Category: Commentary

Vacation fun

This past week was a totally awesome week for me! Many, many thanks to my children for taking me on a mountain get-away week. My fun week started the morning of the 12th when I left my home to go to Devine to my family. The trip was uneventful, with some traffic but not so much that I was miserable. When I got to my son’s home, I found out that it was truly a family vacation, as my youngest grandson and his family were going to be with us also. There were a dozen of us in a gorgeous five-bedroom house located over 5,000 feet up a mountain. The trip up and down took about 30 minutes because of all the curves and also the speed limit of 25mph because of the up or down grade. Monday started out as a “Monday” with the power going off just after full daylight. We managed to get breakfast and everyone dressed, etc. Then it was down the mountain for us, some plans had to be changed as the power was out over the whole area! We were pretty flexible and worked around the problems and had a wonderful time together. That evening, back up the mountain, we were planning an evening of games. My granddaughter looked out the window and told her dad that someone was getting into our car. Turned out the “someone” was a bear who managed to get into and out of the car with no problem, after stealing the Sour Patch candy and a bag of cashews. Of course, all of this was caught on the trail camera my son had set up. Talk about exciting! The rest of the week, we went sightseeing, had a picnic, took a walk around a beautiful little lake, went horseback riding (not me!), my son, his wife and the younger couples with a couple of the small children went hiking to the top of the mountain, and had to be brought back by the bus they use up there, the ski lift was not functioning due to the weather. The weather interfered with our plans several times. On Wednesday night, a different car had a bear visit! This time none of us saw it, because it was the middle of the night, but the camera caught him and we saw it the next day on film. And it also began to rain intermittently, and this was absolutely beautiful, you could see the mountains and suddenly there were no mountains to be seen. Then Friday, when it cleared up for a while, we all went to the ski lift, rode it to the top, which was another 5K up in the air and a truly fun adventure, the view was spectacular, as were most of the ones we were seeing. Part of the group were playing Frisbee golf on the course that is marked off, and the rest were waiting for the zip line to open. I watched most of this from a beautiful deck at the very top of the mountain, yep, I’ve said “awesome” so many times that even though I tried to find a different word, I couldn’t. OK, my times up, I have a meeting at 1:00 and I’m not completely dressed. Next week, I’ll tell you more about my trip! Thanks again family for a wonderful week.
Chocolate Coca Cola® Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
3 tablespooons Hershey’s cocoa
1 cup Coca Cola®
½ cup buttermilk*
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups miniature marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Mix together flour and sugar in large mixing bowl. Heat butter, cocoa and Coca Cola® to boiling and pour over flour mixture. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, vanilla and marshmallows; stir together until combined. (This makes a rather thin batter, and the marshmallows will float to the top. Pour into a 9×13 pan and bake until cake tests done with a toothpick. * You can use whole milk, just pour about 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon juice into your measuring cup and add the milk to the ½ cup line, stir to mix and allow to stand a couple of minutes and it will thicken.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly as you make the frosting:
Frosting:
1 stick butter
3 tablespoons Coca Cola®
1 box (1 pound) powdered sugar
1 cup pecans
Place butter, cocoa and Coca Cola in a saucepan and heat just until boiling. Pour over sugar, add nuts and beat until creamy. Spread over cake.
Now, for those of you who can’t eat chocolate for whatever reason, here is a chocolate-free version of the Coca Cola® cake.
Chocolate Free Coca Cola® Cake
1 package yellow, butter flavor golden cake mix* (no pudding added type)
1 package (4-oz size) instant vanilla pudding
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup flake coconut
1 cup pecans
10-oz Coca Cola®
Grease and flour a 9×13 pan OR grease the bottom of the pan and line it with parchment paper and lightly grease the paper. Heat oven to 350ºF.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer combine cake and pudding mix, oil, coconut, pecans Coca Cola® and eggs. Mix well and pour batter into prepared pand. Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from and cool thoroughly before frosting. *This recipe is from when cake mixes were 18.25 ounces. The new ones are 16.25 ounces, so you can add about 3 Tbs. baking mix (i.e. Bisquick or Pioneer Baking Mix) to the cake mix and this will give you about the same amount as the larger box of cake mix would be.
Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup butter
1 package (8-oz) cream cheese
1 pound box powdered sugar (sifted)
In small bowl of electric mixer, cream butter and cream cheese together, continue mixing and gradually add powdered sugar, beating until fluffy.

A slow week, on paper

When you look at the call volume, only 47 calls, it might appear it was a slow week. It was a busy one with 9 reported property crimes, more on that later. Officers conducted 71 traffic stops which resulted in 63 citations and 8 warnings.
Let’s get the arrest activity out of the way, we had 4 arrests last week. Here we go with my simple numbering system to help me from getting confused: #1 – The detergent theft lady from last week was located by Ofc. D. Lopez, she was given a citation and released. #2 – Ofc. Pena conducted a traffic stop on Main Street and found the driver to be intoxicated. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #3 – Ofc. A. Lopez responded to a disturbance on N. Prairie St. A male was arrested for assault causing bodily injury (family violence) and booked into the jail in Jourdanton. #4 – Ofc. Pena observed a single vehicle accident and arrested the driver for DWI, he too was checked into the jail in Jourdanton.
Property crimes reported last week: #1 – A rear door to a home under construction on Lonesome Dove was taken. #2 – A laptop valued at $1,000 was taken from a vehicle parked at the H.E.B. Plus. #3 – A complainant reported that an unknown male took a folder full of personal papers from her unlocked vehicle, this occurred at the Dollar General. #4 – A light blue 3-wheel bicycle was stolen from a residence on Oak St. #5 – A complainant reported that an unknown person entered their business on Main St. and took approx. $60 worth of misc. brass fittings. They slid under a garage door that was left just barely open. #6 – A resident on Huckleberry Dr. reported the theft of a trash can. #7 – Criminal mischief was reported at the IH-35 Park & Ride, a truck tractor was damaged in an attempted break-in. #8 – On Sunday evening (8/21) a complainant reported that his 2020 Dodge Ram Rebel p/u was stolen while parked in the 15000 Blk. of Main St. He had left it in a parking lot for a 24-hour period and the keys were left inside. #9 – Later that evening officers took a report of a 2003 Ford F250 taken from the H.E.B. Plus parking lot. It was recovered several hours later by S.A.P.D.  Now, we have a lot of investigating to do.
I took three days of leave and headed east with the family. The first stop was Livingston/Onalaska to spend a night with my wife’s sister and her family. We dropped off a couple of the kids and headed to Monroe, La. for a conference my wife and oldest daughter wanted to attend. I was mostly along for the trip to take care of the baby. After a couple of nights there we headed back to pick up the kids. We slid into Lytle on Monday night; I was 30 minutes late to the city council meeting. As usual, I did a good bit of eating at good places. I can’t resist touching on a few high points:  The Main St. Café in Carthage (TX): Catfish & frog legs plate lunch, fried okra, and coleslaw. (I opted out of the frog legs and got extra catfish). Don Chuy Mexican Grill (West Monroe, La.) – The chips and salsa. The Ranch House Café (Leesville, La.) – The crawfish etouffee and chocolate chip cookies. Let’s end this out with cornbread from 3rd On Main Kitchen in downtown Bryan (TX). On a side note, to this already side note, downtown Bryan has really been fixed up since I was a kid there in the early 80s, other than Woolworths and TSO there wasn’t much reason to go downtown.
Now back to something official. I testified in district court early last week over in Jourdanton at the Justice Center. I have said before that place is lovely. I just found out the whole second floor is not being used and hasn’t been built out. I can’t believe somebody hasn’t cut a backroom deal to fill that place up with those 8-Liner gambling machines. The cops would never suspect an illegal casino on the second floor of the justice center. All the traffic at all hours of the night could be attributed to the courts running around the clock to catch up from a COVID backlog.

55 service calls, 104 traffic stops

For the week ending August 14, 2022, …. Officers handled 55 calls for service and conducted 104 traffic stops. Those stops resulted in 94 citations and 10 warnings. 

     We only had one arrest last week. A traffic stop on Railroad St. resulted in the arrest of a female with 3 active felony warrants out of Atascosa Co. She was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail.

     Property Crimes, 3 of them:  #1 – We had a shoplifting call at H.E.B. Plus, and then the crooks committed a vehicle burglary (#2) before they left the parking lot. A couple of males with purple, green, and blue hair took about $27 in items from the store. All our witnesses and the store camera confirmed the hair color, otherwise, I would have thought our witness was stoned. Our thieves decided to remove a couple of items from the bed of a pickup before they took off, they got a duffle bag full of tools and a weed eater. Our multi-color hair dudes were in a Ford Fiesta, and they couldn’t fit the weed eater in their small car, so they just dumped it in the parking lot. A witness returned it to the bed of the pickup. So, we learned today that if you drive a small vehicle you may save on gas but, it will limit what you can steal. #3 – A female with a small child left the store without paying for 4 big containers of laundry detergent ($70 value). We think we have her identified. Everybody uses laundry detergent and it’s expensive, so it is easy to sell or trade. A lot of that stolen product ends up at flea markets, I guess some of it gets traded for dope too.

     School is back in session! Please watch out for all the kids and expect delays around the school in the morning and during the afternoon release. Feel free to report any hazardous situations to us. 

     At the last city council meeting our City Administrator, Matt Dear, was given a supervisory role over all the department heads. Matt is now my boss, and I was looking for a way to commemorate this event. I was going to write a song, but I took a shortcut. I just took the theme song from “Charles in Charge,” one of my favorite 80s sitcoms, and replaced “Charles” with “Matt”. It does get a little creepy in a few spots. If you don’t know it, search it on YouTube …. it’s catchy, you might just be humming the tune all day. Perhaps, all the department heads could perform it at our city Christmas party? 

-Richey

Bring on the rain… 2.4 inches+

By Jerry Beck

Getting a little rain this Monday morning…2.4 inches was a Godsend as of this writing.  Don’t know how long its gonna last, but we could stand it for a week or so.

Had to add a Bailiff at the old Courthouse due to the addition of new courtrooms at the Annex.  Also had to add a position for the County Clerk to keep up with the demand in her office.  Good thing is that she has a fund that replenishes and will pay for the position.

Did a lotta vacating and replatting and establishing speed limits and stop signs to make them legal enough to enforce.  

We also approved an Interlocal Agreement Kendall County to fund a DPS satellite Crime Lab to better process drug evidence that would move cases through the trial process and finalize the cases that have been lagging due to pending lab reports.

Spoke with Judge Schuchart about the freezing of County taxes for folks 65 and over.  Oughta have the wording tomorrow (Wednesday) and an explanation because plain English don’t work on stuff like this….gotta be in lawyerpolitical speak.

I do not see how approving the Republican Chairpersons “Declaration of Local State of Disaster” would improve or even effect the safety of our citizens in Medina County.  Our Sheriff and local Law Enforcement are already doing all that they can to quell the influx of illegal immigrants.

I would rather see our Republican Party get on the bandwagon with the over 65 tax freeze than press us to agree to a Declaration that is a formality more than anything else.  After all, they represent “Medina County” and this is a Medina County issue that should occupy the front burner.

We have finished our latest paving project and are looking at our next possible endeavor.  We are now on the bottom of the list and will hopefully be able to include another project before the end of the calendar year. 

I need to look at my Budget and decide if there is enough funds to attempt another paving project because we also need another big truck to pull our belly-dump trailer and they aint cheap….somewhere around $130,000.  In addition, we need another pickup.  

Folks need to keep last weeks edition of the Devine News cause they don’t come around too often..there wasn’t a picture of Lewis Stroud in it.  I kid him but, he does a lot for our community and most of it is newsworthy.  

November 8th is approaching and everybody needs to be ready to vote in that Election.  Not only will the tax freeze item be on the Ballot but there will be the opportunity to un-elect some of the people that are bent on ruining our country.  

Only 83 days till Election Day (November 8th), 105 until Christmas and 135 until December 31st!        

The Creative Little Campfire

Last week I built an indoor tent fort in Tucker’s room and sat down on the floor to play “camping in Jurassic park” with my son.  I thought I’d be smart and build the tent fort in his bedroom instead of in the living room, so it wouldn’t be in the way.

He wanted to make a pretend campfire. So, like a good creative little mom, I took the lantern he had set up by the tent, and I used a washable orange marker to color the lantern lens and make it look more like a “campfire” for our camp. You know, when you are camping in Jurassic park you have to have a campfire to scare away the T-Rex and other “meat eaters”.  Then we proceeded to search his toy boxes for firewood, and Lincoln logs did the trick. We set those up all around our new, imaginary campfire.  

Tucker got really into it, and I was proud of my ingenuity. After all, how many moms can build a fake campfire so good? It was a lot of fun.

Well, shortly after our camping expedition ended, cousin Audrey and grandma came knocking on the door for a surprise visit. So then cousin Audrey went camping with Tucker for a while. 

In the next few days, I noticed an odd smell coming from Tucker’s carpet. I searched for it everywhere, with no luck. Eventually sister found a pile of empty water bottles in his room, and he told us what happened. 

“Me and Audrey put out the campfire,” he said proudly, with a beaming smile. “We poured water all over the fire wood to put it out really good!” 

It was very Boyscout -like of him, except for our creative little campfire was built right on top of a big thick carpet–which was now nice and wet underneath it–hence the odd smell.  So that was a nice, fun mess to clean up this weekend.

To make the story funnier, Audrey’s daddy is a firefighter, so I guess it’s fair to say she takes after him….leaves no fire untended.

We also found the jumbo box of snack-size bags chips that had gone missing.

 “We sneaked the box of chips into the tent and hid them under my bed!” he shrieked with joy.  It was apparently, the perfect camping snack assortment.

I think I’ll build the tent in the kitchen next time, and let Tucker know there is a burn ban!

School Time

The long, hot “dog days” of August are with us! It’s still hot and dry and almost no rain, other than the occasional shower. Most gardens in my area have either been plowed under or the wilted plants have been tossed to a compost heap, with the exception of a few okra plants left standing. Fresh tomatoes, squash and beans are just a pleasant memory, and we begin a new season. (Yes, it’s still officially summer, but…)

School is about to begin after what seems a really short summer break, so you need to remember the rules of driving in school zones. If you come up on a school bus and the lights are flashing, STOP! Do not pass a school bus that is loading or unloading students. Those flashing lights and that stop sign are a sure indicator that the bus is doing something important; it is either picking up children before school or delivering them home after school. Always remember, children don’t always look where they are going or what they are doing, so we, as adults, have to be more aware of what is going on, even if it is something unexpected.

Please, do not forget that 20-MPH is the speed limit in and around schools. The school speed limit on Windy Knoll exists from Park St. to just past Fay Ave. It is very well marked. On Hwy. 173, the speed limit is 30 MPH when the lights are flashing.

If you see children riding bicycles, slow down, they don’t always look before crossing streets or coming out from behind parked cars. And, last, but by no means least, always make sure everyone in the car is wearing their seat belt and small children are restrained according to their weight or height.

Here are a couple of light summer-time salads for you to try!

Light Chicken Salad

3 or 4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1 large Granny Smith apple, chopped

2/3 cup finely diced celery

1/3 cup sweet pickle relish

1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds

Enough light mayonnaise to moisten

Cook chicken breasts in water seasoned with salt and a small amount of onion and celery, cool until you can handle the meat, remove skin and bones and cut into small pieces.

Wash the apple, and cut it up, and add to the chicken, add remaining ingredients along with enough light mayonnaise to moisten. Serve with crackers, Melba toast or bread rounds.

Cinco de Mayo Chicken Salad

3 cups cooked, diced chicken,

4 sliced green onions, including tops, ( 2 sliced green onions or 1½ Tbs. chopped sweet onion)

½ cup diced green bell pepper, (¼ C.)

1 avocado diced and tossed with lemon juice to prevent discoloration, (1/2 avocado)

½ cup bottled chili sauce (Hunt’s, DelMonte)*, (¼ C.)

4 tablespoons mild picante sauce, (2 Tbs.)

½ teaspoon dry mustard, (¼ tsp.)

½ teaspoon black pepper, (¼ tsp.)

1 teaspoon chili powder, (½ tsp.)

Combine chicken, onions, bell pepper and avocado in mixing bowl. Combine chili sauce, picante sauce, dry mustard, black pepper and chili powder in a bowl and mix well. Pour over chicken mixture until coated thoroughly. Serve with tortilla chips. Garnish with additional avocados if desired. *This is found in the aisle with the ketchup and the store brand (if they have one) is OK also. (Measurements in ( ) are for ½ recipe).

Tortilla Bites

1 package (8-oz) cream cheese at room temperature

½ cup sour cream

½ cup chopped or sliced black olives (drained well)

1 can diced green chilies, (drained)

1 to 1½ teaspoons grated onion

1 tablespoon Gebhardt® Chili Powder

2 cups shredded cheese (can use a mixture of cheddar, Colby Jack, Mexican blend and pepper Jack, depending on how much heat you like). Most people just use cheddar or half cheddar and half pepper Jack.

6 to 8 flour tortillas*

Beat cream cheese until smooth, and blend in sour cream until combined, beat in the olives, chilies, onion and chili powder and mix well. Beat in the cheese until well mixed. Spread the mixture on flour tortillas, to the edge at the top and sides and about ¾ of the way to the bottom. Roll up, place on a plate, seam side town and finish rolling remaining tortillas. Cover and chill thoroughly, then cut crosswise into slices about ½ to ¾-inches thick. (Taste the mixture and if you feel you need a little more ‘bite’ add a couple splashes of Tabasco® or a finely diced fresh jalapeno pepper, before spreading on the tortillas). *How many you use depends on how thickly you spread the mixture!

For a slightly different version, leave out the green chilies, olives and onion and substitute ½ to ¾ cup French onion dip for the sour cream.

We got through last week with only 39 calls for service! Officers conducted 69 traffic stops. Of those stops, 63 were citations and 6 were warnings.
There was only one person arrested last week. Ofc. L. Diaz conducted a traffic stop on Main St. and determined the driver had an active warrant out of Bexar Co. for Driving While License Invalid. The suspect was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail.
There were two property crimes reported. #1 – A complainant called the PD to report that they lost a money clip with $134 while at the H.E.B. Plus. With current prices, you could almost fill up one of those red, handheld baskets with $134. #2 – A hotel customer reported that someone tried to break into his pickup, they were unsuccessful but did damage the door handle. That means it was a rookie car burglar, perhaps in the initial stages of training.
Also in the news……Officers recovered a 2004 Kenworth truck that was stolen in Carrizo Springs. It was dumped in a field near Lytle State Bank. In another incident officers recovered a set of stolen license plates; they had been reported stolen to Bexar Co.
In the early morning hours (2:22 AM) of Monday, August 8, officers S. Pena and J. Cortez responded to a report of shots fired at a residence in the 14700 blk of Railroad St. Officers arrived and determined that none of the occupants were injured. It is believed that at least 6 rounds were fired from a handgun. This does not appear to be a random incident and the case is under investigation.
I, along with Ofc. D. Lopez and Cpl. D. Robison, attended Lytle ISD’s annual convocation. We set up a booth and gave out freebies to the staff of Lytle ISD. There was a huge turnout of booths from local organizations and businesses. I made myself available for photos so they could remember the special occasion. I must admit, I didn’t even know the definition of convocation until this guy named Clouser from the Lytle VFW told me, and I think his wife told him. I will tell you there was an abundance of positive energy among all those staff members. They will need all that energy once the kids start back this week. I would think we have a solid school system, if not I can’t imagine why all these subdivisions are being developed here. Having a cool Chief of Police can only go so far.
On a personal note…. I took off last Tuesday and headed down to Rockport with the family for a quick beach outing. We had a great lunch in Sinton at the Back Street Café. I had hoped it would be a Back Street Boys-themed restaurant, but they didn’t have a single poster up. What they did have was complimentary beans and cornbread, a staple for me as a young child growing up in the Free State of Van Zandt.
The kids will be back in school starting this Thursday! So, more traffic and more congestion. I ask everyone to be patient, the first few days are rough, but it gets “less rough” as the year goes on. You might see an increased police presence around the schools, don’t be alarmed. Officers are just trying to keep our school community safe. When the weather cools off, we might even get out of our patrol cars and walk around.

Location

A few years ago, we moved to New Braunfels “Up The Hill”, as the locals call it, from Landa Park. For a while I mourned the “loss” of the acres we had in Spring Branch with the wide variety of wildlife that came around most every morning and evening.
But gradually I have come to appreciate the benefits of our decision and agree now it was a wise choice. That realization was further cemented today when I drove through the 122 acres of pretty close to heaven, where the Comal Springs, Comal Lake, and the Comal River all come together.
It is such a beautiful piece of land with HUGE oaks and green grass. The “resident deer herd” are much gentler than some of the cow dogs I have known down in La Brasada. And while it can get sure enough crowded on weekends and holidays, the place is a real sanctuary in the early morning hours with more wildlife than people around.
That reminder got me to thinking that it is pretty easy to be at peace in such a location. But I have known some very contented individuals in spots far less wonderful than that. When I was upset about something as a child, My Granny, Della Fischer Rosenauer, would tell me “You have two choices in life. Either change your outlook or your stomping grounds”.
I did not much understand or enjoy that admonition in those days, but sure see the wisdom now. During my years in Higher Education at the different institutions where I worked, many former military people came my way as an Advisor and Professor. Some lived in a number of places that were FAR less wonderful than Landa Park. Yet they still could talk about the great people they met, and the fine things they were exposed to during their tours of duty.
It got me to remembering about another saying that was often used in my “circle” of friends and family when growing up. “It is the strong and wise person that can learn how to bloom wherever they find themselves planted”.
I reckon in my backwoods way of looking at life, even in today’s time of severe drought, I am fortunate to have a little piece of La Brasada that I can wander around over and find some joy, if only I look for it in the proper way. And also get to be around Landa Park when desired.
Not too sure if that is wisdom sneaking into this old brain, or just an admission of the obvious. But whatever the source, it seems to be the correct way to look at life from the location I am standing.

The Family Dinner

I was watching a late night old TV show, and as it ended, there was a pretty shot of a family sitting around the dinner table laughing and eating together. The camera had zoomed out and it was showing the sweet scene from outside the window panes, looking in. It got me to thinking about how long it had been since we rounded up our kids and had a family dinner around the dinner table.
Somehow, that notion just kind of slipped through the cracks lately. We have definitely been eating around the TV more than the table lately. That’s got to change. Without looking up any statistics, I think we can all confidently admit that we don’t gather around the dinner table often enough.
I heard something the other day that really struck me. If you have a 12 year old daughter or son, did you realize that there are only about 300 weekends left before they turn 18? Isn’t that crazy? That’s about 2,000 family dinners. Doesn’t sound like so long at all when you look at it that way.
So this past week, I enlisted the support of my prince and asked him if we could start turning off the TV and sitting around the table for dinner, and he quickly agreed.
It’s hard enough to get the house cleaned and dinner cooked, let alone get everyone together at the same time, focused on having a family meal together. But I am determined, now more than ever.
I won’t say that my teenager loves the idea. I’ll be honest; the kids were so frustrated about the TV being turned off, etc. that there was more bickering than talking the first night. But we had a pretty nice and funny conversation during last night’s supper, over a lot of smiles. I think family dinner time is growing on them too, though they still don’t want to admit it.
I know it will never be as peaceful and picturesque as that scene of the family through the window pane of that movie, but it will be in my memories, I’m sure.
With our phones containing the whole world at our fingertips, and endless entertainment, and TVs with streaming services containing every movie and TV show ever made, there are plenty of distractions in our home….pulling us away from the good stuff. I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to the magnetic field seemingly surrounding my phone. But when I purposely set down my phone and don’t touch it, nor the TV all day, I feel so much better.
An electronic-free day is almost as good as a day at the beach. Can we just knock down all the cell phone towers? I’m so over it. Every now and then we go on a vacation where there is little to no cell service, and it is truly SO NICE.
What if there was a 2 hour time slot that was electronic-free every day? I bet we’d find ourselves having more family dinners.

Lets have some sugar-free desserts

OK, folks, we’re back to the “same-old, same old”, there isn’t a measurable amount of rain, just a couple of quick showers today. I was working at our church picnic and realized some folks were coming in with their shirts wet….yep, it rained a little. When I came to Devine a couple of weeks ago, all you could see was dry land and still more dry land, the only green things around were several cotton fields that are irrigated, and not too many of those. The prickly pear cactus have red tunas (pear apples?), on them, but the cactus themselves are as flat as they can be and obviously need water.
The picnic was great, I worked in the “country store”, which is really more of a jumble sale than anything else, we had all sorts of stuff, as well as our 100 bags of the noodles we made a couple of weeks ago, they all sold before 1:00 p.m. The food was good, I just still have a problem with picnic stew, sausage, sauerkraut, seasoned green beans and potatoes, rather than BBQ, pinto beans and potato salad! (Please italicize: Prunus persica and also P. Persica. My computer won’t let me do that!)/
Have you been noticing nectarines in the produce section of the grocery store? What do they look like to you? Do you know what they are? Since I had been noticing them in the store and purchased them a couple of times, I decided to find out what they really were. Someone had told me they were a peach/plum combination, but I never knew for sure. They taste pretty much like a peach as far as I am concerned! The following is what I was able to find on the Internet. After checking out several sites that all gave me pretty much the same information, I sort of combined several articles to get this article.
Basically, according to what I was able to find, a nectarine is a peach without fuzz! They are not a combination of a peach and a plum as some folks think. Nectarines have juicy, peach colored flesh and the seed is very similar to that of a peach but without the “fuzzy” complexion. You can tell peaches and nectarines are similar because peaches are of the genus Prunus persica and nectarines are P. persica. They most probably originated in China over 2,000 years ago and were cultivated in ancient Persia, Greece and Rome. The word “nectarine” means sweet, as nectar, and this is probably the obvious origin of the name.
Nectarines can be eaten out of hand just as you would a peach, they can be cut up and used in fruit salad, cooked, dried or however you want to serve them. According to one of the sources, they are delicious in ice cream and sorbet, as well as cakes and pies. There are about ten varieties that are widely grown for market. If you purchase nectarines, look for fruit that is firm but not hard, with a bright deep coloring. Avoid fruit with wrinkled skin or spots that could show evidence of decay. Hard nectarines will ripen at room temperature, to speed the process, place them in a bag with an unripe banana.
To peel them, cut an X in the bottom end and dip the fruit in boiling water, just as you would a peach or a tomato. Their smooth skin is edible, but most folks would probably prefer to peel them.
I know the following desserts have absolutely nothing to do with nectarines, but since I don’t have any nectarine recipes in my files, I decided to give you something else instead and just hope you will enjoy all of them.
This recipe was in my files and since someone just asked about diabetic recipes and said she was craving sweets, hopefully it will help her a little bit.
Diabetics Delight
1 box yellow cake mix (now that sugar-free cake mixes are available, you might consider trying one in this recipe)
12 oz. diet soda (Sprite Zero® or your choice)
1 can crushed pineapple (16-oz size) (divided use)
1 large tub Cool Whip®, sugar free
1 large box of sugar-free vanilla instant pudding
Empty cake mix into large bowl, add diet soda and mix well. Then add ½ can of crushed pineapple and stir well. Pour into 9×12 pan that you have lightly sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake as directed on package. While the cake is baking, mix the Cool Whip®, the remaining crushed pineapple and the pudding together and stir well. Chill thoroughly. When the cake has finished baking and has cooled, spread the Cool Whip® mixture over the top. Cut into squares to serve. Makes 12 to 15 servings.
Recently, for a get-together here in Yoakum, I served my version of a cake that was served at our bunco in Devine a sometime ago. It was a beautiful and colorful cake of three layers, each one with a different flavor of gelatin in the batter and was really delicious. The original recipe called for three boxes of white cake mix, but since I wanted a smaller cake, I used only two boxes, and rather than white cake mix, I used yellow because I felt the color would be more intense, and, since there are several diabetics in my group, I wanted to make it as sugar free as possible so they could enjoy it also
The rest of the story is that this week, when we went to the venue where we have our meeting, the clerk asked me who had made the dessert a couple of weeks before, since I had shared with the staff. After admitting I had made the dessert, she told me it was absolutely wonderful, which of course made me feel pretty good! When I told her it was almost totally sugar free, she didn’t want to believe me at all and kept telling me “He is not going to believe this at all”, meaning the owner of the venue. So, here is the recipe for y’all to try.
Joyce’s Fruity Jell-o® Cake
(Read all instructions before beginning to make cakes)
2 boxes Pillsbury®, sugar free yellow cake mix (16-oz boxes) (I think 15.25 is now standard and that is fine.
Ingredients as required for making both cakes
1 small box, sugar free lime-flavored gelatin
1 small box, sugar free lemon-flavored gelatin
1 small box, sugar free orange flavored gelatin
food coloring (if desired)
flavoring (if desired)
1 carton (8-oz) sugar free whipped topping, thawed
1 small box, sugar free instant vanilla pudding
¾ cup shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
If you have three 9×13 pans, prepare them by greasing and flouring each one. If not, you will have to bake each layer separately. (Leave the unused dough in the bowls in the fridge as the previous one bakes).
Prepare cakes according to package directions, one at a time. Mix dough together in the mixer bowl and then divide into three equal portions, placing two in medium sized bowls and the last one back in your mixing bowl. Add a box of gelatin to each portion and stir well to mix it in. If you want a more intense yellow or green, add a little food coloring, also, if you have orange and lemon extract, it is fine to stir it in also. Pour one batch of batter into the prepared pan and bake according to directions on the box. Since it is a smaller portion of dough, it will bake in about 20 to 25 minutes, rather than the 30 to 35 listed on the box. Remove cake from pan and allow each layer to cool completely.
Filling/frosting:
Mix together the whipped topping and the vanilla pudding, and stir in the coconut.
Use a cookie sheet (covered with foil if desired), and place one cooled layer on it, top with 1/3 of the frosting mix, add another cake layer, top with 1/3 of the frosting, add the third layer and top with the remaining frosting. It does not matter in which order you layer the cakes. Trim off the edges so you can see the beautiful layers and it is ready to serve. Store in the fridge. It will keep for several days in the fridge and the addition of the pudding to the whipped topping seems to stabilize it and keep it from disappearing.