Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[txdon]

Countdown. The Texas Fall/Winter thread will open in 55 minutes.

 

[NativeSon]

Boy, didn't think Fall was going to make it. We were sitting out on the deck yesterday afternoon for our afternoon Beverage break from chores and in a short time I know Denise said "Wow, this weather is perfect" at least 10 times. She tends to repeat herself when she's excited. The temps never broke 85* yesterday and we're at 57* this morning.........where did I put that sweatshirt?

Charlie

 

[Bird]

Boy, didn't think Fall was going to make it. We were sitting out on the deck yesterday afternoon for our afternoon Beverage break from chores and in a short time I know Denise said "Wow, this weather is perfect" at least 10 times. She tends to repeat herself when she's excited. The temps never broke 85* yesterday and we're at 57* this morning.........where did I put that sweatshirt?

Charlie

Yep, as I posted in the Spring/Summer thread, yesterday was PERFECT!:laughing: It was so nice that I sat out on the patio yesterday afternoon, and dozed off for awhile.:laughing:

 

[lostcreekranch]

65 degrees and clear in Colorado County. Don't think we've experienced 65 degrees since about May. Mother Nature knows how to read her calendar.

Loading horse and heading for Hill Country this morning. Should be a great week!

Rick

 

[Western]

49* on my porch fellas!!! If I was a cow I'd have 4 hard nipples:shocked::laughing:

Charlie, when she is excited, it should be "Charlie" she's yell'n But I know what you mean, we must have said the same thing 20 times yesterday.

 

[sseelhoff]

65 cool degrees. Sun is up, and so is the moon. Beautiful clear blue sky. Going to get some mowing in today and a nice ride on the bike.

 

[Lou66]

69 on the gulf coast with the humidity at 81%,, Wind out of the north at 8 mph,, It's going to be a sun, sun shiny day.:cool2:. I have to check on some cows today and make sure the water tank is full.. While I am there I will see what kind of rainfall I got over the last three days.. I'm thinking it has got to be over three inches.. It felt like three inches,, plus it sounded like three inches hitting the roof of the patio.. so I'm betting 3 inches,:confused3:, if it is three inches then that would bring the total for Sept. to seven inches,:shocked:, which mean I will get another cutting at the end of Oct.. first of Nov.. Cool weather make me jabber.:laughing:.Lou

 

[jinman]

I celebrated the last day of summer by grabbing my fire ant dope and heading around my yard to inflict some revenge on those little buggers. I doped about 25 mounds; some small and some large/huge. Now, I need to go down to my pond dams and around the lake and do the same. The rain got them building fresh mounds and they are easy to find.

Sleeping the last two nights has been exquisite with the windows open and on our new memory foam mattress and my new memory foam pillow.:cloud9: Such things are really not a luxury at my age, more a necessity.

My garden is all happy faced except now some of the squash is wilting down. It may have squash borers in it. That's okay, our freezer is full and we've squished the neighbors with squash. The b-eyed peas have loads of little tiny peas on them even though the vines look a bit worn. Watching the bumble bees take a methodical approach to go to each bloom is fun. Some of these bumble bees look as big as quarters. While doping fireants yesterday, I noticed the honey bees have returned to a big ol' hollow oak tree near my house. As long as they don't become a problem, I'll just leave them there for their help in my garden next spring. In the meantime, I have a "singing" tree.

Edit: I'd tell you how cool it got last night, but I slept in until 8 AM this morning and then got up and made sausage, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast.:licking:

 

[pacerron]

Edit: I'd tell you how cool it got last night, but I slept in until 8 AM this morning and then got up and made sausage, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast.:licking:

Ugh Oh, Now my wife wants to come to Jinman's.
She loves sausage gravy on homemade Cat Head biscuits.
In fact, that's what we had for supper Friday night.
Have you ever made Cat Head Biscuits?

1.5 cups flour
1.5 cups cake flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
8 T stick butter
4 T shortening
1.25 cups buttermilk ( she makes the buttermilk from powdered buttermilk since it keeps so great )
Oven 425
Place rack in upper middle
Mix all except buttermilk
Mix with a pastry cutter
Add buttermilk
Mix with spoon
Use 1/2 cup of mix for each biscuit. Measure with a 1/2 cup measuring cup sprayed with pam.
Coat 9" cake pan with pam
Makes 6 very large biscuits
Bake 25 minutes test with toothpick

Break open on plate ( not cut because they are so soft and light a knife crushes them)
Smother with sausage gravy and enjoy.:licking::licking::licking:
Recipe from Carolina
Best buscuits we have ever had. Does not have a bisquick taste.

I thought you were on a diet?

"That was then; and this is now":laughing:

Ron

 

[pacerron]

Speaking of bees.
This has been the worst year ever for them building nests/hives on/in the roof/siding and chimney of our house

I had to lock the back door to the deck yesterday and send my little biscuit maker pakin with her
pump up sprayer, out through the basement, on another mission.
These yellow jackets just started going in and out of a little hole they found at the bottom of the drip edge a couple days ago.
Probably descendants of the bunch in the chimney.

 

[jinman]

Ron, I just pop a can of jumbo buttermilk biscuits and put them in the toaster oven while I cook sausage patties. I chop up two sausage patties to go into my gravy and add flour to the grease and chopped sausage. Sometimes I have to add a bit of olive oil because sausage does not shed a lot of fat like bacon. I cook my flour/sausage/oil mix until the flour is very brown and then add my milk. I cook the gravy until the bubbles start to snap and I can see a definite trail behind my stirring spatula. I take the gravy up in a bowl in perfect time for the biscuits to be done.

I like your idea of making the biscuits from scratch for lunch or dinner. Making the gravy is about as much scratch cooking as I want to do in the morning. Your recipe looks great though. I'll save it for a tasty treat sometime.

 

[Bird]

I dont' guess my mother ever used ready made biscuits. She'd mix a little flour, a little baking powder, a little shortening, milk, etc. even if she was just going to make 3 biscuits for breakfast for herself and my dad. Back in the mid-70s, I got a recipe we liked and I'd make up a big cookie sheet of biscuits, then freeze them (before baking), so I could just get out as many as we wanted at one time. Then we started using the canned biscuits, and now, we buy a bag of frozen biscuits at the grocery store so we can take out just as many as we want at a time again.

 

[jinman]

I dont' guess my mother ever used ready made biscuits.

My mother would also whip up a batch of biscuits, but along about the early '60s she discovered canned biscuits. With her bad legs, it was a convenience to not have to mess with making them. It became special occasions only for her to make biscuits. I DO LOVE the Pillsbury frozen biscuits in the bag. They are as close to home made as anything I've found except some Sam's stores sell a flat with fresh made biscuits. Those are also terrific.

My mother used to make all her cornbread from scratch. Today's boxed cornbreads taste like cake by comparison. Her's was pretty course because she didn't use much flour in the mix or sugar. She used cake mixes, but I don't think she ever made cornbread she did not mix from scratch.

 

[mikim]

I make a cornbread that I use popcorn and red wheat that I mill myself. It's a whole wheat popcorn corn bread. Really good -- different.

Ron - I saved that recipe -- gonna try that soon. Got a loaf of whole wheat bread cookin' right now....in the cheaters machine---

 

[Bird]

Jim, it sounds as if your mother made cornbread much as mine did; never put any sugar in it. I remember the first time I made cornbread, after I left home, and I found a recipe that included a tablespoonful of sugar and a much larger ratio of flour. It was good; just like cake.:laughing: But now I just use a little box of Jiffy cornbread muffin mix; just add one egg and some milk.

 

[pacerron]

I make a cornbread that I use popcorn and red wheat that I mill myself. It's a whole wheat popcorn corn bread. Really good -- different.

Ron - I saved that recipe -- gonna try that soon. Got a loaf of whole wheat bread cookin' right now....in the cheaters machine---

Mike,
Those are mighty big Texas size, mighty good biscuits.:licking:

Since there are only 2 of us my wife cuts the recipe we posted earlier, she now tells me, in half.
She then uses a 1/3 cup amount to size them and gets 5 biscuits in an 8" round cake pan so they touch each other and the edge of the pan when baked.
Bakes them for 17 minutes before sticking with a toothpick, but in our oven they are done perfect in 17 minutes.

She fries the sausage before starting the biscuit mixing and lets it set. Then mixes the biscuits, puts in the oven and finishes the gravy while the biscuits are baking. Everything comes out done right on time.
We still end up eating 1 and 1/2 each smothered in gravy. The next morning she warms the 2 left over in the microwave and we
have fried egg sandwiches with them. They warm up just like fresh baked.

We use a cheater machine for bread too. Haven't purchased store bought bread for years, except for turkey stuffing at Thanksgiving.
We both like to eat, but its got to be good food; not a bunch of grocery store chemicals that just look like and say they are food.
Ron

 

[Bird]

The next morning she warms the 2 left over in the microwave and we
have fried egg sandwiches with them. They warm up just like fresh baked.

Many years ago (about 1968), I had a moonlighting job at night at the Marriott Motel in Dallas. The Marriott had a 24 hour restaurant, but the day chef always left a big pan of cold hard biscuits for the night shift to use. Just stick them in the "radar range" a few seconds and they were just as fresh in appearance and taste as if they'd just been fresh baked. And that was the first time in my life that I saw a microwave oven.

 

[pacerron]

First Day of Fall 2013
Some of us old guys when we are out alone sweating on our tractors for hours or even just sitting thinking about our past, once in a while, wonder if this could be our last harvest. I'm happy to say we are seeing another one in progress.:cool2:
Some pictures I took around here of neighbor's fields this afternoon....
Sorghum lookin good.
Some corn silage already done.
Hay in plastic.
Soybeans turning brown.
Seed corn drying.

Ron

 

[pacerron]

Many years ago (about 1968), I had a moonlighting job at night at the Marriott Motel in Dallas. The Marriott had a 24 hour restaurant, but the day chef always left a big pan of cold hard biscuits for the night shift to use. Just stick them in the "radar range" a few seconds and they were just as fresh in appearance and taste as if they'd just been fresh baked. And that was the first time in my life that I saw a microwave oven.

First one we had was about 1974. Hauled it from place to place. Finally sold it with a house in 1993. It was still working but one of the rotary timers didn't shut off so you had to stand there with it. Weighed a ton, lots of chrome.
Picture from internet..
Ron

 

[two_bit_score]

We were in Port A over the weekend and Corpus around Flour Bluff got 7-8" of rain. They got more on the mainland than the Island got.