lifestyle Archives | Page 34 of 127

Gospel Brunch

January 15, 2013 by Kristin

Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for the ATX visitors to start rolling in again! This past weekend, Val and Katie flew from sunshiny Tampa to experience everything I raved about when I was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We went to some of my tried and true favs: La Condesa, Midnight Cowboy, boutiques on South Congress, the lake house. And then we checked out a few new things, one of which was Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ.

We followed the crowd to the buffet line and filled up our plates with a solid mix of southern goodness and Tex-Mex. I snapped a shot of Katie’s plate as it was much more fun than the rest our ours. My plate looked something like cheese grits, cheese grits, biscuits and gravy, cheese grits. Fifty shades of white is about as uninteresting as it gets. But let me tell ya, the cheese grits were where it was at.

As we crossed over to the full-bellied side, the band came on and an instant energy filled the room.

We clapped along and waved our arms and all the while our smiles grew. Gospel Brunch was certainly the most uplifting brunch any of us had ever experienced. I think it’s safe to say that everyone in our group would gladly go again!

Homemade Sushi

January 10, 2013 by Kristin

I have terrifying memories of my elementary school self sitting across from mom at Joto, begging for chicken tempura as she tried to convince me I must like sushi because I’m a quarter Japanese. I have hilarious memories of enjoying sushi with high school friends at a random sushi joint in Clearwater where Hulk Hogan sightings were a thing. And I have the greatest memories of eating Dragonfly sushi weekly in college, turning sushi naysaying sorority sisters (that’s you Lis!) into tuna, cream cheese and cucumber roll lovers. And today I made a memory for my present day self, one that involves homemade sushi. Talk about a sushi transformation.

The sushi mat, sushi rice, and nori were all purchased during the blogtastic shopping extravaganza that was last weekend. And then I picked up some asparagus, carrots, and avocado for the sushi stuffing. Fish would have to wait until homemade sushi part deux.

I peeled, chopped, sliced, and anxiously prepared myself for the first roll. A rolling action that was freakishly similar to rolling up a yoga mat after practice just minutes before.

The success of this roll can only be attributed to the stickiness of the sushi rice as it flawlessly held everything together with little effort on my end. I can’t wait to sub carrots with some super fresh tuna and recreate my ultimate favorite restaurant roll! Or maybe host a bring-your-own-sushi-stuffing party?

#BakingBootcamp: Croissants

January 9, 2013 by Kristin

After reading real bakers post that croissant making is an 11 on a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, I thought for sure I was going to mess something up. I followed the croissant recipe in The Secrets of Baking as much as I could, but found that I was still rough and impatient with this two-day dough. And since rough and impatient are not good things when it comes to pastry, I popped these bad boys in the oven expecting my first #bakingbootcamp failure.

Mixing ingredients, 6 hours of rising, 3 passes at laminating the dough, 6 more hours of rising, cutting then rolling, 2 hours of proofing… Who was the baking mastermind that came up with all these rules?? And then there were all of the instructions that I impatiently ignored: perfectly squared edges, perfectly measured cuts. Instead, I depended on my construction mind and super steady hand.

What came out of the oven was a gazillion calories of accomplishment. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw croissants so layered, so golden. I facebooked about it, I tweeted about, I brought them to my co-workers, I ran up the steepest hill in town to deliver to my favorite neighbors. And after all this, I still feel… I feel “happy of myself”!

[embedplusvideo height=”309″ width=”500″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/eaIvk1cSyG8?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=eaIvk1cSyG8&width=500&height=309&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep5805″ /]

Cheers to challenging yourself in twenty thirteen!

A Techie Twist: Part Two

January 6, 2013 by Kristin

In all honesty, I was much more pumped about testing the ISIS Mobile Wallet than I was about using the Samsung Galaxy III for a month. I love my Macbook, I love my iPhone, and if I had an iPad, I’m certain I’d love that too. But reviewing the app and the phone was a package deal, so I agreed to it. And when I picked up the Samsung Galaxy III from the AT&T store, I felt guilty for ever having such thoughts. The Galaxy was sleek, light, and oh so new. I rushed home to play with my new toy, downloading apps from the Play Store at record speed.

(Left = iPhone 4S , Right = Samsung Galaxy III)

I will tell you that this iPhone toting girl didn’t expect to like the Galaxy. But the more comfortable I became with how the phone functioned, I began to enjoy it. A lot. And over the course of a month, I carried both phones, using the features I liked best about each. And by the end of the month? Well, it’s not at all what I expected.

Things I liked better about the Samsung Galaxy III …

1. Homescreen – The homescreen on the Galaxy is much cleaner and I was able to access almost all of the same apps as I would on the 4S homescreen. I also liked that the time, date, and weather were much larger.

2. Shape – Although the Galaxy has a larger face than the 4S, it is significantly thinner and lighter. I also ended up liking the larger face better than having a smaller phone.

3. Apps – The larger face of the Galaxy allowed for apps to be more user friendly. Check out the WordPress app above and the Twitter app below. More of the buttons you need are accessible right when you open the app rather than having to hunt for them.

4. Notifications – The Galaxy has a red blinking light when you have a notification (similar to the Blackberry), which prevents you from having to turn on your phone to see if anything is new.

5. Email – I preferred emailing on the Galaxy over the 4S, whether it be sending pictures, a regular message, or finding a contact in my address book.

Things I liked better about the iPhone 4S…

1. Text Messages & iMessage – Messaging on the 4S felt much more advanced than on the Galaxy.

2. Camera – I often find that the 4S takes shots comparable to a DSLR when there is plenty of natural light. I was never able to get a photo I was happy with on the Galaxy.

3. App Selection – There are still apps that are available in the App Store that haven’t made their way to the Play Store. Facebook Pages was a biggie for me…

End Result…

Overall, the Galaxy outperformed the 4S in almost every instance. But! At the end of the day, photos and messaging are super important to me and are two major things I’m not willing to sacrifice. Even though I decided to stick with the 4S after the month trial was over, part of me still has a crush on the Galaxy and dreams of the day it comes with a higher performing camera.

Although I received compensation to test the Samsung Galaxy III, the opinions in this post are completely my own and based on my experience.

« Previous Page