So Much Food

Sadly I took only one food photo over the holiday. No, make that two. I was with in laws and was trying to go low key with pics. Actually that and I was herding the 2 smallest kids all weekend (with lots of help I might add) and taking photos was just not foremost in my mind.

Three highlights:

1: Cowboy game at Jerryworld in a suite with lots of quality food and beverage. The Boys lost in a pitiful OT but whatever. Shrimp and beef tenderloin plus some nice sweets were all in attendance. No complaints. Jerryworld is pretty spectacular.

2: Christmas Eve dinner prepped by sister in law and her hubs. They do a mean prime rib and it is one of my fav meals when visiting. That and teal but that is a story for another day. Suffice it to say I aspire to their culinary prowess and bow before them. I did get to contribute my burnt green beans which I think everyone enjoyed, so that was good too.

3: flour less chocolate cake. The end.

Um, Yeah . …

Good lord I am behind.

Like two weeks ago I had this squash casserole and shrimp jambalaya at Treebeards in market square, or whatever they call that location, on Travis.

Squash casserole was the shizz. Excellent breading to squash ratio, not too dry and squash nice and mushy. Jambalaya had too much sausage for my personal taste but not bad. A tad too much heat to the exclusion of other flavors. Overall good meal. Rounded out with buttercake that Ducky Momo ended up eating most of. I don't need the calories so while resentful it was for the best.

Reminds me I finished my 4 weeks of aquatic boot camp and survived. I can now push out of the pool and get my foot up on the deck vs rolling out like a beached whale. Yay me.

Oh 5 for the casserole and a 3.5 on jambalaya. Of course it's recommended. Duh.

Ps, no idea what that second photo is. Mashed potatoes or chicken fried chicken. I'm going with mashed. Part of Ducky Momo's meal.

Update: looking at this on a computer vs. my phone I can see now it is BOTH mashed potatoes with gravy AND chicken fried chicken, also with gravy.

More Crepes

Yeah so I had a draft of this done but left it on my phone and it got wiped. As a result this one wont be nearly as pithy. Boo for you!

Ok, Monday met a friend for lunch at Sweet Paris. Return visit for me, first time for her. Tried something different from last visit this time. Went with some Mexican French fusion in the form of a chicken enchilada crepe. It was ok. The filling was good but the sauce was not really like ranchero but more of a spicy marinara. I won't go so far as to say it was gross but I scraped most of it off. There was also way too much. Very saucy. Side salad was good. Crepe is huge so it is good value, but I couldn't eat it all so from that perspective maybe not such good value after all. But what about leftovers? If you think that is acceptable then you have obviously never had a leftover crepe. Not good.

Overall nice lunch and pleasant company. We traded baby pictures and had a delightful time catching up.

I'd recommend Sweet Paris if you're near rice village. More legit French peeps there so these are indeed credible Crepes.

Breakfast Post

Running secret Santa errand with Hubs this morning. Got a side of grits to go from Breakfast Klub. First, huge container so I have to see if Twist or Chungry want to share. Second, buttery and creamy. The gold standard in grits. The end.

5 and recommended.

Hob Nobbing Pt. Deux . . .

 . . b/c you have to use French when really hob nobbing it.

Monday started things off with a bang and today the week ended with a bang.  The middle pretty much sucked though and is not really worth mentioning.  I think I had some leftovers and then I went out of town and had some bad airport food followed by some government agency cafeteria food, followed by more bad airport food.  At one point I think I had a meal that consisted entirely of a king size Mr. Goodbar.  This also prompted me to look up that movie about Mr. Goodbar from the 70s which I always assumed with a name like that was a kooky rom com.  Um no.  It is totally F'd up man and nothing I think I ever need to see.  So, where was I?  oh yeah, bad airport food:  FYI Tidewater, when you say you have a crab cake and describe it as having Lump Crab Meat, that seems to imply that you have a higher crab meat to breading ratio.  Not the other way around.  Super disappointed in your crab cake, but then again, I was also at the airport so perhaps the blame is all mine.

Thursday while I was eating Government Agency Cafeteria food (which was a nicely done grilled cheese with bacon) in DC, my cohorts were over at Grove for our department Christmas holiday lunch.  Pretty sucky that I missed out on that and instead was stuck doing some admin litigation in a room full of crazy people.  But anyway . . . today more than made up for it.  Twist and I joined a couple of entertaining and pleasant folks from the regulatory floor for a last hurrah buffet lunch at the Plaza Club before one of companions cancelled her membership.  I'd never been there before but use "club" and "buffet" in the same sentence and I'm in.

Look at the fancy sign and the marble entry!  It reminded me of the old executive dining room that the McGraw Hill building in Rock Plaza used to have.  Anyone know if they still have it or if its been repurposed as office space?  It was sweet and so was this.  Great views but poopy weather today.  However we did have a super view of the building that our company is moving into over the next couple of years.  Check it:

Aww and they even put out green and red napkins for the holidays!  How can you not love that?

No photo of the buffet b/c I did not want to embarrass my host, but nice spread.  Not your typical buffet either.  My compliments to the PC for inventive buffet menu.  A Caribbean table had some panfried pork, an unidentified roast veggie of some sort that may have been a plaintain but was more squash-like, fried oysters and fried shrimp and Caribbean cabbage slaw.  There was also some fajita chicken and tortillas along with some sausage that I meant to try but didn't get around to getting up and procurring.  Also- a soup and sandwich table.  Brilliant!  Soup was gumbo.  Tasty gumbo with a nice kick.  Made my nose run, but not so much spice my mouth went numb eating.  Juuuust right.  Base was really dark brown which freaked me out a little but I was reassured by the service piece which was a giant cast iron and enameled dutch oven.  It looked like the gumbo was actually cooked in that pot then carried out to the table.  No warning dish or crappy soup tureen.  It was sort of impressive.

I forewent salad and jumped right in with entrees.  I had a full plate before I found out about the sausages so missed those.  Reports were that they were very tasty and had a good spicy kick.  I just did a little bit of everything.  Highlight was fried oysters and smoked salmon.  I am a whore for smoke salmon.  I would stuff myself silly with it if I could.  I was trying to be classy though and not pig out so only got a few pieces.

This is not my plate.  The picture of my plate has mysteriously disappeared so you get to see um-- the other guy who is not Twist's plate.  Now that I have lunched twice with these two and expect to do so on a more regular basis I think they qualify for code names.  I'll have to work on that for next time. . .  Suggestions?

Meanwhile, dessert options were presented.  Choc mousse cake, turtle cheesecake that actually looked pretty bitchin and dripping with caramel, banana fosters pie that also looked intriguing eventhough BF is not my thing.  Keylime pie, um, some other stuff and mango creme brulee.  Actually all pretty tempting options.  Key lime pie most definitely IS my thing so I ordered some up.  Again, distracted by conversation on how cats are dicks so forgot photo.  You tell me if I liked it or not:

Yes- absolutely disgusting.  No, just kidding.

Really lovely and not a fake green color which I appreciate.  Solid graham cracker crust that tasted homemade and some nice heavy whipped cream on top.  A perfect finish. I don't know what a membership at this joint costs but the buffet would make it totally worthwhile unless it's like crazy money every month.

Company again, fantastic and almost brought me to tears at one point I was laughing so hard.  Cats really are dicks.

I guess you had to be there.  Ran into Chungry and Ducky Momo on the way back  and got the stink eye from both of them. Not sure if it was for going off floor for lunch mates or going to the Plaza Club without them or both, or maybe they are just a coupla cats?  hmmmmm

PS-- found it! This is my plate.

Monday Revelations . . .

Some life changing news today people! A fortuitous turn of events resulted in lunch with Twist. Thinking soup might be the way to go since its sort of legit cold here today, we headed towards Corner Bakery.

Alas, spicy Thai coconut is not on the Sun-Tues roster of soups. Jerks. That should be an everyday soup instead of that tomato basil nonsense.

Vaguely recalling that Ducky Momo had suggested awhile back he thought there was a chance CB did breakfast all day I threw caution to the wind and asked. I thought that was intel worth getting a definitive answer on.  I am happy to report to you that yes, this is true!!! With the exception of oatmeal, but who wants to eat oatmeal all day? No one, that's who. Good call CB.

Twist and I both went breakfast route. He with a chicken sausage panini and me with the Anaheim panini. His came with roasted potatoes that were excellent. Slight crisp on the outside and good seasoning. His panini was also reported as satisfactory raising the level of CB in the lunch rotation to new heights. The Anaheim was a glorious lunch. Not too big. Lots of good scrambled egg and avocado. The sourdough bread was also fantastic. And, the eggs were real.  So a big huzzah for Corner Bakery!

All in all we were super excited by the breakfast all day (except oatmeal) revelation. I'm pretty sure that this will make my week.

I have to go with a 5 on my panini. It was GOOD. Seriously, I'm so psyched to know I can get breakfast for lunch. Commuter Croissant, watch out!!

Friday

Didn't bring lunch today and it seems no one saw fit to ask me to join them. My brilliant coworker suggested Treebeards. I hadn't been in a while so off I went.

Shrimp étouffée with a piece of butter cake. A pretty decadent lunch Not sure what butter cake is? A slice of heaven, that's what! It's like you most favorite sugar cookie morphed into a moist sweet blonde bar. But there is nothing in it. No nuts or choc chips. its strength lies in the batter. Mmmmmmmmmm mmmm good.

And probably a thousand calories. But I fit into the 29 inch jeans today so feeling pretty good. The boot camp thing is kicking my butt. I'm hanging in there though.

Hob Nobbing . . .

Last night was the annual Christmas open house (Christmas, not "holiday".  It's Texas so to them everyone celebrates Christmas and they don't care) at the country club we belong to.  I know how that sounds, it's not as snotty as it seems.  We don't hang out there much.  Just use it for kid activities and Hubs plays tennis in a tennis league.  Anyway, the food is always good an plentiful as are the antics of buzzed older white people, so we usually go.  This year was no exception.  Now that we have the layout down, Hubs and I can run our pattern on arrival vs wasting time milling around.  In the front is always cheese and crackers and a beer and wine bat that never has a line.  Hit the door, get a drink, snag some cheese b/c I am starving, and head to the back corner dining room.  On the way scope out one of the carving stations and some other apps.  The back room is the first stop because of this:

Yes, my friends.  A giant table of ice and shrimp and crab claws.  The club boils them fresh so they are actually good and have a nice flavor.  Crab was sweet. shrimp was just right.  cocktail sauce nice and spicy.  So we had a plate of those and chatted up some people we ran into--who are legit crazy rich and kind of can't have a conversation about normal things.  Instead we talked about the dude's jet he owns b/c going to the regular airport is too much of a pain in the ass, and his piloting.  So, I don't know. At least he flies it himself?  He talks about it like its one of the cars in the driveway.  Kind of nuts.  Unless of course I am ever to benefit from knowing someone with their own jet in which it is THE BOMB!  Shrimp a 4.5

After the shrimp we headed back out to the main dining room and the carving stations.  Last year they had a phenomenal smoked tenderloin which we were hoping to partake of again this year.  And, they had it! yay!  The tenderloin is a 5.  I would eat this any and every day of the week if I could.  I swear this is the only time of the year when they pull this out.  A little Christmas magic I suppose.  Had two helpings of that.  Nice and rare.

We also tried some of the other appetizers.  Hubs had some egg roll and we tried the lobster dip with bagel chips.  Yeah, not so much.  It was velveeta with rotel tomatoes in it and chunks of lobster.  Verdict was guilty for subjecting lobster to this treatment and ruining it.  On the other hand, the mussels were again-out of this world.  Another 5.  Yodi had herself a big 'ol bowl of them and was super happy.

 

 Next stop- dessert room.  Last year we missed this because we were still novices and all the desserts are downstairs.  They have a whole room and hallway with nothing but dessert tables and bananas foster.  That is not my thing but boy was there a considerable amount of geriatric members lined up for that!  I just went with a sampling of the small things.  the tarts were not very good.  crust was soggy.  The little mocha cake bite things were the best.  Gingerbread cookies also good.  I wrapped up two to take home to the nippers but now I can't find them.  Hmmm.

 

The fancy bar with the liquor, and ice sculptures!

It was a quick hit more or less but a successful evening with the added bonus of meeting the MOST adorable old guy who visited with us for quite a while over dessert.  At 74 my man just came back from climbing Mount Everest to the 18,000 ft level.  He looks like your average grandpa, but seems to be quite the outdoorsman.  He also had lots of other great stories about working the back country at Sequoia National Park as a college student and then going back for a 2 week riding and camping excursion in his 70s.  Just a charming delightful little guy.  Cheers to him!

Oh and the people with the jet invited us to their New Year's Eve party again this year so obviously they aren't that bad! hehehehe.

Free Lunch!

Employee meeting today followed by free lunch! The whole office trucked over to the downtown aquarium which was a nice change of venue. Usually our meetings are in a nearby theater where I invariably fall asleep in the cushy chair in the low lighting. With that kind of environment it can't entirely be my fault though. Who can stay awake in the morning under those conditions? Anyway. Meeting was good, lots of fun facts and beat of all I stayed awake throughout. Probably a good thing when the CEO is in attendance, no?

Lunch was a buffet with fried chicken, some cheesy pesto pasta thing and biscuits with crudités and salad station. I got a little of everything for research purposes. No salad though. Just crudités. Mix of veggies was nice. The aquarium threw in some fun stuff like whole carrots and raw eggplant and endive along with the standard tomato, squash, celery choices. The carrot was the best thing about lunch. I am not making that up. Very tasty and sweet. Makes me wonder if it was local which would explain why it hasn't had the life sucked out it yet like store carrots.

Fried chicken was bland. Meat had no flavor. Coating was ok though. Pasta was pretty good but heavy for lunch. Glad I didn't get more than a few bites of that. Biscuit tasted like KFC but that's cool. KFC makes a fair biscuit. Too much fake butter brushed on top though. Filling but also pretty marginal all together.

Ducky Momo and Chungry ducked out in favor of paying for lunch somewhere else. That's just how they roll. Suckers.

Desserts were meh. I'm a cake and pie gal myself and this was mostly tarts and fancy pastries. Took a berry tart to go. Not too bad. Ate half and picked the fruit off.

Noticed all the dudes just did chicken pasta and biscuits. Not a veggie anywhere in sight. It kind of grosses me out. I can only imagine the gastrointestinal havoc being wrecked on office mates this afternoon. Way to go guys. Thank god you don't sit on my floor.