When I was a kid my parents’ church had Halloween parties every year. Believe it or not, they used to do things like this in the South.
I recall that one year I went to the church Halloween party as the devil.
Here are my very own hellhounds from this year:
Daphne the jester…
Phoebe the witch…
And Joey the pirate…
I head out to NYC on business until Thursday night.
technorati tags: halloween, greyhounds, costumes, dogs
We had friends over on Saturday night to carve pumpkins. Here are the finished masterpieces:
Yep, that’s Paul Stanley on the left.
technorati tags: halloween
I just checked my stats and someone from Scottsdale, Arizona found my blog by using the search string “sharing my wife.”
I’m not sure what to make of that.
So my husband introduced me to the blogging meme of naming the last 10 songs played on your iPod. I like to keep mine on the big shuffle, and I currently have about 6,000 songs on my iPod. So here they are for today:
I have never liked sweet potatoes or yams. I have tried them a variety of ways, including every year at Thanksgiving, but could never get into them.
Tonight I found a way to prepare them that matches my palette: It’s all in the toppings. Instead of going the sweet or bland route, we topped baked yams with hatch green chiles, a small amount of butter, sea salt, pepper, and chile powder.
This is a great way to spice up this super food, which also promotes heart health.
Apparently I’m a sock person. I hardly ever buy socks anymore. It’s gotten to the point that the majority of my socks were gifts.
These are my tan dog socks. They were a gift from my brother- and sister-in-law.
Maybe on some other Tuesday you’ll see my other dog socks.
Over the last several weeks I’ve become increasingly aware of the amount of stuff we throw away at lunch: plastic forks, paper bags, food wrappers — all which end up in a landfill. Also, how much of this is made with recycled goods? Probably not much at all.
I am also the lucky heiress of some hereditary cholesterol problems, meaning that almost anything I eat that is not salad will raise my cholesterol. So eating out often is really stupid, since I’m sure that cooking techniques sneak some saturated fat into things I think are healthy.
So even though I work downtown among some of the best restaurants in Austin, I value a long life in a healthy environment over doing what seems easiest. I went on the hunt for a cool lunchbox that would force me to do the right thing. What I found was Obentec, a company that makes bento-style lunchboxes that contain all reusable parts, including containers and silverware.
I opted for the Laptop Lunch System, which has everything I needed to get started. It even contains a book that speaks to eating healthy and buying products to minimize the impact of lunch on the environment, including getting away from single-serving containers. The book is geared largely to families with children but I still found it to contain information anyone can use.
Today was my first day using the new lunchbox. On today’s menu:
This took me all of 20 minutes to prepare. It was the perfect amount of food, as the system works to control portions by not allowing extra space to pack in junk.
technorati tags: food, environment, dining, working, health
Saturday night we had tickets with some friends to see Karl Denson at La Zona Rosa. We had all seen Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe at Austin City Limits Music Festival a couple of years back and all became fans of his music. Besides, Austin has very few jazz acts come through each year, so if you’re a jazz fan you really don’t want to pass up opportunities to see live jazz.
Two years ago the four of us had seen Stanton Moore with Nicholas Payton, and before the show we stumbled upon Ranch 616, which is a short walk from La Zona Rosa. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience then, and we decided to go back last night.
Ranch 616 takes reservations, a great thing for a weekend night. We arrived early and were promptly seated. My husband and I ordered a round of Mexican beers, which were served with tiny glasses with what looked like art from prayer candles. On the next round, our friend had to have one as well since it was so fun to drink from these glasses.
For starters, we ordered the Camarones Rellenos, which is shrimp wrapped in bacon with cheese and peppers and lightly grilled. Four come to a plate, but they are large shrimp and this is actually plenty of food. Next came a round of homemade biscuits, which I believe were cooked in butter. These are very heavy biscuits, but also some of the best I’ve ever tasted.
Most of us ordered items from their specials. I had the Hawaiian snapper, a meaty piece of fish that was rubbed with fresh chopped garlic and grilled. This was one of the best pieces of fish I’ve ever eaten. It was flaky but also very tender, and had a nice light flavor without any fishiness. It was served with mashed potatoes that were infused with some sort of pepper, making them spicy and a nice compliment to the fish. The entree also came with fresh green beans that had been sauteed with shaved summer squash, and a crab cake. It was a lot of food but I found myself eating most of it.
My husband ordered the grilled mahi mahi from the specials menu, and also thoroughly enjoyed his. This was a fillet of mahi mahi that topped two seafood and sour cream enchiladas… very tasty.
We split the grasshopper pie, which had a creme de menthe and vanilla liqueur ice cream base with an Oreo crust. It was served with fresh strawberries and drizzled with chocolate sauce. The pie was definitely big enough for two people. Despite the alcohol infusion, this pie was light and an easy cap to a great meal.
The wait staff was top notch and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
We arrived at La Zona Rosa about 8:45 for a show that was supposed to start at 9 pm. The Karl Denson Trio didn’t come on until well after 10 pm. The show was good but by the time he came on the meal and alcohol from dinner had started to weigh on me and I was pretty tired. But nevertheless Karl Denson didn’t disappoint and the crowd really enjoyed the show.
technorati tags: austin, restaurants, music, food, dining
