Have an Incredible Weekend!!!

My weekend is going to be so busy and fun and awesome that I can barely stand it!!!  First of all, my brother D has decided to surprise me and drive out from his new home in Mississippi to visit!  On top of that, we have a birthday party to attend tonight, I'm having a girls outing to go antiquing and hunting for cowboy boots tomorrow (D will be meeting with other friends then, so I'm not abandoning him), and Sunday is just going to be a blast all on it's own.  We're going go-kart racing, strawberry picking, and then to cross a pizza and craft beer stop off of S's list.  So many wonderful people to hang out with and so much fun stuff to do - I can't wait!!!

Do you have any fun plans this weekend??

(picture from here)

Space Updates

Lots going on in the world of Space this week!  Just moments ago a Soyuz rocket carrying 2 Russian Cosmonauts and 1 US Astronaut took off for the ISS!!!  It was a night launch, and so it was really cool to watch for about the first 10 seconds and then you couldn't see anything anymore, but man are those first 10 seconds beautiful!  The really cool thing about this particular Soyuz launch is that the astronauts onboard are going to reach the ISS in a staggeringly short period of time!  A typical Soyuz will rendezvous and dock with the ISS in 2 days.  After testing out new rendezvous techniques on three unpiloted Russian Progress cargo spacecraft recently, the astronauts will now take only 6 hours and 4 orbits of the earth before they reach the ISS!  Only 6 hours - I'm seriously impressed! During their stay, these new inhabitors of the ISS will perform over 180 investigations and more than 430 investigators from around the world will be involved in the research!

Another exciting event this week was the watery splashdown of the SpaceX Dragon capsule.  This is SpaceX's second successful cargo mission to the ISS, and it was a VERY productive one.  Want to know what work NASA is accomplishing on the ISS and how it benefits humanity?  This capsule alone brought back investigations that could aid in food production during future long-duration space missions and also enhance crop production on Earth, plus ones that will help in the development of more efficient solar cells, detergents, and semiconductor-based electronics.  In addition, Dragon also brought back several research samples that will help scientist continue to examine how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflight and will produce results that can benefit medical studies for us here on Earth. 

 

And that's not even all for this week!  We also had an Atlas 5 launch on Tuesday which made for an unprecedented fourth Atlas 5 launch in four months!  The Atlas 5 was carrying a surveillance satellite into orbit for the Pentagon. It was a beautiful launch, you can see more pictures here.  

One manned launch, one unmanned launch, and unmanned ISS supply mission landing!  What an exciting week in space!

Happy Passover!

Passover (also known a Pesach) started last night at sundown.  My family in Florida was all gathered together for a seder at my cousin's house (even my parents were in town for spring break) and I was missing them all so much.  So I spent my evening whipping up some classic Passover foods that reminded me of my family.  I made my modified version of my grandma's chicken soup w/ matzo balls except the store was out of parsnips, so I just used a little extra turnip and carrot.  I decided to put a new spin on the matzo balls this year too, and tried out this recipe for saffron matzo balls.  I think I used sub par saffron (it's from a spice booth at a random farmers market) so I didn't get a ton of flavor out of it, but the golden color was just lovely.

I also put together the fixings for a slow cooker brisket, which is currently simmering away back in my kitchen while I type.  Brisket and I have a love hate relationship.  I love to eat it, but it hates to be made by me (my first try I accidentally bought a corned beef brisket - BIG MISTAKE!)  This time I accidentally opened and poured half a packet of matzo ball mix on the brisket before I realized it wasn't onion soup seasoning.  I managed to wash most of it off of the meat and vegetables, which was time consuming since all of the veges had already been cut into bite sized pieces.  So we'll see how it turns out.  If it's good, I'll give you the recipe tomorrow...

And since this is S's first year experiencing anything to do with Passover, I'm also thinking I'll have to whip up some matzo brei (yolk free for me, though) doused in sugar and syrup, just so he can try it.  It reminds me so much of my childhood with my mom and my grandma cooking it up for breakfasts, it's another one of those quintessential Passover dishes.

I'm also inspired this year to try some new passover desert recipes.  Most passover deserts are chock full of eggs.  Since we can't have leavened grains, egg is the replacement stabilizer.  So needless to say, my options are limited.  I was thinking of making the macaroons I made back in 2011 and dipping them in chocolate.  Yum.  There's always the Matzoh Crack that I linked to back in 2012.  And the new addition I've discovered this year is Greek Yogurt Chocolate Mousse. Sounds pretty good, right?  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Note: all of my new recipes are from The Shiksa in the Kitchen and she has a ton of other good ones too, check them out here.

(top image from here)

Happy Tastebuds

I had a foodie-licious weekend!  It started off on Saturday morning with my AWESOME boyfriend S making me egg-free crepes!  The batter was a bit of a trial and error type thing, the first couple turned out a bit more pancake-esque than crepe-y, but he figured it out and they were delicious!  We used nutella, strawberries, bananas, fresh lemon juice, sugar, and almond butter as our fillings.  The winners?  Nutella with banana and strawberry and the lemon and sugar with strawberries.  Strawberries were apparently our crepe super-food!

After our delicious breakfast, we headed over to the brewery, where I got to make new friends, play some "drinking Jenga" (who knew?) and Cards Against Humanity.  We went to Local Pour again afterwards (we were just there Thursday and it was quite good!), and then made our way back to my place to start planning our Germany trip.   We ended the night with a late dinner of broiled salmon, asparagus, and rice.

Sunday was the food truck festival, which was not quite what I expected, but well executed none the less.  There were HUGE lines at some of our favorite trucks, which actually wound up working out well for us as we were then pushed to try newer trucks.  We brought a picnic blanket and chairs and would have someone "holding down the fort" while the others hunted for the next delicious food truck fare.  My favorites from the day were the tortilla crusted tillapia with mango glaze and pico de gallo from St. John's Fire and the truffled fries from Bernie's Burger Bus.  The 5 hours we were there just seemed to fly by and before I knew it, we were leaving with full bellies and minor sunburns (my ears are bright red!  how did I not learn my lesson from last time?!?!?)  Sunday night we saw the Houston Symphony Orchestra play the score to West Side Story live while the movie played.  It was so seamless that at times I forgot the orchestra was even there, a fantastic experience.  We were pretty exhausted from our long day in the sun and late night, so we crashed hard when we got home.  It was a very fun and successful weekend!

Have a Fabulous Weekend!

So this is going to be a fun outdoorsy food and drink weekend for me!!!  Tomorrow I'm headed to Buffalo Bayou Brewing, a small craft brewery here in Houston, for their afternoon tour/"tasting".  They don't have AC, so we'll likely be dragging a picnic table outside and taking in some Vitamin D (will definitely wear sunscreen this time...).  And Sunday is the Haute Wheels Food Truck Festival (actually, it's Saturday too, but we're only going on Sunday) where there will be over 35 food trucks all in one place.  Some of our favorites will be there, so we're pretty psyched.  We plan on bringing blankets, chairs, and (of course) sunscreen and just picnicing out there all afternoon.  Sunday night S and I have a date to see the Houston Symphony Orchestra play the score to West Side Story live while the movie plays.  Such a fun weekend planned!

(picture from here)

So True...

I was up late Sunday celebrating St. Patty's Day, super late on Monday doing my taxes (I actually did them myself even with my rental.  It was painful, but at least I"m getting money back...), and last night watching the last 2 episodes of Dexter from season 7 and helping B make a super yummy strawberry pie.  Staying up late is so easy.  But then I'm on console this week and so I have to make sure that I get to work on time, which is just a little earlier than I usually shoot for.  The mornings have been difficult.  I swear every night that "tonight I'm going to go to bed early" and next thing I know it's 12:30 am.  Every time...

(image from here)

Sunscreen - It's Not Just For the Beach

Sorry I didn't post yesterday - it's been a busy week already.  And after my very eventful weekend, all the busy-ness seems to already neccesitate caffiene - fantastic.  As for my weekend, I went to Austin with S and our friend K for SXSW!  It wasn't a heavily planned trip.  We just kind of meandered, listened to music, ate good food, and all got horrible sunburns.  I'm usually so good about sunscreen too... We drove out Friday night after hijacking K from the airport and grabbing some dinner at Gringo's (pretty good texmex and free soft serve after dinner!) and after chatting for a bit with S's aunt (she was nice enough to put us up for the weekend) we all crashed hard. 

Sunday started off with super yummy Tacodeli breakfast tacos (The Otto was by far my favorite).  Afterwards we wound up at the park at Auditorium shores where there was a stage set up along with some food and craft/vintage booths.  I picked up an awesome teal silk jacket at one of the vintage booths and we all sipped on our new drink obsession: agua frescas.  It's just water infused with fresh fruits, but it's so freaking refreshing.  My fave was watermelon and pineapple.  After listening to a couple of bands there while lounging in the shade, we meandered over to South Congress in search of the Hey Cupcake! food truck.

There were bands playing in every open parking lot along the way and grassy lots were filled to the brim with artisan tents.  We eventually found the truck which, to my dismay, no longer carries vegan cupcakes.  The whole reason I was hunting for the truck to begin with.  Boo!  I lived vicariously through S and K and then consoled myself with some Amy's Ice Cream (Chocolate Grand Marnier - yum!).  Along our South Congress travels we saw some iconic Austin, including the phallic Austin Motel sign, the "i love you so much" graffitti, and a fantastic quote at Doc's "Skinny jeans don't make you look skinny".  Awesome.  It was at this point that we also realized that we should have applied sunscreen before leaving the house.  We weren't red yet, but all of us were just a little pink.  More walking around had us red before long.  It was the only unfortunate part of our trip.

We eventually wound up taking refuge at Kung Foo Saloon where S excitedly drank his favorite Austin brews on tap and we had fun with all of their arcade games.  I won the skeeball battle with a high score of 530!  On our way back to S's aunt's place we detoured to Whole Foods to pick up some beer for dinner (this one was incredible!).  We dined at The Salt Lick (which is BYOB) that night and ate some fantastic bbq.  It was on my Austin list, so I happily crossed that one off.  We then rolled ourselves and our full tummies back into the car and headed to S's aunt's place to crash.  The next morning I got to cross another restuarant off my list after we had brunch at Magnolia Cafe.  I didn't get to eat them (the egg thing), but I did get to smell their gingerbread pancakes.  Based on smell alone, I'd highly recommend.  After brunch we hit the road and after getting home to Houston, spent the evening at my friend R's place for a St. Patty's Day shindig complete with Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread with whiskey soaked cranberries (amazing!) and boozy shamrock shakes.  Awesome end to the weekend!

Have a Lovely Weekend

I don't know what it was about this week.  The time change maybe?  The fact that I spent last weekend staring at tons of in-bloom flowers?  Whatever it is, it really feels all of a sudden like spring is here.  This weekend I'm headed to Austin for a short SXSW trip and it's supposed to get up to a whopping 87 degrees!  Almost seems like 7 short days of spring have already given way to summer.  I sure hope not, spring in Texas is so enjoyable.  Speaking of flowers and spring in Texas, I noticed the first Indian paintbrush along the roadways on my drive home yesterday, which means it's almost bluebonnet season again too!!! 

Other weekend plans are up in the air at this point.  We had an awesome Sunday planned, but one of the plans just fell through and now they're all in limbo.  We'll see.  I'll be sure to update you on all of the awesomeness on Monday.  In the meantime, here are a few awesome links I've been obsessing over:

• Local Houstonians can get organic, local, and sustainable groceries delivered right to their home - and there's a Groupon for 50% off!  I've already snatched one up!
• Kind of obsessed with this bracelet.
• I keep stumbling across delicious sounding popsicle recipes like this, this, and this.  Definitely going to have to try a couple of them!
• Jonathan Adler has a new home goods collection with JCPenny.  The furniture is still a bit expensive, but the price points are about half of what his stuff normally costs. I'm thinking it'll go on sale eventually for even less, so I'm holding out for now.  
• The store is also branching out into other designer collaborations and I'm loving the silk blouses in the Joe Fresh line (previously only available in Canada) and the incredible patterns in the nearly sold out Duro Olowu line.
• Also, contemplating stenciling the wall behind my tv, since I'm in a rental and can't do wallpaper (not to mention it is cost and time prohibitive).  I like this chevron design and this prairie-style design.  But is stenciling still more work than it's worth?

(picture from my bluebonnet excursion last year)