Sourdough Biscuits

Did You Know? Trail Drive Cooks made their sourdough biscuits without yeast. At the beginning of a drive, the cook would mix up a batch of batter and let it ferment in a jar for a day or so. The sourdoughs were made each morning by adding soda and lard to this fermented batter and then cooked between hot coals in a Dutch oven. The amount of batter removed each day to make the sourdoughs was replaced with more flour, salt, and water so that the fermenting process was ongoing during the drive. Trail hands often joked that a cook who made the desirable "light" doughs was always adding blueberries or raisins to their batter just to keep the gnats from flying off with them!

The critical factor in making light sourdoughs was calculating how many coals were placed below and above the oven. Here's an easy calculation when cooking with a Dutch oven. Figure 2 coals per inch of oven diameter. Then place 2 more coals than the oven size on the lid, and place 2 less than the oven size under it.

So if you are cooking in a 12-inch oven, you use a total of 24 coals. For the number of coals underneath, you would subtract 2 from 12 for 10 coals and on top: 12+2 for 14 coals.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2012

Cowboy Twitter

Did you Know? Even though Jack Dorsey is credited with inventing Twitter and "Tweeting" in 2006, Texas Cowboys were using 140 character sentences way before Dorsey's time.

 It has been said that a Texas Cowboy possessed the rare talent for "saying a whole lot in a mighty few words." Or, "He don't use all of his kindlin' to get a fire started." Here are a few of my favorite Cowboy sayings.

"A winks is as good as a nod to a blind mule."


"Only a fool argues with a skunk, a mule, or a cook."


"Man's the only critter who can be skinned more than once."


"The man who straddles the fence usually has a sore crotch."


"Polishin' your pants on saddle leather don't make you a rider."


"A change of pasture sometimes makes the calf fatter."


"If the saddle creaks, it's not paid for."


"The bigger the mouth, the better it looks shut."


And my all-time favorite:

"Nobody ever drowned himself in sweat."

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2012

Texas Artist / Illustrator: Jack Jackson

Did you Know? Artist/cartoonist, Jack Jackson, (1941-2006) was born in Pandora, Texas (Pop 200) but migrated to Austin in the early sixties where he landed a job at the Texas Ranger humour magazine. Jackson became friends there with Gilbert Shelton. (Another 60's icon) and the two soon found themselves heading off to San Francisco to join the "flower power" revolution. In 1969, Jackson, Shelton, and two other Texans, Fred Todd, and Dave Moriaty bought an offset printing press and started the infamous, Rip Off Press, the original underground comix publisher.  (Photo-Jack Jackson)

 

The press published cult favorites from Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to R. Crumb's Comix and Stories. But history and Texas were never far from Jackson's mind and later set out to produce works of Texas in "real historical terms." Jackson's graphic novels include stories of Juan Seguin and other Mexican-American heroes of the Texas revolution - Los Tejanos; the Karankawa tribe's massacre of the Spaniards - God's Bosom; Sam Houston's time among the natives -Indian Lover: Sam Houston & the Cherokees; the way the Mexicans remember the Alamo -The Alamo: An Epic Told From Both Sides. And my personal favorite: Comanche Moon -The Story of Cynthia Ann and Quanah Parker.

 

 It must also be noted that Jackson is the inspiration behind Texas Tales Illustrated, produced by myself and fellow Mineral Wells native, Mack White.

 

 

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2012

Black-Eyed Peas on New Year's Day

Did you Know? Some believe that the practice of eating black-eyed peas for good luck in the upcoming year dates back to the Civil War. During Sherman's famous march through Georgia, it is widely believed that the General ignored the fields of black-eyed peas while destroying other crops as the pea was a major food staple of plantation slaves. As a result, the black-eyed pea also became a major food source for those left in the wake of the Northern troops.

Black-eyed peas were farmed in China and India in pre-historic times and often eaten by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Records show that the peas were transported from West Africa to the West Indies by slaves as early as 1674. The USDA reports that the peas, (which are acutally legumes) are high in potassium, iron, and fiber. A half cup serving is the same as one ounce of lean meat.

Another explanation of the tradition says that black-eyed peas were all southern slaves had to celebrate with on the first day of January, 1863...the day the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. From that time on,the  peas were always eaten on January 1. Today, black-eyed peas are traditionally served with collard, mustard or turnip greens, pork, and cornbread. And don't forget...each pea represents one day of good luck in the new year, so one must eat 365 peas on New Year's Day to ensure prosperity for the entire year!

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Did You Know? ~The Rio Grande

Did you Know? The Rio Grande forms at the base of Canby Mountain, just east of the Continental Divide in Colorado? The river has been known by many names throughout its discovery. The Spanish names are Rio Bravo (wild or bold river) or Rio Bravo del Norte. (wild river of the north) The Keres Pueblo People's name for the Rio Grande was mets'ichi chena or Big River, while the Tiwa Pueblo People's called it paslápaane which also meant Big River. The Navajo People knew it as Tó Baʼáadi (Female River because of its southerly flow - South is female in Navajo cosmology) Other names include: Río de Nuestra Señora from the Hernando de Alvarado expedition, the Río de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Río Guadalquivir by the Agustín Rodríguez expedition, and Río Turbio (turbulent river) by merchant, Antonio de Espejo. Juan de Oñate is generally regarded as the first to call it the Rio Grande, when he reached its banks near the future site of El Paso in 1598. To call the river the Rio grande River is redundant as the word Rio means river in Spanish!  (Photo -The Rio Grande near Eagle Pass)

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011.

The Great Western

Did you Know? The Great Western was a nickname given to El Paso Prairie Nymph, (Prostitute) Sarah Bowman. Sarah, who was born Sarah Knight, also used the last names of Bourjette, Bourget, Bourdette, Davis, Bowman, Bowman-Phillips, Borginnis, and Foyle. She came to be known as the Great Western for her height. (Sarah stood six feet two inches tall) The nickname is thought to be a reference to a contemporary steamship of the day also noted for its size. RIP Ford wrote of Sarah, "she has the reputation of being something of the roughest fighter on the Rio Grande and was approached in a polite, if not humble, manner." During the Mexican War it is reported that Sarah offered to wade the Colorado and whip the enemy by herself if Gen. Worth would simply lend her a stout pair of tongs. Sarah is best known for opening a hotel in Saltillo, (The American House) , that she converted to a hospital. During the battle of Buena Vista, Sarah not only rescued wounded soldiers from the battlefield. but also carried them back to her hotel / hospital!

 

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011

Did You Know 3?

 Did you Know? The original county seat of Hardeman County, Texas was Margaret. However in the mid-1880's, the Fort Worth and Denver Railway surveyed the area, and discovered that the town of Margaret was across the Pease River and away from where they wanted their rail lines to run. The rail road officials subsequently laid out the town of Quanah, named after Comache Chief, Quanah Parker. A special election was called, but before the vote, it was established that one could become a resident residency simply by having their laundry done in any Hardeman County town for six weeks. Amazingly, the railroad crews all became voting citizens just in time to vote Quanah as the new county seat! [Photo - Chief Quanah Parker visits Quanah on July 4, 1896. The Fort Worth and Denver Railway station is at the left.]

 

Did you Know? HideTown was a bufflo hunter's trading post in present day Wheeler County, Texas. The town was originally named for the fact that residents used buffalo hides to construct their dwellings. Later, the town camed to be called, Sweetwater. In 1876, Sweetwater was home to the infamous Sweetwater Shoot-out in which Bat Masterson shot and killed Sgt. Melvin King after King had killed local prairie nymph, Mollie Brennan. After the town applied for a Post Office in 1879, it learned the name Sweetwater was already being used in Nolan County, Texas. Legend holds that the town fathers dispatched a rider to nearby Fort Elliot (located at the time in the Eastern Panhandle of Texas) to find out an Indian word that meant Sweet Water. A Cheyenne scout supposedly offered up Mobeetie as the translation. Some insisted at the time that the Cheyenne had the last laugh on the "Buffalo Hunters" and their town as Mobeetie actually meant Buffalo Dung!

 

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011