About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2022)
6B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, July 27,2022 The library and the comeuppance In my hometown, our old, red brick library was imploded a couple of years ago and a glisten ing, modern marvel of gray block and glass was raised. Architecturally, I am not attracted by the cover of the book but it is not the brick and mortar to which I owe allegiance. It’s the institution and what it meant to the little girl from Rural Route One. By the time I was four, I could read. When I ran out of books at our house and from the Little Golden Books rack at the A&P, Mama took me to the library. In those days, it was in the dank base ment of the old court house but it was majestic and regal to me. It opened an endless world and, in a short time, I was soon winning reading awards and getting my name in the newspaper. The bookmobile stopped at our house and I was first on board even though Mama had to lift me up to the first step so I could climb into the space that smelled heav enly of ink and paper. That library — that won derful library — trans ported me to Civil War- era Massachusetts with the March sisters, to Brooklyn, New York, with Francie Nolan, to Alabama with Scout Finch, and gave me hun dreds of hours of reading with juvenile biographies and one entire summer filled with Scarlett O’Hara. From the country, I took myself into town awhile back for appoint ments that were spaced far enough apart that it wasn’t worth a 45-minute round trip back to the Rondarosa, so I decided to spend the time in the new library, my old friend. It is laid out much like the old one, with a simi lar, winding staircase and the books I enjoy — pri marily history and biog raphies — are still situat ed in the same rows. Here’s something I never do: look for myself. I don’t look online, in book stores, or at librar ies. That’s looking for trouble. As I was perus ing Southern nonfiction, though, it became obvi ous: my books weren’t positioned in the group ings of similar books. My Life In The Pits was not with the NASCAR books. My tril ogy of What Southern Women Know — two of which were bestsellers and one which, astound- ingly, has remained a RONDARICH Columnist steady seller for Penguin Putnam for 21 years (and was celebrated with a 20th anniversary edition) — were not with other Southern women books. I didn’t even bother to look for my novel that had been made into a movie. “Do you have a section of regional or cultural authors?” I asked the nice librarian. She stood up from her desk, walked to where I had been browsing and replied, “Not really. Is there a particular author you’re looking for?” “Ronda Rich.” “Who?” I repeated the name slower and, bewildered, she shook her head. “Let me do some checking.” Y’all, it gets worse from here. “Thank you.” I walked over to a cushioned booth in a sunny area, sat down, and started to work. The librarian did not forget me — though she had no idea who I was — because she returned in a few minutes with a list she had downloaded and printed out. At the bot tom of the page, she had written, Georgia Center For The Book and its website. “Perhaps this will help,” she said as she handed me several pages of Georgia authors listed alphabetically. Unless, I missed it, I wasn’t listed there, either. This is a perfect example of why you should never go looking for yourself. Later, I was telling a good friend about my comeuppance. She’s an author, too. In fact, it’s fair to say that she’s a household name. She threw back her head and laughed uproariously — not to shame me but because she thought it was absurd. “I wouldn’t laugh if I were you,” I cautioned with a smile. Trying to catch her breath, she asked, “Why?” “Because you’re not on the list, either.” Ronda Rich is a multi-best selling author of several months. Visit www.rondar- ich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter. FROM 1B Elliott top-two finishes, Elliott began Sunday’s race in third position, fared well and finished the 30-lap first stage in second position. He would battle through a caution-filled second stage that lasted 65 laps, with his posi tion ranging from 12th to 24th before gradual ly moving up again. After a quick yellow- flag pit stop pushed him back within the top 15, Elliott traversed through the field in the final eight laps of Stage Two and man aged to finish the stage in 9th position. During the final 60 laps of the race, Elliott found himself stuck between eighth and 12th position until another exchange of pleasantries between Hamlin and Ross Chastain caused a major incident with fewer than 20 laps left. At the restart, Elliott established his third position spot and kept it until the checkered flag. Little did he know his battle to fend off Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez for that track position would pay off so crucially. While Elliott has not yet made a statement since being declared winner, he had expressed satisfaction with having worked his way up to third place after the mid-race struggles. “Definitely a bit of a battle for our NAPA team today. I’m pretty happy with third after that,” Elliott said. “I didn’t think we were all that good through the mid-portion of the race and I was strug gling in traffic trying to get back up through there. We’ll go on to next week, try to build and be a little better.” Save money on your chicken By now, everybody has noticed how much more we are all paying for groceries. If your family eats lots of chicken like we do, I have a trick for you to save some serious money: Buy and cook whole chick ens instead of pieces. How much money are we talking about here? A bunch. The other day I bought a cage-free, pastured whole chicken for $1.99 a pound. Compare that to cage-free, pastured skinless boneless chicken, which you will pay $6.49 a pound! That is quite a difference, wouldn’t you say? You might think cooking a whole chicken is difficult, but it is anything but that. Just dust off your slow cooker, add the chicken and a few ingredients to the pot, and you are off to the races. Once the chicken is done, you will be rewarded with ten der, juicy chicken that can be dinner one night, and then made into lots of other dishes later. In addition, you can use the chicken carcass to make the best homemade chicken broth you have ever had. No store-bought version can rival homemade broth— it is super nutritious, tasty, and vastly improves any dish you use it in. Here is my favorite way to effort lessly cook a whole chicken and then how to make the best chicken broth ever. Enjoy! Best Slow Cooker Whole Chicken • 4-5 pound whole chicken • 3 teaspoons paprika • 1 !/2 teaspoons onion powder • 1 !/2 teaspoons dried thyme • 1 teaspoon garlic powder • !/2 teaspoon cayenne • 1 teaspoon salt • !/2 teaspoon pepper • 1 onion, cut into chunks Add the onion chunks to the slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the paprika, onion powder, dried thyme, garlic powder, salt and cayenne. Rub the chicken all over with the spice rub, sprinkling some inside the cavi ty of the chicken. Place the chicken on top of the onion and cover. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 7-8 hours. Overnight or All-Day Chicken Stock • Leftover chicken carcass • 1 onion, chopped • 1 celery rib, chopped • 1 carrot, chopped • 1 bay leaf • Handful of parsley sprigs • 3 thyme sprigs • 1 tablespoon apple cider vine gar • 1 teaspoon salt Place the carcass and remaining ingredients in the slow cooker. Cover with cold water. Turn the slow cooker on low and cook for 10 hours. Strain the stock and discard solid ingredients. Refrigerate for 1 week, or freeze for up to 6 months. Store in two or four cup containers. Gravy for Chicken • 2 tablespoons butter • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 14 cup flour • 1 !/2 cups chicken broth, pref erably homemade • !/2 cup heavy cream • !/2 teaspoon salt • 'A teaspoon pepper • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle on the flour, whisking for a minute. Pour on the chicken broth and the heavy cream, whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, add salt, pepper and thyme leaves. Taste for seasoning. Ideas to use chicken meat from a cooked, whole chicken: • Make white chicken chili with cannellini beans. • Use the chicken meat in chicken pot pie. • Add chicken meat to vegeta ble soup or make chicken noodle soup. • Top your salads with chicken meat for extra protein. • Make chicken and cheese quesadillas. • Make a quick version of chicken and dumplings. • Make a quick version of chicken tetrazzini. • Use for chicken salad. • Add to a tortilla with some beans, cheese, and salsa and make bunitos. • Make fettuccini alfredo with cooked chicken. • Stir fry some vegetables and toss in some cooked chicken meat at the end. • Mix chopped chicken meat with some sauteed mush rooms, carrots and cabbage and add some soy sauce and make egg rolls. • Make buffalo chicken dip. • Add chicken to broccoli cas serole. • Make a Mexican salad with lettuce, black beans, chicken, com kernels, cilantro, tortilla chips, tomatoes, and shredded cheese. Top with some salsa mixed with sour cream. ADLEN ROBINSON Columnist Strike up the band Photos by Rio White Dawson County News The Dawson County Tiger Pride marching band started band camp last week on Monday, July 18, with the first week of camp lasting each day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the second week lasting from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. FROM 1B Tangel well,” Tangel said. “It hasn’t been too hard so far; it’s just been about mileage and making sure we’re getting our endurance up before the season starts.” One way that the team and second-year head coach Jonathan Tinsley have been keeping the team’s standards has been through the help of graduated seniors that include Ethan Smith, who has given his time and efforts to help train the next group of lead ers. Smith, who was part of the 2020 Region 7-3A champion cross country squad, has been helping Tangel and many others through his breadth of experience. “A lot of the graduat ed seniors [are] always good about motivating us and keeping us going,” Tangel said. “Really glad Ethan has been here to stick with us during our runs.” Part of Tangel’s devel opment as a runner has been his desire to stay focused during runs, with the knowledge that there is always an end goal and room to improve. While he continues to make progress on both his intrinsic motivation and run times, it helps to have a coach with the intensity and positivity of Tinsley. “It’s all about that end goal. Once you do run that 17-minute 5K, it really makes it all worth it,” Tangel said. “[Coach Tinsley] does a good job of balancing the [ideas] of disciplining but also encouraging at the same time.” Tangel has steadily grown to enjoy running since beginning in sixth grade, having kept track of the progress he has made in those five years. For him, it is the sim ple joy of setting per sonal records that gives him both satisfaction in the moment and some thing to build upon for the future. Tinsley has noticed the focus with which Tangel runs and believes him to be an important leader who shows, rath er than tells. “He’s not a very vocal leader, but he leads by example,” Tinsley said. “He’s always here, he does extra, pushes him self and encourages oth ers around him. He’s just a good leader for us.” With the upcoming season in mind, Tangel shared what he and the other runners have been working on to get the best results. “During the preseason it’s about working on endurance and building up the lungs and heart,” Tangel said. “When we get closer to our first race we’ll be working on speed.” Tangel is also part of the track and field team, participating in distance races and relays. Outside of school, Tangel can be found either working out or taking care of his pet goats Brock and Chaco, whose pens he built him self.
