Bon, I expect it will get pretty miserable here on Sunday too. I think our worst weather at this end of the state will be Sunday and Monday. Right now our temperature is hovering at 33 degrees, but most of the rain has moved on...not that much fell, a little over a tenth of an inch, but any rain is good. I can see more rain on the Texas radar to our southwest but when it gets about a county away from us, it vanishes. That's the story of our year---rain vanishes when it gets close to us. I won't mind if the ice vanishes before it reaches us though. (grin) For the rest of the weekend, the weather is expected to be about the same as it is right now---with temperatures here hovering in the low 30s and rain coming through in little waves. The issue will be whether the rain falls while we are at 32 or below or if if falls when we are 33 degrees or higher. Thursday was an odd day. We had snakes out in the yard, which I'm never happy about, but it was oddly warm for this late in November. We made it up to 69 degrees before the cold front rolled in and dropped us about 30 degrees in three hours. Earlier in the day, when walking past the garden on my way back from the mailbox, I saw a watermelon in the garden. How I have missed seeing it before now is beyond me, but it looked whole and intact, so I brought in the mail (so it wouldn't blow away) and went out to the garden to pick the watermelon. We have been down as low as 19 degrees, so I figured it was rotted on the bottom, perhaps, and only looked good on the top. I picked it from the dead vine, and it was whole and intact. How crazy is that? After carrying the melon inside, I cut it in half, expecting the flavor to be poor because we had so much rain in October and early November. If the flavor was poor, I was going to feed it to the chickens. Nope. The flavor was good. In fact, it was great, so I celebrated the survival of the watermelon by eating some of it, and saving the rest for other family members. Then I carried the rind out to the chickens and they happily picked it clean of any remaining bits of red flesh. Enjoying a slice of the 'Harvest Moon' watermelon in the final hours before a brutal cold front arrived was a fittingly weird end to a weird growing season. The plant itself had roamed and rambled around the garden before the freeze got it, and had produced plenty of melons in the summer months, but none in the fall. I never thought it would have produced a melon so late in fall that would survive several freezing nights. I likely didn't see it before because cosmos and zinnias sort of surrounded the part of the plant where this melon was. Still, I walk by the garden every day on my way to the mailbox and I do generally look at it as I go by, and I still don't know why I didn't see the melon before now. Harvest Moon was probably my best producer in terms of pounds of melons this summer, although Yellow Doll produced a larger number of melons per plant. It is just that Yellow Doll is a really small melon. I hope y'all stay warm and safe up there, and that the ice misses your place, or at least that it melts quickly. Our driveway is a long, gentle, uphill slope, so when ice falls, we sometimes have problems getting up or down the driveway without sliding off of it. That is reason enough (I think) to stay home when it is icy, but Tim and Chris both are pigheaded and try to make that long drive to work in Dallas despite the ice. I've been waiting for a quiet day to sit and flip through the seed catalogs, and I am thinking that today will be it. Other than going outside to feed the animals after sunrise, I don't plan on being outside much. The wind chills are going to be brutally cold, especially since we haven't had enough cold yet for our bodies to get acclimated to the colder temperatures. We remain, still (and forever, it seems), abnormally dry here. I keep thinking we'll get a good 2 or 3" rainfall that will pull us out of drought for at least a week or two. Sadly, it isn't happening. Obviously it won't happen this weekend because the forecasted rain/ice amounts are really low (and I'm okay with that). Our local TV met said last night that all the kids hoping for a snow day today were going to be disappointed, and that their best chance of having a snow day here will be Monday. It seems ludicrous that we're talking about snow days in November. We started this week with an 80 degree day and I guess we'll end it with a 30 or 32-degree night. That sort of sums up Oklahoma weather in a nutshell. Dawn

Wow! cherry wood is so pretty, and that paddle is great! Cream wafers? making my mouth water, and my hips expand just thinking of the cooky book. and how great is pumpkin spice for the season! What a great package. Goldgirl, you did a great job! Dolores, tell us how pumpkin coffe is!

Ann, your chicken is beautiful. UE, I enjoyed reading your blog. Our youngest daughter bears the same curse but it hasn't materialized yet. There is a similar recipe for a Hobo Dinner in one of my WWII cooking booklets but it's cooked in a coffee can. FOAS, I've been making this baked stew since high school and that was a long, long time ago. The smell of the steam when you remove the lid is intoxicating. It can be baked a day or two ahead of serving and be reheated in the microwave. GREEK BEEF STEW (2-3 servings) 1 lb. lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes Salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 Tbs. butter 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 1/2 bay leaf 1 small stick of cinnamon, broken into 2 or 3 pieces 1/4 tsp. whole cloves 2 Tbs. dark raisins 1/4 cup dry red wine 2 Tbs. water 1/2 can (6 oz. size) tomato paste 1 Tbs. wine vinegar 2 tsp. brown sugar 1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 tsp. ground cumin 1/4 tsp. dried mint, crumbled or 1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint Season meat generously with salt & pepper. Melt butter in Dutch oven or heavy casserole. Add meat and turn to coat on all sides with butter. Arrange onions, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and raisins over top of meat. Mix remaining ingredients and spread over casserole contents. Do not stir. Cover very tightly and bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Remove bay leaf and cinnamon sticks and stir sauce gently when serving. Serve with crusty bread to sop up the sauce. If you have any leftover cress and mint, you could make some of the now-dethroned former queen of salad dressings - Green Goddess. I made it this weekend and served on top of cold poached salmon. GREEN GODDESS DRESSING 1/2 cup Greek yogurt 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 cup (packed) fresh watercress leaves 2 tablespoons (packed) chopped fresh dill 2 tablespoons (packed) chopped fresh basil 2 tablespoons chopped green onion 1 tablespoon (packed) chopped fresh mint 2 to 3 tsp. tarragon vinegar 2 tsp. oil from anchovies or 2 anchovies, chopped 1/4 teaspoon Cholula or other hot pepper sauce Mix all ingredients in blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Thin out with a little milk if needed. Pour into container and chill until serving time. I'm making soup today so your steak sandwich will be the star of Wednesday's soup and sandwich dinner, if I can wait that long.

I just put a turkey in the over and I am making a brownie since the oven is on. I wanted to take the chill out of the air here. Friday night I made Tiger Meat, For those of you who don't know what it is It is raw hamburger like ground chuck. I add green pepper, raw egg, onion and salt and pepper. It is really good. We eat it on saltine crackers. I got the meat from my brother who had the cow butchered. No I am not scared of getting salmonella. I would not just use any hamburger for it though. Some butcher shops sell the meat especially for this.