Turning 30 Extravaganza: High Tea with Friends

Last Sunday, some lovely friends and I met at the Full English for High Tea to celebrate my birthday...

Tea, food, cream, jam, food, food, food and friends!
ALL GOOD THINGS

D&W

Cha

 And let's get a close up of the food...

Lemon cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes, meringues with cream
Currant scones and sandwiches.
OMG

Turning 30 Extravaganza: Crepes!

Since I was on vacation last week, on Friday T and I went out for Brunch at Le Cafe Crepe.  The first time I went there I had La Fromagere (brie, walnuts and pears = yum!) so this time I made myself go savory.

The Bruni:

Spinach, tomato pesto and GOAT CHEESE = yum!!

T's Croissant Breakfast Sandwich

 

 

My little Chai and his cappuccino

Afterwards we went and got T a belated birthday cupcake from Delish. : )

Day Off from Extravaganza

Since yesterday was my brother's birthday, I took the day off from my extravaganza. So generous, I know.

I printed for inviting in the morning and cooked a little bit before dinner.

Making Horchata
David Libovitz's Recipe
Grinding up the Rice

Making Ginger Ale
Joy the Baker's Recipe
Chopping up the Ginger

Monterey Stuffed Chicken
Don't Panic, More Dinner's in the Freezer recipe
Made a bunch of thighs to freeze, but had to cook the breasts at once

Then birthday dinner at HomeSlice Pizza with Mom, T, the birthday guy, his g.f. and her friend.

The birthday guy.
He writes about the Spurs HERE and
has even written for espn.com before.
Yup, I'm a proud big sister.

The friend, the girlfriend, and the bday guy. Goofballs. : )

But now that his bday has passed, it's all about me again ; )

Turning 30 Extravaganza: Happy Hour

Tuesday's Happy Hour at El Mercado

$3.99 Mexican Martinis? Check

Chips? Check

$1.99 HH Appetizers? Check

Friends? CHECK!

Wow- there are quite a few martini shakers! Fun times.

 

Not very good pictures, I know. And the one of Cha, her eyes are closed, and N is blurry so those didn't even make it up. Oh well!

Ack! The Full English in Austin? Yes, please!

So the "full English" is one of the most amazing meals/things *ever*. Had it a few times in England and in Scotland. Imagine my surprise and joy when I saw that there's a cafe IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD called Full English. (Okay, not exact neighborhood but close enough to ride a bicycle to should I be so inclined. (i am not.) you get the idea though.) I'm really wondering how i am just NOW finding this out?* It's off a busy road and you can see if when driving by! Madness.  But anyway, I know of it now and am thrilled.

One of the many cozy seating areas of the Full English cafe

We went there for breakfast today because, again, a Full English is, well, when done all out, it's B.T.S. ; ) This one wasn't b.t.s, but it was still pretty damn tasty!

Bangers, fried toast, roasted tomato half, tasty tasty mushrooms, fried eggs, and yummy salty bacon. $8.

 Turns out they also do a High Tea ($15/person) so I'll be doing that (soon i hope!) with mom.
Check them out HERE. (*Oh, and turns out they just had their official grand opening on the 25th so I don't feel so bad now. yay.)

Any one know where to get black pudding in Austin?  (The pudding at Fado in their Full English is pretty good.)

In other news...

Made these Saturday morning for inviting. An etsian said she liked my folded cards and was looking for something like that to frame for a newborn's room, so I came up with these. The pinks (shown) are a little larger than 5x7, and they're also printed on white cotton paper, gray cardstock, and a cool coppery-shimmery cardstock.

Tried making tempura veggies for the first time. A little difficult when the package has no english whatsoever. But I made it work, and wow was it yummy!! I did asparagus spears and avocado quarters. The avocado not so much, but the asparagus- très délicieux. So that, plus some ramen and edamame (not pictured) was dinner one night. Not the healthiest, but something new.

Have a great week, and don't forget you can purchase a letterpress printed bookmark HERE - all proceeds go to relief efforts in Japan.

Friday with Friends

Last year friends D&W moved to Philly, and Friday they came back for a visit! A large group of us waited for 90+ minutes for a table at Moonshine (no reservations on Fridays- be prepared to wait at the bar) and had such a fun time:

 

Thanks to Chantal for sharing her pictures!!

Last day of Staycation

Friday was such a fun day. I relaxed in the morning, worked on a scarf and watched a Paul Newman movie with Emma in the early afternoon, and T got off from work early so we were able to check in at the Stephen F Austin that afternoon.

Because we don't have cable or anything like that, actual TV is a treat. Flipping channels I saw the intro of Thank You for Smoking, which is brilliant and hilarious (and why don't I own it?), so we watched that. Our wine and cheese tray came early on so we munched and sipped throughout the movie. After the movie we went to McCormick & Schmicks for happy hour (Pimms & lemonade/DosXX, blue crab rangoons / buffalo wings), then on to Cork & Co (Prosecco / Guinness). At Cork & Co we amused ourselves with the Table Topics.

Us at Cru trying to make a selection

From there we walked to Cru on Second Street (Champagne/ red wine, calamari), and it started raining when leaving so we hopped into Sullivan's (vodka tonic / Guinness), then up to Amsterdam Cafe (vodka tonic / beer). And finally, up Sixth Street for a couple slices of pizza to take back to the room.

In the morning we had hot breakfast in the cafe (cheese blintzes are wonderful; why do I never make them?) and then packed our things to head back to the crazy cats*. We had a fabulous night out.

M&S had the best happy hour food prices (next time will get the calamari there), Sullivans was the priciest place (no specials and their actual food was way out of my price range, but that's why I don't eat at steakhouses). Cru had nice service, and their calamari was delish but it was pricy. Cork & Co didn't have many food options, but they were friendly and it was more affordable. AC was empty as they were setting up for the band later, but it was very dark and laid back with loud rock music, like a bar should be. And pizza on 6th is *always* good.

*Seriously, they (especially The Emma) are crazy. They were running into the bedroom (she was chasing him) and because there's no carpet or rug for them to use as brakes, what do they do? Use the back wall as a springboard to go in the other direction. I'm not kidding! Totally ridiculous. Then Emma was whining/singing/humming to herself as she came out looking for the scarf, found it, bit an end, and does this to it. Later, while watching the movie with her, she was napping and at one point, was sleeping with her eyes open. Creepy.

Staycation Day 1

So for my first day of the staycation...

Spent an hour or so in the print shop today, making blind-punched thank you notes.

They are listed on etsy now.

Watched a meh movie (Duets) on netflix and knitted some of a scarf- pink organic cotton yarn- chunky and textured.

Aiming for a somewhat narrow long fun scarf. Looking forward to fall...

Went to the Domain to The Steeping Room for tea and scones with Mom, then wandered through a few shops

Yummy scone with jam and clotted cream!
When the weather cools down, will definitely go back for a pot of hot tea and scones.

Put on Clueless for background giggles (sadly it made me feel old; dumb high school kids, man...) and marinated some chicken for dinner and tried some zucchini cakes- yum!! Serve that with some plain organic yogurt with a 3-finger pinch of curry powder...

Also saw the carrots in the fridge (blech, carrots. Really. Especially baby carrots- i can only eat 5 and then I feel the gag coming...) and decided Carrot Cake! I don't think I've ever made it from scratch before so... Found a recipe from a pretty reliable source.

Not the prettiest, but you know what? I don't care!
It's a cake from scratch, and it tastes like carrot cake, so there!

Had dinner with T (chicken, basmati rice, steamed brocolli, and a zucchini cake

Wouldn't tell T what was in the veggie mound until after he tasted it.
He does not like zucchini, but thought these were okay. Didn't care for the yogurt dipping sauce.

And went to Central Market in hopes of finding those citrus slices.

Success!

Someone who features letterpress studios, who I've been in contact with, has asked to feature us. Eeek! I'm not ready! But no time like the present, right? In the morning I'll do a few reprints, get them online, and *then* say "sure!"

Whipped In

TheKitchn.com posted a food lover's guide to Austin last week and it had some good suggestions. Under specialty stores it recommended Whip In, a place just north of 35 and Oltorf, that I had seen many times but never stopped. After reading that they had prepared indian food, I told T that we *had* to go.

When we got there, I had planned on just ordering something to-go, or getting something already prepared, but there was a little cafe area (some seating was old church pews) with dim lighting, tapestries and saris on the walls, and it was kinda cute, so T suggested we eat there. I ordered the mansoor dal & spinach on basmati, and T (refusing the try to Obama Chili) got the SoCo panaani sandwich, with roast beed, chutney and gorgonzola. The service was nice and food came out quickly. My rice bowl was delish, though how do you go wrong with rice and sauce?, and T's sandwich was good (i love naan).

After dinner we checked out the shop. Had a huge bag of ground corriander (i think it was corriander; don't remember) for $6. I mean HUGE. And another huge bag of peppercorns for $12. I am so going there when I need more spices. Usually I go to World Market first for those. (If you happen to know a south-austin ethnic store I should try for spices, please let me know.)
They also had a great selection of beers- bottles I'd never seen before, and good local/healthy pre-made products in the fridge. Their dolmas weren't the best i've had, but they were still good.

So, despite the pro-Obama (or pro-tyrant as T would say) posters and chili, it was alright. Pretty cheap (veggie dishes under 9, meat dishes under 11), but a very limited menu. But the prices for spices! Man. I'm going to need larger spice jars.