that went with them.”

      The bakers rolled out cinnamon rolls in giant measure daily.  There were four pans that held twenty-four rolls each: two of the cinnamon and two of the carmel.  That accounts for 96 rolls daily, and they went fast. Employees planned ahead so they could put one aside.   

     As teenager in the sixties and seventies, Steve Gonser worked behind the scenes as a dishwasher. 

     “I would come in to work a half hour early so I could get one of those huge cinnamon rolls.  There were tons of regulars who came in everyday,” said Gonser, who is proud of the fact that he beat the roll rush.        

     No stranger to the making of the rolls, Jeanne Shigley worked at the Paris for twenty-six years and managed the Parisian Room for the last eight years before it closed.  (The Paris of Montana became the Bon Marche and closed in 1998.)    

     Shigley remembers, “In my time, Marge Ethier, and Nadine Worth both worked there.  Shirley Strabeck was the last baker. The reason the rolls turned out so well was because of the amount (bulk) of the recipe and the brick lined ovens that raised them to be so light.”    

     “I watched the bakers make the carmel rolls.  The topping was just brown sugar, butter and cream, and the frosting for the cinnamon rolls (drizzled on while they were hot), was powdered sugar thinned with water.”  

     Acclaim abounds for these coffee saucer size rolls while Shigley notes that they shipped them all over the world.  Worth was even invited to Seattle to show the administration at the store’s headquarters her baker’s style of making cinnamon rolls.

     On this bright spring day, the many spins on Bon Buns turned to drooling as the fragrant pans emerged from the oven. The appetites for these long sought after rolls defy any virtue of table manners.  They are drizzled with sugar glaze and handed over to the waiting crowd.  Conversation died with satisfied sighs of taste delights.  The best ever cinnamon rolls were devoured, and any remaining morsels were carefully wrapped.

     The raving repast continued: rolling for Bon Buns circa 2013.

       

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The Parisian Room Cinnamon Rolls or Bon Buns

Sweet Roll Dough

½ cup warm water

2 pkg. dry yeast

½ cup sugar

½ cup shortening or butter

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups warm milk

7 cups flour

     Combine warm water and yeast.  Let sit until it foams.  Combine the sugar, salt, shortening, milk, and eggs.  Then, put in the yeast mixture and mix well until shortening has melted.  Add enough flour to knead the dough on a floured board until it is smooth and elastic.  Be sure to use all the flour.

     Put in a greased bowl.  Let rise until doubled (about 45 minutes).  Punch down.  Let rise until doubled again.  Punch down.

      Roll dough out on a floured board.  Spread with soft butter and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, and raisins or nuts.  Roll up in a log and cut into slices; about 1 ½ inches wide.

     For carmel rolls, while dough is in last rising stage, make the carmel topping:

     ½ cup melted butter

     2 cups brown sugar

     1 cup ½ & ½  cream

       Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. 

Pour half the carmel topping into a 9 x 13 inch pan.  (use other half in another 9 x 13 inch pan).  Carefully place half the rolls in pan leaving space between to rise until double.   Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Cool a bit.  Turn pan upside down while still warm onto platter.

     For cinnamon rolls:  Place in a buttered 9 x 13 inch pan leaving space between to rise until double.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Drizzle with glaze: powdered sugar/water mixture.

      Recipe makes two 9 x 13 inch pans.

Photo Op:  I am emailing pictures 

 

 

 

Print recipe:  download pictures

Blue Heron rookery

Father Michael chaplain

Basil Tomatoes - Maui, Hawaii

From one island to another

Man from Sicily cultivated tomatoes to his taste on Maui

As we sat at Basil Toma­toes Italian Grille on the Maui island of Hawaii just before sunset, a spectacu­lar backlit cloud formed a silver streak over the Pacific Ocean.

Between bites of basil tomato bread dipped in Ital­ian butter, sweet fresh tomatoes and savory rich pomodoro sauce, we watched the last rays of sunlight disappear as another day in paradise came to a close.

Though there’s plenty to keep you busy on the islands — tackling the tides, biking the volcanoes or lazing under a palm tree — it was homegrown toma­toes that captured our attention on this day.

Jon Applegate opened the restaurant, which is in an old golf course club­house on the grounds of Ka’anapali Royal Lahaina Resort, in 1995. Rarely do they advertise, relying instead on the word of mouth that goes hand in hand with great taste.

The incredibly sweet, delicious varieties of toma­toes that dominate the restaurant tables are vine­ripened hydroponics raised at Applegate’s Olowalu Nui Farm about 30 minutes away in the West Maui Mountains.

“My father was Sicilian.

The only reason he built the farm was he couldn’t find good tomatoes,” said Haku Applegate, the restau­rant’s co-owner and manager.

We took up the invitation to follow the Olowalu Nui Farm manager, Ron Hazel, in his yellow pickup and bounced down a dirt road to see the 10,000 tomato plants growing under his care.

At the Olowalu Nui Farm they raise red and yellow beef­steak varieties and heirloom tomatoes. The area’s climate with little rain, lots of heat and sun and warm humid air, contributes to the quality of the fruit.

“For us, it is 90 days from seed to pulling fruit,” Hazel said.

“But our claim to fame is that we don’t pick them until they are ready. It is the lycopene that gives the tomatoes their taste. If the tomato hasn’t developed on the vine there is no taste. If the tomatoes have been picked early, the lycopene, which is the sugars, has not developed in the fruit.”

Hazel first directed us to the keiki (seed) house where trays hold 5,000 to 6,000 seedlings.

From there, the tiny plants in their Rockwool cubes are placed in troughs made from PVC pipe. They are watered and fertilized several times a day through a gravity flow system to alleviate algae and viruses.

Pollination is big factor. As the plants mature, often they use a leaf blower on every flowering branch. Tomatoes can grow up to 30 feet and must be tied up with twine.

As they begin to produce, Hazel leaves three tomatoes on each truss and trims off the marble-size tomatoes. The plant continues to grow for six to nine months, each yield­ing about 30 pounds of tomatoes.

“When the plant starts to produce spindly fruit, it is on its way out,” Hazel noted.

Picking, washing and boxing the fruit is a daily task for Hazel and seven other employees. The Olowalu Nui Farm sells 1,000 pounds of tomatoes each week with distribution only on Maui.

Tomatoes off the vine are used to create freshly prepared sauces, salads and the restaurant’s Tomato Basil Bread.

“The chef starts with 30 gallons of tomatoes for the pomodoro sauce, which takes five hours to cook down to 15 gallons,” managing partner Jack Kaahui said.

Even with the shades pulled up as the sun goes down, the air is filled with the simmering scent of sumptuous thicken­ing sauces.

“As an Italian, my dad loved the vibrant flavors. He used seven different herbs, twice as much garlic and onions,” Haku Applegate said. “And when he put the fork in the tomato sauce, if it would fall through, it was a ‘no go’.”

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Basil Tomatoes Italian Grille, 2760 Kekaa Drive in Lahaina, Hawaii, is open daily from 5 to 9 p.m. They can be reached at 808-662-3210. PHOTOS COURTESY OF POLLY KOLSTAD

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On the Road

— Polly Kolstad

Mystery Crazy Quilt

100-YEAR-OLD PUZZLE

Crazy quilt cues mystery

By POLLY KOLSTAD

For the Tribune

Eight years ago, Wilma Moses bought a trunk at a garage sale in Billings, setting up a mystery that a Great Falls quilting club still is working to unravel.

Sitting in a box near the trunk was a pile of junk and unusual fabric. Moses, who had an antique shop specializing in old clothes and fab­rics, inquired about the box. The young man running the sale said his wife picked it up from a garage saIe in Butte.

“I took it home and stashed it in a closet,” Moses said.

Moses showed it to a man from Butte who thought it came from an early women’s sewing club. A few years later Moses gave it to her daughter-in-law, who never did anything with it. Eventually, Moses sent it off to her sister, Arliss Engstrom of Great Falls.

“It is a most interesting chain … Thank heavens that Arliss got that quilt,” Moses said.

The box included seven blocks of a large crazy quilt started a century ago. Crazy quilts are made of irregularly shaped and patterned pieces of cloth sewn together.

The antiquated pieces were hand-stitched onto old flour sacks with some transfers still not embroidered or sewn. The work­in- progress measured 50 inches by 70 inches and stretched beyond the borders of a large table.

Tucked among the fabric was a book titled “Civil Government with a Montana Supplement,” copyright 1909. The makers of this unique quilt used the book to carefully preserve the embroi­dery thread used in the decorative seams.

It appeared that at least parts of the quilt were based on the Consti­tution- themed book. The center of the quilt included a black circle apparently intended for the U.S.

Seal.

Engstrom and her Monday morning quilting friends set out to learn more about the origins of the quilt and to finish it.

“We are a group of 12 retired schoolteachers, home economics instructors, nurses and fantastic artists,” Ruth Delich said of the women, who meet weekly at the Quilt Away shop.

After getting the quilt pieces, the group spent the next 36 months completing what was most likely started 100 years earlier.

“When Arliss brought the quilt to us, she inspired all of us, and as time went on, it just got more interesting,” Delich said of the group’s largest project so far.

The completed quilt contains a

See QUILT, 3H

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ABOVE: Arliss Engstrom holds a quilt that the Monday Morning Quilting Group at Quilt Away finished recently.

INSET: A civil government book that was in the box containing the quilt that the Monday Morning Quilting Group finished recently held embroidery thread. TRIBUNE PHOTOS/LARRY BECKNER

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BELOW: Members of the quilting group are, left to right, Sandie Jackman, Vicki Bickler, Judi Austin, Jerry Evans, Darlene Gardner, Laurita Jensen, Carol Walters, Susan Dreyer, Terry Reynolds, Pat Bauer, Ruth Delich and Arliss Engstrom.

BOTTOM: Details from the crazy quilt are shown. At left, a spider design on a quilt is said to bring good luck. On the right, Terry Reynolds did the embroidery work on the U.S. Seal while Judi Austin did the needlework at the seal’s edges.

THREE PHOTOS BY POLLY KOLSTAD

Article Continued Below

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See QUILT on Page H03

Quilt

Continued from 1H

feast of jewel-colored shapes of scrap pieces typical of crazy quilts.

Following the original style of the work, the local quilters used whatever was at hand. In this case, many of the scraps are silk, which according to Susan Drewer, was common 100 years ago.

“There’s even knives and forks in one patch,” Terry Reynolds said.

There is also a black spider, which according to one folk art source, is found on many crazy quilts and symbolizes good luck.

The group learned various original stitches to attach the squares and the seven blocks, researching sewing methods from the early 1900s.

They used fancy stitches to do the outlining with the help of the old chenille threads that were stashed in the “Civil Government” book.

Everything was done by hand, even the stitching of the black velveteen backing.

To complete the U.S. seal, Engstrom found a pattern and drew it on. Reynolds did the embroidery work, and Judy Austin sewed the embellishments around the seal.

Within the quilt patches are designs of flowers, old lace and tatting work. Pat Bauer created crochet work of butterflies, and Laurita Jensen cross-stitched “E Pluribus Unum.”

“It is ultimately, a testimony to friendship and fellowship,” Austin said of the finished product. “We love everyone here.”

From their research, the group believes that the crazy quilt may have come from the Marian White Arts & Crafts Club in Butte, which was existence from 1905 to 1914, but they are looking for more answers. Anyone with clues to the origin of the quilt is asked to call Engstrom at 761-3898.

The quilt is available to exhibit, and eventually will be donated.

“It has to go somewhere where it has meaning,” Engstrom said.

All the best,

Sydne

http://sydnegeorge.com

406.899.7466

sydnegeorge@hotmail.com

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