# New friends?



## j_luken (May 27, 2016)

I haven't been on here in a while, when I first started on here I was looking for a position, well I found one, now I am looking for new ranching/ farming friends in the area around Winters, TX or close to the area. Anyone want to give me a shout back, let me know. Jolene


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

j_luken said:


> I haven't been on here in a while, when I first started on here I was looking for a position, well I found one, now I am looking for new ranching/ farming friends in the area around Winters, TX or close to the area. Anyone want to give me a shout back, let me know. Jolene


I remember your job search.....glad you found a position. You ARE out in the country....I have hunted just South of Cross Plains and around Rising Star and Brownwood. The very first chicken fried steak I ever ate was in Cross Plains about 25 years ago.

Regards, Mike


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

I'm no where near Texas, but congrats on the new position Jolene!

Mike, what's this about chicken fried steak? Is it chicken, or is it steak?


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Man Vol, you get around! I am amazed at all the places you have been. A lot of farmers don't get off the farm much.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

PaMike said:


> Man Vol, you get around! I am amazed at all the places you have been. A lot of farmers don't get off the farm much.


I do love to travel....but I have worked months without a day off like many. But come fall, I went all over this country and other places hunting since I was about 25 years old. My first cousin lived in McKinney, TX so that was my connection to the Republic.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Mike, what's this about chicken fried steak? Is it chicken, or is it steak?


It is a chopped steak, battered and fried and smothered in milk gravy. It is not very healthy but it sure is good....along with some mashed potatoes and biscuits! :wub: So if a person just eats it once a blue moon it won't hurt!

Regards, Mike


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

So there is nothing chicken about it?


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

paoutdoorsman said:


> So there is nothing chicken about it?


Fried like you would fry chicken?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

paoutdoorsman said:


> So there is nothing chicken about it?





Teslan said:


> Fried like you would fry chicken?


Yes and yes. Fried just like chicken....hence the name.

Regards, Mike


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Not good for ya.... ??? I make it once a week, my grandma ate it till she passed at 98yrs old......


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Vol said:


> I remember your job search.....glad you found a position. You ARE out in the country....I have hunted just South of Cross Plains and around Rising Star and Brownwood. The very first chicken fried steak I ever ate was in Cross Plains about 25 years ago.
> 
> Regards, Mike


At (IIRC) Brown's restaurant?? I think that was the name of it...

MAN that place was GOOD! Too bad it burned down... what a shame.

We used to eat there frequently when my sister was in college up at Texas Tech back in the 90's... Dad would get off work and say, "Hey, you wanna go see Julie?" and I'd be like, "Yeah, I guess" and we'd pack a bag each, hop in his Ford Festiva he drove to work, and hit the road... 7.5 hours later (most of that at 70 mph) we'd be in Lubbock-- 525 miles north. He had strings of days off at the nuke plant at the time, and since Julie was marching in the band, if they had a football game up there, we'd just take off and go. Went to games closer too, like at Baylor or TCU... didn't like going to Aggieland or UT, though-- they sucked.

Bought an old 7100 4 row peanut planter someone had traded in up there at the local dealer one time and hauled it back down here to use for cotton and sorghum, to replace our old blackland planters... no "modern" 4 row planters to be had down here anymore-- all parted out for parts or stupid expensive if you did find one...

Good times...

Later! OL J R


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

j_luken said:


> I haven't been on here in a while, when I first started on here I was looking for a position, well I found one, now I am looking for new ranching/ farming friends in the area around Winters, TX or close to the area. Anyone want to give me a shout back, let me know. Jolene


Congrats on the job and welcome.

Had to look up Winters... we're a long ways off-- 45 miles SW of Houston, about 60 miles or so off the beach. See you're up between Brady and San Angelo-- some nice country up there...

Later! OL J R


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

paoutdoorsman said:


> So there is nothing chicken about it?


Breaded like fried chicken... hence the name... I guess "battered" is a more appropriate term...

It's basically a cube steak (tenderized round steak) that's dipped in milk and flour with some spices added (depending on the recipe and how you like it) and then deep fried (or pan/skillet fried). Some places pound them out flat first so they're thin and more tender, and larger around.

If Vol is talking about the place I'm thinking about, it was Brown's Restaurant in Cross Plains... fabulous mom-n-pop family place that'd been in business for decades.

Personally I like mine as "country fried steak" (as some places call it) with brown gravy instead of white gravy... (with white milk gravy it's "chicken fried steak", with brown gravy it's "country fried steak", at least according to some of the foodies I've seen). Usually served up with mashed taters and a side of vegetables of some sort, and biscuits or rolls. Good stuff.

Brown's would pound them out thin and then batter them and fry them up to perfection-- thing covered most of a big oval serving plate, with a scoop of mashed taters on one end with gravy ladeled on the whole thing. Then you'd get a side bowl of veggies and a plate of rolls for the table to go with it... Good stuff!

Sadly, Browns burned down sometime in the late 90's IIRC... We went through there and usually held off eating earlier on the way up to Lubbock or the way back so we could eat there, and one time we pulled in and saw it burned. I don't think they ever re-opened it... though it's been about 10 years or so since I was up that far... I LOVE Lubbock and used to go up there to the farm show every year-- they had a terrific farm show with a 60 acre or so central display area divided into six east-west streets and 3 north-south "avenues", and field demonstrations all day every day starting about an hour after opening and ending about an hour before closing... and trams out to the field demonstrations-- everything from primary and secondary tillage, to haymaking (cutters, rakes, balers, etc), to combines, cotton pickers and strippers, etc. running in corn, grain sorghum, wheat, alfalfa, straw, sunflowers, cotton, you name it... Just a WONDERFUL show...

Sadly the show up and died a few years after all the local school districts started bringing out dozens of busloads of kids and turning them loose for the day-- they were messing up the equipment and stealing parts off machinery, sabotaging stuff, and they would absolutely clean the dealership displays out of pamphlets and sales brochures and stuff... I talked to some of the dealers and they were telling me about how they had to put everything "behind the counter" and you had to ASK for it to get it because of that, and lock up all the machinery so the kids couldn't get into it to steal all the knobs and mess stuff up. The last time I was up there, which was the last year they had it (maybe 2001 or 2002-- was right after I got married, me and the new wife went) I noticed it was about down to half-size, and pretty anemic-- not well attended at all. Lots of dealers absent-- one dealer told me why-- corporate HAD been sponsoring them to come out, but most of the companies told them, "No, we're not going to help with expenses anymore, but you're still EXPECTED to go represent us at the show". He told me it cost him tens of thousands of dollars to go to the show, by the time he paid the exhibitor fee for the "lot" they put their machinery on for display, and paid workers to prep and haul equipment up to the show site on semi's, do all the setup and teardown work, rent a circus tent for the several days leading up to the show and show itself, and then haul everything back, and then have to have the mechanics going over everything to fix what the kids broke or stole or sabotaged (like cramming cups in the exhaust and stuff like that) before he could put it back on the lot for sale... most of the dealers told corporate if they weren't gonna help with the expense of it all, they could go pound sand...

REALLY sad because it was the nicest farm show this side of the Farm Progress Show up in the Midwest... That was the last year they held it. It took 2 days to see everything-- one day if you HUSTLED you could visit all the booths of interest and look over new stuff and get brochures and stuff and some freebies like hats and stuff-- I even had a guy at a Fibermax display give me a footstool size little mini bale of cotton one time just so he didn't have to haul it home... Then you could go out to the ride-n-drive and run some new stuff and kick the tires... drove the new Deere tracked tractor when it came out up there, matter of fact... Next day hit the trams and ride out to all the demonstrations, going from one to the next to the next-- they'd come back in from 12-1 for lunch at any one of the food vendor booths in the display area or food tent then ride the tram back out to the demonstrations... Just had a real nice time... The "Farmhouse" fraternity at Texas Tech had a little mini-roach-coach trailer out there being pulled by a little tractor at the demonstrations, handing out free cups of soda pop... get as many as you liked, FREE... they used to have big cattle feeders set up around the show grounds too, full of roasted, salted in-shell peanuts from 50 pound bags... all FREE. Most of the vendor tents had free water and popcorn or other goodies too... just a REAL nice time...

Later! OL J R


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

luke strawwalker said:


> At (IIRC) Brown's restaurant?? I think that was the name of it...
> 
> Later! OL J R


I believe that was the place.....the last time I was there was in 1991.

Regards, Mike


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