2014 Swimsuit Obsession

I'm not sure why, but I've been completely obsessed this summer with getting a new swimsuit.  I don't really need one, I have two perfectly good one piece swimsuits that I already love.  But I've been craving a new one (and a new cover-up too for that matter).  I've been able to convince myself not to get one up until this point because it wasn't worth spending over $100 on something I don't need.  But now the end of summer sales are here and the suits I've been obsessing over are on super sale!  I think the gingham one piece above is my favorite, but it's also the priciest of the group at $67.  The red suit is on sale at j.crew right now for 25% off of the sale price ($60), and the lemon printed halter suit from Ann Taylor comes in at a low $34 with the current 40% off sale items promotion.  What do you think?  Those are some pretty appealing prices for a little swim splurge....

Weekend Celebration in Austin!

My good friend H is getting married this fall and so I drove her out to Austin this weekend to meet up with 8 of her other close friends for a bachelorette party weekend!  We both took Friday off of work and hit the road late morning to miss the usual weekend traffic.  We arrived in the Austin area around 1 and picked up one of the bridesmaids from the airport before heading over to Hopdoddy's for a fantastic burger lunch (delicious burgers!!!)  We dropped our stuff off at our house rental for the weekend and then made another airport run followed by an ever so important liquor store stop.  I picked up some Maurin Quina, a french cherry, almond, and quinine liqueur that went out of production in 1906 and has only just recently started up production again.  It is famous for the green devil painting that graces its label.  I definitely didn't need it, but I'm excited to try making some new and unique cocktails!  We spent the rest of the evening at the rental house waiting for the rest of the girls to arrive, eating delicious tex mex (stuffed avocado's from Trudy's - yum!), and sipping on wine and margaritas.

The following morning I woke up a bit early and started preparing breakfast for all of the other girls.  The menu consisted of scrambled eggs (and egg whites), Trader Joe's almond croissants, and a huge fruit salad.  We all spent the morning nibbling on breakfast and getting ready (10 girls and only 2 bathrooms...) and then a mini bus came to pick us up at 11:30 to take us on our day long outing.  We started off at Salt Lick Barbecue for lunch!  It's definitely a classic Austin stop and they have some fantastic barbecue and sides.  We ordered our lunch family style and between all of us managed to polish off 3.5 lbs of meat, 2 quarts of sides, and 3 rather large deserts!  After lunch we went on a wine tour in the Austin hill country.  We made 2 stops and tasted a multitude of wines.  On the way back we played Cads About Matrimony, a wedding themed version of Cards Against Humanity that had us all cracking up!  After a quick nap and a change of clothes, we started our evening at Barlata, a tapas restaurant right around the corner from our rental house that had an extensive preset menu filled with seafood (garlic shrimp, mussels, and ceviche) as well as a bevy of other delicious dishes (sausage, salad, and lamb) followed by a 2nd course (I had the tuna served on warm lentil salad with avocado.  I never would have paired it myself, but it was quite tasty) and then deserts which unfortunately were all eggy-licious.  It's ok, I was stuffed on all of the wonderful dishes from the first 2 courses!  After dinner we were all a little exhausted from our long day of eating and wine tasting so we headed back to the rental for more Cads About Matrimony (and some more wine too....).

Sunday we loaded up my car with everyone's luggage as we had to clear out of the rental by 10:30 am and then we went out for brunch at another place near our rental (we were very centrally located!) called Olivia, which had huge beautiful windows that I was obsessed with and a varied and tasty brunch menu.  After brunch people gradually started drifting off for their trips home.  Eight of us made our way to the Austin Hot Sauce Festival, which was definitely fun, spicy, and unique.  But it was also about 100 degrees outside and we were all just baking in the sun and sweating profusely the entire time.  We only made it for about an hour before we had to beeline for the airconditioned car.  A few more people headed out and the six of us remaining went on a little tour of Austin that I tried to somewhat direct.  We saw the capital building, the bars on sixth street, the topless protesters on the corner of 6th and Congress Ave who just wanted women to have the same rights to bare nipples that men get.....  it was quite the tour!  We ended on South Congress Ave, which is my favorite quirky area of town for some antique shopping, ice cream, and iconic Austin imagery.    At this point the last of the ladies had to leave to catch their flight and the bride to be and I drove back to Houston.

All of the gals I got to meet are intelligent and creative career and scholastic achievement minded women which made for amazing conversation all weekend.  And thanks to a total of 5 hours spent in the car, I got to bond even more with the bride (we were both talking for the entire trip there and back!).  Add that to fun activities, quirky Texas-style party favors, and delicious food and drink and it made for a truly delightful weekend!

Ginger Pineapple Stir Fry

 

Last week I whipped up this super yummy ginger pineapple stir fry for dinner, chock full of chicken, veggies, and cashews and TONS of flavor.  We were big fans, so I figured I'd share the recipe!  I based my recipe heavily on this recipe, but changed up a few things that I feel work better (omitting peppers, adding onion, and cutting back on the sesame oil, which I feel has too strong of a flavor).  It would also work great with any other vegetables like mushrooms, broccoli, and snap peas, other meats like beef, shrimp, or pork, and you could sub mango in for the pineapple too!  This meal cooks up quickly, so be sure to have all of your ingredients chopped and ready to go when you heat up your pan.

Ginger Pineapple Stir Fry 

 Part 1: The Sauce

• 1 cup Tamari soy sauce
• 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon Sambal chili paste (optional)
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic grated

In a tall tupperware (one you can grip easily) or large measuring cup combine the ingredients for the sauce. You want to make sure you can easily grab and pour once you start assembling the stir fry.  Whisk together the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, pineapple juice, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sambal, honey, sesame seeds, ginger and garlic. This will make twice as much sauce as you need, so if you want to put half of it aside before you get started, it will help moderate how much sauce you use.

Part 2: The Stir Fry

• vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup raw cashews
• 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 7-8 baby bok choy, halved
• 1 zucchini, cut into quarters lengthwise and sliced
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1 small to medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup fresh pineapple diced
• 1/2 of sauce recipe 
• brown rice
• chopped green onion for garnish

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and once hot add the cashews along. Cook 1-2 minutes or until the cashews are lightly toasted.  Add 1/4 cup of the sauce and let cook for a bit longer until cashews have caramelized. Remove the cashews to a large bowl or tupperware.
2. Return the skillet to the heat and add another tablespoon of vegetable oil. Once hot add the chicken. Stir fry the chicken for 5-8 minutes or until cooked through. Add about a half cup of the stir fry sauce and bring it to a boil, cook until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken. Slide the chicken out of the skillet and into same bowl/tupperware as cashews.
3. Return the skillet to the heat and add another tablespoon of vegetable oil. Once hot add the baby bok choy and sear on one side for 2-3 minutes. Flip and let the other side get a bit of sear as well (1-2 minutes)  Drizzle with a little sauce (1/4 to 1/2 cup) and remove from the skillet and set with the chicken. 
4. Add a little more vegetable oil to the pan and then the onion, carrots and zucchini (if you have a smaller skillet, cook in smaller batches to prevent overcrowding). Stir fry the veggies for 5-6 minutes until browned and slightly softened and then add the pineapple. Add a little of the sauce (about 1/2 cup) and cook until the sauce thickens and coats the veggies and the pineapple is beginning to caramelize, about 3 minutes.  Add to the cashew/chicken bowl and mix all of the meat and vegetables together.
5. Place some brown rice in a bowl and top with the stir fry mixture. Sprinkle with green onions and serve!  Enjoy!

A Very Foodie Weekend

I think that nearly all of my weekend revolved around food in some way, and it was awesome!  On Friday night I went out for happy hour to Tommy's Seafood and Steakhouse, where I tried raw oysters for the second time and liked them for the first - it's all about the preparation which B was kind enough to teach me!  Then our group headed over to Don Pico's for a second happy hour ($2.50 margaritas!), chips and salsa, and some real food to soak up all of that alcohol.  And we ended the night at Sherlock's Pub where we drank beers and ciders and played darts and pool (my team lost both...) and just had fun in general!  I haven't been out for that long in ages and while it was a great time, it's also further enforced the fact that I'm getting old!

On Saturday I got an oil change and alignment check on my car and then met up with my friends from Friday night again in town at the Specs in Midtown for Specs Fest.  It was chock full of free samples of booze, wine, beer, cheese, boozy ice cream (genius!), and other non-alcoholic beverages.  By the end B and V said they had reached their cheese limit, which I completely don't comprehend.  I was admittedly getting full, but like ice cream, there is always room for more cheese!  After stocking up on some of our new culinary and alcohol based finds, I split off and went on a foodie shopping spree!  My first stop was Trader Joe's where I filled my cart with 10 bottles of wine, a 6-pack of beer, a bunch of frozen goods, and of course popcorn (see my cart above).  While I'm sure plenty of people stock up on cheap wine at TJ's all the time, I did feel like a bit of a lush...  After TJ's I moseyed on over to Central Market and went hog wild!  I bought a lot of fresh produce, 2 bags of freshly roasted hatch chili peppers, lamb shoulder, bagels, smoked lox, and big container of my new obsession: castelvetrano olives!  I've NEVER liked olives before I but I will willingly eat these straight out of the container.  That night I had a bagel with lox and fresh green beans for dinner while I watched old movies and had a batch of heirloom tomatoes (see top picture) slow roasting in the oven for 3 hours.

On Sunday I spent my morning hanging the rest of the artwork around the house.  I had no idea what I was going to do with my vintage stained glass window, but S suggested resting it along our slanted window in the bar room and now I'm obsessed!  It's so pretty to walk in there in the morning and see the sun streaming through the colored glass!  After that I headed into town to meet up with my Aunt B, who is a recent Houston transplant!  We had lunch at Local Foods (I had a bagel and lox sandwich again, apparently I'm craving old school jewish deli-style food...) and then I took her on a driving tour of the city.  While I'm a total Houston convert and I love the city, it's fun seeing it through the eyes of someone new to the area and gaining an appreciation for new bits you hadn't noticed before!  After our tour, I headed home and whipped up a sausage, sweet potato, and zucchini lasagna.  I added actual lasagna noodles to mine to give it more heft but otherwise stayed pretty true to the recipe.  Flavors were great, but the zucchini still had some bite to it after it was all cooked, so maybe I'll parcook the zucchini a bit next time.  I'd also love trying to make this sauce with butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes next time.  S got home from his long weekend bachelor party trip to New Orleans just before the dinner was ready and although I had enjoyed my tasty and productive weekend, it felt a little lonely in the house without him and it was so good to have him home!

After dinner on Sunday, I started preparation for Monday's dinner, as it was an involved meal that I'd been wanting to try.  I had to wear sunglasses to protect my eyes from tearing up while slicing up one pound of shallots to make a shallot marmalade (delicious!) and I browned the lamb pieces that I'd purchased at Central Market and sauteed some onion slices before packing it all away into the fridge.  On Monday morning I tossed the lamb into the crock pot with some spices and broth (I followed this recipe) and let it slow cook all day.  When I got home I poured the liquid out of the crock pot and let it reduce on the stove and then tossed in some golden raisins and castelvetrano olives into the meat with the reduced mixture and let it all meld for a bit while I prepared the rest of the meal.  I used some of the reduced sauce mixture plus a cup of chicken broth and 2 cups of water to cook up some bulgar wheat for our grain and mixed in some chopped cilantro after it was cooked.  I also made some cumin lime roasted carrots for our side.  It was definitely not an easy meal to make, but the results were phenomenal!  I served it all with the lamb placed on top of a bed of bulgar wheat and then topped with a few tablespoons of the shallot jam.  The carrots were served on the side sprinkled with green onion and fresh mint.  If you want a meal that impresses, this is it!  It also makes a lot of food.  Between this and the sweet potato lasagna, leftovers have taken over our fridge!

Have a Fun Weekend!

It's been a semi-busy week over here, but nothing super strenuous.  As you already know, I spent all evening on Monday whipping up delicious carrot and ricotta ravioli.  A bunch of people from our bowling league team couldn't make the game on Thursday, so we all pre-bowled together on Tuesday instead and I DID AWESOME!  I scored over 150 for all three games, which is pretty much unheard of for me and I was so stoked!  Wednesday I vacuumed the whole house, whipped up a super tasty chicken pineapple stir fry (more on that next week) and helped S prepare for a friend's bachelor party this weekend. And yesterday, after a failed attempt to get an oil change (the garage was getting ready to close when I arrived) I did nothing but polish off a new book (A Discovery of Witches), which was fun and oh so satisfying. I haven't finished (or started for that matter) reading a book in months and I really enjoyed getting lost in the story.  The second book of the trilogy should be arriving at the house today and I definitely plan to gorge on some more fun reading this weekend!

My other weekend plans include going out for happy hour after work today with B, finally getting that oil change on my car, finish hanging all of the remaining artwork, make a run into town for groceries at Central Market and Trader Joe's, meeting up with my aunt for lunch, and doing some cooking!  It sounds like a lot when I list it all out like that, but in reality  my weekend is actually pretty open and I'm looking forward to having some free time to just chill out and do things leisurely at my own pace.

In other news, this week Space Center Houston, the visitor center here at JSC, just mounted their shuttle replica on top of the huge Boeing 747 that was used to ferry the real space shuttle orbiters over the course of the shuttle program.  While I do scoff at the "fake" shuttle, I have to admit, having it mounted on the 747 is a pretty impressive display that people will not be able to see anywhere else.  So if you're in the Houston area, I highly recommend a visit to Space Center Houston to see this very cool monument to a program that I will always think of as the best job of my life...

Carrot, Shallot, and Ricotta Ravioli with Homemade Pesto

I love tortellini and ravioli, but I rarely get to eat them anymore because the dough (and frequently the filling) is almost always made with egg.   I did find a yolk-free version back when I was in Chicago last February, but that was in an Italian specialty store.  It's just not common for fresh pastas to be made yolk-free and so therefore I abstain from this delightful carbo-liscious treat.  But I've discovered a way around it!  I'm not going to lie, it's a little labor intensive as you basically have to fold each individual ravioli/dumpling separately as opposed to using sheets of pasta and a dough cutter.  But this filling is insane and you have to make these just so you can eat consume this carrot, shallot, and ricotta goodness!  I also whipped up a homemade pesto, but I just eyeballed it so I don't have a recipe to share for the sauce.  But here is a pesto recipe from Ina Garten, who hasn't steered me wrong yet, or you could just buy a jar of pesto from the store, because after stuffing 40 some ravioli, you'll be ready for a break...  but remember, the filling makes these SO worth it!

Carrot, Shallot, and Ricotta Ravioli (based off of this recipe)
Makes about 40 Ravioli

Ingredients

4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (3/4 pound)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoon minced shallot
2 tablespoon heavy cream
heaping 1/2 cup firmly packed ricotta cheese
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 large egg yolk (or 3 quail egg yolks, as I did with my version)

1 package of frozen wonton or dumpling wrappers*

Directions

1. Set frozen wonton wrappers on the counter top and let thaw for 1-2 hours before starting.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a baking dish, toss the carrots with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, until tender. Then remove the foil and turn on the broiler.  Broil for 3-4 minutes to lightly brown the carrots. Let cool slightly.
3. In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add the shallot and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 3 minutes.
4. In a food processor, combine the carrots, shallot/butter combo and cream and puree until smooth. Transfer the puree to a bowl. Stir in the ricotta, Parmigiano and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the egg yolk. 
5. Remove a wonton wrapper from the stack and place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center.  Take some water and very slightly dampen the edge of half of the wonton wrapper.  Fold the other edge over so it meets the dampened edge and press together firmly with your fingers.  Try to make sure that there are no air bubbles remaining in the center of the wrapper and that the entire edge is sealed.  Use a fork to push into the edges of the newly formed ravioli to ensure that they were completely sealed.  Set aside on a tray under a damp paper towel.  Repeat with remaining wrappers.
6. Boil a large pot of heavily salted water.  Once it reaches a rolling boil, drop the ravioli into the pot.  Don't overcrowd the pasta - I wound up cooking mine in 2 batches.  Let cook for about 3 minutes until the dough has puffed a bit and the ravioli are floating.  Drain and serve!

 

I served my ravioli mixed up with some homemade basil pesto and a heaping pile of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  These would also be delicious if you heated some butter in a skilled and lightly pan fried the ravioli and then topped with remaining browned butter, fresh grated cheese, and some parsley.  And remember, the filling totally makes these worth all of the work - it is delicious!!!

*I get my wonton wrappers in the frozen section at my local Asian market.  They have a huge selection and some do have egg yolks in them, so read the ingredients if you're concerned about this. 

Artwork Has Been Hung!

As predicted on Friday, we did indeed sleep in both days this weekend and it was GLORIOUS!  After our fun night out on Friday (good food, company, bubble tea, beer, and cars), we were total bums on Saturday morning.  We were awake by 8 am, but we had breakfast in bed and then proceeded to read (books! we read actual books!) and chat in bed until 1:00 in the afternoon!  We haven't done that in ages and it felt so good!  After getting up, we were majorly productive.  I finished organizing in the guest room and managed to actually get the guest bed set up and the furniture arranged.  It's a real, functional bedroom now and ready for its first guest next month!

This picture was taken after the bed was set up, but before my stacks of artwork found their way back into this room.  By the end of the day, the top of the bed was completely camouflaged with frames and paintings again.  But I was too exhausted from lifting boxes and furniture to do anything about it then, so we took a break and headed to the grocery store to stock up on tasty food for the weekend.  When we got back it was fairly late (7:15ish) and I was just starting our dinner of honey soy salmon (I broiled mine instead of pan frying) and roasted okra with fish sauce vinaigrette (inspired by this momofuku recipe).  I have to say, that fish sauce vinaigrette is INSANELY delicious and I highly recommend pouring it over any and all roasted vegetables from here on out!  However, the okra took at least an hour to roast in order to get rid of the slimy-ness and get the edges super crispy, so I do not recommend this recipe if you are starting your meal later in the evening.  We didn't eat until around 9 and by the time we were finished eating and then doing the dishes, I was exhausted.

On Sunday we slept in again, though not quite as late.  We had breakfast in bed and then I think we were up and about around 11ish.  I immediately headed out on some errands while S worked on cleaning out his desk and adding my piles of office supplies to his.  My first stop was Joseph's Nursery where I bought a Persian Lime and a Meyer Lemon plant!!  They will eventually be planted in prettier pots and flanking the front door similar to how they are in the picture above.  The nursery was great, they had so many different varieties of citrus trees and most of them already had fruit growing on them.  Such good prices too - I highly recommend!  I would love to go back and get a satsuma orange tree, blood orange tree, and grapefruit tree too, but S wisely recommended that we see if I can keep these 2 little trees I already purchased alive before I risk the lives of more...  After the nursery I swung by the Asian food market to stock up on weird vegetables, quail eggs, fish sauce, and dumpling wrappers and then headed home.  My mission the rest of the afternoon?  Hanging up artwork!

You can see in the first picture of this blog post that I hung some quirky pieces of art above my jewelry station in our bedroom.  I also started on a grouping of pieces in the living room, although it's not complete yet, and I've finished my decorating extravaganza off by hanging the rest of the art in our new "gallery" hallway.  We've had blank halls since S bought the house, so it's a little weird for us to see artwork gracing the walls now, but the pops of color really do bring that space to life now.  I lost track of time again while hanging all of the art and didn't start on dinner again until about 7:30 - whoops!  Our dinner was loosely based off of this recipe for miso butter green beans, but I just mixed the miso butter directly with the beans and skipped the poached egg in favor of a seared strip steak topped with miso butter sauteed mushrooms and shallots. Miso butter is one of my new favorite condiments, we've used it on corn on the cob too with delicious results.  Luckily none of this took nearly as long to cook as the okra from the previous night, so we stayed up for a while after our meal sipping red wine and binging on Season 3 of Downton Abbey.  Somehow we had a combination of both an extremely relaxing and simultaneously extremely productive weekend!

Have a Lovely Weekend!

After the craziness of the last few weekends, we're finally taking some time to relax!  We're going out tonight to Union Kitchen for their Houston Restaurant Weeks menu with a group of friends (let the month long foodie fest begin!) and then to a car meet up that S has requested to ogle some sports cars.  Tomorrow we have no plans!  We're definitely going to sleep in, that is a given for both days this weekend.  I have also recently been alerted to a nearby plant nursery that has a huge selection of fruit and citrus trees and I'm thinking I may need to take a trip over there as well since I've been wanting to finally get some citrus and avocado trees for the yard!  Sunday we currently don't have anything planned yet either, but my aunt is moving to Houston from Chicago this week and so we may spend the afternoon showing her around town, and swing by Trader Joe's to stock up on wine and frozen foods while we're in the area.  It's also Hatch Chili season and so a trip Central Market may be in the cards too... like I said, it's a month long foodie fest!  Other than those tentative plans, we are just going to chill out and probably do some more organizing around the house.  The prospect of getting rid of the mountains of boxes is quite exciting too!

(picture from here)

Things are Shaping Up!

In more ways than one!  This past weekend we were uber productive!  S had Friday off of work and I took a half day off and we got everything staged in the garage for our massive garage sale that weekend.  We set up tables, priced and grouped everything, put out signs, got change, bought bottled water and soda to sell, advertised on craigslist, etc. 

On Saturday we got up bright and early at 6:30 am, ate a quick avocado and egg sandwich to shore up our energy, and then got to work getting everything in the garage and the house out onto the driveway, all while fending off the early birds that kept sneaking into the garage and nosing through our stuff when we weren't looking (no, that motorcycle is NOT for sale, go away and come back at 8:00....).  We had a LOT of stuff! The morning from then on was a flurry of activity and we wound up selling about 75% of our stuff by noon!  The entire morning was busy and hectic, but we were grateful that the weather was so accommodating (cloudy, 80 degrees, no rain!) and that all of our stuff seemed to be selling so well!  By the end of the sale we only had one car trunk-full of other random leftovers that we immediately took over to Goodwill to donate and one set of big furniture left (a bedroom set).

We posted the leftover bedroom set on Craigslist that night and it was sold by 2pm on Sunday afternoon!  Everything we needed to clear out was officially gone at that point!!  We spent the rest of Sunday organizing and cleaning all of the other parts of the house that we'd neglected while getting ready for the garage sale (dirty dishes, huge pile of cans and bottles that needed to go to the recycling center, and general tidying up) and then proceeded to actually start to organize and unpack the mounds of stuff from my move last month!  All of my gift wrapping supplies and art supplies are now stowed away in the new IKEA wardrobes and there is actually visible floor space in the guest room!  We still have a ways to go, but just being able to make a dent in the piles feels SO good!

Now that the major time commitment of moving all of my stuff and having the garage sale is out of the way, we're finally taking some time to a) relax, b) exercise, and c) go out and have fun again.  Yesterday we did a p90x X-stretch video to warm our bodies up and we plan to start exercising more regularly again now in addition to continuing to eat healthy.  We're anxious to take time to start reading books again too (we're both normally voracious readers, but we never had time when we were constantly driving back and forth between my place and S's house) and to get back into our hobbies like art (me) and working with cars (S).  S is finally going to teach me to drive stick shift too!

Aside from me planning to cook more now, August is also the month of Houston Restaurant Weeks, so we're looking forward to heading into town and trying out some new restaurants with the restaurant weeks deals too.  So far our top contenders are Caracol, Sonoma Wine Bar, The Union Kitchen, and White Oak Kitchen, but none of those are set in stone.  Looking forward to some tasty food (and a new exercise routing to work off said tasty food) this month!

(picture from here)