The Press-Dispatch
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C-4 Wednesday, August 21, 2019 The Press-Dispatch HOME LIFE TO ADVERTISE: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: ads@pressdispatch.net Visit: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Deadline: 5 p.m. on Monday Youth First Today by Jordan Beach, Youth First, Inc. 2 master bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with solid wood doors and hardwood trims. 4 bedrooms with one master bedroom and 3 bathrooms, including a family room with a fireplace. Luxurious 5 bedroom home. 814 NIBLACK BLVD., VINCENNES • 1-800-743-7004 • WWW.BAIRDVINCENNES.COM HOMES Get there before some scallywag nabs your loot! Save $40,000 on three of Baird Homes' finest homes. Yo Ho Ho! left at Baird! 1 final treasure Homer Living Estate AUCTION 8432 E. Co. Rd. 300 S., Oakland City, IN SATURDAY, AUG. 24 10am CDT (slow time) Follow on Auctionzip.com • ID# 46613 • Tools, Advertising Signs, Antiques, Collectibles, Reloading Equipment, Vintage Baseball Cards, Furniture, Glassware and so much more. LOCATION: Auctioneer's Note: Don't miss this fantastic estate auction. Auction will last for several hours. View hundreds of photos on auctionzip.com ID# 46613. Hope to see you there! SEAFOOD CASSEROLE MEALS IN Monica's MINUTES Share your favorite recipe! www.facebook.com/mealsinminutes Monica's Meals in Minutes PO Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567 mealsinminutes@pressdispatch.net FACEBOOK MAIL EMAIL By Monica Sinclair I tend to not make seafood very often because it gets ex- pensive. However, every now and then I like to splurge. So, I was in search of a new seafood recipe this and came across one that sounds delicious. It uses a few more ingredients than what I normally like but I think it will be worth it. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS • 1 package (6 ounces) long grain and wild rice • 1 pound frozen crabmeat, thawed or 2-1/2 cups canned lump crabmeat, drained • 1 pound cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut into 1/2-inch pieces • 2 celery ribs, chopped • 1 medium onion, finely chopped • 1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper • 1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained • 1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimientos, drained • 1 cup mayonnaise • 1 cup 2 % milk • 1/2 teaspoon pepper • Dash Worcestershire sauce • 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs INSTRUCTIONS 1. Cook rice according to package directions. Mean- while, preheat oven to 375°. 2. In a large bowl, combine crab, shrimp, celery, on- ion, green pepper, mushrooms and pimientos. 3. In a small bowl, whisk mayonnaise, milk, pepper and Worcestershire sauce; stir into seafood mix- ture. Stir in rice. 4. Transfer to a greased 13x9 -in. baking dish. Sprin- kle with bread crumbs. Bake, uncovered, until bubbly, 40 -50 minutes. Source: tasteof home.com We are buffet people — at least my dad's side of the family. Having grown up with little money and seem- ingly never quite enough to eat, my dad considers buffets the only kind of dining experience that makes any real sense. "Why spend $ 9 on one plate of food when you could go to a buffet and spend $7.99 on six plates of food? " my dad would say. And then, as if to chal- lenge himself, he would get no fewer than eight plates. The Langrocks are not a particular- ly close family. My cousins and I are rediscovering each other in our adult- hood. Jobs and parenthood and access to our own dreams, our own vehicles and our own phones are chipping away at the distance from our youth. One thing, however, always connected us: buffets. When my dad and his brothers get together, the restaurant loses mon- ey. When we Langrock kids (and our kids) are in tow, a ship going on a weeklong cruise could find itself hav- ing run out of the fish and the chicken and the steak before the second night. For more than a decade, the commu- nication the brothers had — and con- sequently my cousins and I had — consisted of little more than texting photos of the mountains of plates at a smorgasbord. In my youth, growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, I saw buffets as an introduction to world culture. Chinese buffets were surely the sta- ple, but Indian buffets and Argentin- ian buffets were among the other fa- vorites. Who needed travel or world history class when your stomach could get a trip around the world for $7.99? When I was a college student, my dad would spend hours poring over online maps, figuring out the best exits for me to use during my 10 -hour drive home. These calcu- lations were determined by how far my car could go between fill-ups and the number of stars the buffet closest to an exit's gas station received. Since moving to the wild, I have seen my buffet options almost entirely vanish. My dad's superpower of locat- ing food by the trough almost came to a full stop. I hadn't really noticed the lack of buffets. With two young kids, needing to get up to fill a plate just means extra opportunity for a child to take off running, engage in a game of tag and hide under a stranger's feet so as not to be found and scolded. The only time we risk a buffet is when we are with the cousins. And then, I pre- tend that it's not my kids tripping the servers but one of the other half-doz- en rogue rug rats and school-age mon- sters running amok. Denial in these situations is key. If you're busy tend- ing to your children, you won't have enough time to get to your fourth or fifth plate — which means you won't get your money's worth. So why both- er? Buffeting is a contact sport. The food needs to make contact with your mouth, or it's all for naught. My dad did, however, find one buf- fet in my new hometown. It's an old Southern slop spot. The restaurant is made from cinder blocks, and once inside, you have the distinct feeling you are in the base- ment of a church. Every day of the week has a different specialty. Mondays are pork tenderloin. Fridays are cat- fish. When my family walks in, we are stared at. We don't belong. We are not regulars. Above the buffet line, hanging centered on the wall, is a rifle. Underneath it are the words, "If ya don't like the cookin', come see the chef." I hate guns. This veiled threat meant to be a joke makes me uneasy. The first time we went, the man ahead of us in line told my dad that he comes to this worn-out building for a half-dozen helpings "every daggone day." My dad thought he had found paradise. My dad asked for another scoop of green beans and put a third helping of banana pudding on my plate. We sat down to eat. It was the most delicious food I had ever tasted. The server poured a glass of sweet tea, with the kindest smile I'd ever seen. I used to find it absurd that I'd once thought of buffets as a gateway to cultural experiences, but in this mo- ment, I wasn't so sure that was com- pletely off. My dad snapped a picture and sent it to his brothers. "Home is where the buffet is." Like Katiedid Langrock on Face- book, at www.facebook.com/katiedid- humor. The beginning of the school year is full of excitement. Most students start out with eagerness and a fire in their souls. Unfortunately, that new excite- ment seems to wear off quickly, which leaves parents scrambling for ways to keep their children engaged. Sometimes getting a child to com- plete homework after school feels like a battle parents have to fight every day. What can we do to help keep some of that fire we had at the beginning of the year? When discussing long-lasting moti- vation, a good place to start is to help your child set goals. This is also a great opportunity to define short-term vs. long-term goals. If they have a goal of making the honor roll all year, help them break that large goal down into smaller goals. They will stay more mo- tivated with small victories when work- ing towards a larger goal. Rewarding your children for com- pleting undesirable tasks is an easy way to motivate them to complete their work at home. It's important to focus on how you word things and the tone of voice you use. If you tell your children, "We can go to the park after you finish your homework," it sounds a lot more entic- ing than "We're not going anywhere until you finish your homework." Your children are much more likely to re- spond well to a reward with a positive tone than a punishment with a nega- tive tone. Sometimes there is pushback on the idea of rewarding your children for things they are required to do. I like to use the analogy of an adult going to work. When an adult goes to work, they complete all the tasks that are ex- pected of them in order to receive their reward, a paycheck. School, and sometimes even extra- curriculars, are considered a child's job. They put a lot of hard work, time and effort into these things; in order to stay motivated they need to see some form of compensation for their efforts. It's also important to understand what motivates each individual child. The same type of reward will not work for all children. Some children are super competi- tive, so creating some form of compe- tition will be enough to motivate them. Some kids need to feel appreciated and hear words of encouragement, so pos- itive reinforcement may be enough. Other kids are going to need physical rewards in the form of treats, small toys, activities (like time at the play- ground), or choosing a movie to watch before bed. Every child is different, which means there isn't one single way to motivate. Find what works for each child or use a combination of methods if necessary. The most important thing to remem- ber is to stay positive. Try not to pun- ish kids for not completing tasks; rath- er, find ways to encourage them by re- warding the desired behavior. As the school year goes on and gets busier, it's easier to let schedules slide. Stay- ing consistent will help keep your fam- ily on track for a successful year. This column is written by Jordan Beach, LSW, school social worker for Youth First, Inc., a local nonprofit ded- icated to strengthening youth and fam- ilies. Youth First provides 57 Master's level social workers to 78 schools in 10 Indiana counties. Over 38,500 youth and families per year have access to Youth First's school social work and af- terschool programs that prevent sub- stance abuse, promote healthy behav- iors, and maximize student success. Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Buffet people Keeping your student engaged