Richard Juday believes that…

• Council should manage the City’s budget so that income from growth is devoted solely to new infrastructure. Operational expenses should be funded only from stable, consistent income sources.
• Council should exercise greater oversight of City staff and seek a wider range of opinions, analyses and recommendations.
• Council should reach out to all ethnic and social groups. Council should continue to support El Comité in its efforts to mainstream recent legal arrivals through English as a Second Language (ESL) and other programs.
• Council should re-establish and enforce school benchmarks. Building permits should not be issued if they will result in school overpopulation and unfunded facilities.
• Council should cooperate in revitalizing education, support public school financing and assist Front Range Community College in locating permanent accommodations.
• Council should devote greater attention to the redevelopment of the City’s downtown and central neighborhoods.
• Council should re-examine its plans for water storage, Union Reservoir, open space acquisition and wildlife habitat preservation.

And now for the heart-stopper. This is a recipe I remember from my childhood, my mother’s Black Bottom Pie. She’s a resident on the Alzheimer’s ward in a nursing home here in Longmont.

Most of my favorite recipes include the phrase, “Melt a stick of butter…”

 Black Bottom Pie

 Start with a large collection of pots and pans, ‘cause this one uses a lot of ‘em!

 Soak 3 envelopes of gelatin in ¾ cup milk.  Scald 4½ cups milk over low heat.  Make a doubled graham cracker crust from 2 packages of crackers, 1 stick of melted butter, ½ cup confectioner’s sugar; press it into the bottom of a 9´13 inch cake pan.  Shave or chop 4½ oz baking chocolate.  Separate 12 eggs.  To the yolks, add ½ Tbsp salt, 4 Tbsp cornstarch; mix, then add 1½ cup sugar.  Slowly add the scalded milk.  Stir constantly (a whisk is a good thing to use here) in a double boiler.  When thick, remove 1½ cups of the custard and melt the chocolate into it along with 1 Tbsp vanilla.  Add gelatin to custard.  Beat the egg whites stiff; add 1½ cups sugar.  To custard add ¾ cup rum, then the egg whites.  Pour over the graham cracker crust.  Whip a pint of cream, add 2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar.  Top the pie with the whipped cream.  Shave chocolate over the whipped cream for decoration.  Refrigerate.

n      Evelyn Juday