FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Feed Those Boys

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Since my first trip to Wade’s lake house, the majority of my weekends involve his place in some fashion.  Swimming, porch hanging, grilling, vegetable planting, guitar playing, ridiculous song singing – it’s the best of times among the best of company.  Seriously, the best.

And to show my appreciation for including me in all the goodness, I try to always bring something totally homemade and completely yummy for the boys to munch on.  This also gives me the opportunity to be the baker I love to be without consuming ridiculous amounts of baked goods myself.  A winning situation if I ever saw one!

A few weeks ago, I asked Wade for dessert requests.  He said lemon meringue pie.  I said easy.  He said really?  I said oh yeah, I’ve got this!

You see, I‘ve been making lemon meringue pie, crust and all, since I was a wee one.  I still believed in Santa but could bake a mean pie.  True story.

I whipped it all up and headed slowly to the lake, aware of even the smallest of turns, bumps, and hills.  I may have added an extra ten minutes to my journey, but the pie arrived in perfect condition, which completely validated my overly-cautious behavior.

Thanks a million Wade for another perfect day!

Capitol Picnicking

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I had been secretly jonesing to picnic for weeks before suggesting the idea to Lauren and Matt, who were both anxious to have their first picnic of the season as well.  And after too many days of Florida-style thunderstorms, it was high time to spend a day outdoors.  The Capitol lawn would be the perfect setting for us to sprawl on this sunny, breezy, barely 80 degree Sunday.

Lauren and I attempted to stick to a theme, but ended up bringing anything we thought the group would enjoy.  She made brie, fig jam, and arugula sandwiches (a new fav of mine!), bacon wrapped dates, guacamole, and fruit.  I brought chabrin (a harder variety of goat cheese), French epis (a twiggy-looking loaf of bread), assorted olives, and Moroccan mint iced tea.

We set up my new portable speakers and listened to Real Estate, Bright Moments, and The Shins while playing 1990’s Trivial Pursuit and Taboo.  Can you say perfect Sunday??

Other than a total fail of forgetting sunscreen, I could have spent all day lounging on the Capitol lawn.  I have a feeling that today was the first of many lawn lounging days for me, Lauren, and Matt!

Cowboys & Chow

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Ever since Easter, I’ve had the urge to attend church on Sunday mornings.  I’ve never been a church-goer, so this is out of character for me, but I’m digging it.  Not only is it time filled with positive energy and new friends, but it’s time spent recognizing and appreciating that life is about  something bigger than you.  And I think regardless of what you do or do not believe, spending time thinking about something other than yourself is time well spent.

Me and the Wichita Falls boys headed to Cowboy Church bright and early this morning.  Cowboy Church is practical, simple, and gets straight to the point.  And you get to drink piping hot black coffee during the service.  I liked it.

Afterward, we headed down the road to Mi Ranchito for some Mexican goodness.  I ordered the shrimp tostadas which were way larger than I anticipated.  Everybody’s dish came with huge slices of avocado, which won me over right away.  When our bellies were beyond full, we parted ways.

From there, I met up with Matt to help him with his new website.  I didn’t realize that installing WordPress on Go Daddy involved wait time, so I helped him with some other errands and wound up at Mexican Feast #2.  This time there were avocado margaritas (which were so darn good).

The thought of eating Mexican food twice in one day grossed me out, like a lot.  I was still so full, but figured having an order of ceviche in front of me was much safer than chips and salsa.  It was a good plan, but chips and salsa most definitely happened anyway.

And even though I’m stuffed beyond belief right now, I’m happily placing another check under the fun-filled weekend column!

A Movie Fun Easter

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You know those days where you’re having so much fun that you feel like time stops, laughing continues, and you have no thoughts other than what’s going on in the moment?  I have always described that feelings as movie fun.  And I did not expect movie fun this Easter.

In fact, I woke up with my first serious pangs of homesickness on Sunday morning.  It started creeping up on Friday and by Sunday morning, I was a sad kid.  And it wasn’t so much that I want to be anywhere but Austin, I just wanted everyone I love to be here with me.

This was Jenny’s first Easter without family so she knew the feeling.  We went to Easter service, unsure of what the day had in store for us.  But we left Easter service on a mission to meet Matt for coffee.  For Matt is a life-lover and there’s no such thing as a dull day in his world.

Next thing we knew, we were four-deep in Matt’s explorer and headed West.  Destination?  Wherever the largest patches of wildflowers led us.

We parked next to a saloon in Willow City, Texas (yeah that’s right, population 75), and whipped out the football.

 

It wasn’t long before I frolicked over to a field and made a wildflower tiara.  In my world, crafting ability > athletic ability.

From there, we found a secluded spot where the boys taught Jenny and me how to shoot.  Neither of us had ever fired a gun before, so it was an… interesting experience.  Jenny was a natural and made a shot!  I, umm, had a difficult time holding the weight of the gun.

It wasn’t long before we realized we were on private property and told to scat.  Where to next?  Jumping into the Pedernales River!  By this time, my phone was dead (because my phone is always dead), so no photo proof of river adventure.  But due to shallow, mucky, weed bottomed water, it was a short-lived trip anyway.

We headed back to Matt’s place to grill up some Easter dinner.  Jenny was in charge of the lamb and I prepped veggies for grilling and tzatziki for dipping.  By the time dinner was over, we realized we’d been non-stop fun-having for 12 hours, 12 movie fun hours.

I rolled into bed feeling the exact opposite as I had felt when I rolled out this morning and that is something to be thankful for!