Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, April 27, 2019

4


Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 27, 2019 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE by Deanne Davis

TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

“The only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you’re afraid 
of it!” James Beard

Easter last Sunday was simply wonderful, a sunrise service by the side 
of a lake with cormorants diving into the water, perching on buoys 
and flapping their wings, good music and the message one Jesus would 
have loved. In fact, it was one of His favorites: “A new command I 
give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love 
one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.” 
John 13:34-35. As the minister said, love each other all the time, not 
just when you’re in the mood, or when they’re someone you like, but 
everyone, all the time.

After church our little people opened their Easter baskets, revealing 
quantities of chocolate, and breakfast was demanded. I created that 
quick old standby, bacon-onion-egg, which consists of bacon sliced 
in chunks and cooked in a big skillet with sliced onions then eggs 
scrambled in when the bacon-onion mixture is properly browned. A little cheese is a nice addition. 
Served on hot plates, with coffee, and everyone will be full and ready for a nap. Sunrise services 
require one to be up, dressed and ready to go at about 5:30 a.m.! But worth it, friends and neighbors, 
so worth it. However, in my heart of hearts, what I really wanted was cheese soufflé. Now I.m going 
to dream about it till I make it!

My mother, now residing in heaven, liked cheese soufflé. When I was a surly teen-ager and doing 
a lot of the cooking for the two of us as she was a single working mom, we found this recipe and 
discovered that we could make cheese soufflé just like any French chef and so we did, with some 
regularity. If you don’t have a soufflé dish, don’t worry about it. Just use any 2-qt. casserole dish and 
it will be fine. You can get yourself a dandy one for under $20 at Amazon.com. Most important 
thing, don’t be intimidated. It’s just food! 

6 Tb. butter

6 Tb. flour

1-1/2 cups milk

6 large eggs separated

1 tsp. salt

. tsp. pepper

. tsp. dry mustard

Dash cayenne pepper

2 cups shredded cheese

Ingredients 1-3 are step one. This, by the way, is called a “roux” pronounced “roo” as in Kanga and 
Roo from Winnie the Pooh.

 Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the flour and cook this for several minutes over 
medium heat then start adding the milk, stirring constantly, a little at a time, and you’ll find you 
have a gorgeous white sauce. Remove from the heat, admire it, add your cheese (I like the Mexican 
four cheese blend which comes pre-shredded in a nice plastic bag in the cheese section of your 
market.) blend in till melted, and set it aside.

 6 large eggs separated. This is tricky as it’s hard to get the whites into the large electric mixer bowl 
without any of the yellow coming along. But YOU can do it! Put the yolks in a small bowl. Beat the 
whites in your mixer, with the salt, till they form stiff peaks. Set aside.

 To the yolks, add the pepper, dry mustard, and a dash of cayenne pepper if you have it. Take your 
small whisk, beat this together and add it to the roux-cheese mixture.

 Now take your beaten egg whites, which are still stiffly peaking, and gently fold in the roux-cheese-
egg yolk mixture a little at a time till it’s all combined. Do not use your mixer to blend these together 
as it’s too harsh and will ruin your perfect and practically finished soufflé.

 Put a little olive oil on a paper towel and very lightly grease your soufflé dish. Gently scoop your 
soufflé mixture into the dish and give it a top hat by making a circle about an inch or so deep in the 
soufflé and about an inch or so from the side of the dish. This is very classy and looks great when 
it’s finished.

 Now, you can bake your soufflé at about 370-375 for about 50 minutes and have a very crusty 
outside and creamy interior or you can bake it at about 335 centered in a pan of hot water for about 
5-10 minutes more. This makes for a firmer texture with less crusty outside. Either way is terrific. 
No peeking while cooking!

 Be sure everyone is ready to dine, napkin in lap, fork in hand, when you remove your soufflé from 
the oven. Bear it to the table with great ceremony and enjoy the applause, the admiration...and the 
soufflé!

 My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis - Check out “The Crown” Easter is just past, but

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to that crown of thorns, “The Crown” is perfect for you!

Star of Wonder the CD is now on TuneCore! Take a look! Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd


THE COPS HANG OUT

If and hopefully you have been following me right here in the newspaper and my radio show on Go 
Country 105. With that said you know I have found many Mexican restaurants in Southern California. 
It makes sense, doesn’t hurt to have many Mexican Restaurants, but how many of them are good. I 
mean even acceptable. There are those that have above average food but the drinks plain stink!!! Or 
the drinks are good but the food sucks!!! Well my friends since I am high and dry this month, the food 
part of this equation was what I was looking for, so with my friend Janice, (claims to be a restaurant 
critic in waiting) I trekked down to East LA to the Original El Tepeyac Café on Evergreen in the heart 
of East LA.

The restaurant is fairly small with a 
counter and plenty of parking. The 
atmosphere is lively and the patrons 
come from all and I mean all walks of 
life. So what is it that brings patrons 
from all parts of the city to this Café? 
It’s the food, and it’s darn good too. 
Portions are big and you’ll always leave 
with half of your food in a to-go bag. 
I’m telling you friends I tried to order 
the whole menu so that I could bring 
to you my loyal readers and viewers 
the best review possible, but I failed the 
portions are toooo big. So what did I have? I asked the server on a few suggestions and I went with 
the Taquitos with Guacamole, as soon as saw this portion I knew I ordered too much food. Next was 
the Manuel tacos , friend Janice wouldn’t share but the look on her eyes I can tell she was pleased or 
was it that I am so handsome? Hmmm. The staple or the signature dish at El Tepeyak are the burritos 
my selection was the #2 A chile Colorado at this is a great dish and is pork slowly simmered in a red 
chile sauce, man it’s worth driving back for. If you are running from the cops stay away, El Tepeyac is 
a fav of the men in blue. The Hollenbeck Burrito is a favorite of the police and comes with chips and 
guacamole. Next time I’m going to order the Okie de Pollo…shredded chicken breast. So what does 
El Tepeyac mean? The Hill that the Virgin Mary was sighted!!! No beer or wine. My only complaint is 
this darn to go menu. I guess I’m just getting old the print is too small.

Hey love to hear from you.. follow me on twitter or facebook, or the old fashioned way… e mail me 
thechefknows@yahoo.com Listen is this Sunday morning with Chris Erskine columnist for the LA 
Times Go Country 105 FM.


KATIE Tse..........This and That

BRAIN FIZZLES EPISODE 4: ONESIES

 My husband and I were at the track last weekend, 
as we are most weekends, and I was struck again 
by the great preponderance of onesies. They 
reminded me a bit of those stretchy furniture 
covers used to disguise regular, old folding tables. 

 Surely you’ve seen them. They usually come in 
black and expand to cover the length, width, and height, so that none 
of the original structure remains to be seen. Yes, it appears that placing 
naked folding tables on display is a bit much. Let’s dress them in some 
nice spandex. That way no one will know they’re really folding tables.

 But getting back to the track, it seems that nowhere else are there so 
many onesies on parade. Granted, I’m not fashionable at all, and my 
husband and I don’t exactly frequent places where one gets dressed up. 
And if we do make the rare appearance at such a place, I’m the under-
dressed one. But I remain unapologetically slobby.

 So, onesies. You remember those nighties for little kids that are one 
continuous piece from the pants part to the upper half? Usually they 
had a trap door in the back that closed with two large buttons.

 Well, they have those for adults now. Adult women, I should say. 
Actually, I did see a guy there wearing what looked like a qiana full-
body jumpsuit patterned with gold chains and marijuana leaves. But 
he was the exception. At the track, female onesies are the rule.

 I counted them last week just for kicks, and came up with nineteen 
sightings. But three of them were on pre-pubescent girls, so those 
don’t count. Every time I mention my observations to my husband he 
tells me he’s going to buy me a pair, to which I strongly protest. I know 
he won’t do it. He doesn’t throw money around on stuff he knows I’ll 
never use.

 I’ve seen every kind of onesie imaginable at the track. Recently some lady inside the walking ring 
had a particularly dramatic number. It was all white, possibly lame‘ (rhyming with “flambe‘“, not 
“dame”), with a split floor length cape in the back and some serious side action up top. 

 We guessed she was a celebrity of some sort, the way she was posing for endless pictures. Good 
for her. Even if I was a celebrity I’d never be caught dead wearing such a thing. But then, you know 
what I’m like.

 In contrast, most of the onesies I typically see are much tamer. And don’t get me wrong, a lot of 
them look quite nice. It’s not so much the way they look that bothers me, it’s the logistics of it all. I 
mean, if you have to use the bathroom, do you need to take the whole thing off? Seems like a lot of 
effort to put into an outfit. 

 If you ask me, a trap door in back would be easier. But I suppose that’s the kind of comment you’d 
expect from someone as unfashionable as I am. That’s why this column’s called “This & That” and 
not “Katie’s Fashion Tips.” Till next time. 

 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com