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.
Category: Did You Know? by Joyce Word
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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.
Independence Day
This past weeks’ trip to Devine was uneventful as far as the trip was concerned, thank goodness. We had several things planned, including a trip to Kerrville meet up with my granddaughter to pick up her girls for a little time with grandparents. We had a great time, visiting, eating out and shopping! These young ladies really enjoy shopping at thrift stores, so Friday found us at the Hospice Store in Devine where they each found several things. Back at the house, I started getting stuff together to head back home, and again my trip was uneventful, except for quite a bit of traffic, including lots of motor homes and travel trailers.
What is an Aubergine
This is one of those things you don’t really know that you know! I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day. The day was really quiet around my house, I texted Happy Father’s Day to the fathers of my family and sent a card to my son and my brother.
A Day for Fathers
As my weeks go, this past week was pretty quiet. With three days of PT at the hospital and the other four days to do PT on my own, I’ve been busy. Some days, it seemed as if I was at the hospital more than I was at home as we are still selling raffle tickets for our spring raffle, and I did that two days as my one regular day of working.
Fiestas
My husband used to say that he never saw a bunch of women, like his wife and daughters who could celebrate their birthdays quite as long as we did. Yes, even though my party was on the 30th, this past Tuesday, my sister and some friends and I went out for dinner for my birthday! We went to a local Mexican Restaurant; my friend had arranged ahead of time that “Happy Birthday” would be sung.