Lupe's Tex Mex

I thought I had written about Lupe's in the past, but have checked back a few months, and realized I have neglected Lupe's. It has been open in Bedford for about 2 years. We have gone on and off for the past year, but have recently found a new love for Lupe's. It is good, very flavorful, cheap Tex-Mex.

They have the best chicken mole enchiladas that I have ever eaten. It is obvious that it is homemade and has lots of different spices in it. It is a little on the hot side, but oh so good. The cheese enchiladas, soft cheese tacos, crispy tacos and guacamole are also very good.

One of my favorite things is the black bean dip they serve with the chips and salsa. Really yummy.

To make Lupe's even better, click here and print off a coupon for buy one get one free. I feel a little guilty using them, but the waiter was the one that told us where to find it.

Enjoy!

Don't Give Up On Dickey's Yet

I sent in a comment on the Dickey's website. I got the following response:

Thank you for your loyal patronage over the past 35 years. It is guests like yourself that have made Dickey’s the company we are today. We treasure your feedback and this helps us keep our company on track. I am very disappointed to hear your comments about the product in these stores and I will make a visit to those locations this week and determine if there is a variance to our current recipe.

Thanks again for your input and I would like to invite you back to our restaurants again to enjoy great Dickey’s Barbecue. We are offering 1$ Pulled Pork Sandwiches in every store, every Monday in February. Please come and let us serve you again.

I will try it again next week and hopefully it will be back to normal. See, it pays to send in your comments!

Dickey's Has Let Me Down :(

What a fantastic deal! It has been our Monday night "rotation" for the past few weeks. There are two Dickey's close to us, so we have been going to both.

Now first let me clarify, I have been eating at Dickey's for over 35 years. If they change something, I know. I love their potato salad so much, that I used to get an order of potato salad and beans to go, when there were only a few locations. I think there were a couple in Dallas and one in Grand Prairie.

Last Monday night, we ate at the Dickey's on 157. The potato salad was off. It tasted like it was the pre-made stuff that you buy at Kroger. We decided that we were done with the 157 Dickey's and would not be back.

So last night, we headed to Hurst. Hurst has always been good. We ordered the pulled pork sandwich, only to be told that they were out. Then, when I tasted the potato salad, it tasted just like the bad stuff the week before. (These two Dickey's are owned by the same people.) How could they do this to me after 35 years???? I'm not sure the sun will even come up today.

No more Dickey's for us for a while. I guess we will have to drive to Smokey's.

By the way, D Magazine came out with the best BBQ restaurants in Ft. Worth and Dallas, that are not chains. We plan to make our way through the list. I hope I will have some great new restaurants to share.

Pappasito's - The Singer

We love Pappasito's and go quite often. We especially love to go on Wednesday nights when they have 1/2 price fajitas. Fajitas for two are $16. The portions are huge and we always take home leftovers.

We go to the Pappasito's in Ft. Worth because it is the best one. The only thing wrong with Ft. Worth is that they have a roaming singer. He wears a Mexican costume and goes around from table to table singing. I do not want anyone coming to my table and singing. It is very awkward. I don't know any Mexican songs that I want to request. Do you continue your conversation or do you stare into his eyes while he sings to you??? Awkward!

Every single time we go to Pappasito's, he comes to our table. He can be on the other side of the restaurant, and I will think we have dodged him, but no such luck. He always manages to find us. I purposely don't make eye contact with him and when I see him coming, I get in a "heavy" conversation, hoping he will go away. He does not. The entire time, Pops is teasing me that he is coming to the table and I am creeping out.

His classic line is, "Are you in the mood for a song?" He asks it in a little creepy voice. It makes me CRAZY!!! Oh, if he only knew what I really wanted to say. We just smile and say, "No thanks."

Dear Mr. Pappasito's singer, if you are reading this (ha ha, no such chance), PLEASE stay away from me. I am not ever going to be "in the mood for a song."

Christmas Tree Still Up?

I put my Christmas decorations up around the middle of November, so once Christmas is here, I am ready for them to be put away. This year was a little different.

On December 26th, as I was taking my Christmas tree down, Pops grabbed some gold heart ornaments and suggested we put those on the tree in the bedroom and make it a Valentine tree. I thought that was a good idea since I love the lights in the room.

I bought some little red hearts and made some paper ornaments with some vintage Valentine paper. I still have the lights on the timer, so it is not too much trouble to mess with.

Maybe I will change it to an Easter tree and leave it up year round.

Congratulations Whitney!

Take a close look at this picture, because one of these days soon, my nieces Ashley and Whitney are going to be famous!

First, I guess I should talk about Ashley's past fame. I sure wish I had a picture to show, but I think she hid these long ago. About 8 years ago, there was a talk show on TV. It was called "The Other Half" and the hosts were Dick Clark, Danny Bonaduce and Mario Lopez. At the time, they had a contest to win a date with Mario Lopez. Ashley sent in a video and WON!!!

She wasn't too thrilled. She was on the show and she and Mario went salsa dancing and bull riding. There was not a love connection, but it was fun for the family.

Both Ashley and Whitney are very creative, and they decided to start a blog in August. It has gone off the charts. The name of the blog is Shanty2Chic.

They take "shanty" objects (trash) and revamp them. They have made some adorable, creative stuff and their blog has gone crazy. In November, they were running about 30,000 hits a week. (Just for the record, my blog hasn't hit that many in the 3 1/2 years I have been blogging.)

They have been contacted by several huge companies to advertise and give away merchandise. Each of the girls recently entered a 11 week contest at Michaels.com. Ashley came in 2nd place during the week she entered and Whitney came in first. On Friday, she received a call that she won the Grand Prize.

She will be receiving another gift card from Michael's and she won a trip to the Martha Stewart Show in New York.

Congratulations Whitney!!! I am so excited for you!

She Said YES!!!

Everyone in Justin's life has always said he is so picky about girls. He went through a long period where he didn't even date, because he couldn't find anyone he was interested in. My mother used to always ask me if he had a girlfriend, and I would always answer, "No, he is very picky." He has really high standards and there are not many matches around. I used to tell Justin that if you look in the garbage can, you are only going to find trash. He finally decided that church might be a good place to look since half of the people at our church of over 20,000 are single. Nothing. I think there were times he would get discouraged. There was something wrong with every girl. Until now.

Several months ago, a girl, named Shannon, caught his eye at Group Sync at church. What a great place to meet your spouse. It wasn't long before he showed me her Facebook pictures and asked her out. Shortly after their first date, he told me he knew it was early, but she was the one.

Soon the family met her and she passed the test. The biggest test of all is the "Sister Test" and she passed with flying colors.

Shannon is from Bangs, Texas and she is a Kindergarten teacher. The connection was immediate and it wasn't long before they were talking about the future. With her birthday in December, Christmas and New Years, no proposal. Justin was trying to throw her off.

He came up with a plan to ask her Saturday night at our house while we were all at church. Jennifer and I had so much fun running around getting all the props and decorating the house. Since purple is her favorite color, we bought purple roses and flowers. We had candles and rose petals from the door, down the hall, to the dining room.

Shannon said she could not figure out what was going on until she saw the "Will you marry me?" sign. She said that is when she lost it.

She looks beautiful as always, but her eyes are just a little red.

The plan for the night had originally been to cook out steaks. We all ended up going to Mi Chula after church and when they called us to tell us the details of the engagement, they ditched the steaks and came with us. We had fun hearing all the stories.

One great story is that Justin said after he gave her the ring, she didn't even look at it. Later, she said that was because it was not about the ring, it was about the moment. I love her for that. Now, she can't take her eyes off the ring.

Yesterday, Justin called and said his cheeks were killing him because he couldn't quit smiling. I hope you never lose that!

We love you both and are so excited for you. Congratulations Justin and Shannon.

State Championship - Go Trojans!

Since Trinity made it to the 5A District Championship game, we decided to go to San Antonio for the weekend. Jennifer and the girls, and Justin and Shannon met us on Saturday morning. We stayed on the river, so when the girls got to the hotel, we took them down to see it.

The game was probably the most exciting game I have ever been too. I have not been to as many as Pops, but he definitely agreed with me on this. With out 2 minutes and a tied game, Trinity scored what looked like to be the winning touchdown. With 17 second left, Westlake tied the score and for the first time in 5A Championship history, the game went to overtime. Westlake scored with a field goal, and Trinity followed with the game winning touchdown. The crowd went crazy.

Lamar has loved his coaching, even though some weeks it meant working 7 days a week and into the wee hours of the morning.

After the game, dinner and an hour wait, we went on the river boat ride to see the Christmas lights. It was so neat. I would love to go to San Antonio every year just for the decorations.

When we got back to the hotel around 10:30, the girls were exhausted.

Here is the happy family. The girls went on the field to see Lamar, and Karsyn had fun playing with the clipboard. I wonder what top secret info she got to see?