Bonner County Daily Bee

Kathe Murphy initially met her very best close friend, Holly Ramsey Dailey, in Minneapolis in 1971.

At the time, the two worked at Tonka Toys alongside one another. Holly labored as a graphic designer, and served style toys for toddlers.

But pretty suddenly, in 1977, Holly was identified with a number of sclerosis, and missing management of good motor expertise, Kathe said. She was not able to maintain a pen or publish, so in its place, she received into e-book style and design, and then a new enthusiasm — a children’s literature evaluate referred to as The Five Owls.

Publishers sent Holly 1000’s of textbooks for critique, Holly stated. They ended up all over the place in her residence — on cabinets, underneath the mattress and stacked on the floor.

In addition to the children’s reserve evaluation, Kathe explained, Holly solid her individual path, Kathe mentioned. Holly was a speedskater, even in a time when quite a few young gals were not encouraged, or even discouraged from pursuing that sport.

“It wasn’t stylish back in our working day to encourage girls doing speedskating,” Kathe explained.

Holly held performing, together with her spouse Dan Daily. Then in 1991, Holly uncovered she experienced been identified with an intense type of ovarian cancer.

However, Holly ongoing to get the job done. In a 1998 short article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, her spouse Dan and good friends interviewed stated she continued to present warmth and a variety of electric power that drew people today to her, friends stated.

She worked to make positive her son would get into college or university, to protected the long term of her beloved Five Owls e-book critique, which was passed to Hamline College in Minnesota and spoke, nevertheless by this time quite ailing and very slim, at a perseverance library wherever she donated the around 6,000 children’s guides publishers had sent her. All those guides in complete, Kathe said, were being worthy of around $40,000.

A month and a 50 % right after that speech, Holly died in 1993. But in her and Kathe’s 22 several years of friendship, Kathe mentioned, there was one particular issue that Holly usually designed, and that has served preserve her memory alive: A wild rice casserole, sauteed in butter, with almonds, drinking water chestnuts and mushrooms.

“People like this recipe. They love it. Of system, it is a minimal tough to find wild rice,” Kathe claimed, “but I imagine it’s the improved.”

That continual, she reported, has provided the recipe a exclusive put in her heart. On holiday seasons, Kathe mentioned, if she was not with her have family, she was with Holly’s.

“I have this note [with the recipe] in her handwriting from the ‘80s,” Kathe said. “I’m emotionally hooked up to the recipe.”

Holly’s Wild Rice Casserole

1/2 cup butter

1 cup wild rice

A 6-ounce package deal of slivered almonds

An 8-ounce can of sliced water chestnuts

A 4-ounce can of mushrooms – chopped

3 cups chicken broth

Soften the butter and saute the wild rice, almonds, water chestnuts and mushrooms alongside one another for 30 minutes. Transform regularly.

Pour the saute into a casserole dish, add the chicken broth, and bake included at 325 degrees for an hour. Stir just before serving.

Idea: Leftover Wild Rice Casserole can be turned into Wild Rice Soup by adding to a can of mushroom soup.