Camping Near Morraine State Park

I'm finally getting around to posting about our adventures in camping...from last weekend! We had a great time camping near Morraine State Park {not inside the park because of rules} at Rose Point Park, which is just a 10-minute dive away from the state park {And one of the few places open for camping in April*}.

Near the entrance to Rose Point is a close bridge, made of metal and concrete. We stopped to look at the architecture of it and take photos of it's gorgeous rust.

Check out more photos after the jump!

Camping!

 Husband and I are celebrating the long weekend by camping out!

See y'all on Sunday afternoon!

End Of July, Beginning of August

So, it's been a while since I last updated with a real post. Well, a week and a half at least. I've got a LOT to update!

As I mentioned in my last post, I bought Giada De Laurentiis' pasta & coffee from Target while it was on sale. I've tried both, and am prepared to give a review. I used the farfalle in my creamy saffron & shrimp recipe, and it turned out very nicely. I had read reviews that her pasta was going to be gummy and not a good toothsome pasta, but I didn't find that at all. It made a lovely addition because the saffron sauce clung to the ridges in the farfalle, something you wouldn't normally get with your generic bow tie pasta.

Also, her coffee isn't bad. We got the Extra Bold coffee, and even though it's already ground (I prefer whole bean coffee), it made a decent cup of joe.

This past weekend I decided I wanted to go camping. It was my first free weekend, and I wanted to use it for a vacation. So, I researched State Parks, and with Michael's suggestion, chose Tyler State Park. I had heard they had a bunch of rain the week before, so I thought it would be so hot there in the Piney Woods region of Texas. I thought wrong. It was still 98 degrees by the time the sun went down and had been down for hours. We got there, and pitched out tent with the remaining daylight.


Michael went into town because I had forgotten to pack the lantern, and we needed light to prepare dinner. While he was gone I got spooked because I was all alone in the dark. I took a field trip to the lighted bathrooms, and when Michael returned we drove back to the campsite. While I was gone, a raccoon broke into the cooler and ate all of our chocolate and started in on the onions and pepper. I think they went back to the chocolate. :) Anyway, I didn't sleep well that night (lay awake in the heat), and woke Michael up at 4am. He was fine with that.

We drove into Tyler, and waited for the Starbucks and donut shops to open. After getting an iced dirty soy chai latte(!), we got a few donuts and started to drive around Tyler, sipping and eating our treats. We watched the sun rise over downtown Tyler, and scouted out some antique/vintage stores to look at later. We drove by the famous Rose Gardens, which were obviously not at their peak. Still pretty, though.

Then we drove to Kilgore and went to the East Texas Oil Museum. (http://www.easttexasoilmuseum.com/)
It was fascinating! Michael, of course, is now in the oil and gas industry, so he hears about this stuff all day long. I, however, am reading books (The Big Rich by Bryan Burroughs - such an interesting read!) and trying to actively learn about Texas involvement in the beginning of the oil and natural gas boom.
I learned a lot and bought a t-shirt. It was a super interesting museum and I would recommend it to anyone traveling or in the area.

We drove back to Tyler and went to the place we had decided on for lunch - Stanley's Famous Pit Bar-B-Q!
Michael had heard nothing but amazing things about this barbecue place. He works with a few people that are from Tyler as well as people who do business in Tyler, and they all said he had to try it. They're only open from 7-10 and 11-2pm, Monday through Saturday. That's it. Or, until they run out of food. In fact, when we got in line, the first thing the pit master said was, "They're in luck. We still have some left." We got there at 11:02am.

As I always do at barbecue places, I ordered ribs. Michael ordered the 4-meat plate with sausage, pulled pork, smoked turkey and brisket. We had every meat represented. I even remembered to take pictures!
It was all very good, but entirely too sweet for me.

They used brown sugar in their rub and sauce. Obviously, Sweet-Tooth-Michael loved it to bits. I like a more smokey, vinegary, peppery sauce. The rub I could care less about, as long as it has some spice and color. I want some singed pieces! Anyway, it was good, but it still doesn't beat a Baker's rib.

Later we shopped around downtown Tyler in their antique & vintage stores. We looked at a lot of interesting stuff, and I only let myself come away with one item: a brass owl.

We drove back to Dallas with smiles on our faces, and we will definitely be giving Tyler State park and the Piney Woods another shot this fall, winter or spring. Gorgeous!


On Monday, I started a new job with the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in their Tobacco Prevention unit. I'll be doing public relations, promotions and city council advocacy for the GDCADA anti-tobacco coalition. I've only been there a week, but I've been really enjoying getting to know the awesome people at The Council. I'll write more on this later.


I'm hoping tonight we will get to go see Inception. I've been hearing a ton about it, and I finally have a free evening to go see it.

Tomorrow morning, I want to go to the Four Season's Market in Addison. It's a European-style market, and is outdoors. It opens at 10 tomorrow, but they have it today as well. (http://www.fourseasonsmarkets.com/?sct=events) I've been meaning to check it out, and have known about it for a while. One of my past coworkers works there selling Roundrock Honey (at the Firewheel market), but I haven't had a chance to go to one because of my past work schedule.

Later, I want to go to Sherman and check out the new Dean Gilbert Lake and Park area off of 1417. Maybe I'll pick us some Vitina's sandwiches up to sweeten the experience. :) I hear it's a nice park with a walking trail. We shall see.

For dinner, we'll be stopping by Martie and Roy's for Michael's grandpa's birthday celebration. She's making fish tacos. Yum!

That about sums up my weekend! I am so thankful that I actually have a weekend again!

Business and Pleasure

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a good weekend - I did! Michael was gone on a business trip on Thursday and Friday, so when he got home on Friday night, I was ready to see him! I made him a fabulous dinner of Chicken Delmonico (panko-breaded chicken with a mushroom-cream sauce) over garlic mashed potatoes. A friend of mine mentioned making this dish as a 'welcome home' for Michael, so I took the idea and ran with it. I didn't have a recipe, but I'd say it turned out just fine.

That night Michael mentioned seeing regular and river boat casinos while in the Shreveport area, and we decided to take a trip to the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. (http://www.winstarworldcasino.com/) It was a blast! Once we got inside the casino, I almost forgot where we were! Recently, WinStar remodeled the inside and outside of their casino to include sections modeled after the cities of New York, Vienna, Cairo, Paris, Beijing, Rome, Madrid and London. We played video poker and animated games while having drinks and talking about past trips to Las Vegas. It almost makes me want to cancel our travel plans this year for a trip out to Nevada.

On that note, I meant to write about our choices for travel this year. (Since it's half over!) We're planning on going to Fredericksburg and Enchanted Rock State Park in early August. No, we won't be camping (how hot!), but we'll be staying in a bed and breakfast, hiking, and strolling about the town.

Later, in October, we will be going to San Francisco. Michael has been wanting to go to SF for years now, and we're finally doing it. Suggestions are welcome, but we'll of course be going to the touristy things for Michael to check out. Also, we'll get to see Jamie while we're there!

Then in January, we'll be going to Boston for my birthday. I am SO excited! I love that city, and I can't wait to get back. Especially during a season we haven't be able to experience. I'm hoping to break in some snow boots, try to ski/snow board, and eat delicious warm foods. What a birthday present, eh?

Anyway, I need to quit typing away and get to the rest of my errands before Michael gets home.

Camping in Austin Recap

(Don't I sound like I'm giving the SVP report of a project?)
We had a wonderful weekend in Austin again. Yet again I have failed you, and only have one picture from the whole weekend. I know, for shame. Maybe someday I'll get a camera, and fix all of this. Anyway, on to the wordy descriptions, which will hopefully paint some picture of our activities. This time we left later on Friday, and didn't arrive until close to 10pm. We ate dinner at Rudy's in Waco. A decent meal, but still very commercial.

The next morning we woke up to a wonderful breakfast, courtesy of my sister. Then we drove out to McKinney Falls State Park to hike around and check out the camping possibilities. After the 6 mile hike, we decided to check on the camping sites. We were told it was too wet to camp (it had rained all week long), so we called Pedernales Falls State Park to see what their sites were like. They still had a few sites available, so we decided to camp there. Before driving out there, we stopped by Central Market to grab some supplies. We got everything from fresh fruit to chicken thighs. Dinner was going to be amazing!

After we arrived at Pedernales Falls, we set up camp, and started the fire. This was no easy task considering it had rained all week. After the fire got going, we started to cook. Qas had marinated chicken thighs in a spicy yogurt sauce and was kabobing them on the grill. I on the other hand, chose to go the more wilderness/boyscout/Podunk avenue, and opted for Hobo Dinners. Now, what is a Hobo Dinner, you ask? It's a packet of foil, filled with root vegetables and a ground beef patty, to be sealed and thrown in the fire to self baste and cook to perfection. It usually turns out juicy and perfectly cooked. It was not meant to be this time. Either way, we had plenty of food and good times to go around.

The next morning we were woken up by the camp ranger, because we had to entrance ticket. We'd arrived too late (after the office closed) and read we were to register the next morning. Apparently they meant when the sun was coming up. So, we got our stuff together and registered on the way out. On the way back to Austin, we stopped at a roadside place that sold breakfast burritos. What a breakfast! I had a cactus and egg burrito, and a bacon one as well. Very yummy.

We got home, unpacked and hung out for a little while before somehow getting a sugar craving. To ease that craving we went to Quack's Bakery on 43rd. (http://www.quacksaustin.com/) We had about 467 desserts. Really, we had 6 between the four of us. Jamie and Qas got slices of chocolate trifle, blueberry pie, and key lime pie. Michael and I got a slice of cherry pie, a blueberry streusel muffin, and two oatmeal cinnamon cookies with icing in the middle. Talk about feeding a sugar craving!

They had cute owl cookies!



The need to walk was obvious. We chose to hitch it on over to the Round Rock outlet mall to shop and wear off the sugar. We shopped and made the mistake of going into the Le Creuset store...but that's another story!

Now, I am off to work. I still need to work off some of the food from this weekend! :)

The Update to End All Updates

So, here we are. We're at that point at which I said I was going to give an amazing update of my life thus far. Or at least of the last two weeks, or so. Firstly, Happy February.

Last Wednesday night (yes, we're talking January 23rd), Michael picked up my parents from Love Field and I met them for a lovely dinner at Gloria's on Greenville. I had eaten there for my birthday dinner and my mom wanted to go there after the retelling of the fabulous events that occurred there. I had a delicious fruit and grilled shrimp salad over mixed greens, and decided to mimic it later on in the week. Please see several paragraphs down to complete this story.

I will post about the 24th here in a few minutes. :)

Also, I am embarking on something familiar, yet new. I am planning on joining my first actual reading club, D Magazine's "Reading Room." (http://readingroom.dmagazine.com/) They're reading local writer Ben Fountain's Brief Encounters with Che Guevara this quarter. I'm a little behind, seeing as they've had two meetings and I don't have the book yet, but I'll catch up! I've been on Goodreads for a while, and I'm a part of a reading challenge there, but this is more of a challenge because I'm actually accountable! Wish me luck!

Thursday night I was so stressed out, the only thing I could think of to release some of it was to bake. Poof. Banana muffins. Not spoiled by crunchtastic walnuts. Just banana, cinnamon and vanilla. Check out this goodness.


Sunday night, after rescheduling because of the day from HELL (1/28/2010), our sweet neighbor, Ingrid, came over for dinner. We always plan in advance for our "Neighbor Dinner," and pick a cuisine we haven't made before. We've done Mexican, Italian, and American before, so this time we chose Asian. (Mainly because we wanted to use my new bamboo steamer! Man, I love that thing!) I made spicy pork dumplings (it's becoming a favorite!), a cilantro, peanut and cucumber salad, wilted cabbages, and a dipping sauce. Ingrid brought a yummy wine (what dinner would be complete without wine?!) and fried rice. Buttery fried rice. Mmmm. Anyway, we had a serious feast and a great time. I'm thinking Greek food next time?

To finish my story from earlier, I partially was successful in recreating my grilled shrimp salad from Gloria's Monday night for dinner.

Lastly, we are going to Austin this weekend to visit my sister and Qas. We're also getting to squeeze in a little camping! We're going to McKinney Falls to camp and hike. I'm so excited I might bust! I'll try to take a few pictures, or have someone take some with a real camera, seeing as I don't have one.
That's all I have for now! I'm off to get my car inspected (pesky yearly inspections...) and throw myself on an elliptical. Have a great Tuesday!

Goodbye 2009

Tomorrow will be the first year with double-digits at the end! Goodbye to 2009, a year that held a lot of ups and downs for me.

I purchased my first "adult" car. I love my Jetta, and I'm sure at some point I will give it an actual name. Right now it's "Boo." Get it? Because it's blue? Ha.

My grandparents gifted us with several items from their home once they moved into an assisted-living apartment. Two of the best things we received were antique chairs that we reupholstered. They're like new, and we love them!

I left a job I strongly disliked, and thus took a huge pay cut. It was my decision, whether idiotic or not, and I stand beside it. I know things will be better because of it.

I had my first big family dinner at my apartment, that I planned for weeks. It went well, and gave me a sense of accomplishment that I had created good food and elicited fun from my family.

Michael and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary together by going to camp in the Eldorado Lake area of Kansas. What a fabulous weekend - especially with the one I love.

I've made new friends, gone new places and learned new concepts. I am excited to see what 2010 has in store for me, and I have a few resolutions to make. Keep reading!

Kansas - Who Knew?

Finally - a recap! Things have been really crazy around here lately, so I'll begin my recap now!

As you know, we were planning on camping out near Hot Springs, in the Ouachita National Forest. We called in advance (earlier that week) to reserve our campsite. Out of more than 1,000 camping sites, there wasn't ONE available for that weekend. So, we opened up the atlas and began a search. We decided on Eldorado lake in Kansas, just outside of Wichita. Neither one of us had been to Kansas before, except for driving through it to get to Colorado.

We camped out lakeside, made food in my grandparent's cast-iron skillets they gifted me, and hiked all over the place. On one of the trails, we found this tree that had fallen over - they believe in preserving nature by letting it remain the way it would naturally occur. For example, if lightening hits a tree and it falls, it remains where it as fallen. This policy is adopted by many other national parks, one of which is Muir Woods (a surreal place, really). Also, we made smooooores! My boy scout Husband made us a fire, and we cooked all weekend. The food was amazing! Let's take some time to discuss my love of smores. A good blazing fire, roasting, melting, and caramelizing the sugars in the fluffy, white sugary knob - pure harmony within a sandwich of chocolate and graham cracker. One, if not my very, favorite desserts.

Here is a view of the lake:It was great weather the whole weekend because it had rained the few days before we arrived. Mild during the day and chilly at night. Great camping weather for fire-cooked meals and cuddling under the stars!

I would recommend Kansas to all those that think it's just farmland and not much else. We spent some time in Uptown and Downtown Wichita, and it was a good time. We tasted wine on the square, ate beef shawarma in Uptown, and discovered Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. It's clean, welcoming and homey. That's it's charm.