Townhouse Kitchen & Bar

It is no secret that I love Groupon, LivingSocial, and all "deal" sites. I think it's a great way to try new places or revisit your favorites. I mainly purchase them for stores or restaurants and not beauty-type things.. I had the most unfortunate shellac of my life with a Groupon, so now I'm turned off.

Awhile back I purchased one for a newer restaurant in the Dallas Galleria - Townhouse Kitchen & Bar. I had heard good things and the menu looked good, so I felt $20 for $40 was a good deal. Well, time got away and it was going to expire next week. So, I convinced Megan and Courtney to meet me for dinner there on Wednesday. The deal said you had to make reservations which is probably more for the weekend crowd, but I followed the rules. As I suspected, the restaurant was more or less empty at 6PM. Our waiter was awkward - made a huge deal about us having the deal, told us about these different people who didn't tip, kept calling Courtney out for random things, and had a tongue ring..ewww. I made a comment about the weird light up drink menus (the check had it too!), because the drinks are also listed on the regular menu. The waiter told me they were "being green, because they're rechargeable" - don't care, it was still HUGE.

We all ordered a different cocktail -- and of course they don't list the prices. They were each $12 which I felt was a little steep, but to be expected at a place like this. Megan had the ODB - a dirty martini, I had the Karma - because it had St. Germain and that is my love language, and Courtney had something with tequila that she swears had the aftertaste of an old shoe. So, there you go. 

We started with the Wild Mushroom Bruschetta which was really flavorful. There was a strong garlic/oil thing going on, but I would definitely order it again. For entrees, we ordered three different things and shared. I had the Chipotle Carnitas Tacos, Courtney had the Asian Turkey Burger (Pho spices & Siracha aioli), and Megan had the Kung Pao Shrimp Tacos(definite kick!). Everything was very good and a good portion for the price. I think my favorite was my tacos. They come 4 to an order with nothing on the side.

Overall, it was a good meal and I will be back. There happy hour specials look good online, so that is the way to go.

Why?...Or, Why Not!

While at Wal-Mart last night, I saw a ridiculous shirt that I had to share! This beauty is made from 100% polyester. Class Act. I forgot to take a picture, but found this one online:

http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2012/05/10/daily-picdump-454/hamburger-t-shirt-at-walmart/

I obviously know fashion. Here is my Saturday night outfit:

 

See? I look GOOD. Ok, I don't normally rock a trash bag (complete with the red drawstring as a belt) on my nights out, but this was for a theme party. I live for theme parties. My 3 totes of costumes will confirm this. Some friends threw a Convenience Store Party on Saturday and everyone was supposed to only wear things you could buy at a gas station or truck stop. There were the normal culprits - wolf shirts, trucker hats, cut-offs...and then me, the trash bag. I won Best Costume (duh.) and my prize: a black ice tree air freshener. They kept it authentic with the food by serving hot dogs, BBQ'd spam (oddly tasty), cheetos, funions, twinkies, and ho-hos. Good times, people.

How To: Candy Bouquet

Moving update: Courtney and I are all moved and getting settled. Everything has worked out really well in the space! Once I get a storage unit this weekend for my 2 Christmas trees and endless holiday decor totes (sorry, I'm not sorry), I will take some pictures of the place! 

Now for an easy how-to. I recently picked up a candy bouquet for our administrative assistant, but when I was asked to get another for a staff member, I decided I could make it cuter and cheaper than Kroger...and I was right!

Supplies: Vase - any size (dollar store!), tissue paper, wooden skewers, clear packing tape, ribbon for a bow, candy, and anything else you want to add on! I added in a cinemark gift card.

 Step One: Gather all your supplies. Since this is for a male, I went with all blue and green candy wrappers. 

Step Two: Don't eat the candy. Or buy some extra for you.

Step Three: Tape the skewer to the back of the candy, using the clear tape. At this point, you can also cut the skewers to different heights, but I didn't need to with my small vase.

Step Four: Shove some tissue paper down in the bottom of the vase. Add one piece poofing (?) out the top.

Step Five: Arrange skewers in the vase. You might have to stick in through the tissue paper and some point and that's ok.

Step Six: Add a bow and pat yourself on the back!

 Total Cost: $30

$25 gift card

$5 candy

I had all the other supplies on hand! Yippee!

And I felt this was appropriate with all the candy talk! How true is this?!

 

SINnamon Sugar Pretzels

Photo via: http://lifestooshorttoskipdessert.blogspot.com/2010/12/yummy-cinnamon-sugar-pretzels.html

Y'all have to make these. You probably already have 75% of the ingredients. I made these after a hard day of shopping and they were demolished in record time. And yes, I know how to spell cinnamon, but these are SINful, so I changed the name. These are really the perfect salty/sweet snack. You could easily wrap these up for a gift. Anyone would like these!

Here's the easy peasy recipe, copied from Life's Too Short To Skip Dessert, via Pinterest: (did you get all that?)

1 (16 oz) bag pretzel twists
⅔ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pour pretzels into a roasting pan. In a medium sized bowl mix together vegetable oil, cinnamon and sugar. Pour over pretzels and stir to coat. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, removing twice to stir.

**I think it would be easier to stir the pretzels in the bowl first, but I didn't want to dirty another bowl and did it on the half sheet pan. It was messy and forced me to wipe the counter tops and lick my fingers a few times. Don't hate, only my family was eating these...

YOLO

Sunday was a great day to be at my brother-in-law's church. There was an ugly tie contest and he referenced "YOLO." For those of you not around teenagers or other wise sources of info and trends, YOLO stands for "You Only Live Once." People now say it before/after anything ridiculous, because well, you only live once. To be honest, the first time I heard YOLO it was described as "You Obviously Love Oreos." And while it's incorrect, I personally find it hilarious.

Quite a few men participated in the ugly tie contest, but the winners went all out -- multiple ties, ugly shirts, added decor. According to AC, any of my dad's ties would have worked...HAHAHA!! The women in charge somehow got all of the men to wear paper sacks over their heads while the voting took place. Here they are all lined up: 

All the dads in attendance got a roll of duct (duck?) tape...the perfect man gift!

 After church we went to Abe's, a little cajun restaurant, but who cares about the food, look at the dessert!

Of course, AC wanted the "Tower of Chocolate" so that's exactly what she got!

The young server honestly admitted he only knew "a few designs," but we seemed to get over the lackluster decorations pretty quick. I think this might have been an Etier first -- we actually had to get a to-go box for dessert. YUM.

Girls Weekend

Blogging is hard. I've gotten so much better about taking pictures, but then I get busy doing other things* and forget or feel too busy to blog. Apologies. I had great plans to catch up while I had a long weekend, but there was just no time.

*Other things = Packing up my life for my move this weekend. Packing takes time. And tape. I've also decided it's a great time to go through everything I own and purge. "When in doubt, throw it out" has been my mantra. I have to keep reassuring myself that I'm not a hoarder, even though I've kept some WEIRD things over the years.

Here is my weekend summary: We ate and shopped. Then we did it all over again.

A few months back, my mom decided she wanted to have an annual weekend with just Em and me. After weighing our options, we decided on a "staycation" in Houston, because we never have time to just shop and relax when we're all together. Mom picked me up on Wednesday from the airport and then we took AC back with us. AC and I played and played on Thursday and Friday while the rest of the family worked. We went to the pool, the park, had dance parties, played in her "book club" AKA the tiny guest closet at my parents' house, and ate BLUE sno-cones. It was a successful few days. On Friday, we traded AC for Em and headed out. We stopped at Sam Moon which was surprisingly not packed with people grabbing at knock-off purses like their life depended on it, then headed out to the outlet malls. It was so nice to not feel rushed and just go in every store we wanted to. There were lots of snacks and drinks (iced tea!) mixed in, because that's how the Etier girls roll. After more shopping and eating, we just hung out together and I introduced my mom to the glory that is YouTube. I also made these delicious Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels I found on pinterest. I'll post the recipe soon...so easy and addictive. There are no pictures, because we ate them too fast.

Dancing to JB, of course!

On Saturday, we started off at Tiny Boxwoods for breakfast. If you live in Houston, go here! My friend Erin gave me the rec and my sister had been there too -- this place is wonderful. We shared the breakfast meat & cheese board and the mother's breakfast with homemade biscuits, sausage, and jalapeno grits. Oh wow. We also shared a berry muffin and chocolate chip muffin. Carb loading for a long day ahead...hahaha! Everything was fresh and delicious. This place is so inviting..can't wait to go back!

We then went to the galleria and surrounding shops. I got the deal of the day with some cute leopard flip flops at DSW for $2.95 plus tax. It's a family joke that I always find the best deals and this is a prime example. My mom had a DSW mailer with two $10 coupons, one for May and one for June. I found the flip flops for $22.95, but when I went to check out, the lady purposefully scanned both and gave me $20 off.You have no idea how happy this made me. Next, we went to Blue Fish (another Erin rec) so my mom could try sushi for the first time. This was the perfect time, because my dad wasn't there and it was happy hour. We ordered edamame and a few rolls to share. I think she liked it, but she can't stop talking about how she still tastes all the ginger! HA! We met back up with the men and AC on Saturday night so everyone could sleep in their own beds.

Overall, it was such a fun weekend of being together! I'll post more soon!

Filthy Fifty

Do you want to FEEL THE BURN?? Kristin and I did the Filthy Fifty yesterday which is a CrossFit workout. We modified this workout, because we couldn't do knees to elbows or double unders, so we just did something similar in its place. We also didn't use a 20 lb. ball for wall ball shots, because wow, the 4 lb. ball we used was good enough!

Here is the official workout:

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

What's a pood?? -- I thought it was a typo and we all had a good laugh about it, but when I looked it up I learned that 1 pood = 36 lbs. Yeah, we didn't use 36 lbs. for that exercise either. Basically, if you do all these exercises, even with significantly less weight, you will feel it during, after, and the next day! And if you ever want to feel like a clumsy, lumpy person with no body control, just try to do 50 burpees.

Since I wanted to add insult to injury (not literally, PTL!), I decided to unload my car full of moving boxes and haul them up my stairs. 10 trips later, I wanted to DIE.