My favorite recipes - Meet Valerie Marker, Colfax

Jana Mathia | Jul 22, 20100

Valerie Marker never intended to come back to Colfax. She grew up at the base of Kamiak Butte where her parents, Rick and Chris Wells, farmed. When she went to Wenatchee in 1994 for a radiologist technical program, she never thought she would come back to Colfax.

Back: Valerie, Caden, J.D. Front: Callie-Rae, McKenzie, Brooke.

“It’s been amazing how many opportunities have opened up,” she said.

During her last year of college, Valerie literally ran into J.D. Marker at the Lewiston Roundup.

A year later, 1997, they were married and moved to Nez Perce where they farmed.

In 1999 they moved to Colfax after Valerie had been working at Gritman Hospital for more than a year.

With babies at home, commuting and being gone on-call for work, working at Gritman became too much for Valerie.

Opportunity knocked when her mother and aunt bought DreamWorks, formerly Intensive Tenant Support, from her grandfather, Roy McDonald.

The same year she moved to Colfax, Valerie started working at DreamWorks in the business office.

DreamWorks manages homes and oversees programs for the developmentally disabled.

It also has an adult family home for seniors.

At first Valerie worked on the business side but eventually, she was asked to manage a house. She quickly came to enjoy working with the personnel and on the care-giving side.

In 2006 the business split, separating the care facilities from the county contracts which does pre-vocational training for adults with disabilities. Valerie’s mother Chris asked her to become her business partner. Now Valerie runs the developmentally disabled and adult family homes and J.D. runs the county contract program.

While they were living in Nez Perce, J.D. became a high voltage lineman. During the winter he was always laid off, and Valerie recommended he take up care-giving during those months and he liked it. He eventually turned entirely to working with developmentally disabled and runs the pre-vocational programs. The main goal is to enhance individual living and hopefully get the individual to the point they can work, although some never reach that point.

Working at DreamWorks is a real family affair. Not only does Valerie get to work with her mom, husband and sister, but she gets to take her kids to work with her which has been one of the biggest pluses. One room in the office has been converted to a play room for the kids who also help around the office at times. Valerie and J.D.’s children are Brooke, 16; Callie-Rae, 11; McKenzie, 9, and Caden, 6. Brooke, Valerie’s step-daughter, is currently living in Oregon where she is a very involved soccer player.

With programs running 24/7 and the capacity to care for 16 developmentally disabled adults and six in the adult family home, things can be stressful.

“You never really leave work,” Valerie noted.

To relieve that stress, the family turns to their horses and ropes. Everyone is involved in rodeo, particularly the roping events.

“If there’s a cow around, we’re roping,” Valerie said. “We all like to rope.”

They are members of the Palouse River Ropers Association. The children are also in other junior rodeo associations. Valerie said the goal is to rope together as a family. They participate in team-roping, break away and calf roping events.

The horses especially have been a good outlet for the family. The horses have been very therapeutic, Valerie commented. Not only do they offer stress relief, they also teach kids responsibility and hard work.

During the winter months, Valerie likes to quilt with her mom and daughters. They also join others around the area at different sewing or quilting venues.

Even if she wasn’t so deep into DreamWorks, Valerie wouldn’t want to give it up. She is back with her family, living in the shadow of Kamiak Butte, surrounded at home and work by those she loves.

“I’m not going back to x-ray now,” she said.

Recipes:

Country Skillet Supper

1 lb. ground beef

1 med. onion, chopped

1/8 tsp. garlic powder OR 1 clove garlic, minced

1 can (10.75 oz.) Campbell’s condensed mushroom soup

1 can (10.5 oz.) Campbell’s condensed beef broth

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes

1 small zucchini, sliced (about 1 cup)

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed

1 1/2 cups uncooked corkscrew pasta

In medium skillet over medium-high heat, cook beef, onion and garlic powder until beef is browned, stirring to separate meat. Pour off fat.

Add soup, broth, tomatoes, zucchini and thyme. Heat to a boil. Stir in pasta. Reduce heat to low. Cook 15 minutes or until pasta is done, stirring often.

Eggs Breakfast Before

1 lb. sausage or hamburger

6 eggs

2 cups milk

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dry mustard

2 sliced cubed bread

1 cup grated cheese

Layer in 9 x 13, from bottom, cheese, milk and eggs, meat, bread. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Lemon Blossoms

18.5 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix

3.5 oz. pkg. instant lemon pudding mix

4 lg. eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 Tbsp. water

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel.

With fingers, dip cupcakes into the glaze while they’re still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.