Category: Food & Drink

Viva amigas!

I went out to dinner tonight with a bunch of my girls.   We went to one of a kind Rainey Street in Austin – my first time there.   I had a wonderful time.  We ate at NO VA Kitchen & Bar.   The food was delicious.  Their white sangria is amazing.   The service was great.   I highly recommend it.   Afterwards we hopped around to a few other places and enjoyed sitting outside on the patio, with the sky flashing with the lightning of the cold front approaching from the northwest.

A cool light fixture above our table at NO VA:

131121

And a shot of part of their menu.   The ingredients listed for their white sangria include:  armagnac / aged rum / spiced pear / sage / vino blanco

delish!

1311211

Pizza artistry.

Friday. Yahooty!

Monte made some pizza dough and we slung a few pies while we visited with Joe tonight. It was nice to see him. Our visits with b-dock folks have been too few and far between, lately.

This was one of four perfect pizzas tonight. A thing of beauty:

20131108-202544.jpg

Election night.

Today is Election Day. This is what i elected tonight:

20131105-204510.jpg

A few dozen.

We went to the Austin Oyster Festival this afternoon.   Lots of oysters, shrimp and bloody mary’s to go round.  And tequila.

131103

Hump day.

Colleen arrived today for a visit. Tonight we cooked a delicious dinner at the house. Julie joined us. On the menu: prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe appetizer, grilled chicken, risotto Milanese, sautéed brussels sprouts and homemade lime sorbet for dessert. Oh. My.

We add wet applewood chips to the charcoal briquettes while the chicken’s on the grill, which adds a mouthwatering smoky note. Colleen called it “bacon flavored chicken.”
High praise from a bacon-o-phile. 🙂

Prosciutto & Cantaloupe Appies

These aren’t pretty, but they’re delicious.

1 ripe cantaloupe
8 oz prosciutto di Parma, sliced thin
Melon baller tool
Toothpicks

Halve and remove seeds from cantaloupe. Scoop out melon balls. Wrap with prosciutto, Skewer with toothpick.

Tada!

20131025-040730.jpg

Let the baking begin.

Fall means baking!   I made a loaf of banana bread this morning.  Yumm!

20131020-112422.jpg
I used a variation on a recipe from Monte’s America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.

Banana Bread

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
1/4 c plain yogurt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c pecans, chopped coarse and toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toast pecans on baking sheet in oven while preheating, 5-10 mins.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

In separate bowl, mash bananas with hand masher, then add yogurt, eggs, melted butter and vanilla and stir by hand to mix.

Fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with spatula until just combined.   Fold in pecans.  Turn into greased and floured 9 1/2″ loaf pan and smooth.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.  Then test for doneness with toothpick.  If still too moist inside, put back in for 5 minutes and try again.   When done, cool in pan for 5 mins and then turn out onto wire rack.

Varmits in the pantry.

I think I might have brought home the Halloween candy a bit too early…

20131020-112008.jpg

Ghost in the machine.

131011

Ok, more like, ghost “on” the machine, not “in” the machine.   But I was trying to be clever.  🙂

This is a halloweenie treat that made it home with me from a visit at Laura’s house tonight.

It’s almost time for all those little ghosts and goblins to show up in the neighborhood.   Note to self:  must put candy on my shopping list.

 

No pain, no gain.

In preparation for our next trip to the islands, monte has started practicing making Painkillers.
I’m happy to be a guinea pig. Especially on a Monday night.
Keep ’em comin’, big guy.

20131008-000044.jpg
Mmmm. I love the pineapple-y, nutmeg-y aroma.

Yumm. Brrrr.

We treated ourselves to Amy’s ice cream for dessert tonight. As we strolled through the arboretum, we could feel the chilly wind from today’s cold front.
And just like that, summer is gone.

20131006-091835.jpg

Blue-hair special.

As 5:30 rolled around tonight I got this text from Monte on my phone: “Blue hair special?” That’s what we call the hurry-up-to-beat-the-happy-hour-rush dinner run to our nearby Chuy’s. If we time it right we can be in and out of there in no time flat.

Yes, sir! I logged off and got semi-presentable in a jif. And we were off. Ah, yes, dinner and a marg, and home by 6:30. Yum!
130903
1309031

Happy Labor-free Day!

To celebrate this Monday holiday, I committed to doing absolutely nothing, for a change.  No cleaning, no shopping, no cooking, no lake time, no house projects.  So, Monte and I held down the couch as we watched the end of  all the movies on the DVR that we’d started one evening or another in the last few weeks, but hadn’t finished because I fell asleep while watching them:   Hereafter,  Mutiny on the Bounty, The Mask of Zorro, The Birds….   Whew.   We’re all caught up now.

In keeping with my do-nothing pledge, we had a plate of cold nibbles for dinner.  Cheers!

20130903-074030.jpg

Tapas, wine and catching up.

I know this is supposed to be a photoblog, but I didn’t get a photo tonight (gasp!).  Forgive me. 🙂

I met some girlfriends downtown tonight at Malaga, a tapas and wine bar.  I have gone several times when they used to be on 4th street.  But never in their new location on 2nd street.   Ok, maybe it’s not so new, i guess they moved a few years ago…. it’s been a while for me.

The tapas were delightful.  The wine was good — a Tempranillo.  And the company was great: Ann, Ireni, Laura & Lori.   We should do this more often.

Since I didn’t snap a photo tonight, I’ll leave you with an audio tidbit instead.  The speech about “sunscreen” came up in our discussion tonight.  Variously attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, but really written by Chicago tribune newspaper columnist Mary Schmich.  What sticks in my mind is this version set to music that hit the top 40 in 2000 or so, produced by Baz Luhrmann.  Lots of wisdom therein – check it out.

Celebrating a milestone.

This evening the UT Nursing School held the official pinning ceremony for the students that have passed the RN exam and are now nurses. We were honored to be Julie’s guests, to celebrate with her.

20130826-210403.jpg
Afterwards, we grabbed dinner downtown at Easy Tiger. They serve bratwurst and other sausages made in-house, and breads, pretzels, sauerkraut and cheeses that they also make themselves. It was our first time, and we really enjoyed it. I don’t remember seeing Waller Creek in this good condition. A nice place. You should check it out next time you’re near 6th Street.

20130826-210737.jpg

20130826-210918.jpg