There’s nothing like stopping at a good old-fashioned American family restaurant in a small town and devouring a hot homemade meal alongside a friendly local crowd. The smell of mouth-watering fried chicken and homemade, freshly baked cinnamon rolls fills the air, and it feels like the world slows down for a moment.
Jasmine Bedortha was eight years old when her parents Clayton and Angie bought Tater’s Cafe in Dallas, Oregon. Her childhood is filled with memories of hanging out at the restaurant and sometimes helping to bus tables. Now in her twenties, Jasmine has a restaurant venture of her own called Westside Pacific Family Restaurant & Saloon, located right off Pacific Highway in Rickreall. Previously called Rock-N-Rogers
at Farrols, the new restaurant opened in June and already has a local following. Jasmine is confident she is on the right path.
“I really wanted to follow in my parents’ footsteps,” she explains. “I feel like it’s in my blood.”
Westside Pacific offers an extensive menu that caters to all three meals of the day (and any others you’d like to fit in!). Breakfast is served all day and has all the classic flavors prepared the Westside Pacific way. The most popular choices are the Chicken Fried Steak and Chicken Fried Chicken–tender beef or juicy chicken breast hand-dipped and cooked to perfection, and served with their famous house-made gravy. Then there’s the “Hot Mess”–fried chopped bacon, sautéed mushrooms and onions on a bed of crispy hashbrowns, covered with hollandaise sauce and topped with two perfectly seasoned eggs. Nearly everything that comes out of the kitchen at Westside Pacific is made in-house.
“All our stuff is homemade,” says Jasmine, “and my mom, she does the baking. So she makes fresh cinnamon rolls and biscuits. She bakes bread, too.” Jasmine’s dad Clayton is one of the main cooks, so although Jasmine is the boss, it’s still a family effort.
The lunch menu has an impressive selection of hot and cold sandwiches, burgers, wraps, and salads. The Rueben is a local favorite, piled high with slow-cooked corned beef, melty swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and dripping with Thousand Island dressing, served on grilled rye bread.
Dinner choices include all the comfort food classics, including St. Louis Style BBQ Pork Ribs, Family Recipe Beef Stroganoff, Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie, and Beer-Battered Fish and Chips. Or try a juicy hand-cut Ribeye or New York Strip with a loaded baked potato and a choice of soup or salad. Prime Rib is available on Fridays and Saturdays and is cut to order.
Dessert is essential after a hot, hearty meal. Order a piece of warm pie with melty vanilla ice cream or a slice of gooey chocolate cake. Westside Pacific offers several flavors of homemade milkshakes, including chocolate peanut butter and butterscotch.
Striving to maintain a laid-back establishment that has something for everyone, Jasmine wants to make Westside Pacific a destination spot. The Saloon is now open, featuring a full bar, and will soon offer video poker.“I want this to be a place people can come to hang out, maybe have a drink or two,” she says.
Jasmine has lived in the Dallas area her whole life and really enjoys her local regulars. “The customers are my favorite part,” she says, “Everyone is really nice and I love being able to joke around with them.” The Rickreall community has that smalltown feel that can often be found in rural Oregon.
Whether you’re a local or a traveler just passing through on Hwy 99W, make sure to stop at Westside Pacific Family Restaurant & Saloon. Have a seat and take a load off in this casual, family-friendly atmosphere, with down-home recipes and classic comfort foods. Look for the wagon wheel out front. Westside Pacific Family Restaurant & Saloon is located at 670 S. Pacific Hwy W. in Rickreall. Give them a ring at (503) 831-4601. They’re open 630AM-8PM Sunday thru Thursday, 630AM-9PM Friday & Saturday.
Believe it or not, everyone can be an artist when it comes to pumpkin carving, but it is harder than it looks. Follow the following eleven tips, and your gourds will look and smell good the entire trick-or-treating season. Get carving!
Start with the right pumpkin. Choose one that’s fresh, with a sturdy stem, no bruises, and a flat bottom so it won’t roll while you carve.
Cut from the bottom, not the top.
Cutting your “lid” from the bottom of the pumpkin helps prevent the sides from caving in later.
If you carve from the top, cut lid on an angle. This way it won’t drop inside the pumpkin when you replace it, like it would with a straight up-and-down cut. A boning knife should work well for this.
Scoop out all the pulp (and then some).
You can buy a special “claw” for pumpkin gutting, but an ice cream scoop will do just fine. Thin the inner wall of the “face” area to 1¼-inch thick, so it will be easier to pierce the shell.
Sketch your design to size on paper first.
Tape it to the front of your pumpkin. Using a fork or pencil, poke holes along the lines you want to carve.
Try holding the pumpkin in your lap.
It’s easier to create features when the face is gazing up at you. It is suggested to use a serrated kitchen knife or an X-Acto knife.
Start by making simple rough cuts.
If you get the big pieces of pumpkin out of the way first, you can go back and clean up the edges of your design later.
Use your scraps creatively.
Make a tongue, pipe, or hair accessories out of discarded pieces of pumpkin shell, for example.
Keep your pumpkin fresh.
Spread petroleum jelly on the cut edges to seal in moisture. If your pumpkin still shrivels a few days later, revive it with a facedown soak in cold water for up to eight hours.
Create a chimney.
First, leave the lid on for a few minutes while the candle burns. Cut a small hole where the pumpkin has blackened up top. Or, save yourself the stress and opt for a battery-operated votive.
Sprinkle cinnamon inside.
That way, when you light the candle, your jack-o’-lantern will smell like a pumpkin pie. Yum.
o One in 3 people over the age of 60 Have hearing loss.
o Occurrences of dementia are 2 times higher in individuals with a mild hearing loss , 3 times higher in individuals with a moderate hearing loss and 5 times higher in individuals with severe hearing loss.
o Hearing loss is a major contributor to misunderstandings and broken relationships.
o Most people with hearing loss can be helped significantly with hearing aids.
o It is a common misunderstanding that current hearing aid technology can cancel background noise. It is more accurate to say that current technology can greatly help hearing in noise as it is better at managing the noise ... keeping it in the background.
Elmer’s Flag & Banner was started by Elmer Reider in 1963. A former car salesman, Elmer learned about a new kind of business when his car lot was visited by a man whose trade was decorating dealerships with flags, signs and colorful banners. “The story goes that there was a guy who was coming around doing decorations for the car lot,” explains Dave Anchel, president of Elmer’s. “Elmer asked him if he was making any money and the guy said, ‘Better than you!’” Elmer believed it, so he left auto sales for the car lot decorating business. The store prospered, thanks to his talent for spotting niche business opportunities, like flags and banners, and his commitment to building customer loyalty with quality products and honest service. Today, Elmer’s is Portland’s largest flag, banner and kite store, with 4,000 square feet of products, everything from weathervanes to windsocks.
Anchel grew up in rural northeast Pennsylvania, where he spent 22 years in the family business, learning how to run a successful small company. In their search for a business to purchase, Anchel and his wife visited Portland and fell in love. “We came to Portland, had some really good chocolate and said to each other, ‘We could live here,’” he recalls.
Variety is the spice of life and it’s also what you’ll find at Elmer’s. Anchel estimates the store offers some 8,000 different products, about 1,200 of which are available online. Elmer’s also makes its
own custom flags and banners, by hand and in-house. They make both high-quality, digitally designed flags and banners, and are one of the only companies in the United States that still does appliqué - the time-honored tradition of sewing one piece of fabric onto another - just like Betsy Ross.
“We make those by hand, upstairs in our sewing shop, and they look gorgeous,” Anchel explains. “It’s for when people want an heirloom qual ity flag, like of their family crest, or when a high school wins a cham pionship and wants to hoist a banner to their gymnasium ceiling.”
Elmer’s also manufactures, sells, installs and services custom poles, including two of the tallest in the state of Oregon, measuring 120 feet. “They’re monsters,” Anchel says with a laugh.
Elmer’s selection of kites, flags, banners, weather vanes, wind spin ners and other wind toys will amaze you. Looking to spruce up your home’s exterior? Stop into the retail store at 1332 NE Broadway in Portland, Monday-Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. Or visit their website, elmersflag.com anytime.
“Smell that air, Fester! Like a tomb.”
Another of my favorites, this dark comedy
is based on the 1964 TV show! Starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci, the movie follows a gloomy but loving family of outcasts who live in a gothic mansion on the hill. Full of the macabre, cartoony violence, and biting social commentary, the jokes and goofs land like punches in this otherworldly romp. Rated PG-13.
“Who says there’s no such thing as ghosts?” In this dark fantasy dramedy, afterlife therapist Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) move into a haunted mansion to exorcize ghosts for a greedy inheritor bent on finding treasure. It’s silly and slapstick, yet serious and contemplative–after all, you can’t have ghosts without death. Good for kiddos 6+. Rated PG.
Stream these movies where available, or rent from your local movie store, library, or rental kiosk.
“Oh, look. Another glorious morning. Makes me sick!”
One of my favorite Halloween movies, it’s the story of three witches burned at the stake who return to terrorize the children of Salem, Mass. With a killer cast including Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Thora Birch, it’s whacky, spooky, and actionpacked. Rated PG, but with strong language and mature themes it’s more like PG-13.
“Who you gonna call?”
There’s nothing like it, pure and simple. A supernatural comedy starring a legendary cast, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, and more. Parapsychologists turn ghost hunters in New York City and end up saving the world. There’s ghosts, marshmallow giants, and so much nostalgia. Rated PG, but with strong language and mature themes it’s more like PG-13.
By Donovan Darling, Staff Writer
“Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.” I binged all 7 of these movies last year, and they are equal parts horror and camp. They’re so bad that they’re good, you know? Imaginative, terrifying, funny, and always graphically violent, Robert Englund haunts my nightmares indefinitely! Adults only.
“Winchester?”
One of the very few horror comedy zombie movies, this movie has “killed” since released. Like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s other movies, this plays on genre tropes and makes for geniuslevel comedy. Ultra violence and profuse profanity really make this a dirty pleasure movie. Adults only. Rated R.
By Krysta M. Nelson, Contributing Writer
Oh autumn, what a wonderful time of year! A time to break out all my favorite sweaters just as the leaves are turning into vibrant shades of yellow, orange, and red. And best of all, the arrival of Halloween, my favorite holiday. My nickname as a kid was Little Miss Mess Maker, as carving pumpkins has always been my favorite Halloween activity–one time I even recreated a horror movie with gourd guts. While carving pumpkins is extremely popular, most people don’t know the myth behind the mess and tradition.
Long ago in a small Irish town, a drunkard named Stingy Jack earned his moniker after tricking the Devil himself. Jack was notorious in his little town, and Satan had heard of his mischievous deeds. Jack may have been known for being a drunken scoundrel—scuttered and bollocksed—but he was also a clever lad, so he convinced the Devil to take him to his favorite pub as a last request and to pay for the bill. When the tab came due, Jack convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin so Jack could pay for the drinks, then they could leave for the underworld.
The Devil was fooled. And instead of paying up, Jack dropped the coin into his pocket alongside a silver crucifix, trapping the fiery foe in the form of a coin. The Devil begged Stingy Jack to
release him. And so Jack released him, but only on the condition that the Devil would not bother him for another year, and should Jack die, Satan could not claim his soul.
True to his word, the Devil didn’t return for a whole year. When the Devil finally reappeared to claim his soul, Jack tricked the Devil to climb a fruit tree and pick him a last meal to eat before traveling to Hell. Once the Devil reached the top of the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark of the tree trunk, trapping the Devil high among the branches. Again, Satan begged Jack for freedom, but this time, Jack made the Devil promise to not bother him for another 10 years. Of course, the Devil agreed to his terms and was freed.
Jack died soon thereafter. Because of his mischief and sins, he was denied entrance to Heaven. Upset by the trickery and scheming, and true to his word of not claiming his soul, Satan denied Jack entrance into Hell, too. As a parting gift, the Devil gifted Jack a lump of burning coal to light his way
and sent him off into the night. Jack placed the burning coal in a hollowed out turnip, and he has roamed the earth ever since. The Irish began calling this eerie creature “Jack of the Lantern,” or “Jack O’Lantern” for short.
In Ireland and Scotland, people began carving their own unique versions of jack-o’-lanterns, cutting terrifying faces into turnips, potatoes,
beets, or rutabagas, and lighting and displaying them near doors or windows to frighten away Stingy Jack and other evil spirits. In the mid-1800s, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought the jack-o’-lantern tradition with them when they moved to the U.S. And they soon found that pumpkins, a large fruit native to America, made for perfect jack-o’-lanterns.
Since then, there have been many attempts in popular culture to revive this long-forgotten tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns from turnips. In 2015, due to a severe pumpkin shortage caused by severe rain, the charity English Heritage called for Brits to rekindle their love for turnip carving and return to the original tradition of turnip jack-o’lanterns. English Heritage even went so far as to install many ghoulish turnip jack-o’-lanterns at Dover Castle to inspire others to do the same. Whether carving trunips will become popular again is still unknown.
In Ireland and Scotland, people began carving their own unique versions of jacko’-lanterns, cutting terrifying faces into turnips, potatoes, beets, or rutabagas, and lighting and displaying them near doors or windows to frighten away Stingy Jack and other evil spirits.
There are, however, many benefits to turnip carving over pumpkin carving. There’s no stringy pumpkin mess or seeds to clean out. Turnips are quite small and portable, so they can actually be hung like little lanterns. Also, turnips are cheap! So you can afford to make dozens and dozens if you’re so inclined. If they’re careful with a knife, older kids can carve a turnip by themselves because they’re so much simpler and smaller. The red-white color and eerie roots are scarier than pumpkins. After you scoop out the insides of the turnip, you can make mashed turnips. Yum! And because they’re available year round, you can carve turnips for more than just jack-o’-lanterns — votive holders, artwork or whatever you want.
So, there you have it. I love it when holidays and their fun-filled activities have such a rich history as Halloween and the Stingy Jack origin of pumpkin carving. And the fact that the history is also a ghost story is even more fun! Whether you choose to carve a pumpkin or turnip, I hope you and yours have a safe, fun, messy, and memorable holiday.
