Random Topics

As a kid, it is kinda funny how cool it is to get your picture in the paper. Of course, as you get older your picture in the paper is usually not a good thing.

At least when you are young there is always some lifestyle story happening and that is much more true in a small town.

My daughter, bless her heart, just had her picture in the community newsletter and the Payson Round Up; a newspaper published on Tuesdays and Fridays covering the Payson area.

Her picture was taken when she tied with a 6 year old (she is 10) on least eggs found in her age group at the community Easter Egg hunt.

I am not sure she really got it, but she is thrilled. 😉

Some of you saw my Facebook post on the Chili Cookoff win I had here in Christopher Creek. As a newbie cook, truly, it was very cool.

I made some really hot Texas Red Beef Chili. Is there supposed to be another kind? I did catch a couple of guys coughing after they tasted it and someone had underlined Hot on the label later in the day. LOL

The chili I made had pieces picked from a recipe, but I decided to use the new Shiner Brewery Summer Seasonal Beer (which is a smoked hickory flavored beer) for the liquid instead of water and I also used some habanero seasoning in place of a couple of tablespoons of the Hatch hot chili powder I prefer.

To add texture, I used sirloin mixed with the chili grind beef. I don’t know if I will ever do it again or cook other things for competition, but it goes back to gaining comfort in the kitchen. Little successes add up.

For mother’s day, my daughter gave me an envelope with bits of pieces of things she had drawn and written for me, when I got to the poem, I couldn’t resist posting some of it here, remember she is 10 and apparently aside from loving me, there is no false flattery, only the lens of honesty…

I love you by Cailin Anderson

…My mom loves to watch TV

And she watches a lot

But I still love her…

…And my mother loves to the the one that is

Annoying sometimes but she loves me and

I love her

Happy Mother’s Day!

At least I know she loves me in spite of my faults, what else could a mom want.

It’s been such a long time

I have been away for way too long. I have found an interesting thing about blogging or actually about my process of writing. I can’t so much do it when I am angry. Which, while I think is bad, could be a good thing. We all have those ups and downs in our lives and […]

Random Texas photos and parting thoughts

I thought I would share several random photos of things I either liked, found funny or that were seemed uniquely Texan…                                                                                                                                                                                           And my favorite….   My body is back in Arizona now, my soul, well, you can guess where it is…

See title…

While planning to head to Lockhart for barbecue, I came across my digital copy of Texas Monthly with the cover article “How to Cook Like a Texan”. How appropriate. So last night laying in a Texas bed reading Texas recipes from my Texas magazine, there were glowing raves for Franklin Barbecue in Austin and in […]

Texas Friendly

It doesn’t matter how many times I imagine it or lament it, the reality of Texas friendly always ends up meaning more to me than I realize. As I mentioned the other day I was planning on heading down to Lockhart for barbecue on my way to Wimberley Wednesday. I decided, with no place in […]

Holy Grail

              Today I am eating at Robb Walsh’s new restaurant in downtown Houston, El Real. It is indeed my pilgrimage to taste the Tex-Mex he writes about so eloquently in his cookbook. The restaurant is built-in an old movie theater, to keep a bit of that theme, they have […]

Houston we have liftoff…

Steam of consciousness, sometimes disjointed alert… I am finally on a plane ready for some much needed PTO (which we all know means pretend time off) because, of course, I have work to do next week. But it will not kill the fun in my visit with my friends and to revel in being back […]