Stuff Your Face at Ranchway

In Las Cruces Mexican restaurants come a dime a dozen, but one hiding near the intersection of Hadley and Valley always leaves me craving flautas. Ranchway's salsa has a bit of heat, as it should but they offer a mild as well. You won't have a waiter at this "cafe-style" restaurant, you order up front and can leave a small tip at the table for whoever cleans it. Although they have an extensive menu ranging from BBQ sandwiches to sopapilla compuestas I always order the same thing every time, the beef flauta plate. My family ate at this family owned restaurant for my last birthday, my choice of course.

Sparky's Burgers BBQ and Espresso

Lately Nate and I have been trying to have date night every Friday. We rotate who's in charge and so far it's been great! This past Friday Nate was in charge. We doubled up with our good friends Jacob and Brianna and all headed down to Hatch, NM, chile capital of the world. The reason for our trip: Sparky's. Nate had recently found out about this new BBQ place so we decided it was worth the drive. Oh boy were we right. The food was fantastic and the atmosphere was fun and clever.



This is the perfect place for a date night, family dinner, or meeting up with friends. They are also a very affordable place, which is so pleasant in today's climate. So fun. The whole place just makes you smile.



And the food, oh the food did not disappoint!



I ordered the brisket plate with pineapple slaw and fries. The meat was tender and the BBQ sauce had a smoky flavor to it. I especially loved the fries. They were seasoned wedge potato fries.



Nate, of course, ordered the Pulled Pork and Ribs plate with pineapple slaw and fries. He talked up the Pulled Pork all the way home.



I love Italian Cream Sodas so I snagged a Pomegranate flavored one. I LOVED the addition of Sprinkles, just a testament to how fun this restaurant is. Nate ordered a Strawberry shake which was equally delicious.

After dinner we caught the last game of the NMSU volleyball match. Unfortunately they lost to Florida St. but we had fun sneaking Brianna in. Great date night, Nate!

Check out Sparky's website for more details and their menu.

Easy Salsa

We know you have been on the edge of your seat this week waiting for our latest addition to our Stuff Your Face posts and you lucky duck here it is. We were playing games with my family one night and my sister-in-law brought out some delicious salsa. It was chunky but juicy, it was a little mild but addictive. When we found out she made it with a few ingredients we decided to try it out ourselves. So thanks Yvonne for this week's inspiration.


Recipe: The first thing you are going to need here is a blender. If your blender is elderly like ours you may want to chop up the ingredients a little before you throw them in. Take a quarter of an onion, half a bunch of cilantro, a spoon of minced garlic (a little more if you like to live a little), salt (to your liking), squeeze in half a lime's juices, two jalapenos (seeds will bring on the heat so deseed at least one of them if you want it more mild) and the secret ingredient: a can of whole tomatoes, that's right. I couldn't believe it either but you are going to have to trust me on this one. Throw all these ingredients in the blender and let her go. We also have quite a bit of green chile so I threw a bit of that in too for good measure. This is cheap easy salsa that tastes fresh. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Stuff Your Face: Greek Style

Greetings photography and food lovers! I have an especially delicious dose of "Stuff Your Face" for your enjoyment. In our humble town I believe we have one lone Greek restaurant. Tiffany's! I was first introduced to this restaurant this summer during my Professional Development class. We had a really fun lunch group. Thai one Tuesday, Greek the next.

This is their Gyro plate with potato salad. I believe it's 60% beef and 40% lamb, or something like.



Pure deliciousness.

Stuff Your Face: Turkey Style

One of my favorite things to do is find new recipes! I usually do this to plan my grocery lists. It's so easy to find recipes when you're hungry, they flock to you. Nate and I love burgers. They're so easy to make and oh so customizable. I had never had turkey burgers before making these. I'm really happy with the recipe. I especially love all the herbs and veggie chunks in the meat. Did you catch those juicy tomatoes? The fruits of Nate's many labors.



This is excellent potato salad, probably the best I've tried. No celery here.



The burgers are found on this food blog and the potato salad is from The Pioneer Woman. Enjoy planning your grocery lists with these sites!

New Feature of Deliciousness

We've decided to embark on a new project with this blog. From henceforth, Mondays will feature a "Stuff Your Face" post. Nate and I will feature a new recipe we've made, one of our specialty meals, or our newest restaurant experience. Get ready for some awesome food. We don't mess around with our food, this is serious stuff. Serious, delicious stuff.

Warning: This post is not for vegetarians or those attempting to pursue diets.

First up: A fairly new restaurant to our area, The Ribcage. Their motto is, "The Best D@#* Barbecue, Period!" and I'd have to whole heartedly agree.

I chose to sample the Brisket. I picked the Mac 'n' Cheese and Corn Slaw for my two sides. Nate decided on a Pulled Pork sandwich, his personal favorite thing to order at BBQ joints. The meat was tender and the sauce was perfect, not too strong and not to be messed with.

While we were eating I made the remark, "This is REAL man food." Make of that what you will. In conclusion, if you are a carnivore you'll love this place!