April 6th-7th Weekend Round Up

This past weekend we had another Baby Party; it was an unplanned event that turned out to be super fun.

Some highlights from the weekend:

• Baby screaming/crying, 15 year old response “I’m only 15!!!”
• Getting caught in the candy jar
• Watching Chasing Mavericks then crying uncontrollably.
• Missing Hawaii, though this is an every day occurrence
• Hannibal, get on that show; it’s gonna be good.

My girlfriend took me to a late birthday lunch at Sushi-Hana on Saturday. I enjoy this sushi place way more than I should have but it’s not my fault. It’s  the only decent sushi place in Katy. Looking at you Nikko Sushi. Suffice to say, much like we always do, we ordered waaaaayyyyy more than needed between 2 adults, a 15 year old that eats like a bird, and a baby that doesn’t eat. It’s ok, we brought it home and RSP devoured it.  The worst part about being so full? We still ended up going to our new favorite teahouse, Kim’s Teahouse. More on that later. 

We were way too stuffed for our own good so I had to make it light for dinner. It’s always nice to be head chef sometimes when my sister in law and mother in law aren’t around. It means I get to cook what I want and those that can’t cook, have to eat what I make. =D

I ended up making my go-to favorite Chicken Noodle Soup. 

I love my chicken noodle soup. There are so many various recipes out there but for me I just stick to my own. Here’s the instructions/ingredients:

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Chicken
• Some celery cut up into small bits for quicker cooking time
• Some carrots cut up for same reason above
• 1 whole onion
• 1 bag of Egg Noodles or any kind of bite size noodles.
• Salt & Pepper (S&P) to taste

Instructions:

1. Clean the chicken in your sink using salt to rub all over and get the goop off.
2. Put whole chicken and whole onion together in a pot of boiling water; enough water to cover the chicken
3. Periodically check the chicken to make sure its cooking thoroughly. I do this by taking a chopstick and poking it in various places down to the bone and then pulling out the chopstick, if what comes out of the chicken runs clear it’s cooked, if it’s red it needs more time.
4. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it and let cool for a bit, then rip that sucker’s meat off to the bone.
5. Toss the chicken carcass, save the meat.
6. At this time you can either do 1 of two things, boil noodles separately or be lazy like me and dump the noodles into the pot to cook with the onions
7. Toss all cut celery and carrots into pot of boiling goodness
8. Toss chicken meat back into pot
9. 2 to 3 spoon fulls of salt
10. 5-6 shakes of pepper
11. Wait 10-12 minutes for noodles to cook
12. Enjoy.

These aren’t  the best instructions, I know.   However, when you’ve learned to cook the way I have – watching your mother or aunts cook- everything is mostly by memory.

We fed some to my girlfriends 7 month old who loved it. Yes I said loved! I packed her a container to go and she texts me a few hours later saying her dad ate the entire thing! No lie!

Tried and true. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

 

This post is long but I have to mention Kim’s Teahouse. This place is great, if you know me, you know I love sweet drinks, and tapioca is among that. Kim’s has 3 locations the most recent one being in Katy. We drove down Mason one day on the way to Salt Grass Steakhouse when I noticed the sign up. Of course I forced RSP to go back later to try it and sure enough, this was place the bomb. I found out later, so snooping on a conversation whilst waiting for my drink that this place is the sister company to Teahouse. Like literally that’s the owner’s sister or something. Anyways man since we’ve discovered this place we’ve gone atleast 2-3 times a weekend. It’s ridiculous how much we love this place. Best of all, They have popcorn chicken!!!

Mini Date lunch: Popcorn chicken french fries and thai tea

No joke, at the crawfish boil we even did a “tap run” and took orders from guests to go get some. I’m telling ya. They should pay me.

Crawfish Boil 2013

We’ve had ourselves quite a bit of crawfish this season. It’s a welcome change to the lack there of over the last few years. Gets too pricey and once you’ve had it free.. Well then EVERYTHING is too expensive. I say free because we  usually get the hook up in Nola. I’ll write more on that the next time I can actually go back to Nola. 

So we had a huge turn out, I want to say roughly 30 people came and went with 90 lbs of crawfish. I’m kicking myself because I was so busy hosting I only got one good photo:

Crawfish

Highly disappointed in the size; however it was Easter weekend so I shouldn’t complain too much. It was still good as ever. Along with the crawfish we had 3 varieties that later turned into 4 varieties of wings, egg rolls, veggie plate and other things. The main event though was the crawfish. I’m pretty weak about crawfish, I’d like to think I could eat 10 lbs without a hitch but I’m more a 3-4 lb person. Eaten with other things that number dwindles down to 1-2 lbs. weak sauce I know..

Towards the end, people got more drunk and less picky so once the batch dwindled down to a measly few, we peeled what we could and I made a half-assed etouffee.

The recipe is pretty simple enough, flour, crawfish, ass loads of butter, etc. However since it was my first time, I was in a hurry and we didn’t have much to work with. This was the result. I didn’t’ try it, however everyone said it was good. Patronizing maybe?

Anyways, not to brag, but another successful party  for me and the hubby! I love hosting, it’s one of my most favorite things to do, my number 1 rule is everyone leaves happy either drunk or full. I like to think me and the hubs got that down pat.

 

Live Bloggin’ – Boudreaux’s

I crack up every time I do one of these. I’m literally blogging while this guy is talking through this meeting! HA! so awesome

Have you ever heard of the term “Boudreaux”? My boss – a huge grump and thereforewe get along swimmingly – calls “cajuns”, “Louisianan’s” that are uneducated “Boudreaux’s”. In other words you backhoe, farm raised, no schoolin’ fools, that would be you.

So it makes me smile every time I order from this restaurant knowing my boss will be eating from here. Anyways, I like to think of Boudreaux’s as the less expensive Pappadeaux. All the food pretty much tastes the same without the cost or the hype. You go to Pappadeaux for the service, atmosphere; you go to Boudreaux’s because you’re damn hungry and don’t care for the hoopla.

This is what I ate – Pasta Jambalaya – Cobb Salad – 2 boudin balls.

When i order for these L&L’s I typically order the same thing based on what I see everyone eat. Sometimes I’ll mix it up, depending on my mood.

I was pretty pissed though when my Cobb salad didn’t come with the blackened shrimp it’s suppose to come with. Always have plenty of bacon but it’s not the same without the shrimp.

Overall the food is pretty good. Decent. What’s also annoying is the damn delivery girls they bring in. good grief. Another story for another time.

I will be having some words with that catering manager after this meeting, maybe get some freebies out of it haha.

Food Truckin’ It

So as mentioned before, I had a cheat day hanging out with a buddy of mine. After we’d grossed ourselves out eating heavies at Jus’ Mac, we ended up back at J’s place to hash out a plan. Since it’s a rarity we hang out like we use to -  it’s me, my fault. I’m married and living in Katy while he’s living it up in the city. Bachelorhood has it’s advantages - we decided to go food truck hoping and since most food trucks don’t open up shop til 9pm we had plenty of time to google, read reviews, and tweet on where to find them. That and catch another episode of Breaking Bad still not convinced. 

So ultimately we decided on a few places. Let me tell you, since my first experience @EatsieBoys I’ve had my doubts about food trucks and am very reluctant to patronize such places. I know, I know people are just trying to earn a buck and this is a less risky way of opening up a food business but damn why so expensive food trucks?! Anyways, we were partially full from Jus Mac, so my review may be slightly skewed on account we weren’t THAT hungry and just being fat asses. whomp whomp..

Anyways, so we decided on 3 places – @musubi, @thericebox , and @koagiehots.

We chose these three places based on a few factors:

• Opens at 9pm
• Around the area
• Know/Knew of the owners or someone that works at that food truck
• Yelp Reviews
• Word of mouth reviews

Keep in mind, a lot of the food trucks, or I should say more popular ones, were not around this particular weekend because of SXSW 2013 in Austin.

Our first stop was @musubi. We chose @musubi because a friend of ours – or so we thought – ran it and had been posting about it on facebook.

Spam Musubi

Spam Musubi, their namesake was pretty freaking delicious. Theirs usually comes with eggs and pineapple too but I opted for a plain one. The Nori was crisp and not soggy, their spam – though thin – was freshly fried and I love that they added the diakons and other fresh greens which added a nice crisp and refreshing taste to the original Nori. Delicious. The mac & cheese was pretty bland so we didn’t finish it. I love that little black sesame seed cracker though I’m not sure how it fits into the meal.

Something Something Ramen – can’t remember the name.

They had a variety of Ramen and we picked the one that had the most meat and sounded the most appetizing. The broth was very on point. Slightly salty, slightly sweet as if boiled using pork bones, the added roast duck was delicious and the thinly sliced pork reminded me a lot of Hu Tieu a light Vietnamese Noodle Soup.  however, you lost me with the noodles. To me the ingredients seemed pretty fancy, and delectable enough but the ramen used was too soft, and not chewy. Ramen noodles being the “essence” of the latest “Ramen Trend” it’s not a good idea to skimp on the noodles part of the soup. I hate to say it but J we ended up eating all the good stuff and dumping the rest.

So by now we’re pretty content having just eaten food at Jus Mac and then the tasting @musubi. A more reasonable skinny person would call it quits and go home. I’m sure we were both thinking it, we should stop now, we’re pretty full.

And yet no one said it.

On to our next adventure we went. The Montrose area wasn’t as “alive” as I thought it would be for a Saturday night. In fact it was pretty dead which made it easier for us since we were killing two birds with one stone @thericebox , and @koagiehots. We had friends of friends who owned @thericebox and on any given day I’m always down for dirty Chinese so we thought we’d hit this food truck up first. Bad idea. Like I said. We were pretty damn full and everything on the menu, looked super appetizing, but we just weren’t feeling it. And yet again neither of us said to stop.  We ended up ordering a thing of friend dumplings.

Fried Dumplings bathed in soy sauce

Excuse the sloppy/blurry photo, we were walking as I took the photo. The dumplings were your average buy a bag for 7 bucks @ any local Asian grocery story, but at least they were piping hot and crispy all over. I really wish we’d have gotten to try more of their food. I love the concept of your average Chinese fair – beef and broccoli, sweet and sour pork – all in a convenient to go box old school Chinese style, on top of a bed of rice. Maybe next time @thericebox.

Our last, omg I’m so full I can’t breath stop was @koagiehots. Besides being an average hot dog you decided to “fancy up” with your sliced cabbage slaw and whatever else on top of a random Hebrew Nationals hot dog, these hipsters need to die appeared to be fairly rude. Hell yes I’m a 30-something bitching a/b 20 something attitudes. Punk asses stood there chit chatting for a good 5 minutes before they decide we can’t stand around and look cool anymore because these assholes decided they want to order something from our food truck.

hot dog of some sort.

Anyways, we got our hot dog, and the first thing I notice is the “bulgogi beef” was overcooked, appeared to have been old and recooked and had no Korean flavors what so ever. I didn’t even know there was a hot dog under there because it was buried in a mess of stuff.

Also, I don’t get the let’s put a fried egg on everything because it’s the best thing ever movement. It’s terrible. It needs to stop. Yea so I didn’t like this place at all.

Man. When you’re 31 respect! You don’t have quite the enthusiasm or stomach to eat all this fried nonsense like you did in your 20′s. I was feeling seriously terrible and heavy the next morning. It hurt. I kept thinking to myself man I do not have the stomach I had 10 years ago dancing and partying at the club all night then eating a heavy ass 3am meal at Denny’s or Ihop on 59S anymore. hahahah remember that?!

Review – Jus’ Mac

I spent a rare day with a buddy of mine last Friday hanging out.  You’d think for a rare day of Mary n J day we’d have gone all out. No. People in their 30′s are more mature than that silly. Ok so really we’re just super lazy and the reason why we’re such good friends is because we’re both lazy. Plain and Simple. We spent most of Friday mid afternoon literally on his couch and with him  trying to convincing me Breaking Bad was a must watch series. False. sorry buddy. I gave it a fair chance though. We watched 4-5 episodes but nothing in it made me want to go home and download it and continue on. Also, I have an extensive list of movies/TV shows queued up that I haven’t gotten to yet. Maybe laters.

Anyways so for a good 2-3 hours we literally just sat and watched TV. Good afternoon well spent if you ask me.

There was a 20 minute break where we threw a Frisbee to his dog.

Bowser – Just like his dad.

When we finally started making dinner decisions it was pretty hard. Being in the city, there are sooooo many choices. Ultimately we chose to “snack” at Jus’ Mac, a place I’d been wanting to try since it opened a few years ago. It got decent reviews on Yelp and happened to be close by so we gave it a whirl.

So before I start this review, I have to talk about my friend J; and I know he’s reading this but I don’t care.

Anyways so you know I’m on this “try to eat better for you but realistically I still eat whatever I want”, well typically so is he; or so I thought. So here we are  standing and looking at the menu, actually I’m standing there - his ass loves to sneak away and stand some place else just  to watch me as I turn to talk to him and end up talking to a stranger because unbeknownst to me he’s moved to another spot and snickering that jerk – looking at the menu on the wall and because you know this is a heavy carbo-loaded place my eyes immediately scan for anything with veggies in it while his happy ass says “Pit Master”.

From the menu: Brisket topped with Colby Jack & BBQ Sauce

I mean really?! and roll my eyes because we both know how disgustingly terrible that is for you and yet we both know he’d eat every bite of it. Which is hilarious because he’s not a big dude. Tall yes, but not “big boy” at all.

JHN – Totally stole this from his FB page.

Handsome right? Totally available ladies!! Anyways so I noticed this thing a/b J. He bitches, bitches, about THE MOST DISGUSTINGLY UNHEALTHY foods, and still eats it like nobody’s business it’s freaking hilarious.

Exhibit A:

J: so i had the hot mess yesterday

disgusting

me: what is that?!

J: the new sandwich from jack in the box

me: omg j u disgust me

J: HAHAHA

did you just goggle it?

me: no i remembered it’s like onion rings inside right

J: uhh

i dont reemnber

i think so

but it has all this gooey ass pepper jack cheese

and jalapenos

me: PUAHAHAHAHAH

dude ur a pig hahahaha

J: hahaha

i scarfed that sheit down like it was nobodies bidness

and then felt sick after

me: HAHAHAHAHAH

learn ur lesson?

J: hell yes

it’s just one of those things i need to try

next is the cool ranch taco

See what I mean. oh man. ok I totally digress but I just had to talk about that. It’s so gross, and yet I’m jealous at the same time. Anyways, so we ended up with two personal size dishes, one Popeye – had mushrooms and spinach – and another crab one – had crab – that totally came out looking exactly the same.

Popeye – Spinach and mushrooms

Crab mac & cheese

Ultimately, mine was way better. The spinach and mushrooms were a nice added flavor that made the mac & cheese not feel heavy. The crab mac & cheese dish didn’t have enough crab, and was overwhelmingly garlicky and too creamy for my taste which made it not worth it for a cheat day. I wish I could say the added bread crumbs were a nice touch but it got lost in the sea of cheese.

Don’t ask J how it was; he drowned everything in Cholula sauce, scarfed it down, bitched a/b it being terrible then calling it a day.

Why all the Cholula sauce Sauce? That’s a story for another day..

We also had mac & cheese balls. Man super hard, bland and nothing like they ones Burger King use to have. Suffice to say, I probably won’t be patronizing this fine establishment any time soon. Good to try but not to frequent.

Review – Gloria’s Latin Restaurant

A few months ago – before I fell off the face of the earth – RSP and I met up some friends for a photo shoot. Don’t ask why I’m always there, I’m basically a “toy monkey prop” for RSP as I’m jumping around behind him trying to get the subject kiddo’s attention for “the shot”. 97% of the time I’m left looking like an idiot and never once getting the child’s attention. whomp whomp.

After the photo shoot, our friends were gracious enough to take us to dinner as a thank you. Being in downtown Houston, we decided to check out  Gloria’s Latin Restaurant. On first impressions, this place is massive. It’s a huge space for a downtown area restaurant and on certain nights  it’s also a dance party. How you like that?!
We came on a Sunday early evening so we didn’t get to partake in the fancies. Actually for a Sunday early evening it was really dead which scares me to be honest.

Salsa was very delicious and and warm meaning it’s “freshly” made. They serve Chimichurri Sauce upon request though not as good as America’s.

Salmon & Grilled Veggies

Grilled tilapia with what looks like cheap style fried rice and mixed veggies

Grilled Shrimp over a bed of rice with mixed veggies

It seems they changed the menu since we ate there a few months ago. Looks more generic now then when we ate there. Everything was very fancily worded and “Latin” infused when we ate there but came out looking generic. I guess now the food descriptions match the names. Ha! For more menu items click here.

So, at the time while we were eating I mentioned to my friends that I was a novice food blogger and they let me try their dishes to give accurate details. There wasn’t anything special to the food. It all tasted very good but nothing memorable or in your face. Grilled shrimp when done wrong tend to be dry and rubbery; same with chicken or most anything come to think of it. All of our dishes were very well cooked but again, nothing special to it. My grilled shrimp dish was smothered in a garlicky medley that reminded me a lot of Asian foods. From what I understand, Gloria’s has gotten rave reviews, so why the menu change? Seasonal perhaps? Who knows. My final opinion – meeeh…

HEB Dim Sum

Have you ever had dim sum? It’s like an Asian version of tapas. Have you ever had tapas? If you say no to either or both, get out from under that rock! No seriously, I’ve discussed dim sum before on this blog, it’s one of my most favorite things to eat. What’s better than dim sum?! HEB dim sum! You’re probably thinking to yourself..

I love that movie.

Pay attention my friends, especially to the HEB on Fry and 99. Every Weekend they have soo many free samples, it’s like dim sum but

FREEE!!!!

Check out the “sample” of steak I got.

That’s what I’m talkin’ bout!

No that is not zoomed in, that is real life! Man and it was delicious! I was so happy I had to blog about it. Now go back to work.

Petit Cafe not French

Today’s a special treat. I’m actually blogging FROM the lunch and learn itself!!

We had a boating company come present to us and since I’d previously interviewed them, they knew who I was so I didn’t want to be rude and NOT sit in on the L&L.

Notice my stealthy secretive photo taking skills. I’ve been known to do that during meetings from time to time. “Wink wink LTTC”.

As you can see its extremely boring and I’m so happy I brought my phone in to “live” blog in a way. Haha

Today’s lunch comes to us from Petit Cafe. The name of the restaurant is very off putting because you think French but really it’s Mediterranean food.

They have some of the best hummus I’ve ever tasted. Guaranteed top 5. Y other two favorites are HEB Deli -not the prepackaged preservative laced stuff but the cafe area fresh made hummus – and Jason’s deli.

Anyways, the meeting is about to end so I should start paying attention. Lets hope this blog post, posts.

BUUUHHHHRREEEEETTTTOOOOEEEEE

Man favorite parts of my childhood was digging in my various cousins freezers and finding quick microwavable lunches, snacks, dinners, etc. I had the oddest craving lately for frozen food and went on a frenzy buying up a bunch of frozen dinners. They are the most unhealthiest, least nutritious, bloat inducing (from all the salt), mushiest meals you ever got your hands on in 5 mins or less. Boy I loved them!

Delicioso Buuhhhreeetttoooeee!

Remember this!? Ha! I went to HEB the other day and was so happy to see they had the frozen burritos – 3 for a buck! craziness! On another note, I saw there were burritos in a box I believe 12 for like $5.88 made me wish I was 10 years old all over again with a high metabolism.
No one at the house will eat them which is better for me!!!! Man these really bring me back to the 90′s. omg did I just say that?! Good lord.

Baby Party!!

We had a baby party this weekend. It wasn’t intentional. See I bought a UV lamp for doing “shellac nails” and was so excited to try it out I started inviting a bunch of my girlfriends over to party it up.

I’m obsessed with this machine. Though expensive, the quality is much better and lasts twice as long. Unless you’re nails grow fast, can’t help you there buddy. 

So far I’ve done mine, my sister in law, my stepdaughters, one of my cousins and my gf’s. You figure out who’s who.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, I digress.. My sister and a few girls along with babies ranging from 7 yrs old to 7 months ended up showing up for an all day food, tapioca, and baby fest! I also mixed in a failed birthday surprise for my niece with balloons and birthday ice cream cake but she got into trouble before she even stepped through the door. That girl.. Anyways, since my niece and stepdaughter have birthdays close together I thought I’d make their favorites – wings and dumplings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always either fry my wings naked or dip them in corn starch before tossing them into the fry. We’ve been trying variations of batters but nothing ever comes out correctly. My other thing is I always use a wok.

Marinated chicken wings and corn starch

burn baby, burn!

chill baby, chill!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Peasy Recipe – Wings, clean, cut, marinated in salt garlic powder and black pepper. Dip into corn starch and shake off excess. Drop Slide unless ye likes to be burrrnneeed!!! into hot oil and cook 8-10 mins, flipping periodically. Another thing, wet wings will always burn your ass so I’d dry them before marinating.

In the middle are gherkins and salsa verde, our only source of “veggies”.

There you have, super easy and super enjoyable. We ended up making 2 other batches of dumplings they were gone so quick.

Anyways, I know you didn’t come here for the food pr0n. You wanted some of this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Don’t mind the funky layout. damn you wordpress!! I shake my fist at you!!