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New Year's Black-Eyed Pea Soup

Kitty Crider published this recipe from Dottie and Joe Wilkison in the Statesman one of those years ago when the Longhorns were in a New Year's Day bowl game. She said it was not only tasty, but kind of orange colored, so perfect. It's also very easy, with only six major ingredients. We save our spiral honey-baked ham bone from Christmas dinner for this.

It is a really, really tasty soup ... a stew, really. We've changed it up to work in a crock pot.

2 cups dried black-eyed peas
Ham bone with meat or ham hocks
2 cups minced celery
1 large onion, minced
2 cups minced carrots
1 lb. smoked sausage
2 Tsbp. chili powder

Wash the peas and put in crock pot with 1 1/2 quarts of water. (No need to soak peas.) Add the ham bone, the celery, onion and carrots. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8. Cut up the smoked sausage and chili powder and cook for another 30 minutes to an hour, or whenever you can't stand it anymore and have to have a bowl. If needed, add more water, salt or black pepper. It's great with corn bread.

Dragon Stew

A quick recipe by Tony and the Dragon Patrol from Pack 61.


All Veg is done with the handfull method. Size of boys depends on how many handfuls.

* cubed beef, braised with a little oil and butter to bronw the meat or sear on the outside.
* onions - Yellow
* carrots - baby carrots in the bags snack size no cutting needed
* potatoes - Red small
* celery - just chopped for eating size like that for tuna salad
* stewed tomatoes (a must, even for one who doesn't really like them) - Can of these large size for a 12 quart pot
* Tomoto paste as standby. Sometimes needs a little thickening
* Sugar need this. The tomatoes and the carrots do not have enough natual sugar for the stew to not be bitter.
* water to cover all ingredients.
* Salt and pepper to taste.
* beef broth - Don't need this unless you are cooking ahead and can't stew the whole thing for about 3 hours.

Should cook at rolling boil for about an hour covered. Then about 2 hours or less depending on the size of the beef cubes and the veg. We typically had this ready to eat by 5:00 starting at 2:00 with the whole crew working on the activity under supervision.

Hike to Highest Point in Texas

From Guadalupe Peak

Again, hope to add to this post soon, but here are photos of the trip Cory and I took to Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.

Camp Cris Dobbins in Colorado

From Colorado

I hope to update this post soon with more detail, but here are photos from our Boy Scout summer camp trip to Cris Dobbins near Colorado Springs.

And here is video of Brian riding, and wiping out, on a mountain board.

Family Trip to Utah

We took a driving trip to see Cory's family in Utah, stopping in Escalante to see Beth, Summit to see Peter and Salt Lake City to see Lee. We saw some great scenery and had some good times visiting with everyone.

Now Cory has flown home and the boys and I are heading up Pike's Peak this morning, then on the Camp Cris Dobbins for a week of Boy Scout Summer Camp.

Sean's 5th Grade Graduation

Congratulations Sean! He will join Brian next year as they both open the new Gorzycki Middle School.

Sean at Mo Ranch in Hunt

All of 5th grade at Sean's school went to Mo Ranch near Hunt, Texas for the class trip. The classes had team building exercises and played in the Guadalupe River, including this cool slide.

Looking forward to summer

The soccer season is closing, the boys are in the midst of TAKS tests, and we are getting warm spells in between the divine spring weather of Austin, which all means the school year is winding down and we are getting excited about summer.

We haven't taken a summer traveling vacation in a while, so we are pumped that we are combining the boys Boy Scout summer camp in Colorado with a pre-trip to see Cory's western flank of the family in Utah.

We will all drive together to Escalante and Salt Lake City, leaving June 13 or so. We are not sure our itinerary traveling or when we get there, but we know we'll leave Cory somewhere in Utah on the 20th when the boys and I head to Camp Cris Dobbins at the Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch near Colorado Springs. Cory will end up flying straight home for some quiet time while Sean, Brian and I frolic in the Rockies.

Our outings lately have been centered around Scouts:

District Adventure Weekend:



Camping 101 was Sean's first campout as a Troop 448 Boy Scout, but it was District Adventure weekend where he really showed his mettle. His Storm Patrol did well in the patrol games and he also was a part of the Troop team that took third place in the troop games competition. Dad also won the Dutch oven cookoff with two types of lasagna: meat and vegetarian. Brian was trying his best to juggle soccer and scouts, trying to make two games that were both eventually canceled over wet weather and fields.

Well, that catches us up. ... we'll update in a couple of weeks after the soccer season ends and Sean competes in the UIL Music Memory and Math Pentathalon events.

Black Bean Taquitos with Cream

This is a modification of a recipe from "Hot & Spicy Mexican." It calls for fresh ingredients like corn cut from the cob and fresh black beans, which is certainly better, but sometimes you just don't have all that.

1/4 cup butter
1 can kernel corn
2 jalapenos, stemmed & chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cans black beans
1/2 cup vegetable oil
15 corn tortillas
2 cups cream

In large saucepan, heat up the butter and add the corn, jalapenos and onions and fry until the onions are translucent. Add the black beans and cook down until the moisture is almost gone.

Heat oil in skillet and briefly fry the tortillas, blotting off the extra oil with paper towel after you pull them out.

Stuff and roll the tortillas with the black bean mixture and place them in a baking dish. Add the grated cheese over the top. Pour in the cream. Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees until the cheese is melted. If desired, pull off the foil for the last 5 minutes to brown the cheese a little.