Tempting Tastings

Over the last week I've managed to taste a fair number of delicious dishes.  Let me stop right here, before I write another sentence and implore you to do one thing, and to do it very, very soon.  Go to Urban, located in the Westin at The Domain, and order anything you want, as long as it includes the sweet corn bisque and finishes (or starts!) with the avocado tres leches cake.  Yes, I said avocado.  Tres leches is always a favorite but the addition of avocado gave it a little special "oomph".  If I'd had to taste this blindfolded and guess the mystery ingredient, there is no way I would've come up with avocado.  It is more of a deepening of flavors, of richness and buttery goodness than "hey, I just ate a mouthful of cakey guacamole".

The sweet corn bisque is equally rich and enticing, served with a roasted corn pico de gallo on top.  The first spoonful is sweet, silky goodness with a surprising rush of heat from the spices.  This is no demure damsel of a bisque!  I could happily eat it until I pass out.



Because I am a low/highbrow foodie (thanks for coining that phrase Tolly!), I have to include my favorite lunch last week.  Behold, I give you the newest creation on Hat Creek's menu, their Turkey Burger, a juicy, peppered patty, grilled to perfection.  It rocked my noontime.  It could rock my eveningtime, if Hat Creek would please open a restaurant in South Austin.  My picture doesn't do justice to this burger, as I didn't get a great angle of a shot, to showcase the patty, but I was just too eager to eat it and didn't stop to snap more photos.

Lift Cafe has a sweet little patio where you can sip a bevie (alcoholic or caffeinated or both) and relax.  The day I stopped in, a friend and I ordered this pretty cheese plate.  Divine. 

And in celebration of stinky cheese (not that we had a stinky one on our cheese plate), I give you a different kind of treat.  A "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat".  Well, if you're a toddler who thinks feet are good to eat, that is.

So Not Photogenic

You know, I always tell people I'm not photogenic. I end up looking drunk, each and every time. I can't help my rosacea, folks! It's not that I'm a red nosed drunk (okay, it's not that I'm always a red nosed drunk). After years of pictures that I swear do not look like me, or at least, not a sober me, I'm starting to wonder...maybe the pictures are true to life. Maybe I spend 100% of real life looking like I'm under the influence. I don't know the answer to that burning question (and quite possibly don't want to know, either) but I do know one thing: I made a cute baby.

So, to counteract the effect of having to look at the above picture of me, taken this week, here is another recent picture of my offspring. My very adorable, extremely photogenic offspring. Notice that Ryder is starting to lose the baby look and advance into kid-hood (cue mama tears).

Singin' the Monday blues

You ever have one of those days? The kind of morning when you wake up feeling more tired than when you went to bed? Those days always make me wish I had the freedom to stay in bed, pull the covers up and not put a toe on the carpet until I damn well feel like it. The kind of day where you want to eat leftover cold fried chicken for breakfast, chocolate ice cream for lunch and quite possibly an entire bag of Funyuns for dinner, but only if they are Wasabi Funyuns (sadly, discontinued).

I'm having one of those days. Yes, singin' the Monday blues. The cause of it is the sad state of our finances. With my sweet partner-in-crime laid off, our checking account is anorexic to the point of Karen Carpenter-hood. Our wedding is in November and we've knocked our budget down to the bare bones. And by bare I mean that if our budget was a dress, Tila Tequila would want to wear it.

I'm okay with a casual reception at an ultra casual location because I'm more of a casual girl than anything else. I'm very much okay with everyone getting to wear comfy, tempurature-friendly clothing to our celebration. I'm okay with the idea that we can't afford a caterer, so we'll spend the day prior to our wedding (Thanksgiving) cooking for the reception. I'm okay with hauling Jaime's sound equipment so that we don't have to hire a DJ, only hook up a laptop & run music. I'm okay with not having loads of fresh flowers everywhere you turn.

I'm so sad at only one thing, a trivial detail considering that I'm bagging a great catch of a husband. I can't afford a wedding cake. A beautiful and unique cake is the only part of a traditional wedding that I truly adore but...gorgeous cakes cost a serious amount of bank. We are rich in many ways but not in terms of ink & paper with pictures of various dead presidents on them.

And that, dear reader, is what is bringing me down today. Usually I can work myself up into a seriously good rant and rave about all kinds of issues but today it's simply a selfish whine about a cake. I feel ridiculously shallow, but at the same time tears sting my eyes. It's a freakin' cake, for cryin' out loud! But giving up this one desire is difficult and sad.

Hah, just when I really get into feeling bad for myself, writing this post, my insurance company calls...they have a "Well Aware" program that I got hooked into when I was in a car accident a few months ago. When I told the nurse my back was feeling fine he ominously said "We'll keep you in the program. You never know, your back could be fine one minute and in the next half hour you're in major pain". Nice. Just what I needed to hear today, to boost my spirits. Can't help but laugh!