A couple weeks ago I was sent over Southside Market & Barbeque's Fresh Original Beef Rope Sausage to try. Southside Market was founded in 1882 by William Moon in Elgin, TX. What started off as door to door meat sales has evolved into four brick & mortar restaurants/stores as well as nationwide shipping! You can order smoked sausage, chicken, brisket, hot sauce, rubs and more straight to your doorstep! After trying the rope sausage, I'm looking forward to trying more of their products in the future!
Known by old-timers as “Elgin Hot Sausage” or simply “Hot Guts”, this is the sausage that put Southside on the map. Now available to order in rope form exactly as we sell it fresh in our meat markets. Unlike the shorter links, each fresh (raw) rope measures approximately 44-48 inches long and weighs 2 lbs. Seasoned with cracked black pepper, it is all beef, coarsely ground in a natural pork casing. This is our signature item, made fresh in-house daily for a level of quality, taste, and enjoyment you can’t find anywhere else. Since 1882.
You can buy one sausage for $25 or save $10 by purchasing 2 for $40. Make sure to use code TXBBQ10 to save 10%! The rope sausage came frozen and packed with some dry ice and packing foam to keep it safe and fresh. I defrosted it within a day and we cooked it the weekend it arrived. Never cook your Southside Market meat from frozen, always thaw first and make sure sausage gets to 165°F!
Time to dig in! I cooked the whole beef sausage very simply with no added spices and without cutting it. It's still a little too chilly for a grill session so I baked the rope sausage in the oven instead. I baked for 20 minutes in a cast iron skillet (to see if that would help with browning) at 400 degrees and flipped once to get some browning on both sides. I definitely need to buy some this Summer to grill too!
Since there's only two of us we obviously didn't eat it all in
one sitting so I did something a bit more fun with the leftovers. For
this first try I wanted to eat it as is, with some simple veggies as a
side so we could really get a feel for the texture and flavor. The sausage was juicy with great beef flavor and a nice kick at the end from the black pepper. I imagine the flavor would be even better with some char from the grill.
My only gripe with Southside Market is the cost of shipping. It cost $58 to ship just this one sausage rope. If I added on sausage links it would go up to $66 . Adding a rub to that it jumps up to $85. I understand they want to ship quickly and with enough ice to keep items frozen, but other brands can do the same for cheaper. Even HelloFresh, who send up to 7 (or more) meals worth of groceries is shipped for $10. They aren't doing the volume of HF, but I'm sure there are other economical ways to ship.
*This post was made in partnership with Apogee Agency. All opinions on the product are my own and have not been influenced by this sponsorship. Thank you for supporting brands I feature* #sponsored #SouthsideSausageReview #ad
Still going strong with no clothing purchases in 2023! It also helps that we're saving up for a bunch of trips so whenever I think about buying something I imagine us being finished saving for those trips sooner. I've been thinking about getting myself some new pajamas as well, but that's not very exciting, ha ha.
THE (modified) RULES
- Be mindful of purchases
- Quality over quantity
- Basics are best
MY PROGRESS
Clothes:
- None yet
Basics:
- None yet
Shoes:
- None yet
Handbags:
- None yet
Accessories:
- Apple Watch 8 Midnight Aluminum Case with Elderberry Sport Band (gift from Christian)
Activewear/Swimwear:
- None yet
Gifted from Brands:
- None yet
Spent in March: $0
Spent in 2023: $0
Spent in 2023 - counting ad money: $0
Time for more sweet treats! We've got a mix of chocolate, sweet potatoes, coconut, lemon and honey! It's been a long time since I've made really good brownies from scratch and I think I found my new recipe. I also made one of our favorites from the past couple years, the coconut chocolate chip blondies as well as a few more new recipes! One of which I've had on my "to bake" list for over a year - whoops!
Better Than Boxed Chocolate Fudge Brownies
I made these on a day when Christian casually mentioned wanting brownies. You don't have to tell me twice! Jenna's recipes have yet to disappoint me so I decided to try her brownie recipe. This is definitely one I will be remaking. They're super fudgy and have a perfectly flaky top to add a bit of crunch.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
I made this as our Valentine's week treat. Normally I would make chocohotopots but Tessa made this her February baking challenge and I LOVE flourless chocolate cake, so I decided to give it a go! We don't have an 8in round pan so I decided to use my fun heart shaped dutch oven from Home Goods since I would have to adjust the cooking time no matter what I used. I wasn't able to get it out of the dutch oven so no pretty picture of it on a plate, luckily the dutch oven is pretty.
Sweet Potato Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar Topping
We had a ton of leftover sweet potatoes after a dinner I made (mental note: we only need 1 sweet potato, haha) so I decided to bake them into muffins! I used walnuts instead of pecans and added chocolate chips to a few. I wish I added chocolate chips to them all, but we weren't sure we'd like the flavor combination. Overall they were tasty and a good way to use up leftovers!
Chocolate Coconut Blondies
I've featured this dessert a couple times in my past baking roundups. It's always a hit, even if the center is a bit under-cooked for Christian sometimes. I personally love the gooey center, so he gets all the edge pieces, ha ha.
Honey Lemon Cake
I've been wanting to make this cake since I saw Elizabeth make it on Ranch to Table. Christian loves honey and lemon so I figured this would be a perfect treat for him. This first go around wasn't the best, the butter didn't cooperate when I was whipping it, I assumed because the eggs weren't fully at room temp yet. I continued on anyway and the cake came out a little gummy. The flavor was there though! After my (sort of) fail I re-watched the segment on Discovery+ and her butter/egg combo looked the same as mine so maybe that wasn't the issue. I may not have mixed the honey in enough or mixed enough when adding the milk. Next time I'll do better, I hope!
Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
Another case of, "I have buttermilk from another recipe that I need to use." I have had this recipe saved for a while but since I don't normally have buttermilk on hand it's not something I can just whip up anytime. The recipe also uses sour cream which Christian and I HATE. But I always keep the little sour cream packets we get in our HelloFresh (get a free box!) or Blue Apron meals for this purpose. We won't use it for the meals but if I can hide it in a baked good, I'll use it.
One of my main problems with wearing flats is finding socks that don't show. The "no show" socks I currently have always cause more trouble than they're worth, they slip off my foot or parts of them still show on some of my fancier shoes. Do you ever wish you had truly invisible socks for your flats too? I was recently introduced to Flat Socks which do just that! They are like insoles for your shoes but in sock material and they're washer/dryer safe. This keeps the inside of your shoes clean and you also have sock-like protection. Their website says it all: no slip, no stink, no show and no sacrifices!
I bought a few pairs to try out, even one made of faux fur when I want to wear flats in Winter. Flat Socks come in two sizes small and large. I bought the small and was able to cut them, using their handy trim guide, to my shoe size. If your insoles come out you can also remove those and use them as a guide to get a perfect match for any pair. Et voilà ! Invisible socks for any pair of shoes!
Depending on your shoes you may have to do a bit of extra fine tuning to get the invisible socks to fit in snuggly. I had to really finesse the cuts because the shoes are fairly skinny up front. So the socks I cut for them will probably be mostly for that exact pair. I cut another pair that fit into both my Chanel ballet flats and Joie animal print loafers. So depending on your shoes you can use a single pair of flat socks for multiple flats.
Initially, I was worried about not having something over my toes but it didn't bother me that the invisible sock was only on the bottom of my foot. This is also handy if your shoes are slightly too tight when you're wearing regular socks, as some of mine are. (Hey, if a pair of shoes is on sale I can deal with a tiny bit of discomfort.) I haven't tried them with heels yet, but I imagine it will be just as nice!
Here are a couple photos showing the difference between normal "no show" socks and Flat Socks. (The back photo is both no-show socks) I despise no-show socks that only have a little bit on the toe because they never stay on and always flop back and forth. So these are the only type of no-show I own, and they obviously don't work for shoes like this or ballet flats. That's where flat socks invisible socks come in!
Sweater: Abercrombie & Fitch
Jeans: FRAME 'Le Skinny de Jeanne' (Shopbop)
Animal Print Loafer: Burberry Prorsum (Net-a-Porter)
Bag: Purple Prada Cahier in Viola (Rebag via Vestiaire Collective)
Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Emma' (Marshalls)
Jewelry c/o Aurate
*This post was made in partnership with Responsival.*
I'm a month late in posting this, but better late than never! I wore this on a very spontaneous day trip to Rhode Island for Valentine's Day. Long story short, Christian had a last minute video shoot for work in Newport so I tagged along and worked from the car while he was on location. Then we got to enjoy a nice Valentine's dinner in Newport. Only the second time in our six Valentine's Days together that we went out on the actual day. We like to avoid the crowds and higher prices, haha! The other time was our first Valentine's Day when I visited him in Missouri.
The morning started off very windy but by the afternoon it was nice and not super cold. Perfect for walking along Thames Street. We ended up having a late lunch/early dinner at Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant when Christian was done with work. Both our meals were very tasty and the inside of the restaurant was really fun! We almost ate at The Red Parrot, but since that's one of our usual spots we decided to mix it up.
Coat: Burberry Brit Wool Minstead Duffle Coat In Military Red via Marijane Boutique
Sweater: Burberry beaded owl knit (eBay)
Jeans: J Brand Maria High Rise in Purple Velvet (The RealReal)
Boots: Vince Camuto 'Davilla' (Marshalls/eBay, I have 2 pairs)
Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Erika' c/o Shopbop
(Ignore the messed up bead on my sweater, I fixed it the next day, haha!)
Today we're featuring Christian's favorite hotel - Disney's Boardwalk Villas! If he had his choice we would always stay here on our trips, but I want to stay at (almost) all the hotels before we do that. We stayed here in May 2022 by renting Disney Vacation Club points. We would have paid around $3000 ($3064.50 to be exact) for our 4 nights directly through Disney but staying with points we paid $1075. Boardwalk Villas is the DVC portion of the resort and Boardwalk Inn is the normal guest rooms. The DVC rooms have a washer/dryer, sleeper sofa (hopefully a Murphy bed after renovations) and small kitchen whereas normal rooms have 2 beds and no kitchenette.
The Boardwalk is currently undergoing renovations with the Disney website stating: "Disney’s BoardWalk Inn & Villas is being refurbished, with new offerings, plus updates coming to our Guest rooms, lobby and more." This means many of these photos, and my room tour video at the bottom, will need to be updated in the future. Oh no, guess that means we'll need to stay here again, ha ha!
These upgrades are definitely a welcome change as the guest rooms are a little old feeling. The main problem we had was the sofa bed in the room was not the comfiest (we gave Christian's Mom the real bed.) Assuming Disney updates them to Murphy beds, as they have done with past refurbishments, there will be no fighting over who gets the better bed. Murphy beds are also much easier to use, no need to make the bed! I don't have any photos of the room as it was pretty basic, but make sure to check out this room tour video I did!
One thing I'm sure many people are hoping Disney won't change is the creepy Nanny Chairs. They are somewhat of an inside joke with Boardwalk guests as they're said to be haunted! Nanny Chairs were found on carousels for adults, usually nannies, to sit on while children rode the carved wooden horses. While they're a little scary, it's a fun tradition to find them every trip - there are two by the fireplace in the lobby and two hidden else-wear.
Boardwalk has some great amenities which include pools, a mini beach, and of course the Boardwalk! The Boardwalk has shops, an arcade, dining, health club and even a dance hall. You're also able to rent surrey bikes to ride along the paths. They show Movies Under the Stars like the other resorts as well as roasting marshmallows! One of our favorite things to do was watch both the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT fireworks from the boardwalk. We sat on a bench and watched both shows for a relaxing last night.
By far the best thing about staying at Boardwalk Villas is it's location. You can walk to both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. The walk to Hollywood Studios is a bit longer but EPCOT's International Gateway is very close. I forgot to take photos of the walking paths so I'll be sure to do that next time and update this post. [Update: HAH! I was able to update the post before it went live because we went to Disney this past weekend] Christian and I walked to Hollywood Studios on May 4th, Star Wars Day, to avoid the hectic transportation options. If it wasn't such a popular day for HS we may have taken the super short walk to the Skyliner and ridden that over, but I enjoyed the morning walk. The Skyliner is right near the entrance of EPCOT and takes you to Hollywood Studios or the other resorts on the route. You can also take a Friendship Boat to both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios from the resort - but they take a looooong time, so don't use that if you're in a rush. Buses are available for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.
 |
| Walking to Hollywood Studios from Boardwalk Resort |
 |
| Walking path from Disney's Boardwalk to EPCOT |
On to food! We haven't eaten everywhere at this hotel yet as we had a bunch of other places we really wanted to eat at within the parks on our last trip. We did make a visit to the Boardwalk Bakery for some breakfast on one morning. Since our stay the Boardwalk Bakery closed to make way for Boardwalk Deli. It has similar offerings but the interior and exterior have been updated. We enjoyed the NJ Crumb Cake and Doodle Muffin (not always available.) I went to Disney this past weekend and we used Boardwalk as our entry way to EPCOT (we stayed off-site for a work trip) so we got to check out the new Boardwalk Deli!
 |
| March 2023 |
 |
| May 2022 |
Other dining options include Trattoria al Forno for breakfast or dinner, Big River Grille & Brewing World or the Pizza Window for a quick service lunch or dinner and Flying Fish for dinner. We were going to have breakfast at Trattoria al Forno on this
trip but we changed plans. Maybe next time! Flying Fish is a Signature Dining restaurant meaning you'll need to dress appropriately and it will be pricier than other options. In need of a snack? Check out Leaping Horse Libations, Carousel Coffee, BoardWalk Ice Cream or the Funnel Cake Cart. If you're looking for an alcoholic beverage you'll want to visit AbracadaBar or BoardWalk Joe's Marvelous Margaritas.
And don't forget about Belle Vue Lounge, a 1930s-style sitting room where you can buy lemonade, hot chocolate, coffee and cocktails. They also have an outside sitting area you can enjoy as well. No reservations needed, just walk right up. It was never crowded when we walked by. There's even a TV for the kids to enjoy.
You also have easy access to the dining options at Disney's Beach Club Resort. We have yet to stay there but walked around and enjoyed some ice cream at Beaches & Cream Soda Shop. Both resorts are connected by the same walkway that goes around Crescent Lake. You can get a beautiful view of Boardwalk from the Beach Club.
Enjoy some more photos of the hotel and lobby.
