2015 Big Tex Choice Awards Finalists With Deep Fried Alligator's Egg

Every year Texas eagerly awaits learning the State Fair of Texas Big Tex Choice Awards Finalists and what marvels of culinary amazement made the Top 8.

This year's Top 8 seems to be more varied than previous years, what with proteins like alligator, lobster and buffalo getting the deep fried treatment.

Of the Top 8, to my taste, the Deep Fried Alligator's Egg Nest is the least appealing. Followed closely be the Chicken Fried Lobster with Champagne Gravy.

Champagne Gravy?

Well, let's start with that Chicken Fried Lobster with Champagne Gravy and go through the 8 Finalists one by one.

Chicken Fried Lobster with Champagne Gravy by Abel Gonzales
A lobster tail is breaded, then deep fried, then covered with a sauce made with lemon butter and champagne gravy. I can find no explanation as to what champagne gravy is.

Cowboy Corn Crunch by Isaac Rousso
Jalapeno, sweet corn kernels, cream cheese and some bacon is deep fried to a crispy crunch, then stuck into something called a palm leaf cone for your consumption convenience.

Deep Fried Alligator’s Egg by Cassy Jones
That Cajun staple, alligator meat, is mixed with jalapenos, onions, garlic and Monterrey Jack cheese, then rolled in bread crumbs before being tossed in the deep fryer before being placed on a nest of shoestring French fries drizzled with chipotle sauce.

Fernie’s Holy Moly Carrot Cake Roly by Christi Erpillo
That is one long name for this concoction's new take on carrot cake. Baked bread mixed with cinnamon gets flattened, then filled with carrot cake, raisins and shredded carrots. Then rolled in cream cheese before being breaded with a combo of panko and graham crackers, sprinkled with nutmeg and more cinnamon, then drizzled with more cream cheese and a dusting of powdered sugar, along with caramel on the side. Nothing appears to be deep fried with this Finalist.

Fried Beer-Battered Buffalo by James Barrera
Lean ground buffalo gets some Mesquite smoke flavor added before getting rolled in the Official Native Pepper of Texas, that being Pequin chili pepper. The buffalo is then covered with crushed corn nuts before being dipped in a batter made with Shiner Bock Beer before hitting the deep fryer and then being dusted with bacon bits. The Fried Beer-Battered Buffalo comes with a chipolte cream dipping sauce.

Lone Star Pork Handle by Justin Martinez
A pork chop, with the bone-in, for handle purposes, gets a pork rub marinate before getting dipped in batter made with Lone Star Beer, then a coating of toasted bread crumbs before getting deep fried and coated with a bourbon barbecue glaze.

Pretzel-Crusted Pollo Queso by Allan Weiss
Chicken is shredded, then mixed with cream cheese, Monterrey Jack cheese, cilantro, Sriracha sauce and bacon, then rolled into a ball coated with pretzel breading before being deep fried. This is served with jalapeno ranch dipping sauce to provide some much needed extra heat.

Smoky Bacon Margarita by Isaac Rousso
You must prove to be 21 to sample this Finalist's concoction. Somehow the taste of bacon is infused into a frozen lime Margarita. Bacon crumbles garnish the top of the cocktail. As an added bonus the Smoky Bacon Margarita comes in a collectible souvenir cup that you will be sure to want to your collection of such things.

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Well, that concludes our look at the 2015 Big Texas Choice Awards Finalists.

See you at the 2015 State Fair of Texas, opening September 25, closing October 18.

31st Annual Parker County Peach Festival July 11 in Downtown Weatherford

Saturday, July 11, 2015, the 31st Annual Parker County Peach Festival takes place in beautiful Downtown Weatherford in the area surrounding the Parker County Courthouse.

This is a one day festival, opening at 8am, closing at 5pm.

There is a $5 admission fee. Children 12 and under go to the festival for free.

This year Parker County Farmers are reporting a Bumper Crop of Parker County Peaches.

Previous years festival goers have been advised to arrive early because peach products run out as the day progresses. We do not know if the Bumper Crop is going to have the festival supplied with peach products til closing time.

Among the peach products we have sampled at past Parker County Peach Festivals are Peach Juleps, Peach Smoothies, Peach Cobbler, Peach Pie, Peach Ice Cream and a plain ol' fresh Parker County Peach.

You can go to our Parker County Peach Festival webpage for a good look at what you will find Saturday in Weatherford, Texas.

Flooding Has Forced Temporary Closure of Oklahoma's Turner Falls Park

Torrential rain in Oklahoma is flooding Turner Falls Park, forcing the City of Davis, on May 7, 2015, to close the popular park until the flooding recedes.

That is Turner Falls falling a lot of water you see here.

The flooding at the base of the falls has Turner Falls looking a lot shorter than its usual 77 feet.

The photos were taken by the Davis Police Department, then posted on the Davis Police Department Facebook page, along with saying...

Sorry for the inconvenience of Turner Falls being closed but it's not safe to open. We will open as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Above you are looking at the flooded swimming hole that, come summer, will have a lot of people cooling off beneath Turner Falls.

Go to our Turner Falls Park webpage and you will see photos of what Turner Falls looks like when it is not flooding, including, if I remember right, a photo of my humble self underneath the then trickling falls.

A few years ago we visited Turner Falls in winter. At that point in time Honey Creek was running high with some flooding, but nothing like is currently happening. Go to our Turner Falls Park in Winter webpage and you will see photos of a semi-flooding Honey Creek and Turner Falls falling a lot of water.

Hippie Hollow Skinny Dipping At The Only Legal Clothing Optional Public Park In Texas

What you are looking at here is a screen cap from a Durango Texas blog post from June 1, 2008 which documented our Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin experience.

Hippie Hollow has a Facebook page.

Wikipedia also has a Hippie Hollow page.

The Hippie Hollow Facebook page uses the Wikipedia article as its source for Hippie Hollow information.

From that information we learn that Hippie Hollow Park used to be known as McGregor County Park. The Hippie Hollow land is owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority, which is the governmental entity responsible for Travis Lake, which is the lake one skinny dips in at Hippie Hollow.

The Lower Colorado River Authority leased the Hippie Hollow Park area to Travis County whose Parks Department has been in charge of the only legally recognized clothing optional public park in Texas since 1985.

If you go to Hippie Hollow expecting to find a nice sandy beach you may be disappointed to instead find a rugged, rocky cove that can be a bit adventuresome to traverse.

This area of Lake Travis was known as a skinny dipping swimming zone for years. Then, during the American Cultural Revolution of the 1960s it became more popular than ever as a free-spirited destination. It was after the rock festival known as Woodstock that the name Hippie Hollow came in to existence.

In the 1970s the increase in skinny dipping drew some complaints, making Hippie Hollow a bit controversial, but the Travis County sheriff at the time, Raymond Frank, wisely decided it was better for the county's cops to focus on more serious offenses than skinny dipping, thus rendering Hippie Hollow to be the only legally recognized public park in Texas where it is not considered a crime to swim without a swimsuit.

Texas Hill Country Bluebonnet Wildflowers Are Putting On A Good 2015 Show

We have been seeing reports that this year's Texas Bluebonnets blooming in Texas Hill Country is the biggest bloom of bluebonnets in several years.

The last time we witnessed the Texas Hill Country Wildflowers the colorful day started near Fredericksburg at Wildseed Farms, where, along with hundreds of others, we walked in fields of wildflowers of various sorts being grown for their seeds.

That day continued on to a hike to the summit of Enchanted Rock for an elevated view of Hill Country, before continuing on, heading north through the most colorful display of wildflowers we had ever eye witnessed.

Tiptoe Through Texas Tulips

A family of farmers with roots back to Holland have planted for your flower plucking pleasure the first Tulip Field in Texas.

Texas-Tulips has a well done website, a screen cap of which you see here.

From the website you can find all the information you need so that you can go do some tiptoeing through the Texas Tulips.

Texas-Tulips is located near Pilot Point, that being a small town east of Denton at the north end of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Deer Park and the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site Monument

Near the Texas town of Deer Park is where you will find the San Jacinto Battleground Natural Historic Site, which is a National Historic Site where the 570 foot tall San Jacinto Monument marks where the Battle of San Jacinto took place, victoriously, winning Texas its independence from Mexico.

The town of Deer Park was founded in 1892, with the town's being named Deer Park due to its proximity to a deer preserve.

Deer Park is the Texas town closest  to the San Jacinto Battleground Site, as such, Deer Park bills itself as "The Birthplace of Texas."

Deer Park is near the Houston Ship Channel and Buffalo Bayou, which allows the Battleship Texas to be docked as part of the 1,200 acre San Jacinto Battleground Site.

For more information about Deer Park and the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site go to our Eyes on Texas entry about Deer Park.