Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 7A
Arson Control Board,
Farm Bureau provide
fire safety tips
Are you and your family prepared in the event of a
home fire? Do you have safety steps in place you can
take to keep you, your family and your community safe
in case of a fire?
Agent Ted Pender of Barrow County Farm Bureau
is partnering with the Georgia Arson Control Board to
help prepare the citizens of Barrow County in the event
a home fire occurs by providing them with the neces
sary safety tips.
According to Pender, “In the event of a fire, remem
ber that every second counts and you and your family
must always be prepared.”
The following tips are offered to protect your family
and home from fire:
•Check smoke detectors once a month and change
the batteries at least twice a year. At least one smoke
detector should be installed on every level of a structure.
•Be aware that if a fire threatens your home, you
should not place the call to emergency services from
inside the home. It is better to get out and place the call
to fire authorities from a safe location outside the home.
•Give first aid where appropriate. Seriously injured
victims should be transported to professional medical
help immediately. Stay out of the damaged building.
Return only when fire authorities say it is safe.
•Keep portable and space heaters at least three feet
from anything that may bum. Never leave heaters on
when you leave home or go to sleep.
•Never smoke in bed or when you are sleepy. Care
lessly-discarded cigarettes are a leading cause of fire
deaths in the United States.
•Keep cooking areas clear of combustibles and wear
short or tight-fitting sleeves when you cook. Keep the
handles of your pots turned inward so they do not over
hang the stove. If grease catches fire, carefully slide a
lid over the pan and smother the flames, then turn off
the burner.
•In the hands of a child, matches and lighters can be
deadly. Store them where children can't reach them,
preferably in a locked area. Teach children that matches
and lighters are “tools” and should only be used by
adults.
•If an appliance smokes or has an unusual smell,
unplug it immediately and have it repaired. Replace
frayed or cracked electrical cords and don’t overload
extension cords. They should not be ran under rags.
•If someone gets burned, immediately place the
wound under cool water for 10 to 15 minutes. If the
bum blisters or chars, see a doctor immediately.
Piedmont Healthcare,
BCBS reach deal
Piedmont Healthcare and Anthem Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Georgia put ink to paper and signed a new
agreement Friday night three days after Gov. Nathan Deal
announced a handshake agreement between the two com
panies. The agreement ensures Anthem Blue Cross mem
bers can see their Piedmont doctors and visit Piedmont
hospitals as “in network” without incurring higher out-of-
pocket costs, including visits and services since April 1.
Patients who canceled or delayed care during the
disruption are encouraged to call their Piedmont doctor
to reschedule. Piedmont also will begin calling patients,
particularly those who canceled appointments for hospi
tal-based services, according to a news release.
The new contract with Anthem Blue Cross extends to
2021. If patients need to confirm their in-network status
with Anthem Blue Cross or make sure they have been
reassigned to their Piedmont primary care physician, they
should call the Anthem Blue Cross number on the back of
their medical benefits card.
For additional information, go to KeepPiedmont.org.
Pay continued from 1A
cycle yet again of another broken compensation system.”
Smith said. “You cannot sit back and only implement parts
of a study and expect to solve your issues with hiring and
retaining employees.”
Smith found unanimous support from commissioners
Tuesday.
“People are afraid and they're looking to you and their
personnel to protect them,” commissioner Bill Brown said
to Smith. “We have fought and fought and fought this battle
every time a budget comes up. We need to pay and retain
them. The need is there, I know. The demand is there.”
Brown and fellow commisioner Ben Hendrix both ref
erenced an increase in crime and an uptick in concealed
weapons permits.
“People are worried that if they do have to call for assis
tance how long is it going to take,” Hendrix said. “Your folks
are spread too thin. We're charged as county commissioners
to provide public safety for the citizens of this county and I
take that very seriously.”
Renshaw said the county would still need to fill a gap
of about $117,000 to balance out the budget and frilly
implement the study's recommendations. He proposed
eliminating an existing vacant lull-time deputy position to
save around $52,000 (including insurance and other assorted
costs on top of the salary), trimming the overtime budget
by about $50,000 and finding the other roughly $14,000
throughout the remainder of the budget.
“This (option) will require some choices, unfortunately,”
Renshaw said. “Budgets are about choices.”
“I think every member of this board understands that
there’s a need for our people to be paid properly,” commis
sioner Isaiah Berry said. “We can figure this out because
we have enough people who are smart enough to figure out
what we need to do and where the money’s going to come
from.”
Renshaw will present a proposed balanced budget for
FY19 to commissioners on May 8.
COOKING WITH JOYCE
A few good cake, pie recipes
in my
1 had the privilege of
attending the birthday
party of Dr. Henry Stone,
who turned 90, this past
weekend.
Henry worked
lab as a vol
unteer scien
tist at USDA.
He worked for
USDA for over
50 years and
volunteered
another 10 or
more. He is a big
gardener also
and supplies
food to the local
food banks and
homeless shel
ters in the Athens area.
You would never know he
was 90 years old.
It was great seeing old
co-workers that I hadn’t
seen since I retired about
five years ago. I enjoyed
my 36.5 years at USDA
and had the privilege of
meeting many presidents
and first ladies, includ
ing Mrs. Barbara Bush.
She was a very impres
sive lady, I must say. The
nation lost a great First
Lady this past week, both
a wife and mother to a
president.
A friend posted on
Facebook recently she
wanted a recipe for Prune
Cake. Well, I knew I
had one that I had got
ten from my grandmother
years ago so I dug it out.
So, Brenda Brown who
works at Publix, this rec
ipe is for you.
Prune Cake
Ingredients:
11/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, beaten
joyce
j’acks
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped, pitted
dried prunes, cooked
1 cup chopped nuts
Topping:
1/2 cup butter,
cubed
1/3 cup butter
milk
1 tsp. vanilla
extract
1/2 tsp. baking
soda
3/4 cup sugar
Directions:
In a large
bowl, combine
first 6 ingredi
ents. Add oil,
eggs, buttermilk and
vanilla. Mix well. Fold in
prunes and nuts. Pour into
an ungreased 13x9-inch
baking pan. Bake at 350
degrees for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile combine all
topping ingredients in a
saucepan. Bring to a boil
and boil for 2 minutes.
Pour over hot cake. Leave
in pan to cool.
You know that hazelnut
spread that you can never
seem to get enough of?
Well I’ve got you a whole
new way to enjoy it with
a recipe for banana hazel
nut cake. In case you’ve
never used it with banan
as, they are a pair made
in heaven.
Banana
Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients:
1 (12.3 ounce) pkg.
banana muffin and bread
mix-batter prepared
according to pkg. direc
tions
1 banana, thinly sliced
1 (13 ounce) jar choc
olate hazelnut spread,
divided
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
degrees. Coat an 8-inch
square baking dish with
cooking spray. Spread
half the batter in baking
dish. Top with banana
slices then drizzle with 3
Tbsps. warmed hazelnut
spread. Top with remain
ing batter. Bake 30 to 35
minutes or until toothpick
inserted in center comes
out clean. Let cool then
spread remaining hazel
nut spread over top of
cake. Cut into squares
and serve.
1 have a lemon pie rec
ipe for you that has a lit
tle twist in it. It includes
those wonderful tasting
lemon drop hard candies
that my grandmother
used to give me when I’d
go visit her in my young
er days.
Lemon Crunch Pie
Ingredients:
30 Lemon-cream filled
vanilla sandwich cookies,
finely crushed
1/4 cup (stick) butter,
melted
2 (4 serving size) pkgs.
instant lemon pudding
prepared according to
pkg. directions
1 (8 ounce) container
frozen whipped topping,
thawed
1/2 cup finely crushed
lemon drop candies
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
degrees. In a medi
um bowl combine the
crushed cookies and but
ter. Mix well. Spread into
the bottom and up the
sides of a 9-inch deep-
dish pie plate forming a
crust. Bake 10 minutes
then remove from the
oven and allow to cool
completely. Spoon the
pudding evenly into the
pie crust. In a large bowl
combine the whipped
topping and crushed
candy. Mix well. Spread
over the pie filling then
cover loosely and chill
at least 2 hours before
serving.
Recently I have been
buying a lot of strawber
ries. All of the stores have
tons of them and they are
super sweet this year. I
really just enjoy eating
them raw, but I make des
serts for the weekend and
this is the perfect thing to
use to make a wonderful
dessert.
Easy Strawberry Pie
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 Tbsps. cornstarch
1/4 cup (1 pkg.) straw
berry gelatin
5 cups fresh strawber
ries, halved
1 (9-inch) baked pie
crust
Whipped cream or fro
zen whipped topping,
thawed
Directions:
In a medium saucepan
over medium heat bring
sugar, water and corn
starch to a boil.
Cook 1 minute or until
thickened, stirring con
stantly.
Stir in gelatin until
dissolved. Remove from
heat. Let cool 8-10 min
utes.
Place strawberries in
a large bowl and pour
glaze over them. Toss
gently until evenly coat
ed then spoon evenly into
the pie crust. Cover and
chill 4 hours. Serve with
whipped cream.
Joyce Jacks is a native
of Barrow County and a
graduate of Winder-Bar
row High School Athens
Technical College, and
the University of Geor
gia. She can be reached
at georgiagirl2424@
yahoo.com.
Don’t cry over spilled milk
Unless the milk is spoiled. Then
you can cry. And gag.
A few days ago, I started notic
ing a slight whiff of something
unpleasant every time I opened my
fridge. It was a crazy, busy work
week, so I decided to wait until the
weekend to find and eradicate the
odor.
By Saturday, it was
pretty bad, and I could
wait no longer. I had some
leftover chicken wrapped
in foil, so I fully expected
that to be the culprit. A
while back, I had a rotis-
serie chicken go bad in the
fridge... and it was inde
scribably awful. Howev
er, this particular bird was
not guilty. No bad smell
from him.
There was a bagged
salad that was well on its
way to being liquified, but the bag
was still sealed. Not guilty. After
throwing out all but the freshest of
perishables, I moved to the bottom
shelf, where the bottled groceries
were stored.
It was there that I spied the
offending item. Pushed way, way
back in the back of the shelf was
a quart container of milk lying
on its side. I must confess that I
knew the milk was in the fridge.
I’m not a milk drinker, and I very
rarely buy it. But every now and
then I’ll crave a bowl of cereal, or
need to make my favorite batch of
cookies that calls for half a cup of
milk. Never do I ever use the entire
container. Invariably, the milk will
go bad, and will need to be thrown
out.
There are not many things in
this world that make me gag more
than spoiled milk. Nasty!
Seems reasonable to avoid
exposure to the nastiness
by just putting it in the
outside garbage on the
night before garbage pick
up. Then I don’t have to
pour it down the sink and
suffer the consequences.
Right? It’s a great idea.
Except when I forget to
put it in the outside gar
bage, and it sits in my
fridge for way too long.
And then it gets pushed
to the back of the shelf.
And, in this case, it gets knocked
over by something else and leaks
onto the shelf. And underneath the
shelf. And down the back wall of
the fridge. Down underneath the
crisper drawers.
Oh. My. Goodness. What a mess!
And so, there was gagging, and
near retching, as I removed most
of the contents of the refrigerator,
disassembled the shelves, removed
the crisper drawers and wiped up
the mess.
The shelves and crisper drawers
are now washed shiny and clean,
as well as the bottom of my fridge.
In my quest to get rid of every
thing that could possibly be caus
ing the smell, I cleared out every
thing that wasn’t sealed up tightly.
As a result, it looks pretty bare in
there now.
Kind of like when it was new —
after my old one went bad and I
lost almost everything inside.
But you know what? I can cry
over spilled (and spoiled) milk,
I can gag, and I can mumble and
complain about the mess.
Or I can be thankful that there’s
food and milk in my fridge.
The amount of food that I allow
to go to waste would be welcome
in the homes of many, and the
fact that I have leftovers in the
first place speaks of my wonderful
blessings.
Yeah, it was seriously gross. But
I won’t miss the opportunity to be
grateful for my home, electricity
and more food than I need.
Although, I think from here on
out, I’ll make an effort to use all
the milk (more cereal or cookies?)
or at least hold my nose and pour it
down the sink.
No more crying over spilled milk
for this girl!
Cathy Watkins Bennett is a Bar-
row County native and a graduate of
Winder-Barrow High School. Send
comments about this column to
beneath @ aol.com.
cathy
watkins
bennett
Teams continued from 1A
to be a fetal surgeon. That’s a long
way from the engine building. She
attends Apalachee High School.
She said she wants to go to New
York University for undergraduate
work and Johns Hopkins in Balti
more for medical school.
Everybody has a nickname and
real names are seldom-heard.
There’s Wonder Woman, who
goes to school and has two jobs,
Pillsbury, Tank, Speedy, Squirrel,
Grasshopper, Anchor and Man of
Steel.
Speedy is Eric Ayala, a fresh
man, who also is in the English
for Speakers of Other Languages
program.
He has an interpreter to explain
what needs to be done and when.
One woman sits to the side,
watching the teams.
She is Nille Reann Ray, a 2015
Apalachee graduate. Ray is the
assistant coach. She comes back to
help Beck and the kids. She bluntly
said Beck “kicked me in the butt”
and got her to pay attention to
education when she was in high
school.
She is a nursing student now
at Athens Technical College and
plans to be an RN.
She said she is one of 10 siblings,
is the only girl and the only one
who knows how to work on motors.