She Wears Texas Size BIG HAIR

She arrives in the room filed by the many businessmen who are enduring lunch at the Citadel club of the Driskill Hotel. The men are speaking with business partners on current affairs. Attorneys, Oilmen, Financial and Real estate Investors each giving orders to wait staff as they indulge heavy liquor beverages with steak. Blue suits and white shirts adorn by powerhouse neckties fill the seating. Elegant hardwoods trim the walls which display Oil Paintings of blue bonnets by Porfirio Salinas, Cowboys paintings by Charles Russell and Frederick Remington. The room silence as she moves towards her table. Men place their steak knives down taking notice of attraction which this woman offers. She's wearing Texas size big Hair.

Wildflowers Across Texas

There is a natural canvas painted across Texas. An array of beauty splashed with bright splendors of color. Lush under growth of field grasses decorated in a wide variety of blossoms as if worked by a florist. Each stem carefully placed into the vase of wide open space. Roadside pastures stretching from the Gulf Coast to the northern plains covered with the wild flowers of Texas.

Troy Texas FunFest Chuck Wagon Cook Off-Competition

The Troy, Texas Chamber of Commerce added an old fashioned Chuck Wagon Cook-Off during Fun Fest 2010 held April 17th. The annual Fun Fest includes having an opening parade lead by horse teams, arts and craft show, tough as nails car show, carnival, and other attractions that build city support also  held last weekend. Like many town festivals, the Fest concluded with its American Fire Work Show.

Romance at Southwest Bistro

Of many places to sit enjoying the company of romance, my favorite is at the Southwest Bistro located in the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Texas. The seating along the windows over looking Lake Austin and Congress Avenue as it reaches the State Capitol building provides a spectacular view. Noting that an additional view of the Congress Street Bridge is home to tens of thousand bats which depart for a night flight approximately 30 minutes before sunset. The sky fills a line of darkness as each bat takes air as the feast on mosquitoes throughout each night until early fall.
 
However, the view is not the only spectacular reason for selecting the Southwest Bistro. It's the dinning menu. My favorite is sharing the fajita dish for two and the Jumbo Margarita. Nothing sets more for romantic moods than sharing a great meal, good drink and of course "That special Person" for me, my wife Tammy.

Hyatt Regency Austin

208 Barton Springs,
Austin, Texas, USA 78704
Tel: (512) 477 1234 

Waffles, Crepes, Pancakes and Hoe-Cakes

There are many different foods which are synonymous. The similar style making the food item yet changing the method use to cook the item, or perhaps changing one of more particular ingredients. This is certainly true with Waffles, Crepes, Pancakes and Hoe-Cakes.

SECRET RECIPE....

Earlier today, I was trying to get my brother in laws special Barbecue recipe for his southern BBQ Grilled Chicken. It's cooked with a rich smoke flavor where the sauce is darken but never burned. The sauce is truly good too. While I have many others that also are very good, I thought I would share his. However, Barbecue recipes are prized treasure. It's like that saying when you ask someone in the military, "What do you do in the military?" and they respond, "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."  TOP SECRET....well, I suppose these recipes for good BBQ are truly treasures and kept secret.

This week-end I plan to list some of my own special recipes for Barbecue Sauces and talk about areas not only in Texas, but some of the hot spots in the USA. However, my favorite when I didn't cook it, or my brother in law's chicken is cooked in LOCKHART, Texas. The true BBQ capitol of the world. Additionally, my recipe for HOECAKES....also known as Jonny Cakes because the pure Vermont Syrup I received and smoothered them with was more than just mouth watering.

PURE VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP

I just receive today a quart of Pure Vermont Maple Syrup. March begins the Maple Syrup season to harvest the sap from maple trees. The process we will cover later. However, for one gallon of this sweet healthy syrup requires processing 43 gallons of sap. The sap looks much like water with a sweet taste. I receive the B grade which is much darker in color than the A grade and is regularly used in cooking.

First thing I  plan to do, is toss a coin over making Hoe cakes or Pan Cakes. I haven't decided yet but will do this in the morning. Then take a few ounces and warm it up and pour over which ever of those cakes I decide I'm going to have for breakfast. Then, maybe review some Pork and Bean recipes that uses syrup. How do you like to use syrup?

UPDATE: I tried the syrup. It was great. You can get more information at www.vermontmaple.org  
It really made the flavor superb as I enjoyed breakfast. Oh, I flip the coin and Hoe Cake won....

Letter home from the Cattle Drive, Chuckwagon cooking Ani't all Bad

Dear Sis,
I want to wish you a Happy Easter. Today we are camped outside San Marcos, Texas along the San Marcos River. It's Easter Sunday and Cookie who is our Chuckwagon Cook held services this morning as the Sun rose. It was a simple service before breakfast. Cookie makes some really good meals although not like you and Mom. We eat a lot of sourdough biscuits and gravy that taste really good.  Tonight, he plans on making Peach Cobbler. I hope it's as good as yours. Later today. the other guys here will all head down to the river and take a dip. Likely, I'll wash up a bit too as we have been of the trail now for two weeks since we started just north of Corpus Christi, Texas.