A Little Tour Of The Mixes From The Heartland Plant
- Look at all that gluten free goodness~!
The first thing you see when you walk in the door at the Mixes From The Heartland plant are shelves and shelves displaying all the products they make here. And the next thing you notice is the aroma! The smells of all those delicious mixes wafts from the packaging area in the back to the lobby and offices in the front. It was a wonderful experience to go there, and meet Teri, the owner, in person. I have been corresponding with her for about a year now, and it was high time we met face to face.
- Teri, the owner of Mixes From The Heartland
Teri invited me and FabGrandpa into her office, where we talked for an hour or so. She has been in the gluten free food business for 5 years, and is getting ready to move the plant into a larger building. She has lots of plans for new products, and is introducing a new buying club on her website. There are lots of benefits to becoming a member, including discounts and access to new recipes.
- Packages of mix waiting to be sealed.
We took a little walk around the back, where staff members were busy filling bags with product, which today was a Tex-Mex Rice mix. The seasonings smelled soooo good! I noticed that everything was so clean and neat in there, too.
Teri explained that one of the secrets of her success for flavor is that she uses freeze dried ingredients. She gave us a sample of the freeze dried corn–it was so sweet! It tasted like fresh corn, only dry and crunchy. No wonder that corn chowder she makes is so good! And she makes sure every ingredient she buys to make her mixes is from a gluten free source. Her products test at 5 parts per million, which is well below the US standard to be labeled gluten free.
Teri gave me an assortment of products to take home, including my favorite, the Country Dumpling Mix. I had not had my favorite southern chicken and dumplings in more than three years before I found this mix. I loved it so much that I made it three times in one week! Now I can’t wait to get to my summer home so I can start cooking some of these things up! I made some of the Sweet Potato Brownies tonight, though. Easy peasy!
- El Toritos Restaurant
Before we left to come home, though, Teri and her Aunt Marilyn took us out to lunch at El Toritos Mexican Restaurant in Amarillo. I had the Tamal Dinner. Boy, was it ever good! I haven’t had tamales that good since we worked down in south Texas in 2002.
We finally had to say our goodbyes, but not without making plans to stop in again on our way east next fall. Can’t wait to see what new products she has by then!
A Rainy Night In Amarillo
It started raining just about the time we finished setting up the trailer. We had already talked about going out to dinner tonight because we have been eating at home every night since we left Alabama. We had been seeing the signs on the highway for The Big Texan Steak Ranch, and that was where we wanted to go.
They advertise a FREE 72 oz top sirloin steak dinner–IF you can eat it all in one hour. Not just the steak–you also get a salad, three shrimps, and a dinner roll. If you don’t get it all down in an hour, it costs you $72. We had no plans to try for the free dinner, but geez, can you imagine eating four and a half pounds of meat at one sitting? Apparently, there are more than 7,000 people who have done it over the years since 1965.
Darren, a young guy from Annaheim, California, came in and ordered the 72 ounce steak while we were there.Now, when you order the 72 ounce steak, they seat you at table on a stage, and when the dinner is served, they start the clock counting down one hour. I took some pictures and left him one of my cards, so I hope he emails me to let me know if he did it or not.
My dinner was a 12 ounce rib eye. It was quite delicious, but still, I can’t even imagine eating six of them at one time. I didn’t even eat all of the one I got–I brought some of it home.
It came with a Texas Beefsteak tomato salad and a baked potato. FabGrandpa got the top sirloin. He brought some of his home, too.
Most of the time when we go out to eat, we don’t get dessert. But tonight, we splurged. I had a Texas Chocolate Sunday. FabGrandpa had the Black Forest Cake with Cherries. Mmmm, delish!
On The Road To Arizona IV
On The Road To Arizona III
On The Road To Arizona II
On The Road To Arizona
Getting Ready To Roll
Seems like it was just last week that we pulled in to Payne Lake Campground to volunteer for six months. Time goes by way too fast when the place is as beautiful as this. The Forest Service folks had a “Volunteer Appreciation Day” last week to thank us for our work here.
There was a cookout at the day use pavillion, and a lot of the guys and gals came out to say good bye to us and to Rob and Belinda, the camp hosts on the other side of the lake.
They cooked some hot dogs and hamburgers, there was some pasta salad and some baked beans, and I took some Kozy Shack Chocolate Pudding. Everyone had a great time.
Joe gave us all a T-shirt, and each couple received a nice throw with the Forest Service emblem on it. They also gave us a “coffee table” photo book of Alabama. They all said they were sad to see us go. And we are just as sad to leave. It is very hard to leave such a beautiful place:
But we’ll be leaving in the morning, headed west to Arizona for another season at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. And that is another beautiful place, one we can’t wait to get back to.
