"I Ordered the Club Sandwich, but I'm Not Even a Member"

I love sandwiches and my husband loves philly cheesesteaks.  Its a match made in heaven.  He has really been mourning the loss of Penn Station because he has not found a philly cheesesteak with enough flavor to suit him.  Finally, last week that all changed.  He went to Jersey Mike's with his coworkers and was way impressed.  He texts me everyday about what yummy things he eats for lunch.  I always get jealous of a sandwich place.  So, I had been thinking about it all week.  On Sunday, I woke him up and said I want a sandwich!  We went to Jersey Mike's.  It was a really small place with tons of sandwich options.  They had hot and cold subs, chips, cookies, and soda-all standard sub shop fixings.  We both opted for Philly Cheesteaks-his was the spicy version and I went with the traditional.  They were awesome!  The cheese was perfectly melted, onions and peppers added great flavor, and the meat was well seasoned, too.  I can't wait to try more of their amazing sandwiches!

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

The last week of October, Austin celebrated Beer Week.  My husband and I like beer so we felt the need to join in.  We started off on a Saturday hitting up the Dig Pub in nearby Cedar Park, Texas.  It was nice to get to see yet another part of town.  The event at the Dig Pub had gone on all day outdoors with beer, games, music, and a few vendors.  It seemed very family friendly with lots of kids and even dogs.  Indoors, was a bar and grill that was serving rare tapped beers hourly.  The beer my husband really wanted to try was the last one scheduled to be served, so we weren't sure if it would happen.  We tried some beers- I made sure to stick to Texas only beers so that I could get into the Beer Week vibe.  We decided to order sandwiches and stay a while to watch the baseball game.  (It was that awesome game where the Cardinals scored like a million runs.)  The food was awesome too!  Both were grilled and well seasoned with ale mustard and garlic.  We had a great time and will be glad to take any friends to the Dig Pub at some point.  The following day, I really wanted to go to Octoberfest at North by Northwest.  As we approached, I could tell that the lot was full, but they had signs leading to additional parking.  It was so cool-they thought ahead and had a shuttle taking people back and forth.  What a great idea!  The entrance fee was $2, which went to cancer research.  We walked in and again realized that it was very family friendly with kids and dogs in costumes!  Again, there were games, food, beer, and German bands.  We went inside to get some beer and watched a little bit of the Rams v. Cowboys game.  I really wanted a pretzel to go with my beer so we bought tickets, waited in line, and the guy was out!  I was really upset, but we had to spend those tickets-so I got Apple Cobbler and my husband got a corndog.  He ate his corndog pretty quick-it had some great mustard along with it.  My apple cobbler didn't taste quite right and the apples were a strange color-almost orange.  The cinnamon sugar crumbs were really good, though.  After a few bites, I asked my husband to try it.  "I don't think these are apples," I told him.  "You're right, because they are peaches." Ughhhh!  I was tricked into eating a fruit I don't like.  Otherwise, a great weekend full of great beer.  We didn't make it out to any other events because we were busy watching the World Series and felt like it was safest to be Cardinal fans in our own home.  :)  

How Do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?

Well, its been a while since I've posted much lately and I have great reason.  First, we were in St. Louis for a wedding (Congrats again to Ashley and Jason!) and then we have been sick on and off for the the past 2 weeks.  Gee thanks St. Louis- we really loved that cold.  Last weekend, we did break out of the house of sickness for a little bit to enjoy some Mexican food.  We tried Maria's Mexican Restaurant.  It was close to us (and our favorite fro yo place) and rated highly on Yelp so we thought we'd give it a try.  The restaurant was interesting and we could tell that it obviously had been a sandwich place of some sort by its design.  Otherwise, it was a fairly small, simple place.  We both ended up ordering burritos-I got ground beef and my husband ordered the beef barbacoa.  The burritos were great and went well with the queso which we ordered as well.  The best part was that we still had a little bit of room left for fro yo afterwards.  We will definitely be back to Maria's at some point because we want to try out their vast breakfast menu.

"How Can I Have S'more if I Haven't Had Any Yet?"

First you take the graham, then you take the mallow, then you add the chocolate... I love s'mores and anything s'more flavored!  This week I decided to make s'more whoopie pies.  The first challenge was finding graham flour, which turns out is the same thing as 100% whole wheat flour.  Monday was kind of a slow day so I thought I would try it out.  First, I made the cakes.  I sampled a little bit of the batter and it tasted graham-y so I figured it was good to go.  After I had them in the oven, I realized that I had made a few mistakes, leaving out the vanilla and using baking soda instead of baking powder at one point.  While I was baking the whoopie pies, I made the marshmallow filling.  I got to use my new mixer from my inlaws and it worked great.  It had a really cool attachment that looked like a paint stirrer that worked great combining the shortening and marshmallow cream.  I pulled out the first batch and they were very fluffy- almost reminding me of mini muffins.  I worked on the chocolate ganache while I cooked the second batch.  The ganache needed 2 hours to firm up so I assembled them later.  I spread the ganache on half of the cakes and then I piped the marshmallow filling on the other half with my new pastry bag from my husband.  Finally, I smooshed them together, and was ready to enjoy.  We liked them and my husband shared them at work the next day too and they were a big hit there too.  This will be the last post for a little while.  We are headed back to St. Louis for a fabulous wedding of our dear friends, Ashley and Jason, so we will be enjoying our time with them and some our of our St. Louis favorite foods.

At the Taco, Taco Cabana

While Austin does not seem to be a big fan of chains, there was one that I had been wanting to try.  So on Sunday, I finally got a taste of the Taco Cabana.  The menu was varied and offered a lot of different options.  I opted for the steak tacos with chips and queso.  My husband ordered the brisket tacos.  Another cool thing about Taco Cabana was the salsa bar.  I loved the salsa ranch, pico, and green salsa.  The tacos were great.  It was a little different because it was just meat and the tortilla.  I really liked mine with the ranch and pico, which had a little kick to it.  My husband was still hungry so he tried the chicken tacos and brought back some sopapillas.  The chicken tacos were good too, but the sopapillas were amazing.  It was almost like cinnamon sugar nachos with honey and icing dipping sauces.  Overall, I was pretty impressed with Taco Cabana-definitely a step up from Taco Bell.

Fiesta!

For most of my birthday weekend, the weather was fabulous 80s-90s, but on Sunday it decided to creep back to triple digit weather.  This was no shock to me as we had decided to go to St. Elizabeth's Parish Fiesta.  It was unlike any church picnic I had ever been too.  As we drove through Pflugerville, there were tons of signs advertising the fiesta.  We pulled up to the church and there were no parking spots in the lot or in the middle school next door, we had to park in a field.  We walked up and there were people everywhere.  There were games, food, a petting zoo, and 3 live bands going on.  We bought some tickets and headed to the food tent to see what food we had to choose from.  There was Mexican food, Asian food, African food, and BBQ.  We opted for fajitas and cold beer.  Both tasted great on such a hot day.  We also tried some tamales, which were really good too.  After eating, we got in line to get sno cones.  It was a long, slow moving line, but in the end, it was worth it.  The sno cones were large and delicious.  We listened to a Christian band in the shade while we finished our sno cones.  Since we had a few tickets left, we decided we should play a game.  The Wine Walk was calling my name.  We each put our tickets on 2 numbers and the wheel was spun and.... I WON!  So, we went home with full bellies and a bottle of Coppola Chardonnay.  

Cupcakes and Brad Pitt

My birthday weekend got started great with Salt Lick and presents, but I still had more excitement to go.  I typically make my own birthday treat for a birthday party with friends.  This usually means strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting, however, this year I wouldn't be seeing any of my friends on my birthday so I knew I didn't need to make 2 dozen cupcakes this year.  We found a cupcake place in Round Rock and decided to give Be My Cupcake a try.  We each chose 2 flavors- oreo and red velvet for me and peanut butter and chocolate strawberry for my husband.  They were great cupcakes.  They were not the huge overwhelming cupcakes you see at some places, but a little bit larger than traditional cupcakes.  The cakes were moist, some flavors were better than others.  The frosting was not super sweet like you find in some commercial bakeries. The decorations were simple with an oreo, sprinkles or peanut butter cup topping.  We were very happy with this choice, so much so that I bought more this past Friday and tried the chocolate, strawberry, and carrot cake, which were all excellent too.  Later that evening, we went to the new Flix Brewhouse to see Moneyball.  The theater was cool-the idea is that it is a movie theater and when its down a fulling operating brewery.  Its cool too because when you buy your ticket, you are put into A, B, C groups and you get to choose seats by group (kind of like Southwest Airlines).  It was a huge theater and looked like a lecture auditorium with trays that slid forward for ease of eating.  Much like the theater we visited in the Domain, there was full service with waiters to bring you food before and during the show.  We were still pretty full from our day of eating, so we opted to just order appetizers and snacks.  We got popcorn, which was really good and fresh, chicken quesadillas, and fried ravioli (the closest thing we've found to toasted ravioli, but with cheese instead of beef).  The food was good and the movie was great!  I had a great birthday!

"You Can Smell Our Pits from Miles Away"

Last Saturday was my birthday and I decided to celebrate with BBQ, cupcakes, and Brad Pitt.  I decided that we should go back to Salt Lick, one of the restaurants we had visited during our first trip to Austin.  However, I did not really want to drive way south to the middle of nowhere.  Luckily for us, there is another branch of Salt Lick in Round Rock.  This location was a lot different than the first one.  This one is right next to the Dell Diamond, where the Round Rock Express baseball team plays.  It looked like a replica of the original, but lacked some of the smoky smell of the pits.  We sat out on the patio with a great view of the Dell Diamond.  We both ordered the combo plates, so we could try a little bit of everything.  My husband got sausage and brisket and I got those plus turkey. Our sides were potato salad and cole slaw.  The food was great!  It is still my favorite BBQ in Texas.  I especially loved the turkey- it was so moist and flavorful.  We also love the BBQ sauce there with its mustard base.  I did miss the smell of the giant old pit from the original Salt Lick, but I will admit that I enjoyed not having to smell like smoke later on.  This was definitely a great part of my birthday weekend!

It's My Kind of Town

Last Friday, my husband and I finally made it to downtown Austin for a night out-all it took was some out of town guests.  My husband's boss and wife were in town to check out Austin and asked us to meet at Moonshine.  Moonshine was obviously the place to be.  It was very crowded and lots of people were waiting to be seated.  To be fair, it was 7:00 on a Friday.  We waited about 30-45 minutes before we were seated.  Our waited was really cool and explained that we were eating at a one of kind place, which seems to be the norm in Austin.  They are not fans of chains here!  On the table was seasoned popcorn, which was really good.  We ordered drinks and spinach artichoke fondue as an appetizer.  When it came time to order, the boys both got the pork chops, I got a sandwich, and she ordered the jalapeno steak.  The food was amazing and there was so much of it!  I tried a little bit of each of the meals and they were all wonderful.  Even though we were stuffed, we decided to order dessert, splitting bread pudding and a peanut butter mousse pie.  Dessert was amazing too!  I have heard good things about brunch here too, so I am sure we will be back.  Our evening did not end here.  We went to listen to a friend of theirs playing at a bar on 6th St.  The band was decent-kind of country/ Southern Rock.  We listened to the end of their set and decided we needed to move on, as it was about to get full fledged country in the bar.  We walked down 6th St and it was pretty crazy.  They compared it to Beale St in New Orleans.  There were people everywhere and employees were standing outside bars advertising drink specials and why we should visit their bar.  Finally, we settled on an Irish pub as it seemed like a place where we could get a beer and be able to talk.  Overall, we had a great time and hope that maybe they will decide to move to Austin, too.

Yummy Yummy Yummy, Ice Cream in my Tummy

After having some wine and delicious food, I still wanted more.  We decided to try Yummy, which was near Vino 100 and right next to the new Flix Brewhouse.  Yummy had ice cream and fro yo.  It was very basic and small.  There were several flavor options, but nothing out of the norm.  My husband got a chocolate malt, which was very tasty.  I opted for a scoop of mint chocolate chip, which was very creamy and refreshing.  The ice cream and malt were good, but nothing special.  We probably would not go out of our way to try this again, but we won't avoid it at all costs either.

White White Wine

On Saturday, my husband and I decided to check out the food at Vino 100.  We had loved the wine and the atmosphere last time we were in and wanted to try it again.  We got there around 6:30 and there were a few other people in the place.  We sat down and ordered some wine and started browsing the menu.  After a long time, we finally selected the Roasted Tomato Pesto as an appetizer, Gourmet Mac and Cheese for my husband, and a BBQ Chicken Pizza for me. The wine was great and so was the food.  The pesto was delicious when paired with the crackers and we were inspired to buy stuff to make our own pesto.  The mac and cheese was probably the best mac and cheese we've ever had with bits of ham and so creamy.  My pizza was good too.  It was on a thick bread crust with sweet and smoky BBQ sauce.  The chicken was well seasoned before being added to the pizza too.  We were very pleased with the entire experience.  However, it was really quiet, and they definitely could have used some music either live or just played over the speakers.  

Unhappy Hour?

Last Thursday, some people from my husband's work were having happy hour and invited family to join along.  I was sick most of last week with some kind of stomach bug (thanks St. Louis!), but decided to go anyways.  I needed to see people.  I was also excited because Trudy's was on my list of places to try.  I loaded the address into my GPS app and was on my way.  I had no problems getting there, just ran into a little bit of traffic.  My husband called as I was almost there and tried to give me parking directions, but it was too late.  I turned in the wrong lot, got to the correct lot, where there was no parking as it was under construction, poorly lined, and people had parked like idiots-a small car does not need two spots.  I had to turn around to get back to the previous lot and trek over to Trudy's, all the while counting down until Diet Coke time.  I get in and spot the group, when they make introductions and announce, they are leaving.  BOO!  Apparently, Trudy's was not willing to be accommodating to a group of 9 people, telling us we'd have to sit separately.  So, they decided we would head to the Waterloo Ice House just down the road.  The Waterloo was much less crowded and the waitress seemed more than willing to be accommodating to our party.  We ordered appetizers, drinks and food as the conversation got rolling.  There was some work convo and nerd talk so I may have seemed less than thrilled to be there, but the people were nice and I realized that some of us had mutual friends.  Thank goodness for the old St. Louis question "So, where did you go to high school?"  I ordered a chicken sandwich with tots, which were delicious and my husband got tacos, which had a nice kick to them.  We didn't stay super late, but it was nice to meet some new people and get out of of the apartment for a bit.  As for Trudy's, they are on a different list of mine.  

The Girl Who Ate Fire

Last Wednesday was a busy day for us, doughnuts in the morning, husband worked from home and a little exploring in the evening.  My husband needed to get measurements done for a tux for an upcoming wedding, so we trekked to the Men's Warehouse in Round Rock.  We shopped around at Old Navy, Marshall's and Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was hot and tired so I didn't buy anything-yay wallet!  We decided to grab dinner while we were out.  My husband had been talking about Firebowl Cafe, an Asian restaurant, where he eats lunch frequently.  We got in and they had a really great deal-2 drinks, 2 entrees, and an appetizer for $20.  That sounded great, so we ordered crab wontons, General Tso's chicken (my husband), and chicken pad thai (me).  His food was great and was a little bit spicy.  My food was excellent and was on the milder side.  The crab wontons were good too, and you could definitely taste the crab.  I think we definitely got our money's worth with this meal.  There was so much food!  I ate part of mine at dinner and then was able to eat it again for the next 2 days for lunch.  I like the varied menu with traditional items and the possibility of creating your own stir fry there as well.  

Old Town Donuts...I Think We Found a Contender

So, I've recently become addicted to Yelp and last Wednesday morning, I woke up to an email from them that was all about doughnuts.  Normally, I ignore these, but my husband likes doughnuts and happened to be working from home that day.  I asked him if he wanted to go get some doughnuts and he did, apparently he also got the Yelp email.  We decided to try Shipley Donuts in Pflugerville.  We've driven by several times, but this was our first time to try.  We took the dog for a ride too, feeling guilty for leaving him at camp for several days.  The dog decided to repay us by throwing up all over my backseat upon arrival.  So, my husband got to clean up that mess and calm down a sad puppy, while I got to order.  I got several cake doughnuts for him and choose a cream filled and a maple iced doughnut for me.  The shop was simple and clean, I definitely would have eaten there if we didn't have the dog with us.  The lady that helped me was really friendly and they even had a drive thru.  We brought the doughnuts back and they were delicious!  Had we been in the store we may have continued to buy more and more.  First of all, they were fresh, which always makes them better.  They were very moist with great flavor.  My favorite was the maple iced-the icing had a subtle maple flavor.  My husband was very happy with the cake doughnuts and felt they were even better than the acclaimed Round Rock Doughnuts.  Will we go back?  Its very likely!

Scoops of Fun

Last night we went out to dinner in Pflugerville because I forgot to defrost any meat to eat for dinner.  (YAY for Rio Grande!)  Afterwards, I decided I needed some ice cream, and had read about an ice cream place in downtown Pflugerville on my new favorite website (Yelp!) the other day.  It only took us a couple of minutes to get there and we walked into deliciousness.  Kaleidoscoops was a really cute little ice cream shop with tons of flavors to choose from.  The guy working (an aged hippie-sweet) told us his favorite was the birthday cake, but as we looked there was only one scoop left.  He had us sample the banana nut, which I felt had great texture, but way to banana-y.  My husband liked it, but he likes that banana flavor.  Finally the moment of doom, choosing a scoop.  My husband went with cake batter-he is always a fan of that flavor.  This cake batter had a chocolate icing swirl too, so I was pretty sure he'd like it.  I went with the Monster Cookie Crunch.  It was a cookies and cream ice cream with a fudge swirl- sounds great.  Also, it was Cookie Monster blue.  We paid for our scoops and noticed that Kaleidoscoops also serves Sno Biz sno cones, ice cream cakes, and smoothies.  After the first taste, I knew I found a winner.  It was so creamy and fresh.  I am definitely a fan!  (My husband did have to laugh at my blue mouth though and told me it looked like I ate a Smurf.) It was the perfect way to top off my evening.  I can't wait to go back and try more of their delicious flavors.  I was also glad I got in one new place to add to the blog.  This weekend we are going back to St. Louis for a wedding (Congrats Chris and Katie!), so it may be a while before I have some new adventures to post.  For now, enjoy the pictures of my ice cream treat and go get a scoop of ice cream at your favorite place.  A day without ice cream just doesn't count as a day in my book.  

"IKEA-Everyone Has a Home and if You Don't Have a Home, You Can Buy One There"

I didn't take pictures of our trip to IKEA and I'm not sad about it.  The parking lot should have been a sign...but we ignored it.  It was nearly impossible to find a spot.  Warning sign #2 was that the kiddy jail at the front of the store was at capacity.  My previous bad experience should have been taken into consideration.  But no, I trekked on.  It was insane.  Fortunately, there were arrows on the floor letting us know where to go.  You had to keep following the arrows throughout the entire store to get out.  We had being shopping for mattresses that day and we did find some that were a little bit cheaper at IKEA but buying one would have been next to impossible.  There were so many people and a lack of employees.  I've rarely been more excited to end a shopping experience.  We did find at mattress at a decent price and my husband is struggling to set up the antique bedset with brand new mattress as we speak.  I may give IKEA another shot, but it may not be for another 11 years.  

Thank Goodness for Firefighters

Sunday was another shopping day for us.  We had decided to buy a new mattress for our guest bedroom and were visited the mattress stores and IKEA in Round Rock.  We stopped for lunch at Firehouse Subs.  It was really cool because all the decor was old fire station stuff and the tables were spotted like dalmatians.  Firehouse Subs was originally started by firefighters and many of the subs had clever related names.  My husband ordered the steak and cheese sub and was very happy with it.  He has yet to find a steak sub he likes as much as he liked Penn Station, but this one was pretty good.  I ordered the turkey bacon ranch sub on wheat and it was really good too.  The bread was definitely the best sub bread I've had so far in Texas.  Another cool thing was the rows of hot sauce along the counter.  It was a great meal and I will totally go back for more.  In addition, in light of all the wildfires nearby, I am truly thankful for firefighters who put their lives on the line to protect others.  

Thunder, Lightning?

After a day of shopping, nutrition is necessary. My husband had mentioned a recent trip to Thundercloud Subs and that was all I can think of because I love sandwiches.  I had tried Thundercloud Subs once before at the airport, but that's not always the same thing.  I ordered the California club, which had turkey bacon and guacamole.  My husband ordered the Austin club, which was the same but with chicken instead of turkey.  The subs were excellent.  Everything tasted great including the bread, which on my sub was a delicious wheat.  My only concern was that the way they had things set up behind the counter could slow things down on a crowded day.  I loved these sandwiches and I think its cool that these can only be found in Austin.  

Hey Ho

It was Friday night and time to try a new place to eat.  We've eaten tons of Tex Mex and a fair amount of BBQ, so I was looking for something new and interesting.  We definitely found it at HoHo Chinese BBQ.  One of my personal mantras is "I don't eat my friends from the sea."  As soon as I walked in, I saw some of my friends from the sea, alive and swimming in tanks.  Poor guys, didn't know what was about to hit them.  On the other side of the entrance, there were roasted ducks hanging up.  I was a little nervous once I saw the creatures out in the open.  We sat down and were given Diet Coke in cans as we ordered.  I chose the Orange Chicken, which I know is a safety item, but a favorite in my book.  My husband got the BBQ Pork and noodles.  I made the correct choice.  The chicken had great flavor with a little bit of Texas kick to it.  I don't like plain white rice, which was what they served it with so I tried some soy sauce-too salty (I buy the reduced sodium at home) and then I saw some sort of seasoned sauce on the table.  I put a fair amount of that on my rice, hoping to give it some flavor.  After the first bite, I thought, "Not bad."  With the second bite, I was beginning to feel the heat.  Then, my mouth was on fire!  No amount of Diet Coke was relieving my pain.  I ordered water-no luck.  Finally, they brought our bill, along with fortune cookies and orange wedges.  Now readers, we may remember that I do not like most fruit, but I was desperate.  I ate 2 orange slices and finally the spice was knocked out.  My husband's meal was far less exciting.  There wasn't very much pork and it wasn't really seasoned at all.  Have I learned my lesson?  I'd love to say yes, but I will probably eat something way too spicy again.  Hopefully next time, I will order water ahead of time.

Everything Will be Alright When We Go Shopping

I've been dying to go to an indoor mall here in Austin.  So far, my trips have been to Round Rock Outlets, the Arboretum, the Domain, Gateway Market and early on San Marcos Outlets, but they've all been outdoors.  More often than not, I either end up sunburned, sweating, or both.  This does not make an ideal shopping experience, hence, I have not purchased many new clothes while in Austin.  I really needed to get to a Sephora and hadn't found one yet.  After searching online, I found one at Barton Creek Mall.  The mall was not really close to our apartment, so I saved it for a weekend adventure.  We drove up and it was huge!  In one of the lots, they were also having a farmer's market, so it was a little bit crowded.  It had a definite vibe of Chesterfield Mall from home, so I loved it right away.  Barton Creek had every store I wanted and more.  My husband was a fan of the Lego store.  I was excited to see a Lamme's Candies, which I think will be a great substitute to ChocolateChocolateChocolate for my Valentine's treats.  In addition, I know my sister will be excited to hear that they have a Glamour Shots.  I'm thinking we could have fun with that when she visits.  In addition, there was a movie theater and nice food court to please all shoppers.  While it wasn't close to home, I am sure that I will be back.  We also hit the Room Store and Fry's on our way home.  The Room Store was nice, but they didn't really have what we were looking for (mattresses) at the right price.  Fry's was insane.  It was a giant technology nerd store, so my husband was in heaven.  Sadly, we didn't find what we were looking for (an HDMI switch) so I thought the trip was pointless, but I may have been tired and crabby too.  Shopping day 1 was not a huge success, I came home with makeup remover, but I was happy to have gone shopping without sweating.