Brewster County food

There's absolutely nothing artistic about the food served at Eve's Garden Bed & Breakfast.

Nope. Nothing at all.

Especially not baked pears. Move along...

***

Instead of going to my high school graduation, I went to the Rio Grande Valley for a week; instead of going to my own graduation from Sul Ross State University, I slept in, had breakfast with the fam at Eve's (here in Marathon), and then had CowDog for lunch in Alpine. Close enough, right? 

Mmm, a Big Hangover and a Little Hangover. It involves chili and Fritos, don't worry! And if the atmosphere feels a bit like an alley behind a liquor store with a dumpster in the background... that's only partially true. Technically I think it's still parking lot *next* to liquor store... but it's the food and people that make CowDog so fantastic. 

Also, the art...

Dogs (not all toppings listed):
Mexican - bacon, pico
Greek - feta, olives
German - bacon, saurkraut
Street dog - not sure, think it's spicy?
Hangover - chili, fritos
El Pastor - grilled pineapple & purple onions

Specials (ask about availability):
Artisan - fruit chutney, stone-ground mustard
Moofaletta - olive/pimento relish, salami


Not-dog:
Tater flop - grilled mashed potato w/toppings





These night photos were taken months ago (and Kody is bundled up), but you get the idea. Alan (Allen?) is a wonderful fellow who graces us with delicious food and a generous spirit and quick laugh. And edible art. There's a reason I've never managed to take a picture of any of the actual food items. They vanish too quickly!

So if you're in the mood for awesome, bring cash. You will not be disappointed.

Edit: here's the CowDog site and menu! Apparently I missed the Wing Dog, the Bad Dog, the Veg-o-matic, and a lovely video:

Tuna Juice is pink

Mmmm, tuna juice. No, seriously, the fruit of the prickly pear is called a tuna. Nopal is the green pad. So juicing a tuna isn't nearly as bizarre as it sounds... but it does confuse people when you talk about going around town picking tunas to juice. Especially when you live in pretty much a desert!



The juicing setup: buckets of tunas, a huge rinsing tub, a chopper/grinder thing, bucket for juice, press, screen, clean containers. You can see where this is going, right?



Tuna puree! Of course, since I ended up helping after snapping these photos (and I wasn't thinking about it during the 2 weeks we sipped upon a small fraction of the harvest), this is all the evidence I've got for the juicing of the tunas. Most of the juice was frozen, to later be turned into margaritas and wine, but what was consumed fresh was also consumed with care - apparently it has enough antioxidants to mess you up if you drink more than 1/2 a cup or so per day. Just sayin' (one of the guys there ended up drinking about 3 cups and Did Not Feel Well). Oh, and it is like magenta henna if it gets on your skin. Not to mention clothing!

Exciting factoid: cochineal yields an identical magenta dye. You are what you eat, no?

While on the topic of pink things:



Strawberry Tres Leches - does not transport well. Tastes like heaven. Except for the crazy pink stuff on top, that was concentrated sugar with sugar extract and more sugar. And maybe a funky strawberry flavor additive. But overall, we felt good knowing that our purchase for the bake sale would help fund prom for Marathon High. Rumor has it the graduating class this year is four.

(This post's photos were taken around September 3rd)

goings on

My non-food Marathon post may have been too soon. Now that the community is overrun with tent caterpillars of some sort, I feel they're missing out on the limelight that the mites got. With last weekend's rain, there are also a few more mosquitoes around, too. Only one snake has been seen in town so far - another Kansas Glossy crossing the road.

Community update part 2: The somewhat locally made soap smells delicious and is quite gentle on the skin (the gal who makes the soap is from Minnesota but her dad lives in town - will have to elaborate on the rosemary soap some other time, but the 'air' has a slightly minty scent that's wonderful). In other news, dare we say food-related, Don of Shirley's Burnt Biscuits is back! The place won't be open for another week or two, but for someone who had heart surgery last month, he's looking great. Can't wait for those oatmeal cookies...

Site tidbit: on Sunday (the 15th) we had quite a fascinating visitor at the site, more will be posted about the Mohave Rattlesnake later.

But, on to a falcon update! The falcons are doing well, H7, the female from Group 3 is doing a splendid job of catching her own grasshoppers - she seems to have caught on while watching OK, our only black/red male from the first two groups. OK will sally from a shrub and nab a dragonfly midair, eat it, and grab another... and that will continue for quite a few snacks!

It has been nearly a week since C2, our red/black female - the last female from Group 2 - showed up just to show off that she wasn't hungry. She had skipped 2 days prior to last Friday, and showed up wiping her beak and didn't eat that morning, just in the evening. She must have been pretty full. That said, she has not been seen since. We're pretty confident that she's down the highway scaring the pants off of the little American Kestrels who have just started to show up this month. Ah, migration!

Big news for K8 - when C2 returned, K8 had been MIA for two days. So K8 skipped a total of 7 feedings (3.5 days) before showing up again and has been regular since Sunday. She is looking great, ragged tail and all.

Our most recent Wednesday morning was the first time we did not see a single falcon for the duration of the morning. None even observed in the distance. Everyone who showed up in the evening ate very well, but only five showed up for that. This (Thursday) morning was a bit of a surprise, since we generally put out two quail and have one left over - five birds showed up and only a few stray clumps and "spaghetti" of quail were left. [Ewww.]

So here's the remaining cluster:
H7 (female, group 3)
93 (group 3 - aka 'Peachy Britches')
OK
16
58 (now with his own 'scissor-tailed appearance)
95 (aka 'Leggins' on a good day)
K8 (the female known as 'Kate')
C2 (female, gone for a week now)

Oddly, 16 is a bird who is just plain normal. OK has a slightly pale rump, and is notable for being the black/red male who isn't 'Peachy Britches' ...he's otherwise pretty average, but 16? There's nothing particularly notable about him. He has a regular, striped tail, unlike our solid-tailed 95 and C2, or the ragged tailed K8 and 58. Perhaps H7 is then the next closest bird to 'normal' that we have since she has no distinguishing features beyond being not-K8.

little town of food

A while back I posted about our local-ish adventures in Marathon. Here's a bit more, focusing on food:

Sadly, Shirley's Burnt Biscuit has been closed pretty much since that post - Don, the fellow who used to work for Shirley and bought the place - is having heart surgery in Houston. No idea when it will reopen. I'm acutely aware of the lack of gingerbread oatmeal cookies.

The building that used to be Shirley's is now Guzzi Pizza, and they opened on Aug 2 or 3. Delicious, especially the Spinach Alfredo pizza. Michelle is the brains behind the place (edit: family owned and operated!) and she has even agreed to sell us globs of dough for our own culinary adventures! There's no room to eat there, so it's better to call ahead or have 10-15 mins to kill waiting.

Marathon Coffee (known as "Breakfast & Lunch" to the rest of us) will have live music later in the month, a rare non-breakfast, non-lunch occasion! They're not open Mon/Tues, but at least the rest of the time they seem pretty consistent. Alas, breakfast options are not served for lunch. Very sad. We've compensated by having breakfast burritos at home for lunch.

The Oasis, to our knowledge, has not been open at all since we got here. So there are no local Mexican food options at all! The same can be said for the Gage Hotel's restaurant & bar, due to renovation - they've pretty much been closed since we got here. Rumor has it, they'll be open by September sometime.

The Famous Burro continues to be pretty busy when it is open, but we've not made it back yet due to the timing of our work.

...that said...

We made it to the Saturday night fish fry that benefitted Marathon ISD. You read that right. Marathon ISD. Because a town of fewer than 500 people is its own Independent School District. Ugh. So we ate up, contributed, and scurried off to work before it got too crowded. Darn good catfish and potato salad. Coleslaw wasn't stellar, nor were the cobblers. The hushpuppies and cake made it all worthwhile though.

Now, in my infinite wisdom, I have no photos of foods mentioned, nor the locations. Google Street View might even let you down since so much has changed recently. But you'll just have to settle for your own imagination.

[insert imaginary photo here]

state of mind

"The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make the night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light." - Mary Baker Eddy

The Marathon Basin is inspiring. Aside from hot, dusty remoteness, there are desert flowers that respond quickly to rain. Whitebrush/Beebrush is a fragrant distraction every time I open the gate at work. You can barely see that it really is a woody shrub, so covered in flowers as it is. Silver Sage is another lovely shrub, purple and pastel green with the silvery leaf that shimmers... poetry at 95 degrees.

As for the town itself, our first grocery run was to The French Grocer, where you can find everything but it will be pricey and the selection will be fairly limited. Their porch has been among our favorites for wifi. Our first "eating out" adventure was at Johnny B's, a little 'soda fountain' style place whose specialty is burgers. They're the only place regularly open. Ever. They're out on the main street, between the book store and the Gage Hotel. Front Street Books has a great variety of local books (and a location in Alpine), so we've found postcards there, but they do have some local honey and hiking type information. Our second eating adventure was at Shirley's Burnt Biscuit. Apparently the new owner used to cook for her and ended up buying it. It has moved two doors down and Matt says the place has really been spruced up - it has something of a cute retro theme. The breakfast burritos are fantastic, especially for an early lunch. Alas, by 11 am, they seem to be out of fried pies. So we consoled ourselves with a cookie.* But we returned the morning after our lunch burrito adventure and discovered that their fried pies have the best crust ever - and I'm not much of a crust fan. Apple and apricot were our choices, but blueberry and cherry were also options (maybe one other? peach?)

* The oatmeal raisin cookie was THE BEST oatmeal cookie I have EVER had. It was almost like a gingerbread cookie with oatmeal and raisins. Soft, chewy, the best texture and flavor combination I've found in an oatmeal cookie yet. And I'm a bit of a snob about them!

Our next scheduled investigation is The Famous Burro, a place that I've visited once before, in 2007 (ah, Fan-tailed Warbler chase). It is conveniently owned by our landlord, so we've been bringing our household trash to their dumpster since we got here, but the hours are infrequent enough that we've missed meal times. Eventually we may make it to the Oasis - I'm not sure if it's coffee or Mexican food (or both?) but we've not explored much of the west end of the main drag yet, nor is it often open. We have discovered the library and its internet, so there's not much left of the town for us to explore. But we like it. (Apparently 5-9 Weds-Sun? are the hours for FB)

Moving along... out on the site we had 2 javelina (collared peccary), then in town we had a fox trotting along the road. There's a family of raccoons that feeds along the shoulder of the highway every evening when we leave around 9:30 with at least two young. I guess most folks never cross paths with them, but there's rarely a day that passes without our little dung-rolling companions. So much to say about dung beetles, it's a shame that most folks don't give them much credit.

modern Terlingua

Out by the highway there's an odd combination of RV plus... whatever this collection of strange things is.



From L to R: covered RV, Lady Liberty, a tallship, some sort of submarine mock-up? There's other stuff tucked away back there, not really sure we want to know what all there is!

Up in what's now the hub of Terlingua:



Bathrooms, pleasantly housed in original buildings, but rather dark inside. Running water and ornate tiles were pretty neat for such rustic outside appearances.



The old Starlight Theater, now a restaurant and bar featuring live music on most nights. The music is generally one fellow with a guitar and a pile of songs up his sleeve. Also a pile of CDs if you're interested.



The back of the theater has a large mural; mood lighting is strings of Christmas lights.



The back door was propped open for ventilation.



Did we mention a fellow with a guitar? And that the old theater walls have a lot of character? It's really quite lovely to see the layers of history.



My bowl of chili was delicious. The balance of spice and heat was perfect, medium and flavorful. I wish I'd taken a photo of our table before the food came - each of the tables was painted by a local artist and then varnished. Our particular table was pale yellow with long, outward stretching ocotillo branches from the center of the table... and koi swimming around their shadows. It was a fantastic combination of bright desert colors being shown as aquatic vegetation. My inner art student was thrilled!

before the Final Four

With little down time between the Baylor men playing in Houston, our anniversary and the Final Four... a few things slipped between the cracks. With an early trip to Meridian State Park, we saw one "after hatch year" (AHY) male Golden-cheeked Warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) (nearly a month later than our first sighting last year). Also starting to show up, Juniper Hairstreaks (Callophrys gryneus):



The Trudell & York family, enjoying the spring weather:



For evidence of our pseudo-elopement, check out "let them eat cake." We tried to do some normal anniversary type things, like waiting a year after the marriage to finally combine dinner and a concert. Our usual bread pudding stop at Buzzard Billy's was delicious, and Waco hosts a series of free summer concerts along the Brazos (the Brazos Nights concerts), so until next year:



The opening act was Lucas Nelson & Promise of the Real; yes, that's Willie Nelson's son. The main draw was Waco native Wade Bowen, and the after-concert attraction was a Longhorn Beetle (of the Cerambycidae).



...and one of these posts we'll even get caught up on San Antonio.

back to the coast

Matt and I were aiming for San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge on our way to Houston to visit my folks and family. En route, we detoured by the end of the road and got a few photos for my dad - barges are in his blood.



As for San Bernard, we were serenaded by Boat-tailed Grackles (Quiscalus major), the marsh-loving cousin of the urban Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). Great-tails are also featured in our "how to get rid of grackles" post. Boat-tails perhaps deserve their own post for birders, as they're a notoriously difficult species unless you're at San Bernard or Anahuac NWR - they are the nearly-exclusive grackle species at each location.



Hopefully these videos will work, otherwise I'll be tinkering with the post a bit - the first clip is of the BTGR call note (15 sec)



The second one (10 sec) is the full raspy call that is so not-Great-tailed in posture and pitch.



That little fellow above is a Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). My photos suffered from heat haze, digi-bin photos and grubby windshield. Hopefully Matt will post his pictures!



Solitary, Solitary without bins (and a corner of Matt), American Alligator



While in town, we took a quick detour through Bay Area Park, where we re-vowed last May. The boardwalk that I love so dearly is still in a state of sad neglect, over a year and a half after Hurricane Ike. We were happy to see that a two-part dog park was added, perhaps next trip the pup can come along. Indeed, the olde golf course would be great fun for a pup as well!



A mystery Hymenoptera from Seabrook.



You may wonder why Pro-Fast Fastener & Supply Co is being featured. Look at the building. See any huge reflective windows? Me neither! Texas has plenty of awnings, but this sort of shade structure is brilliant for deflecting the sun and would be a great option for preventing bird strikes. Hacienda San Angel Mexican Grill (their site seems to be down) is featured through a drizzled-upon windshield because the fresh veggie enchiladas were absolutely mindboggling. It's at the top of our list to try again if we're ever in that area!

February in hindsight

After the RGV, but before the second batch of unseasonably cold weather kicked in, Matt and I explored Homestead Heritage. There were waves of hundreds of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings passing through. A smattering of Slate-colored (Dark-eyed) Juncos were down in the leaf litter with them and Matt spooked up one Hermit Thrush:



For a digi-bin photo at ~30' that's not a bad shot at all for the 5th attempt ;-)

Now, the five of you who were reading this blog back during our New Mexico adventure may recall that Matt has a fondness for green chili cheeseburgers... and Homestead Heritage has those.



...racoon tracks for kicks: that's how tempting grass fed happy-cows are. With locally produced everything. I had their tamale plate this time; last time it was jalapeno sweet potato soup. SO good.

Anyway, the first snowfall of February was a great fun for the puppy:



The second snowfall of February was just plain cold:



Matt was smart and stayed inside, but puppy caught snowballs and modeled for some snowmendogs. Even though I spent 2.5 winters in IL, I hadn't played in snow since maybe 1990 when the family ended up making snow angels in Switzerland... I vaguely recall sledding, but that could also just be due to photo albums. Regardless, I bundled up and busted out some nocturnal art:



The snow melted really quickly the next morning, so I barely had time to assemble the 3rd and final snowdog and prop up an Easter Island head. It's too bad, because I was also contemplating Snow Henge, but alas, too late.

what is cochineal?

Cochineal is a small, fluffy, white scale insect that inhabits prickly pear cactus. And it is notoriously hard to research on the internet. That said, there's an absolutely amazing post at Bug Girl's Blog. Here are some snippets...


So much misinformation is being published right now about Cochineal, I thought a post that explains what it is, how it’s made, why it’s relatively harmless, and why I support labeling but oppose a ban, might be useful.
...

Cochineal supports subsistence farmers in poor parts of the world. This insect is an important cash crop! From an NPR story about cochineal:

“Even though a full pound of cochineal sells for just $1.30, harvesting the bug earns enough money to feed and clothe a whole family in the impoverished highlands region of Peru. An estimated 40,000 Peruvian families depend on harvesting the bugs — which belong to a class of scale insects — to make a living.”

By not rejecting cochineal in your food or makeup, you get to not only support farmers raising their tiny pink cash-cows, you can connect with the rich history of this pigment.


Now, go forth and read the whole NPR story and definitely read the whole post on Bug Girl's Blog. You owe it to yourself!

Full disclosure: I'm posting this in hopes that it will help Bug Girl's information reach more people who search for Cochineal.


Cochineal
Originally uploaded by Carolina Gonzalez

Here's the caption from the Cochineal photo above:

This is the cochineal we wildharvested a week ago in the Anaga mountains, cleaned and ready for the oven – I was going to make a cake, so I wanted to use the after-baking heat of the oven to dry it – talk about saving energy! Cochineal makes one of the most ancient fiber dyes in history, carmine, and it has been a huge tradition in the Canary Islands for many centuries, as nopales are one of the most common cacti here. The insect is collected from the nopales after its reproductive stage with big wooden spoons, cleaned (they grow a white “foam” around them to protect the egg lays) and dried, both with oven heat and later by the action of the sun. Once completely dry, it is powdered and simply added to water, as it is water soluble. Once we start the dyeing experiments I’ll talk more about this process – and don’t worry vegetarians, this insect is collected dead :)

Doesn't seem so bad at all! ...and look where else it's found:
Sobe Tsunami Orange Creme

RGV food highlights

The Rio Grande Valley is home to some remarkably good eats. If you're inclined to feed birds, you need only slice an orange or grapefruit in half and firmly wedge it somewhere. Seed is always an option as well. Apparently there is a regional conundrum: the grape jelly trick that folks "up North" use for orioles doesn't work down here. Of course, there's always the excessive supplement of Bird Crack: peanut butter, lard and cornmeal. It works everywhere and should only be used as a cold weather supplement. That link is to Julie Zickefoose's blog, it's a follow-up on bluebirds getting gout because of too much Bird Crack. It's too high in protein and fat and natural, non-human offerings are obviously what they evolved for... so only when the bug supply takes a hit should it be offered at all.

Salineno doesn't follow those rules. I'm not sure what the long term implications are, but for quite a few years (decades?) now, there has been a constant supply of all things feeder related between November 1 and at least the end of March.

So Salineno gets the "Tub o' Lard Award" (it was the mix, not just lard!)



The Orange-crowned Warbler above accepted it on behalf of Salineno.

Moving on past Salineno to Alamo... we discovered a bakery. And what a bakery. El Manjar sticks with pan dulce during the week and offers lunch fare on weekends. Nope, there are no pictures of the actual food, we made sure of that (but look at their door). It's so incredibly hard to find a good Mexican bakery outside of the RGV. Being the good siblings we are, we even brought home a box of snackies for our Waco family. Mmm, empanadas.



Here's the map - it's just north of Santa Ana NWR by a few miles!
(hours are 6 am until at least 7 pm on weekdays)


View Larger Map

(Heh, I'm apparently the first person to review it: since birders need more voice in the valley, where better than on a food review?)

Aside from our repeat trips to the bakery, we stopped at an old favorite, The Republic Of The Rio Grande for some photogenic food to celebrate our whirlwind birding success.



In the background you see a Mediterranean pizza, sporting sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. In the foreground you see a citrus spinach salad (locally grown orange and grapefruit wedges) with seasoned pita and a vinaigrette dressing that was amazing.

Under the plates, you may have noticed some drawings. We split the Tecate, so the only explanation for the quality of illustration is that I'm dangerous with crayons.



From left: Matt, Heidi, Amazon Kingfisher (upside down), Rose-throated Becard (thinking about Jiff peanut butter), Belted Kingfisher, Crimson-collared Grosbeak (upside down), Roadside Hawk, Ringed Kingfisher. Green Kingfisher is above the green crayon, also upside down. The female seedeater didn't show up well because she's the color of the paper.

It's really too bad that we didn't get any photos of the Crimson-collared Grosbeak, nor "documentation" photos of the Roadside... I think the Texas Bird Records Committee would kill me if I submitted those sketches though!