A Texas Thanksgiving

“Everything is bigger in Texas!” That phrase really doesn’t apply to the majority of Texas, unless your in Dallas, then you will see lots of big hair, big Jewelry and grotesquely big ego’s, or if your eating in any part of Texas. Whether it’s out at a restaurant or at family dinner, there is always too-large portion sizes. I guess that’s why we always have at least two cities on the Fattest Cities list every year. What can I say? Us Texans love and know how to eat and we don’t care what anyone thinks of us! Thanksgiving is no exception. While I assume most American households over do it on Thanksgiving, I have a sneaking suspicion, here is Texas, we over do it just a bit more.

This year we headed back to Boerne, a neat little town just north of San Antonio, the town we grew up in and where a lot of our families still reside. Recently, we have been doing Thanksgiving at my in-laws house and my mother in-law never fails to supply us with a grand spread of delicious traditional turkey, ham and mouth watering southern sides. I am not a meat eater so I am very grateful for the over abundance of sides…

…Cornbread stuffing, collard greens with chow chow, chili-glazed Sweet potatoes, Ranch mashed potatoes, Corn casserole, Green bean casserole, orange-cranberry sauce, Rolls, Gravy…

Chow chow, corn salsa & cranberry orange sauce

Turkey!

The many sides!

And you can’t forget the pie! Five pies to be exact. 2 chocolate chip pecan pies, 2 pumpkin pies and an apple pie. One of the pecan pies I brought. Back when I was 16-18 years old, I worked at The Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio at one of the restaurants. They served and still serve this Chocolate chip pecan pie and in my opinion is the BEST one I have ever had. Executive Pastry Chef Henry Wesolowski is responsible for this heaven in a pie pan so my tradition is to order one from him every Thanksgiving. One of the pumpkin pies, brought by an uncle, is from Tootie Pies. Talk about decadent pie! If you ever feel like splurging (with money and carbs!) this is the pie place for you.

Pumpkin Pie from Tootie Pies

All and all it was another great Thanksgiving. I’m not sure how others Thanksgivings are in other parts of America as I have always had some form of a southern Thanksgiving, even when attempting it while living over seas. If you find yourself reading this and are outside of Texas, let me know what your staples or traditions are for Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays ya’ll!

Licked our plates clean

Hanger Fado Gibson, oh my…

It’s been a while since i posted anything. Life and school have been a little hectic and I have been lucky to have any free time to just sit for 5 minutes! So here is a nice long one to make up for it.

With all the intention of getting a great blog post, our night out a few Fridays ago was pretty much a bust… all in good company though! After meeting up with a good friend, a semi-long debate and drive around of where to go first, we started out the night hungry, in the hopes of some great appetizers and beer.

Aussie’s Bar

We ended up at a “place” called Aussie Grill and Beach Bar. How can a beach bar possibly exist in the middle of Austin, you ask? With sand and volley ball nets of course! *rolling eyes in disgust* The exterior was promising, large windows, what appeared to be an out door patio, smell of yummy fried bar food. The excitement was short lived. What appeared to be the large out door patio was, in fact, sand volley ball courts. As an on looker, it would seem to be a fun, new idea. People of Austin are quite active and ironic, so being a part of a bar volleyball team kinda fits. But when your sitting on a florescent, brightly lit patio, facing the broken, grimy blinds that look into what I assume was the managers office, repeating yourself to the terrible waitress who appears to be on large amounts of xanax and consuming from frozen bar fare, one realizes they really are in a dump. The only good thing about this place was watching the amateur volleyball players and drinking cheap Tecate light. Not wanting to waste our time and money (nor do I want to waste time writing about this place!), we quickly finished our beverages and headed downtown, to the Warehouse District.

Rooftop bar at The Hanger

Downtown is still pretty foreign to me, so I was happy when we decided to make it a night in this part of town. Parking downtown is a challenge. I suggest taking a taxi if funds permit, besides, you will end up having to pay for parking anyway,  from $10-$20 on the weekends. Once parked, we stopped in the first lounge we saw called The Hanger. Upon entering I automatically knew we entered douche-ville. Really low lighting, uber-modern design, Blaring the song “One Week” by the Bare Naked ladies. As I was waiting for my husband and friend getting drinks at the downstairs bar, the song ended and started over again. I nonchalantly said, “I think this song is on repeat” and put it out of my mind as quickly.

We decided to head upstairs to the rooftop bar which was actually quite nice. The clientele were about our age, sitting in low chairs, overlooking a gorgeous view of the city. We began to get more comfortable when all of a sudden everyone at the bar yells in various phrases of agony “NO! NO!” and “For the love of God, why!?” We quickly came to realize the song started over AGAIN! I asked the girl next to me how long it’s been on repeat with the response of 5 fingers and the look of despair. The bartenders finally got what was going on and a flood of bad rap and R&B continued followed by a flood of annoying college freshmen that completed douche-ville. That was our exiting point. What  this place has going for it is the rooftop bar and the great view. It would make a better happy hour spot to avoid the too-young crowd.

We were getting discouraged at this point. We entered various bar after bar, one was completely empty, another had a $15 cover charge (??), another smelled of a toilet. Where are the good bars in this area?!

Fado Irish Pub

Our drinks at Fado

We found solace in this area in a bar called Fado. It is a typical Irish pub with a bit of a hobbit flare in their decor. It was a bit dark inside and since the weather was surprisingly cool, we hung out on their patio which was where we stayed for the next couple hours. Drinks were average in price and average in taste. They do offer a somewhat large selection of “different” beers, but over all I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there again.

Feeling good with 2pm approaching upon us, we decided to start our way back to our side of town with one more pit stop, to the place we always end up at because it is awesome, Gibson Bar. I just love Gibson Bar. It is located in South Austin too, all that much better. Gibson deserves a post to itself, so I won’t go on too much about it here.

Our night wasn’t the best night out in Austin, but it was all okay with good company and some hilarious memories. If you find yourself in the Warehouse district just head straight to Fado or don’t go to this area at all, in my opinion.

Gibson Bar

Aussie’s Bar and Grill www.aussiesaustin.com

The Hanger Lounge www.thehangarlounge.com

Fado Irish Pub www.fadoirishpub.com

Gibson Bar www.gibsonaustin.com

Mandola’s Italian Market

Trying to find a place to have lunch in Austin can be quite the challenge. Not because there are too few choices, but the opposite. Austin has so many amazing establishments to get amazing food that it becomes overwhelming, at least for me because I want to eat it all. My personal strategy is to, first, narrow down the genre of food I want, then decide how far I want to go to get it. No matter the area you live in, there will be good restaurants, so we decided to stick to our neighborhood for lunch this time around. Five minutes on google maps and Yelp.com, we narrowed it down to Mandola’s Italian Market. Mandola’s is an Italian Grocer, including homemade Gelato, freshly made Mozzarella and bread, and all the things you expect from a market, plus a restaurant! I’m not a food snob, however, I lived in Italy for some time, so my expectations are a little high and I know what to look for in authentic Italian fare. Okay, maybe a little snobby when it comes to Italian food.

Pulling up to Mandola’s I was slightly disappointed because I didn’t realize it was located in the brand new, massive shopping center off MoPac and William Cannon, along side chain restaurants and corporate conglomerate stores. I got on the smart phone and noticed they have several locations in Austin, so I began to think we were walking into another chain with mediocre food. The walk in didn’t ease my suspicions as it looked as though I entered a Cracker Barrel. Kind of tchotchke and over designed, like Chili’s and Schlotzky’s gave birth to it. What was promising was that they really did have imported goods and I spotted the homemade gelato case.

We made our way to the cashier and decided on ordering the Fiorentina pizza with two side house salads and our friend ordered the Sausage panini with chips. For everything, the total was about $38 with drinks. Not too pricey.  The cashier recommend we try the lemonade. She said it is homemade every day, not a drop of it from powder mix or frozen anything. They go all the way with this drink, even boiling lemon rinds to give it the extra lemon kick. It was delicious!  I am not a huge lemonade person, but this I could drink, especially with vodka.

With my suspicions slightly lifted by the lemonade and the fact that it was rather crowded, so it must be good, we found an empty table, and awaited our meal. They brought us a basket of Foccacia bread and a plate of oil and herbs for dipping. Super soft, warm, salty and the oil had great Italian flavors. We received our salads rather quickly, which were basic, but the oily dressing made it quite delicious. About 10 more minutes, we got our pizza. My suspicions began to get the best of me again because this pizza already wasn’t authentic and I didn’t even taste it yet. It was oval in shape and cut into rectangular pieces, it was also quite small for a $12 dish. However, after that first bite I immediately knew I was eating something special. I was first hit with flavors of artichoke and salty cheese, then spinach and ricotta, soft, but thin crust being the vehicle of flavor to my mouth.

Authentic? No. Delicious and comforting? A big yes. Even though the pizza was small I was still very full. Honestly though, I could have eaten that whole pizza by myself if I didn’t have the other dishes. Then again, I eat till I want to die when I like it. We didn’t get to try any of the homemade Gelato or desserts, but after that good meal I will go back, maybe a pasta dish next time around and try my best to leave room for icecream.

I learned my lesson to keep a more open mind when going into future establishments because what I was expecting was not accurate at all when it comes to Mandola’s Italian Market. If your in Austin I suggest you give it a try! Let me know if the other locations are as good as my experience! Be sure to check out my video above to get a good look at some of the food and market offerings!

Mandola’s Italian Market, 3 locations in Austin, www.mandolasmarket.com

Cheapeeeeer, Cheaper!

Austin City Limits has come and gone once again this past weekend, Oct. 12-14 and it seemed every Austin resident was in attendance at least one day of the event…. except for me. Even a few 65 year old clients that came into my place of employment expressed their excitement and exhaustion because they attended ACL. One day I WILL go, this just wasn’t my year, however, there was still fun to be had!

ACL weekend, one can find plenty of “after” shows of bands that didn’t perform in the event and some who did, but put on shows outside of ACL as well. The one that I most wanted to go to was Bob Schneider’s Birthday Bash at Threadgill’s on Riverside. Threadgill’s is an interesting venue. It was my first visit there and I was a little confused at first. Turns out, they also have a restaurant separate from the venue, but on the same plot of land. Maybe we’ll try the food sometime, I dunno, at a quick glance the place seemed questionable. Maybe because it was swarmed with dirty, ACL hippies trying to use the free toilets, which were also questionable and unsanitary. We were corralled over to the outdoor stage that is stuck at the end of a large lawn with unnecessary bleacher style seating off to the side that were kind of in the way. At the other end was the bar that was tended well, considering the amount of people and drink options. We didn’t have any trouble seeing the stage, which made for a more pleasant experience than at Bob Schneider’s weekly performance at Saxon Pub (that is a whole other post in itself, blah!)

 If you are unfamiliar with Bob Schneider, I suggest you become familiar because he. is. awesome. He is a fantastic performer and a staple in the Austin music scene, though he does tour outside of Austin (Be sure to check when he is in a city hear you! www.bobschneider.com). You may know a few of his “hit” songs, the ones that are easy to listen to on the radio or in movies, but his best stuff is at the concerts and the way he performs them. He doesn’t just stand there and sing some songs, he interacts with the crowd with his slightly awkward social skills, humor and charisma. My good friend Nicole said it best, “He makes you want to kick back and have a beer with him. He makes you want to be best friends!’. His style of music isn’t one in particular, he pretty much will do any genre with a little bit of dry humor and vulgarity mixed in at just the right places, which gives his music his own personal flair. At times he can be rather offensive, so check out his music with an open mind because he is just being funny and it’s not meant to be taken personally, at least I don’t think so, or I am making a huge fool of myself by laughing.

Back to the point. Basically, he put on this show in celebration of his own birthday, he would do that. And he did not disappoint. As usual, it was extremely entertaining, offensive humor and all. The weather became cool as the night went on and the crowd was weird and strung out as ever, adding to the entertainment value of the atmosphere. Party hats and glow stick bracelets were passed around,  the booze-buzz dancing was in the hearts (and feet!) of all. Even though it wasn’t ACL we still had an amazing night with good music, good friends, and, as usual to end a night out, good food (this night we chose Kerby Lane on S. Lamar).

On a side note:  Our favorite Bob song is “Cheaper”. He puts on such a great show, but in particular with this song as he plays multiple instruments, one of which is the steel drum.  When he began to perform this song, I started recording it not realizing my memory card was almost full (of course!). With that being said, below is a very short clip of the show, please enjoy it’s terrible quality.

Giving this another try.

In the past, I have started several blogs never to really achieve much. I make excuses to not write or give up in the end, but I think it’s because I didn’t have a specific idea in mind of what to write about, until now! Recently, I have made a big, new move in life. My husband and I have uprooted ourselves 1 hour and 30 minutes down the road from San Antonio to Austin about 3 months ago with our 2 dogs and cat.

For those of you who are thinking that it doesn’t seem like such a big move, then you have never lived in San Antonio. Not that I’m dissing it, I actually really love San Antonio in some ways, it’s just a VERY different lifestyle compared to Austin. We also grew accustomed to living in a house with a yard and dog door. Even the cat used the dog door! Now we are living in a one bedroom apartment, no yard, no dog door, no spare bedroom for dumping extra stuff and a lot less privacy. No more screaming at the dog for chasing the cat or singing in the shower while blaring your favorite 90′s song… not without a neighbor giving you the stink eye when you happen to run into each other, followed by a warning notice from the apartment office, *ahem*.

Regardless of the new inconveniences, let me just get to the point and say that I LOVE Austin. It’s worth it.  I wouldn’t call myself a seasoned traveler, but I have been to/lived in my fair share of cities around the world and, overall, Austin really tops the list in regards to quality of life. This city is full of diverse, colorful individuals, incredibly unique, delicious food and you always have something to do if you so desire. I have always wanted to live here and this is the first move my husband and I have made together, making it that much more exciting.

What I hope to achieve with this blog is to give a more personal perspective and understanding of this lively city and expose it in all it’s glory. I want to show that Texas does have culture beyond cowboys, leather and George Bush and, in the right places, extremely excepting of diversity. Most of all, I want to write this blog not just for the curious, Austin lovers, friends/family, but for myself. A way to look back, reminisce and maybe even share with my future children. I am quite looking forward to this project and I hope future readers enjoy as well. If there is ever a topic you would like for me to write about, advice about living/moving here or even if it’s something as small as visiting and reviewing a food truck, please feel free to ask!