Pecan Street Festival

I love going to the Pecan Street Festival to people watch. I also like window (or I guess it would be "tent") shopping because I rarely buy anything. I love seeing the creativity but I either don't want to spend the money on the item or that it isn't my style. I lucked out and parked at a parking garage that I haven't parked at before. I had some fun taking pictures before I even left the parking garage :) There is a kaleidoscope of things to take pictures of at the festival. I'm a bit of a chicken and won't openly take pictures of people. I worry that some people would think it was an invasion of privacy (and in a way it is). I realize that professional photographers and journalists take pictures of random people every day, but I just can't do it. At least not yet...

Mushroom yard art.. kind of cute, but the kids would kick these over and break them.

Bongo's... for your inner beat master

I love her hair! See, if I had the balls I would have loved to take a couple of pictures of her from the front. She was very pretty and had a distinct style that would have been fantastic to photograph.

In the parking garage... it is a little fuzzy. I had to change the settings a little because the flash kept going off. And of course I didn't hold it still enough

Graffiti tunnel.... this area smelled like piss. Bad piss. Piss upon piss. You get the idea. However, it was a cool tunnel and I felt the need to take pictures,, while holding my breath of course. It is possible that it was bat piss that I smelled because I kept hearing a high pitch squeak.. and lots of them. I think they nested in the cracks of the stones of the bridge.

Fairy yard art

Downtown Austin

Viewing the parking garage

A fun Sunday

Last Sunday I met up with some friends at a creek in Austin to take their family photos. They were so easy and didn't even blink an eye when I asked them to climb on some rocks :) Such troopers! Hannah is 15 months, and did such a great job! I know I usually have limited time with little ones!

I loved Hannah's little ballerina dress!

Right before I took this picture, Hannah took a handful of Kelly's hair and started to tug! Once Derric was able to loosen Hannah's grip we took some pictures :) I was in the water about ankle high,,,, the water kind of stunk but I needed to get into the water to get this angle

Look at those big beautiful blue eyes!

A breakfast known by many names


This was my first experience with type of breakfast type food. I also think it was called an egg in the nest or birds nest. This is so simple and easy. I have to eat breakfast daily... I'm not that person that can survive on coffee/juice in the morning. I need food.

Start with a piece of bread

Find a glass that has an opening big enough for an egg to cook evenly, but not to big that the bread is not intact. It just so happens that our wine glass is perfect size.

Once you have your hole, place quite a few pats of butter on the pan and melt it. Once melted, place the bread on the pan and let it toast up a bit. Crack your egg into the middle of the bread. I added salt and pepper at this point. Give it about a minute or so to cook before you flip it. I lifted the edges a couple of times to take a peek. Once the bread was nice and toasted and the egg appeared to have firmed up then I flipped it.

I added the "holes" on the pan with some butter and toasted them up. No point in wasting them. When the egg in a hole was almost cooked through I grated some parmesan cheese on top. I cooked them until it was right around medium easy... slightly runny.

YUM!

Blogger must be having some issues, because I have corrected the blog below 3 times. The paragraphs have spaces and is easy to read. I'll go back later and make corrections. Sorry that it is hard to read.

Stuffed and rolled chicken breasts

The recipe that I had called to cut a pocket in the chicken breast and stuff it, but the breasts were not large enough ( ha ha ha.. insert your small boob joke here). So I pounded the breasts thin and put the stuffing the middle and rolled it up. I lost some of the stuffing on the grill, but most of it stayed.

4 chicken breasts, pounded thin

5 marinated artichokes, chopped

1/2 red pepper chopped

1/2 onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

4 slices of provolone cheese

4 pats of butter

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken stock

dash salt

dash pepper

dash oregano

Tooth picks

Saute the red pepper, onion and garlic until soft... about 5-7 minutes. Add the artichokes at the last minute to heat through. Take a slice of provolone cheese and place it on the chicken. Scoop about a tablespoon on the veggie mixture onto the cheese. Roll the piece of chicken up and secure it with toothpicks. I think I used about 3 toothpicks per chicken breast. I would have used kitchen twine if I had any. Repeat 3 more times. Once all of your chicken has been rolled and secured, sprinkle salt, pepper and oregano on the outside of the breasts. You can bake these, but I grilled them over medium heat, about 10 minutes per side (of course this depends on how thin you pounded your chicken).

You have probably noticed by now you have extra veggie mixture. Use the same saute pan and heat up the butter. Once it is melted add the wine to the pan and cook until bubbly. After a few minutes add the left over veggies and the chicken stock. Cook over medium heat until reduced. This will be a sauce to pour over your chicken once you take it off of the grill!

Enjoy!

I can't sit still.....



I'm sitting her watching the Eagles/Cowgirls game on Tv while texting two friends, surfing the Internet for a peach recipe, but that wasn't enough. I felt the need to leave a post. :o) I just had to say that I did a stupid thing... I erased pictures off of my little camera without downloading them. I think this may have been the first time that I have done that (no, I wasn't driving Mom. It was at a stop light) . I was in the car with the camera and I deleted pictures thinking that I downloaded the pictures . It wasn't until they were deleted that I remembered that my computer freaked out and wouldn't download the pictures. I had some pictures of a couple of recipes that I was going to blog about (a pulled pork sandwich and a corn/bean/salsa dip) as well as the first Sunday of football at the house. We had 5 guys come over to watch 5-6 hours of football. I like all of the guys so I really enjoying having them come over. So I have learned my lesson,,,, DO NOT DELETE unless you are sure the pictures have been downloaded!

Run the ball.... Throw the ball.... get a touch down!!!


Tonight is a big game..... My Eagles vs the Cowgirls. This is a big game for a couple of reasons...... Jim's fantasy football game is hinging on McNabb scoring at least 40 points (which is do-able if they play well), Eagles and the Cowgirls are predicted to do well this season so of course we want the Eagles to win (more bragging rights), and because I talk plenty of shit to all of the freakin Cowgirl fans that I know. Talking shit is dangerous territory since the cowgirls have a pretty good team (it pains me to type that) but the Eagles have a strong team as well. So I am sitting here enjoying a cerveza screaming at the TV to help the Eagles score lots of points against the Cowgirls, and so that the Cowgirls go down in flames. For those of you in Austin, you just might hear me screaming :o)

It is always an adventure when I lay on the ground. The ground is the dogs domain so they think that they can do anything the human in their space. I'm not sure why they think this because they sit on the couches and sleep in our bed, so in reality the house is just as much theirs as it is ours.

Chewie resting on my neck

Taylor was not feeling like posing for the camera today so she needed a little help from mommy to look at the camera :o)

Chunky Chew was giving mommy a kiss. Luckily for me, it was only a little kiss,,, his big kisses will leave your entire face wet. Sweet, but kind of gross.

Little Jack Horner

Little Jack(son) Horner sat in a corner,

eating a Christmas pie:

He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,

And said, "what a good boy am I!"

Today we met up at Moonshine for a baby shower for Ashley. She is due early next month and will be having a boy, Jackson. I had fun buying gifts for Jackson because part of the blankets and bib's were little puppies! Of course I had to buy the puppy stuff. I realized while shopping at Babies R Us, that I always buy the same type of stuff... blankets, towels, and bedding. I know where it is at the store and I can usually be in and out in about 20 minutes. :o) I have tried looking for the bottles, bottle cleaners, diaper bags, baby wipes and baby bouncer type items but I can never find those items in the store.

Since we were at the baby shower early in the day, Moonshine was a great choice. Normally I think Moonshine can be loud but since we were practically the only people in the room it wasn't a chore to try to listen to conversations. I wasn't super hungry but I did order their shrimp, roasted garlic, goat cheese, and artichoke pizza. It was really good and I'll order it again, I just wish I was a little more hungry. I also tried a pomegranate mimosa... Super Yum! To bad champagne gives me a headache (usually about an hour after I drink it) because I really liked the pomegranate mimosa!

Ashley received quite a few cute little baby things. Jackson is going to be a snazzy dressed little guy! Kyndal was there also... she is growing up so fast. She was our flower girl when she was 2.

Nicole, me, Kelly, Krista, Courtney and the happy pregnant lady, Ashley

Courtney (Ashley's sister), Ashley, Sherri (Ashley's mom) and Kyndal

Moonshine

Shrimp pizza

Opening gifts

Pomegranate Mimosa

Courtney, Ashley, and me

Baby Shower group

Courtney posing.... once Krista saw this picture she asked me "who asked Kid Rock to come to the baby shower". Goof ball

Cupcakes.... to cute not to take a picture

Kyndal and I

I sported the glasses today

My bloody mary with the menu

Damn you Ike, you left me high and dry

We have been watching Ike churn in the the Gulf of Mexico threatening to bring huge rain and winds to Austin after it rolled over the cities along the coast. HOWEVER, Ike decided it wanted to roll over Houston and Galveston then head North. I hope everybody on the coast was able to find a safe shelter and not have to much damage to their property.

I have a bachelorette party to go to tonight so the lack of rain is good for that,,, all of the pretty ladies won't have to worry about wet hair or smeared make up. However, after a few drinks I doubt anybody would care :)

As of Tuesday, Ike's path in Texas.

As you can notice, Austin is directly in the middle of the path.

This is a shot of Ike on Saturday morning around 9:30am. Austin is barely on the edge of the rain. We are getting some gusty winds, but I can't imagine that it they are above 20 mph. Where is my rain dammit!?!?!?

Austin Doppler Radar as of 10am on Saturday. Soooooo close yet so dry in Austin. Boo.

The time has come......

Go Birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!