According to everything I hear, it is officially fall, however, you would not be able to prove it by the weather! The nights are fairly cool, but the daytime temperatures are still in the high 90s most days. Today, Sunday was a beautiful day. I got to visit a bit with one of my nephews, as he was on his way back home a quick trip to the coast. We enjoyed Mass and then went out for breakfast. This afternoon and early evening, I visited with a friend and we played canasta. I hadn’t played two-handed in a very long time, and actually managed to win a game.
This week will find me back in Devine for my monthly bunco session and I am looking forward to it, as usual. I truly enjoy being with and seeing some of my children and grandchildren as well as six or seven of my great grands. It’s always amazing how much they grow in just a month without seeing them. They all have such awesome personalities. This coming weekend will be a fun one for me as my daughters are coming in for time with one another and with me. We haven’t been able to do this in quite a while as we’ve all been sort of going in different directions!
We all know that lots of peanuts are raised in the Devine area, but have you ever given peanut butter a thought? It made its debut at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. The original patent was given to Dr. John Harvey Kellog, who initially developed peanut butter as a meat alternative for his patients. However, George Washington Carver is considered by many to be the father of the peanut butter industry. He began his peanut research in 1903 suggested to farmers that they rotate their cotton crops and cultivate peanuts.
Category: Did You Know? by Joyce Word
Great Recipes
Turmeric
This past week was b-u-s-y! Any time you have to be somewhere at 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. four days out of five is in that class. Monday wasn’t bad, I didn’t need to be anywhere until 12:30 and that was Pokeno, which is always fun, even though we now only have nine members and several of our substitutes couldn’t play. Tuesday was meeting day and work shop day with the Hospital Auxiliary, Wednesday found me working in the gift shop, Thursday I had an appointment in Victoria and Friday I had another appointment, but at least it was practically local, and, yes, I was late as I thought the appointment was at 10:00 and it was actually at 9:30. So far, this coming week I don’t have that many things to do.
Today, we’re going to talk about an unusual spice, called ‘Turmeric’. It has anti-inflammatory properties and can be used in cooking as well as being brewed into a tea.
Okra is the only thing left in gardens
My week was pretty quiet. My visit to Devine was awesome and I had a great time, visiting not only with my son and his wife, but also with some of those precious great-grandchildren, as well as playing bunco! I was hostess and served hamburgers, with sopapilla cheesecake for dessert.
Labor Day weekend has been fun so far. Here in our area, it’s time for the fall church picnics and my sister and I went to Shiner, TX to the big annual picnic they sponsor. Like most other picnics in this area, “Picnic Stew”, is pretty much the main dish. However, Shiner not only serves their picnic stew, but they also serve fried chicken (super delicious), and sausage, along with green beans, (no mushroom soup, here), seasoned potatoes and sauerkraut, as well as dessert. My chocolate cake was delicious also!
There is music all day long with the famous Shiner Hobo Band having the stage over lunch time along with dancing if desired! And bingo was a very popular spot to be inside the hall! Nope, neither of us won, but it was fun.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about okra. It seems to me this is a vegetable that is either well liked or hated! There has been several face book posts about okra recently, some of them touting the health benefits of eating it.
Last holiday of summer
Last holiday of summer
My weekend was pretty quiet. My sister ad I spent part of Friday in Cuero, checking out a little boutique that we had gift certificates to. It was nice and had plenty of sizes for everyone. Looking at their stock, I came to the conclusion that cute little dresses were back in style. They are perfect for the 20 to 30 age brackets, but not for this granny! The hem lines are mostly just above the knees, and they are floaty and perfect for this time of the year.
This coming Monday is Labor Day. This is the only holiday that has always been on Monday, so therefore it has not fallen to the changes that some of our other holidays have. It is still celebrated on the first Monday of September, just as it has been for many years.
The Knights of Labor in New York City first celebrated Labor Day in 1882 and 1884. Labor Day is now a legal holiday throughout the United States and Canada. It is just about midway between July 4th and Thanksgiving, which is why the first Monday of September, was chosen as this holiday.
Labor Day has always signaled the official end of summer fun. In the past, school always began the Tuesday following Labor Day. This no longer holds true in most school districts, with some having begun classes a couple of weeks ago, with teachers having to go in for workshops and such a week earlier. Many families plan their last get-together of the summer, their last trip to the lake or coast, or their last camp out for Labor Day weekend.
Buying pluots
Just recently, I’ve been noticing a fruit in the produce section that intrigued me. It looks a lot like a light colored (not dark purple), plum with freckles and the name is similar. The tag on the display tells me it is a pluot, but what is that? Pluots are members of the stone fruit family, just as peaches and apricots are. They were developed as a hybrid fruit in the late 1980s and are actually 75% plum and 25% apricot. They have a smooth skin and a shape and texture that is like a plum. The flavor is intense and delicious and they don’t have a bitter aftertaste that plums sometimes have. They are totally and deliciously sweet.
There are several varieties of pluots, including Dapple Dandy, Dinosaur Egg, Flavor Grenade and also Flavorglo. When you are purchasing pluots, look for a fruit that is firm to the touch with just a little give, smells fragrant, and has no blemishes. They are available in a variety of colors, and you should choose the most intense colored fruit of any variety, as they will be the tastiest. If the fruit feels hard to your touch, don’t select it as it won’t ripen well.
School Time!
As is usual, with the first week of the month, my week was a busy one with various meetings and appointments. When we had our Hospital Auxiliary meeting, we changed the time of our hours, so now my Wednesdays working will change from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and be 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The early part of this past week, they mowed the hay fields and spent the day Friday running the balers, in the fields close to my house. Sunday morning, when I looked out the window after church, most of the bales had been hauled off.
This week will begin with an appointment in Victoria for me and my sister decided that she needed a break and will take me. We have a gift certificate to a boutique in Cuero that we are anxious to use, so coming home there will be a side trip to that boutique. Mostly though, we’ll check out the mall and a couple of stores in Victoria, and of course, we get to eat out!
Dumbing us down!
Super busy week and weekend! My awesome stay in Devine ended last Thursday morning, when we left from my grandsons’ home to bring me back home! That afternoon, grocery shopping and a nap were the order of the day, Friday, I baked cakes for the church picnic and Saturday, I spent a large portion of the day helping make the cream cheese and poppy seed rolls that are a main fundraiser. It was fun and everything turned out really good. Sunday was picnic day and was a really busy day. However, I was finished working and after lunch watched the auction for a bit and came back to the house, hard work but also a fun time. This column is truly a “Did you know…column, as I’ve noticed several things over the past several weeks/months and even years, that you may or may not have noticed. For instance: we all know that for years, bacon is no longer sold by the pound (16-ozs) but comes in packages that contain 12-ozs, and yes, it is still the same price or higher than the 16-oz packages were.
Noodles, birds and pizza…
According to the calendar, summer officially still has over six weeks until the first day of fall. However, in some areas, school, at least for teachers will begin this coming Thursday. Gone are the days when school officially started the day after Labor Day. The weather has been slightly different this summer; we’re having many days of temperatures in the high 80s and 90s rather than the usual (for July) 100s and higher. We’ve been having rain off and on since last Wednesday, including Sunday morning, when I managed to get drenched yet again. It seems that my umbrella is in the car and I’m in a building trying to get to the car.
Our church picnic is the 4th of August this year, and each year we make noodles, it’s a day of lots of work and visiting as we work. Saturday, a group of us met at the church hall and had a busy day. The lady that was usually in charge passed recently and a different person was in charge. She did a great job. We began working at 7:30 a.m. and when we finished it was after 2:00 p.m.! The dough is flattened with machines, placed on sheet covered tables and allowed to dry to the correct consistency and then they are run through the machines that cut them into noodles, which again are allowed to dry. (We had about eight sets of four tables each). These are a great seller and we probably made around 100 pounds. On Monday morning, a group of us will assemble to place them in plastic bags weighing a pound and they will be ready to sell at the “country store” portion of the picnic.
Time moves on
In checking the dates of things I need to do in the near future, it dawned on me that we only have seven more days from today in this month! July has gone by like a whirlwind as far as I’m concerned, and I’m quite sure a lot of teachers will agree with me! In some areas, school will be starting on August 1, for teachers
This past week I’ve attended two funerals; the first one was for a very dear friend. Most of you have heard about taking care of a friend’s dog when she was out of town. This week she succumbed to cancer to the sorrow of her family and her family of friends. May she rest in peace. The second funeral was a truly sweet lady from our church. She was always willing to help with any church work, pleasant to be around totally easy to work with at our church picnic. She had car trouble and while she was out of her car was critically injured by a hit and run driver. She did not survive her injuries and leaves behind a large family and a host of friends. May she rest in peace. However, I did have some fun this week; my daughter came by on her way home, after spending several days helping out her son and his family who welcomed a precious baby boy! We had a great time not only visiting and playing table games but squeezed in a shopping trip as well. She made it home fine this afternoon, to find the streets flooded and rain pouring down. We’re all thankful she had no problems.
Making Pimento cheese
Beryl came in and went out and we didn’t get any measurable rain, every day the forecast was “It’s going to rain today around 1:30 or whatever time and nothing happened. We finally got rain Friday and Saturday, a little over an inch, but none so far today (Sunday).
This past week has been relatively quiet. I finished with my PT at the hospital, but still have to do exercises at home seven days a week! I find my best time for this is immediately after my morning prayers and either just before or right after breakfast, it takes me 30 to 45 minutes to complete the series and as I had fallen out of the habit of going to the hospital to the pool that was part of my downfall, so I’ve had to get back into a routine, and as long as I can move around, walk to my mail box, go shopping and walk around, I’ll just have to bite the bullet and do it. At least, I don’t have to spend three or four hours doing exercises, and if it makes some of my household chores easier on me, yes, I’ll do it.