TexMex (or dirty mexican as my girls call it)

We love "mexican" food. (We also love New Mexican cuisine, but that is totally different and a blog for another day!) We are often disappointed when we eat mexican and you just never know about the quality, so I decided to make it at home from now on. I'm ambitious that way sometimes!

The first attempt was ok, but I need to work on the rice for sure. The beans were canned great northerns that I rinsed and smashed into a small amount of sauteed bacon and onions and added some spices. The enchiladas were good, but needed more sauce on them. I used PW's recipe for the meat and maybe if I had followed the rest of her recipe they would have been better. I did doctor her meat recipe and made some great meat pies - will blog on those later.

More to come . . . . .

Yummy, Yummy . . . NOMS!!!!!

Any one who knows me at all knows that I love small plate/appetizer dishes!!

I have to tell you that these babies are some of the best NOMS (Hiya, Bo) you will ever taste!

These are Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Jalepeno Thingies (click on the name to go to the recipe). And they are unbelievably yummy!! A word of warning, get some food safe gloves for cleaning the peppers and make more than you think you and your guests could possibly eat - they are that good!!

Road Food Again - Sorta!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Jackson, WY, through the Grand Tetons. Jackson is a ski resort town sort of a cross between Santa Fe, NM and Whislter, BC.

There were four of these antlered archways at each corner of the downtown plaza.
We encountered this family moose unit on our way through the park.
But, of course, it's all about the food! JC emailed a friend of his whose son used to live in Jackson and he recommended a place for lunch. It was a BBQ restaurant that is a favorite of the locals and the prices weren't bad for a ski resort town. We both had the pulled pork lunch plate with a choice of sides.
Bubba's (515 W. Broadway, Jackson, WY 83001) good barbeque and sides with prices that won't break the bank - don't miss it if you are in the area!!

Road Food Again!

We met some people in Glacier who we knew were going to be here in Yellowstone when we arrived. We looked them up and they suggested having dinner tonight at an interesting steak house they had discovered some years past on a previous trip.

It was certainly "interesting"! You order at the counter when you walk in and you are presented with your uncooked steak and told to go to the back of the restaurant and cook it yourself. Quite a novel approach and actually a lot of fun. We split the above steak and ordered an extra salad (it comes with a really good salad and bread).
You go to the grill area, season your steak and grill it and your bread if you want.
You can also saute your own onions.
Man, that was a good steak. JC cooked it a little too rare at first, so he just went back to the grill and fine tuned it!
I'm not sure why, but there are dollar bills with messages all over the place - and hats - and t-shirts - and underwear!!

Yes - that is the neon sign in a satellite dish from the dark ages!!

Eino's Tavern, 9 miles N of West Yellowstone on US Hwy 191.

Love

These are my hiking boots.
These are my hiking socks and I love my hiking socks . . .
But not as much as I LOVE my hiking boots - if I ever have to go "formal" again, I'm painting these babies "patent leather black" and gluing sequins to them - I love them that much!!
These are my hiking poles.
I love them almost as much as my hiking boots!
And this is my new camera - don't know where my other one is - blonde or senior moment has claimed it. I may love my new camera as much as my hiking boots - we'll see!!

Road Food

We're in Coeur d'Alene, ID and I knew we would be out and about for lunch today so I went to the website Roadfood.com to see what might be in the area. Yes, I have it bookmarked - We're retired, remember!!

Hudsons Hamburgers - been making them since 1907 and they have perfected simple meat, pickle, onion, and sauce in a bun. No fries, no shakes, no lettuce, just hamburgers AND pie!
This place is a long narrow room with a counter and maybe fifteen bar stools. We got there just before noon and had to wait a few minutes for someone to FINALLY finish and get gone so we could feed ourselves!! It was good though because we had a seat right in front of the grill. The cook was forming those patties as he slapped 'em on the grill. By the time we were finished eating the line was out the door a ways!
I don't know why I can't remember to take pictures of food before I start to eat! No way you're going to see a picture of that piece of pie that JC and I shared!
That's right folks - the hamburger was just over $2. It was really good, too! They also make a breakfast ham and egg sandwich, but they stopped serving those at 11:00.

Plant Rescue!!

Poor, poor, pitiful plant. It actually needs to be rescued from me, not by me!! This plant is a descendant of a trio that I received when my girls were born almost 29 years ago. Those three little plants went through repottings and enough generations to supply a greenhouse. Sadly this and one healthy plant that was adopted out to my mother are all that remain.
The only reason this one is still alive is because my good friend G made sure it was watered when we were out RVing for 5 months last season. Of course it hadn't been watered much since and I felt bad about pushing that responsibility on G again, so I decided to bring it with us for this RVing season. This is the first time it has seen the sun in years as it was in my windowless condo bathroom.

It had gotten quite scraggly so I gave it a severe haircut just before we left. Notice the signs of new life - maybe there is hope yet. My only fear is that I will leave it sitting on a picnic table in some random RV park. To be continued . . . . .