Egg Muffins ala Pinterest

Last weekend I took advantage of a recipe I found on Pinterest. I love eggs and love omelets but sometimes just don't have time to make them so I found this quick and easy recipe I could make in advance and then just heat up and eat on the go. They were so easy to make, I threw them in a baggie and they would go great in the trailer where I could heat them up in the microwave or maybe even over a camp stove. I added Canadian bacon, mushrooms and cheese to mine. I don't have silicone baking cups so I just used a muffin tin.
You can follow my Camping or Tailgating: Cooking in the Great Outdoors board I will be adding a lot more pins to this board so stay-tuned or check out the original blog post from Kalyn's Kitchen.

Giveaway @ Farmer's Trophy Wife

If you haven't checked out her blog or been a follower of hers, you soon will be once you check it out. The Farmer's Trophy Wife has awesome ideas for attire, especially cowgirl chic and is a lover of rustic decorating as well. Let's say we have a couple of things in common aside from she is Canadian and well I am not.

Currently she is having a giveaway on her site for a pair of Boot Barn red (more cranberry, but you get the drift) boots that she has given a review on for them and they were nice enough to give her a pair to giveaway on her site. There is a photo here from her site of the boots with a white dress she paired it with....soooo cute! So check out her giveaway at www.farmerstrophywife.com. There are 5 different ways you can enter so there is something for everyone to be involved.

If you go there, please tell her that you saw the information from my blog! And good luck, but not too much luck because I really fell in love with those boots and may be parting with $180 if I don't win! Happy Hump Day!

Devil's Thumb Ranch Tour

We recently had a sales meeting in a majestic place called Devil's Thumb Ranch. It was first introduced to me by some dear friends as we celebrated one of their 40th birthday's in Winter Park. We headed north about 15 miles and took off on what we would call a dirt road back in Missouri and drove until the road ended at this awesome lodge set in the foothills of the mountains. Well since I have been back twice with our sales team for a retreat and each time I want to stay longer. I posted about the ranch a year ago and focused on a lot of the outside...this time I wanted to share a tour of my room, meeting space and the details of a wonderful private dinner we had in the wine cellar.

I was the meeting host and want to think I got a special room...it was a Continental Divide view room, but it was on a corner of the lodge and I had spectacular views.

Sitting area, I LOVE that tapestry bench, they had a small one in the bathroom too.

Love this bathroom!

Giant tub and walk-in stone shower.

I could read in this chair, then sleep, then read....

Bed with with mountains through the windows.

Bed from windows.

VIEW FROM MY ROOM!!!

Our first night there we had a private dinner in their wine cellar, John L's Wine Cellar is a great little place where you can retreat and forget all your troubles, especially since your cell phone won't work down there!

Scallop appetizer, the reason we keep coming back...kind of, well no seriously they are that good!

Grilled elk loin

Blueberry Gallette

Red...red...wine

View from my seat

Aren't these the cutest steak knives you have ever seen...this one is for Christy!

Cowboy milkshake...coffee, crown and baileys.

We then had our meeting in their Timber House which is surrounded on all four sides by giant windows that we had open for most of the day to let the fresh cool mountain air in which was a welcome change for us who had been boiling in the head in the Midwest and south for the previous week.

Instagram collage of our meeting room

View from the meeting room.

 If you ever, ever, ever have a need for a meeting or retreat I can't recommend DTR enough. They are a little higher on the price side but the service and setting are completely worth it. Friend them on facebook and they run specials on rooms and events they are having. Here are a couple parting shots.

The pool and hot tub...also visible from the meeting room.

Shrimp and scallop salad from Heck's Restaurant.

Explore Texas Hill Country

As we do every year, the women on my mom’s side of the family take a trip with Grandma. This year we went to San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country for a little R&R. We went to some really cool places and this is perfect for a ladies trip who are interested in eating and shopping.

Wildseed Farms – Wildseed Farm is a great little place to explore, they have plants and herbs for sale, flower pots, garden décor and a great walking path around their own butterfly and flower gardens. Inside there are tasty treats, a Texas wine tasting station, seeds galore, jewelry, interior décor and the list goes on and on. I picked up this adorable little Mexican painted bull that I will be putting some were in the house and April and I picked up a giant boot planter painted in the same tone for mom and dad’s anniversary. (Thankfully Aunt Lisa was driving back to Missouri in a couple weeks to bring back our breakable treasures!)

My awesome Mexican painted ceremic bull

Fredricksburg – Fredricksburg is a great little German town with a lot of interesting shopping and dining. The stores lined along the Main Street range in funky art, high and low end western décor, wine shops, the General Store and other touristy stops and clothing and accessories. We spent 3-4 hours walking along the streets wondering in and out of the stores. We picked up a lot of great little finds.

Gruene – Gruene is a great little town to visit and plan on spending the day. It is much smaller than Fredricksburg but the shops I think are much more interesting a little more relaxed and low-key. Anchored by the famous Gruene Hall flanked by the Gristmill Restaurant at the far end of the shopping street there was plenty to see and do. We came across a great shop called the Tipsy Gypsy which is where I picked up my sweet glasses that everyone admired all day. I’d highly recommend hitting Gruene before Fredricksburg if you only have one day to spend.

At the Gristmill with my sweet glasses picked up at the Tipsy Gypsy

The world famous Gruene Hall

Love the name of this store!

Becker Vineyards – This is a very nice vineyard in the hill country surrounded by agriculture and lavendae fields. We had a great time sampling the wines and even were able to take some with us and a few lavender goodies like my awesome new hand and body lotion.

My cousin Jackie, me and my sister-in-law April...Instagram framed!

Lukenbach, TX – A surprise stop on our Texas Hill Country tour was to Lukenbach, TX. As a small detour from the winery back to Fredricksburg where Peach Cobbler was on the agenda, we drove down a dead-end road along a peach farm and I was convinced we were lost…until my cousin plugged in her I-Pod and Willie and Waylon came on singing about the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s and I knew exactly where we were going. I highly recommend this little detour but don’t expect it to be a big flashy place. Lukenbach is made up of a dance hall, outdoor stage and seating area, a couple of bars, a concession stand, hat shop and a Post Office that is now a gift shop.

San Antonio and Texas Hill Country – We Ate Here

A few weekends ago I went on a trip with the women on my mom’s side of  family to San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country. I’ve been here many times for work but my cousin who lives in Houston and aunt that lives north of Fort Worth planned our itinerary and restaurant choices and they did a fantastic job.

Little Gretel – The first place we stopped for breakfast on the way to Fredricksburg was in Boerne at Gretel’s . Gretels is a German/Chez restaurant that had omelets filled with gouda cheese, eggs benedict with creamy hollandaise, apple pancakes and kolaches. Now I had never heard about kolaches until I was in Omaha with Jake’s family and they were at a restaurant where we ate breakfast. His grandmother used to make them so they were all very excited to see them on a menu. We ordered a poppy seed and peach and farmers cheese kolache. They weren’t a hit with the table but mom and I really liked them. I highly recommend the eggs benedict they were extremely good!

Peach and farmers cheese kolache.

Silver Creek –  After a long morning of shopping in Fredricksburg, we decided it was time for a late lunch and we stopped at this great little German restaurant that was nice and cool so it was refreshing to sit down and cool off for a while. One thing that was on the menu was a Schnitzel Sandwich. It was a very thinly sliced pork tenderloin that is breaded and put on toasted rye bread that mixed with a Cherry Lime Frozen Margarita was perfect for a hot summer afternoon.

Frozen cherry limeade margarita.

Gristmill – Oh My Goodness…this place was hands down AMAZING. Set on the edge of Gruene, just behind Gruene Hall is the Gristmill, an old cotton gin turned restaurant…HUGE restaurant. There is outdoor seating, indoor open-air seating that was extremely pleasant even though it was 90+ degrees that day. They have a great bar area and outdoor seating area where you can wait for your table. We enjoyed a refreshing glass (or three) of their famous Sangria, an appetizer of onion rings and I had a poblano and chicken quesadilla that was extremely good.

Gristmill Sangria

Bucees - Now this is a place…gas station…farmers market…deli…jerkey/sausage…Bucee Beaver apparel…western home décor…and normal convenience store stuff. We stopped in for some fuel and then picked up some stuff for dinner, some souvineers and April even picked up a spoon rest.

Twin Sisters Bakery – We had plans to eat at the Gunther House this morning, however when we called there was an hour and a half wait and they don’t take reservations so that wasn’t going to work for us on a Sunday morning. So we looked for another alternative and the Twin Sisters was highly recommended. This as a great local place with a quirky décor and an interesting menu, you could make your own tacos so mine included egg, chorizo, cheese and avocado on a whole wheat tortilla.

Breakfast Tacos = Devine!

Guenther House –  The Guenther House is part of the Pioneer Flour Mill. It is off in an off-set area of San Antonio. The restaurant is in the bottom of the museum and gift shop and there is outdoor seating as well. As you walk in there is a case of pastries that range from coffee cake, upside down pineapple cake, strudels and the biggest cinnamon rolls you can imagine. When you sit down the serve you with the freshest rolls that are light and fluffy and their menu is similar to a tea house. I ordered a spinach salad with grilled chicken breast and the table shared a sampling of the desserts.

Spinach Salad with Chicken

 

England – We Ate This

While in England we were in Lincoln which is an average sized city that has a lot of restaurant options, but as I mentioned above we ate Thai food and Italian food while I was there so I don’t have a lot of restaurants that I can recommend, but I do have a few things off some menus that I’ll share.

Just around the corner from our hotel was a pub called the Horse and Groom. Appropriate that I picked this out for us to eat our first night in Lincoln. This was a nicer pub with good pub food. As I was trying not to eat too unhealthy instead of getting fish and chips I got ham and egg with chips. The ham was thick cut juicy ham and the egg was just barely runny, it was a nice change from greasy fried fish.

In case anyone was wondering I didn't eat the peas.

At the tradeshow the first day I did splurge on calories and got a blue cheese and steak pasty. Cornish pasty’s were created for coal workers so when they couldn’t wash their hands they could hold onto the thick crust and eat the pie out without getting their dirty hands on their food. I personally like the crust so I made sure I washed my hands so I could eat it all.

Cornish Pasty!!!

Scotland - We went here

So our last trip to Scotland was pretty quick, actually all my trips there have been pretty quick, I’ve been able to see a lot of the countryside, visit a lot of farms and see a lot of cattle and sheep along the side of the road but other than that, visiting any tourist locals hasn’t been on the agenda. This trip was no different, however we did have a lengthy drive from Dundee to the location we were staying in at England that evening so we took advantage of a tourist spot as a place to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.

We stopped in Gretna Green, Gretna Green is known as the place to go elope for the English, it was originally deemed that because in Scotland you only had to be 16 to get married and in England it was 18 so young couples would run just across the border into Scotland to Gretna to get married. Now it is a little town that is set up perfect for couples to come and get married or tourists to stop and get a flavor of the Scottish culture. There are a lot of great shops with local Scottish goods including food, liquor, clothing and souvenirs.

I was able to pick up a lot of great items including Scottish wool scarves for the ladies in my family, Ginger and Honey Whiskey and an awesome horn cuff for myself. I’m pretty much in love with the Scottish Highlander cattle which the cuff was made from, partially because we had one as a roping heifer once and then we raised some calves out of her but they just look nice in a pasture to me as we drove along.

Clockwise: me with a picture of a Highlander outside the bathrooms, bag pipers in the courtyard area, the first house in Scotland/last house in Scotland depending on which way you are coming from and more horn cuff.

Me with my bag full of goodies under the horseshoe archway.

I love America!

I love America! I do and I love the holiday today...reminds me of family and friends and grilling and ropings and beer frisbee and fireworks and sweaty horses and washers and sunburns and dirty faces and dreams and sparklers and beer margaritas and rodeos where a queen proudly displays the flag that stands for freedom that we are all lucky to have and no one can take that away. (almost a Lee Greenwood reference)

Oh and small town parades with antique tractors and little boys riding their pony. Here is a picture that I took of Jasper William last year on the 4th!

England - We Stayed Here Photo Tour

On our first night in England we were fortunate enough to stay in a great castle. This wasn’t a creepy old castle, it was a more modern castle only built in 1840. Peckforton Castle is only used for conferences, weddings and random travelers like us and has been completely redone thanks to a groom that had a wedding there last year who got angry about his bar bill and decided to set the hotel on fire. Inside the castle the rooms are grand and very regal feeling, however have nice modern touches. There is a cellar bar and a nice restaurant called the 1851 Restaurant that served us wonderful food which mine included Risotto, grilled fish with parsnip puree and a couple of glasses of a really nice crisp white wine.

Here are multiple views of the castle inside and out. They also have a falconry feature outside the main doors.

Exterior of the castle at dusk.

The rooms didn't have numbers, they had names, I didn't ask if that is who died in there or just a name.

Entrance to the room.

Big giant bed.

Wood fire place, it didn't work, guessing that fire a year ago has scared them off that.

Shower and sink.

Lots-o-plaid. Our dinner table at the 1851 Restaurant.

Place setting.

There was a wedding going on the night we were there so we snuck in for a peek!

One of the birds with the falconry.