Becoming at One With Texas

04. December 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Book Event, Domestic, Random Book and Media Musings · Tags: , ,

Henry With Boots - UnimpressedIt was a gradual process … the place grows on you, even back before it became clear that it was one of the states – out of these occasionally United States – which has a good chance of emerging comparatively unscathed from impending economic disaster. I don’t know why Texas should be so fortunate among states and nations, but perhaps it is because of a part-time Legislature. Yes, this might tend to discourage professional busy-bodies from taking up a full-time career dictating the teensiest minutia of every scrap of our lives, from the number of flushes our toilets need to the wattage of the light-bulb in our porch light and the knotty question of whether a puddle in the back forty qualifies as a seasonal body of water. The Texas Lege can only assemble every two years for a set period of time to consider these and other weighty matters, and so must find other and more remunerative means of earning a living and staying out of their constituents hair. There was an adage to the effect that work expands to fill the time you have available for it – very likely it works the same way for legislative bodies. Perhaps limiting the time available to them forces legislators to prioritize and focus their potential mischief on only the most necessary tasks. Still, what a thought, that Texas might be the last best place to survive the impending economic and political meltdown – who would have thought, eh?

So, Texas took us over, bit by bit – although it wasn’t without a struggle, especially when enduring the ghastly heat of summer, which occasionally felt as if it were lasting all year. Or when there was a highway alert because … er, there were stray cows on the roadway … Or when I could not get just-introduced men in a social setting to not straightaway start addressing me as ‘darlin’’. There were charms, insidious ones – the Hill Country, and sweeps of wildflowers in spring, breakfast tacos (the breakfast food of the gods, I swear), the many splendors of the HEB grocery chain, real Texas BBQ … oh, the list goes on and on. I suppose the first sign that assimilation had begun was when my father began to say that Blondie and I sounded a little more Southern in our speech – there was, he swore, a faint interrogatory lift in tone at the end of certain sentences, which had not been there previously. Blondie began to like country-western music, I began to giggle at Robert Earl Keen’s “Merry Christmas from the Family” … and upon finally retiring from the military I had to get a Texas driver’s license. And then I began to write historical fiction … and well, it was all over, then. Assimilation was complete, or nearly so.

I do like to dress up in a slightly western-fashion when I do a book event now; a long skirt, western-style shirt and vest – and I have let my hair grow long again, so that I can do it up in a roll with a curved Spanish comb in it – and I have been looking around for a pair of Western boots to complete the look. I’ve substituted a pair of high-laced old-fashioned ladies’ boots for now – but a pair of cowboy boots would really complete the look. But not just any boots – being thrifty but with high standards means that I’d like I. Magnin style at a Walmart price, so we’ve been checking out the various thrift and resale stores for a pair of good and broken-in (yet not broken down!) boots. We almost thought we’d found them at a little boutique in Boerne last week, but I couldn’t get one pair on, and the other was too big … for me, but not for Blondie. So, she has herself a pair of Tony Lama’s now, and for me, it is just a matter of time.

Assimilation complete. I got here to Texas as fast as I could.

Thanks and Good Wishes from New Braunfels

23. November 2012 · Comments Off on Thanks and Good Wishes from New Braunfels · Categories: Book Event, Domestic, Random Book and Media Musings · Tags: ,

In the mail this afternoon was a thank-you card from the organizers of last weekend’s Weihnachtsmarkt in New Braunfels – the design was also on the shopping bags that were given out to everyone who purchased a pass to come and shop. The street in the scene is New Braunfel’s Main Street, with many identifiable buildings on either side … oh, and Santa is wearing a cowboy hat, and shouting, “Frohliche Weihnachten, Y’all!”

And next weekend, Santa will be in Goliad, Texas – where he comes into Courthouse Square riding on a long-horn…

Just for fun – Thanksgiving Sides

22. November 2012 · Comments Off on Just for fun – Thanksgiving Sides · Categories: Domestic · Tags: , ,

Yea on many (well, not actually that many) years ago when I was living in the female enlisted dorm at an Air Force base in Japan, another resident and friend had been gifted by a relative with a years’ subscription to Gourmet Magazine. Possibly this relative hoped that my friend would come to appreciate fine up-scale dining, complicated recipes for exotic cuts of meat and rare vintages . . . or possibly even learn to cook. I can’t with confidence say that this ever happened – we were twenty-somethings, living in a military dorm with a small basic kitchen overrun with cockroaches; nuking a Stouffers’ frozen entree of lobster Newburg and opening a bottle of Riunite was about as upscale as most of us were inclined to get. Anyway, my friend, upon departing at the end of her tour, gifted me with all of the back issues of Gourmet, and I took up a subscription myself . . . and never threw away an issue. From one of the holiday issues came three recipes which I often served as a side dish at Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can’t find the original issue, or even recall what it looked like – although I venture to guess that it probably had a roast turkey on the cover – but I had copied them out into my own little collection of favorite recipes. The cranberry chutney is complex and tasty, and the corn relish is a wonderful counterpoint to all the heavy baked or boiled root vegetables. The honey-pear conserve is just plain wonderful.

#1: Cranberry Chutney:
Combine in a large saucepan: ½ cup cider vinegar, 2 ¼ cup brown sugar, ¾ tsp curry powder, ½ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp cloves, ¼ tsp allspice, ¼ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp cinnamon, and 1 ½ cups water.

Bring to a boil, then while stirring simmering mixture, add: 2 lemons, rind grated finely, pith discarded and lemon sectioned and chopped, 2 oranges, (ditto), 1 apple finely chopped, 3 cups cranberries, ½ cup golden raisins, and ½ cup chopped dried apricots. Simmer gently for 40 minutes, until mixture is thickened.

Add: 2 additional cups cranberries and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add: 1 cup cranberries and ½ cup chopped walnuts, stirring until the last cup of cranberries are just cooked. The variously cooked cranberries give it a lot of cranberry texture, and a very fresh flavor.

#2: Honey Pear Conserve:
Combine in a large saucepan: 4 lbs Anjou pears, peeled, cored and cut unto chunks, ¾ cup lemon juice, 1 cup honey, ½ tsp cloves, 2 tsp cinnamon and ½ cup dried currents.
Simmer until thickened and pears are cooked through.

#3: Pepper-Corn Relish
Combine and simmer in a large saucepan until vegetables are tender-crisp: 5 ½ cups fresh or frozen corn kernels, 1 finely chopped green pepper, 1 finely chopped red pepper, 1 medium-sized finely chopped onion, 2 whole carrots, finely chopped, 1 ½ cups sugar, 1 tsp dry mustard, ½ tsp celery seeds, ¼ tsp turmeric and 1 ½ cup cider vinegar.

Enjoy! (And just for fun, on my Facebook page is a recipe for leftover turkey which does not in the least serve up as anything remotely leftoverish.

Autumn Has Arrived in South Texas …

27. October 2012 · Comments Off on Autumn Has Arrived in South Texas … · Categories: Domestic

At the Sisterdale Market, where the table display of seasonal stuff and pumpkins includes the tuxedo-kitty Romeo.

Now, if I can only get our black cats to pose fetchingly next to a pumpkin, I’d have the Halloween decoration thing SO done!

Back Roads in the Hill Country

07. October 2012 · Comments Off on Back Roads in the Hill Country · Categories: Domestic, Old West

Having reason to head up to Fredericksburg last Saturday, we decided to explore doing it by the back roads; honestly, I would rather – unless in a tearing hurry –  travel across Texas by the secondary roads. (Unless it is in the dark, or in the rain, and when the deer are especially depressed and suicidal.) We decided to travel north on the old Bulverde road, and stop and take pictures of anything interesting – and of course, one of the first things we pulled over to stop for was a very charming vista of a turn-of-the-last century cottage painted yellow with aqua-blue trim, surrounded by oak trees, a mown field of grass, and backed with a couple of stone buildings. The nearest stone building still had a roof – the farthest didn’t. I took some pictures from the roadside, and then my daughter noticed that there was a driveway, and a sign; obviously the place was some kind of enterprise more or less open to the public. We’re the public … so we pulled in. From the circular parking lot we could see the screened porch on the back of the cottage, and a round table and four chairs under the huge ancient oak tree at the back – and in a moment the owner came out to join us. Essentially, we had a tour of the old buildings; it’s what remains of the old Pieper farmstead, which was established round and about 1850. (It’s now an event venue, and the cottage is a bed and breakfast.)

Anton Pieper apparently was one of the Adelsverein settlers, who married a fellow settler who had been widowed during the Atlantic crossing, or very shortly after arriving in Texas. Together they had eight children, and the old stone house that was one of the first houses built in present-day Bulverde, was also the biggest, and housed the entire family. Pieper had a deep well dug, which is still providing water. By the time the present owner purchased the property from a Pieper descendent, the roof of the stone barn had fallen in, and the old house was used for storage. At present it is being renovated, bit by bit; the floors restored, wood-work repaired and replaced, with an eye toward being used for events, just as the barn  and the cottage are. 

The house had some similarities to the house that I created for the fictional Beckers; built of stone, with wooden shutters instead of glass in the windows, and a generous cellar. There are some differences; a simpler layout; a single large room, with another on the second floor, and a smaller ground floor room to either side of the main room, with the single upstairs room accessed by an exterior staircase.  The cellar is being used as a wine cellar, now. The floorboards to the upstairs room disintegrated, and have been taken away, so the main room has a tall ceiling, crossed only by the large beams which once supported them. The staircase is gone, too. What was the kitchen is still being worked on – and the floor is just decomposed granite gravel. The owner has designs on making it authentically 1850 – with either a fireplace hearth, or maybe an iron cookstove. (Either would have been authentic.) I expounded on how there would have been copper pots and pans, and bunches of dried herbs hanging from the stone mantel-piece and the ceiling beams. In either case, I would love to have a house like this for my own.

The barn walls exist pretty much as always; there are two huge beams over the wide openings on either side, sixteen inches square at least, and notched to accommodate the beams that would have supported the loft overhead. There was a shed attached to one end of the barn, which still has a roof, and the original – if slightly warped floor-boards. That room is also being renovated; it might have been the hired hand’s quarters.

It was a fantastically interesting tour – and we exchanged cards and promised to keep in touch; the place is a work in progress, and I am interested in it, and knowledgeable about the general history involved. I’ve added a link to the website – it’s called The Settlement.

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