Saturday, March 7, 2026
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Lemonade Dessert

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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0

As much as I love cooking and keeping a tidy home it’s time to approach change. I’ve been getting ready for an event in our home and I keep realizing I need time to ‘play’! Honestly I think it all goes back to the word, ‘balance’! My easy dessert is a bit of a tribute to keeping things simple, yet delicious. Summer means fishing, boating, swimming, picnics, travel, the racetrack, family, friends and so much more.

Once again we’re going to jump outside of four little walls and kick our creative juices into overdrive. What am I thinking? Well, here goes: Lemonade switched out to limeade is easy peezy. We don’t even have to discuss modifications, it’s pretty obvious!

When I go to the Caribbean or any sunny beach it’s fun to seek out the best Pina Colada in town. You have to be careful with the cream of coconut because too much results in a ‘soapy’ tasting drink, yuck. Still I think it’s worth ‘messin’ around here and making one of my favorite summer flavors. Two ingredients come to mind quickly: coconut and pineapple. In the crumble portion of the dessert add 1/3 of a cup of toasted coconut. You might even want to crush a few cashews into the crumble, instead of pecans. With the ice cream add 1/2 cup of cream of coconut, sample and see if you can go to 3/4 of a cup for a nice coconut flavor. To the cream of coconut add a small flat of crushed pineapple, undrained.

Go to larger markets to find a good selection of frozen fruit concentrates. Pineapple Orange is going to be another easy modification. Use frozen pineapple juice concentrate or orange juice. Also add in the crushed pineapple again. With the orange juice you’re going to get the flavor of an Orange Julius.

Strawberry-Banana juice concentrate, mashed bananas with a little lemon or orange juice stirred in to keep browning at bay, mashed strawberries. So very refreshing.

Chocolate, sure, why not? I would probably go with 12 ounces of heavy cream with chocolate syrup added to desired strength. Peanut Butter Chocolate?

 

Freeze this easy dessert and keep it tightly covered. It’s going to be a refreshing closure or ‘snack’ for a hot summer day. Now I have the ‘hankering’ to prepare one of these for our home. They could even go into muffin tins for the kiddos.
The perfect dessert to make in advance for a summer barbeque.

This weekend I’m making changes, more time for fun is the prescription. Go forth and have an outstanding week or week-end. Simply Yours, The Covered Dish.

Lemonade Dessert

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup cold butter
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream
1 (12 oz.) can frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
(May have to use regular, if there’s no pink.)

In a small bowl combine flour and sugars, cut in cold butter until crumbly. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle and spread in a single layer on a greased 10 x 15 x 1 baking sheet. (I would put parchment on my pan first.) Bake at 375 degrees for 9-12 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring once. Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack.

In a large bowl, beat ice cream and lemonade until well blended. Sprinkle half of the crumbles on a greased 9 x 13 x 2 baking dish. Spread with ice cream mixture and sprinkle remaining crumble over the top. Cover and freeze overnight. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving. MUST SET OVERNIGHT. Serves 12 persons.

 

 

Kings of the Neighborhood

By
Steve Gilliland
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0

I often just shake my head at people who rebuild in the same exact location time-and-again after their homes are destroyed by storms, and especially by flooding, which is obviously prone to happen over-and-over where they choose to live. I wonder why they don’t move to where the threat of flooding is less. For the third year running now, we’ve had a family of kingbirds nest on the streetlight pole in front of our house, and the last two years the nest was destroyed by storms. There is a metal bracket where the steel pipe holding the light attaches to the pole, and they seem to love the small “pocket” it offers. Its hilarious to watch the female as she evidently feeds a chick buried in the nest. She has to spread her wings each time to keep herself from falling deep into the nest, which is not visible at all. I could stand there and throw a stone at a dozen different poles around that would offer better digs, but nope, they love this one!
Kingbirds are classified as “tyrant flycatchers,” birds that hunt and feed by snatching insects in midair, known as “aerial hawking,” or while hovering, often returning to the same perch time and again with their catch. Because of their mode of hunting, they need large open areas nearby to accommodate their hunting style, thus, nesting in the open on that light pole makes perfect sense to them. Plus, the street light beside them will attract a buffet of insects every night. The “tyrant” part of their classification is earned because they aggressively defend their nest and territory against intruders, often succeeding in driving away much larger birds like hawks and owls. Western kingbirds are a species that have benefitted from man’s acts of planting trees and erecting light and power poles.
Kingbirds make a kind of jabbering, twittering sound and we often see them hovering above the nest while making that noise. They are masters of hovering by flapping their outstretched wings but remaining in one spot above us. They are also known to be masters of great acrobatic maneuvers while hunting, although we have not yet been treated to that. Kingbird’s breed and nest all across the western half of the United States and winter in Mexico and South America. They have a small topknot that usually lies flat unless agitated, but their pale-yellow breast is probably what distinguishes them the most.
We enjoy watching our kingbird pair; now that they are evidently feeding a chick or chicks, they are both either perched on the light pole or on the nearby wire, one usually has a snack in its beak, and they always greet our presence with their jabbering song. I’m not sure how they will drag their kids up out of that nest this year, but I hope they can get it done before Nature destroys it again. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!
Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Soapbox diatribe

By
Milo Yield
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0
Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield
Every once in a while something or someone trips my “soapbox trigger” and I can’t refrain from spouting off about it. The latest soapbox trigger is our government’s esteemed “Climate Czar,” none other than the the ultimate climate hypocrite — John Kerry.
What Kerry said that tripped my trigger was a bold statement that implied food producers — farmers and ranchers — are among the most egregious climate destroyers with all the carbon dioxide they spew into the atmosphere growing food. He stated that the goal of agriculture should be close to carbon zero as soon as possible.
Apparently, our Climate Czar doesn’t realize that folks would opt to keep eating nutritiously over — uh, well, about anything. Next to clean water, good food is a close second in the great scheme of living critters — Homo Sapiens included.
Our Climate Czar intimated that livestock, particularly ruminants, need to go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. What Czar Kerry conveniently ignores is that ruminants are home to trillions upon trillions of all sorts of bacteria and micro-organisms that work 24 hours a day, for free, converting inedible grass into high-protein meat that enables meat-eaters to grow and stay healthy.
Here’s two reasons every word that Czar Kerry utters about saving the planet from carbon dioxide is hypocritical. First, he travels the world in carbon-emitting private or government jet planes. Second, thanks to his marriage to the heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune, he lives in several energy guzzling, multi-millions dollar homes, some of which are on the ocean beach, which Czar Kerry states will soon be inundated by rising ocean levels.
So, until Czar Kerry quits eating and quits his personal energy indulgence in opulence, I’d suggest he button his hypocritical lip and that the rest of the world ignore his ignorance.
I’ll get off my soapbox now — with a target on my back.
***
The huge Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City kicks off this evening. Sadly, Nevah and I won’t we working the entrance gate like I’ve done for years, because Nevah’s doc’s advice is to stay cautious getting around on her walker and to stay off uneven ground. So, that puts the rodeo out.
However, it reminds me of a rodeo joke. A champion barrel racer was known to only wear one spur on her boot heels during the competition. Folks wondered why, but no one had the nerve to ask her why only one spur.
Finally, a young kid noticed and shouted out to the competitor, “Why do you wear only one spur?”
To which the on-horse lady grinned and replied, “Well, I figure when one side of my horse starts running, the other side will too.”
***
I consider myself a fair to middling veggie gardener, but I’m not worth a hoot at growing melons, berries or fruit. But, there are some unfortunate folks who just don’t seem to have a green thumb for gardening of any sorts.
One of those folks is my friend, ol’ Wilt Ed Leeves. He stopped by recently and the conversation turned to gardening.
After he’d related many of the gardening failures in his life, as he left Wilt said, “my garden is something that dies if I don’t water it … and rots if I do.”
***
Several of us old geezers were discussing and cussing the rate of inflation and the high cost of groceries.
One of ‘em said, “The most expensive cut I’ve ever had was sirloin steak.”
I piped up and added, “Tenderloin is the most expensive cut I’ve ever had.”
The third wag grinned and ended the conversation with a laugh for us all by stating, “Well, guys, the most expensive cut I’ve ever had was a vasectomy.”
***
Two middle-aged farmers with marital problems made each other’s acquaintance at the local Dew Drop Inn bar and grill. As they commiserated  with each other about their marital problems, the first guy divulged, “I have a joint checking arrangement with my wife. If I’m not home by 10 o’clock, she starts checking the joints.”
The second farmer replies, “This is the second marriage for my wife. But, she is a good housekeeper. First guy she divorced, she kept the house. Looks as if she’s gonna get to keep mine, too.”
***
Well, I’ve got new home news. The contractor finished the footings and the foundation, Then he finished pouring the slab and the safe room. Right now it looks like I’ve got a real sturdy concrete dog house with a big concrete kennel. Hope they get started erecting the structure this week.
For those interested, Nevah keeps getting around more and more nimbly using her walker for support. So far, all good news from the rehab folks.
***
Words of wisdom for the week. “There are always two reasons for doing anything — a good reason and the real one.” Have a good ‘un.

Gravel roads

By
John Marshall
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john marshal

There are at least 78,000 miles of gravel roads in Kansas, about 60 percent of the state’s total road mileage. Estimates and studies can range toward 100,000 miles, numbers that may include township dirt roads or the unpaved streets in a hamlet.
The character of these roads varies widely, especially over long rural stretches ‒ the flat hard-pack along western cropland, the sand hills wash boards, the sharp rocks of the Flint Hills, the slippery curves and blind roller coasters over the northern Smoky Hills and along all, doughy windrows ‒ and dust.
After the grader has been over a rural back road, traffic returns it to the familiar contour of grooves ‒ middle, left, right. Driver-side tires on the middle track, passenger side on the right. Too far right, and the vehicle pulls onto the slippery drift of a windrow, usually at the edge of a sharp ditch.
A friend who lives in rural Wabaunsee County (154 miles of gravel, 64 miles paved) has been driving the northern Flint Hills roads for a long time. He sees this as a cultural experience. Someone’s coming toward you, and you both move your vehicles slightly to the side. You pass safely and move on.
“That’s the way it’s always worked,” he said. “I think of it like good politics. We’ve been driving with a wheel in the middle road for generations because that’s what works.
“Someone comes along, you both move over for a moment, then go back to the middle. From what I see, that’s what the governor has been trying to do ‒ work from the middle.”
*
In January Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, opened her second four-year term with a commitment that rankled Republicans and frustrated some Democrats. She likes the middle road.
“That’s how I think and I recognize you have to govern from the middle,” she said. ” Look at the dysfunction in Congress, and that’s because you don’t have people who are trying to work towards the middle. I can’t see any reason I would want to change.”
Move over for a moment, allow the oncoming proposal some space, then work back to the middle.
For Kelly, a lot of traffic has approached, sometimes at high speed. Republicans dominate in Topeka and have approached her while hauling heavy loads. Much of their freight comes from out of state, cargo from feverish cause lobbies: naughty books, election fraud, public money for private schools, tax cuts for the wealthy and so on. It’s all trucked in, usually after dark. The mission is to convince constituents that they had ordered the goods.
This is hard to believe. Most people trust their schools and teachers, their librarians, their government managers. The list of true concerns remains basic: taxes, roads, schools, health care and the weather. That, and the football team this fall.
*
Kansans generally have good intentions. They elect one of their own to take their concerns to the legislature, but in no time a Statehouse brawl has broken out over signage on bathroom doors, or yesterday’s history lesson.
In Topeka, minds get disabled. In Topeka only one mind is important, the leader’s. He or she is someone powerful, unfamiliar or remote, one who takes orders from people up the political ladder, perhaps out-of-state. Citizen legislators who challenge or question a leader put themselves at risk. Committee chairmen have been replaced, non-conformists shunned. Resisters have been moved to barren quarters in the Capitol, then hacked in the next primary election.
The legislator becomes guarded, scans the political road and awaits instructions. There are only two grooves, not three. No one dares to move over or make way. Few if any risk putting their own talent into the process. The inclination to share a mission and to compromise is stuffed away.
My friend from Wabaunsee says this is a dangerous way to travel.
“You move over, give some room, let the road work,” he says. “If you don’t, if you try to play chicken, you’re likely to wind up in the ditch ‒ wrong side up.”

 

KU News: KC-based study shows evictions happen most in predominantly Black neighborhoods, homes with children

By
Guest Columnist
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0

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
KC-based study shows evictions happen most in predominantly Black neighborhoods, homes with children
LAWRENCE — Across the country, people are evicted from their homes for various reasons, but not evenly by community or by neighborhood. A new study from the University of Kansas shows that neighborhood characteristics such as those in which renters are predominantly people of color or families with children have higher eviction rates.
A housing price crisis has been widely reported across the nation in recent years. And failure to pay the rent is the No. 1 listed reason for eviction proceedings. However, a study by Hye-Sung Han, assistant professor of public affairs & administration at KU, shows that in Kansas City from 2010-2016, evictions and eviction filings happened most frequently in neighborhoods that were predominantly Black and in which most renters were households with children. Neighborhoods with the highest rents or those that had been recently gentrified did not predict higher eviction rates, but neighborhoods that had a higher presence of federal rental housing assistance units did have lower rates.
Han, who studies housing policy, became interested in eviction after reading Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” and hearing talks about evictions and reading other studies on the issue.
“At first, I was surprised at how common evictions are in the U.S., especially in low-income areas,” Han said. “People who study eviction say there are a few reasons why it happens. One main reason people point out is the lack of affordable rental housing. A lack of affordable housing puts low-income families at high risk of eviction. However, the data shows that evictions do not occur only in the high cost of living or high-poverty areas.”
Han’s study, which analyzes evictions and evictions filings filed in Jackson County, Missouri, was published in the Journal of Urban Affairs. Her study explores why evictions are more prevalent in certain neighborhoods. The findings that eviction rates were highest in predominantly Black and neighborhoods that are majority families with children match findings from similar studies conducted in 17 midsized American cities that showed evictions happen chronically in neighborhoods with similar characteristics and are not evenly distributed throughout cities.
In Missouri, eviction records are open public records. While landlords can evict tenants for a number of reasons, including non-payment of rent, damage to property, violation of lease provisions, assault of the landlord or other tenants, and others, lack of rent payment is the leading reason. The study showed that those evictions did not happen during times of neighborhood change, such as gentrification, but most commonly in low-income areas and consistently over time. While there is not one commonly agreed-upon definition of gentrification, it is commonly thought of as a neighborhood that undergoes change that brings new tenants and businesses that, in turn, force out previous tenants who cannot afford new, higher rental rates.
“What is it about neighborhoods that make eviction levels high? I found out high rent is not necessarily the major factor,” Han said. “I found that the racial makeup of a neighborhood is, unfortunately, the strongest factor. The other factor was family type. Higher percentages of rental households with children are where you see higher rates of evictions and eviction filings.”
The rent burden is commonly referred to as a problem in the housing crisis. When a household spends more than one-third to one-half of its income on rent, it is considered a rent burden. Han’s study examined neighborhoods with higher percentages of federal assistance programs such as Housing and Urban Development or Low Income Housing Tax Credit housing units and found that they do predict lower levels of eviction and eviction filings.
“If rent-burdened households have higher eviction rates, would not the increasing number of affordable units with rent assistance help? This study found that increasing federal rental housing assistance greatly reduces evictions and eviction filings,” Han said.
That finding indicates policymakers should consider expanding federal rental housing assistance on a wider level to help reduce rates of evictions and increase housing stability, Han said. She also noted that the eviction records data only represent cases in which eviction cases were filed, or households received eviction judgments and were formally evicted. People often are “informally evicted” or leave their homes after receiving a notice or when threatened with eviction or pressured by landlords before official paperwork is filed. Landlords and property ownership and management companies often have lawyers while tenants do not or cannot afford them, according to Han, which can influence the number of people willing to fight an eviction filing in court. And even if they win their case, many renters are hesitant to have an eviction proceeding on their record because some landlords automatically deny rental applications based on eviction records regardless of the outcome.
The study argues that an increased understanding of evictions could help policymakers craft better solutions to address the housing crisis and eviction rates, such as expanding rent assistance and services for families facing eviction. It can also help dispel assumptions about why or where evictions happen and comes at a time when evictions are increasing.
“We are hearing about evictions being on the rise because of COVID-19. It is the aftermath of the pandemic, and the tenant protections and other federal emergency rental assistance that were in place are over, and we are seeing more evictions throughout the country,” Han said. “Losing your home can be very traumatizing. Most evictions happen because families cannot pay the rent. Families get evicted for many other reasons, too, however. They can get evicted even if they did not miss a rent payment. They can potentially be evicted for repeated noise violations like a noise complaint about their children. Unfortunately, so few resources exist for families at risk of eviction.”
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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
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[email protected]
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Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

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