Column from October 8, 2009

Blowing our own horn

What fun it was to attend the annual Washington Newspaper Publishers Association convention and awards dinner this year!

Not only did the staff at The Othello Outlook bring home some great awards – including being selected as the second-place best newspaper in the state for our circulation size – it’s also a great opportunity to network with other journalists, publishers, editors, advertizing representatives in the industry.

Judging is done by fellow newspaper people, so it’s a super pat on the back to win the awards.

Also, congratulations to the folks at the Othello Independent for the advertising awards they garnered. This was their first year entering the competition so the kudos are a great boost for their egos, too!

It’s been about four years since I’ve been to the convention, but I still recognized many of the folks there. It was fun catching up and finding out what everyone has been up to.

On the way home, we took Highway 410 through the Mount Rainier National Forest. We love that drive and even though the weather was cloudy and we couldn’t see the mountain, it’s still beautiful scenery.

Up at the top of Chinook pass, we encountered snow for quite some time. Yes, I did say snow! It came down pretty hard for a while there. I said we needed to find a place to pull over and take a picture because no one would believe us, but there aren’t many stops through that area. In fact, they post signs not to stop on the highway because of avalanche danger.

Of course, it is October, so it’s not unusual to see snow starting in the mountains.

When we got to the bottom, we stopped at one of our favorite places … Whistlin’ Jack Lodge … for dinner. They treated us to a sampler of their delicious corn chowder, which sure hit the spot after driving through snow.

I don’t have their recipe, but here’s one that uses many of the same ingredients.

Corn chowder

½ cup diced bacon

4 medium potatoes, chopped

½ medium onion, chopped

2 cups water

2 (12 ounces each) cans cream style corn

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste

2 cups half-and-half or light cream, scalded

Sauté bacon until browned and crisp; add chopped potatoes and onions. Add water, corn and seasonings; cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in half-and-half; heat through but do not boil. Serves four.