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.

Memorial Memories

I spent the long weekend in Houston with my family. We had decided to have a garage sale on Saturday morning, so we spent most of Friday night pricing and getting everything ready. Emily & I slept for 2 hours and then woke-up and got to work by 4AM on Saturday. We had a lot of STUFF. The whole thing was quite a success and we were wrapped up by 1PM. Even though people say clothes are hard to sell, we put them out on wobbly clothes racks and prayed for the best. At one point, Emily said "all clothes are $1" - well, the classy lady below went to town! This was quite the family and she bought 3 of my formals (tear!) and some footed pajamas. Her "son" bought a Mr. Bean VHS. They obviously know fun. And can someone explain to me why she felt the need to wear one of those bra "clips" that draws your straps in for her halter top?

Anna Claire decided the formals that didn't sell would be a great addition to her dress up collection. She was pretty proud of herself for tying this one up at the neck and strutting around in a backless dress.We also tried to sell Big Mama's gold chair. Big Mama was my great-grandmother and yes, her husband was Big Daddy. Anna Claire had my dad make her a sign to try and sell it...the words were all her idea!

 

 

After a long nap, we got cleaned up and went to dinner at Ruggle's in Rice Village. If you've never been there, you're missing out! They have some of the best desserts ever. This has become a family favorite, because we love desserts...obviously. I had a great salad and rounded out the meal with this chocolate mint mousse cake that AC chose & we shared. 

 

 After church on Sunday, we went to lunch at Johnny Tamale's. I was the only one who hadn't been there yet, and I was genuinely surprised that they didn't have that many tamales on the menu. Only one dish, actually. You see, if George is going to eat Mexican food, they better have tamales and he better like them. He is a simple man. Meat and potatoes. Or tamales and chili in this case. Well, George doesn't like their tamales, so he ordered a burrito! This was a pretty big deal in our family. We had to ensure no onions were present, but he ended up liking it. See the elation in his eyes? Maybe it was the sunlight.

 

On Sunday night, AC and I spent the night at my parent's house. I requested Tom's Boat, because it was a place my parents always talked about, but I hadn't been yet. Mom and AC went to Cane's, so Dad and I had a date at Tom's. This was quite the experience. I knew that there weren't tables and you just shouted out your order, but Guy from DDD would love this place. It's made to look like a boat in the middle of this parking lot. You walk in to a big bar and extra stools around the perimeter. We quickly found 2 seats, but the place was packed. Apparently, it's always this way. Dad gave me some suggestions and then went to order at the bar. Our food came out fresh and was really good. My parents are fried catfish lovers. So the fact that they can order whole catfish and crunch on the tails (!) is a real plus for them. Tom's is by no means fancy, but it is tasty! You also don't get a ticket. You tell the cashier by the door what you had and they trust you. My dad did say that if you cheated them, they'd kill you and I really don't doubt it. The patrons of Tom's wouldn't appreciate my picture taking, so I had to be sneaky. Here's the inside, our "view" of oyster shell landscaping and a used car lot, and our food.

 

 

Another goal of the weekend was to go through some old boxes at my parent's house. They have kept every paper, memento, and picture of my whole life. I love them for this, but it is overwhelming. My mom is ready to reclaim the extra bedroom where all this is stored, so I cleaned out and reorganized. We are nowhere near finished, but got a good start. Here is just one treasure that was found: a fake newspaper from our family trip to Colorado years ago. I was quite the pig lover back in the day, hence the choice in headline.

The Tooth Fairy

In an attempt to not only talk about food on this blog, I'm going to share some "exciting" news with you! Now, if you aren't a member of my family, this might not seem that big of a deal, but .....

Anna Claire lost her first tooth!!

I really can't believe she is even old enough to lose teeth! She is growing up so fast & I'm happy to say she is my "mini-me." Sorry, Brad & Emily. Anna Claire is a spittin' image of me at that age and Emily keeps asking why she is having to raise me again. Personally, I think they are the luckiest parents in the world :)

I don't know all the details of the incident, but I know Brad had to do some pulling at one point. They then celebrated in true Texas fashion...Dairy Queen! Anna Claire wasn't too keen on the Tooth Fairy coming into her room while she was sleeping, so she requested that they leave the tooth on the kitchen table. She also wanted to keep the tooth. This is something I will never understand. Teeth are funky, especially out of your mouth. Keeping teeth in a little jar is just the oddest keepsake I can imagine. That and hair. What are you going to do with these except put them in a drawer somewhere? I've never seen a shadow box with teeth and hair in it.

The first tooth I lost? Buried in a landfill somewhere. It got taken out with the trash at C.C.A. back around 1990. I lost my tooth at school and threw it away. My mom was so excited when I got home and told her I lost my first tooth, but then I explained that I trashed the yucky thing. "It was all bloody. Why would I want that?" was my response to her.

Anna Claire did good too...she got $10 from the Tooth Fairy! That's a pretty high standard, but the Tooth Fairy tells me the prize goes down after the first one. We'll see!

Doo Doo Bars

Do I know how to attract readers or what?!

My mom introduced Doo Doo Bars to me years ago and despite the name, they are delicious! She first learned about them in Weight Watchers where they called them WW Snickers. I'm not going to lie, these taste nothing like Snickers. They do, however, look like doo doo, so the name stuck. 

If you are craving something sweet, but trying to watch what you eat, make these lil' bars and follow my beat...Ok, I noticed the first two lines rhymed and had to keep going. My B.

Here is the original recipe with my substitutions in ( ).

Doo Doo Bars:

1 banana, mashed

1 Tb. peanut butter (I use Peter Pan whipped, because I'm obsessed with the texture.)

1 envelope diet cocoa mix (I used half a scoop of choc protein powder instead.)

1/4 c. grape nuts (Any crunchy cereal will do. I used fiber one last night.)

1 Tb. dark chocolate chips (Not part of the original, but a great add-in.)

Mix it all together. Form a "log," "patty," "whatever" and wrap it in saran wrap. Keep in the freezer until ready to eat.

I think the protein powder somehow expanded as I was mixing, so my bar turned out huge last night. I shared half with a coworker. Stop giggling about the thought of sharing a giant doo doo with your coworker. Oh, just me laughing?

I didn't take any pictures, because this recipe is so simple and the bars are not very photogenic.

Crack That Doesn't Kill

I woke up on Saturday morning feeling hungry and lazy. Don't we all? So I lounged in bed for a few more hours and watched The Food Network. This obviously made me more hungry. As I was watching Trisha Yearwood's new show (really hoping for a Garth cameo), she made this dessert called Sweet and Saltines. As she was making it, she referred to it as "crack," so I took that to be a good sign. I then realized I had all the ingredients for this recipe and I didn't care if it was 11AM, I was having this for breakfast! 

I decided to have some self-control and only make an 8x8 of this, rather than the giant sheet pan she used. I know myself and if it's in the house, I will eat it. Here is what happens often:

 

Here is the list of ingredients if you do the full recipe. I just cut these down by half-ish or more and called it good enough. I mean, can you really have too much of any of these ingredients?! No.

 

Ingredients:

    * Cooking spray
    * 35 to 40 saltine crackers
    * 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
    * 1 cup light brown sugar
    * 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/3 cups)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Line your pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray. This keeps the caramel goodness from sticking to your pan and thus ruining this whole dessert and your life. Arrange the saltines in a single layer. I had to break some into smaller pieces to fit. Perfection isn't necessary here. Eating the too broken saltines is.

 

 

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together and boil for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers, covering them evenly. Don't lick the spoon. It's not worth it. You will burn every taste bud off your tongue. Have hot, running water ready to put the pan under once you pour it out. This will prevent the sugar from sticking on the pan and thus ruining your life again.

 

Put the pan into the oven and bake for 2 to 4 minutes, or until just bubbly, watching carefully. Remove from the oven and pour the chocolate chips over the crackers. When the chips melt a bit, spread them over the crackers with a knife.

 

Transfer the pan to the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until completely cold. They will form one big sheet. Break up into pieces. Store in an airtight container, if you have any leftovers! For the record, I didn't eat this whole pan for breakfast. I spread it out over Saturday and Sunday. I kept it in the fridge, because I felt it got too soft on the counter. You can also use graham crackers instead of saltines, but I like the salty/sweet.

Enjoy!

Five Sixty

Through an odd series of events, Keith, Megan, Courtney and I ended up at Five Sixty Friday night. Five Sixty is Wolfgang Puck's restaurant on the top of reunion tower. Even with our almost 10pm arrival, they were unable to seat us, so we found a little couch/seating area in the bar. If you've never been up there, either to the restaurant or the observation deck, you need to go. It's a great view of the city and the restaurant slowly rotates to give a 360 view.

The restaurant is obviously $$$, because you are paying for the view, wolfgang's name, and the excellent service. We are talking host in a tux. In our area, we were able to order small bites and sushi which worked out perfect. Megan & Keith shared a California roll. Courtney & I shared a dragon roll & the mini Kobe sliders, because girl can't survive on 4 bites of sushi alone. The sushi was fresh & nicely presented. The sliders were teeny tiny, but rich in flavor. It was Kobe beef after all.

Overall, I'm so glad I got to try this place! I definitely want to go back for a $16 signature cocktail and their full menu...just waiting on a trust fund baby to find me :) kidding! Thanks to Keith for picking up the tab on Friday!

Here are some pics from the night. For some reason blogger on my phone won't let me put pictures in certain places, only at the end. I'm too lazy to get my laptop downstairs right now.

Yummy recipe & my Rough Rider's cougar moment coming soon...

Food Trucks

I love food trucks. I don't really know why. I don't really care either. There is just something fun & social about them. An apartment complex nearby has been hosting a Bite Night every Thursday this month with different trucks. Megan and I ventured out last night & it was worth it!

There were 4 trucks there last night: The Butcher's Son, Ruthie's, Cup Cakin', and Crazy Fish.

We decided on The Butcher's Son, because the menu looked great and the line was long. I wish we would have arrived earlier, because they were sold out of a few things we wanted (The Dead Elvis & lime tots). That's the thing with food trucks, when they're out, they're out. We ordered 4 sliders and a thing of tots to try & share. And this event was BYOB, so that's exactly what we did! We ordered The Southern Hospitality, The Mac-n-Beefy, The Southern Bell, and The Mamma Mia. We also ordered some tator tots with beef, onions, etc on there. Well, it was all worth the wait! Yum! We finished the night with red velvet and cookies & cream cupcakes. Delicious!

You can find food trucks in your area by doing a quick search. Follow them on Facebook & Twitter for where they are located...they move daily!