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My mother-in-law Jane recently died. Last week we attended the funeral; it was a nice service, and afterwards the family got on a boat and we dropped her ashes at sea.

It’s been a difficult time for my wife, her brothers and sisters, but the process of sorting through their mother’s belongings has begun. She was quite a reader and the number of books she owned is daunting.

Her children started picking through the books, taking those that interested them, yet there are still boxes and boxes of books left over for an estate sale.

Going through her books turned out to be a very amusing task since not only did she read these books but she made corrections in them and notes about their content. There are pages and pages of these corrections and editorial comments. It made for several bursts of laughter in an otherwise somber weekend.

As an author I dreaded looking at her copy of my book; thankfully she didn’t have any notes in it. Probably out of pity, I can only guess.

My mother-in-law wasn’t a fancy cook. I wouldn’t even call her a foodie of any sort. Her cupboards were filled with good, but not great, ingredients and very simple cookbooks. Why does anyone need three copies of The Joy of Cooking?

She was a Minnesota native like myself and never tried to develop her palate beyond that simple Midwestern fare. She would boast about the local restaurants in her (tourist trap) town when in reality they were, well come on, anywhere you can eat lunch while someone else a couple of seats over is throwing squid to the sea lions … enough said.

Throughout her married life, she did the meat and potatoes style of cooking for the weekday family meals while my father-in-law Charlie was the gourmand who would whip up “something special” on the weekends.

I remember at one of the first meals I ever had with them, the first plate was set in front of me and all my eyes saw was a gray slice of bread and a bright red tongue. I’m sure my father-in-law was setting me up to exclaim “WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!”

Actually it was a slice of pate de foie gras and a pimento marinated in extra virgin olive oil. But that really set the stage for my future encounters with his food.

Sunday dinners with them educated me on many levels and contributed much to the cook and person I am today. A week doesn’t go by when I find myself cooking and thinking “What would Charlie do?”

Now I find myself not only loving the refined haute cuisine that he used to serve but wanting to learn more about all food, whether it be tripe or simmered chicken gizzards (now a favorite of mine). Point of interest: my father-in-law died back in 1991.

Although most of my mother-in-law’s cookbooks didn’t interest me I did find one book in her library that caught my attention and it’s called “Grandmother’s Wartime Kitchen” by Joanne Lamb Hayes.

Being not only a cooking anorak but a really big history buff as well, I have been reading it with enthusiasm and have become quite fascinated by how the World War II American wartime kitchen worked. The book is filled with recipes, anecdotes, and quotes about food and shopping during the big war.

I was surprised when I read the part about how when Pearl Harbor was bombed every housewife went out and emptied the store shelves of sugar. That surprised me since I would have thought that the meat section would have been cleared out.

Then I remembered that this was in the period of infancy of the home refrigerator/freezer, and not every home was equipped with a large amount of cold storage, and so buying large amounts of meat would have been wasted.

Also, homemakers who remembered the problems from the not-so-distant past of World War I knew that if you wanted sugar you better get it now. This mentality of buying it now and in huge amounts was one of the reasons why the U.S. started food rationing for the rest of the war.

This rationing caused the American homemaker to become incredibly creative in their shopping and cooking to keep a family fed on very little food. Meat had to be stretched further so fillers became popular. Food from the garden had to be preserved so home canning became commonplace. Meatloaf, Swedish meatballs and Salisbury steak are all recipes where bread is added to ground beef in a way to stretch your meat supply all became popular during this time.

During World War II America took it upon itself to be the Allies’ bread basket. Essentially, America was feeding the world while the American people were getting the leftovers. The “yard bird” was born from this, raising your own chickens in your backyard, even if you lived in town. Chicken and eggs were hard to come by so raising your own just made sense. The American Victory Garden became a vital part of the war effort and still holds a part in American culture.

Saving bacon grease was something that every household did. Not only was the grease popular to cook with but when it had served its purpose as far as it could in the kitchen the now useless leftovers were still saved and taken to collection centers at the local butcher’s, where he would strain it and give you some money for it. It was then sent out and turned into glycerin, and that glycerin was turned into gunpowder. Ah, bacon! Killing people on so many levels.

I grew up with a can of bacon grease under the kitchen sink and never thought about it twice. Up until about a decade ago even I had a can of bacon fat under my sink, just because that’s what people do. I’ve since lowered the use of bacon in my diet and then filter and refrigerate any bacon fat that I do rend for a final use before I throw it out.

As I read through this book I kept thinking how these recipes could do so much to help people now-a-days to stretch their budget. These principles are handy and still applicable. I’m picking out recipes now to try out and serve to my family, and putting together a grocery list.

How can you not be intrigued by recipes like “California Chicken” that has no chicken in it (the protein is tuna), or “Emergency Steak” made from wheat cereal and ground beef?

Many of the recipes remind me of my childhood when my mother and grandmother used to make Pork-U-Pines and Apple Brown Betty. In the Midwest many of these culinary traditions are still served to this day and seem rather odd when I go back for a visit, almost like I’ve traveled back in time. It also makes me realize how spoiled Californians are when it comes to food. I remember as a child thinking having an artichoke was like touching a diamond.

Reading this book has also caused me to wonder what would happen if this generation was required to make the sacrifices that were made in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. People may complain about and protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet (not including the families of fallen soldiers) they have had to make no personal, home-altering sacrifice to support them in any way, not when compared to the past.

To finish this column, I thought that I should tell you one last thing. My maternal grandfather died of throat cancer after a lifetime of smoking, my maternal grandmother was burned to death after she fell asleep while smoking and now my mother-in-law has died, unable to breathe after a lifetime of smoking. So don’t smoke, and if you do, quit. It’s far easier for you to quit smoking than for your family to deal with you being gone.

Goodbye, Jane.

Ross A. Christensen is an award-winning gardener and gourmet cook. He is the author of "Sushi A to Z, The Ultimate Guide" and is currently working on a new book. He has been a public speaker for many years and enjoys being involved in the community. Follow him on Twitter, http://twitter.com/Foodiefreak .

LAKE MENDOCINO – The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and the US Army Corps of Engineers will host a joint training exercise – including live fire training – this coming week at the Lake Mendocino Dam.

The exercise will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27. Smoke will be visible throughout the entire Ukiah and Redwood Valley areas.

The training burn's purpose is to assist the US Army Corps of Engineers in removing the vegetation from the face of the Lake Mendocino Dam, allowing access and visibility for the required earthquake inspection.

In addition, the exercise will be used to train and enhance the skills of local firefighters during live fire exercises.

Personnel from the Ukiah Valley Fire District, Ukiah City Fire Department, Hopland Fire Department, Redwood Valley/Calpella Fire Department and the Potter Valley Fire Department will take part.

Spectators are welcome to come and watch the fire agencies at work but are requested to park in the fish hatchery parking lot near the base of the dam. Spectators also are reminded to drive very carefully while in the area as there may be many other cars and pedestrians.

The training burn will be conducted under very tight restrictions for the personal safety of firefighters and area residents.

If there are any indications that the training burn cannot be conducted in a safe manner, such as if there are high winds or local fire activity, the training exercise will be canceled. Cal Fire said the safety of all residents is the agency's utmost concern.

UPPER LAKE – Federal authorities arrested a well-known Upper Lake contractor Tuesday as part of an extensive enforcement operation, with at least two others also taken into custody.

But the federal defenders assigned to Upper Lake resident Tom Carter's case said in court documents filed this week that the complaint against him is “sadly deficient” and offers little in the way of information about his alleged involvement in a May marijuana deal arranged by an informant.

Dozens of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents armed with assault rifles and driving more than two dozen black Cadillac Escalades descended on the Hunter Point Road home Carter shares with wife, Jamie Ceridono, on Tuesday just before 7:30 a.m., Ceridono said Friday.

Ceridono said she counted four helicopters flying overhead at one point during the operation.

Later that day, Brett Bassignani, Carter's co-defendant in the case, was arrested at his Clover Valley Road home, Ceridono said. Also arrested was a neighbor, Scott Feil.

“I don't know the charges,” said Ceridono. “I don't know what's going on. No one has told me.”

Ceridono said her husband is being held at a jail facility in the Oakland area. Initially, after the arrest, she said he was taken to Sonoma County and was checked by medical personnel after his blood pressure shot up, causing her to believe he was having a heart attack.

“I don't know what he could have done to cause this,” she said, noting that her husband has worked hard all of his life, donated time to community causes and done fundraisers, as well as introducing the recent Rainbow Bridge Festival.

She said she saw a sheriff's official and another man who she believed was a local policeman on scene. Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the agency wasn't involved in the DEA operation earlier this week.

 

DEA spokesperson Casey McEnry would offer little information about the raid.

“I can confirm the enforcement operation; however, the search warrants remain under court seal and I am prohibited from providing further details relating to the operation. I don't anticipate the warrants being unsealed anytime soon,” McEnry said in an e-mail response to Lake County News' inquiry about Carter's arrest.

When pressed on the circumstances of Carter's arrest, McEnry referred Lake County News to the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco. Repeated attempts to contact a spokesperson at that agency Friday afternoon were unsuccessful.

Carter, who was arraigned Wednesday, is facing two felony counts of conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute under the federal Controlled Substance Act.

At his hearing, the US Attorney's Office requested that he be detained “on the basis of flight risk and danger to the community,” according to federal court documents obtained by Lake County News.

A detention hearing is set for Wednesday, Aug. 26, in San Francisco before US Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman.

Ceridono said she was held in a chair in her front yard from about 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Also held were members of her husband's construction crew. Her teenage daughter was allowed to leave with her older daughter during the operation.

Officials took 154 marijuana plants that Ceridono said were covered by medical marijuana prescriptions held by her husband and several others. Also taken was her computer.

Agents went through Carter's and Ceridono's home, but she said they didn't trash it. She said a head agent seemed surprised not to find more plants or evidence.

Ceridono said at one point agents “didn't have anything to do.”

“They were playing with my dogs, they were so bored,” she said.

She said her husband, whose hard physical labor has resulted in a lot of aches and pains, also suffered a fracture in his back in May when he rolled his truck, and uses medical marijuana to deal with pain. Ceridono said she doesn't use the drug.

Federal court documents show that the US Attorney's Office requested on Aug. 14 – four days before Carter's arrest – that documents filed against him in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California be sealed, which US Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James agreed to do the same day.

On Wednesday, US Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman signed an order to unseal the documents at the request of Assistant US Attorney Tarek Helou.

On Thursday, federal defenders Barry J. Portman and Geoffrey A. Hansen filed a 26-page pre-trial memorandum regarding Carter's detention to dismiss the case, citing “sadly deficient” evidence.

The document explains that a confidential informant claimed to have arranged to purchase marijuana from Carter, leaving a message on an unspecified number alleged to be Carter's voice mail to set up the deal. That same informant allegedly made a purchase deal with Bassignani.

Carter's federal defenders said the case against Carter contains no claim that he got the phone message the number that the informant allegedly called and its relationship to Carter also isn't set out in the complaint against him, they noted. Feil''s arrest wasn't listed in the documents.

“All the complaint says is that another individual, Mr. Bassignani, called the informant, claimed he worked for 'Carter Construction,' and arranged a marijuana deal,” Carter's defense attorneys state.

The document continues, “The deal later took place, and the only other reference to Mr. Carter is the conclusory claim that the informant 'had agreed on the price with Carter.' No context, no specifics, and no other information is provided in the complaint which indicates that Mr. Carter in fact talked to the informant, arranged a marijuana deal, and indicated that he (Carter) was knowingly involved in a marijuana transaction.”

The attorneys added, “This complaint is sadly deficient with regard to whether Mr. Carter has done anything to indicate that he conspired to break the law. It should be dismissed accordingly.”

Carter's counsel also is seeking to receive copies of any evidence that may have been collected by wiretap.

Ceridono said she and a group of friends and supporters are planning to travel to San Francisco next Wednesday for her husband's hearing in federal court.

In the wake of the raid, Ceridono said she feels like she's living in another country. “I don't feel like I'm in California at all.”

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews .

LAKE COUNTY – Lake County's unemployment edged downward slightly in July as did federal unemployment, while the state continued to lose jobs, according to a new report.

The state Employment Development Department (EDD) released its July unemployment report on Friday.

The report shows that Lake County's unemployment was 15.4 percent for July, down from 15.7 percent in June, but up from 10.4 percent in July of 2008, according to EDD statistics. In all, there were 3,950 people not employed in the county in July.

The EDD listed unemployment rates for communities around Lake County. By percentage, Clearlake Oaks has the most unemployed, with 22.7 percent, followed by Nice, with 21.6 percent.

The area with the largest number of unemployed – 970 – is the city of Clearlake, with 21.3 percent unemployment.

The lowest unemployment was in Upper Lake, at 6.2 percent.

Other areas ranked included Middletown, 18.8 percent; Lucerne, 16.1 percent; Kelseyville, 15.1 percent; Lakeport, 13.9 percent; North Lakeport, 13.5 percent; Cobb, 12.7 percent; Hidden Valley Lake, 12.4 percent; and Lower Lake, 12.2. percent.

California’s unemployment rate was 11.9 percent in July, up from 11.6 percent in June and over the July 2008 unemployment rate of 7.3 percent. Those numbers are derived from a federal survey of 5,500 California households.

Nationwide, unemployment decreased in July to 9.4 percent, down slightly from 9.5 percent in June, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Lake's unemployment rate ranked it No. 47 in the state. Marin had the lowest rate at 8.2 percent.

Neighboring counties ranked as follows: Colusa, 16.4 percent, No. 52; Glenn, 15.9 percent, No. 49; Mendocino, 10.6 percent, No. 13; Napa, 8.8 percent, No. 3; Sonoma, 10.3 percent, No. 11; Yolo, 11.2 percent, No. 19.

The EDD reported that in July in California nonfarm payroll jobs declined by 35,800. Nonfarm jobs in California totaled 14,249,600 in July, a decrease of 35,800 over the month, according to a survey of businesses that is larger and less variable statistically.

The survey of 42,000 California businesses measures jobs in the economy, the EDD reported. The year-over-year change (July 2008 to July 2009) shows a decrease of 760,200 jobs (down 5.1 percent).

The federal survey of households, done with a smaller sample than the survey of employers, shows a decrease in the number of employed people. It estimates the number of Californians holding jobs in July was 16,260,000, a decrease of 87,000 from June, and down 798,000 from the employment total in July of last year, the agency reported.

The number of people unemployed in California was 2,187,000 – up by 33,000 over the month, and up by 840,000 compared with July of last year.

EDD’s report on payroll employment – wage and salary jobs – in the nonfarm industries of California totaled 14,249,600 in July, a net loss of 35,800 jobs since the June survey. EDD officials reported that this followed a loss of 66,100 jobs (as revised) in June.

Categories adding jobs over the month were professional and business services and leisure and hospitality, with 2,900 jobs added.

Eight categories – construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; educational and health services; other services; and government – reported job declines in July month, down 38,700 jobs.

Trade, transportation and utilities posted the largest decline over the month, down by 15,900 jobs, while one category, natural resources and mining, reported no change.

In a year-over-year comparison (July 2008 to July 2009), nonfarm payroll employment in California decreased by 760,200 jobs (down 5.1 percent). One industry division, educational and health services, posted job gains over the year, adding 17,900 jobs (a 1.0 percent increase).

The EDD reported that 10 categories – natural resources and mining; construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; other services; and government – posted job declines over the year, down 778,100 jobs.

The largest decline on a numerical basis was in trade, transportation and utilities, which was down by 196,600 jobs, a decline of 6.9 percent. On a percentage basis, construction posted the largest decline, down by 18.6 percent – a decrease of 144,500 jobs.

During the EDD's July survey week, 812,165 people received regular unemployment insurance benefits, down from 820,387 in June and up from 480,226 in July of last year.

In July new claims for unemployment insurance were 80,048, compared with 86,016 in June

and 58,131 in July of 2008.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews .