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Spinach Noodle Backen

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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If you’ve ever prepared a dish of Florentine potatoes you might want to ‘rename’ my recipe: Florentine Noodle Backen. First, and foremost, what is Florentine potatoes? They are actually mashed potatoes with spinach sautéed and put inside the potatoes. When I first presented a Florentine potato dish I just couldn’t put the spinach inside the potato because I feared guests would turn them down. What I did instead was to create a mashed potato dish bearing many of the ingredients in this week’s column. I then sautéed the spinach with onions, etc., mounded the potatoes on a plate and then at the base of the potatoes I surrounded them with the sautéed spinach mixture. The guests loved the presentation and the taste of the mixture together.

Spinach Noodle Backen is a German take on a spinach and noodle mixture that would be a nice side to maybe a seafood dinner, beef or chicken. It might just be something different to bring to the Easter dinner this year. I haven’t made it in advance before, so I can’t honestly say how it would work making it ahead of time (like 8-12 hours). The pasta can be cooked in advance, rubbed down with olive oil and refrigerated in a Ziploc bag. All the other ingredients could just be ‘prepped’ so the combination goes together quickly. I’m sitting here typing all this to you when I realize I have 6 cooked chicken breasts ready to go and I’ve got spinach. HA, I know what’s for dinner this week!

In German the word ‘backen’ basically means a dish cooked in the oven. Earlier I mentioned this would be good with meats added or as a side to meat. With all the cheese it’s carrying quite a bit of calcium and protein. Why not serve it as a meatless entrée with a side salad. Or perhaps bring more vegetables into the casserole. This should retain the heat pretty good for traveling purposes. Wrap it tightly in foil and then a towel or blanket when carrying the dish across town. (Yes, you could probably use a crockpot!)

I am blessed with a traveling crockpot made for the automobile, so taking dishes and keeping them hot is no longer any type of problem. In many of our cars adaptors aren’t even needed.

This past weekend found us entertaining a large portion of our family for the annual grandpa/great grandpa weekend, at our home. I would like to do it all over again in a couple of weeks. That’s how much I enjoy having everyone here. We brought my dad down, because it’s his special day. I love it, even when the little ones are needing a nap and things get a little hairy. It’s just life, and I love being surrounded by them.

It is time to plan the Easter dinner. I have no idea what we are having this year, or who is joining us for dinner! I hope it’s several, that’s for sure. Have an outstanding week and do something fun and rather off the wall for a change.

Simply yours, The Covered Dish

Spinach Nudel Backen

16 ounces Linguine, snapped in half and cooked
3 tablespoons salted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
8-10 ounces fresh baby spinach, chopped into slivers
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces cream cheese
4 ounces sour cream
1 cup shredded Gouda cheese
2 cups 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon dry basil
Additional shredded Gouda for topping dish

Cook linguine and remove from heat just before its al dente. Consider leaving pasta in hot water while you complete the sauce; and then drain.

In a saucepan melt butter and sauté the chopped onion, add the chopped spinach and wilt; lastly add the garlic cloves and sauté. Chop cream cheese into chunks and add to mixture along with sour cream, milk and the shredded Gouda cheese.
Continue stirring sauce until all cheeses are melted. While mixing add the pepper, salt and basil. When sauce is hot, but not boiling add the linguini. Stir until all the pasta is coated.

Serve as a side or turn into a main entrée. Chicken could easily be added to this for a main dish or shrimp. Also to make it more interesting consider adding sautéed mushrooms and/or artichokes. I can even see thin circles of Roma tomatoes in the recipe.

Should you decide to bake (‘backen’ in German) an easy topping would be crumbled bacon, additional cheese, toasted and seasoned bread crumbs or chopped fresh basil.

Simply changing the choice of cheese can make a great deal of difference.

 

Golf through the Eyes of a Hunter

By
Steve Gilliland
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Saturday, we passed a golf course and I was amazed at the number of golfers already out chasing that little white ball around on what amounts to be nothing more than a huge lawn. It’s always puzzled me how that game can be considered a good workout when the most exorcize most golfers get is dragging their overweight carcasses in and out of the golf cart. Anyway, it all reminded me of my first and only brush with the game of golf.

Awhile back, in a valiant attempt to add a little culture to my otherwise mundane and culture-less existence, and to further stretch the boundaries of my comfort zone, (also known as free tickets) I attended a fairly major Golf Tournament at Prairie Dunes Country Club just outside of Hutchinson, KS. Now understand, I don’t know a fairway from a flambé, or a bogey from a booger. To me, a driver is the person at the wheel of a vehicle, and putter is something we men do in lieu of something constructive. Yet there I was, reduced to being part of a gaggle of onlookers sittin’ in the hot sun called “the gallery.” Even though I tried my best to fit in, I’m pretty sure I looked at that entire experience slightly different than most other people there. Allow me to explain.

Every golf course is littered with various sized pits of sand known as sand traps. When I looked at the sand traps all around us, all I could think was what swell little ponds they could be. Large mouth bass and those big hybrid bluegills would love nice sandy bottom pools like those. Wild turkeys take regular dust baths to help keep bugs out of their feathers, and in doing so they carve out bowl shaped spots in the dirt called “wallows.” I’ll bet those nice sandy “traps” could draw every turkey for miles around; sort of like a communal bath. I’d also bet every female turtle in the county comes there to lay her eggs in that nice deep sand. Wouldn’t it be a hoot to watch a golfer swingin’ away at turtle eggs thinkin’ they were his golf ball!

Much of the hilly terrain between holes was thick with sand hill plum bushes. I imagine the refined eye of any golf connoisseur saw this as garnish; part of the overall presentation. I saw it as a never-ending supply of plum jelly. And just think how many gallons of plums those guys could put in all the pockets in those golf bags they cart around. And what about sand hill plum wine? You talk about an additional revenue stream! Lots of those guys are drinking anyway, so why not open a small micro brewery there in the pro shop and they could be drinking home grown plum wine brewed right there at the golf course.

The miles of neatly groomed footpaths amidst the roughs looked to me like great spots for coyote traps. I know from talking with golf course employees that coyotes love to roam golf courses no matter where the course is. Heck, I’ll bet most courses would even loan me one of their neat little golf carts to buzz around and check traps, just to keep the occasional coyote from scaring the dickens out of patrons. The trees bordering the course screamed deer hunting to me, and I had a few good tree-stand locations picked out before we’d left. And I hadn’t even thought about the turkey hunting yet!

Anyway, as out-of-place as I felt, I began to see that this game called golf has a lot of similarities to deer and turkey hunting. For example, we’d been advised to find choice seats and wait for the players to come to us. So, there we sat awaiting our “quarry,” on hunter green colored bleachers at the 17th hole, a spot where we could see action all around us. Not much different I’d say than puttin’up our camouflage hunting blind near a “hot” deer trail or a known turkey roost and marking time in anticipation of a good shot. Speaking of shots, when one of us makes a nice shot and harvests a deer or turkey for the freezer, there are high-fives and handshakes all around. Those guys too! When one of them made an exceptional “shot” he’d dance a jig, shake everyone’s hand and even tip his hat to the crowd. They even had guys who raised their hands to keep everyone quiet while they shoot. (Now there’s something my wife and I would both benefit from when we hunt together!) I must say though that their marksmanship left a lot to be desired. Those guys all shot 64 or 65 times each day, and I didn’t see one of them carrying any dead critters to show for it!

Yes, my playing golf at Prairie Dunes (now there’s a mental picture) would probably be worthy of a movie. We could call it something like “the Clampetts Join the Country Club.” I’d have to have a special custom-made golf bag with an extra pouch on each side; one to hold a deer rifle with a scope, and the other to hold a shotgun. I’m pretty sure I could get a fishing rod and traps in there somewhere amongst the clubs. I seriously doubt they would allow me into the clubhouse or proshop though dressed in full camo and smellin’ like coyote bait or deer pee. Although, now that I think about it, after playing 18 holes, some of the guys comin’ off the course might not smell much better. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

 

New Feeder in the Yard

By
Sandy Pugh
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I have written about the two little chairs that hang on two trees in the backyard that hold a little bowl of food for the squirrels and the birds. One is the old fashioned orange metal chair and the other is a green Adirondack chair. The bowls are made from the bottom of a 2 liter pop bottle.
We decided the other day to change it up and put something different in one of them. So we put a little square Tupperware container in the orange chair. It didn’t throw them for a loop very long. But some of the squirrels are to fat to sit behind the container.
I looked out his morning and one of the squirrels was sitting on the really thin arm of that little orange chair and trying to eat out of the Tupperware container. She looked like one of those birds that bob up and down and dip into a cup of water.
So I will have something new to keep me entertained now to see what they are going to do with this container. It will take them a few days to get used to it and some of them will never be able to sit behind it like they always have with the other one.
Some of the squirrels are to fat to sit behind the new square cup so they have to hang upside down above the feeder and eat out of the cup. That is cute but I am not sure how that works when it comes to swallowing. I have always wondered how they are able to swallow when they are hanging upside down by their back feet.
Some of the squirrels sit on the thin edge of the cup to eat. They do some bobbing and weaving to stay on that thin cup but don’t seem to mind. I guess when you walk on the high lines and jump from thin branches to the power pole that is nothing to them.
The little female squirrel I call Cheeky doesn’t like the orange chair at all. She prefers the green Adirondack chair in the oak tree. She is usually on that chair eating or sometimes she will eat on the ground under the feeders. But she is still the boss and won’t let anyone get near her when she is eating.
The other day after we put the little Tupperware container on the orange chair a little squirrel came down the tree to eat. He stopped above the chair and was hanging upside down looking at the little container. Then came on down the tree but skirted around the feeder on the tree checking it out.
He finally decided he was more hungry than scared and finally slowly came back up the tree and crawled onto the orange chair. He sat on the back side of the container with his butt on the back of the chair for awhile. Then he got down on one of the thin arms. His butt was on the arm of the chair and his feet were on the top of the container. He sat and ate like that for awhile and then went over to the green chair to try it out again.
I love to watch the squirrels when they are in the yard and will try to move the food around so they have to look for it. We have our own well and have a well head in the back yard. Some days I will put a hand full of sunflower seeds on top of that and then a few on top of our little black landscape light by the patio.
The squirrels remember that the seeds are there sometimes and when they come into the yard every morning will look up on the well head to see if there are any there. Then they will check out the little light to see if I put some there.
We have a big beautiful English oak in the back yard and the trunk splits in to what looks like little legs as it goes into ground. Sometimes when I feed the birds and squirrels I will put some seeds between two of those trunk legs. So then they have to look around the tree to find where I put the seeds that day. It is like a treasure hunt or Easter egg hunt for squirrels. I am sure they cuss me under their breath when they are trying to find where I put stuff each day.
So a new feeder is a normal occurrence in our yard and they are used to having to search for their food each day. It makes it more fun for me to watch them when they are trying to figure out just where it is that day. But they always find it and clean everything out of the feeders and everywhere I put it is always cleaned up whether it is a new feeder or new one. To contact Sandy: [email protected]

“Medical School Journey”

By
Guest Columnist
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0

It has been 9 years since my medical school acceptance. I can describe my personal process in 2 words: arduous and lengthy. Now, this may not be the case for all people that apply to medical school. A few individuals may be able to apply directly out of undergrad and be accepted. I’ll speak from my experience which had a few more detours involved.

I am the first person in my family to become a physician. This added unique challenges while applying to medical school – I essentially had to blaze my own trail. The journey starts during undergraduate education. Many students major in the sciences and take the courses to build a strong foundation for the coming years. Regardless of major, your GPA plays a role in medical school acceptance. Surround yourself with like minded individuals that will help you succeed in your goal.

The application and acceptance process is a dynamic one. The initial hurdle is the MCAT (Medical College Acceptance Test). After my first MCAT, I realized I needed a structured approach and direction to succeed. I highly recommend an in-person class or an online study group that offers insight into test taking strategies and practice exams. These resources will be worth the investment. My score drastically improved and made my application much more competitive.

Unfortunately, the number of medical school applicants is staggering in comparison to the limited number of seats available. This is where building and personalizing your application comes into play. Inquire admission committees on how to bolster yourself on paper. Many highly recommend experiences in patient care. These can come in the form of volunteerism or employment at local hospitals or nursing homes. Some individuals do research, shadow physicians, become scribes or work other skill-building jobs in the field. I decided to work at a local hospital providing direct patient care. Through this, I gained the experience I needed to stand out. The patients you meet along the way will teach you more than you realize.

I also furthered my education with a Master’s degree, focusing on human anatomy and physiology. This gave me the opportunity to teach undergrad students and gain even more foundational knowledge.

The perseverance and experiences paid off. I was accepted to Ross University School of Medicine in 2014, spent 2 years in Chicago, graduated with Highest Honors and matched into my first choice residency program for Family Medicine. I graduated in June 2021.

There is no wrong way to go about getting into medical school but there are more efficient routes. Have a mentor. Utilize appropriate resources. Stay focused and on track.

Samantha Darnall-Werlinger, MD work at Avera Medical Group Internal Medicine in Watertown, SD. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org and on Facebook featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc® a medical Q&A show providing health information based on science, built on trust, streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.

Clowning Around Just Comes Naturally For Generational Lifetime Kansas Rodeo Family Man 10 Times Clown Of Year

By
Frank Buchman
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0
Frank J Buchman
Frank Buchman

Justin Rumford is a ten-time Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association (PRCA) Clown of the Year who grew up in the rodeo business.
He attended his first National Finals Rodeo when he was six years old. Rumford knew then and there that he was destined to be in the rodeo arena.
Rumford’s rodeo career is long and distinguished before he became a clown. He went to the National High School Finals and competed in the Central Plains Region for college rodeo. He made the college finals in both saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling.
Rumford went on to compete in pro rodeo where he made the Prairie Circuit Finals in the steer wrestling multiple times.
Rumford’s clown career happened quick. After a clown was unable to make it last minute, Rumford was asked to “just give it a shot” in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. He borrowed a barrel and a wireless microphone for one performance.
“I was like wow this a thing, man this is maybe something I want to do,” Rumford said.
In 2011, he made the decision to go forward with being a rodeo clown. It kept him involved with rodeo where he already had a relationship with a lot of people that he would end up working with.
Rumford’s career took off quickly after he got his card in 2011. He won PRCA Clown of the Year in 2012 and for the next nine consecutive years.
“I think that my career just hit when it was supposed to. I’m pretty blessed to just be there when I was supposed to be there,” he said.
Rodeo has been a part of Rumford’s life forever. It is full of friends turned family and his memories and stories are worth more than the buckles.
His grandpa Floyd Rumford Jr. started in the rodeo contracting business in 1946 and annually produced rodeos throughout the Midwest.
Justin Rumford’s dad, Bronc Rumford was the world’s youngest champion bareback bronc rider when three-years-old. Bronc went on to an illustrious career in every phase of rodeo from diverse competition championships, to stock contracting, to picking up, and well beyond.
Justin Rumford is the most decorated rodeo clown in the PRCA with many unforgettable moments.
Peering through the reflective glass at his past, Justin Rumford was a comedy act waiting to happen.
As a high schooler in south-central Kansas, his actions oftentimes proved to be a mix of his small-town raising. A life lived on the rodeo trail and a hunger for a good time.
He carried that on to the next level when he attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva. And it was a big part of his lifestyle in the early stages of his rodeo career.
There isn’t anything in rodeo that the man hasn’t done. He’s been a bullfighter and a pickup man and a bronc rider and a bulldogger.
He’s roped calves and roped steers, and through every layer of his life, he told funny tales, oftentimes about his own life. It made his transition into a popular rodeo clown that much easier.
Rumford, lives in Ponca City, Oklahoma, with his wife and their triplets,
“We like having Rump around, because he’s funny and he’s a lot like the rest of us,” said Jeremy Carman, chairman of the volunteer committee that produces the annual Guymon, Oklahoma, rodeo. “He is a great fit for our rodeo and the people who live out here in the Panhandle. He’s really one of us.”
Whether he’s telling reride stories behind the chutes or entertaining the crowds who pile into rodeo arena, it’s Rumford being Rumford.
It’s the way he was as a 16-year-old in Abbyville, Kansas; it’s the way he is in his mid-40s. The stories are different, but they’re still comical.
“He’s very easy to work with, because he understands rodeo so well,” said Ken Stonecipher, a longtime committee member and one of the announcers who calls the action in Guymon. “He understands what we need as a rodeo production, and he knows the right times to turn on his microphone and entertain the fans.
“It’s almost like he’s visiting with each person in the stands. He makes it comfortable and funny. There’s just something special about the things he does.”
It’s the reason why he’s been named the PRCA’s Clown of the Year 10 times over his relatively short career in greasepaint. Rumford’s storytelling and comedic techniques have come from a lifetime of experiences.
He utilizes all that for RümpChät, a popular podcast he does with another rodeo personality, Josh “Hambone” Hilton, who is the sound director in Guymon, Oklahoma, each May.
“It’s not just a rodeo podcast, but it’s very agriculture,” Rumford said. “We have a lot of farmers, ranchers and oilfield workers who listen. We’re a blue-collar, beer drinking-man’s podcast.”
What’s said on air sometimes transitions into the rodeo arena, and vice versa. With a personality where life imitates art, Rumford is quite at home around bucking horses and timed-event steers.
“I totally adjust everything,” he said. “You don’t want to push somebody on what they want to hear. When you’re in die-hard rodeo country, you have to feel it out and see what happens. They’re rodeo-savvy, but they like to party. They are my kind of people.”

CUTLINES
Justin Rumford is a 10-time PRCA Clown of the Year, but what he does in the arena is what he does in his everyday life. He’s simply an entertaining person, and he will prove it again at the Guymon, Oklahoma, Pioneer Days Rodeo in May.
(Ted Harbin photo)

Before he ever became a clown, Justin Rumford was entertaining folks in Guymon, just doing so behind the scenes. He and his vibrant personality return to for the Pioneer Days Rodeo, May 5-7.(Ted Harbin photo)

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