RECIPE: NANA'S DROP BISCUITS

  From Austinite Geraldine Payton, who says this recipe from her grandmother has favorite for generations. “Simple, delicious,” she said.

 

Makes: 8 biscuits

 

Ingredients

·       2 cups all-purpose flour

·       1 tablespoon baking powder

·       1 1/4 teaspoon salt

·       1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

·       3/4 cup-1 cup milk or buttermilk

 

Directions

  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the pieces of cold butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a fork until the mix has a coarse consistency.

  Add the milk and stir just until combined. Add a little more milk if dry, to a thick, lumpy batter consistency.

  Drop about 1/4 cup of batter on a baking sheet or in a cast iron skillet greased with butter. Bake for 18-22 minutes until golden brown.

  Brush with melted butter, with a squeeze of honey added, if desired.

IN THIS MONTH: 1836

On March 2, 1836, Texas became a republic, a day after delegates from the seventeen Mexican municipalities of Texas and the settlement of Pecan Point met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to consider independence from Mexico. The convention voted unanimously to accept the resolution. Fifty-nine members signed the document and Texas became the Republic of Texas. Four days later, the Alamo fell after a 13-day siege by the Mexican Army.

RECIPE: GRANDMA'S TRAIL STEW

  From Cedar Park resident Cam Payton, who says this recipe has been a longtime family favorite handed down from her grandmother. “It’s simple and easy, and has been updated a bit so you can use modern ingredients — but it tastes just as good.”

 

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients

·       2 tablespoons vegetable oil

·       1 pound beef stew meat, cut into bite-size pieces

·       1/4 teaspoon salt

·       4 cups assorted cut-up fresh vegetables (potatoes, carrots, corn, celery and white onions)

·       1 can (14 oz) beef broth

·       1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce with basil, garlic and oregano

Directions

  Heat one tablespoon of the oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat and salt. Cook five minutes, stirring until browned on all sides. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

  Add remaining one tablespoon oil and vegetables to the skillet. Cook for five minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

  Return meat to the skillet. Stir in broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  Stir in tomato sauce; simmer 15 minutes more or until meat and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

IN THIS MONTH: 1861

On February 23, 1861, the people of Texas went to the polls and voted 46,153 for and 14,747 against to secede from the United States. Of the 122 counties voting, only eighteen cast majorities against secession. Eleven others were as much as 40 percent against. The referendum was held pursuant to a decision in favor of secession in the state Secession Convention. By happenstance, on the same day 84 years later, in 1945, the U.S. flag was raised at Iwo Jima by Texas Marine Cpl. Harlon Block of Weslaco, among others.

WORDS TO LIVE BY: 1861

"Without determining now the manner in which this result should be effected, it is the deliberate sense of this Convention that the state of Texas should separately secede," delegate John H. Wharton, in seconding the motion for secession in Austin. The convention ratified the motion on February 1, 1861, by a vote of 166 to 8. Gov. Sam Houston was opposed, and he was subsequently removed from office and replaced by Lt. Gov. Edward Clark, a secession supporter.

RECIPE: VALENTINE CAKE

From Round Rock resident Sarah Bowden, who says this recipe has been a family favorite handed down from her grandmother. “It is the best red velvet cake you’ll ever taste,” she says.

Makes: 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 cup buttermilk

  • 1 Tablespoon vinegar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 2 cups granulated sugar

  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 oz. red food coloring

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 3, 8-inch round pans with nonstick spray. Cut and place parchment rounds in the bottom of the pans. Set the pans aside.

Combine the oil, eggs, buttermilk, vinegar, and vanilla in a mixer. Add in the sugar and mix, then add the cocoa powder, salt and baking soda, mixing until there are no lumps.

Mix in the flour and red food coloring, and mix until smooth. Divide the batter equally into the three pans.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes, then put them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Frost with buttercream or cream cheese, and top with red sprinkles or small red hearts.

IN THIS MONTH: 1874

  On January 15, 1874, Democrat Richard Coke was inaugurated the fifteenth governor of Texas — with no lieutenant governor — after a tumultuous campaign and a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court invalidating Coke’s victory because of a misplaced semicolon in the state’s election law. Disregarding the ruling, Davis and state guards locked himself in his first-floor office as Coke and his supporters took possession of a second-floor room where he took the oath of office protected by the Travis Rifles, who had initially been sent to the Capitol to protect Davis. For two days, there were two governors. Davis resigned and left Austin, after President Ulysses S. Grant refused his request to send in federal troops to keep him in office. Coke served for two years until he became a U.S. senator. A former Confederate Army captain, Coke was credited with reestablishing white supremacist rule in Texas following Reconstruction and for returning Democratic control to Texas politics for the next century . . .

RECIPE: BLACK-EYED PEAS

  From Austinite Lyda Wise, who says this recipe was a treasured New Year’s good-luck dish handed down from her great grandmother.

 

Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients 

·       16 ounces black-eyed peas

·       6 cups and 2 quarts of water, separated

·       1 pound ham hocks (3 pieces)

·       1 medium onion, diced

·       1 red bell pepper, diced

·       3 garlic cloves, minced

·       1 teaspoon thyme

·       ½ teaspoon pepper

·       Salt to taste

 

Directions

  Soak the peas overnight in 6 cups of water in large bowl, covered with a paper towel. Add another cup of water in the morning before  cooking, if all of the water soaks up.

  In a large stock pot, add 2 quarts of water and ham hocks and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cook for about 1 hour.

  Remove ham hocks from the pot and cut off the outer layer of thick skin; this will allow the meat inside to cook with the peas. Add ham hocks and skin back to the pot of water.

  Strain the black-eyed peas from the soaking water. Add onions, garlic, red bell pepper, thyme, pepper and beans to the water. Increase heat to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Cover and cook on a low simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender. Salt to taste. Serve warm over rice.

IN THIS MONTH: 1842

  On December 20, 1842, a contingent of more than 20 men and 3 oxen-pulled wagons arrived around dawn in Austin to relocate the Republic’s archives to Washington-on-the-Brazos near Brenham, where a new capital was to be established. Republic of Texas President Sam Houston had ordered the surprise raid. Boarding house owner Angelina Eberly spotted the wagons being loaded and fired a six-pound mortar to alert Austinites. The raiding party headed northeast from Austin and were caught by angry citizens on a road along Walnut Creek, somewhere near Pioneer Farms. The records were returned to Austin. It was in 1839 that then-President Mirabeau B. Lamar had made the decision to relocate the capital to Austin while standing on a bluff overlooking the land where Pioneer Farms is now located.

WORDS TO LIVE BY: 1843

  “Those in charge of the archives, not having sufficient force, left them, and returned to their homes, reporting that Capt. Joseph Daniels, attached to the Gen'l Land Office, had been shot at several times, but had escaped, leaving his family in Austin. What injury he sustained is unknown. The malcontents also declared to those employed in bringing away the archives, that on their return to Austin, they would put the Com. of the Gen'l Land Office, Col. Thomas Wm. Ward, to death; and further declared that if the Pres't had been taken and given up to them, they would freely have surrendered the archives. They are represented to have been in a state of intoxication.” — Republic President Sam Houston, in a written explanation to Congress about what happened during the Archives War.

RECIPE: DROP SUGAR COOKIES

  From Austinite LaDonna Dobson, who recalls this easy-to-make recipe was passed down in her family from the 1800s:

 

Makes: 24 servings

Ingredients

 

·       1 cup salted butter, softened

·       1 ⅓ cups sugar

·       1 large egg

·       2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

·       2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

·       ½ teaspoon baking powder

·       ½ teaspoon baking soda

·       ½ teaspoon salt

 

Directions

  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two large baking sheets. Mix the butter, egg, sugar, egg and vanilla in one bowl until fluffy. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Then mix the two bowls together. Scoop the dough into rounded, roll in sugar and place on the baking sheets two inches apart. Bake for 11-13 minutes until slightly crackly on top, but softer around the edges.

IN THIS MONTH: 1839

  On November 11, 1839, the Congress of the Republic of Texas met for the time in Austin, in a log and wood structure located just south of the present capitol and just west of Congress Avenue. Austin was selected as the new capital months earlier after Mirabeau B. Lamar, while on a horseback scouting mission, announced his pleasure with the new site while on the bluffs overlooking Walnut Creek and the Pioneer Farms property.