Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

For the last 10 days, we have been at the Covered Bridge Festival in Mansfield, IN.  It was an opportunity to meet a lot of new people.  Some were clients, some were other vendors others were people who have never seen us before. 

We also had some outstanding food at the festival.  Beef brisket, pulled pork, steak tips with mashed potatoes and mushrooms, cinnamon rolls and much more.  A variety of foods from a variety of places.  Cecil and his crew have been at the festival for 33 consecutive years and only makes a limited number of cinnamon rolls and pecan rolls each day.  If you don't get there early, you will not get one. 

For us, we introduced a whole new area to our Salsa Grande.  A blend of habanero and jalapeno peppers with a nice mix of garlic, tomatoes and more.

We also sold an awful lot of pickled veggies.  We ran out of pickled asparagus, dilled beans, pickled carrots and sweet baby corn.  Next year, we'll pack more. 

Covered Bridge Festival Here We Come!

Old Mansfield Village in Park County Indiana will be home to Dad's Roadhouse from October 8 - 17 during the 54th annual Covered Bridge Festival. The event brings in over 2 million visitors annually to visit the historic covered bridges, dine on fabulous foods and shop, shop, shop. Our family has visited the Covered Bridge Festival on two other occasions. We enjoyed beautiful fall weekends in the country. One covered bridge is fondly know by our family as "Jackson Bricks" which was Jonathan's way of saying bridge when he was only 2! We hope this year will bring more beautiful weather and fond memories.

Please track us down if your travels take you near Old Mansfield Village in an area known as Mansfield Terrace during the Covered Bridge Festival. Mansfield Terrace is located just 50 yards from the Mansfield Covered Bridge which is open to foot traffic during the Festival and is the only connection with both sides of Raccoon Creek. It is estimated that nearly 100 thousand people cross the bridge each day. Mansfield Terrace is located in the very center of Old Mansfield Village and overlooks the Mansfield General Store (built in 1830), the Old Mansfield Village Food Center and the Mansfield Civic Center and Annex.

We will be sampling your favorite Dad's Roadhouse products as well as introducing our new butters - Peach, Pumpkin, Apple and Sweet Potato with Pecan. We hope to see you there!

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Getting in the back to school swing has taken us from doing our regular What's Cookin' Wednesday feature. Now that school is in full swing and we should be on some type of schedule, it is time to get posting again!

Farmer's Markets are winding down and our favorite local farm stand closes tomorrow. Saying good-bye to the end of the summer vegetable bounty is hard to do. We will do one last stock up tomorrow on cabbage, zucchini, sweet potatoes and squash.

And...the grill ran out of propane! So, cooking has come indoors until the propane tank gets refilled. Tonight will be turkey polish sausage, german potato salad and acorn squash. How do you like your acorn squash topped? Brown sugar? Butter? Garlic?

The crock pot is being dusted off for tomorrow's meal - beef stroganoff, noodles, and zucchini. This stroganoff recipe comes from the Fix It and Forget It Cookbook by Dawn Ranck. Sounds like a comfort food meal to me! A sure sign that colder weather is right around the corner.

So, what's cookin' at your house this week? Please share your favorite meals for the last of the summer bounty.

The Weekend Review

This weekend was a busy weekend that did not leave a lot of time for cooking. Friday night I had the opportunity to grill a couple of Turkey Burgers along with a few sliced and seeded red grilling peppers. Even though the peppers were clearly labled mild, some were a bit more than mild. Be careful rubbing your eyes and face after seeding 'mild' peppers.

Saturday was the first indoor craft show of our season. Thank you to the nice folks at Hillside Church in Crown Point, IN. I met some nice folks and had some fun.

Sunday was the Fall Open House at Front Porch Coffee & Gifts in Mokena. Thanks to Catherine and Bonnie for inviting me to share our Loco Cheese Dip and our Candied Jalapenos with their friends and family. If you get out that way stop in and say hi. They are located on the north side of 191st Street just east of LaGrange Road. They are one of a few select stores to carry our products.

Join us today at the Riverview Farmstead

Stop out today before 1:00 to visit us at the Riverview Farmstead Farmers Market in Naperville, IL.  The market is located to the rear of the property and is easily accessible from the property entrance at 111th and Book Road.

Stop out, say hi and see what we are sampling.

What's Cookin' Wednesday

This weekend, we are looking forward to a group of family and friends getting together for a Back to School, End of Baseball (even though it seems to go for 13 months a year at our house), and Belated Birthday Party.  The party will be held at our camper and the food will all be prepared in the microwave, on the grill, or out of the refrigerator.  We are going to attempt to use the oven in the camper for the first time and hope we have success.  We'll see how that works.

The menu has a variety of salads, grilled chicken breasts and our award winning sweet 'n hot wings, lasagna, and appetizers.  We will also be serving our new Mango Lime Salsa to see what type of feedback we receive. Trying to accommodate everyones diets is usually a challenge, but a lot of fun when we all get together.

Tonight is going to be swordfish steaks on the grill.  Maybe a nice salad and possibly some grilled peppers.

Labor Day $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway

It's almost Labor Day - the last official weekend of summer. What will you be doing to celebrate Labor Day? We are having an End of Summer, End of Baseball, Belated Birthday bash at our camper. We will be preparing lots of yummy foods and debuting our new Mango Lime Salsa.

As a way of celebrating the end of summer, we will be giving away a $25 Dad's Roadhouse gift certificate to one lucky person who posts their favorite Labor Day memory on our blog. The gift certificate can be redeemed on-line or at one of our events in the Chicagoland area. The winner will be randomly drawn on Tuesday, September 7th. After all, your favorite memory might occur this year!

How to earn entries -
1. Post your favorite Labor Day memory on our blog in comments.
2. Friend us on facebook at Dad's Roadhouse and let us know in blog comments.
3. Follow us on the blog and let us know in blog comments.

Good luck!