Bodega Coast

Last Sunday Donavon and I knocked another one off the list. We actually drove to Maddens hoping to eat there only to find, again, that it was closed. We should really look that up next time. Anyway, we ended up eating at Bodega Coast, a new-ish seafood grill and bar. I love really good seafood but considering the fact that we are at least 3 hours from any coast, it's not very common here. My bar was raised when I had Miso Seabass at Veritas...it was like a dream..but that's beside the point.
So, Bodega Coast. It was interesting. The atmosphere is nice, comfortable, and casual. The menu is pretty expensive for the atmosphere it goes with, but not completely outrageous. The whole experience was one of mismatches, I feel. It's kind of weird to eat expensive grilled fish and be watching a football game, ya know? There is a bar and a separate dining area which helps a little but they're only partially separated and there is a TV in both rooms. It wasn't too loud though, which was nice, and nothing is wrong with being casual, it was just an interesting mix.
Which brings me to the food. I got Seared Snapper with crawfish+tequila butter sauce and dirty rice. Donavon got Blackened Mahi Mahi with agave nectar+chipotle drizzle and he substituted garlic mashers for the black beans. They bring you chips and salsa before hand and every entree is served with a side of stir-fried veggies.
So, I started out with Mexican (chips and salsa) and then had Asian vegetables on the side of a French-type entree with Cajun rice. It just threw me off a little. My fish was very, very good and so was the butter sauce. I really liked the veggies, even though they didn't seem to fit, but they were pretty generic for stir-fry. The dirty rice was not very good. Plain tasting for how much seasoning it appeared to have. I liked the salsa, Donavon did not.
Donavon's fish was good, I liked mine better, but it was good. The garlic mashers were good but I couldn't have eaten very much because of the amount of garlic, it was pretty strong. And for me to say that about garlic, really says something!
Overall, not our favorite, especially in the price range. Kind of an odd ensemble of everything, and not the best sides. Still enjoyable and the fish was very good, especially compared to the other seafood available locally.
Now, I want to go to the coast and eat something fresh!

Julie and Julia

A few nights ago Beth, Everly, Fairlight and I watched the movie Julie and Julia. We had all seen it before but it was so worth watching again. It was the perfect movie for our girl's night. It's so cute! If you haven't seen it, it's the true story of a girl who decides to cook her way through Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year and blog about it along the way. The movie takes her story and matches it with similar things that happened in the life of Julia Child many years earlier. I love it for several reasons. First off, obviously, it's all about food! It's about Julia Child, who was an amazing chef and her part of the story is so entertaining. And I love the dynamics between the two different couples. There are several scenes in the movie that remind me of Donavon and I. For one, we're always cooking together. But also, a lot of times I feel like I'm just as crazy and frazled as the female characters in the movie and he's just as sweet and level-headed as the husbands. :)

And, it's about blogging, which inspires me to do a better job here. It's an all around inspiring movie, even if you don't blog. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It's super cute, a true story, funny, and sweet. I must say, the fact that Julie cooked all of those recipes in one year while balancing a full-time job and a marriage is incredible! It's all I can do to make 5 meals most weeks and I'm not married or working full-time!

Now, watching this movie led to a couple other funny events for us..

The first one was that half way through the movie our dvd player stopped working. We were dead-set on watching this movie so that didn't stop us! We told our dad about the problem, because that's what we always do, and he said he could come help us in a minute but he was busy. So, we told him he didn't have to and we decided we were perfectly capable of fixing the problem. Ahem. We took the dvd out and cleaned it. It still skipped. We turned it all off and back on. It still skipped. We blew into the place the dvd goes in just like we used to do when playing Mario Bros on nintendo... and it still skipped. That was pretty much the extent of our ideas to fix the dvd player and none of them worked. So we eventually gave up on that and decided to watch it on the computer that's in the same room. Only, the computer is behind the couch. So we began the process of moving the computer and realized there were a lot of things plugged into it that we weren't so sure could be unplugged.. frankly, we didn't really know what all of it was. So...we decided to leave the computer where it was. This lead to our truly brilliant idea that I'm afraid our father was not expecting to be our solution when we walked in to check on us a few minutes later.....we moved the couch! It was a perfectly logical way to remedy our problem. And most importantly, it was one that didn't require being tech-savvy in the least! So eventually, after rearranging our entire den, we finished our movie!

Then I went to bed. I only thought the movie was over. Little did I know it would continue my head all night long. No, I didn't dream of the characters in the movie. Nor about if I was one of them. Nor about the way that Donavon and I are similar to them. What did I dream about all night long? The food. Yes, I spent all night literally tossing and turning over a recipe. I woke up multiple times out of frustration over my own Boef Bourguignon. If you don't know, that is beef stew that is discussed a lot throughout the movie. I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed about trying to make this recipe. The funny thing was, even in my dream I knew that I didn't really know how to make it. I do in fact have the Julia Child cook book that the movie is framed around( I used it just the other day to make yummy baked cucumbers!), so I do have the Boef Bourguignon recipe. But, for some odd reason, I was not using it in my dream. My dream was more of a half-awake kind of dream where most of the time I knew I was laying in bed and just thinking about this recipe. But that's what was so frustrating! I would think and think and think about it, trying to decide if I had enough mushrooms etc. only to remember that I was not going to figure it out by thinking about it while laying in bed! When I woke the next morning I couldn't believe I had lost so much sleep by stressing in my half-conscious way about Boeuf Bourguignon. I believe I shall have to try this recipe now that it haunts me so.

Cheers,

Sabrina

Introducing......

My new photographer: Fairlight Crumb!

My sister, Fairlight has agreed to help me out in the photography department of my blog. I only have a little point and shoot camera which is great for snap shots but not so great for close ups of food. Plus, when I'm cooking I can't take a lot of time to get the perfect picture. But most importantly, she's an amazing photographer and has agreed to help me!! So, get excited. The recipes you see on here are about to get a lot more exciting! :)

Drunken Noodles

This is the dish that really hooked me on Thai food. I had it at a restaurant so this is not the exact one, but it's close. Until this point I think the only Thai dish I had actually cooked was Pad Thai. Oh, and some spring rolls that didn't really....roll. Anyway.. this was a really yummy recipe that we all enjoyed a lot. It was really spicy though, so be careful! I actually adapted the recipe some and it was still really spicy! I'll include the ways that I changed it in parentheses. I honestly can't imagine how hot it would have been if I had included all of the peppers that it called for but if you're adventurous, go for it! This is from the book I mentioned before, True Thai by Victor Sodsook with Theresa Volpe Laursen and Byron Laursen.
Also, this book calls it Drunken Spaghetti because they replaced the rice noodles with spaghetti noodles and it worked splendidly.
Another note on the name: you may be wondering why it's called "drunken" anything. It has no alcohol in the recipe! There are several theories that I've heard on this. The one I had heard before was that it's so spicy that it's said you could get drunk on all the water you'll drink! I can believe this! Another is that you have to drink so much that you end up drunk because I guess it's assumed you're drinking alcohol. Another that is shared in the cook book is that chilies are thought by some to be a cure for hangovers. Therefore this meal was the perfect thing to eat when you have one. I personally like the first one, but take your pick! Either way, there is no way you will get drunk from drunken noodles! Also, there is quite a bit of prep work for this recipe but once you start cooking you have to move really fast. As is the way with most wok-cooked meals. Just keep that in mind. Also, the cooking times are all aprox. so don't freak out if you go over your 45 seconds or something. For some of it you may have to adjust a little depending on how hot your wok is. For the most part, though, in this recipe it seems pretty accurately timed.

Drunken Spaghetti

1 pound spaghetti

1/2 cup chicken stock or canned chicken broth (I used broth)

8 Serrano chilies ( used 5 1/2)

24 cloves garlic (I told you there was a lot!)

1 cup loosely packed chopped Italian basil

6 small dried Japanese chilies (I couldn't find Japanese chilies anywhere so I used the substitution the author recommended which was dried chilies de arbol and I only used 2 1/2)

2 1/2 T veg. oil

1 pound ground beef

6 plum tomatoes, cut in half and sliced into thin wedges

1 small red onion, cut in half and finely sliced

3 scallions, including the green tops, angle-cut into 1-inch pieces, bulbs cut in half lengthwise

3 T oyster sauce

3 T Thai fish sauce

6 T sugar

1 can tomato (8oz) sauce

1 T white pepper

Sprigs of cilantro

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water until it is tender but firm, about 9-10 minutes. Drain well and toss with the chicken stock. Set aside.

Make a pesto from the serranos, garlic, basil, and Japanese chilies:

Mortar-and-pestle method: Stem the serranos. Put the serranos and garlic in the mortar and poind them just until they are crushed. Add the basil and Japanese chilies and pound all the ingredients to a mash. Set aside.

Processor method: Stem the serranos. Crush them and the garlic with the side of a chef's knife. Mince the Japanese chilies. Put all the pesto ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process until moist and nearly minced. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and set aside.

Place all of the ingredients within easy reach of the cooking area. (this is important! I even measure them out and put them in order.)

Set a large wok over high heat. When it is quite hot, add the oil. Rotate the wok a bit so the oil coats the sides. When the oil is hot, take handfuls of the ground beef and work it through your fingers to break it up a little as you add it to the wok. Stir-fry the beef, pressing it down into the bottom of the wok. Turn the beef over, press it down into the wok again, and continue to stir-fry until the meat begins to brown, about 45 seconds.

Add the chili pesto and stir-fry for 45 seconds. Add the spaghetti-chicken stock mixture and stir-fry for 45 seconds. Add the tomatoes, red onion, and scallions and stir-fry 45 seconds. Add the oyster sauce and fish sauce and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the sugar, tomato sauce, and pepper and stir-fry until the sugar is dissolved and the ingredients are well blended, about 1 minute. Transfer to a large serving bowl, tear sprigs of cilantro over the spaghetti, and serve.

Cheers!

Sabrina

Thai Food, My New Kick.

"Kick" is actually a very good way to refer to Thai food, now that I think about it.
I had been wanting to try more Thai food after having some Drunken Noodles at Basil House in Texas City that was absolutely, scrumptiously delicious. It still shocks me that College Station doesn't really have a Thai restaurant. We have so many, and yet, no Thai. I had read some about it and heard a lot of claims like, next to French cuisine Thai was the best in the world. I had to know more. So I went to Half Price Books (a really great place to find cook books for a good price btw) and found a Thai cook book called "True Thai" by Victor Sodsook. I only had about 10 minutes in the book store so I chose it without knowing too much about it but it looked like a good one that was actually real Thai recipes and not just the super-easy-10-minute-Thai-on-the-go-for-a-busy-mom-in-suburbia...ya know? Turns out, I really like it. It's written by a Thai-American chef who understands Thai cuisine but also understands that Americans don't always have access to the same ingredients. I think he (Victor Sodsook) does a really good job of finding the balance between what is legitmately Thai and what we can find here. There are a lot of recipes and it even breaks down lots of different types of homemade curries, which is pretty awesome. So, I bought it and have been rather thrilled by what I've found inside. So far, I've done a lot of looking and reading and researching and only made 2 dishes but they've both been really yummy. I made Drunken Spaghetti (this book's version of Drunken Noodles, my inspiration) and Chicken with Red Chili and Cashews. Tomorrow, I'm making Pork with Garlic and Crushed Black Pepper. I've come to find that Thai food is pretty unique and interesting and so far seems to be almost a mix between Japanese and Italian. Considering these are two of my favorites, it's pretty exciting! It's very heavy on the garlic, which is something I didn't quite expect but love. It's also extremely spicy. I mean, really. When I made the drunken noodles I ended up cutting down the peppers in the recipe considerably and it was still quite a sinus cleanser. Not all of it is spicy but a lot of it is and when it is, it really is. I've only made these two recipes so far because I have to kind of spread out my new-to-everyone dishes throughout the week. Also, some of my family doesn't do spicy too well which cuts back on how many of the recipes I can make.
Anyway, I'm excited about all things Thai right now!
I'll post pictures of tomorrow's dish if it turns out well. Cheers!
-Sabrina

Square One..Leaving?

I saw in the paper today that Square One Bistro is being replaced by a burger place. This is tragic news considering that it's on the list, and we haven't been yet!! That's the first reason that it caused me to distress and the second is that I think I would like it. I feel like it was a little bit different than everywhere else and a burger place is definitely not. Oh well. Hopefully it will be open long enough for Donavon and I to at least get to try it. So long, my formerly potential friend, Square One. *sniffle*

One of my Own!

This is a recipe that I came up with on my own one day, based on the ingredients we already had in the house. It turned out really good, if I do say so myself, and I've made it again since. I always get a lot of compliments when I make it. I mean, who doesn't like potatoes?! The name came about because the first time I was making it everyone who came in the kitchen asked me what I was making and because I was kind of making it up as I went and it didn't have a name, I kept replying, "chicken, potato something". So, now that's the name! :)

Chicken Potato Something

approximately 6 or 7 chicken breasts, washed dried and cut in half (to make them thinner)

1 onion, diced

2 bell peppers, diced (any color, I've used several)

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced or pressed

5 Russet potatoes, diced

2 cans diced tomatoes

3 cans chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

2 sticks of butter, maybe a little more

olive oil

(serve over rice)

Heat butter in large stock pot or skillet. (when I made this recipe, I was cooking for 10-12 people and the ingredients are listed for that amount. Because of this, I had to use a skillet and a stock pot to brown the chicken and then added it all into the pot at the end.)

Add chicken and brown each side. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add diced vegetables, garlic and potatoes to skillet.

Add enough olive oil to prevent sticking.

Cook and stir until potatoes are tender but still a little crunchy.

Add canned tomatoes and chicken broth. Return chicken to pot.

Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft and chicken is cooked through. Serve over rice. Enjoy!

A Delicious Amish Recipe

Last week I tried this recipe from a book called "New Recipes from Quilt Country" by Marcia Adams. I don't actually have her book, I got the recipe out of "Food and Wine Magazine's Best of the Best" 1998 edition. But now I'm tempted to try to find her book because this recipe was so delicious and for what it is, very easy!

The recipe is as follows and the photos at the end are how mine turned out. By the way, I was cooking for 10 people so I doubled the recipe. The parentheses are my comments.

1 free-range roasting chicken, approx. 4 lbs

2 handfuls fresh thyme (the recipe says optional but I can't imagine not using it!)

1 large onion, cut into chunks

4 red-skinned pootatoes, 2 inches in diameter, sliced 3/4 inch thick (I wasn't this specific, I just used as many potatoes as I thought my family would eat and cut them thin enough to cook as fast as the chicken.)

6 cloves garlic, skin on

1/2 cup or one stick butter

1 cup chicken stock or canned broth

1/2 lemon, seeded

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse and clean the chicken well and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the chicken breast side up in a shallow 15 by 12 inch greased pan.

Seperate the skin from the breast meat with your fingers and insert a liberal amount of thyme between the two. Place another handful of thyme inside the cavity.

Scatter the onion chunks, potato slices, and garlic cloves around the chicken.

In a messuring cup, heat the butter and chicken stock together in the microwave; pour over the chicken and vegetables.

Squeeze the lemon half over the chicken and place the lemon in the cavity of the chicken along with the thyme.

Add salt and pepper to the chicken and vegetales to taste.

Bake the chicken for 30 minutes , then turn it over, back side up, and baste with the pan juices. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake the chicken 20-30 minutes longer, basting occasionally, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 180 degrees and the potatoes are tender.

Remove the chicken from the oven and, keeping it covered, allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Carve and serve with the vegetables and pan juices. (I think that I ended up cooking it a little longer than this to get it browned to my liking.)

The Closest I've Come to Cuinary School

My sisters, Everly and Fairlight, accompanied me to a cooking class held here in our town a few weeks ago. We had so much fun! None of us had ever been to a cooking class and this was a really good first experience. It was put on by Taste of Home Cooking School which is a company that travels around the country and teaches cooking classes based on dishes that they feature in one of their magazines. We learned about several yummy-sounding dishes that we hope to try in the near future. We also just had a lot of fun hanging out together for the evening and strolling through all of the vendors that were there. We even got our make up done at the Celebrity Spa and Boutique booth! We got goodie bags that had several magazines with lots of new recipes to try along with a few other fun trinkets. Lots of fun!

La Riviera and why we like Madden's even more..

Donavon and I went to La RIviera this past weekend while he was here for a visit. We were both very excited about it after reading over the menu online, something we do frequently. We went for dinner and so I'm not sure how an experience at lunch would differ from the one we had. I had heard that it was also a bakery.. but that was hard to believe with the way it was set up for the evening. Maybe we'll go back earlier in the day sometime. Anyway, I got a grilled pork chop and Donavon got seared duck breast. My pork was kind of tough and though a few bites were very flavorful, the entire thing was not. The duck breast was interesting, but I had never tried duck before. It was not my favorite but I could see the appeal, were I more used it, I probably would have enjoyed it more. We got an appetizer of French Onion Soup which was really, really yummy. It was very creamy, which made it unique, but very good. The atmosphere was a little different than we expected.. very formal and quiet. No music! A little music would have made it feel less stuffy and like you could actually visit at a normal sound level. We, of course, still enjoyed ourselves. But it was not our favorite. For the price, the food was not that great. At least not the food that we ordered, anyway. And the atmosphere, though nice, was not incredibly enjoyable. I will point out that our waitress was very nice and friendly. We will probably not become regulars there....
But Madden's on the other hand is doing a very good job encouraging us in that direction! We haven't had a chance to go back but we will definitely do so. We have now recieved two $10 gift certificates from them! One, because the first time we tried to eat there, there was no room. And the second because we filled out a comment card while we were there and they sent it to us in the mail! Thank you Madden's for the exceptional service!

A Purpose for the Vanilla Bean!

I told you that I would blog about whatever ended up becoming of the vanilla bean I purchased so, here it is! I made vanilla bean ice cream! It was delicious, I must say. I made it for my dear friend, Beth's birthday because there was truly no better occasion for such things. The process was pretty awesome. First of all, making homemade ice cream is fun enough as I have discovered since my brother got me an ice cream maker for my birthday. But, add a vanilla bean into the mix and it's just tons of fun!
Apparently the part of the vanilla bean that you use is all inside.. so you must first slice it open.

So I laid it out on the cutting board and sliced it open long ways, revealing the lovely, tiny seeds inside. Then, using the knife, I scraped the seeds out into the rest of the ice cream mix. It got kind of messy!

Then I put the husk of the vanilla bean that I had scraped clean into the mix also to boil out the rest of the flavor. It was removed later on when it was all cleaned out and used up.

Then everything was put into the ice cream maker until it was thick and creamy. It was so delicious and the flavor of vanilla beans is really quite different than the flavor of imitation vanilla extract that we are used to. This was one of the best ice cream recipes yet and definitely a lot of fun to make!

I hate, hate, hate it.

But, I'll make it.
Yesterday, Donavon (I'll have to get used to this name thing..) moved back to Belton where he goes to school. It's only an hour and a half away and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he'll be back as soon as he can. I also know that he has to be there because it's where he's called to be right now. He has to finish school and he has to do it there. I know that I have to be here. I have to be with my family. I know that he'll be completely done with school in 9 months. I know that we'll still see each other pretty often. And I know that we will talk on the phone before and after and in between everything else going on in each of our lives. I know that many people have to say goodbye to their loved ones for much longer periods of time. I know many girlfriends have to say goodbye for years while their boyfriends are over seas in the military. I know that this is nothing in comparison. I know that he loves me and would choose to be with me, if it was his choice. I know that I love him and can only believe that we'll be together eventually. But I also know what it's like being long distance because until this summer it was all we had known. And now I know that I can make an informed decision on the matter and say that I prefer living in the same town. I know that we will talk but we will live seperate lives. He will live his in Belton and I will live mine in College Station. We won't know what's going on, how each other are doing or feeling until we get an update on the phone. He'll be very busy this semester taking at least 16 hours and working close to 40. I don't have a car nor do I have the permission from my parents to drive out of town. Therefore, in order to see each other he will have to drive here in between all of the other things he's doing. Probably between work on Friday and church on Sunday morning. But, I know he'll come. What's hard is the day to day things. Missing him and not being able to hug him or hold his hand. Having something to say to him but not saying it because it takes me forever to muster up the courage to be open, even with him, and I don't always have enough time on the phone. Wanting to share my life with him but not even sharing a church, a town, or time. I hate, hate, hate it. But I will make it. I know God has a reason for this time just like every other time in the past. Last semester was really hard but we grew because of it and learned how to be a long distance couple even better. This summer was really wonderful and we grew because we had to learn how to be a short distance couple, something that was harder than we expected. But now we've learned how to do both to some extent and I know we'll only grow from here. We're obviously not done. We have, by no means finished all the lessons on being a couple! And I know this semester, we will learn new ones. I'm not excited to be away from him and it's already hard, but I am excited to grow and learn and become stronger and understand each other and God's plans more clearly. I'm also excited about other things, having nothing to do with out relationship. Obviously, if God does not want us to be together yet, He has other things in store for both of us. As much as we wish what was in store was more time together, we want exactly what God has in store more than anything that we could come up with on our own. If this is the way it has to be, then this is the way it should be. I miss him so much and it's really hard but I would choose nothing over growing closer to Christ and the only way to do that is to stay where He puts us.

My boyfriend needs a name...

because referring to him constantly as, "my boyfriend" is pretty lame. I don't want to use his real name because no one else on my blog is referred to by their real names. He has been called Donavon as a nick name for a while now by my brother so I think I'll use that one. At least until he reads this and complains. :) So for now, my boyfriend, is Donavon. But not really.

p.s. Please do not think of him as a guy with bushy hair and a mustache who sings Mellow Yellow. Or, a less than straight man with slicked back hair, which is based on no one particular but I could just see that image building in your head based on the name. If you must equate him to another Donavon.. I guess it could be Donavon Frankenreiter because I like his music. But if possible, think of him as a Donavon you've never met, or as the one you already know that is him because you really know him. Ahem, moving on.

Maddens!

We marked another one of the list yesterday! We ate at a restaurant called Maddens that is located in downtown Bryan in the same building as Old Bryan Marketplace, an antique/novelty shop. It was so much fun!!! We loved it. The atmosphere is really fun and interesting, the wait staff was super nice and helpful and the food was fantastic! I wish I would have brought my camera because everything was so pretty. I think it's really neat when a chef takes the time to not only make food that tastes good but that also looks good. I got crab cakes and my boyfriend got roasted chicken. We had a mozzarella and roasted tomato salad for an appetizer and raspberry iced teas. Everything was wonderful! It's reasonably priced especially for the time that was obviously taken to make it look so nice. It's a neat building and location. It was lots of fun and we'll definitely be back. 5 stars!!

20 months and Cafe Capri!

Yesterday was 20 months from my first date with my boyfriend. Silly, I know. Why do I keep up with it? What significance does the 20th month have, anyway? None, really. I keep up with it because it's fun and the 20th one just sounds a little more exciting than the 19th so we decided to celebrate. We got dressed up and he told me that for our anniversary we would check another restaurant off the list. We went to Madden's and they were all full but very polite and gave us a $10 gift certificate to come back! Score! Then we went looking for another place to eat that was on the list. I didn't actually bring the list so I didn't have the oh-so-helpful addresses of the restaurants...oh well. Eventually we found Cafe Capri which is an Italian cafe type restaurant that was on the list. We very much enjoyed it! It was busy and kind of loud, a little different type of atmosphere than we were expecting, but still fun. The bread, dipping oil and salad was not that impressive but not bad. The oil was really just balsomic vinegar and olive oil as far as I could tell. We got an appetizer of mozerella squares which were very yummy! They were like parmesian encrusted cheese sticks only, in a flat square shape. The menu is not too big and a lot of it is fairly generic Italian food but it's also more like cafe prices. We chose two of the most expensive and most exciting entrees and they were only about $13 (which is not bad for the most expensive!) and very good! I got penne pasta with portabello mushrooms and lobster in a white, creamy, smoked gouda cheese sauce. MMMMMM!! He got a different penne, lobster dish with spicy, cajun seasoning. Also, very good but I liked mine better. All in all, a good experience! Then, we came home and layed on a blanket in our backyard looking at the stars. A good way to spend our oh-so-important 20 month anniversary!
p.s. Capri is the name of an Italian island. :)

Gazpacho Blanca

I made this for the first time yesterday. It was quite fun to make, mostly because I had never seeded cucumbers before. Anyway, if you didn't know, gazpacho is a cold, cucumber soup. My family had mixed feelings about it but everyone was a good sport and at least tried it. I personally, liked it, but would probably prefer it as an appetizer next time instead of the main course. I made homemade, country white bread to accompany and garnished with sliced roma tomatoes and lemon wedges. I actually made the soup the night before so that it could chill overnight which worked out quite well. It was weird having my whole meal ready the night before! Anyway, it was fun and different so all in all, a good experience.

My super exciting World Market find!

That's right. It's a vanilla bean. Two actually. I was really excited to find this as I've recently found several recipes that don't call for vanilla extract but actually call for vanilla beans. I'll be making something smashing with these. Probably ice cream.. mmmm.

Update on the Summer thus far....

At the beginning of the summer I made a list of things that I hoped to do more of. This is the update on those things. Unfortunately, just like a new year's resolution, it hasn't turned out exactly as I would have hoped. You've probably guessed this since blogging was one of the things on the list and that obviously hasn't really happened. Well, first off, the summer is not over yet and I'm still working on it. This should be evident in the fact that I just posted not too long ago and this is in fact, another post...proof that I'm blogging more! Also, some of the things have happened and some of them have been pushed to the back burner as other, unforeseen things took the front ones.
Side note: I just realized how much I like that analogy. The fact that I'm always cooking for 10+ people means that I'm usually using all 4 burners on the stove and it's definitely true that the pots that need more attention are always in front. hmmmm. Nice job, analogy inventor man/woman.
So to go through the list, reading has not happened near as much as I would have liked it to. It's weird that it's one of my favorite hobbies yet one that gets neglected the most. I think it's because it's not usually something that I feel like I have to do, just something that I want to do. So the have-to's take precedence. Anyway, I have been reading Discipline by Elisabeth Elliot and it has been wonderful. Other than that, my reading is still in a slump.
Cooking, this has improved! I'm really excited because it's happening more and more each week. This is the first week in quite some time that I have actually done the requested 5 real meals a week and I think it will be happening more consistently in the rest of the summer and the fall. I have also been able to make more exciting meals again as I've had a little more time to plan them out. More on this later.
Bible study, this is really hard to confess to. I have not been doing a consistent Bible study at all this summer. It's terrible. I've been trying to keep God as the central focus of my life as hard as I can while neglecting to read His word near as much as I should. This is an oxymoron, if you were wondering. I'm changing this because it's utterly ridiculous.
Outdoor activities, another that started to happen and then altogether ceased. It's so flippin' hot! I started out the summer going a few bike rides with my boyfriend which were marvelous...but that hasn't happened real recently. We have been swearing all summer to go canoeing (is this a word?) and I still really, really hope we do. But, it is so hot that if we do this, it may be the last thing we ever do.
Working out, this is one that was going really good at the beginning and has since slacked off. I'm still hoping to get back to it. I do a lot better with this one when I have a more structured schedule to my week. It's kind of hard for me to just randomly work out whenever I have the chance, due to the fact that I'm diabetic and this is really disruptive to my blood sugar. My blood sugar has also been crazy lately which makes it harder all together. But, it can also be really good for my blood sugar if I do it consistently. So, it's still high on the list and will hopefully happen a lot this fall with (hopefully) the help of an insulin pump.
Fun, intentional, time with people I love, this has happened some. Every one's schedules are crazy in the summer so this has been a little tricky. But, I have been able to spend a lot of time with my boyfriend. Compared to how much time we get together during the year, it's amazing! I've been able to meet for an hour or so almost every week to sit down with Everly and Beth to discuss the book, Discipline, that we are reading together. This has been so, so incredibly good. I underestimated the significance of having time officially dedicated to discussing each other's lives and relationships with Christ compared to just being around each other each day. This has been fantastic. It's also been nice seeing more of the whole family since I'm not in school and most of my schedule involves the whole family. So if we're busy, we're busy together.
OK. That's the current update. I'm hoping to post later about my exciting find at World Market and what I'm making for lunch. So, ttfn!

The Official List of Bryan/College Station restaurants

My boyfriend and I love trying new restaurants and do so as much as possible. He's always asking me where I want to eat and I have tons of places I want to try. Unfortunately, many times when we decide to eat out and are trying to think of one of the many restaurants that we want to try, we can't remember what they are until we're too hungry and end up eating somewhere that we already know. I'm hungry most of the time and I get really hungry fast... so the deciding process ends up being pretty short. He probably gets pretty frustrated with me always asking him to take me to a new place and then forgetting what that new place was when it's time to go. That's why we came up with a brilliant plan to have a list. An actual tangible list instead of a running one in our heads that we can't find in time. I told him I would make a real list and promptly started scribbling things down in my Lisa Frank note pad which is always in my purse. He said he would only follow it if it was official looking and on real stationary instead of my Lisa Frank note pad. Side Note: Lisa Frank is still awesome. Besides that, my lovely sister, Everly, gave it to me. In my mind, it is just as official as so called real stationary. Ahem, back to the list. So I gave in to his request (because I really like when he buys me food) and made a real list on official looking stationary. I wrote the restaurant names, location, and price range for his convenience. :) We've already tried one on the list and we've only had it a few days! The place we tried was called Haiku Japanese and Korean. It was exciting because it was on the list and I really wanted to try Korean food. It was a let down because the food was not so good. Very bland and not very fresh tasting. Plus, the environment was not the most authentic or even interesting for that matter, except that there was an indoor coy pond, which was pretty cool. So, all in all, not the best. But, more importantly, we tried somewhere on the list and now we know what it's like! I count it a win. So, I'll post the list for all to see and as we try somewhere, I'll review it! There could definitely be more restaurants added later. I know they probably seem pretty random but they're the main ones I could think of that I wanted to try for some reason and hadn't yet. Also, if you're reading this and have tried any of them, let me know what you thought!

1. La Riviera
2. Madden's
3. Square One
4. Bodega Coast
5. Naked Fish
6. Fontana's
7. Cafe Capri
8. Fat Burger
9. Truman's Chocolates
10. Luigi's Patio Ristorante
11. Christopher's World Grill
12. La Bodega
13. Papa Perez
14. Haiku Japanese and Korean
15. Herbert's Cajun Cuisine
16. Antonio's Pizza
17. The Republic
18. Serendipity

An exerpt from Les Miserables

I thought this was a beautiful little passage and I thought I'd share. It makes me wish I had known Victor Hugo. It's about a blind man being cared for by his sister but it really has a lot that I think could apply to anyone. It's really just a passage about love.

"Let us say in passing, to be blind and to be loved, is in fact- on this earth where nothing is complete-one of the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. To have continually at your side a woman, a girl, a sister, a charming being, who is there because you need her, and because she cannot do without you, to know you are indispensible to someone necessary to you, to be able at all times to measure her affection by the degree of her presence that she gives you, and to say to yourself: She dedicates all her time to me, because I possess her whole love; to see the thought if not the face; to be sure of the fidelity of one being in a total eclipse of the world; to imagine the rustling of her dress as the rustling of wings; tp hear her moving to and fr,. going out, coming in, talking, singing, and to think that you are the cause of those steps, those words, that song, to show your personal attraction at every moment; to feel even more powerful as your infirmity increases; to become in darkness, and by reason of darkness, the star around which this angel gravitates; few joys can equal that. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves-say rather, loved in spite of ourselves; this conviction the blind have. In their calamity. to be served is to be caressed. Are they deprived of anything? No. light is not lost where love enters. And what a love! A love wholly founded in purity. There is no blindness where there is certainty. The soul gropes in search of a soul, and finds it. And that soul, found and proven, is a woman. A hand sustains you, it is hers; lips lightly touch your forehead, they are her lips; you hear breathing near you, it is she. To have her wholly, from her devotion to her pity, never to be left alone, to have that sweet shyness as your aid, to lean on that unbending reed, to touch Providence with your hands and be able to grasp it in your arms; God made palpable, what a transport! The heart, that dark celestial flower, bursts into a mysterious bloom. You would not give up that shade for all the light in the world! The angel soul is there, forever there; if she goes away, it is only to return; she fades away in dream and reappears in reality. You feel an approaching warmth, she is there. You overflow with serenity, gaiety, and ecstasy; you are radiant in your darkness. And the thousand little cares! The trifles that are enormous in this void. The most ineffable accents of the womanly voice used to comfort you, and replacing for you the vanished universe! You are caressed through the soul. You see nothing, but you feel yourself adored. It is a paridise of darkness."

Victor Hugo in Les Miserables pages 166-167

This Summer...

there are several things that I would like to do.


One of them is to blog again which is why we're starting here. Hopefully, the other things I want to do will 1.) actually happen and 2.) be material to blog about!
Some of them have already begun to take place merely because I have more time and want to do them. Some of them though, I'll have to actually put a little more effort forth in order to do them. One way of putting forth effort, is to tell people about it. That's what I'm doing. So it kind of makes a big circle... wanting to do things, doing them, blogging about them so that I'll actually do them and because I've done them and now have something to blog about! :) Get it?
So here we go:

• READ.........fiction, non fiction, just lots of it. This has suffered considerably from lack of time the past semester but is making a much needed come back.
• COOK........I already do a lot of this but I want to do more. I want to spend more time on cooking new things, trying new techniques, planning out meals etc.
• BIBLE STUDY......... I can't believe this is actually something that I'm having to commit to doing more of but it is. I have definitely let this one slide as well and that's not acceptable. So, more of it and in a more focused way, will be happening!
• Blogging...we've been over this one already.
• OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES..... canoeing, biking etc. I love that kind of thing but almost never take the time to go out and do it. This will be easier to do now that Joe is living here and loves this stuff even more than me.
• WORKING OUT....... I love working out. I really do. I just have to do it on a schedule and stick to it. If I really stick to a schedule it's a lot easier on my blood sugar.
• FUN, INTENTIONAL TIME WITH PEOPLE I LOVE....... playing games, watching movies, getting coffee, talking, whatever. I just don't want it to be neglected because these relationships are important to me.
• And more to come... :)

SURPRISE!!

I'm alive!

I know I said that I would start writing again before and then completely abandoned you...

Well, I might do that again but.... maybe not!

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, I at least got my account back! :D