Bourbon balls--A Photo Essay

We've been seeing bourbon balls for sale all over the place since we got to Kentucky but why just buy some when there's an opportunity to make a mess on my own. 

Chris kindly got a recipe from one of his co-workers. Here in Kentucky, it seems these recipes are guarded as family treasures. 

We were really impressed with the results. I have some photos and at the end I'll include the whole recipe as well as my suggestions (of course). You'll want to make some of these bad boys for yourself. Because nothing makes the holidays more tolerable than sugar and booze. 

Step one. Soak 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 cup of bourbon over night. I covered and kept in the fridge. 

Under that pile of powdered sugar (2 lbs which equals about 7 cups) is a stick of melted butter. 

Combine the pecan/bourbon combo with the butter/powdered sugar mountain. Plus a tsp of vanilla and pinch of salt. 

Roll into balls. This is the first batch I made and it was too wet to roll so I put these little spoonfuls in the fridge and then rolled them into balls after they hardened up a bit.  On the second batch, I put the whole bowl in the fridge until it was firm enough to roll.

The step you don't see is dipping in chocolate. More about that in the recipe, but it took some trial and error to get that right and taking pictures would not have added to the success of the mission. 

Finished product. All we have left now are photos and memories, but these were really good.

A couple notes. I made two batches, one with pecans and one with pretzels instead for those who are nut-adverse. I couldn't really taste a difference, but some might.

Bourbon Balls plus my suggestions and variations

Original Recipe

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup bourbon

1 stick butter (½ cup) , melted

2 lbs powdered sugar (about 7 cups)

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

Chocolate chips/chunks for melting I used a very dark chocolate because the rest is so sweet. You’ll need one bag, maybe more.

Cookie sheets, parchment or waxed paper

Yield---40+ balls depending on how large you make them

Step one:

Soak pecans in bourbon over night. I covered the bowl w/foil, not sure if that’s necessary or not.

Step two:

Make sure you have plenty of room in your refrigerator because these take up a lot of space. Or freezer.

Step three:

Melt butter and mix with powdered sugar and the bourbon/pecan combo. Add the vanilla and salt.

Line some cookie sheets with parchment/waxed paper. If the mixture is not too runny, roll into balls and put in the fridge for several hours or overnight. If it’s too runny to roll, put it in the fridge for a while until it stiffens up, make balls and put in fridge.

Step four;

Once they have firmed up you’re ready for dipping. I found that the best method was to put the chocolate into a small to medium heat proof bowl inside my crockpot. It took 30 mins or less for it to be the right consistency and stayed that way throughout.

I learned the hard way that you need to do just a few at a time and then get them back into the fridge fast after dipping in the chocolate. If they sit too long, the balls melt and you end up with things that look like chocolate covered half dollars. With Chris helping me, we did about 5 at a time, taking them from the freezer in small batches, dipping and then put them in the fridge.

If you want to be fancy, you can put a pecan half or a few chopped pecans on top before putting in the fridge. Or sprinkles or whatever.

Once the chocolate has set, store in airtight containers or zip loc bags in the fridge or freezer.

Non-nut variation

Substitute crushed pretzels for the pecans. Do NOT soak over night because that seems like it would just make paste. So just mix everything together w/the pretzels and go from there.

Note: These are very sweet. I think the next time I make them, I’ll increase the nut/pretzel combo by a cup and cut back on the powdered sugar by a cup. You could also use crushed vanilla wafers or graham crackers, but even that might be too sweet. In my opinion, you just need something as an additional binder that works well with the powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you'd like a printable copy of the recipe, just send me an email and I'll attach it.

Halloween Festivities At The Kentucky Horse Park

It's Halloween at the Kentucky Horse Park and it's been a busy weekend. Today's festivities included a costume contest. Several hundred people were here for the festivities, including trick or treating where we handed out 14 lbs of candy at our site. People are here camping with their families and there were also a large number of locals who came out for the fun.

Very clever headless bride costume. This girl stopped by while we were handing out candy and it was a little freaky talking to her. 

Tommy Chong impersonator with giant joint. 

Elf on a Shelf

Deviled eggs...get it? 

It's All Part of the Adventure

On July 8, 2014 we spent the night at the Drury Inn and Suites in Findlay, Ohio. We were pretty excited because the next day, July 9, we were going to pick up our motor home.

Three years later, almost exactly to the day, on July 11, 2017 we again spent the night in Findlay, Ohio and within in view of the Drury Inn...except this time we were broken down and spending the night in a WalMart Parking lot.

We'd pulled in around 10 pm to get gas before the final 20 miles or so of our trip to Tiffin, Ohio in order to attend the funeral for Chris' Uncle Ronnie. It had been a long day before we left Lexington at about 4 pm for the drive to Ohio and we were looking forward to getting parked and getting a decent night's sleep before the funeral the next morning.

But, after gassing up, the MH wouldn't start. Nothing. We thought it was the battery and Chris plugged in some chargers to see if we could get it juiced up (please note these are not technical terms, just my report of what happened). The gas station manager was sympathetic and told us that even though the station was closing we were welcome to stay...but had to be gone by 7 am when the station opened again. I guess having us sit in front of a pump all day would be bad for business.

Though it was a lovely evening, as we sat on the bags of water softener salt pellets, we fought against discouragement. We were hot and tired and looking at potentially unknown and unlimited amounts of expenses.

But, then we looked up and saw the bright red and white sign for the Drury Inn and remembered that this was literally where our adventure had begun and ...This is all just part of the adventure. We passed the time talking about all the things we've done in our three years on the road. And all the other challenges we've figured out and survived.

The battery chargers didn't help the situation. Attempting to jump start the MH w/our car didn't work...a Hyundai is no match for a Winnebago. Finally, around midnight, we called a tow truck for a jump. The guy was nice, but still no luck.

But, the MH was on a slight incline and we were pointed directly into a large open area of the parking lot, so the tow truck guy and Chris pushed the MH until it got rolling and I "drove" it into the parking lot.

We weren't able to go anywhere, but we were safe and had a place to stay. We put out the slides, turned on the generator and tried to get some sleep...it was about 2 am. But, we were still immobile and the cause was unknown, so sleep was elusive.

The next day we let people know we wouldn't make it to the funeral and started making calls to see if we could get someone to come and take a look to see what the problem was. No mobile RV repairs or mechanics were interested or available.

Ah...but as luck would have it...we were back in Ohio where we have friends. Chris called Brad, the mechanic from the bus garage where he used to work, and Brad came through for us. Turns out we needed a new starter, not a new battery, and by late afternoon we were back on the road.

We missed the funeral, but we still got to see Aunt Mary and offer our condolences and we visited with friends and family while we could.

I'll be honest...this was pretty stressful. But in the end, we realized that if it had to happen, we were in the best place. We were on an incline and pointed in the right direction to roll into a safe spot in the parking lot. And we were just a phone call away from a reliable and honest mechanic who was willing to go out of his way to help us out.

Maybe sometimes all you need to do is make sure you're pointed in the right direction and hope for a push when you need it. And sometimes all you can do is roll.

Wise Buys---Wifi Ranger

You know I love wifi, but often getting reliable service is tricky. Campgrounds will say they have wifi, but it is usually weak or the quality of your signal varies depending on how far you are from the source.

When making reservations and asking about the quality of the wifi we have heard, more than once, "Well, you know, it's campground wifi."

This is rather frustrating and with more and more people living and working on the road, you'd think that campgrounds would get with the program, but since they seem to continue filling their sites, apparently they don't care too much.

Enter the Wifi Ranger

This is the second post about "Wise Buys". The first one was about a motion sensing light for about $12, the Wifi Ranger costs significantly more, about $600, but has been well worth it.

I'm not super tech-savvy so I might not describe this accurately, but I'll describe it in a way that makes sense to me. The Wifi Ranger attaches to the TV antenna on the roof of the RV (that was exciting) and picks up wifi signals in about a 1/2  to one mile radius (possibly further) and strengthens the signals it connects to.

Now, it's not like a magic wifi provider, you still need the password on a password protected network or you can use open networks like you might find at a fast food restaurant.

Once connected to a wifi source, the ranger then provides wifi to our devices. The ranger is password protected, so it creates our own wifi system with an extra layer of security vs. logging into a public wifi source.

It takes weak campground wifi and boosts it so we can stream and have a steady source of wifi instead of having it go in and out...which is very frustrating.

All of our devices automatically connect to the ranger, so we don't have to log in to each new network as we move around.

The cost of the ranger made us think long and hard about buying it, but since we kept going over on our phone data plan due to weak wifi, we decided to give it a try. It has been well worth it for us.

Lessons to Learn and Re-Learn

When it feels like you're trying too hard to make something happen, maybe it's time to just hold still and see what shows up. 

That's the lesson I have to learn and re-learn.

Without going into a lot of minutia, we have found ourselves at loose ends for a few weeks. We have campgrounds to work for Southeast Publications but they won't really be ready for us to be there until June or after.

We decided to spend a couple weeks at the Kentucky Horse Park to get caught up on work and decide what we're going to do. Earlier this week Chris spent several hours trying to figure out where we could go to find a job to work, even if it wasn't profitable, we'd at least have free camping. We requested information from the office, but got no response.

Should we call? Should we send an email with the red ! of high priority? Plus, every mile we drive costs us money, so if we have to drive 300 miles for free camping, is it worth it?

We decided to just let it be and see what happened.

On Thursday morning, Ryan, the campground manager came knocking on our door looking for someone who could drive a large Motor Home like ours. A couple had arrived at the campground (which is part of a very large complex which includes a race track, but more on that in another post.) gotten lost and then the husband had to be taken to the hospital before they got their MH parked, so it was sort of abandoned on one of the roads here at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Chris, being the awesome man he is, helped out and got the MH where it needed to be.

Ryan was so impressed with Chris's awesomeness and good attitude, he offered him a position as a camp host here at the campground and is fine with only a month long commitment (most places want you to commit for at least 3 months, preferably longer).

When Chris asked Ryan why he'd come to our site he said, "I had already stopped at several other campsites, you were the first one who actually opened the door."

Not only does that solve our problem of where to go, but we get to stay at a place we really like. And, there's a big event coming up this weekend---The Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event.

P.S. Residents of the Buckeye State---we'll be there a little later than we had thought, though we might make a 2-3 day visit between now and then. And of course, you're always welcome to visit us here.

Wise Buys----Meet Richard

I thought I'd write a few posts about things we've purchased that have turned out to be well worth the money.

First up----Richard the Motion Detecting Light

One dark and stormy night, our friend Richard nearly took a header when he missed one of the steps going out our Motor Home. 

The next day, we purchased this motion sensor light at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $15 and dubbed it Richard in honor of the man who showed us how desperately we needed it. 

Now, we are not prone to naming appliances or other items, but somehow the name Richard has stuck so that we have conversations like:

"Hey, did you remember to remove Richard?" (Because we don't want Richard to come loose and fly off while we are driving down the road)

 "Looks like Richard needs new batteries." 

"I can't find Richard, do you know where he is?" 

For being good at doing what he's supposed to do, reasonably priced and providing a touch of humor, Richard is a Wise Buy. 

Update

Greetings from Lexington, Kentucky. We're currently at the Kentucky Horse Park, which is a very nice state park with lots of grass (which is nice and green due to rain and warm temps) and large sites.

I have had many ideas for blog posts but then I don't write them, so instead of some fancy theme, I'm going to just do my best to give you some updates on what we've been up to since my last post.

New jobs with Southeast Publications---going okay. Not great, but challenging. The jury is still out on whether this is a keeper. The good things are that it allows us complete freedom over our time and location. The down side is that the availability of profitable places to work makes starting out a little rough financially. And then there is the sales aspect which can be brutal at times.

We attended the national sales meeting for the company at Guntersville State Park in Guntersville, AL, which was a very nice state park. The meetings were interesting and we learned a lot and met some nice people.

Travels---we've put in a few more miles over the last few weeks. The last post was done when we were in Sallisaw, OK, on the OK/AR border. Since then we traveled to Guntersville, AL which is in northeast AL, then up to Clinton, TN, just north of Knoxville. Now we are in Lexington, KY taking a little time off to regroup (and still need to get our taxes done).

Berea, Kentucky---on the way to Lexington, we stopped in Berea, KY, one of my favorite places. Berea is home to Berea College. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
Founded in 1855, Berea College is distinctive among post-secondary institutions for providing free education to students and for having been the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated.^[3] Berea College charges no tuition; every admitted student is provided the equivalent of a four-year, full-tuition scholarship (currently worth $97,200; $24,300 per year).^[3]

Berea offers Bachelor's degrees in 32 majors.^[3] It has a full-participation work-study program in which students are required to work at least 10 hours per week in campus and service jobs in over 130 departments. 

Students at Berea make furniture, pottery, brooms, weavings and even run a store where they sell meat and produce from their farm. The Boone Tavern is run by the college and is staffed by students and the furniture in the rooms has been made by students over the years.

As a result of all the student artisans, the town of Berea has become a mecca for artists with numerous studios ranging from glass blowing to dulcimer making around the town.

Due to limited space and the fact that our house moves and therefore isn't conducive to fragile objects, we didn't make any purchases, other than some goodies at the Farm Store and a fab lunch at the Boone Tavern.

Wishing you all a wonderful spring! More news as it happens. 

Shopping Assistance

One of the perks of our new job is that we get to meet some interesting business owners and get the inside scoop (hmmm, which reminds me that we haven't met any ice cream makers yet) on what they are doing, so I thought I'd share. All these businesses have online stores, so feel free to do some shopping.

We spent an afternoon at Zena Suri Alpacas where we got to hang out with the Alpacas as well as the owner, Kathleen. They have beautiful Alpaca yarn for sale as well as other Alpaca items, including Alpaca socks, which Kathleen says are the best. We may give the socks a try and see if her claims measure up. Click here for their site.


You'd think I'd know better than to let Chris go to a pecan business by himself, but in the end, I can hardly complain. After a trip to Miller Pecan he came home with a square of maple pecan fudge (holy cow, it was good) as well as as couple different types of their flavored pecans. The company is only about three years old and is run by brothers Justin and Jared. Most of their business is online but they do have a retail store. Ironically, many of their non-pecan items like jams and Amish noodles were from Ohio. If you need some pecans for yourself or as a gift, we highly recommend them (get some fudge too). Click here.

If you're into leather (and I know you are), then you'll want to know about Ethos Custom Brands. Wow. We met Chad Little, the owner/president. An extremely interesting man with a passion for what he's doing and a vision for expanding to include a music venue and large retail store in little ol' Sallisaw, OK. The guitar straps were so beautiful, I was tempted to get a guitar just to have a strap. Be sure to check out their Celtic designs too in guitar straps and cuffs. Oh...and the boots. Some were a little flashy for me, but still beautiful craftsmanship. Go get your credit card and then click here.

Food Porn

We haven't been doing much that's particularly exciting, but we do eat. There seems to be a trend involving a lot of bread.

 This is the Cranky Turkey sandwich from Chickanella's in Grove, OK. Pretty tasty. Turkey, cranberry sauce, raisins and walnuts. Those bagged veggie fries weren't much of a treat.

 We like to find community events to attend so we went to the Sallisaw, OK Fish Fry. The fish was nice and fresh and there were cupcakes.

The Rib Room in Ft. Smith, AR 

This was an excellent and reasonably priced lunch. Chris had BBQ Bologna and ribs (we shared the ribs). I had the chicken quarter and slaw. Despite looking like Shane N Bake, the chicken was also very good. We'd go back there for sure. 

For my birthday, KC sent a gift certificate for Burga Box. We were very excited when our treats arrived. This is the Green Monstah...burger, cheddar jack cheese, guac and pico de gallo. The guac and pico de gallo were particularly fresh and delicious. 

Also from Burga Box, the All American (this is the low carb version). Cheddar cheese, bacon, blue cheese dressing and bbq sauce. WOW!Thanks, KC!

Ch-ch-changes

What's new with us?


Well, we've quit our jobs as utility surveyors and have started a new job with Southeast Publications.
That's a big change.

There are a number of reasons why we left our job with the utility survey company and there's no point in rehashing all of that. Our last day with them was a week ago and we've had no regrets.
Since no one has called to beg us to return, apparently the feeling is mutual.

Our job with Southeast Publications will be very different from anything we've done so far and we're excited and a little nervous, as most people are with new situations. Of course, we seem to have a high tolerance for change and plunge forward feeling pretty confident.

Southeast Publications provides guides/maps for campgrounds and our job is to sell ads that will appear in the guides. We'll be moving much more frequently....every two weeks...moving from campground to campground to do our jobs. We'll be in charge of our own time and decide where we're going---two things which are very important to us.

We have our route planned out for the next few months. We'll be moving fewer miles between stops. Currently we're in Grove, OK which is in the NE corner of OK and we'll be here for two weeks. Our campground is on Grand Lake and has a nice view. It also has decent wifi, something we've missed for the last couple months.

From here, we'll be going to Sallisaw, OK/Ft. Smith, AR, then northern Alabama for Southeast Publications' annual meeting After that we'll work our way through Tennessee, Kentucky and on to Ohio probably in late April, then up into Michigan where we'll spend most of the summer.

We're excited to see where this new adventure leads.