Shady's Burgers and Bruhaha - Custer Rd in Richardson

Today Sax Man/Bean Counter had another one of those days celebrating his breakout from his mother. I know this can't be right because his advertised age is less than mine. So his math must be messed up.

We always let our kiddos pick the hole in a wall they want to grab grub in. SM/BC is known for picking out of the normal places. That's one of the reasons we like him. Shady's Burger is in a residential part of Custer Rd. Other than the shopping area Shady's is in, there isn't any retail in this area. So it is out of the way.  The place is decorated like a 50's cafe. I know because I was in cafes in the 50's. Not many tables here so pick a slow night to pull up here.

Tonight the Richardson Community Chorale was having a fund raiser here tonight. They were getting a cut of every check that gave the cashier one of their cards. So there was this pushy lady passing out cards to everyone that walked in. I told her that if she wanted me to use her card, they had to let me sing a solo. She wasn't sure what the correct answer to that was. The correct answer if you know my singing ability is NO, NO, NO, please NO!!!! Being the occasionally nice guy I am I gave the cashier the card anyway.

This joint has a wide variety of burgers, sandwiches, salads, sides, etc. If you want a weird burger, you can get one here. Not this redneck. I stick to the Texas proven meats pig and cow. Of course Yardbird gets in there also. But tonight it was all about the pig and cow. So I ordered the Bacon BBQ burger. You can't go wrong with bacon, grilled burger and BBQ sauce. I am guessing this is a half pound burger. Lots of burger here. The meat patty had a good flavor, the BBQ sauce was spicy with a little sweetness, and of course bacon, bacon and bacon. This is a good burger.

Since there were 7 of us, we also ordered half the sides on the menu. We started with fried pickles. These were a hit to the whole family. Our report varies from as good as Razzoo's Fried Pickles (the king of fried pickles) and just almost as good as Razzoo's. They serve these on a shallow pan that is about 8 inches wide and 16 inches long. So they are not stacked on each other, the are spread out. Good move here.

We also ordered Cheese Fries with bacon. Yes, more bacon. These were served on the shallow pan like the Fried Pickles which makes these better than Snuffers. Yea, Snuffers you have been pushed out to provide for your self.

To round out the meal, we ordered onion rings. Actually with all the hits so far, I couldn't believe that they missed it with the onion rings. These rings are 2 to 3 inches tall and the breading is very greasy like my hair in the 60's. I said the 60's not now, so stop it. The breading also just wouldn't stay on the rings. It all tasted good, but it just wasn't near as good as many other places I have grabbed grub in. Sorry Shady's but get to work on the onion rings.

Overall, this was a very good find. We will be gathering both of our friends and heading back someday for some more good fixins.

Givem a 8.65789120

MItcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Fletcher's Corny Dog Vs. State Fair Frozen Corny Dogs

It is State Fair of Texas time around these parts. 3  of our grands were out of school last Monday for Fair Day. The wifey guilted me into taking CBoss, Cool Hand, and Lil Darlin to the fair. As far as I am concerned the fair has only one attraction for me. FLETCHER'S CORNY DOGS.  So this year, I spent $15.00 to park, $28.00 to get into the park (2 geezer tickets) and $36.00 at Fletcher's to get my one Fletcher's Corny Dog and a drink. I also spent another $35.00 at the pizza stand for the non-conformists of the group. In the State of Texas Fletcher's is the real deal. At the Fletcher's stand, there were 8 or 9 lines about 50 yards long each just to get their annual fix of a Corny Dog. These things are so popular they should be illegal. 

The crust is very tasty. It is so good, you don't even pay attention to the condition of the dog in the middle. This here is some sweet luvin'.

Over the last few months, the wifey has gone full social on me. She is into arranging Block Parties for the neighbors on our street. This is a big deal. To have one, you have to have a signature from every resident on the block. Many of our neighbors just don't answer their door. This makes it pretty tough to get their signature. But the crazy lady from the corner will bug them till  they answer the door and sign the form. For our fall block party we decided that the State Fair would be our theme. Like we needed a theme to gather up and eat way too much food. On the menu was State Fair Corny Dogs, Cotton Candy, Popcorn, Triple Chocolate Cake, several kinds of cookies, more chips than Willie Nelson could eat after a concert.

We arranged to have a cotton candy machine and a neighbor bought the ingredients and supplies to make 25 or 30 bags of cotton candy. Note, this makes a huge mess in the kitchen!!!!!!!! I didn't eat any of the CC but they were all grabbed up and some of the kiddos ate multiple bags. Parents you are welcome for the over active kiddos for the next few hours.

The popcorn was just bigtime grocery store popcorn that we bagged into smaller bags. Yes, this is a legal activity as long as it is popcorn!!!!

One of the neighby's baked a Triple Chocolate Cake. Man oh man. One round of chocolate makes for some mighty good cake. Double Chocolate will almost electrocute you it is so sweet. Triple Chocolate is almost heaven. Man one piece of cake and my diet for the whole week is blown. But man that was some cake.

There also were several versions of homemade cookies that were really great.

We had bought a Sams box of chips, which is a bunch of chips. Lays at their finest.

I decided to deep fry the State Fair Corny Dogs. I drug out the ole deep fryer,filled er up with oil, fired it up and deep fried over 60 dogs. Like Fletchies Dogs, the State Fair Doggies were very tasty. The crust makes the day. Once again, it is so good you forget the fact that you would never buy the weiner.

After consulting with my neighbor associates, we have concluded that State Fair Corny Dogs are JUST AS GOOD AS Fletchies Doggies. YIPPER you heard me correctly. Our conclusion is that it is all in the deep frying. So the next time you have a hankering for a Corny Dog in the fall, you can either decide to pay $114.00 for one Fletchies or you can go to Sam's and buy 34 State Fair doggies for $10.66 and about $4.00 for oil. or .43 per doggies.

The next time you go crazy for a Fletchies, think back to Mitcho's very valuable advice and just slither over to Sams and buy a box of State Fair doggies. Grab up some oil, Throw a party for the 10 best buds you have. Get silly on corny dogs with your best buds for about $14.00 instead of $114.00 with a couple of friends. Remember it is all about the deep frying. For the $100.00 you save on the first craving, with that $100.00 you can buy a good deep fryer and have a weeks running money left over.

Givem both 8.468749453

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

B B King's - Memphis

If you have read my blog, you know that as a kid I spent a lot of time in the crick. So as an adult our entertainment is hiking in the woods. The wifey and me went just east of Dallas to Tennessee to do some hiking to waterfalls. You will be glad to know that on the very first hike of the week, I fell into the river after trying to tightrope on rocks across the river. At the end of the first day we caught some youngsters jumping from the top of a waterfall. That is some good redneck fun rat there.

The last night of the trip we slipped into Memphis to Beale Street. As an upstanding redneck I have a love for good music. Now admittedly most of my redneck posse are into country and western or blue grass. For this here redneck though it is the blues and rock N roll. I have heard for years about Beale Street in Memphis but I have never been there. I figured it was a variation of Bourbon St in Nawlins (New Orleans). Wrong. Beale Street was rather tame and overrun with adults drawing social security checks. The night we were there they had a car show that had everything from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and some newer. Every model of the muscle car years of about '68 to '72 was property represented here.

We had decided in advance to have dinner at B B Kings. Hopefully you have some knowledge of B B King, one of the greatest blues players of all time. We saw B B King in concert in Dallas 4 or 5 years ago and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. So lot of respect here for B B. It is only right that we tear it up in his club. For starters the house band, the King B's indicated they were world famous and it was going to be a great show. As for myself, I had never heard of them. I was really surprised, these guys were really good. They played Motown music from one end of Motown to the other.

Since our main reason to be there was to listen to music, we figured out how to eat in courses so that we would be there for a good while. So we started off ordering fried pickles. I have eaten fried pickles in many restaurants over the last 10 years. As I have indicated in the past, all fried pickles are judged by how they compare to Razzoo's. Razzoo's is the bomb. B B Kings' pickles were a very close 2nd place. Man these were some good pickles.

After a while we ordered a sausage and cheese plate. The sausage was some really good sausage. The cheese was cheddar and pepper jack. You can't go wrong with either type of cheese. Finally the plate had banana peppers. These were the best banana peppers I had ever eaten. Man they were some good luvin'.

Finally the wifey requested that we go for the Brownie-Ice Cream Tower. Brownie, Ice Cream, Whipping Cream, and chocolate drizzle. How can you go wrong. I heard that this was a really great dessert. The wifey went at this dish with a madness. I got a few bites, but the tower was a trench in just a couple of minutes.

No smoking, the waiters were very friendly and efficient (and we were drinking our required ice tea), great food, great music. This was some good times. I don't know when but I will be going back to Memphis. Next time we will order two Brownie-Ice Cream Towers, 1.5 for the wifey and .5 for me.

Givem an 9.578946

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

NOTE: My research indicated that Memphis was one of the highest crime cities in the US. However, we walked 6 blocks down Main St from the Hotel to Beale St and felt very safe. Beale St itself was very safe. So grab some buddies and head out to Memphis.

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Buttermilk's - Canton

It's Labor Day weekend, so if you call in sick on Friday, it's a 4 day weekend. Being a long weekend it is time to get out of the city and kick up our heels redneck style. I don't claim to be the smartest rock in the creek. We take off to Grand Saline which is good redneck country, but we go eat lunch in Canton. Three weeks out of the month, Canton is good redneck territory. However, the first Monday of each month it is invaded by all these uppity, putting on the ritz kind of women. I mean thousands of them. The home base at lunch time for all these girlies is Buttermilk's. So what am I doing there? I am there because I got two of those girlies with me.

Buttermilk's puts on like it is fine dining, but the menu is loaded with chicken fried steak, fried bologna, fried green tomatoes, etc. so a good redneck can get some vittles here.

The last time I was here I had the fried bologna, so I ciphered that I should try something different. I ordered the Jalapeño Cheese Burger with Fried Pickles. The burger was some mighty fine grubbing. The Fried Pickles needed more breading and more spices. They were pretty good, but I have been to Razzoos which has the best. The girlies got homemade chips and homemade sweet potatoe fries which both looked good.

Overall givem a 8.32454322!

Mitcho

©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

The Fish Place - Pecan Gap, TX

Being a bonafide redneck, you know I have folk down in East Texas. My folk down in East Texas have raved about how good the catfish is at Pecan Gap. If they thought any higher of it, you would think it was God's catfish. Of course since God is more concerned about "the lesser of these", God's catfish probably is the mud cat down at the creek.

Mitcho knows catfish. I have been to Miller Grove, Pine Mills, The Feed Sack (Windom), Vaughans (Tyler), Vaughans (Lake Bob Sandlin), The Fish Net (Caddo Valley, Ar.) and many other so called prestigious catfish joints. My resume and waistline are both pretty good. So Mitcho is a bonafide catfish expert.

After a great deal of pestering, I finally gave in and we did the Fish Tail over to Pecan Gap. This place is pretty hard to find. You go to the center of the city and the only place that has cars parked everywhere for a block or two around it is the place. Kind of cute rustic.

This is one of those all you can eat buffets. That is always a positive. Mitcho is a big fan of no limits. So for $12.00 (seniors) and $15.00 (youngsters), you can eat all the food you want and drink all the tea you can drink (the fish do need to float).

No ordering here, grab a plate and start piling it on. The first food bar is salad. Why. I mean really, Why??? The next one it gets serious. Catfish, spicy catfish, fries, jalitos, hush puppies (aka shut up doggies), baked potato (I refer you to WHY), shrimp, fried shrimp, and BEANS.

Mitcho loaded up on the spicy fish, BEANS, shut up doggies, jalitos, etc.

The spicy fish is pretty good. One of the best of the joints listed above. But the real deal is at the bottom of this blog. It was a little spicy, but it could have used quite a bit more spice.

The shut up doggies were the pretty normal hush puppy, but I like the normal hush puppy, so it was a good.

The fries, were fries.

The jalitos were real good this evening, I will let you know about tomorrow.

The BEANS were some of the best beans I have eaten in a long while (since the last time I went to Vaughans). Pecan Gap beats Vaughans on fish, but nobody beats Vaughans on beans. They must have a good amount of chili powder in them. Pecan Gap's beans has some chili powder, but not enough to be the best.

Did I mention cobbler. I went to the cobbler bar and there was peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler. I had a hard time picking one, so I just took one of each. Only the right thing to do. Good call. This is some mighty good cobbler right here.

Top it all off, the folk paid for the meal and you know we always like a free meal.

Overall,   this is some good vittles. If you are ever in North East Texas on a Friday or Saturday evening, grab some buddies and go fishin in Pecan Gap.

Givem a 8.68798797

The real deal for catfish bar none is Doe Belly's in Forney and Kaufman. Mitcho has on give two 10's on the blog and Doe Belly's is one of the 10's. Yum Yum.


Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Tacos Y Vino -Bishop Arts District / Texas Theatre

Dinner tonight was at Tacos Y Vino in the Bishop Arts District. Details to follow after the story. The wifey and me being big music fans (blues, rock N roll, Jazz, etc.) we are constantly searching for music events in North Texas. In the wifey's recent search she found that the Texas Theatre was debuting "From Nowhere the Story of the Vaughan Brothers". This is a film of the history of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his older brother Jimmy Vaughan. If you know blues music you know Stevie Ray, one of the best that have ever picked the strings. We did the Jive over to Oak Cliff for a night of entertainment. I was later advised that I had taken her on a date. That detail was not disclosed until the evening was over.

The Texas Theatre is on Jefferson Blvd in Oak Cliff (Dallas). It opened in 1931 and till about the late 60;s or early 70's, Jefferson Blvd was one of the most affluent shopping areas in Dallas. Of course everyone that knows anything about Dallas, knows Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the Texas Theatre on that November day in 1963. The theatre today has been refurbished and looks very nice and pretty good size. They apparently show a wide mixture of entertainment. Check em out.

If you know the wifey and me, you also know we like food. So the wifey searches on the Texas Theatre website which lists the 10 best restaurants near the theatre. So she reviews the offerings of all 10 and decides the feed trough for us tonight is Tacos Y Vino.

Now for the rest of the story:

So we parked near the theatre and then walked the .4 of mile to 8th St to Tacos Y Vino. This is in an old house that has been remodeled into a restaurant. Back in the day, I bet this was a pretty nice crib. This place is an upper casual to an upscale feed joint. White napkins, fancy tables, different looking glasses, etc. Not exactly the kind of place you would expect this highly respected redneck to grab grub in. The wait staff was very attentive and helpful, with some good personality. Of course the wifey and me are tea totallers, so the wine part didn't do us much good, however, we did go for the pineapple tea.  Very different, but good. We started the meal with the tamale bites which were unreal. Can't describe them, but get you some. The waiter also highly recommended the jalapeno bites. So we will have to try them next time. The wifey and me both ordered Barbacoa Tacos. This is 3 street tacos with barbacoa meat and who knows what else, some kind of cheese, sauces, etc. The tacos were really good. The General Manager David, even followed us out the door at the end because he had not had a chance to talk to us before we left. Now that's concern about the customer's experience. 

I know that some of you readers from time to time take off your redneck clothes and put on some citified duds and slide over to The Bishop Arts District. When you do, you need to checkout Tacos Y Vino and maybe the Texas Theatre. 

Giv'em an 8.845646444

MItcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour 

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Mitcho's Sausage Foil Wrap

This last weekend I attended a redneck board of directors meeting down at Cedar Creek Lake. We had a large gathering of redneck types and wannabees. Of course we got a place with a swimming pool so that all the rednecks in training would have something to do and to stay out of both of my hairs that are left.

A redneck board of directors meeting is basically food, naps, food, naps, repeat. I look forward to these events. Being the head redneck I spent the weekend fixin grub for every occasion. Of course some of the redneck wannabees were watching what ingredients I was using very closely. They probably have never hung out at the creek and caught crawdads, mud cat, water moccasins, and other delicacies of the crick. 

Of course being close to July 4th we had to shoot fireworks. Next time we will call the volunteer fire department ahead of time. Doing the tap dance on a fire is not as much fun as it once was.

Now to the review. I had done some research and decided I would try a sausage foil pack. For years I have been making hamburger foil packs, but never sausage. First of all, I spent the week before researching where I could get some quality sausage. My first thought was driving to West, Texas to the Czeck Stop, but I just didn't have the time. I have a qualified friend on Face the Nation (aka Facebook) that recommends Hirsch's Meat Market in Plano, but just didn't have the time to drive that far. So I was hung to grocery store sausage. After my research I went with Kountry Boys Sausage at Kroger. Great choice, this was some good sausage right out of the package. Pretty spicey!!!
Me and my redneck assistants prepared a smorgasbord of extras to throw in the foil pack. Nothing was moving, this time. We had red potatoes, onion, bell pepper, edamame, green beans, green chile's, carrots, corn on the cob, and plenty of cheese. So I loaded up my foil pack with all of the goodies and then it came to the spice section. I piled on some Italian Season, Paprika, Onion powder, Garlic Salt, and if you like some Tabasco sauce to taste. The more spices you throw on, the better it will get. Throw the foil in the oven at 450 to 500 and cook for about 40 minutes. Man oh man, this is some really fine grub right here. All of my redneck buddies gave my new concoction two thumbs up (assuming they still have both thumbs).

Givin Mitcho's Sausage Foil Wrap a 9.878797

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g