The rain put the kaibash on our grilling plans. So we hit happy hour tonight at our local sushi place, instead. Nom nom!!
Category: Food & Drink
Unos momentos desde mi Cinco de Mayo.
Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo. Before I forget, I want to post this shot that I took yesterday. I took it with my waterproof camera from the kayak, so I wasn’t able to upload it until today. This is Nirvana and Sapphire at anchor. Pretty boats.
Today I paddled completely around Arky South cove. I enjoy paddling. But I like, even more, cruising along the shore for found objects. Today’s haul: 4 plastic bobbers, 1 popper jig, 1 croppie tube jig, and 2 nice docklines with spliced loops.
Then we pulled up the anchor and sailed for several hours. We sailed along with Kalliopi (with Nick and his kids on-board) for a while. Then we turned around and caught a glimpse of Lori, Joe, Wally and Kelly on Camelot, with her newly raised 150 whomper jib. I think Lori’s getting serious now, ever since Nirvana beat Camelot in a beer can a couple weeks ago. 🙂
On the way home, we saw this guy riding along 620. Amazing. It appears to be direct drive, no evidence of a chain. And, I have no idea how he stops / dismounts this thing – that front tire is about 5′ in diameter.
And, now back home, we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Julie. Salud!
Happy happy joy joy.
It’s pizza night! These are the works of art from tonight’s installment. Rachel and Julie were the pizza artistes. Monte’s homemade crusts, of course. The top left one is margherita with tomatoes, mozzarella, home grown basil and olive oil (instead of red sauce). Top right is tomato sauce, prosciutto, onion, basil, red pepper, olive and goat cheese. Bottom left and right are varying amounts of prosciutto, mushroom, olive, onion, red pepper and mozz.
Yum – life is good !
‘Tis Tuesday.
We have another niece visiting us this week. Rachel and Monte went out to the lake and sailed for a few hours. Then Julie and I joined them about 4 o’clock. We sailed around for a couple more hours. Then got a great table at the Oasis. And surprisingly enjoyed the appies that we ordered. The view of sunset was awesome, as usual. Very, very nice!
A Saturday drive.
For the last 15 years, Becker Vineyards has had a Lavender Festival. Its been one of the things on my todo list. This year, i put it on my calendar several months ago, so I wouldn’t miss it. And, it worked! Today we headed out for a long drive through the hill country, in the miata with the top down. And we had a really great day…
We walked out through the lavender fields. They have several different varieties. It didn’t look quite like I had expected – i was imagining endless rows of deep purple, like in Provence. But it was pretty, nonetheless.
They also grow their own artichokes. I have never seen them in the wild before!
We walked through the vendor booths. Lots of lavender goodies, flowers, herbs, nibblies and such. 
Then one more walk through the fields, this shot is looking back at the winery.
We packed a light lunch and ate it at the festival while sipping wine and listening to the Raggedy Cats (we really enjoyed them).
Then a winery tour. Lots of new factoids. Becker has been here 20 years or so, and in that time, they’ve increased the amount of their wine that they make from grapes grown at the winery to 85%. The rest come from Lubbock.
Can’t wait for the Fredericksburg peach harvest!
On the way home we decided to dodge the brewing thunderstorms and buzzed over to Der Lindenbaum in Fredericksburg for some German home cooked food for dinner.
The festival is open tomorrow, too. Get out there if you can, this year or next!
Dinner time.
Ok. This post is not for vegetarians. Look away. Now!
Tonight Julie brought home a couple of magnificent ribeye steaks. From now on, Julie is the official steak shopper. 😉
These babies were an inch and a half thick!
They turned out perfect. We also whipped up some delicious sides: sauted zucchini and yellow squash, roasted mushrooms, and corn casserole. A Thursday feast!
On another topic… Monte just made this great tray / carry-all out of some cypress that he recently acquired. Tonight it carried in herbs for the feast.
Yummy!!!
Wok wonderful.
Whew! That was a crazy week! I’m glad it is Friday.
Julie made beef and veggie stir fry tonight. What a great meal. And colorful, too.
Garbage-pail pasta.
We had a storm blow through this afternoon. Had to jockey cars to put them all under cover. There were reports of baseball-sized hail. But none made it here. For dinner tonight we dug through the fridge and made pasta with whatever looked like it would be good: onions, garlic, mushrooms, asparagus, leftover grilled chicken, some white wine, broth and parmesan cheese. We used Buitoni fresh linguini for the noodles.
Delicious!
Hippity hop.
The Easter Bunny just left. Happy Easter!
Thursday postscript.
Almost Friday… woo hoo! Tonight monte made a lovely seafood risotto. Ginormous gulf shrimp. Bay scallops. Cod fillet. All stirred into the sumptuous yumminess of risotto. Here’s a peek:
No, not “that” Chuy’s.
I had a treat today, in more ways than one.
– I had a real “lunch break,” which rarely happens.
– And I went out to lunch, which never happens.
– AND I went to lunch with some colleagues that I met over the phone and worked with round the clock during the crit-sit-from-hell that I complained about in several posts in the last month or two. Today we met the first time in person. We all work in Austin, but in different groups.
– And, the icing on the cake, was that the place they picked is a most awesome bakery teeming with fantastic breads and sweet things. Panaderia Chuy is a small, but very busy, Mexican bakery at the intersection of Ohlen Rd and US 183 access road in North Austin.
I really enjoyed meeting this group of people from work. I’m so glad they took the initiative to get us together. I have been working at the end of a phone for so long lately, having a face-to-face experience is a rare but welcome one. And the bakery is a gem of a find. Ok. So, it only took me 17 years to run across it, but I will definitely be back. Many times.
Here’s a few items from my first sampling…the bolillos were crispy on the outside and heavenly on the inside. The marranitos (little gingerbread-like pastry in the shape of a pig) was perfect. And the orejas (puff pastry-ish ear / heart shaped pastries) took me back about 30 years to when I lived in Spain. They also have churros, and their own ice cream and tons of other goodies.
When you come in, pick up a large metal cookie sheet and set of tongs from the stack in the middle of the room and then load up as you walk from one display case to another.
They also have a kitchen and eating area for eating in.
Check them out.
Spring!
Today at about 6 AM central time, Spring arrived in Central Texas. But Winter didn’t sneak away quietly. Approximately 3 hours before that we were all woken up abruptly by the terrific racket of hail pelting the roof – the leading edge of one last Winter coldfront was passing over the house. Unfortunately, the cars were out in the driveway. By the time we were up and about it was too late to go out and move them. Luckily it was only about 1/4″ to 1/2″ and didn’t damage the cars. That was exciting.
In keeping with my life-view that everything happens for a reason… as Julie and I were groggily standing at the sliding glass door watching the hail fall on the back patio, she said, “Hey, isn’t that Monte’s laptop?” Sure enough, it was sitting on the table outside the door. I guess he left it there on his way in from the shop the night before. We were able to grab it and bring it inside before it got drenched by the rain that started to fall a few minutes later. Funny, eh?
Anyway, I should have snapped a shot of the hail, but I wasn’t quite awake enough at the time to think to do that. So, i’ll leave you with this picture of tonight’s selection. Cheers to Spring!
Blogoversary #3 (+11 days).
Ack! I have not been paying attention, but on March 8th, I completed year 3 of sheila365.com’s photoblog! The first year I faithfully posted a photo-a-day (March 8, 2010 – 2011). The second and third years were not daily, but close to it. And after all this time, I still look forward to posting. But, I enjoy much more looking back on my own posts from time to time to remember the moments I captured.
I am amazed and happy to report that I have 180 followers (thank you!) and I have amassed nearly 15,000 visits, and 1100+ comments. This aint the New York Times, but it is my very own soapbox to share an interesting thought or two. I’m glad you are all here to share them with.
In keeping with past years, here is a collage of the moments I’ve shared from year 3 of sheila365.com…
Birthday claws.
We went out for monte’s birthday-eve dinner tonight, because we will be on the boat tomorrow night. Birthday boy’s choice: stone crab at truluck’s. yum!
And dessert!
Sheila365 