October 16th & 17th

Saturday

Saturday started off pretty slow. Did some cleaning and yard work. Then we got some tacos at East End's own Brother's Tacos and picked up a compost bin through the one day rain barrel and compost bin sale sponsored by Buffalo Bayou ArtPark.

Compost bin all settled into our backyard.

Leaves from the yard work.

Jason stirring the mix.

Later, we headed to dinner at Beaver's and then Hairspray with our friends Quinn and Michelle. Dinner was great. Beaver's is kinda neat... Texas cuisine and interesting drink offerings. Also, the BBQ is made on site and when they "run out of BBQ there ain't no more 'til tomorrow." We kinda lucked out... the brisket was taking longer than normal, so we got a free appetizer and two free cups of their famous mac and cheese.

The show was really fun too. The law firm that Michelle works for sponsored the play, so we had awesome seats in the orchestra section. Seriously, I don't know if we'll ever be that close to the stage again.

 

Sunday

Sunday morning we decided to try our hand at carving the pumpkin I bought last week.

Pumpkin innards.

Jason concentrating on drawing the face.

I see a striking similarity between the two.

Me trying to carve the face.

Jack's new home for the next couple of weeks.

Boo.

Later we worked in the garden a bit.

Me planting some more peas.

Thirsty plants.

Then we met our friends Sal & Nicole at the Monster's of Beer festival in Midtown which featured Texas breweries.

Entrance.

One of the breweries.

Jason enjoying a sip.

Us.

Jason & Sal.

My score card.

And finally I'll leave you with the favorite part of my day. I call this...

Portrait of Radar on a Sunday morning.

Hope you had a great weekend and wishing you a great Monday.

Swiss Chard Quiche

Since some of our Swiss chard was ready to harvest, I had to look up some Swiss Chard recipes. Cause come on, who has really had chard before? I saw a quiche recipe and decided to try it. Here's how it went...

First I cut the leaves that were ready.

Then I gathered the rest of the ingredients: 4 eggs, an onion, 2 1/2 cups of cheese (I used Mozzarella and cheddar because that's what we had in the fridge), 1 cup milk, olive oil, salt & pepper. I also decided to add mushrooms to the recipe.

Start by chopping up the chard, 1/2 of the onion, and the mushrooms.

Saute them in a pan with the olive oil.

I added the chard after about a minute, because I figured like spinach it wouldn't take very long to cook. I was right.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and add the shredded cheese and milk.

Then fold in the sauteed chard mixture.

Pour into a pie dish that has been coated in cooking spray. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes.

Once it is golden brown and you can cut into it without excess liquid escaping, it's done.

I also made a fruit salad.

I don't know why I always like fruit salads better than the fruits by themselves.

Ready to serve.

It was really good. I would recommend the recipe to anyone looking for an easy meal. It would also be a great dish to make for potlucks.

Garden Update

Garden

So it's been three weeks since we built our garden beds and planted our vegetables and herbs, and I thought I'd give you a little update.

So this was our garden three weeks ago when we first planted it.

And this is our garden today.

I think the standout is the basil. The cauliflower and broccoli are doing okay. We think they went through some shock when we first trans-planted them, but they are doing better now. The cabbage and the cilantro, however, aren't doing too well. I mean look at that little cabbage in the back right hand corner. He's looking a bit sad.

Here is the other bed on the day we planted it.

And here it is today.

The Swiss chard has really taken off. I think some of the leaves will be ready to harvest later this week. The bunch onions/ chives are doing great as well. We've used them while cooking twice during the past week. If you look really hard, you can also see quite a few little beets coming up and two little pea plants in the back.

Here is a close up of the chives. Yum.

Cooking

So, I think I've mentioned this more than a few times on here, but Jason (being the amazing husband that he is) has been cooking most of the meals lately.

Here's some homemade guacamole and chips.

Here are some stuffed peppers.

Homemade potato soup.

Another view of the potato soup. See the chives? Those are from the garden.

And of course, wherever there's food, there's Radar.

Kombat Kroger

Today I get a text at work from Jason telling me to pick up condensed chicken soup on my way home so he can make potato soup for dinner. I text him back "ok" and add on a comment about how much harder my current job is compared to his first year of work (which he complained about for a year straight.) He texts back that no, our jobs are equally as hard and that he also needs dill weed for the recipe. I text back, "No tie. I win. U r a dill weed." Hehe. Hoho. There's a little dill weed joke for ya.

Anyhoo... I head to Kombat Kroger after work to pick up the aforementioned soup and dill weed and realize that you know you live in a great neighborhood when the cops are called to diffuse a situation and they know the upstanding citizens by name. True story. The conversation went something like this:

Cop: Hi miss So-and-so. I hear we have a situation.

Miss So-and-so: I'm glad you are here. I was looking for you earlier today.

Apparently, the cops and Miss So-and-so are great friends. I'm glad our cops are so active in the community.

In addition to the soup and dill weed, I spontaneously bought a pumpkin. I don't know when the last time I carved a pumpkin was, but I think I am going to attempt to carve one this weekend. Should be an adventure.

Ok, almost time for my potato soup. Oh! Our onion/ chive type plant is flourishing in our garden. We are going to use it as a topping for the soup tonight. Hooray! At least one of our plants is proving useful. I can't say the same for the rest of them yet.

Concert Season

This week marks the start to what seems to be an active fall concert season. Here is a list of the upcoming shows heading through town:

Local Natives – Thursday, October 7th (House of Blues)
Devendra Banhart – Friday, October 8th (Warehouse Live)
Portugal the Man – Monday, October 11th (Fitzgerald’s)
Of Montreal – Thursday, November 4th (Numbers)
Iron & Wine – Sunday, November 21st (Fitzgerald’s)

We also have tickets to the Monsters of Beer festival on Sunday, October 17th in Midtown, which celebrates the last day of Houston Beer Week. (Not technically a concert, but should be fun nonetheless.)

I'm looking forward to all of the shows - especially considering those are some of my favorite bands. Throw Metric into the mix and I wouldn't be able to contain my excitement. (I've been trying to catch a Metric show for the past 5 years and somehow always miss them.)

However, I'm worried that my ever-decreasing bed time will inhibit my ability to stay awake for all of the shows. Seriously, I get my ni-night time grouchiness earlier and earlier these days. It's quite sad actually. I think I'm going to have to load up on coffee to get through the night.

At least living in town has decreased the time spent on the road going to concerts compared to when we were in The Woodlands. I'll make it home an hour earlier than those days.

Wish me luck on Thursday - it will be the first test of my endurance.

Grilling with Friends

One great thing about the cooler weather is getting to spend more time outside. We are finally able to enjoy the patio set we bought earlier this summer. Last weekend, we bought ribs that we planned on grilling until we read the package and realized that they would take over two hours to cook. We grilled steak and chicken instead and had corn on cob and green bean casserole. Ferryn and Steve joined us.

Our little $25 grill is still kickin.

Enjoying the patio set.

Ferryn enjoying the food.

Last night we had another impromptu dinner gathering. We planned our time appropriately this time around and were able to make the ribs. Jason also made his family's famous "ranch potatoes" (sliced potatoes baked with butter, onions, and bacon), fresh green beans, and cherry dump cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. We also grilled some chicken and turkey sausage and Ferryn made some great guacamole. There ended up being 7 of us, but we still ended up with WAY too much food. Jason and I will have leftovers all week.

The weather really is gorgeous though. I found myself making little excuses (I have to water the garden, I have to sweep the porch, I have to go admire my new car, etc.) all day yesterday just to get outside. I hope it stays this way for awhile.

Ok, gotta run. Jason and I are church shopping. Trying to find somewhere close to start going.

New Car

So, Jason & I bit the bullet. We bought a new car. Our first car. In terms of having to pay for it anyways. It was a bit of a sad day really. Gone are the days of the "Kiss my Taur-Ass" jokes. The Taurus served me well. It got me through high school (despite a lot of jokes about my family car.) It survived many trips from College Station to Alice to see my family on holidays and from College Station to Dallas to see Jason on the weekends. But, unfortunately, it just had a lot of problems (passenger windshield didn't work, no heater, needed new brakes, the wheels clicked when you turned, etc.), and we really didn't want to put more money in to it than it was worth.

Goodbye Taurus. You were a good car.

Hello new car.

So, we went with a Hyundai Elantra Touring SE. We really needed a car that could get us through the next phase of our life. We already have enough crap as it is with the dog and bikes and luggage, etc. Add kids in a few years and it would be a tough squeeze. Jason really opposed getting a SUV, so after seeing a Jetta Sportswagon on our Hill Country trip, we started looking at wagons and hatchbacks. The Elantra Touring and the Jetta were back to back in a lot of reviews/ ratings, and ultimately the Elantra Touring won because of its awesome warranty and its value.

Side view.

Front.

Interior.

Radio.

Sunroof. :)

Back.

Radar approves too.