Tyler Texas–The Food Addition!

This is a late afternoon post of what was supposed to go live this morning, but Blogger was being persnickety…..Better late than never right? And I sure hope they have fixed whatever it was that was broken in the first place!

When it’s a lecture day, there usually isn’t much of a photo-opportunity! But we had a great crowd at the Quilters of East Texas guild meeting yesterday!

I was a bit concerned, as in the car on our way to the venue, my hostess mentioned how they’d had some trunk shows before that went on-and-on-and-on-and-on and that after so many quilts, the audience can find themselves nodding off --

I thought to myself…”OH NO!!” But at the same time, I knew that I had a good variety of quilts to show, even if my latest fave-four are in Salt Lake City for Quiltmarket! We have 100 lbs of quilts…and my lecture runs right at an hour, and we switch it up, from talking about Scrap Management, and into Leaders & Enders, and then into working with recycled fabrics and it moves pretty fast…so I don’t thin there is any time for anyone to snooze!

I had mentioned to the girls about my two Texas Requirements: Tex Mex & BBQ! So after the trunkshow was packed up, the book table cleared, and today’s quilt set aside for the Cathedral Stars class, we headed out to BODACIOUS BBQ!!!

And the wonderful aroma from the vicinity of the parking lot was enough to carry me to the door! Remember those cartoons with the aroma steam making a “come hither” finger?? I did a search but couldn’t find one…..but still. You KNOW what I mean!!

Rib platter! Must I say more? OOOOOOOOoohhhhhhhh….these were heaven! There is nothing like Texas BBQ. Let me explain: When we moved from Texas to South Carolina, I was greatly disturbed that the BBQ had turned YELLOW as it was all mustard based! That took some getting used to….

And then when we moved to NC, it was vinegar based, and that was a whole nuther running thing to get used to as well….but TEXAS BBQ?? It wins, hands down!

Except for the white wonderbread thing. I still don’t understand why white wonderbread HAS to come with BBQ? Ours was wrapped with saran wrap, two pieces. Like a PB&J without the PB&J to go with it! I’m not a white wonderbread fan, so mine stayed behind…might I suggest…CORN BREAD!? Didn’t matter – I was so full of ribs and slaw and beans to care!

I had the rest of the day off! On went the running shoes after I had finished with some email backlog, and out exploring I went. There is a shopping mall about 1/2 mile up the road, and though it looked like rain was impending, I walked and walked and walked around the OUTSIDE of the mall, because there were sidewalks all the way around it, and I’d rather be outside than inside if at all possible. I logged in about 5.5 miles! Not bad for a jaunt about town, eh?

On the way back I stopped at Bealls –we don’t have those in NC—and treated myself to a new watch since my other one died:

And I’m happy with this little Texas momento! Sadly…no antique malls within walking distance of the hotel!

I promptly fell into bed for a 2.5 hour nap – and when I woke…I was starving! (Could it be possible? I mean…did you SEE that rib lunch above?!?)

About 1/2 mile up the road is a Tex-Mex place I had passed on my earlier walk, so I set out again. Yep. It’s a record! I tackled BOTH of my food requirements in the span of about 8 hours..LOL!

This, my friends, is a pulled pork chimichanga with salsa verde!! Whoooooooooooo!! Let’s just say it was DANG AMAZING! And a good thing I walked so much to work this off ahead of time ((Can you do that? Work off something ahead of time!?)) because it was SO GOOD!

I’m off to get ready for this workshop. The sun is shining, the storm clouds that threatened yesterday are gone, and it' promises to be a lovely day!

Bring on the weekend!!