As far as I'm concerned tortilla chips should be their own food group. They're a staple of my diet. For me, every day is National Tortilla Chip Day! I go grocery shopping about once every other week or so. Every time I go I buy a bag of tortilla chips. I have my favorite brand and I never stray from them. On a few occasions I've tried a different brand, I wound up grabbing my favorites on the next trip. I eat the suckers with a sandwich for lunch nearly every day. Most evenings I snack on some, usually with some [...]

The Margarita is one of the more popular cocktails in the US. It's so popular, Jimmy Buffett wrote a song about it. Calling "Margaritaville" a "song" is selling it short. That song launched Buffett to super-stardom and spawned a nation of crazed followers called "Parrotheads"! Anyway, back to the beverage, where's the best Margarita in Mankato? There are several stories and bartenders claiming to have created the first margarita. Most go with this account; Legend has it that in 1938 Carlos "Danny" Herrera was working at his restaurant called "Rancho La Gloria" south of Tijuana in Baja California when a beautiful [...]

Time keeps ticking and the years pass by. Sooner or later, often dependant on well or not we took care of ourselves, age catches up with us. At some point, we all must face the end. The end of doing that thing we love. It wasn't a surprise to me to hear that Ozzy Osbourne canceled his 2020 "No More Tours 2" shows. Even "The Great And Powerful Oz" has succumbed to health issues and old age. Ozzy hasn't been right for a while. He's been in and out of the hospital for the last couple of years. In October 2018, [...]

One of the consistent things about living in a desert is the weather. With plenty of days of sunshine and low humidity, winter wasn't that tough in my former home in western Colorado. I wasn't a big hiker before I arrived in Grand Junction. But as they say, "when in Rome" and there hiking is a way of life so I got myself a good pair of hiking shoes and got after it. With the Colorado River rolling through town and the Colorado National Monument on the city outskirts, there were literally dozens of trails within a few miles of my [...]

A couple of months ago I posed the question. "When will the snow pile at Madison and Victory be gone"? Since then the snow mountain has grown in size. I get that it's likely not as big as it's been in years past but it's of considerable size. It's been the topic of conversation with a few friends from back home too. I try and describe the amount of snow on the ground and the size of some of the snow piles, they usually ask "When do you think those things will melt?" As more snowstorms hit Mankato and the parking [...]

I've always liked wine but I can't say I've always been a "wine guy." It wasn't until I moved to western Colorado did I learn to really appreciate the stuff. How about you? Are you a fan and will you be celebrating "National Drink Wine Day" Tuesday, February 18th? Where I lived in Grand Junction, in the Grand Valley and the area around Palisade, Colorado is second only to the Napa Valley in wine production. Nearly 100 wineries in the region crank out some of the world's best wine. Western Colorado's low humidity, cool nights and warm days ensure the right [...]

It's this Sunday. The biggest day in NASCAR and the 62ed running of "The Great American Race", The Daytona 500! Since we're stuck in the deep freeze that is southern Minnesota and not in Florida, where's the best place to watch the race? The Daytona 500 is 500-miles of the most intense racing in all of motorsports. The high banking of the Daytona International Speedway in Dayton Beach Flordia hosts NASCAR's "Super Bowl" every year and kicks off the season. At speeds of over 200 mph, where the throttle is held to the floor nearly the entire race, mayhem comes with the [...]

For most guys, Valentine's Day is one of the worst holidays. It's not the day we don't like, it's the gift-giving that gives us trouble. The reason we here at KXLP came up with the "Valentine's Day Bail Out" was we figured that if we pulled together four or five gifts for the prize package, you couldn't go wrong and there's bound to be something in there she's going to love. Congrats to our winner by the way! Since most of us don't have the budget to give four or five gifts, we're stuck trying to pick out the right one. [...]

We're coming up on some of the coldest weather so far this season. I understand it got pretty darn cold around here the last few days of January 2019. From what I've been told it was downright miserable as the region was in the grips of a "Winter Vortex." During the last week of January a year ago, Mankato hit -26 on that Tuesday night, which tied the record low, and the following night the thermometer bottomed out at -30. Those were the actual air temperatures! Factor in the wind and it felt like -57! Even those temps failed to break [...]

As touring becomes the way most bands make money these days, more are hitting the road. It's good news for live music fans but requires planning and management of your money. Here's an updated list of shows over the next few months so you can do exactly that. Pick the ones you really want to see and gameplan accordingly. If you're thinking about a fun thing for Valentine's Day, a trip to the Treasure Island Resort & Casino might be appealing. Bret Michaels is playing there that evening. Click HERE for ticket info.  Big Head & The Monsters are in the [...]