Weekend at home

Chef Steve

The weather is just right in Texas for back yard cooking. We love to cook on Sundays in our back yard. I was thumbing through an Italian Cook Book and started with the meat then added corn. When Steve came home he added asparagus, butternut squash and for the starch, we added potato's cooked on skews cooked Italian style. Wow! Every thing turned out fantastic! The only lesson we learned is not to do more than two or three new recipes at a time.  We enjoyed eating our meal the Italian way. We started with the appetizer which was bruschetta; our second course (primo) was grilled corn that you had to dip in an olive oil mix and roll in a fontino cheese, sprinkle with pepper flakes and a little bit of fresh mint. The asparagus was wrapped in bacon and, after grilling, it was immersed in a tangy orange sauce. The third course was a beef tender loin that was stuffed with cheeses, bread crumbs olive oil and..... Oh so good! After all of this we thought we would have a light dessert: Fresh fruit marinated in lemonchello with a yogurt sauce.

medium rare please

Colorado

Going back to 2007. Colorado is another wonderful place to go when it is to hot in TEXAS and you want to cool off a little. There are many things that you can do and see there. We chose a campground nestled in the mountains at Lake Vallecito called Blue Spruce RV Park. What a great park! On Saturdays they always have pancakes for breakfast at the community hall. They also have a lot of hiking trails that are close by like the Vallecito Creek Trail and the Pine River Trail. Lake Eileen Cave Basin is right outside of the park where you can make your own trail. Blue Spruce Fast Facts - Elevation 7800 ft; 25 miles from Durango, surrounded by 2.5 million acres of public land.


Travelers World Campground  NM was our first night camp going towards Colorado; good overnighter while on your way.

Santa Fe  (Lunch at San Miguel ) 




        Rancheros de Santa Fe  NM  our second night stay on the way to Colorado  This camp had a small hiking trail which is good for a morning walk.







Blue Spruce RV Park 


Check out the pictures of a wonderful time hiking, jeeping and riding the train down from Silverton .





Beautiful

 
                                         







COLD WATER

  



Yes, we all fit in a two door Jeep.





Jeeping to the top

This is a steep hill



Spruce Tree House Tour





Taking the train down from Silverton

Cooking at camp

Possum Kingdom

If you like to hike and bike and live close to Possum Kingdom you should try out the trails on the East side. The view there is fantastic and well worth the travel. We are not very experienced bike riders but loved the challenge of sand and rocks (I think).  Be sure you check it out. (   http://www.texasoutside.com/pkbiketrail.html   )

After our bike ride we ended up at the Possum Fest where Bob Bratcher ( Wildcatter Ranch ) was in a BBQ cook off. I don't know if he won but all I can say he had the best sample I had there. I also think every one out here enjoyed good company and good food.

Mmm.... ribs

Weekend

What a wonderful weekend! We stayed at a Grapevine lake campground  We like to staying in Grapevine because it is close to everything in DFW. On Saturday we went to the State Fair.  It was fantastic and there was a little rain that kept a lot of people away. After a busy day at the State Fair we ate at Brio's for a relaxing evening. Sunday morning we drove all the way in to Dallas to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. We just love to go to this church when we are in the area. In the afternoon we had dinner at camp in Grapevine; shish kabobs-oh so good! This was a catch up on late and early birthdays for us so Trish  made a homemade tiramisu. Thank you; It was so good.  Thank you to every one; We had a wonderful evening.
The evening we went to Brio's Italian restaurant in Southlake, we were confronted by 5 or 6 young ladies that were on a quest. It was a bachelorette scavenger hunt. They ask Steve if his name was James. When he said no they ask if we had been married for more than 30 years. When we said yes we took a picture with the bride to be and were asked what was our advise to a long  happy marriage. I told them that we adopted the family theory of God, family and work; in that order. They were very appreciative and said we gave them the best advise of the evening!

Check back for pictures soon.

Octoberfest

Octoberfest in McKinney TX has authentic food and music.  We ate Nürnbergers,Kartoffelsalat und Sauerkraut. Grandma said the sauerkraut was really good and not to forget beer and the chicken dance. Oh yea this is life!!

Harvest Moon

Last night relaxing at the Wildcatter Ranch what a beautiful Harvest Moon.

2010 Harvest Moon

Mitchell Resort and RV Park

Weekend Camping

Only 40 miles from home there is a wonderful RV resort park. The park is located about 21/2 miles from Perrin Texas. Great place to be with kids. Put put golf, play grounds, three pools; one for adults only and there is also a nine hole golf course.

Today we had a great breakfast cooked outside (dirty eggs,sausage-gravy with biscuits) all so good.They have a train ride for kids that comes by at 9:00 am that rides all around the park. After the train ride we tried our hand at put put golf. What fun!! The area is well taken care of. Time for lunch and rest.

After lunch we all cooled of in the pool. There are three pools: one for kids, one only for adults and one you could  play volley ball.

Nice day for swimming just to cool off. After a few hours swimming it is time to go back to camp to eat. For dinner tonight we had hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings.

Also a surprise cake for the birthday girl (me) I had 5 candles! I am 5 years old! HA HA or as it is said on face book "LOL".

The play grounds are really neat.

There are also new cabins that we looked at. They have a bathroom, kitchenette's and are fully furnished. They are new and very clean.

The next morning we had pancakes cooked by the kids. What fun!

Mickey Mouse

Wow what cooks!!!

What a great weekend!! Since our grandkids are so far away, we thank those who came with us for sharing their grandkids with us. This will be a great park to bring our grandkids too the next time they are here.

Red River NM

We made it to Red River NM. WOW What a ride up up and sharp curves! Our motor home is a gas one and it did slow down going up hill and then down hill a lot of brakes and down shifting to first gear. If you have a diesel you have a compression brake that slows you down but you can do it in a gas motor home but you just have to be patient and it is worth it. We stayed at the Roadrunner RV Park. This is a very good RV park for this area. Red river is geared more for skiing in the winter but it is a very nice place to cool off in the mountains in the summer.

We rode the ski lift with a beautiful view from the top. There are several jeeping trails in this are and we chose an easy one. Also there is a 90 mile scenic loop with beautiful mountain views.

Dinner at the cabin.

Going up the ski lift .

Lunch on top .

 Beautiful

We had a great time in our Jeeps

2010 Red River NM

When you live in Texas and it is August it is time to go somewhere to cool off. This year it was Red River NM about 562 mi  from home.We have learned not to drive this many miles in one day; you can if you like to drive all day. This drive would take about 10 hrs. We do not have to hurry as much as we used to and we enjoy arriving before the sun goes down. That way you can relax and enjoy the evening. Amarillo was about half way. We stayed at Amarillo KOA Park. A very nice and clean park;  good for overnight. We have found out that if you are not sure about the area you are going to be in and need  full hook ups, KOA campgrounds are very reliable. After we set up camp it was time for dinner. We usually do not cook very much until we arrive at our main destination. We either have snacks or go out to eat.  This time we decided on eating out Italian.  An Italian restaurant in Amarillo? hmmm? Not bad; after dinner back to camp and a good night rest.; and then off to Red River NM. 

Amarillo TX

On the road again;

We are still in Texas

    Time for a rest stop; just watch out for snakes.

Lunch at a road side park

Welcome to New Mexico

   
                                                                                                                                                  Next stop Red River!!!