Space City Eggfest 2016

It was a long time coming, but the very first Houston Eggfest has come and gone, and it was a success.  Not a large crowd this time but all the ingredients are there to make it one of the premier Eggfests in the country.

Alspaugh's Ace Hardware, the Host Dealer, had the idea to bring the first Eggfest to Houston over a year ago.  But they knew it had to be right the first time, so a couple of their management staff attended other Eggfests in Salado, Athens and Austin to see how Eggfests work.  Only after seeing how effective Eggfests can be in attracting crowds, and what was needed to make Eggfests run smoothly, they put together a plan.

The theme, appropriate to Houston, was 'Space' as in NASA.  So Space City Eggfest seemed to be a name that Houstonians could readily relate to.

And with Ace's already huge commitment to the Texas Children's Hospital, the Eggfest proceeds were earmarked for that worthy cause.

All that was left was to just do it.  And they did.  May 21st was selected as the date and Old Town Spring, a small village-like community with historical roots, was selected as the Eggfest site.

Egghead's far and wide were invited to come cook.  Many of us jumped at the chance to not only do what we do best, but help introduce he Big Green Egg to the 4th largest city in the United States.

The first Houston Eggfest is now in the books and was a success.  Plans are already underway for next year's Space City Eggfest.

I assembled a few photos (my own and borrowed from others) into a video and posted it on YouTube.

Space City Eggfest

I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as we enjoyed actually being there.

On Turning 75

Remember that old saying, "If I knew I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself!"

Well, here I am.  On May 8th I turned 75.  Still alive and wondering where the time went.

In fact, it looks like I will live another year.  Says so on my Texas Driver's License - "Expires May 2017"  Nice of them to let me know.

I'm told I don't look or act like a 75 year old.  Yet.  So maybe I'm doing everything right.  I try to but all that stuff about diet and exercise doesn't set too well with me.  Although I do try to do it on occasion, and lose weight in the process, I kinda drift back into what I do best, eat what I want and do what I feel like doing.  There seems to be reward in both and I'm not dead yet.  So it must be working.

Anyway, for the past 44 years I have been sharing my birthday with my Sister-in-Law, Joyce.  I suppose we shared birthdays before that too, but I only met her when I met her sister Judy, who soon became the 'everything' in my life.  Still is.

So every year about this time, there's some kind of special event planned for Joyce and me.  It usually involves cake and travel, sometimes really long travel, and presents, and fun.  And this year was no different, but there were a couple of other things to celebrate: Joyce finally turned 65 and I turned 75, but she also celebrated Mother's Day and her retirement.  That called for a really big party.  And it was held on Sunday, May 8th, 2016 at Michelle and David's house in Metairie, Louisiana.  There were a lot of people there to help celebrate.  We all had fun.

And here's just a few of the 300+ photos we took.  So sit back for a few minutes and watch.  Press here:  Birthday Party

Texas Eggfest 2016

The 2016 Texas Eggfest is over but the fun we had lingers on in the form of remembering all the fun we had, the weather related drama leading up to it, and the gathering of old friends while making new ones before, during and after the Eggfest.

As always, we all worked hard to cook and serve our treats to the masses of Tasters who were obviously enjoying themselves.  I heard mention that there were over 2 ,000 tickets sold, and like all the other Cooks, we served a lot of them more than once.

We also had to explain what we cooked, how we cooked it and everything there is to know about the Big Green Egg.  This was the most 'Egg-Interested' crowd I can remember in a long time.  I'm sure the Egg was moved way up the priority list for a lot of people.

Of course, the cooking and serving was pretty much non-stop but we also slowed down long enough to roam around to see and taste some of the other Cook's treats.  WOW!  There were some really creative Cooks serving both simple and complex treats that clearly showed off the Egg's magical powers.

I could go on and on but it's easier to just watch the video I put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjfsiyAsqmo

As for the Meat Church, I've been making the Cathedral Birdhouses for years and I just didn't think the cathedral design fit the Meat Church image.  So I went looking for ideas and happened on an image of a small, rustic church in the woods that not only seemed perfect, it was something I could build.  Once I started, my Sweetie got in on the decorative ideas and helped bring it all together.  It really turned out great, especially when we tied in the name of one of his most popular products, Holy Cow rub and placed the halo on the cow.  Perfect!!!

Yes, I also made him some tokens...

And yes, he loved it...

It was a fun weekend.