Red Poppy Fest

Here's an outing that I never got around to posting, back in April. Time flies, my goodness. The Red Poppy Festival is held in Georgetown each spring.  We strolled around with my parents.

I like downtown Georgetown.

 It has an old-timey town square with cool buildings.

We stopped to look at the arts and crafts booths. The ones where the artists were demonstrating their work were the most interesting.

But the real reason we go is all the free inflatable rides for the kids. 

After they bounced and jumped to their heart's content, we had lunch at Chuy's. I ordered my usual, veggie enchilada with giant salad. They were out of enchilada sauce, so I was able to sub a guacamole soft taco.

Patio cat!

Mucho Tex-Mex

After some initial qualms about returning to veganism, in particularly the difficulty of doing so when surrounded by a Tex-Mex loving, omnivorous family, I'm happy to report it's going really well. Much easier than I thought. And that includes Tex-Mex. Because we do eat a lot of it.

If frozen margaritas weren't vegan, I would be so screwed though.

At Polvo's, the Michoacan salad, loaded with huge chunks of ripe avocado.

Chipotle sofritas bowl, and a good book.

A birthday lunch at Chuy's for Olivia, who turned 5.

Guacamole soft tacos. The rice is also vegan. The refritos I'm not sure about, because I don't eat them anyway.

Cheers to vegan Tex-Mex!

11 Years

Tony and I celebrated our 11th anniversary with dinner for two at Corazon. Our actual anniversary occurred during Tony's trip to Japan. When he returned, I was more than ready for a child-free night out. I love the kiddos but two weeks of solo parenting duty was a lot to handle. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the parents who do it every day!

We started off with chips and dark, roasted salsa.

Fancy guacamole sprinkled with cotija cheese.

I'm loving sangria swirls this summer. This one was super strong!

Potato-corn sope with wild mushrooms. A sope is a savory cake, in this case made from cornmeal and potato. It was topped with a light, spongy goat cheese custard and sauteed mushrooms, and dressed with tamarind sauce, crema, and tomatillo salsa. I loved this mix of textures and flavors, especially the sweet and sour tamarind sauce. Not your typical Tex-Mex ingredient.

Basking in the glow of our love and 105 degree heat!

Super Bowl & Urban Vegan Tester #15

Happy Monday, amigos y amigas. Did you watch the Super Bowl last night? I don't really follow football, but somehow I always end up watching the Super Bowl.  There's always the $3 million dollar commercials to keep me entertained...What did those of you not from Michigan think of the Eminem Chrysler ad? It made me proud of my hometown! What was your favorite commercial? Were you cheering for a certain team to win? Did you even watch the game?

Of course the Super Bowl means beer...or in Tony's case, homemade picklebacks...

And, perhaps most importantly, the Super Bowl means food. My contributions this year included: Shamefully Simple Chickpea Chili, an Urban Vegan tester recipe that is so easy and fast, yet tastes like it has been cooking for a couple of hours. Salsa verde gives it quite a kick.

I also fixed some vegan Rotel queso...

And guac...

I feel silly posting a guac recipe because it's so basic and everyone has their own taste, but here is mine.

Super Bowl...of Guacamole
2 avocados
2 Tbsp. cilantro, minced
2 Tbsp. red onion, minced
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
Mash together in a bowl and serve with tortilla chips.

Today I'm just trying to get the energy to face the week. Tony is working a lot of overtime which means long days for me and the kiddos. And of course we're supposed to get more snow tonight!

Hope YOU have a great week, see you tomorrow!