Snow Day

Wow, snow drifts everywhere. We are in the middle of a major winter storm. We had at least 12 - 14 inches of snow last night and with the blowing snow lots of drifting. We closed the cafe today so I'm just going to call it a snow day. I spent about an hour trying to clean off sidewalks so hopefully will have customers tomorrow. I was suppose to get a grocery truck in today, but they cancelled and should deliver tomorrow. I though I lived in Oklahoma, but I'm starting to believe it's Colorado or Vermont!I think we should advertise ski Oklahoma, but there is only one problem--we don't have any mountains.

chased cattle

It's Super Bowl Sunday and we were out chasing cattle all afternoon! We had a good day planned, but everything went awry. We had eaten a late breakfast at the cafe and headed home. Gripey Joe decided to check the steers he has running on wheat pasture while we were driving back. Yes, we farm - run cattle- and run a cafe! Anyway, he noticed some of the cattle were out so we proceeded to wrangle them back in on foot. Well, two hours later we finally got them back in their original pasture. That was after we treaded through snow drifts, muddy creeks and lots of yelling. All this and not to mention the shock we both got from the electric fence. I headed back to the house to ,but Joe spent the rest of the afternoon fixing electric fence as well as pulling electric fence out of snow banks. He finally made it back for the Super bowl half-time,what a relaxing afternoon!

I'm Back

It's January 2011--- A year since I have last blogged - another year at the cafe-
lot more gray hair. Yes, that's right, we are on year ten. I never thought we would make a year, let alone 10 years in the business. In my personal life, I've had some highs and some lows, but that's a whole other blog! As usual, January is an extremely slow month. I think I do a great deal of catering in December just so I can pay my bills in January. If I'm still operating the cafe next year, I will close the month of January! On a positive note, our middle son Sam, his wife Courtney, and our youngest son Ben came up this weekend and put siding on the cafe. It's not done, but looks great so far. It was really nice having them home and had a great visit and especially appreciated all their hard work. I am very grateful to have the family that I do. I have a wonderful husband, three great sons, and an amazing daughter-in-law.

Besides the new siding, I layed some tile behind the bar and the front entrance. I think every little bit helps! Also, I just purchased an ice cream machine which I am excited about. I haven't moved it in yet--not even sure where we are going to put it!

One of the women that helps me went to the hospital this morning in the ambulance. A family member called and said she was fading in and out of consciousness. She is conscious now but stayed in the hospital to determine what is creating the problem. Hope everything is OK.

It has been a slow week at the cafe. I always worry about cash flow when things get slow. We had pork chops today and they are a favorite of our customers. I always soak the chops in a mixture of buttermilk with garlic salt and soy sauce in it. Then I bread it like I would a chicken fried steak. I cook them on a flat grill- Wolf brand. I really like my Wolf grill--must be forty years old or more. I also have a six burner stove with a convection oven that is a Wolf brand. We bought it used when the Red Lobster went out of business. Our special tomorrow will be hand breaded fish and Mexican on Friday which are usually our two best days. I am hoping some accounts pay in the next couple of days. I have four catering jobs that I am still hanging out on. I did mention that we cater too. It's just a means to survive in these small communities! Gripey Joe has been watching the OKC Thunder pro basketball team play San Antonio--OKC lost. We are going to watch the thunder play in Oklahoma City Saturday night and I can't wait. It will be a big night on the city, about two hours from our house in Northwest Ok.

Today I'm posting my first blog 1-9-10. Let me introduce myself. I am Susan Parks and I own a small cafe in a very small town . I bought this cafe over nine years ago with my husband Joe. When we bought the cafe it was named Anongs and we changed it to Ranch House Cafe. Over a period of time the name has expanded to Gripey Joe's Ranch House. The name is self explanatory if you ever come in the cafe as my husband has a very unique personality! In fact, we had gas company make t-shirts that feature his infamous sayings. But more about the cafe.
We serve truck stop food. By that I mean chicken fried steak, hamburgers and etc. I have always loved to cook and believe me, it gets a little overwhelming at times. I plan to use this space to give you updates on the happenings at Gripey Joes as it possibly might be good therapy for me. Also I would like to include some tips that work for me,some tips on buying food and some recipes.