{Currently Reading} Kingsolver, Fitzgerald, DFW & Gawande

It's time for another "Currently Reading" update! In an effort to not spoil any of the novels for you, I've hidden the remaining reviews after the jump. If you have no qualms reading revealing notes on The Lacuna, This Side of Paradise, The Broom of the System, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Complications, have no fear and read on!

The Lacuna {5 Stars}

I read Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna as part of the newly formed Seestor Book Club, which first met in May 2013. My sister and I are the only members, and chose this book based on a recommendation from Seestor’s friend.  I was a bit cautious at first, as I hadn't read any of Kingsolver at that point. In truth, I had some notion that her books were just pop fiction, as they were always charted – even Oprah touted them as some of her favorites. It had to just be hovering above chick lit, right? Reading the first few pages of Kingsolver’s writing, I soon learned that this was completely false. Her imagery was so fitting for the story, scenes just came alive. "The mood of the fiesta was enclosed in a perfect square: four long lines of electric bulbs strung from posts at the corners, fencing out a bright piece of night just above everyone's heads." I felt as if I was accompanying the narrator, Harrison Shepard, through the avenues of the market.

{Travel} Chicago 2013, Part 2

Instead of studying for my Six Sigma quiz for Monday, I'm going to talk to you readers about Chicago. Yes, again. However, this will be the last post for this year's Chitown trip - I've run out of photos to upload. It's true.

Day Three

We started our last full day in Chicago with a coffee and a stroll through the Loop's parks. {This seems to be a trend.} One thing I didn't pick up on last time we were there in September was that Chicago certainly loves their planters. Truly. There are pops of gorgeous color all over the city, this time to welcome the warmer months. 

Case in point:

Not a planter but a tree, ok.

 What a glorious way to celebrate the change in the seasons. Unbearable cold, wintriness to bright sunny days with flora perfume in the air.

{Travel} Chicago: Architecture, Art and Steak

We're back!
Chicago was the beautiful, bustling city we remember from our third wedding anniversary {Read Part one, two, three & four}. We fell in love all over again...with Chicago. It's certainly on the 'short list' of places we'd like to end up.

Today I write this post on my day off {flex scheduling is great, y'all}, while the rain pours outside. Sipping on a hot chocolate, too.  However, even with those lovely things, I am still missing my time in Chicago.
We started our vacation the night before, by having dinner at The Porch at Schenley. We shared the fig, arugula and goat cheese pizza {along with calamari and a salad}. Wonderful as usual, especially sitting out on THE PORCH itself, looking out to the garden and carousel. You can read my previous review here and be sure to hone in on those crispy potatoes.

Day One
Husband and I decided to road trip out to Illinois, rather than dealing with the lameness that is Pittsburgh International Airport. It was a great decision, and we saw parts of Ohio and Indiana we'd never seen. We stopped in South Bend for lunch, and took a brief self-guided tour of Notre Dame.

Immediately when we got into Chicago after our 7-hour drive, we stopped at Target to get a few things before going to the hotel. Somehow we can't escape missing putting a crucial item in the luggage.  We were greeted in Target with a nice selection of spirits and wine, which was a breath of fresh air from Pittsburgh grocery stores.
We sailed down State with our loot, and took a few car photos of the buildings. You just can't ignore Chicago's architecture.

Spring At Last

I posted the photo below on my Instagram and Facebook last week after driving by this lovely forsythia bush on Fifth Avenue. Our windows were rolled down, the breeze was coming in, and the scent of this yellow cluster came into the car cabin.

Shortly after I posted the photo, my sister made a comment that these bushes always reminded her of our Great-Grandma Brown.

These tiny, yellow star bursts were featured in Grandma Brown's yard {or, at least within our play-radius}, among the houses on that small street near my elementary school.  I still have a single wooden bird, initially carved to ornament her German cuckoo clock, hidden away somewhere in remembrance of those afternoons of playing at her house.  I wasn't even ten years old when she passed away, but those are some of the first fragile memories I have.

Decembear

Each year, my Mom had my Dad bring down the Christmas decorations from the attic, and began putting things up the day after Thanksgiving.  The sparkling lights, the bright colors - we were able to enjoy all of these things even before the month began.

I am my mother's daughter, so I decked our halls on November 18.  Looking around afterwards, I thought something might be missing. Recalling my memories of my Mom's decorations, I thought about the holiday calendar my Granny hand-made: Decembear: A Beary Merry Christmas. 

Photo Blink {Seestor's Visit}

My sister {Seestor, to those that know us well} came in town last week and stayed with us.  We went everywhere and ate a ton of food, but I'll share a photo blink of one of the meals she made for us on a Thursday night:

Left: Roasted {skinless} Asian marinated chicken leg,
on top of a sweet potato mash and garlic beet greens.

 Isn't is super colorful? And, there was a bonus:

Right: Roasted Beet Salad with Herbed Goat Cheese and Mint.

 Husband ate and liked beets for the first time!  {I sound like I'm talking about my toddler cousins, right?!}  Thanks for a wonderful weeknight meal, Seestor!  Miss you already!

Blogger Past & Future

Several years ago, I started this blog as a way to connect to others around me, mostly those I knew, in order to draw them in and have a stronger friendship. Somehow, through difference choices and avenues I’ve taken, it’s become more of a way for me to connect with my surroundings – in a strange way, it’s an out pour of myself to reach out to others I may not know or will ever know. Similarly, it’s also become a way for me to keep in contact with those I love and am not able to see each week, or even each month. 

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.

Vacation Options

So, I need help with a decision. I'm planning a vacation for Michael and I, as a gift to us for making great strides in our lives. Here are our choices:


Fredericksburg, TX






Little Rock, AR







Memphis, TN {Incidentally, the skyline below is of Louisville, KY. It's lovely, however.  Maybe this should be a future stop as well?}





Those three options we would be able to make this summer, which is nice because that's a big tourist/food time in these cities. However, if we wait until fall, we would be able to go here:


San Francisco, CA





If we did the SF choice, we wouldn't be able to make our trip we've been planning for a year, to Boston, MA.





So, there's the dilemma. Take a small vacation now, and get to swing another one in the winter in Boston. Or, see Jamie in the fall in San Francisco. What should we do?

A Picture Post

Again, forgive the Blackberry photos. I still don't have a real camera.

The Texas blood orange I bought for the vinaigrette on this salad.

Watermelon, feta and arugula salad with a blood orange vinaigrette.

Coconut macaroons for my mom's second half of her birthday present.

Assorted truffles for the other half of Jamie's birthday present. There are chocolate truffles covered in powdered sugar, sliced almonds, and raspberry sugar.

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!

Waiting on Photos

We're back from a fabulous time in Austin! I don't have any photos yet, but I will post them as soon as I do.

I'll try to give a small summary of what we did: look and eat. Done.

Friday we got in to Austin just in time for dinner. Qas made us Pakistani home-cookin, which was amazing. That's even an understatement. It was like no other food I've eaten in restaurants, and so much more flavorful. I'm hoping to get the recipes to try them in my kitchen at home. We spent the rest of the night catching up and talking each other's ears off.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Mozart's for coffee and a biscotti (http://www.mozartscoffee.com), on Lake Austin. That lake has HUGE fish in it! I wish I would have taken a picture of these fish - and not to mention the size of the turtles! It was like an aquarium! Then we took a car tour, with the windows down, of Westlake Hills. Located off of Red Bud Trail, this is one of the nicest areas in the city. It had some great modern homes, adjacent to older split-levels with tons of charm. We lunched at Blue Dahlia in the up-and-coming part of East Austin. We sat on the back patio, that was shaded by overhead reed mats and palms. GREAT weather. I had the fig, honey and ricotta tartine, and Michael had a chicken salad and dried cranberry tartine. Very nice. Later, we traveled over to Pedernales State Park for some hiking and relaxing beside nature. Dinner was at Ranch 616, where the nightly specials is where it's at! I had the mixed grill special, which involved barbecued quail, venison, sausage, smoked poblano mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Michael and Jamie had the same special: filet mignon, pork tenderloin, asparagus, and lobster. Qas had another mixed plate of lobster, crab, duck and amazing sides. It was such a great meal! One of the hosts was a jerk, but every other person on the waitstaff was excellent. Then, in efforts to have a stupidly good time, we went to the bowling alley down the street for a little Buck Sisters versus the Men bowling action. Needless to say, The Buck Sisters were somewhat all bark and no bite, but didn't lose by much. A rematch is in order. Then we got changed and went downtown for some drinks and dancing. Dancing on Qas, Jamie and Michael's parts. I don't dance...well. We ended up seeing a few of my friends from college at the club, and got to have some fun with that.

Sunday we had brunch, home made by Jamie. I contributed a Challah, and she made eggs, sausage, Provencal tomatoes, and chai. Then we made a final tour of The Oasis and Lake Travis. It was misty, but still beautiful. Sometimes I forget those cliffs aren't in the Mediterranean, and are in the middle of Texas. Then we had an early dinner at El Borrego de Oro, and got on the road. We made a quick stop by Amy's Ice Cream (http://www.amysicecreams.com) before heading out of town for good so Michael could savor the flavor of Mexican Vanilla.

It was an excellent and tasty trip!

Weekend in Austin!

Today I am off work, which means my weekend started Wednesday night! I am prepping for this weekend when we go see Jamie and Qas in Austin.
I'm excited to visit Austin and be shown around by two people that actually live there. I've been to Austin before and always did the tour of the Capitol (yawn!) and other usual things. This time I'm going to experience the city with people that know the ins and outs - where the good features are. I'm mostly excited about the weather and the food! I'll post when I return!

Picture & Food Find-Caching

A few weekends ago, I mentioned going out with Kelly & Michelle. I wanted to post a photo for everyone - it was such a great night! The photo is from before we went out. (My ugly kitchen is in the background.)

Friday night Michael and I went on one of our Whole Foods Dates. This may seem odd to a few of you, but it's something of which we are able to get great enjoyment. We go with no purchase in mind (a dangerous concept to some), and just walk around looking at the different merchandise. We get something unfamiliar or unique (to us) every time. This time we purchased a Ram's Head Challah, two Rishi tea flavors (White Rose and a Lavender Oolong), and a White Beauty heirloom tomato.

Even though we live in the middle of the highest number of Jewish people in Dallas, we've never tried much of the Kosher food that infiltrates the markets. We picked up the Challah, and I have to say, it's delicious. It's made with a large number of eggs and a good amount of sugar, so it's a sweet and luxurious bread. The teas were VERY rich and a lot more intense than my usual teas, black and Earl Grey (http://www.rishi-tea.com/). Finally, the tomato. My sister brought some heirloom tomatoes for us to eat when she visited us for the Tech/UT game. I had never had an heirloom outside of the restaurant setting, so it was a very nice surprise. After trying the red and green varieties, I decided to try all of the rest: I found an Amish red and a White Beauty. The red was much the same as the other red variety I had tried, but the Beauty was buttery with an almost melty taste when you ate it. I made a lunch of tomatoes and bread. It was glorious.

Game Day!

Tonight my parents and sister are coming to Dallas to watch the Texas Tech Vs. UT game, and we're going to grill out! I am excited! I'm making burgers (of course), avocado salad (more than just avocados, I assure you), fudge-Andes brownies, and fresh lemonade. My mom and dad are bringing all of the burger accoutrement, a key lime pie (!), and, of course booze. My sister is actually going to make it (we were unsure because it's her busy season), and I am excited to see her. And she is bringing more booze. Qas has a SUPER swollen ankle, so he is being a invalid at home. I better get to cooking, because it will be game time here in a few hours! Wreck 'Em Tech!

Before I Go

I just got an email from my sister about the wonderful meal she made last night: boneless quail, wild mushroom risotto, and a Cabernet reduction. Does that not sound amazing? She sent this photo as well: Anniversary Camping will ensue in less than 36 hours! We're leaving bright and early Saturday morning, and won't return until Monday night. How fortunate to have an anniversary that falls around a holiday weekend! (And for it not being a holiday like St. Patrick's Day.) I'll be sure to take pictures, and I blog when we return!