Tag: food

Posted in: Exploring Louisiana, Food, Sightseeing

Eating in New Orleans: Cafe Du Monde

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Eating in New Orleans: Cafe Du Monde

I have a confession to make.

I love beignets.

We first had them in New Orleans in 2017. I’ve tried them elsewhere but they just aren’t the same. We were lucky enough to be staying in the French Quarter in 2017 and were able to walk up almost everyday to grab a bag to share for breakfast. It was delicious and messy (powdered sugar just gets everywhere!).

A staple in New Orleans is Cafe Du Monde, which serves beignets and chicory coffee. They have a few locations, but my favorite is the one on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. If you are staying in the French Quarter, it is easy to walk to and you can then grab your goodies, walk up the stairs to the right of the Cafe, and eat while enjoying the view of the Mississippi River.

The cafe has two to three lines open during the day and one line open at night. The outdoor seating was open during this visit, but there are a lot less tables (spaced out for social distancing/Covid). However, they were serving in bags, not on plates like before. The bags still had a ton of powdered sugar in the bottom though if you wanted more for dipping. I would say there was about 1/2 inch in the bag after the beignets were gone!

Beignets on a plate from our 2017 visit. Rest of the pictures from 2021.

It was $3.40 (plus tax) for a bag of 3 beignets. As of our visit, January 2021, the Cafe was only accepting cash.

Posted in: Exploring Texas, Food

Houston: Black Walnut Cafe Brunch

Written by tepetravels

Nick found this cute breakfast place while in Houston, the Black Walnut Cafe. It was located in Conroe (north of Houston) by the local airport. The cafe was located on the top floor, so it was a great place to sit and watch the planes coming and going.

The pancakes were very fluffy and had a nice flavor. The breakfast sandwich had eggs, bacon cheese. It had a nice crisp to the croissant.

Tables were spaced apart for social distancing. When you get there, you went to the counter to order/pay. You received a buzzer and you were able to pick where you wanted to sit. There was also an outdoor balcony to sit at.

If you are in the Houston area, we would definitely recommend eating here.

Posted in: Christmas, Food

Cooking In The RV: Hanky Pankies

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Cooking In The RV: Hanky Pankies

We normally make these delicious (although not exactly visually appealing) appetizers at Christmas. However, this year we didn’t make them. We were kind of missing them, as I usually only make them for parties and Christmas. We made them in the RV oven! It took a little bit longer, as my baking sheet is much smaller than the one I had at home. If you’ve never made them, they are really easy! You can find the recipe here (link to my other blog).

Posted in: Christmas, Food, Holidays

Our New RV…Gingerbread Style

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Our New RV…Gingerbread Style

We have always done a gingerbread house at Christmas. We found a really cute RV kit at Target this year.

The kit came with the gingerbread pieces, gum drops, candy beads, light bulb candy, red and black decorative icing, and a white Royal icing. There were a few paper decorations as well: Santa, a grill, and a picnic bench/tree.

There was a plastic tray with indents for the wheels. It did help a lot as the RV sides set. The directions said to do the front/back/sides and let sit, then add the roof. If you don’t have it perfect, the roof doesn’t fit in easily. Next time I may put the roof on as soon as the sides/front/back are iced together, so that the icing is still pliable and it can all set/dry together.

The boys had a blast decorating it and it turned out pretty well. They especially enjoyed eating it for Thanksgiving dessert!

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Texas, Food, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Cattlemen’s Steak House In Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas

Written by tepetravels

We were getting hungry walking around Fort Worth Stockyards. There were a lot of steakhouses in the Stockyards area, so we decided to eat what Texas is known for (steak)! We stopped to eat lunch at Cattlemen’s Steak House.

The pricing was a little expensive, but the 6 oz steak pricing wasn’t too far off from what we would normally pay. The lunch menu was about half the price of dinner options. They also offered a kids menu, with a 6 oz steak and 1 side option. It was about $4 cheaper than our lunch (same 6 oz steak). We did get a side salad though.

After we ordered drinks and our meals, they brought out rolls. The rolls were standard table rolls, round, a little dry.

Our salads came next. They were ok. It looked like a basic side salad: iceburg/romaine lettuce, some croutons, shredded carrots, dressing.

Our meals came on a fun plate. The kids had ordered fries with their steaks (the fries had a nice seasoning, but a little too crispy for me). Ben and I got baked potatoes as our side. They brought each one with the trimmings on the side (bacon, sour cream, chives, cheese).

The steak was nice and juicy. We had all ordered medium, although Ben and mine were more medium well than medium. They had a great flavor and were very tender.

If you walked around the restaurant, the two dining sections had it’s own grill area, so you could watch them make the steaks. I thought that was a really fun touch.

They also offered steaks for sale that could be air mailed.

VIDEO: Quick Walk Through of Cattlemen’s Steak House In Fort Worth Stockyards In Texas (I do mean quick, it’s less than 1 1/2 minutes! It was just a little too long to embed in the blog post.)

Posted in: Exploring California, Food, Sightseeing

Liberty Station

Written by tepetravels

We explored Liberty Station and Market. We went midweek and it seemed like a lot of the shops were closed, but some of the restaurants open. There was a lot of outdoor seating options, which seemed to be a gathering space for people working on their laptops.

We stopped at Le Parfait. There were so many tempting goodies in the cases. I ended up with a Nutella macchiato and a chocolate almond croissant, which both were really good. I never would have tried a Nutella drink on my own, but the barista recommended it.

Liberty Station used to be a Navy barracks and training center. While walking around, it appeared that not all of the buildings had been renovated and reused yet. There was a lot of open green space which would be great for hanging out and enjoying a book or any goodies you bought from the stores. It looked like it would be a really neat area when everything was open. (When we drove by on the weekend, it looked packed, so maybe more things were open on weekends?)

On our drive out, we saw some ship canons.

Posted in: Exploring Montana, National Parks

Yellowstone & Gardiner, Montana

Written by tepetravels

We stayed just outside of Gardiner, Montana. We were a mile from the North entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

The town of Gardiner isn’t very large, but it has most of the things you need. The town is split over the Yellowstone River, so it is set in a really pretty location. There is a gas station a few miles out of town, but there is also one right in the middle of town. There is a small bookstore/coffee shop, which has a decent selection of local touristy books, some fun reading books, a few kids books (mostly younger kids). For more book options, there were also a few Little Libraries/Free Library stands around town. Will found a new book to read! On the other side of the river, closer to the park, is another coffee shop/cafe. There are several souvenir type of stores, our favorite being the t-shirt shop.

The grocery store/market has a decent selection. The prices are a little higher than a chain store, but most of the time the difference wasn’t horrible. There are several restaurants and a couple of food trucks as well. You won’t go hungry!

They sell blocks of ice here! I don’t know why, but I got a kick out of this.

There is a small hardware store. The Chamber of Commerce in town offers free maps, guides, and a kid’s activity booklet.

There was also another coffee shop and a pharmacy, but they (with a couple of other shops) burned down 4 days before we arrived. The fire department still had sprinklers on the site when we first got into town.

Because it is in Montana, masks are required indoors. I loved this. It made me feel better about having to go into stores when everyone was wearing a mask.

Even when just in town, you can see some of the animals people come to the park for. We frequently had elk in our campground and in town. We even saw a bald eagle sitting on a tree by the river. It was a pretty location.
If you wanted a bigger store like Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, or Target, then you could drive into Bozeman. It was about 1 1/2 hours each way.

I felt that it was a good location for seeing Yellowstone too. No matter where you are in the park for your stay, you will be driving at least an hour to see some of the sights. By staying in town, I felt it was easier for us to get groceries and to do things ours of the park.

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