Weather/Snow ~ Picture of the Day ~ Onion Strings ~ Sears Roebuck and Co ~ Sami Pendleton ~ National Cheese Doodle Day

  

Good 32º heavy foggy morning with snow already coming down in Grants Pass.

 

 

Yesterday the snow started about 7:15am......

 

We started at 29º. The snow stopped about 11:30 and we topped at 42º.

 

 

Picture of the Day..  house with a funny face!

 

 

Interesting about Sears......

 Sears, Roebuck and Co. commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears

 

and Julius Rosenwald,

 

with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.

 

Sears was based in the Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995, and is currently headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Sears announced in 2021 that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex. On December 12, 2022, Sears Authorized Hometown Stores, LLC, and affiliated debtor Sears Hometown, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and on the 26th announced the liquidation of the 115 largely owner-operated Hometown stores.

 

As of February 9, 2023, there were 17 full-line Sears stores, Sears Grand, Sears Appliance & Mattress, and Sears Home Life stores remaining.

 

History

Beginnings

 

Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Stewartville, Minnesota to a wealthy family which moved to nearby Spring Valley. In 1879, his father died shortly after losing the family fortune in a speculative stock deal. Sears moved across the state to work as a railroad station agent in North Redwood, then Minneapolis.

 

While he was in North Redwood, a jeweler refused delivery on a shipment of watches. Sears purchased them and sold them at a low price to the station agents, making a profit. He started a mail-order watch business in Minneapolis in 1886, calling it the R.W. Sears Watch Company. That year, he met Alvah Curtis Roebuck, a watch repairman. In 1887, Sears and Roebuck relocated the business to Chicago, and the company published Richard Sears's first mail-order catalog, offering watches, diamonds, and jewelry.

 

In 1889, Sears sold his business for $100,000 ($3 million in 2021 dollars) and relocated to Iowa, planning to be a rural banker. He returned to Chicago in 1892 and established a new mail-order firm, again selling watches and jewelry, with Roebuck as his partner, operating as the A. C. Roebuck watch company. In 1893, they renamed the company Sears, Roebuck, and Co. and began to diversify the product lines offered in their catalogs.

 

Before the Sears catalog, farmers near small rural towns usually purchased supplies, often at high prices and on credit, from local general stores with narrow selections of goods. Prices were negotiated and relied on the storekeeper's estimate of a customer's creditworthiness. Sears built an opposite business model by offering in their catalogs a larger selection of products at published prices.

 

By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, including many new items, such as sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods and automobiles (later produced, from 1905 to 1915, by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago [no relation to the current Ford line).

By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog. Sales were over $400,000 ($12 million in 2021 dollars) in 1893 and over $750,000 ($20 million in 2021 dollars) two years later.By 1896, dolls, stoves, and groceries were added to the catalog.

 

Despite the strong and growing sales, the national Panic of 1893 led to a full-scale recession, causing a cash squeeze and large quantities of unsold merchandise by 1895. Roebuck decided to quit, returning later in a publicity role. Sears offered Roebuck's half of the company to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum, who in turn brought in his brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald, to whom Sears owed money. In August 1895, they bought Roebuck's half of the company for $75,000 ($2.4 million today), and that month the company was reincorporated in Illinois with a capital stock of $150,000 ($4.9 million today). The transaction was handled by Albert Henry Loeb of Chicago law firm Loeb & Adler (now Arnstein & Lehr); copies of the transaction are still displayed on the firm's walls.

 

^{On December 13, 2022, Sears Hometown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was later revealed that all remaining Sears Hometown stores would be liquidated and permanently closed.}

 

^{If you want to read a lot more about Sears, go here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears}

 

 

 

From Mr. Food

 

If you like crispy-fried onion strings, like the kind that are popular in restaurants, then you'll love this 5-ingredient recipe for easy, homemade, Onion Strings. They're simple to make, but the end results will leave you feeling like a restaurant chef. Whether you make them for tasty nibbling or as a main dish topper, these onion strings are always a hit! We consider them a simple yet fancy way to say ..."OHH IT'S SO GOOD!!"

 

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings

 

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and pepper; mix well.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Place onion rings in flour, coat well, then carefully place in hot oil.
3. Fry onions 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate, and serve immediately.

 

****These Onion Strings are yummy as is, but you can sprinkle them with salt before serving, if you'd like.

 

 

Historically this date...........

1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.

 

1861 –Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for his first term as President of the United States.

 

Births on this date include....

1888 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1913 – John Garfield, American actor and singer (d. 1952)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1938 – Paula Prentiss, American actress

 

  

 

 

1958 – Patricia Heaton, American actress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1969 – Chaz Bono, American actor and gay rights activist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaz_Bono

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday granddaughter Sami was in a gymnastics competition in Eugene. She won a trophy....

 

All  I know. Nuff said. Have a good Saturday. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

National Cheese Doodle Day on March 5th marks an annual celebration where fingers turn a cheesy orange as we snack on these flavorful treats! Found all across the country, these cheddar cheese coated snacks come in puffed or crunchy, fried or baked. They also come in single-serving or jumbo-sized packaging. 

The actual inventor of Cheese Doodles is under debate. Generally, the credit goes to a man named Morrie Yohai who made a variety of extruded snack foods in the 1940s for his family’s company called Old London Foods. Other sources show patents for similar products in the 1930s and still other competing accounts in Wisconsin and in New Orleans as well.

However they came to be, they are here. Their crunchy, orange deliciousness is enjoyed around the world! They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and flavors and 15 million pounds are produced annually.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Cheese doodles can be used as an ingredient in many recipes. Crush them up and use them as breading for fried fish. Top homemade mac and cheese with crushed cheese doodles for added crunchy flavor.