Two Meals Out

Here are a couple of recent restaurant meals...first, lunch with my parents at Austin Terrier. We shared the trio of fries -- regular, sweet paprika, and truffle parmesan.

I had the half soup/half sandwich lunch deal. The Toro sandwich, with broccoli, mushrooms, sprouts, melted provolone, and pesto mayo, could have used a punch of flavor. The same can't be said about the tomato basil soup; it was wonderful. Big, bright flavors.

Next up, our first visit to Buenos Aires Cafe. We started with garlic and herb-marinated olives. I was surprised to see bright red olives. 

We also shared the provoleta, grilled provolone cheese with oregano. 

I had the gnocchi quartet, a sampler of four gnocchi flavors: pumpkin-cinnamon, sweet potato-chipotle, cilantro-jalapeno, and herbed potato. The pumpkin was my favorite, very autumnal. Couldn't really taste the chipotle in the sweet potato gnocchi. The cilantro-jalapeno ones had a nice amount of heat. The gnocchi were served over sauteed green beans, red peppers, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts and dressed with basil oil and parmesan. 

The chimichurri sauce was the bomb. It came with Jackson and Olivia's empanadas, but I was scooping it into my bread, my gnocchi, whatever would hold it. Love me some chimichurri.

I've already given you most of our Halloween recap, but I came across some pics of trick-or-treating at Tony's work and I thought I'd share them.

His company put a lot of effort into making it fun for the kids. Check out this sweet robot handing out candy.

Olivia really wanted to get her hair colored.

A witchy version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Happy Halloween, one last time!

Grandad's Visit

My dad was in town over the weekend. He and my mom are getting ready to become permanent residents of Texas, all the way from Detroit. He came out to do some final repairs on the house before they move in. Since my dad is really into history, we took him to Pioneer Farms, one of those places where costumed interpreters pretend they are living in the 1800's. 

Lots of old buggies and carriages. Some to be climbed on, some not.

Olivia checking out a cotton gin.

One of the interpreters, explaining old-timey cooking techniques.

Jackson and Olivia's favorite part was feeding grass to the chickens.

We saw a one-month-old donkey, awww.

Petting the mama donkey.

Because it was a hot day, Pioneer Farms was a bit of a ghost town. But sometimes it's nice to have a place all to yourselves, especially with small children, because then no one cares if they are running all over the place.

For dinner, Grandad wanted pizza, so we tried out Austin Terrier, a Boston terrier-themed restaurant. The patio is dog-friendly, of course. But Monster isn't exactly restaurant-friendly, so we left him at home.

Doggie Kiss on the wall. -- I suddenly felt inspiration for Monster's Halloween costume.

We started with a trio of fries -- sweet potato, paprika-dusted, and truffle parmesan. They were served with spicy sriracha ketchup and garlic aioli. They were all tasty, but the truffle parmesan were outstanding.

The kids' cheese pizza...which went mostly untouched! My dad ordered a pepperoni pizza for himself, and suddenly my kids were insisting that they looooove pepperoni...even though they'd never eaten it before in their lives! Ha! 

I had an apple and blue cheese salad, with dried cranberries, walnuts, and vinaigrette. It was huge, and I ate it all.

We'll be back...gotta support a restaurant that loves Bostons as much as we do! But no pepperoni, kids!