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Pineywoods Region Week of January 25, 2023

B.A. Steinhagen GOOD. Water stained; 65 degrees; 0.46 feet below pool. The fluctuating weather has the fishing patterns changing daily. Bass are good casting weightless flukes, rattletraps and chatterbaits in the grass. Bob Sandlin FAIR. Water stained; 52 degrees; 0.56 feet below pool. Crappie are fair in 4-50 feet of water under with jigs or minnows…
071422 fishing report

Not giving up yet

Bite by BiteConquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a TimeBy Emily Banks Wooten I walked into the house from work recently to a wonderful smell. Sweet Hubby had decided to surprise me by cooking dinner. How thoughtful! It smelled so good and I couldn’t wait to see what it was. Turns out it was a keto Mexican casserole topped with an avocado…
012223 food column

2022 Food trends: love them or hate them?

By Danny Tyree As I write this year-end essay about 2022 trends in food and dining, I must confess that I’m playing catch-up. I have obligations and hobbies, so I wasn’t technically paying attention (i.e., giving a rat’s rump) as 12 months of decadent delights, culinary controversies and avocado abominations unfolded. (“Homo sapiens still ingest…
FoodTrends

Understanding the Texas cottage food law

By Cary Sims and Joel RedusAngelina County Agriculture & Natural Resources Extension Agent and Family & Community Health Agent Do you make cookies, bread, jam or other non-refrigerated treats so delicious that friends and family often suggest, “You should sell this stuff?” Are you or others you know considering this but are wary of confusing…
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Agency hosting premiere of sex trafficking documentary

Special to the Courier Human trafficking is a serious and nuanced epidemic that affects millions across the globe—and here at home. With January designated as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, the Family Crisis Center of East Texas seeks to raise awareness of this heinous crime in the local community by hosting a free film screening of the…
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Kicking off the new year

Bite by BiteConquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a TimeBy Emily Banks Wooten Recent New Year’s Eves have found us comfortably ensconced at home, on the couch in our pajamas, snacking, listening to music, watching some TV, working jigsaw puzzles and playing games. This most recent one varied just slightly. First, we wore clothes.…
011523 food column

Pineywoods Region Week of January 18, 2023

B.A. Steinhagen GOOD. Water stained; 65 degrees; 0.46 feet below pool. The fluctuating weather has the fishing patterns changing daily. Bass are good casting weightless flukes, rattletraps and chatterbaits in the grass. Bob Sandlin FAIR. Water stained; 52 degrees; 0.58 feet below pool. Crappie are fair in 30 feet of water under the HWY 21 bridge with…
082522 fishing report

Is it too early to think about spring cleaning?

By Jan Whitejan@hccourier.com I know what you’re thinking…we don’t even have all our Christmas decorations taken down, and you’re already talking about spring cleaning? While that’s definitely one way to look at it, you could adopt the perspective that the new year is the best time for new beginnings – and you can start with your home. If you’ve…
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Help a dream come true

By Annie Allen This week we celebrate a man who stood for justice, equality, love, and so much more. He stood for these things so much, and his belief in his dream was so great, that he was assassinated for it. Most of us are taught that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. largely stood for racial equality, but his message was actually much broader. Dr.…
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Begin making family mealtime a habit

Family mealtime provides a greater opportunity to select and serve more nutritious and healthful foods. Texas A&M Healthy South Texas photo by Sam Craft By Paul SchattenbergA&M AgriLife Extension Family meals can fit into even the busiest of schedules and offer a host of benefits for childen and adults alike, said Texas A&M AgriLife Extension…
Family mealtime provides a greater opportunity to select and serve more nutritious and healthful foods. Texas A&M Healthy South Texas photo by Sam Craft

January gardening guide

Freeze damaged pansies in College Station. Texas A&M photo by Courtney Sacco Cold weather recovery and more By Susan HimesA&M AgriLife Extension The cold weather and freezing temperatures at the end of the year damaged grasses, plants and trees across the state. The coldest December in Texas in 40 years left gardeners dealing with the ugly…
Freeze damaged pansies in College Station. Texas A&M photo by Courtney Sacco

Pineywoods Region Week of January 11, 2023

B.A. Steinhagen GOOD. Water stained; 65 degrees; 0.21 feet above pool. The fluctuating weather has the fishing patterns changing daily. Bass are good casting weightless flukes, rattletraps and chatterbaits in the grass. Bob Sandlin FAIR. Water stained; 52 degrees; 0.62 feet below pool. Crappie are fair in 30-40 feet of water on standing timber with…
090822 fishing report

Polk County Snowbirds

By Matthew R. March, MNRDPolk County Extension Agent Every year snowbirds leave behind the cold brutal winter of northern states to seek refuge in Texas. No, I am not talking about retirees that seek warmer weather (aka snowbirds), but actual birds that migrate south to Texas and specifically Polk County. Today’s article is going to focus on six…
WhiteThroatedSparrow

Enjoying great food with family

Bite by BiteConquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a TimeBy Emily Banks Wooten We had a lovely Christmas with my entire family at the beautiful HiBanks Ranch, my brother and sister in law’s place south of Waco. Hubby’s and Daughter’s schedules were such that they were able to spend an entire week there. Mother and I were busy with work…
010823 food column

The perfect cup of coffee

By Tim Scallon, MS RDN LDRegistered Dietitian Nutritionist A few years back while travelling in Costa Rica, we had the pleasure of visiting a coffee plantation. It happened that we were there during their seasonal down time and the mill was closed but our guide pulled some strings and arranged a personal tour for Kathy and me. From the beans…
Coffee Stock

What the heck is pickleball?

By Jan Whitejan@hccourier.com According to Britannica Online, pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 by a group of neighbors on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. The story goes that the group wanted to play a game of badminton, but they lacked a complete set of equipment. They brainstormed and came up with their own game that combined…
Pickleball Players

Food insecurity rising as funding diminishes

By Jan Whitejan@hccourier.com According to a nonprofit group, Hunger Free America, the number of people without enough food over a seven-day period spiked by twenty-seven percent in Texas between October 2021 and October 2022, increasing from 2,158,933 to 2,740,913. Based on that same analysis of federal data, the nationwide rise was thirty…
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Fallen leaves: beneficial or harmful depending on setting

COLLEGE STATION — Even though it’s the just past the Christmas season, autumn is still here and leaves are continuing to fall across the state, building up and around our homes and yards. Fallen leaves have many benefits to our ecosystem when left alone but can also become a wildfire hazard if they remain in the wrong places. Which creates the…
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Will the real “Rosie” please stand up?

By Jan Whitejan@hccourier.com The concept of Rosie the Riveter began during the early years of World War II. Due to the number of men who had left their homes and families to fight in the war, the government mounted an effort to encourage women to join the workforce. Magazines, newspaper articles, and posters played a vital role in recruiting…
Rosie the Riveter We Can Do It poster J Howard Miller circa 1942 1943 World War II

Pineywoods Region Week of December 28, 2022

B.A. Steinhagen FAIR. Water stained; 55 degrees; 0.60 feet below pool. Bass are fair on rattletraps, chatterbaits and Texas rig senkos. Bob Sandlin FAIR. Water stained; 50 degrees; 0.83 feet below pool. Crappie are slow on standing timber 40 feet deep on jigs or minnows. Catfish are slow 20 feet of water on baited holes. Bass are slowearly on shallow…
122922 fishing report

Nothing like a great Bloody Mary

Bite by biteConquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a TimeBy Emily Banks Wooten I remember many years ago, as a child, watching my grandfather and father make Bloody Marys at my grandparents’ house. I can remember thinking that it seemed like such a process – the Worcestershire, the celery, the ground black pepper. They all seemed like such…
122222 food column

A look back at some favorites this year

Bite by Bite Conquering My Culinary Bucket List One Dish at a TimeBy Emily Banks Wooten For the final “Bite by Bite” of 2022 I decided to comb through the various things I cooked and wrote about over the last calendar year and pick some of my favorites. It was tough but I managed to narrow it down to my top 10 favorite things. I’m including the…
122922 food column

‘Best Practices’ for New Year’s Eve driving

From Staff Reports The National Safety Council estimates that 384 people could die this year during the New Year holiday. The best way to be safe is to plan before you go out to celebrate. And the most obvious way to do that is to have a designated driver. If you are the designated driver, you’ll want to follow a few safety tips: 1.The most…
NewYearsDriving

Writing on the Waves, Part Two

By Maureen Peltier My home in Chester is at latitude 30.9269 North in the northern hemisphere on the continent of North America. The latitude number used to mean nothing to me. In elementary school I had spun colorful basketball size globes and observed a line going through the exact middle of our planet, but it was just another of those lines…
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Can dogs catch a whiff of bovine respiratory disease?

Texas A&M AgriLIfe illustration by Emma Simoni By Kay LedbetterA&M AgriLife Extension A Texas A&M AgriLife researcher is taking a page out of human disease research to see if dogs might be able to sniff out bovine respiratory disease, BRD, one of the largest health challenges for the feedlot cattle industry. Courtney Daigle, Ph.D., an animal…
Texas A&M AgriLIfe illustration by Emma Simoni

How to sustainably dispose of real Christmas trees

From Staff Reports Many enjoy having a real Christmas tree for the holidays. And when the holidays are over, there are several eco-friendly ways to dispose or recycle a Christmas tree. Living Christmas trees benefit the environment by sequestering carbon, supporting local businesses and tree farmers and filling families’ homes with the smell and…
ChristmasTreeDisposal

Growing Snow Peas at home

By Cary SimsAngelina County Agriculture & Natural Resources Extension Agent There is always a favorite variety of fruit or other food I love that proves difficult to grow. Snow peas are one such vegetable for me. Difficult yet highly desired. Snow peas won’t take heat and won’t tolerate a freeze. They can, however, tolerate lights frosts. With our…
Snow peas

Writing with the Waves, part one: A writer’s journey on the water, on islands

An example of some festive, hospitable locals in South America. All photos by Maureen Peltier By Maureen Peltier Returning from a recent cruise around the shimmering coast of Brazil, I have been reminded of the value and benefit of observation - just seeing. Over a period of two weeks, we cruised the mostly calm deep blue waters of the Atlantic…
An example of some festive, hospitable locals in South America. All photos by Maureen Peltier

Back to Nature – Gift-giving ideas for Christmas

By Jolene Renfro A few years ago, Mother Earth News published some interesting statics: It takes an average of four months for U.S. credit card users to pay off their holiday bills. Sixty-nine percent of Americans say they would like to slow down and live a more relaxed life. Eighty-two percent of Americans polled said they would rather receive a…
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Mensch on a Bench celebrates Hanukkah

Photo courtesy of themenchonabench.com By Jan White You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf. But have you heard of Mensch on a Bench? The loveable character is a new Jewish tradition meant to bring more fun to the traditional Hanukkah celebration. Mensch on the Bench, the brainchild of Neal Hoffman, tells the story of Moshe the Mensch, who was in the…
Photo courtesy of themenchonabench.com

The classic story that changed Christmas

By Jan Whitejan@hccourier.com Without a doubt, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a seasonal favorite. The literary tale celebrating redemption and transformation has given readers joy for centuries. But Dickens could never have imagined the profound impact his story would have. Before he published A Christmas Carol, Christmas was not the…
Charles Dickens Christmas Carol

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