Pretzel Date

Recently my parents agreed to watch Jackson and Olivia for a few hours so Tony and I could have a meal together. We headed downtown to Easy Tiger, a bakery/beergarden.

Literally a wall of bread. Be still my heart.

We each had a giant pretzel. Oh carbs. How I love you.

It was nice to sit and chat with my handsome husband over a couple of beers, about exciting adult topics such as getting our air-conditioning repaired.

Afterwards, walked around and enjoyed the constantly-changing wall art around 6th St.

Aww, friendly wasabi.

We also saw this. Yard art, or hoarding? Sometimes you can't tell.

On our way home, we stopped by Capital City Bakery to pick up some blueberry cheesecake and a lemon bar.

The kids were good for Grandma and Grandad, yay! 

Vegan MoFo Day 20: Pretzels

I absolutely love soft pretzels, y'all. I don't indulge too often, but I had a jar of Hatch chili mustard that was just calling out to be paired with a chewy, salty soft pretzel, so I picked up a box of Kim & Scott's Bavarian-styles and called it lunch.

Mini-Oktoberfest!

Jackson, spending some quality time with his Zord after school.

For dinner I made Banh-Mi Noodles from More Quick-Fix Vegan. I loved this linguine with all the flavors of a banh mi sandwich: tofu, cucumbers, cilantro, sriracha sauce. 

As I type this, my kids and dog are tangled together on the couch, so I had to move over to the loveseat. Love my little pretzels.

Three Meals Out

Just gonna be lazy here and roll three restaurant meals into one post.

1. Pecan Street Brewing in Johnson City. We stopped here with my parents on the way home from a visit to Fredericksburg. Jackson and Olivia were a fan of the coloring books and lunchbox full of crayons, which kept them occupied until the food came.

I ordered the Pomegranate Salad with greens, almonds, cranberries, red onions, and goat cheese, with pomegranate vinaigrette. I couldn't ask for much more in a salad and the pomegranate was an original choice.

Because I can't live on salad alone, I ordered the day's special appetizer, a giant soft pretzel with honey mustard. It was the perfect companion to my salad.

2. Weekend lunch at Casa Chapala, which has a nice selection of vegetarian offerings. I ordered the Grilled Portobello Mushroom Tacos because they're not something I can get everywhere. The mushrooms were soft but not mushy, and nicely seasoned. I also enjoyed the side of calabacitas (sauteed zucchini and summer squash.)

Remind me never to order another Casa Chapala at 1 p.m.  Lightweight Mama was useless for the next couple of hours.

3. Thai Cuisine, a perennial lunch-with-Daddy favorite because it is A. near Tony's work and B. has a soup/salad/appetizer bar to tide you over while you wait for your entree. The bar usually includes veggie eggrolls, but not this time. That caused a moment of sadness, but the spring rolls with peanut sauce helped fill the void.

I had the Thai Ginger, with tofu, mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers, and of course a ton of ginger, thinly sliced into little slivers. A terrific lunch as always.

While in Fredericksburg, we were led by small hands into a toy store that had a child-size drum set assembled in the entryway. You know what happened next.

Rock!

10 Years

Tony and I recently celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. Since the actual date fell on a weeknight, we just relaxed at home with Jackson and Olivia and did some reminiscing about the past decade-plus (we've been together 12 years total.)  We were practically babies when we met. And now look at us, so mature. Ha!

After being married for this long, Tony knows what makes me happy...

 And it seems I know him pretty well, too...

I got him a Himalayan salt lamp, seen here being cradled like a precious, tiny baby. He was just a little excited about his present. Supposedly, these lamps help with allergies. They also look really cool.

Because my husband is actually Hank Hill, I also got him a smoker for the grill. How romantic! We will try it out soon.

When the weekend arrived, we got a sitter and went out. First we dined at Fino, a fancy tapas restaurant. We started out with some cocktails. I don't recall what was in mine, but it was lemony and refreshing.

For an appetizer we had a plate of marcona almonds, manchego cheese, olives and pickles.

Next we had muhumarra and pita bread. I made my own muhumarra not too long ago, and Fino's tasted really similar. It's a dip made with walnuts, red bell pepper, and pomegranate syrup. Yum. The pita was incredible. It was served hot, and it was super light and puffy. I love it when restaurants take the time to make their own pita bread.

After finishing off the dip, Tony had a bowl of gazpacho. I loooooove gazpacho when it's hot out and tomatoes are in season. Fino's was excellent.

I had a fattoush salad, with lettuce, red onion, cherry tomatoes, big chunks of cucumber, and croutons made from toasted pita. The za'atar dressing made it unique and memorable. If you haven't tried za'atar spice blend, I recommend seeking it out. I'm not sure how to describe the flavor -- kind of tangy and savory I guess. It's made from dried sumac and sesame seeds.

So that was our dinner...we could have easily stayed longer and eaten more, but we wanted a change of scenery before heading home. On our way out, I noticed this awesome metal coffee table/black and white rug combination on Fino's patio. I don't know what I'm currently more obsessed with -- Moroccan decor or chevrons.

Our second destination was Easy Tiger, a bakery/beer garden in downtown Austin. There, we drank some beers and shared a ginormous pretzel. Oh, how I love a good crusty, chewy pretzel.

A lovely evening with my love. Hopefully many more of these to come.

Chill Weekend

We had a nice weekend. Lots of food was cooked, lots of relaxing occurred.

It didn't get off to the best start, however.  On Friday morning, Tony headed out the front door to go to work, and discovered he had a flat tire. No fun!

Luckily, our children are skilled mechanics, so he was on the road shortly.

For Friday lunch, the kids and I snacked on Sabra hummus, pita chips and carrots. I'm only mentioning this meal because...did you see Elise's adventures at the Sabra factory? I'm so jealous! I love Sabra. I can't wait for their new flavors to come out.

For dinner, I made nachos with PPK cashew queso. I topped them with red onion, purple bell pepper, olives, scallions, tomato, jalapenos, and chipotle salsa. Yum!

I made a modified version for Jackson and Olivia with queso, tomato and olives.

 On Saturday, I attended a baby shower for a friend who is due next month. I made a few treats for the shower.

Zucchini oatmeal cookie pies -- just like those Little Debbie oatmeal pies sold in gas stations, except way better! 

Soft pretzel bites  -- This was my first time making soft pretzels, and I thought they turned out all right, but not amazing. I didn't make the cheese dipping sauce. Instead, I served them with mustard. They would probably be better with a cheese sauce.

I also made some fresh guacamole.

There was so much good food at the shower. I wasn't super hungry at dinnertime, but I wanted to eat something healthy to counterbalance all the sweets I'd consumed earlier! So I made a quick chickpea and kale curry. Perfect.

On Sunday, Olivia announced that she is ready to start wearing her new underwear and using the potty every time. I have been working with her for a couple of months, but she has still been wearing diapers until now. We are so proud of our big girl for making this decision!

For Sunday dinner, I made the Curry Laksa from Appetite for Reduction. I actually have Anthony Bourdain to thank for bringing this delicious meal about. On a recent episode of No Reservations, he was eating this dish while visiting Panang, Malaysia. My husband kept oohing and aahing and saying how much he wished he could be eating that. I said, "I think I have a recipe somewhere..."

I love Asian food when it's hot outside. All the veggies keep it nice and light, and the heat makes you sweat and cools you off. I think I will make pho next week.

How was your weekend? Hope you had a good one!

Pecan Street Festival

Every May (and September), Austin holds its Pecan Street Festival downtown. 6th Street (which used to be called Pecan Street, hence the name of the festival) is closed to traffic and filled with artists' booths.  

Before heading downtown, we ate lunch at the wonderful Curry in Hurry. Yes, that is the correct name. Maybe they were in such a hurry, they left out the "a"? It doesn't matter. The food is awesome. In my opinion, it's the best Indian food in Austin. Curry in Hurry (fun to say, fun to type) is located in an unassuming little strip mall, next to an Indian grocer and a BBQ place. You go in and point to what you want, or you can get a daily special plate that includes a little bit of almost everything.

Clockwise from top: excellent chickpeas in a tomato sauce...spring roll...tamarind dipping sauce...awesome curry with green beans, peppers, and chunks of paneer cheese...bread...the best vegetable rice...square of fudge. This pic is making me hungry for this plate of food all over again.

I selected this basil seed drink from the cooler, unsure what to expect. Imagine you are drinking a glass of honey with tiny seeds in it. The honey is ever so slightly watered down...but not much. That's how thick and viscous this stuff was. I guess it's an acquired taste. Basil seeds are supposed to aid digestion and help you feel full, similar to chia seeds I guess. Whatever. We passed it around and tried to finish it, but did not succeed.

Off to the festival! We took the commuter train downtown. This was Jackson and Olivia's first time riding the train. Mine, too.

Jackson lives for trains. He wants to ride the train everywhere now. I had to explain to him that it only goes downtown. Not to the supermarket or the playground. Although, that would be nice.

I was impressed with the train. It was clean and comfortable. For all of us, the total cost to ride was $4 round-trip. Good luck finding parking downtown for that cheap. And of course you're also saving gas and wear on your car.

The festival was packed!

It always feels strange to be on 6th St. during the daytime. So wholesome!

Well, you get the idea. We only stayed about an hour because it was hot and Jackson kept asking to ride the train again.

I went grocery shopping after we got home. Never grocery shop when you're hungry. If you do, this ends up looking like a great dinner idea.

All the food groups represented...oh, wait. 

Have a great weekend!