Gold Mine: April 2023

Where Customers Dig the Savings

Pam Watson

SPOTLIGHT Business

SUSAN HILAND SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

P

technology and education.

am Watson started her career as a real estate agent in 1979, and after all these years, she finds herself thankful and joyful for having a career that she loves.“I am constantly learning,” she said. “Whether it is from tax accountants or bankers. The more I learn the more I can help my clients succeed. My goal is to have learned something new to help enhance my clients’ real estate goals.

COURTESY PHOTO

When she and her husband were looking for their first home in the 1970s, he told her she could be selling real estate.

“We talked about it, I thought about it and then started taking the classes,” Watson said. “It has been a fabulous career.”

She said she loves Northern California as it has been a good place for her family to live and grow.

“It provides a fun place for us and a wonderful way to make a living,” she said.

Watson loves nothing better than helping people find homes and investment opportunities.

“Real estate is a great opportunity to create wealth,” she said. “That is my goal – to help clients create wealth in real estate.”

Watson credits her success to keeping herself updated with the newest

“I want to be as educated as possible so I bring the best value to my clients. I want them to trust me and have confidence that I am looking out for their best interest and will handle their needs as my own.”

Watson gives back professionally and personally to better the Solano County real estate sector and the community as a whole through her work with NAMI.

She has started to focus a lot of her work on seniors going into the next stages of their lives, whether it be retiring, leaving the old home behind or looking for a second home.

“I have aged with my clients. I helped them buy their first home and their children’s first home,” she said. “I have been able to journey with my clients through their lives.”

Pam Watson believes that ‘real estate is a great opportunity to create wealth.’

La Cabaña Home Style Mex offers ‘home-style cooking’

SUSAN HILAND SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

La Cabaña Home Style Mex is a family restaurant that offers a unique and fun atmosphere in which top-notch ingredients and bold flavors come together to create a delicious memory in the heart of downtown Suisun City.

La Cabaña was founded in 1990 by the parents of the current owner, Ramses Solis. He and his wife run the restaurant along with what Solis describes as “our beloved staff.”

Solis strives to create a fun atmosphere, complete with a sports bar and big-screen TVs – all with an eye toward bringing friends, family and community together “to partake in a joyful environment while enjoying our homestyle cooking.”

They have offered customers homestyle Mexican food with vibrant flavors for more than 30 years.

Solis credits a “great consistency in our service and food” and more to its success among area residents. But in the end, it is the “homestyle cooking” that Solis says “feeds your soul” that keeps people coming back.

Over the years they have been awarded the Daily Republic Readers’ Choice and Spirit of Solano Business of the Year to name just a few of the accolades.

They are very involved with the community through the Chamber of

Commerce, along with school fundraisers, helping feed the homeless and hungry, to sponsoring the Suisun City Police Officers’ Association, the Fairfield Police Officers’

Association, the Solano County Deputy Sheriffs Association and Fairfield and Suisun City firefighters.

Families have trusted them over the years to cater celebrations, from engagements to birthdays and everything in between.

They have helped to make milestones and memories with generations of families.

AARON ROSENBLATT/DAILY REPUBLIC FILE

La Cabaña Home Style Mex is located on Main Street in Suisun City.

COMMUNITY

Nation’s Finest helping veterans, their families

SUSAN HILAND SHILAND@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

Nation’s Finest has been helping veterans and their families find housing and, for those facing homelessness, a way off the streets since 1972.

They started out by wanting to help a group of Vietnam vets who were returning home, according to Chris Sheridan, a supervising case manager.

“Since then, the organization has helped over 150,000 veterans and families,” he said.

The organization started out as Flower of the Dragon. The name has changed several times over the years. In 2020, it went from Veterans Resource Centers of America to Nation’s Finest.

Sheridan is not a veteran, but wants to help those who served the country remain in their homes, find work or get off the streets.

The organization is in more than 31 locations in 14 mostly rural communities in California, Arizona and Nevada.

“At this time we don’t have a brickand-mortar office, but are working remotely,” Sheridan said.

The remote office has a small staff of two: Sheridan and Lisa Hoff, who has 20 years of experience assisting those in need find help through

various organizations.

Some people reach out to them through these other organizations; some reach out personally.

“We go out to places a lot of people wouldn’t want to go, looking for veterans who are under bridges or homeless on the streets,” Sheridan said.

It is not always easy. Many times they are mistaken for police or representatives of the Veterans Affairs office. Some people will run from them.

“We are not part of the VA at all. We work with them to find the veterans who are struggling to help them, but

we are not part of them at all,” he said.

Nation’s Finest works with veterans and families to find transitional housing, mental health referrals, employment services, permanent housing, homeless prevention, behavioral health as well as other needs.

“People come to us sometimes in jeopardy of losing their homes, or are homeless and need help,” Sheridan said.

They even help reunite homeless veterans with their families.

“Say someone’s family is in New York, we will help them to be reunited with their families there,” he said.

Their work is supported with grants and donations.

They are currently looking to work with various eateries to create a dine-and-donate program where the eateries would donate a part of the purchases to them.

Nation’s Finest is also looking for a brick-and-mortar office space along with some additional assistance with caseloads.

“What I really want to do is help as many people as possible,” Sheridan said.

For more information, call 707-9533760, send an email to lhoff@nations finest.org or visit www.nationsfinest. org.

Word Search

RECIPE

A Scottish chicken soup

with a cheeky name for chilly spring nights

ELLIE KRIEGER SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST

Ever hear of a soup swap? I attended one for the first time recently and came home with new-to-me soup varieties, new friends, and plans to make soupswapping a new tradition in my life.

Here’s how it works: Each attendee makes six quarts of one type of soup (I made my Family Favorite Minestrone). Everyone gets together, sets out their soup containers and describes their contribution. Then, in six choosing rounds, one for each quart of soup brought, you pick a different soup from the lineup. I came home with a thrilling variety, including chicken gumbo, red lentil, and Cock-a Leekie, which inspired this recipe. It was my first time trying the traditional Scottish soup, which I find as fun to say as it is satisfying to cook and eat. True to its name, its main ingredients are chicken and leeks. From there, ingredients and preparations vary depending on whom you ask, but I did my best to approximate the version I received in the swap, a soothing tasty pot of goodness made with carrots, celery and barley in a homemade chicken stock.

Experiencing the transformation of the few simple ingredients involved makes cooking it incredibly satisfying. It takes a couple of hours, but it’s relatively hands off, so it’s ideal for a day you might be puttering around your home.

COCK-A-LEEKIE SOUP (CHICKEN AND LEEK SOUP WITH BARLEY)

Active time: 20 minutes

Total time: 2 hours

4 to 6 servings (makes about 10 cups)

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.

4 large leeks

2 pounds skin-on bone-in chicken thighs

12 ounces carrots, scrubbed and cut into ½-inch-thick coins

Two stalks celery, cut into large pieces

1 bay leaf Water

1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

½ cup pearled barley

1⁄

8 teaspoon ground white pepper

Fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

Remove and discard the coarse green parts of the leeks and trim off the roots. Halve the remaining white and lightgreen pieces of leek lengthwise. Wash them well to remove any sand or grit between the layers.

Place the chicken into a large soup pot along with one of the leeks (2 halves), the

equivalent of about 1 of the carrots, the celery and bay leaf. Add enough water to cover everything by about 1 inch, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat so the liquid is at a simmer, and skim the gray scum that might accumulate on the surface of the liquid. Season with 1 teaspoon salt, cover and cook until the chicken is tender and easily separates

Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a plate. Once it is cool enough to handle, use your fingers to separate the chicken meat from the bones and break it up into bite-size pieces.

Strain the broth to remove and discard any solids. (At this point, you can continue and finish the soup, or refrigerate the strained broth and the chicken in separate containers for up to 3 days. Once the broth is cold, you can scrape off the solidified fat on top if you prefer a leaner soup.)

Return the broth to the pot. Cut the remaining leeks into ½-inch-thick pieces and add them to the pot with the remaining carrots. Return the soup to a boil, and add the barley and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the barley and vegetables are tender and the broth is slightly reduced and concentrated, about 30 minutes more. Return the chicken to the pot, taste and season with additional salt, if desired.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with parsley.

Nutritional information per serving (2 cups), based on 6: Calories: 439; Total Fat: 24 g; Saturated Fat: 7 g; Cholesterol: 127 mg; Sodium: 571 mg; Carbohydrates: 27 g; Dietary Fiber: 6 g; Sugar: 5 g; Protein: 29 g

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

TOM MCCORKLE/THE WASHINGTON POST Cock-a-leekie soup (chicken and leek soup with barley).

ACROSS

1. Colas

7. Single-celled animals

13. The rear car of a train

14. Endangered

16. It cools your home

17. Helper

19. “The First State”

20. More aged

22. Partner to cheese

23. Type of wrap

25. From a distance

26. Satisfies

28. “Dallas Buyers’ Club” actor Jared

29. God of battle (Scandinavian)

30. Cooking utensil

31. Soviet Socialist Republic

33. Able to perform

34. Big man on campus

36. Second epoch of the Tertiary period

38. Porticos

40. Alban and Peter are two

41. Gets up

43. Humble request for help

44. One-thousandth of an inch (abbr.)

45. Unhappy

47. Hint or indication

48. A way to plead

51. Digits

53. Broadway actress Daisy

55. Jewish calendar month

56. Author Gore __

58. Peacock network

59. White poplar

60. Promotional material

61. A period of calm

64. Take too much

65. Emit energy

67. Something you can take

69. Mended with yarn

70. Inconsistent

DOWN

1. Calm down

2. One quintillion bytes (abbr.)

3. One who pretends

4. Hang glide

5. Distinctive practice

6. Mariner

7. Peaks

8. Queens ballplayer

9. Geological times

10. Twofold

11. Atomic #13

12. Tranquillizing

13. Metric weight unit

15. Indicates

18. Unwanted rodent

21. Partly cooked with hot water

24. One who can be recommended

26. Resembles a bag or pouch

27. Midway between south and southeast

30. Sets up for a photo

32. California white oak

35. More (Spanish)

37. After B

38. Decorated tea urn

39. Island

42. Car mechanics group

43. Wordplay joke

46. Cut a rug

47. Prickly plant

49. Speech in praise of a deceased person

50. European buzzard

52. Influential linguist

54. West African languages

55. Siskel’s partner

57. Skinny

59. Oblong pulpit

62. Consumed

63. Small, mischievous sprite

66. Powerful lawyer

68. Indicates position

SOLUTION ON PAGE 15

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS ANSWERS

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WORD SEARCH SOLUTION

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CROSSWORD SOLUTION