Weekend Recap

My weekend plans wound up switching up a bunch as the days progressed, but it was a fantastic couple of days regardless!  On Friday night S picked up his friend K from the airport and we proceeded to have a delightful evening of talking, drinking, eating (we tried Papa Mio, which we once again walked to - loving city life!), and Rummikub. 

K crashed in the guest room and the next day, after a relaxing morning of sleeping in, we all headed out to the Mini Maker Faire, not to see the cool new technologies, but to hit up a great gathering of food trucks.  We lunched at Coreanos, which was hailed by the Smithsonian magazine as the best food truck in Texas and the 8th best food truck in America!  I tried the OG, which was a burrito filled with short ribs, a sesame oil slaw, fries, and deliciousness.  For desert I hit up the Monster PBJ truck for a sweet toasted sandwich filled with nutella, fresh strawberries and bananas, and some almond butter.  S got his favorite - the strawberry irish cream creme brulee waffle with toasted marshmallow from the Waffle Bus and K tried out a cupcake push pop from Cupcake on a Stick.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous out, so we snagged a blanket from the car and spent our afternoon picnic-ing under the sun.  It was fantastic.

That evening I whipped up a batch of the vege and quinoa "fried rice" I mentioned in Thursday's post (I added an extra 2 cups of quinoa and also some shrimp), picked up some egg rolls en route, and made my way over to B's house.  I hadn't seen her and the fam since before the holidays, so it was a fun evening of catch up, Phase 10, some good food, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and roasting mashmallows for smores around their new fire pit!

Sunday S headed to his parents house to work on his car and I tagged along.  While we were there, he accompanied me to the Antique Mall where I picked up a new addition to the house (more to come later!).  After that we lunched and then I sat around and chatted with his mom for a while.  I had big cooking plans for that evening, so I drove home and rested on the couch for a second, and then got to work.  Butternut squash and lentil soup was first on my list and it turned out REALLY good!  I also put together the start of the braised lamb and pea pasta dish that I also mentioned on Thursday.  I seared the lamb, softened/browned the pancetta, onion, celery, and carrot, and combined all of those in the crock pot with some red wine, canned diced tomatoes, fresh rosemary, and beef consomme (where on Earth does one find veal stock?!?) to cook overnight.  When I woke up this morning and transferred the lamb concoction to containers for refrigeration, it smelled heavenly and the meat was falling off the bone.  Just need to shred the meat, reduce the liquid, add the peas, and cook the pasta and my gourmet dish will be ready!

Did you do anything fun over the weekend?