Tamarack in West Virginia

We discovered Tamarack during a web search for top places to visit in West Virginia. We were headed out on a road trip to tour the state and Tamarack was listed as a must-see in the southern city of Beckley.

Here's a description from their website: "Located in the center of the eastern United States, Beckley, West Virginia, is the home of Tamarack: The Best of West Virginia. Tamarack welcomes half a million visitors annually as a one-stop shop for West Virginia culture, heritage, handcrafts, fine art, regional cuisine and music. Tamarack is how you will see and treasure West Virginia."

We expected to arrive at Tamarack around noon, so planned to eat lunch there. The website let us know that it was cafeteria style dining, but that the chefs were top-notch. When we arrived, we were ready for lunch before we looked around. Here's what we experienced:

My meal:

• Collard Greens: perfectly flavored, cooked with bacon
• Tangy Coleslaw: no mayo in this - plenty of oil, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, and green pepper
• Dirty Rice: red rice with bits of hamburger, sausage, peppers, and corn
• Green Beans: cooked southern-style, meaning much softer than we eat them up north, and boiled with a bit of bacon or ham. Mighty tasty.

Daughter's meal: 

• Hunter Chicken: nicely roasted chicken with a chunky tomato and pepper sauce
• Mashed Potatoes: how can you make mashed potatoes better than they already are? Somehow, Tamarack chefs did - these were the best we've ever tasted, and as smooth and creamy as you can imagine.
• Creamy Coleslaw: this is the more traditional version, and the sauce was absolute perfection.

Tamarack was such an unexpected culinary pleasure. I highly recommend it to anyone who is heading to southern West Virginia. We perused the many shops after lunch, and I was thrilled to find a new cookbook for my collection: Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, and Scuppernong Wine.

Feed Blog Posts to Twitter

Some time ago, I implemented a process by which every blog post on New Ideas Welcome will feed automatically to @LoveANewIdea on Twitter. My problem is, I recently had to do this again for a different blog/Twitter account, and couldn't remember how! I also can't remember which feed tool I used for this blog, so couldn't undo this process even if I wanted to! Yikes.

Usually, when I do some technical process like this, I write a Tech Tip post, so I can remember how to do it the next time it's needed. Since I didn't do it before, I'm doing it now. Here's the process I just used when I needed to create a Blog-to-Twitter feed:

1. Visit Twitterfeed.com
2. Click on Sign Up and input requested info
3. Back on your own blog, on the right side of your top toolbar, you should see an orange RSS feed button. Click on this and the RSS feed URL should appear in the address bar (this URL will look different from your regular blog URL). Copy this address.
4. Back on Twitterfeed.com, give your feed a name of your choosing, like Personal Blog.
5. Next, paste in the RSS feed URL.
6. You'll then be given options for where you want this feed posted. Click on Twitter.
7. Authenticate your Twitter account by inputting the requested info, and click on Allow.
8. Click on Create Service, then All Done

Voila! Your new blog posts will now automatically be tweeted through your selected Twitter account. You techie, you!

PS You can also feature a feed of your recent Tweets in your blog. To do this, just go to your Layout and click on Add a Gadget. In the search box, write Twitter. Many options will appear...just pick one you like. You'll have a few customization options, like how many Tweets should appear at any time, etc. Pretty easy.

Waaay Behind on Posting

Yikes - how did I ever get soooo far behind on blogging?! Well, no excuses, but I do have some good reasons:

• Facebook: I started using Facebook several months ago, in anticipation of launching an official business Facebook Page for work. In order to create a business Page, one must first become a personal user. I did that, and WHOA! Turns out, it's pretty addictive. Part of its attraction is that it's just so quick and easy. And, it's really fun to connect with others. So, I think my attention and time quickly moved from Blogging to Facebook.
• Social Media for Work: My time has also been much taken up with managing Facebook, Twitter and a blog for work, in addition to managing 5 websites, which leaves little time for my personal applications. It's a lot to give adequate attention to all at once. There are some cool tools out there that help people manage multiple profiles, and these come in handy. But still, spending so much time on these for work means less time spent for pleasure.
• Refining Blog Focus: I've also been toying with refining the focus of my blog. "New Ideas Welcome" was my first foray into blogging, and is primarily a tool for me to learn to use the blogging platform as well as the many convenience and tracking gadgets out there. I'm thinking of keeping this blog but also creating another one, on a more focused theme. We'll see.

So, anyway, that's what's been keeping me busy. No excuses, but now you know where I've been!

Follow up note: 9/7/15...
So, I was away from my blog for a few YEARS! But, I'm discovering I'm not the only one in this boat. Once in awhile, when I just want to see what's out in the blogosphere, I just keep clicking the "Next Blog" button to see what I find. Doing this today showed me many, many blogs with no recent posts. Looks like we're all slackers once in awhile!