{Over The Weekend} Dancing at the Phipps

Well, I'd been feeling slightly icky this weekend, and Monday is here with a vengeance. I was beginning to get a sore throat over the last few days, and this morning it is here and trying to kill me.
But, at least I had a good weekend?
Right.

Friday evening, Husband and I made ourselves a Tex-Mex fiesta dinner: Taco shell-less taco salads with lot of crunchy items (celery, cucumber), homemade Spanish rice (wrong culture, I know), and a Dos Equis con lime.

We cleaned the whole house, top to bottom, for the house showings we're having. It's funny - Our property company will show our house right and left to potential new tenants, but won't give us the time of day on our move-out procedures  More on this later.
First, here's a cat in a box:

I swear, I took about 50 cat-in-box photos on Saturday. This is life, y'all.
Later that night, I attended the graduate school club's formal dance at the Phipps Conservatory. It had been more than 10 years since I'd been to a dance {other than weddings, which are different}. Look at my fantastic dates!

The location was lovely, food was sparse, and there was a little bit of dancing. We all had a lovely night, and I even managed a photo of the newly planted tulips in the center garden. 

Sunday was spent reading for school, having a lunch date with a friend, spending time with Husband, and cooking/baking for the week.

Lunch at Whole Foods

Today it's back to work, and hopefully kicking this icky feeling with cold meds and sugar-free cough drops. Cross your fingers I'm not getting sick!

{Recipe} Mexican Potato Nachos

As important as it is to explore new things, you have to give a nod to your roots. Husband and I were looking for inspiration for a game day dinner an couldn't decide between tex-mex {our comfort food of choice} and typical game fare {pizza, hotdogs, loaded potato skins, wings}.
Soon, I found a recipe for Mexican Potato Nachos, and our lives were forever changed.

No really, we LOVED this recipe, and were even able to lighten it up!

{Mexican Potato Nachos}
adapted from a recipe by AllRecipes.com

{31 Blogging Days of May} DIY Friday: Mexican Chocolate Poundcake

Kyla asked for us to share a DIY {Do It Yourself!} with our readers today. Those that know me know that I love doing crafts, but I love cooking more...and what is more DIY than cooking?! 
Tonight I'm sharing a recipe I recently came across, by talking to my Mom on the phone. Yes, we gab about food. She was telling me about a chocolate pound cake that a coworker had made for a office party.   As she went on about the cake, the details got me: Mexican chocolate, buttermilk, cocoa... How could I not ask for the recipe?

PGH Dining: SMOKE Barbeque Taqueria

We visited SMOKE Barbeque Taqueria on a weeknight, mainly because I didn't feel like cooking. Husband wanted something comforting, so what else do folks raised in Texas do? Go to a place that serves tacos.  

 SMOKE is in Homestead, which is something of a journey from Lawrenceville. {I realize you're jumping for joy to hear we went somewhere outside of our neighborhood.} Across the river and down the street in Homestead is an unsuspecting storefront, adjacent to empty shops, where SMOKE makes it's home. If you don't slow down, you might miss it.

 Inside the small, cozy restaurant is about 15 seats, some of which are at a bar/counter. You order from a two-page menu, and pay cash. {ATMs are nearby} This paying cash business can be a nuisance to some, but it helped us not go overboard because we just had a $20 on us. It's also BYOB, so be sure to have more foresight than we did and be stuck without some nice Mexican beers. {There is a beer store around the corner, though, if you're really in need.}

 Step up to order,

 under the cute chicken wire light fixture.

 Husband ordered a Mexican Coke, and I stuck with water. 

 We ordered their macaroni and cheese, and three tacos:

 Look at that setup!

 The macaroni and cheese was delicious, and was gone within minutes. It was right up our alley, with lots of coarsely cracked black pepper bits scattered throughout. 

Beef Brisket Taco

Vegetarian Taco

Migas with Chorizo.

 Fluffy white tortillas, with hot, flavorful filling. Winners. All three tacos were good, but the veggie taco was my favorite, featuring avocado, black beans and bruised cilantro leaves. 

Glass-Based Lamp

 The atmosphere is cozy, which is a nice way to say it was tight. This is a good way to meet people, however, since you're sharing elbow room at the bar seats. There were so few seats in the house, and SMOKE is still super popular - so you can see those two factors don't make for an easy seating. If I were the owners of SMOKE, I would line both sides of the bar with stools, adding at least 4 more seats. That's just my two cents!

 Neighborhood: Homestead/Munhall

Good For: Meeting people, BYOB

Gems: Vegetarian Tacos

Drawbacks: Seating

 

PGH Dining: Round Corner Cantina

Through the stress of doing temp work and trying to wait patiently for full-time work, sometimes you just need to take a break and cut loose. Back in college, the "work" was more about mid-term tests and 10-page papers, but we would walk the block over from campus to a famous watering hole called Chimy's Cerveceria. This place is a thing of legend among West Texas alumni, and it's a must-visit when I go back. Chimy's is in a converted old house, and serves lots of beer, margaritas and Mexican food made with love. These margaritas aren't just normal tequila-lime-mixer-salt drinks...they're everclear-infused gold that pair well with greasy Mexican food.

Round Corner Cantina was our closest choice to get this stress-relieving party started, like in our Chimy's days. Truth be told, we weren't expecting much. We just wanted cold drinks coupled with salty chips and salsa. We got so much more!

We walked into the front room, which is composed of a long bar with tons of stools. We looked around briefly, and discovered a back room, filled with tables and chairs. 

In the middle of the back room.

We staked our claim, and sat down to a margarita for me, and a PITCHER of beer for Husband. That was his drink for the evening, and I continued to order several items while it was still happy hour. 

Pitcher and Margarita.

 When you're going to order food, Round Corner Cantina gives you chips and salsa for free. ($3.50 value) Nice!

I proceeded to order more drinks, including this lovely sangria, which was more like zooty fruit punch. I drank it down, nonetheless. Yum!

The decor of the back room is fun and festive. Just what you need after looking at a computer screen for 40+ hours. 

 Paper fringe hangs form the ceiling, and Mexican films are projected onto a screen on one wall. 

 Then, we capped off our drink fest with shots of Patron with lime. We were serious about our libations.

 After about 4 delicious drinks in, we decided it was a dire situation and we desperately needed to order food. Husband ordered the tamales con rajas, esquires (street-style corn), tacos de pescado (fish taco), and guacamole for us to share. 

Tamales.

These tamales were stuffed with poblano and chicken, and were served with a sweet tomatillo sauce. The masa and corn husk wrappers were super fresh.

Esquites.

 The street-style corn was served in a earthenware cup, and resembled a creamed corn because it was layered with crema, crumbled cotija cheese, and chopped cilantro. This was Husband's favorite dish.

Tacos de Pescados.

 The fish tacos had slices of radish on the side and a spicy crema on top, adding to the kick in each bite. They were quite a bit of food shoved into two corn tortillas. 

With lime.

And a spicy crema.

 As we finished the last of our drinks, the guacamole hit the spot.* It was slightly chunky, but thankfully didn't feature the cardinal sins of guacamole (tomatoes, black beans, corn, etc.) In our book, adding those ingredients make it a SALSA not a GUACAMOLE. This offering had a lingering spice to each bite because of the residual pepper juice from the sliced jalapeño on top. Lovely!

Guacamole, with sliced fresh jalapeño.

Each dish was seasoned well, and tasted like it should. From Texans who favor Tex-Mex as their comfort food, that's a big compliment.

Husband and I will be visiting Round Corner Cantina as much as we possibly can. It was a perfect match for our nostalgic pining for Chimy's, but still broke out on it's own with the extraordinary food.

*Note: Husband and I live in Lawrenceville, which is where Round Corner is located. Thus, we walked home! Bonus!