We have been blessed with a good stretch of rainy days over the past several weeks. This morning, early, it was dreary and looking like rain. I stepped out into the garden for a quick look at the kids, cut a few asparagus spears that are several weeks ahead of schedule and made sure the tomatoes had survived the very cool weekend weather. I was able to rinse my hands and spears in my “new” sink…thanks Hun! When finished, I started to hop on the bicycle and head off to Starbucks, my remote office with free WiFi! I thought to myself, self, it looks like rain! So I decided to drive the mile and a half down to the shopping center. I was very glad that I did because it opened up pretty good and the rain has been steadily falling for several hours now. The past several weeks of rain have put a large dent into the drought plaguing the state of Texas. Unfortunately the damage has been widesread and severe. Many thousands of trees in our area are dead. Estimates go as high as 500 million trees across the state have been killed – read the Reuters December 20th 2011, article link shown below. Prospects for this summer are not as bleak but the hole we are in is pretty deep.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/us-drought-trees-texas-idUSTRE7BJ20M20111220

I can spot the low spots (redundant-  huh!) in my yard and garden with ease….Just down the street is a pile of nice looking rocks and flat flagstones spread across the neighbor’s lawn… looks like the left overs from their recent landscaping work. I think I will wander down in a bit – when the rain eases up – and seee if I can make a deal for a few wheel barrow loads. I thinks they would look good in my yard, especially in the low spots.

I had a terrible time getting my Oatmeal Applesauce Raisin cookie recipe to format … I was trying to use a recipe card template…cut and then paste into the blog and it went “sideways”…that’s a Texas term for – it did not go as I had intended it to! Shown below is the old, faded and stained card on which I had jotted down my Aunt’s recipe. It too, was/is poorly formatted. I think I knew what I was doing when I jotted it down many years ago, but not so sure now. It is fun though to see an old term like “303 can” of applesauce. For those of you looking for conversions I have included a chart for you…I hope it formats OK

Can Size Volume of Food Weight of Food
No. 1 1.25 Cups 10.5 – 12 oz.
No. 300 1.75 Cups 14-16 oz.
No. 303 2 Cups 16-17 oz.
No.2 2.5 Cups 20 oz.
No. 2+1/2 3.5 Cups 27-29 oz.
No. 3 5.75 Cups 51 oz.
No.10 3 Quarts 6.5 lbs. – 7lbs & 5oz.

Has there ever been a more demonstrative illustration of why the US needs to go to the metric system. But, the nostalgia factor is also pretty cool. I have fond memories of buying No. 10 cans of pinto beans to “doctor” up with my seasonings for my signature chili beans… recipe not included – because I never wrote it down. I will tell you that it included said pinto beans, chorizo, bacon eneds, chopped stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper and salt to taste. Also note that there is a lot of test-tasting during the course of preparation to tweak the flavors.

My Hand Written Recipe

Is it any wonder that I messed it up, another than being one of those people that does not deal with detail very well. Any excuse will do sometimes……

TTFN

Bishop