Author: rlspublishing

Share your thoughts on what we can do better in 2018.

Growing up in the south in the ’50s, staples included grits, rice and potatoes. For the purist, never consider “quick grits.” In my parents’ day, that would have been considered a cardinal sin.

Hominy grits – The white kind. Easy to find, easy to cook; start to finish in about 10-15 minutes

Corn grits – The yellow kind. Hard to find and take about 45 minutes to cook. But the wait is worth it. They are rich and creamy.

If you have not been introduced to grilling, you do not know what you are missing. Growing up, Dad cooked a lot on the barbecue pit. Of course, it was with wood. Over the years, I have made BBQ pits, big cookers, small cookers, etc; however, in antiquity, I have gotten lazy. All I use now is my propane grill and my Bradley digital smoker.

With the high humidity in East Texas, I finally purchased an all stainless steel pit after my first two rusted out. You can go high end or low end, and if you need help with the features, let me know.

There has to be a gazillion cookbooks in the world, many of them great publications. The best ever, however, is the Betty Crocker cookbook my wife received as a wedding present in 1969. Now out of print, it has a wealth of wonderful recipes.

Our book is tattered, worn and stained, attesting to the use over the years. If Betty wants to resurrect the original book, I will purchase one for the next 50 years.

There are recipes on my site that are directly from that book, and credit is given for each of them.

As noted in several recipes, we grow our own garlic. Dad took a start of elephant garlic from his grandmother’s garden in Waco before we closed down the old home place. As we traveled the oil patch growing up, the garlic followed us.

When we settled down, I got a start from him. Starting with nine cloves, I planted half and cooked with half. I continued that until I could no longer plant half because of the volume. Each fall, I plant about 300 cloves, and the rest goes to family and friends for cooking.

Therefore, I am continuing a family tradition that dates back to about 1885 or so. I very rarely use anything but fresh garlic. Occasionally I will use granulated garlic; however, I do not like garlic powder – or onion powder, for that matter.

I have to blame Dad for learning to cook. His mantra was “learn to cook, you may end up marrying a woman who cannot.”

I have to give credit to Mother and my wife Kathy for allowing me to learn by experimenting. Mother learned to be a great cook and an excellent baker. I was fortunate to marry a great cook who has followed in her mother-in-law’s footsteps as an excellent baker.

The Amazon approach to mail order is nothing more than taking the old Sears-Roebuck/Montgomery Wards’ mail order catalog to the digital world.

Unfortunately, the pioneers in the mail order business ceased to follow the business model that made them household names. Wards faded into the sunset long ago, and it appears as though Sears is not long for this world.

Growing up in the remote regions of West Texas (the nearest thing to a shopping center was more than 100 miles away), we waited for the next catalog to arrive so we could peruse the latest toys, clothes, shoes and appliances. A special time of the year, especially for the kids, was the annual Christmas catalog.

Today, rather than driving the 15 minutes to the big box stores and fighting the crowds, I connect to Amazon, do a search and order what I want. With Prime shipping, two days later, I have what I want without ever leaving the recliner.

What was old is again new – just with a different twist.

I had the privilege to go through grade school in the remote West Texas community of Iraan. Somewhere in the process, probably fourth or fifth grade, we had a science problem.

The lesson began, “Students, scientists tell us we are entering an era of global warming.” The problem:

Students, if Houston is 6 ft. above sea level, and global warming causes the sea level to increase at the rate of one inch every seven years, how long will it be before Houston is impacted by global warming?

The purpose of this short dissertation is to point out that nearly 60 years ago, global warming was part of science discussions. If we had a discussion in an elementary classroom in the remote reaches of the West Texas desert, do you think discussions could have been going on internationally?

Then we have the much more recent Al Gorian phenomena, complete with pseudo science and the “sky is falling” mantra of the bunny huggers. This mantra includes the termination of any government scientist who does not agree with the ultra liberals and their pseudo scientists.

No, the sky is not falling. Yes, there is historic evidence of climate change.

Working through a bachelor’s degree in journalism during the late 1960s, the First Amendment was hitting the courts hot and heavy. As a journalist and as a college newspaper advisor, I have defended first amendment rights for all journalists, including college journalists.

The liberal mentality, unfortunately, has invaded all levels of education to an abysmal degree.

Liberal Mantra: We believe in your First Amendment right – if we agree with what you say. If your verbiage runs counter to our liberal culture, you are hounded, vilified, persecuted, censored, shouted down and in some cases prosecuted.

I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it.

I have watched with amusement as the ultra-liberals run around shouting “the sky is falling” since the illustrious Mr. Trump was elected. For those of us on the other end of the political spectrum, we have been watching the sky as it has been falling for too many years.

Mr. Trump is far from a perfect choice, but I have enjoyed watching the holier-than-thou liberals eating crow at the goring of their favorite oxes.