About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2022)
Wednesday, November 2,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3B The season for warm, yummy soups is here My long-time readers know my love of soup. I love soup all year long, but soup is particularly lovely during the cooler months. Years ago, one of our daughters asked me why my soup was always better than hers—even when she used my recipes. My answer? Great soup begins with great stock. You don’t have to make homemade stock—although that is always the best, but if you use store- bought, I recommend buying an organic one. That being said, making stock at home is not difficult. Basically, throw the ingredients into a large stock pot or your slow cook er, and let it simmer away. For chicken stock, you don’t even really need a recipe. Just add carrots, celery, onion, herbs you have on hand (think parsley, thyme, bay leaves, etc), a handful of pepper corns, a few glugs of apple cider vin egar, chicken parts (or even better, a leftover chicken carcass), and water to cover. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for several hours—the lon ger, the better. Strain the stock and then freeze in individual portions. Here are some delicious soups that will warm you up and nourish your soul. Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup • 4 Russet potatoes, scrubbed • 3 tablespoons butter • 2 leeks, white and light green parts, sliced • 2 celery stalks, chopped • 2 bay leaves • 1 teaspoon salt • Vi teaspoon pepper • 4 cups chicken stock • 1 Vi cups half and half • Toppings: • 2 green onions, sliced • 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled • 1/3 cup sour cream • 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes in oven and bake until fully cooked, about an hour. Remove potatoes and cool. In a stock pot, melt butter. Add leeks and celery and cook until leeks are tender, about 10 min utes. Add bay leaves, salt, pep per, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, Peel them and coarsely chop the filling, discarding the peelings. Add potato to soup, and then add the half and half. Ladle soup into bowls and top with green onions, cooked bacon, sour cream and grated cheddar cheese. Corn Chowder • 8 ears com or 6 cups frozen com, thawed • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 1 tablespoon butter • 1 onion, minced • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced • 1 tablespoon chili powder • 3 tablespoons flour • 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth • 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed • 1 Vi cups whole milk • 1 teaspoon salt • Vi teaspoon pepper • Vi cup heavy cream • Garnish: • 14 cup mayonnaise • 'A cup sour cream • Vi cup Cotija, finely crumbled • Juice from 1 lime • To Serve: • Chili-Lime seasoning • Tortilla chips If using fresh com, cut the kernels off of the cobs. Puree 3 cups of the com kernels in the blender or food processor. Coarsely chop the remain ing com kernels. In a stock pot, heat olive oil and butter. Add onion and jalapeno and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Sprinkle with flour and cook a minute. Add chili powder and vegetable or chicken broth. Add pureed com kernels and chopped com. Bring to a boil. Add cannellini beans, whole milk, salt, pepper and heavy cream. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste for seasoning. For garnish, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, Cotija and lime juice. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and add a dollop of the mayonnaise mixture. Sprinkle with chili-lime seasoning and top with crumbled tortilla chips. Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup • 6 cups chicken broth • 1 cup water • 3-4 chicken thighs (hone-in or boneless) • 2 tablespoons olive oil • 3 tablespoons butter • 1 onion, minced • 2 stalks celery, minced • 3 carrots, minced • 2 cups pasta, your favorite shape • 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed • 1/3 cup flour • Vi cup heavy cream • 1 teaspoon salt • Vi teaspoon pepper • 2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced Combine chicken broth and water and heat to boiling. Add chicken thighs and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and place chicken on cutting board until cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, in a stock pot, heat olive oil and butter over medi um-high heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots, cooking until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and cook another minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook until pasta is tender. When chicken is cool enough to handle, using two forks to shred chicken, discarding skin and bones. Add chicken to soup along with heavy cream and corn kernels. Simmer another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add fresh dill. ADLEN ROBINSON Columnist Who are potential playoff opponents for DCHS football? Following their region champion ship victory last Friday, the Dawson County varsity football team will have an extra week of preparation before they host a playoff game on Saturday, Nov. 12. As of now, there are still four potential opponents from Region 8-3A who could finish as the fourth seed and visit Tiger Stadium. With one more slate of regular season games to go in that region, Hart County, Hebron Christian Academy, Monroe Area and Oconee County all have 2-2 records in the six-team region. Stephens County, who handed Dawson one of their only two losses earlier this season, has already clinched the region title. This Friday, the team most favored to clinch a playoff spot will be Oconee, who will play winless Franklin County. Hebron will have a tough path forward despite having a 7-2 regular season record. With a pair of region losses already, the Lions will travel to Toccoa to face Stephens County. The most heated matchup will be between Hart and Monroe in a rematch of last year’s regular sea son finale. Last season’s game was the deciding factor for the region title, with Monroe prevailing to secure an undefeated regular season. But this year, Monroe is fighting to secure a postseason spot, so far posting just a 4-5 overall after scheduling a tough non-region slate that included Loganville and Gainesville. Which team poses the biggest challenge? Offensively, Hebron has scored the most total points in the region — with the only anomaly coming in a 41-7 loss to Monroe. The Lions are led by quarterback Gavin Hall, who leads all of Class 3A in rushing yards with 1,822 — averaging 202 yards per game. If Hebron loses to Stephens, the Lions would likely be eliminated from playoff contention regardless of the result between Hart and Monroe, since Hebron lost to both of those teams. Defensively, the stingiest team outside of Stephens is Monroe, who have only given up 62 points in four region games. Dawson has only yielded 48 points in six region games.. Monroe boasts the leading tackier in the region, with linebacker Jakyri Jones racking up 98 tackles so far. For Dawson, their defensive strength will be a major factor in its playoff success. The Tigers will be looking to follow up its region title with another playoff run. Rio White Pride about how much Mama wanted to learn In the Appalachians years of Mama’s childhood, there wasn’t a lot of learning to be done other than that which comes from hard times and harder work. Scattered throughout the widespread communities were one-room schoolhouses. In some instances, the church houses and the schoolhouses were one and the same. That’s another wink of Appalachian language: “house” was attached to the names of most buildings: schoolhouse, church house, drinkin’ house. Untrue to mockeries of mountain life was that most children could read — although the Bible was almost all they had — and write, if only “barely”. It was standard for the children to be offered six years of schooling though many fell away by the fourth grade, mostly because they were needed on the farms or to work some kind of manual labor to earn a dime here and there. The story of Mama’s learning is, at least to me, most remarkable. It was some years after she died that I found her education story written out in long- hand. Hers was a distinctive cursive writing that was easy to read. Some of the story I knew from her own mouth. It was the detail that — as Mama liked to say about some thing that stunned her — “floored me”. “When I was a little girl, I wanted to go to school so bad,” she wrote. “I begged Mama to let me go but she said, ‘You’re not old enough.’ I pestered her all the time.” School teachers in those days were not married. Once they wed, they had to give up teaching. The only explana tion I’ve ever heard is that marriage led to babies and that led to them quitting, anyway. Plus, the students would wonder about the teacher’s expanding waistline. That part makes little sense to me because mountain families often had an average of eight children so they should have learned that at home. Miss Estelle was the teacher at the little Nimblewill schoolhouse, the object of Mama’s pining. When she dis covered how much Mama wanted to start school, she said to Mawmaw, “A child who wants leamin’ that bad oughta be taught. Send her on.” Mama was 4 years old when she sashayed in on the pine-knob floor in a flour sack dress and proudly took her seat with her black hair shining and her dark eyes bright with anticipation. She took to schooling like a duck takes to water. For the rest of her life, Mama would often say, “I loved Miss Estelle better than anythin’ in this world. She treated me like I was her little girl. Sometimes, she’d take me home with her.” Miss Estelle, bless her heart, did what the best teachers do - she poured into Mama, paying special attention to teach her the three R’s (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic). Mama went through books at such pace that it was a constant strain on Miss Estelle to find books for her. Mama’s memory was astounding, which makes it befit ting that her last words to me, seconds before she unex pectedly collapsed, were “And don’t you forget that.” Mama memorized Shakespearean sonnets, long, mournful Appalachian ballads, and complete chapters of the Bible. She remembered them all until the day she died and, sometimes, all a’sudden, she would just take off and, in a haunting tone, recite two pages of prose. When sixth grade graduation arrived, Mama begged Miss Estelle to keep her in school. “I want you to learn me more. Please.” Miss Estelle let Mama stay for another four years. Finally, a sad day came. “Bonelle, I’ve taught you all I know. I don’t have any thing else left to teach you.” She was 16 when, with tears streaming down her face, she left the schoolhouse for the last time. It is possible that Mama became the first person in the Southern Appalachian backwoods to have 12 years of education. That gives me a heart full of pride. Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of Let Me Tell You Something. Visit www.rondarich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter. FROM 1B Elliott playoff cut line, Elliott needed to secure as many points as possible to fend off the chasing field. With the exceptions of his win at Talladega and runner-up finish at Bristol, the rest of Elliott’s playoff run had been marked by mostly competitive runs thwarted by either mechanical issues or late- race misfortune. But for most of Sunday’s Martinsville race, Elliott was in cham pionship form and had a car in contention for victo ry lane. Running well within the top-5 for over 450 laps of the race, Elliott finished each of the first two stages FROM 1B Football joined by Simeon Welch, Briggs Weaver and Anthony Garcia. Smith eventually ran in a decisive touchdown with just over six minutes remaining. in second position behind a determined Denny Hamlin. One of the very few opportunities for a major change in track position came late in the race with 34 laps remaining when a caution flag was brought out. While previous cautions had done little to change the racing order, this late stoppage was approached with different strategies. With playoff driver Chase Briscoe opting to stay out on the track under caution and others taking two tires or none at all, Elliott’s four-tire pit stop placed him at the edge of the top 10. As a result, Elliott became caught up in a crowded bunch of drivers in that part of the track and was forced to drive defen- With the visiting crowd growing ever more excited for the final buzzer to sound, Dawson gave the supporters one final treat before Halloween. A pick-six by Tucker Caine put an additional stamp on what had already become a sealed victory for the Tigers. When the clock finally hit zero, the players cele- sively to avoid major con tact — especially with Hamlin and Chastain jock eying for position around him. Eventually, both of those drivers passed Elliott, who unofficially finished in 11th position before a post-race disqual- ification of Brad Keselowski officially placed him in 10th. The two strong stage finishes helped give Elliott a 45-point day — good enough to finish just a handful of points above Hamlin in the playoff standings. Hamlin, who needed to finish at least four posi tions better than Chastain to secure a spot in the Championship 4, was in that position on the final lap until Chastain moved from 10th to fifth to finish brated with each other and then quickly acknowl edged the student section and everyone who traveled to watch the title-clinching performance. Sounds of jubilation echoed around the huddled Dawson players and coaching staff as the night grew ever colder. “It’s always good to fin ish strong,” Maxwell said. one spot ahead of Hamlin. The four contenders for the 2022 NASCAR Championship at Phoenix Raceway will be Elliott, Bell, Chastain and Joey Logano. Elliott will be preparing for his third consecutive appearance in the Championship 4. “We’re just trying to have a strong week of preparation. The spring [Phoenix] race was a long time ago and a lot has changed since then,” Elliott said. “I’m looking forward...to getting home first and thinking through everything. We’ll be ready to go come next weekend; I don’t have any doubt about that.” The NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 on NBC. “We won every region game and it’s fantastic to do that. Tonight, we fin ished the job.” Next, the Tigers will host the fourth seed of Region 8, with all teams in that region still having to play an additional regular season game next week. As of now, four teams in that region are tied with 2-2 region records. FROM 1B xc grass first. Tangel led the charge for the boys team and would soon find himself in a tight group of run ners from Pickens and Wesleyan. In the final stretch of flat space before the fin ish line, Tangel made his mad dash to the finish, going side-by-side with Wesleyan’s Andrew Cook. Tangel outlasted Cook by three-tenths of a second to finish eighth overall with a time of 17:51.20. Swafford secured a lOth-place finish after sprinting past Lumpkin County’s Sam Edwards by three seconds. Cael Hand and Luke Lowe finished 13th and 14th before Aaric Muilenburg finished 20th to round out the runners who counted toward the final score. The girls team got out to a strong start, with the Dawson runners keeping close to each other early on. But after the runners crossed Smith Bridge for a second time, LeCave picked up the pace and would eventually cross the finish line in sixth place with a time of 20:52. Freshman Hayden Hand was not far behind, ending up in eighth place at 21:01. Phillips secured a ninth-place finish at 21:21. Harper Dussouy fin ished 13th and Addison Smith ended up in 20th to wrap up the scoring for Dawson. After the conclusion of the girls race, All-Region recognitions were given out to the top 14 finishers of each varsity race, with the top 7 of those receiv ing First Team honors. While LeCave was the sole Dawson runner to get a place in the All- Region First Team, seven others received Second Team spots. Hayden Hand, Phillips and Dussouy represented the girls team for All- Region Second Team, while Tangel, Swafford, Cael Hand and Lowe rep resented the boys. The Dawson cross country teams will now move on to the Class 3A State Championship host ed by Carrollton High School on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 9:30 a.m.
