Austin Restaurant Week

This year for the first time we decided to take advantage of Austin Restaurant Week. We’d heard about it in past years but never jumped at the amazing opportunity that it is.

Basically a handful of some of the best (and most expensive) restaurants in Austin create a set 3 or 4 course menu at a set price of $25 or $35/person. It’s such a fabulous deal because on most occasions you’ll walk out of any of the participating establishments with spending no less than $65-$100/person. So Yes, Sign us up!!!

So we dined like kings and queens on two Sundays in a row. First up was Hudson’s on the Bend, a restaurant known for its game fare. Highlights of the night were the duck and jalapeno appetizer that Alex ordered and a hazlenut brownie dessert that Alex also ordered…don’t worry my food was good too.

Then this past Sunday we ventured downtown to the famed Driskill Grill, always listed in the top three of Austin’s Best Restaurants. This place was a must for us because we normally would never eat at such an expensive place, unless it was for a special event. Our three course meal was complete with pretentious serving sizes and a pretentious British waiter. Haha, but the food was great. Besides being slightly disappointed with my sweat pea tortellini I had a great time eating the best lamb chop ever ordered (thanks Alex) and this sinfully, delicious raspberry chocolate mousse that thankfully I had all to myself.

All in all we really enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to participate in Restaurant Week again, I believe the event will be taking place again this spring. We already have a few places in mind for when that comes around again!

Sweet Treats

This past week I was a busy baker. Let’s just say I owed a few people after tremendous favors they’d done for me. So how do I repay tremendous favors you ask? With baked goods silly!

I prepared my famous Nutella Trifle for my mom’s office. They were all smiles when I brought it in and I heard that it was a big hit.

Fast forward two days later, I owed another friend for dealing with a major headache for the past four months. I won’t get into it. BUT when I asked her what her favorite flavor or cupcakes were she responded, “strawberry!” How very convenient because my strawberry cupcakes I believe are my best cupcakes. They come out so splendidly delicious and this time was no exception. I sent her home with at least 6 and still had leftover cupcakes and icing. The cupcakes are gone…but there’s still a bowl of icing in the fridge…it’s almost a week old (gross I know) but it’s so painful for me to have to throw it away. It’s on my to-do list for when I get home, calm down people, I’m not going to eat it, or even roll around in it…much.

Such a Scamp

So apparently our dog Saci majored in making us feel like complete a** holes when we leave the house to go to work. She always knows it’s coming when we start getting ready in front of the bathroom mirror. She’ll come in and out of the bathroom with us about 5348925 times just to check that we haven’t left her yet. Then, when I make the last go round and make sure all the doors are locked and the alarm is turned on she runs (tail between her legs) into the office under the desk and stares at the floor…or at us with large pleading brown eyes. IT KILLS ME EVERY TIME. When I didn’t have a dog for about 2 years before Saci, not feeling the ever present guilt for leaving her at home was the only welcome side effect.

We go through this every year. CORRECTION, I go through this every year. Where I feel that it’s a good idea to turn our one dog household into a two dog household, for Saci’s sake…not ours. I then get on petfinder.com and find the PERFECT dog in so many ways. Well 3 outstanding ways to be exact:

1) SCAMP, it’s name is SCAMP…that’s my second favorite word in the entire English dictionary, second to “scrappy” (because c’mon, “scrappy” is a damn good word.

2) THAT FACE. I mean it’s just so pathetic and cute and pathetic and cute.

3) THOSE EARS. The one up one down thing just adds to the pathetic factor and gives it about 48935 awesome points.

Then I started throwing the idea around in my head for real. Picturing little Saci and little Scamp romping around the backyard together, playfully snarling at each other, curling up with one another on the big dog bed, and Saci teaching Scamp the correct begging procedures.

Ok, SOLD. I want this dog…so I called Alex knowing exactly what he would say, and then he said it.

“I realllyyy don’t want a second dog.”

“But think about Saci, she needs the company, they would enjoy each other.”

“It’s expensive.”

“But it’s cute.”

“There’ll be more dog hair, dog poop, and dog messes to clean.”

“FINE!!!”

The end. (except not, because I’m going to start calling Saci “Scamp.”)

If Kanye ran the world…

…this is what my blog would look like. Thank gawd…I can’t have Beyonce having a cooler blog than me.

Thanks Kevin.

Cupcakes and Pupcakes make the world go round

I’d been hearing about Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop for months. It’s a cupcake bakery on South 1st with the yummiest array of cupcakes (among a few other sweet treats) and the cutest storefront in town. It doesn’t hurt that it’s just blocks away form Torchy’s (our fav taco trailer).

We’ve gone to Sugar Mama’s twice in the past two weeks. When you walk in you’ll usually find a large group of people staring intently at the delicate cupcake display. There are some very inventive flavor combos and choosing just the perfect one is on the top of everybody’s to-do list. So far I’ve tried the Strawberry Love (my fav), the Red Velvet, and a bite of Alex’s Pin Up (yellow cake with chocolate frosting). They’re just so good and I adore the frosting swirls on top. We’re also sure to pick up a pupcake for Saci on each and every visit. They’re peanut butter flavored and she goes nuts for them. Just recently I emailed the owner Olivia with the below picture of Saci awaiting the demise of the pictured pupcake and she gave me a coupon for a free cupcake and pupcake on our next visit. It’s customer service like that and premium sweets that will keep us coming back for more!

The VMA’s last night were particularly bizarre…

…from Kanye’s typical classless outbursts to Lady Gaga’s outlandishly crazy outfits. Her last two outfits in particular stunned the crap out of me (I couldn’t find a picture of her icicle bird’s nest, forgive me). And left me speechless…see for yourselves.

Packaging that me likey

I read (errr look at) Dieline.com on a daily basis. Fun, fresh packaging design is something I’ll never get bored of. Take a looksie at one of the posts today. Oh Nutella, you always brighten my day!

The Best sandwiches in town are made at OUR HOUSE!

Last night Alex called me and told me he was at the grocery story. “Why?” I asked since we had a house chock full of food from our last visit not too long ago. He informed me that he had a hankering for a gourmet sandwich and was picking up fixings for the perfect sammie.

When he got home we got to work immediately. First things first…bake apple smoked bacon at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes until crispy. Once the bacon was done we started to assemble the sandwich of all sandwiches. Atop the ciabatta rolls (I kNoW!!) we stacked mesquite smoked turkey, aged white cheddar, BACON, dijon mustard, spinach/artichoke hummus, roma tomatoes, and baby greens. GAWWDDD IT WAS SOOO GOOD. And I’m kicking myself because Alex recommended me taking a picture of our delights right before we devoured them and I brushed it off. big mistake.

And for dessert, he picked up ginormo oatmeal raisin cookies that were warm from being just baked at the bakery. They were perfection!

I just lol’d

I haven’t watched the Obama school speech yet. I’ll make that a bullet point of my evening tonight. Because I like strong, successful black men telling me to be persistent and confident. It sits well with me. Why it doesn’t with others I will never know…

…As of yesterday I reached a boiling point after hearing how stupid parent after stupid parent pulled their kids out of school for the day so they didn’t have to hear the PRESIDENT OF THE FREE WORLD speak. It’s ridiculous. Which is why I lol’d at my friend Kevin’s recent tumblr post.

DAMN YOU OBAMA!
I am finally watching the Obama school speech. I’m having trouble swallowing all these liberal agendas like ‘trying hard’ and ‘staying educated’.

DUDE, somebody stole our dog.

So I’ve spotted hounds that look like our dog Saci a few times before on the big ‘ole world wide web. But today, I FOUND OUR DOG, one that looks JUST LIKE Saci. It’s insane really, this one seems to be around the exact same size, color, features, EVERYTHING. I’m kind of freaking out because she’s a mutt, probably a third or fourth generation mutt. And this dog I just found seems to be of the same makings. We theorize all the time about what breeds comprise our little fur ball of love.

their dog

our dog

Soooo yeahhh, I kind of feel the need to contact these owners and totally geek out about how our dogs are almost identical. I want to know if it’s a boy or a girl, what it’s name is, what breeds they think it is, and how old it is…..maybe they have the same birthdays. Devotchka138, if you’re out there…come be weird with me and let’s chat about our pooches!