« June 2008 | Main | August 2008 »
A friend of mine works at the Headliners Club here in Austin (it’s a restaurant, not a nude dancing establishment I swear.) A couple weeks ago was his girlfriend’s birthday. Being one of those powerless-to-resist-food food freaks, he of course went all out.
Once upon a last Sunday, there was an awesome guy named Bill who tended bar at FINO and got us on the guest list to see him mix cocktails with 42 Below vodka from New Zealand! How freaking cool is THAT!
Not just mix cocktails, actually. Compete with other bartenders from Austin (and Dallas and New Orleans) to win a trip to recreate their libations on top of a mountain in New Zealand, perhaps while bungee-jumping. The video at the 42 Below website is a mite unclear.
Continue reading "The Bartender that Kicked Everyone's Ass" »
It's been crazy around here for the last week, what with K and J getting married and the whole family descending on our humble town. Why one week of insanity means I haven't posted anything in two weeks, well, uh... hi, aren't we cute?
Because I'm a last-minute kinda gal, I waited until last Tuesday to drive up to the outlets with my patient husband to buy a dress for the weekend wedding. As I exited I-35, a police officer traveling in the lane next to me slammed on his brakes and peered at something on my back bumper. Then he pulled behind me and flicked on his lights.
I pulled over into a car dealership off the expressway and rolled down my window as the officer pulled up beside me.
"Whose vehicle is this?" he asked.
"Mine," I replied.
"Did you put that sticker on the back of your vehicle? What's Johnny Socko?"
I explained that the sticker was for a band out of Indiana. He said,
"Well, you're in violation of federal code, having that sticker that's designed to look like you're transporting hazardous materials."
I don't know why my first instinct was to argue - perhaps because I'm an idiot - but I said incredulously "I've had this sticker on my car for eight years!"
He went on "Hey, this is just a friendly warning. I think your sticker's clever. Heck, I like it. And I'm not writing you a ticket. You're not even getting a warning. In fact, you're not even stopped right now."
(At this point, I glanced wildly around at my obviously stationary Saturn, confused.)
Then he told us we were free to go and drove off.
Definitely my strangest runin with an officer of the law.
In trying to make sense of the mess of pictures that are now clogging the (20 gig!) hard drive on my borrowed laptop, I found these shots of Lulu B's. Though Austin has like hundreds of taco trucks, until the last couple of years we didn't really have outdoor food that wasn't Mexican.
That's been changing, with higher real estate prices apparently driving at least some of the rush to the outdoors. We've got Torchy's (yeah, it's a taco truck, but much more hipster-y), Flip Happy Crepes, Davine Foods, and several cupcake trucks that have all opened in the last couple of years.
I really wanted to like Lulu B's. For one, they're in an area of town that's completely devoid of good Asian food of any kind. Yeah, you heard me South Austin! For another, well.. take a look! Don't you just want to go "Awww"?
According to this article, the place is run by a California transplant and her sister, aiming to show off their mother's recipes. We tried a pretty good cross-section of the menu on the day we were there.
I hope that everyone out there in Bloggo-land had a great weekend, and that those of you who had an extra day off were able to have some fun with it.
On Friday the 4th, we got up really early (for a day off) to begin preparing for the holiday dinner we'd be going to at K and P's beautiful South Austin house. Husbear went nuts.
HE MADE BUNS. And ketchup. And aioli. And pimento cheese. And long-term caramelized onions. And that's just what we brought over.
Pretty soon after we arrived with our giant cooler bag stuffed with four bottles of rose and a bunch of Topochico, K and Husbear put together this quick snack tray.
Continue reading "Celebrating the Fourth with our bellies" »
What have we been up to? Well, hopefully you'll find out soon, since I have the week off of work and very little excuse to procrastinate. Well, perhaps not quite as much of an excuse as normal.
Last week was terrific, with my math project ending and a wonderful Fourth and another trip out to Krause Springs. We also had an Internet friend come into town. I've been communicating with Paolaccio through the etherweb for over a year now, which seems like a shocking period of time to know someone without having any ability to pick them out of a lineup of two.
So, he came into town, and we went to Vino Vino and had lots of tasty small plates, and then the next day we took the man down to Lockhart so he could wrap his canines around some serious Central Texas barbeque at Smitty's. He didn't eat for another twenty-six hours.
He came through town on the Albuquerque - New Orleans leg of his cross-country car journey, which you can follow over here on his blog.
Yay for finally meeting internet people in the flesh!
Have we mentioned our small kitchen?
I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July celebrations! We've been up preparing since about 9 this morning. I'm surrounded by rising hamburger buns, freshly made pimento cheese, a large pile of caramelized onions, and what's rapidly beginning to look like homemade ketchup!
That's not to mention the croissants we bought for hot dogs, the burgers being made at our friend's house, the homemade pickles and watermelon salad K's working on, and of course the copious roses and beers and Topochicos for the drinking. Phew.
Happy Independence Day! I have to go help before the kitchen devolves into further chaos.
