Texas Tidbits: Chili, It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Breakfast of Champions

Chili. There are as many ways to make it as there are cooks. Getting these cooks to convene at one place at one time is called a Chili Cook Off. There must be thousands of these cook offs every year in Texas, and some of them are serious business. With cash and prestige on the line, the competition is fierce. The recipes for the best chili at these cook offs are guarded like the gold at Fort Knox. Or like the Top Secret Crabby Patty Formula at the Krusty Krab. I love Spongebob. The arrival of Spring signals the beginning of the Chili Cook Off season in Texas. Below I'll list a few links to some of the more popular and well-known chili cook offs in the state.

• 2011 Lone Star Chili Cook Off  - Believe it or not, this cook off takes place in New York City! It won't come as such a big surprise that it is held by the Texas Exes and the New York a & M Club. The one time that Longhorns and Aggies come together as one.  :)

• "Texas Men's Chili Cook Off and BBQ Championship - From the cook off website: Blanco County Fairgrounds in Johnson City. This Texas tradition is fun for the whole family on the banks of the Pedernales River. Cooking begins Friday evening. On Saturday vendors will offer treats and treasures from throughout the Hill Country, while the cooking continues. Live music on Saturday, 42 domino tournaments. Fun for the whole family. Come early to judge or just taste chili, barbecue, beans, and hot wings made by the best in Texas. Sponsored by CASI". 
• Terlingua International Chili Championship - This is the Grand Daddy of them all. Enough said. 

This is, of course, a very short list of the Chili Cook Offs held in Texas each year. I used Google Fu to find a list of many of the Chili Cook Offs going on in Texas throughout the year. I'm sure that I'll locate more chili cook offs over the course of time, and when I do, you'll be the first to hear of them.

If you know of a bad ass chili recipe, please feel free to send it to me at threestatesplusone AT gmail DOT com. I'll be more than happy to share it with the rest of the world.

Texas Tidbits: The Call of the Wild (flowers)

Bluebonnet Carpet

One of the things I enjoyed when I set out on a fishing trip was the trip itself. Say what? Yeah. The trip itself. All over Texas this time of year wildflowers are either in bloom or are on the verge of blooming. Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes and many other varieties of wildflowers. And the dogwood trees. I love the dogwood trees of East Texas. as a matter of fact, there several festivals held in East Texas during the dogwood blooming season. One of the best Dogwood Festivals is held in Woodville.  There are tons of events held each year at the Tyler County (Woodville) Dogwood Festival - parades, food, games and of course, the beauty queens. I attended a few of the Tyler Conty Dogwood Festivals and the really are a lot of fun and they'll kick of the 2011 version of The Dogwood Festival this weekend. See the link above for all the info.

I must say however, driving down the highway and seeing a field of acre upon acre of bluebonnets carpeting the ground is my favorite wildflower sight. Simply gorgeous. I found a website that takes us on a trip through the Bluebonnet Trail in Texas. It has three parts so it's a bit of a read, but it's very cool and is certainly worth your time. Here's an excerpt from the site, "It really doesn't matter much which roads you take because this year the wild flowers are likely to be thick practically everywhere.  Highways 1431, 29, 281, 71, 29, 2323 and 16 are the main thoroughfares and you can't but help to travel those; but it's best to branch out and explore.
       If you're looking for Bluebonnets, they're most plentiful in the northern part of the Hill Country.  If you're traveling from Fredericksburg to Llano take highway 16.   Beginning at Willow City the Bluebonnets don't confine themselves to the bar ditches, but spread out into the fields."

There are thousands of miles of prime wildflower sight seeing in Texas and Touring Texas has the scoop on many of them. Enjoy the virtual tour of the Bluebonnet Trail. Now get off your ass and take a drive this weekend! The spring time beauty of our state is waiting for you.

The Week in Review & Daylight Savings Time

Home

The week that just ended yesterday has, overall, been one of the best weeks ever for Three States Plus One. I want to thank you for the outstanding support you continue to give us. All of you are the Shiznit, or something.

If you missed some of the award-worthy posts of last week, I am gonna post some links to them so you can catch up with the rest of the class. Or you can re-read them, as the case may be.

• Pancho Villa, the KKK and My Grandmother - This is one of the most popular posts we've had over the last few months. it's even worth a re-read.
• Regent, North Dakota - A small town tackles its own financial woes without gubmint help!
• First Monday Trade Days - A Texas size flea market.
• Lake Fairfield State Park - A close-to-the-Metroplex camping and fishing hot spot.

All those stories were very popular last week, so give them a perusal when you get a chance. The whole of the archives hold some pretty good stuff and they would be worth a little review for you as well.

If you haven't already, SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD AN HOUR! Daylight Savings Time began this morning at 2AM. I have some outstanding information to pass on to you in the coming days, so be sure to check in every once in a while so you don't miss a thing!

Have a GREAT Sunday!!!

Texas Tidbits: Lake Whitney State Park

It's the weekend! Years ago, i spent many a weekend at Lake Whitney with my then brother in law, James Jessup. I am sad to say that James died a few years ago, but I carry some great memories with me of the time James, his family (his Dad, brother,etc.) and I spent slaying the crappie at Lake Whitney. I always looked forward to those trips because I knew they meant fishing, cold beer and lots of cooking.

Today, I am going to pass on to you some information about a great place to spend some time with your friends and/or family. Whitney is known for great fishing for sand bass, stripers and crappie. A good place to have as your vacation headquarters is Lake Whitney State Park.With that said, Lake Whitney State Park is not all about just fishing. For example, "Facilities include restrooms with and without showers; picnic sites with and without shade shelters; campsites with water, with and without shade shelters; campsites (pull-through) without shade shelters, with water, electricity, and sewer; campsites (pull-through) with and without shade shelters, with water and electricity (special rates available); an airstrip (2000-foot paved runway - unlighted, unattended, left hand pattern, call traffic on 122.9 MHz); a trailer dump station; a group recreation hall with a kitchen, attic fans, central heating and air-conditioning; a group camp with a dining hall and 8 screened shelters; a Texas State Park Store; a youth group area with fire rings and picnic tables - no drinking water or restrooms near; a fish-cleaning facility; a launching ramp; a playground; and 2 trails of approximately 1 mile each - one for hikers only and one multi-use trail for hikers and bicyclists" See what I mean? There's plenty to do , so can enjoy some fishing early in the morning, take a hike in the afternoon, cook up some good grub and slay the fishi again starting about an hour before sundown.


Lake Whitney is easily accessible from anywhere in the Metroplex and Central texas and it's certainly worth the trip no matter how far you have to drive. After your trip, be sure to let me know how you did while fishing! Have a safe trip!

Texas Tidbits: Lake Fairfield State Park!

The Best Fisherman on Lake Fairfield

I just checked in with accuweather.com and it looks like that all my rowdy friends in the Metroplex and all of North Texas will be having a beautiful weekend for enjoying outdoor activities. There's a State Park just down I-45 from Dallas that is worthy of your attention. Fairfield State Park offers some good amenities spending a day or a week - lakeside camp sites, electricity, lighted fishing pier and more. We'll get back to the fishing pier in a minute.

From the Park website, here's a 3 minute video, that gives you some great information about Lake Fairfield and all the stuff you can look forward to when you visit. Another good thing about Lake Fairfield is that is a power plant lake, so the water of the lake stays warm even during the coldest of times. Another cool thing is that there are freshwater redfish in them thar waters. Redfish are a saltwater species but they were bred to adapt the to fresh water of Lake Fairfield. let me tell you that when you latch onto one of those big bad boys, you know that you have something at the other end of your fishing line. As a matter of fact, a good size redfish on the business end of your line feels somewhat like trying to haul in a compact automobile. And they taste GREAT when cooked properly. This is where the lighted fishing pier comes into play. Besides redfish, you can catch bass, crappie and catfish as well as panfish like bream.

To me, a park like Fairfield is all about the fishing, but for some reason unknown to the brightest minds in this room (that would be me), some of you are heathens and don't like to fish. I call you "heathens" with love in my heart.  :) There are other things to do besides fishing for you heathens that don't fish, again I say that with love in heart, like "A six-mile trail has connected an older 9-mile trail to provide a continuous 15 miles of trailways that provide multi-use (hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian) access from one end of the park to the other. Much of the trail is adjacent to the 2400-acre Fairfield Lake. There is also a 2-mile nature trail and 1 mile of bird watching trail." Attention Bob Zeller of Texas Tweeties! There's birding at Fairfield State Park!

The park is about halfway between Dallas and Huntsville and if my math and memory serve me well, that's about 85 miles or so from the Big D. It's well worth the drive just to escape the Rat Race, which by the way, the rats are winning, to Fairfield for the peace and quiet of a relaxing weekend of doing what the hell ever you feel like doing, even if it's nothing.

MASSIVE 8.9 QUAKE LEVELS JAPAN! UPDATED! (scroll down for updates)

This kind of story is out of the scope of stories that I normally cover on this blog, but it's too major to not at least mention. 

An 8.9 earthquake shook Japan this morning at 2:46am local Japan time. The temblor is the largest quake to EVER strike Japan and the 7th largest ever recorded anywhere. The quake generated a tsunami that has hit the coast of the island nation with waves estimated to as high as 30 feet. the West Coast of the United States is under a Tsunami Warning with a wall of water ranging from a couple of feet in Southern California to mas high as 6 feet in the Pacific Northwest and in Hawaii.

US Military personnel in Okinawa are all safe and unaffected by the quake and they stand at the ready to assist in any sort of search and rescue or recovery operations in the quake ravaged zone. President Obama has also notified FEMA to be ready to assist the Japanese government as needed.

At least 51 people in Japan have died as a result of the massive earthquake with that death toll expected to skyrocket as the wave from the tsunami recedes and rescue personnel gain access to the affected areas. Nuclear power plants have been shut down leaving at least 4 million homes in Tokyo alone are without electricity. These nuke plants are reported to be completely safe with no radioactive material released as a result of the quake.

These story is changing by the minute and the information along with it is doing the same, so I'll leave you with the information I have as of 7:20 am EST.

I will update as events warrant. If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for the lost lives in this disaster and a prayer of strength for the survivors.

UPDATE: At least 200 bodies found by rescue workers in northeast Japan.

Texas Tidbits: First Monday Trade Days in Canton!

This is a post I've been wanting to write for quite a while. I have been holding off doing so until just the right moment. This is just the right moment.

Spring is just a few days away and that of course means that folks will be once again enjoying the beautiful outdoors of our great country and day trips will again be the rule rather than the exception. The place I am going to write about today is a place I have been to many times, especially as a kid. Mom, Dad and my sisters and me would all pile into the Family Hoopty and head east in I-20 to Canton and the First Monday Trade Days! If you've never been to First Monday or if it's been a while since your last visit, this is definitely something you'll want to do a few times this spring and summer. From those who have never experienced First Monday, I am hearing a question being shouted in unison, "What the hell is First Monday Trade Days?". The short answer is First Monday is a flea market. A real BIG flea market. If it can be bought or sold, chances are you'll find it at First Monday. There's acre after acre of merchandise on display. Here's a quick look at First Monday from their website.

The history of First Monday gives us a little more insight as to why it has been around for over 150 years! 
"In the 1850s when the circuit judge stopped in Canton on the first Monday of each month to hold court, people from across Van Zandt and surrounding counties came to the Courthouse square to watch court proceedings and take care of business. Many brought their own goods to sell or trade, including produce, farm equipment and livestock. It was common to see wild horses, which were rounded up in the region, for sale on Trade Day. Canton's First Monday earned a statewide reputation as the best place to buy a good horse." I never knew that until a few minutes ago and I think that it's pretty cool. There's a lot more First Monday history as well as info on being a vendor, places to park an RV and so on, so be sure to check it out. While you're on their website, click on all the links they provide and you'll find out about the food, fun things and other stuff that First Monday in Canton has to offer you!