Double Dose Whipper Snapper

I'm in trouble now that there is a Hey Cupcake just down the street from where I live. Now how about setting up a Mighty Cone next door?

Re-Visit

Facebook seems to have replaced my blogging. But I miss writing, so I'm going to try to ramp up over here.

In February, we celebrated Patrick's last birthday of his twenties by sending him off with a couple of our guy friends to play some golf while I attended a baby shower. Lots of golf balls were lost and lots of onesies were unwrapped. We then headed down to New Braunfels for dinner at The Gristmill and a Bob Schneider show at the historic Gruene Hall. And as excited as I was to finally get to see a show there, I don't know if I'll ever go back. I guess I'm spoiled by Austin's no smoking laws.

Early in March, after hearing some horribly sad news about a friend, a couple friends and I decided to take a self defense course. I had always wanted to learn how to defend myself in case something should happen, but it wasn't until Sabrina's death that I finally took the step to doing so, she was my catalyst. I still can't imagine what her close friends, family and husband went through and are still dealing with. I didn't take the class just for myself, but also in her honor.

From R.A.D.

Because of some crazy coincedence, we got to spend the last two weekends in March with my sister and her boyfriend Hagan. They came down here for a wedding and then a few days later, we went up to New York to celebrate our niece's 2nd birthday. That's probably the most time I've spent with Rachael since I lived in Arlington! I really enjoyed it and I'm loving that our relationship has grown into friendship instead of just being familial.

We got a behind-the-scenes tour of Food Network courtesy of Rachael, watched our good friend Emily knock a plant over, spied on Guy Fieri preparing for a taping, and ate some of the best food at Tom Colicchio's Halfsteak at Craftsteak. Lots of wine, food and catching up seems to make up most of our time in The City.

From New York Trip - Food Network

Our good friends Brandi and Chris, trekked down to the Big Apple with their one year old in tow to meet us while we were on their side of the country. Pizza, subway rides, bagels and dinosaurs later, we had to bid farewell. It was so good to see them and I'm hoping that another two years don't pass before it happens again.

From New York Trip - Brandi, Chris & Austin

The last day we were in New York, we got to dancey dance with our niece Sophie, a few of her best two year old friends and a bunch of their respective adults. We ate sweet-and-salty cupcakes that I am still craving and laughed at the the adorableness that are two year olds.

From New York Trip - Sophie's Birthday

I hope that I get to see more of our New York families and friends in the near future. Patrick and I do have a 5-10 year plan to have everyone living here in Austin. Just so you know!

Hook 'em!

The Golden Hat

What an exciting game! Go Horns!!

Patrick and I got together with some friends for an at-home-version of UT vs OU Weekend. It was a fried food bonanza, highlighted by mimosas (since it was an 11am kickoff) and beer. Fried Pickles, Fried Plaintains, Hot 'n Crunchy Fried Chicken, Fried Okra, Fried Grilled Cheese, Fried Snickers...and despite my body punishing me the rest of the day, all was so yummy! I think this was one of the first times we went to Alamo Drafthouse and only ordered a couple of waters and sodas...we needed a break from all the alcohol and fried goodness.

Happy 4th of July! (a week later)

Our 4th of July consisted of Big Love, Californication, lots of walking to Auditorium Shores, throwing some bones with friends, eating fried chicken, lusting after all the puppies in the park, watching fireworks while listening to the Austin Symphony play 1812, and laughing at Patrick returning to the group with a large pink plastic coconut drink. Yay for days off of work!

Back in the ATX

Had lots of fun in L.A. but always good to come home to an amazing husband and two cuddly kitties. Will post a summary of the trip along with some visuals soon, but in the meantime wanted to share some exciting news....

Noooooo....not that.

Tiff's Treats will soon be in North Austin and available to deliver in the area!!! This makes me way too happy. And very reminiscent.

It's been awhile...

It's been over two months since I've written a post. And a lot of things have happened since April, so I'm going to continue my bullet style of last time in no particular order

• We flew to South Carolina to attend Patrick's cousin's wedding and got to hang out with a lot of family, eat some amazing food, and drink a lot of Newcastle. I definitely want to go back when we have more time to see more than the hotel room and visit the fam out there. Patrick's cousins are amazing people and I would love to spend more time with them and their kids since we rarely see them.
• For Mothers Day, Patrick and I trekked up to Arlington to spend it with both sets of parents, Laura, Eric & Sophie and some of my extended family. We got to surprise Mamaw (my Mom's mom, the last grandparent for both Patrick and me) with a homemade Trifle, assembled in our hotel room.
• We did not see the Maxwell/Scott clan in a hotel room for a third weekend in a row.
• Patrick got a promotion! He's now the Operations Manager, the #2 guy in Austin for his company. So, needless to say, he's been working crazy long hours.
• My 19 year old cat Lily passed away about a week ago. She lived a very long, good life and will be missed.

Rachael and Lily cuddling quite a few years ago

• After Lily's passing, and some begging from Rachael, Hagan and Rachael adopted an adorable kitten. Meet Professor Pork Chop! (Now Chloe and Calliope have a cat cousin!)

Professor Pork Chop

• To celebrate my birthday next Monday, I'm heading out to the West coast to visit Courtney. A week long vacation and I can't wait! It will be so nice to get away for awhile, but I'll definitely be missing Patrick while I'm gone. Although, I'm sure he'll be fine playing a bit of Madden and enjoying some golf.

(Both photos stolen from my Sister)

Absence, Update & A Plug

I guess I had a lot to say in February and the beginning of March. But I feel like I've been incredibly busy over the past three weeks and haven't had much time to write. So, since I last wrote:

• Patrick and I have become obsessed/addicted to trying new wines and finding local vendors that sell our favorite Texas wines, thanks to the Hill Country Wine Trail. And now looking foward to the Austin Wine Festival!
• I traveled up to DFW metro to have some much needed girl time with both Amy and Courtney. And got to see Courtney's great-niece!
  
• Easter came and went and for the first time since I was a kid, Patrick and I dyed eggs!
• Our little niece Sophie turned the ripe old age of 1 year old, and apparently has grown teeth and visited the White House.
• The kitties became very interested in our storage closet that holds our water heater. Later, I found out we had a "visitor." After waiting a day in hopes that it would find it's own way out with no luck, I had to extract the scared little bat.

***And a plug for my sister: please visit and comment often on the FN Dish. She's the associate producer and we want her to keep that position! If you check out last week's video, you get to see Mr. Tony Bourdain rant on the Food Network - love that clip!

Zebras!

Over the course of two weekends, and driving all over the Hill Country tasting wine, Patrick and I got to see a lot of different wildlife, beautiful plants but most notably, animals you don’t normally see in urban Austin. I see a number of deer driving around the hills of west Austin, but it seems that parts of the Hill Country can pass for Africa. Yes, there are cows, calfs, and Beefmasters but we also saw havalinas, llamas, ostriches, sheep, antelope, and at one point, even zebras. As we were driving around a bend, I looked to my left, across Patrick driving, and noticed some rather large elk-like animals and the only thing I could come up within the two seconds before they went out of sight was, “Stuff over there!” Between the long day of driving and all the wine, I guess my mind was pretty useless at that point.

Winos - Part 3

The continuation of our Wine Trail experience...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Mandola Estate Winery – We had missed the two wineries in Driftwood the weekend before, so we decided to start off there on Saturday. And to our surprise, our friends Tracy and Brent also decided to start there and also follow the same route as us for the day. So, we met up with them in the tasting room and all four of us got to try out some yummy wines. Patrick and I took away their Canto Felice which was a slightly sweet blend of 5 grape varieties, which tasted so good with the Chocolate covered cranberries paired with it. I just wished we had known that Mandola also had a restaurant at the winery, we just might have to take another trip down to Driftwood to try it out.

Driftwood Vineyards – This place was up on a hill which overlooked the rows and rows of grapevines. I would’ve loved to have seen the sun setting from the porch, but since it was about 3 in the afternoon and drizzly, that wasn’t going to happen. The only wine we weren’t too fond of was one of their white. And to be honest, I can’t remember if it was the Chardonnay or the Viognier, but whichever one it was, it tasted like a combination of asparagus and feet. Not good. Their Super Texan, Lone Star Cab, Longhorn Red and Syrah were all tasty, but for something a little different, we ended up bringing home a couple bottles of their Sangria.

Texas Hills Vineyard – By the time we had arrived at Texas Hills, we had visited a number of wineries, but the person guiding us through this sampling was by far the best. And I’m sad that I didn’t write down her name for future visits. She lead us through the list, and even though we were only alotted 5 samples per person, she just kept pouring so that we got to try almost all their wines. They had 3 Cabs where each came from a different vine: a 5 year old vine, a 20 year old vine and a 22 year old vine. I was amazed at the difference 2 years make! We bought the youngest and fruitiest of the three, from the Drew Tallant Vineyard and also the Cinque Vino Rosso, another blended grape wine which has a beautiful peppery finish. Next up is to buy is their Orange Muscato… At this point, we had to say goodbye to Brent and Tracy as they headed over to Fredericksburg and we headed home with a short stop at McReynolds Vineyards.

McReynolds Vineyards – I wasn’t quite sure we had pulled up in the correct place at first. There was a dog barking at our car out front, and I didn’t see a door to enter. We were concentrating so hard on not running over the dog, we didn’t see the construction of the new wine tasting room on our right. So, the McReynolds have a temporary place until the construction is finished. We crowded in there with a few other groups and were handed a number of generous pours by Mr. McReynolds himself while munching on his wife’s homemake brownies. I was a fan of their 2004 Merlot, while Patrick really liked the 2006, so we decided to take home both.

Winos - Part 2

This is all about our second day trip through the Hill Country Wine Trail.

Sunday, February 10, 2008
Dry Comal Creek Vineyards – Patrick got the Red Flight and I got the White/Sweet Flight so that we could try 6 of their wines in addition to the sample of the Black Spanish we had. We couldn’t decide on what exactly we wanted to bring home with us, so we got a bottle of the Shiraz/Syrah and the Dry Comal Red. The Dry Comal Red is supposed to be a dual use wine – it goes great with barbecue or spicy foods as well as chocolate, so we can’t wait to put it to the test!

Comfort Cellars – We had started a little late on Sunday and after pulling up into the parking lot, we decided that we would rather just keep moving on to the other vineyards. We didn’t feel too adventurous about trying their Jalapeno Wine.

Singing Water Vineyards – This was quite a drive, but the scenery was totally worth it. This place focused on merlot the most, which isn’t usually a wine we reach for. But their Sweet Lupe (named for their dog) was wonderful and had a fruity sweetness to it that I’ve never tasted in a merlot before. We learned that MT-TH on the wine barrels mean “Medium Toast with Toasted Heads” which references how long the oak barrels have been toasted and whether the top/bottom are toasted as well.

Sister Creek Vineyards – At Sister Creek, we bought our only white wine of the weekend, the Muscat Reserve. Lightly sparkling, well balanced and I can’t wait to try it with Patrick’s cheesecake.

Winos

We headed out to the Hill Country Wine Lovers Trail which is an annual event for the two weekends around Valentine's Day. We drove from winery to winery tasting flights of wine samples and ended up with bottles to fill our new wine fridge.

After visiting all these places, it's really neat to go into Whole Foods, HEB, or Central Market and see a wine we tasted out on the trail. "Hey, we've been there!"

Here's the first installment of the reviews by day:

Day 1 - Saturday, February 9, 2008
Fredericksburg Winery – It was the first place we went and weren’t too sure what to expect. They had a Dry Pinot Noir and a Sweet Merlot which kind of confused us. We bought the Christmas Trail mulled wine that is served warm. Later, when we went to other places, wineries would kind joke about this winery… “they’re kind of ‘out there’…”

Grape Creek Vineyards – After trying all eleven of their wines, we brought home a bottle of the Black Label Bellissimo which was really brought out by the salsa they paired with it. Beautiful place, but so busy with all the tours. And I'm not sure if it was the crowd or the wine, but I started getting pretty warm at their Black Label bar.

Torre di Pietra Vineyards – This was one of our favorite places on Saturday. Very busy due to the tour buses and limos that people had rented, but they had a wide range of wines to choose from and we only got to sample about half of them. We bought a bottle of Red Flirt and would have loved to have gotten a bottle of their Tango Port, but chose not to this early into the trail. We sat outside and enjoyed a couple of sandwiches we brought and played with the friendly vineyard kitty that roamed around.

Becker Vineyards – They had so much to choose from but the Zinfindel was by far our favorite here. Beautiful grounds with a lavender field, a tiny cottage, and band on the porch fiddling away.

Woodrose Winery – After a long day of driving and wine tasting, it was nice to sit down here and be served wine restaurant-style instead of standing at a bar. They had a small blues band playing on the deck outside and when we walked out, they were playing our song: At Last by Etta James. There were a couple of wines we liked here but ended up buying the Rosé of Sangiovese for something a little different to add to our growing collection.

A Better Bag

I normally bring my own bags to grocery stores and try to refuse bags when I can just carry the item in my hands. Every once in awhile, I'll forget to bring the bags in, or buy too many groceries to fit into the bags I do bring in, or just plain forget to say "Thanks, but I don't need a bag."

As of today, Whole Foods here in Austin has discontinued offering plastic bags at checkout (they'll still offer 100% recycled paper bags.) And to kick off their campaign, I got a free reusable bag from them! Now, every time I use the bag below, or any other bag I bring in, they discount 10 cents for each bag - which is double what they used to pay!

only 99 cents after today

Hopefully some other grocery stores will follow suit (ahem....HEB, Walmart, Target....) But I think these other places are still just getting used to the idea of people bringing in their own bags. I don't know how many times I've asked the bagger to not bag things in plastic before putting the items in my own canvas bag or "No, I'm not buying that green bag, it doesn't need to go in a plastic bag."

Being a typical 12 year old kid (and because everything they do embarrasses you), I remember getting embarrassed at my mom bringing in her own bags. Now, I'm glad she did that and instilled that into my head. Now I always keep one of those fold-up bags in my purse, just in case.

Take-out

I'm not sure what the change was, but all of a sudden, Patrick and I have been eating more and more Asian food. He is finding that he likes and actually craves certain things and I'm not going to complain. Recently, we've been having Pei Wei about once a week and occasionally, I'll find a take-out container in the top of the trash can or a fortune cookie wrapper accidentally left out, only to find out he had Chinese food without me. For a girl who, for years (can you believe we've been together for 8?!), begged him to join me for some chicken lo mein or pad thai and after repeated turn downs, accepted that the only time I would get my Chinese fix was without him.

Not too long ago, on one of our Pei Wei take-out nights, we opened our fortune cookies and found this:

Besides 6 and 49 being on our next Lotto ticket, have any ideas as to what that means?

Birthday in NYC

Patrick and I spent my birthday weekend in New York feasting on tasty food and hanging out with our sisters and their respective others. We took advantage of as much free stuff as possible and while doing so got to see Dave Attell and a number of other comedians at Comedy Central Park Summerstage and Superchunk at McCaren Park Pool. We even got into the Modern Museum of Art for free!

Since Patrick and I had been to NYC a few times before, we tried to treat this trip as a little more low key than before. We didn't do as many touristy stuff and mostly just wanted to spend time with family and friends and eat and eat and eat. Eat a lot of good food. We didn't get into NYC until about midnight on Thursday night. Luckily Anytime was open and grabbed some amazing sandwiches there. On Friday, we went to eat lunch at Sea (where part of Garden State was shot) and Anna Maria's Pizza (where I ran after Eric when we saw him pass by the window) for a quick slice before the comedy show.

Sea

Rachael & Hagan took us all to a little place in the village on my birthday that had unlimited mimosa included with your meal at brunch. I thought I had 3 mimosas. I was later told that I had three full glasses, but they kept topping me off, so who knows how much I actually had. I felt pretty good the rest of the day. And since Rach doesn't want anyone else to find out about this place, it will go unnamed for now.

unlimited!

After stuffing our faces, we strolled over to have a long line greet us at Magnolia Bakery and grabbed up some of their famous cupcakes and banana pudding. Mmmmmmm...

Between Teddy's and Frank on Sunday, I think we did pretty good food wise.

Hagan & Rachael (our gracious hosts)

And in between all the eating and walking, we got to have some good times with Rachael, Hagan, Laura, Eric, Sophia, Nancy and Emily. It was nice to just hang out their places and relax for a few days. Watching Dexter, laughing because Patrick and I had so much trouble with those damn metrocards or just cooing at Sophie.

Happy Sophie

I'm sure New Yorkers don't, but I actually miss the subway. I miss not having to drive in traffic and being able to walk everywhere. And if there wasn't so much good food to be eaten, I would probably lose weight if we lived there. It would be so nice to live close to our sisters, the husband/boyfriend, and our new niece. But after hearing Hagan complain about places with no A/C, no dishwashers, high priced everything and waiting with bated breath to get down to Austin, I think I'm happy to just visit. Until next time New York!

Still on My Mind...

It probably has to do with the fact that Patrick and I have been Netflixing Six Feet Under and Ghost Hunters recently, but it still kind of makes me question my sanity. We had been away at a friend's wedding over Memorial Day weekend and upon coming home, I was putting some clean dishes away. When I opened a drawer to put up one of whisks, I saw a spatula that had been missing for weeks and weeks laying across my drawer organizer. I called to Patrick, celebrating that he had found our wonderful spatula and we can now stir things up to 500 degrees on our stove again! And he looked at me and said "What??"

Yeah, he didn't find it. And I would never put a utensil across an organizer instead of in it, where it belongs! (Just ask Patrick about folding towels, and you'll soon find out how particular I really am.)

So, who or what did this? Chloe? Calliope? Honestly, I just don't think that have that much talent in them. I mean, I love our cats, but Chloe can be kind of an idiot sometimes. What cat do you know who trips over her own feet?

But really, kinda weirded out by that whole experience.

M&Ms

Patrick and me as M&Ms

M&M yourself.

TGIF

It is five minutes till five and I'm itching to get out. Mexican martinis are waiting.

Three Days of ACL

Friday: Nickel Creek, Gnarls Barkley, Thievery Corporation, Van Morrison
Saturday: The Shins, Calexico, String Cheese Incident, Willie Nelson
Sunday: KT Tunstall, Jack Ingram, Matisyahu, Matt Costa (while standing in line for Kettle Corn), Flaming Lips, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Unfortunately, we missed Guster on Friday and had to finally make some choices between certain performers during the three days, but all in all Austin City Limits Festival made for an amazing weekend. It was hot and steamy but the music and food made up for it. Taking a dip into Barton Springs proved to be an adventure thanks to these little guys, but at least we got to cool off. Really, no worries though, they were small and easily removable. Someone tried to tell us that they were the "vegetarian kind".... right, so why were they attached to my foot? We later confirmed that, yes, all kinds are carnivorous.

I was worried that I had been building up Hudson's Hot & Crunchy Chicken Cone over the last two years, but it was just as yummy as I remembered it. And they added the Hot & Crunchy Avocado Cone to their menu, which was just as tasty. The next cookbooks on our wishlist: Cooking Fearlessly and Fired Up, because I don't think I can go another year or two without a Hot & Crunchy something.

Thievery Corp made me want to take belly-dancing lessons, Matisyahu gave a shout out to the fans on top of the port-o-potties, and how often will you get to see Van Morrison perform "Brown-Eyed Girl" (or how I sing it, Green-Eyed Girl, thanks to Amy) live? Flaming Lips definitely put on the most interesting show, complete with the lead singer rolling out like a hampster in a ball into the crowd, while confetti and oversized balloons filled the air and dancers in Santa Suits and Purple Space Age Dresses boogied on stage. All three days were great, but we agreed that Sunday's lineup was by far the best.

After Flaming Lips finished their set, we rushed to the middle to grab a spot for Tom Petty and once we were there, there was no moving till the end of the show. Those of us who realized we were without beer or had to use the facilities would just have to wait, because if you left, and even made it back to the group, you most likely would not have a place to stand. When Tom Petty finally took the stage, he brought with him the cool wind and thunderstorms that we had been expecting all day. After about 3 songs, there was a pause in the set while drums and guitars were covered with tarps and the rain poured down. The seasoned festival goers, Ben & Lauren, pulled out their rain gear as we all huddled under a couple of umbrellas and finished off our smuggled flask of bourbon to keep warm. He promised that once the rain had passed, he would give us a long set, and that he did. Even his encore consisted of 4 or 5 songs.

My feet are tired, my shoulders are a little pink (even with multiple applications of sunscreen), and neither of us got much sleep last night before having to wake up for work today. But we got to spend three days listening to some great music, eating great food, and hanging out with great friends.

Pictures to come soon...

Austin City Limits Festival

As far as I know, Patrick still hasn't picked out who he wants to see. And there are quite a few acts I can't decide between, so this ACL schedule will probably have some major alterations over the course of the weekend. You can also access it at the ACL Festival website and enter in my code: ACL221006. If you're coming to ACL this weekend, lets meet up and have a Hot & Crunchy Chicken Cone from Hudson's on the Bend and wash it down with some Sweet Leaf Tea and a side of Kettle Corn. I think I'm as excited about the food as I am about the music!

mmmmm Cookies!!

What is better than homemade, straight-from-the-oven cookies and a big glass of milk? Cookies that come to your office, still warm, in a white box with a blue bow and accompanied by individual milk cartons, that's what!!

Photo courtesy of Brandi's cell phone

I had a feeling something was up last night when Patrick went into the bedroom and shut the door to talk to our friend Chris, Brandi's husband. But he said he just wanted to talk to him about playing golf sometime soon. And then this morning, Brandi said that Chris wouldn't tell her what the call was about. Hmmmm... Why all the secretness, huh?

But this, this I never expected!! I thought they were just conspiring on how to let them play a whole day of golf together. Little sneakers.

"To Ruth Ann and Brandi and Tracy, and anyone else that you deem worthy..." Yeah, there are a few other "worthy" people, but we hoarded the rest (and decided to save a few for the givers of the cookies.)

They came at around 2:30, and the rest of the afternoon's productivity went right down the drain. And now that I've come off my sugar high, I just want to curl up for a nap. Between giggling about cookies from sweet husbands and awe-ing at pictures of our coworker's one year old twins, I can't stop smiling. :o)