Feeling Pepp-ier....

Well, the worst of the pneumonia seems to be behind me, thank goodness. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck! Fever, chills, coughing, exhaustion, body aches, joints hurting... I'd have thought I had the flu but I had no GI symptoms. I'm still finishing up the antibiotics and taking a couple of hits of an albuterol inhaler a 3-4 times a day.

So Happy 2008! Am I the only one for whom 2007 flew by? It went so quickly it all seems like a blur. I suppose that feelings is only going to intensify the older I get. We didn't do much for New Year's. We let the kids stay up to watch the ball drop in NYC (= 11 PM) then they and we both went to bed. Heard a few firecrackers popping, but not very many. I think there is a burn ban here. NY Day was spent watching bowl games and just hanging out. I did cook a traditional NYD supper. We had grilled injected pork tenderloin, black eyed peas, sweet-hot beans, and cabbage casserole (recipe below). We had ice cream floats for dessert.

Yesterday, I took the kids on a field trip. We went to Dublin, Texas (aka Dr. Pepper, Texas, population 1024) to see the oldest continuously operating Dr. Pepper bottling plant. While invented in Waco in 1891 (before Coca-Cola), it was bottled in Dublin. They also have a museum, gift shop, and soda fountain. It was really cool to see all the equipment. While automated, it still requires a lot of human monitoring. The bottle washer is twice as long as the assembly line to fill and cap the bottles! They put in 15% syrup (made with only cane sugar, no corn syrup) and 85% carbonated water. They can fill the 10 oz. bottles there, but only bottle one Wednesday a month. A case of 24 bottles sells for $16. If you want refillable (old) bottles, you have to bring them in 24 old bottles in a case to swap out. Why? Because each bottle is worth about $10-15 nowadays. They aren't going to give you 24 filled bottles for the price of what one empty bottle is worth. But you can also get a case of 24 "Dublin Dr. Pepper" in no refill bottles for $16. They will take any old bottles in trade as long as they do not say Coca-Cola. The cases can say anything. We saw ancient Orange Nehi and Nu-Grape bottles, embossed Dr. Pepper bottles (worth even more, the tour guide said), and plenty of green bottles that probably used to hold 7-Up or Fresca.


We also heard the history of the plant, and saw many ancient advertising posters for Dr. Pepper. One is priceless. It features a girl in a 2-piece "patriotic" outfit dating from WW2. There was an uproar because her midriff was showing. The girl was saluting, wearing a WW1 helmet. The public outcry was so large, Dr. Pepper said that all posters of this girl should be destroyed and burned. But the guy running the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant was a pack rat, and put it up in hiding instead. It is one of 2 known in the world. The insurance company will not insure it. The Dublin Fire Dept. has orders that in case of a fire to remove that picture first, then worry about human life second. We also saw a room that featured all sorts of DP memorabilia. I'd forgotten about the 1-liter glass bottles, or the blue Sugar Free Dr. Pepper cans. They also had some other items DP bottled like Kickapoo Joy Juice (Coke invented Mountain Dew in response) and Big Red. The tour guide said Big Red (red cream soda) could not be found outside of Texas. We begged to differ, and told him it can be found all over New Orleans and south Louisiana. It was news to him. That got us to craving some Popeye's Fried Chicken and a red cream soda to wash it down!


Cabbage Casserole
1 small cabbage or half a large one
1 small sweet onion or half a large one
½ stick margarine or butter, melted
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 can Cream of Celery soup, undiluted

Topping:
½ stick butter or margarine
1 stack Ritz or Townhouse crackers, crushed

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coarsely chop cabbage and place in greased 2 to 3 qt. casserole dish. Cut onion into thin shreds and place on top of cabbage. In small bowl, mix soup, mayo, melted butter, salt, and pepper together. Spread over top of cabbage mixture. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over top of casserole. Cover w/ foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes until top is brown and inside is bubbly.

*Note: I have also made this using 2 bags of shredded cole slaw mix. Works well, but no need to cover. Just bake 30 minutes uncovered.