Sloe Times

I'm back from my vacation. It was nice to get away and not think about work and not have to do anything but lounge and hang with family. Granted, I didn't go anywhere super special, I mean it's not like Amarillo, TX is the hotbed of any activity unless you count the occasional rodeo or some other large event rolling into town. I suppose that's part of why I like the place. It's somewhere I can go and not feel obligated to 'see the sights' or do anything I don't damn well please.

In my wanderings around town, I decided to do a hunt for the best beef jerky I could find. Now, aside from the lame national brands that seem to have somehow found shelf space in the stores there, my findings boiled down to three contenders. The first was recommended as a great one by my family, it's called "Dead Mans Land" and the only place I could find it was at Panhandle Salvage on Western just south of I-27. Their jerky comes in two types, "Mild" and "Hot". I tried the hot since I like a little kick to my jerky and it was ok, still too many preservatives and stuff for my liking so moving on from there I found Ede's. Ede is a meat market south of town on McCormick Rd south of town (I-27 will get you there, just head east on McCormick off of 27). They have only one type of jerky, Hickory smoked. This was pretty good stuff, and my wife's favorite. It is almost good enough to make up for the fact that there's no hot/kick to it. Last, but most definitely not least I found a new startup place called Norlander's also on Western, just south of Panhandle Salvage in the Business Park. They've been open a few months but Michael and Tina (the two owners) are a friendly couple with a great jerky. I taste tested everything they had except for the teryaki flavored stuff and just couldn't get enough. Aside from the Teryaki flavored one they have 'Regular', 'Peppered', and my favorite 'Peppered+'. It comes thinly sliced in bite sized chips that's perfect for just keeping a bag handy wherever I go. The downside here is that because they're a new outfit they haven't gone much further than their retail outlet so the supply I have will have to last until the next care package from mom. There's a few online outfits that carry/ship jerky I wonder if I can pimp them against each other and be able to get a good source of jerky without the hoop jumping. Anyway, I'm back. I'm gonna go get some poker in tonight and see how a week of rest has done me.