Low Key Birthday Celebration

I asked what my husband wanted to do for his early birthday celebration, because he would be fishing on his actual birthday (naturally). His response was something relaxed maybe a little soup and watch a movie.

On the Menu:

Victoria beer

Chicken Posole Soup

Red Velvet and Pink Champagne Cupcakes from Kate's Frosting

On the Playlist:

Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

Hotel California - The Gipsy Kings

Cielito Lindo - Mariachi

La Bamba - Richie Valenz

Whiskey River - Willie Nelson

My Maria - Brooks & Dunn

Easy Chicken Posole Soup:

• 2 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
• 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
• I added a little cumin too because I really like the spice
• 3 cups white hominy, rinsed and drained

Saute the onion and garlic with half of the vegetable oil

 The recipe said to cook the chicken breasts in a skillet until pink, let cool and then shred with a fork. Y'all know I love it when I can cheat, I bought a rotisserie chicken from HEB and just shredded up the meat by hand.

Once the onions were cooked just add all of the rest of the ingredients together except for the hominy and cook covered on low for an hour and a half.

After the hour and a half add the hominy and cook for about 15 more minutes or until they are tender. While grocery shopping i didn't know whether or not to buy white or golden hominy so I bought both, looks like we are making hummus next week!

Before dinner drink of his favorite beer, Victoria, in a frosted beer mug made one happy husband.

 I served the soup topped with a few tortilla strips and the crunch was a nice texture in the soup.

Cupcakes and presents!

We always like a little bit of both so we cut up and split the cupcakes, and had the best of both worlds.

 Kate's Frosting has delicious and beautiful cupcakes and desserts, and with their new location on Broadway near Florio's it is now very close!

Even Chief was dressed for a the celebration!

Fish Tacos

So if you saw the previous post about my dad winning 2nd place for their Doroda in the Poco Bueno fishing tournament, you can imagine that gigantic beast turned into lots and lots of fish, with a few other types caught along the way.

One the menu tonight:

Fresh Pico

Tempura fried fish tacos with homemade corn tortillas

I think music is such an important part in life, it sets the mood for anything that you are doing. I jam to a great playlist while cooking and I usually theme my music around the style of the food.

On the playlist tonight:

I Can See Clearly Now - Jimmy Cliff

The Way You Do the Things You Do - UB40

Last Mango in Paris - Jimmy Buffett

Come Away to Belize With Me - Jerry Jeff Walker

Jump In the Line - Harry Belafante

For the Pico we chopped up a little bit of each of these: (onion, tomato, jalapeno, serrano pepper, cilantro, and a little bit of lime juice for acidity)

This was our first attempt at homemade tortillas, but the second we received the tortilla press as a gift I had been itching to try in out. The recipe we used was basically just this mexican corn flour with a little bit of warm water (depending on how much you make the amount of water will vary; it will probably tell you on the back of the flour bag).

Mix and keep underneath a damp cloth so the dough does not dry out.

The recipe we did made 16 tortillas, roll into balls and again cover with the damp cloth if you don't make them right away. We made the 16, but only cooked 6 and froze the rest for another time.

It is easiest to cover with wax paper so the dough doesn't stick. I absentmindedly grabbed plastic wrap instead which gets the job done, however I loath plastic wrap. I always wind up frustrated with a giant wad of it. Press and voila, tortilla!

Heat on a skillet about a minute on each side, right before you are about to serve.

Cut fish into an inch or two size portions and as said before we used a tempura style batter it has a really nice crunch to it, but we had to doctor it up a little for a little more spice and pizazz.

We topped the fish off with some cilantro, avocado, cabbage, a little lime juice, the pico, and some homemade ranch dressing that my mom made for us.

The taco station.

The final product!

Mason Jar Vases

I have always had a passion for fresh flowers, however I do wish I was better enlightened in the world of botany (the identity of more flowers and the meaning of them). Anyways at a friend's ranch last weekend they had mason jars with leather twine tied around them as vases for flower arrangements of mums, hyacinths, and more. They were precious and of course the thing that always comes to my mind: I can do that! I trotted myself down to the supermarket. You can buy a case of mason jars for around $8 (which I fully plan to pickle something in the future so multiple uses for them). I also chose this kind because of the diamond like ridges on the sides. 

I picked up a very summery bright bouquet that was entitled Pura Vida, so it of course caught my attention.

We were going to a dinner party at a friends house that night so i wrapped up a jar in raffia as a thank you for my friend's delicious cooking. It was amazing with dove lizzies, back strap, green beans, broccoli rice casserole, rosemary rolls, and topped off with apple pie. You can actually catch the recipes on her blog: http://colloquialharvest.blogspot.com/ Thanks Jessie!

I then wrapped up 3 other jars with a random orange ribbon I had in my gift drawer, and arranged the rest of the flowers. The colors really pop against an all white platter.

 Ah! summer.... Pure Vida!!!

 And... with a whole case of jars $8 and the Pura Vida bouquet for $12, it was such an affordable way to say thanks for a great evening, brighten up the room, and give the motivation to pickle something.... future blog post?

Toilet Seat Museum

On the way home from lunch the other Saturday with my friend Mattie, there was kind of a traffic jam on a very quiet street 3 down from mine, we decided to investigate and realized after being closed lately the toilet seat museum was finally open!!!

Some of the wonderful toilet seats... this was the plumbers corner

 There is one seat that has all the places that people have visited from, and it was quite extensive. The people before us were from Spain and so there was a fresh signature.

 This is Barney Smith the artist! cutest 90ish old man who I think he could talked to us all day long if we had not had another place to go to. He said he does toilet seats because he used to be a plumber and he is used to being around them.

If you live in Alamo Heights and have never been it and Barney truly were an experience! It is located on Abiso between Arbutus and Columbine.

Apple Pie

My parents have a place in the hill country in Medina, Texas. Medina is the apple capital of Texas and they have their own orchid called Love Creek Orchids, you can go and get a tour and pick your own apples it's great fun. They also have a store with everything apple and patio grill with a delicious applewood smoked bacon burger. 

We got the first pick of the summer so decided to make apple pie!

 I used the apple store's recipe:

1 T. lemon juice

1 c. sugar

2 T. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. salt

6 - 8 tart Texas apples, peeled, cored, & thinly sliced (approx. 6 cups)

Pastry for 2 (9-inch) deep-dish pie crusts

Sugar

Peel and core the apples and sprinkle with a little lime juice so the apples down brown right away.

Dust whatever surface you are using heavily with flour

 Roll out crust large enough to cover the pie dish and press in.

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix with apples and pour the apple filling into the pastry dish.

 Roll out the second half of the dough and slice into thin strips for the lattice topping of the pie.

 People think a lattice top is probably really hard, but it is quite simple if you just do one strip at a time, I like to do three for each direction and then do one at a time after that.

To make the curvy edges just kinda pinch around.

Bake at 400 for 50 minutes. 

 We served it up right with a little whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream and yummmmm!!

Congrats to my Dad!

The fishing tournament Poco Bueno took place last weekend in Port O'Connor and my dad and the rest of the crew on the Wildcatter boat got 2^nd place dorado.

Pork Chops

On the menu tonight:

Peppered Pork Chops with a Balsamic Sage Sauce

Potatoes Au Gratin

Baked Carrots

Fort the potatoes... I finally got to use the multi-chopper! The multi chopper has 4 interchangeable plates the slicer, apple corer, quarter, and french fry maker.

 And I did get perfectly sliced potatoes with just one push

 Toss with a little salt and pepper and a tiny bit of nutmeg.

 I cooked them in the smaller baking dishes because there are only 2 of us, we can save one for later in the week. Layer alternating with shredded Gruyere in between, pour enough chicken broth just enough to cover and top of with a little bit of butter.

 Bake at 450 for the first 15 minutes uncovered. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for around 30-45 minutes until the tops are golden and crusty.

I last minute decided I needed a vegetable and found a vegetable platter in the fridge, pulled all the carrots from it and baked covered with chicken broth and green onions at 375 for 30-45 minutes.

For the Pork Chops:

2-3 tablespoons fresh ground pepper

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon fresh sage

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

 Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper both sides, press the pepper into the surface so it stays. Heat the skillet until hot and then add the olive oil and cook chops until brown (around 5 minutes). Transfer the chops to a platter and set aside. 

Pour off about half of the drippings from the pan except for about 1 tablespoon, add the balsamic vinegar and broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in the chopped sage and an meat juices collected on the platter and cook stirring up brown bits from the bottom of the pan until liquid is reduced by half. Then whisk in the butter and done!

 Dinner is served!!

 An another great evening.

Enjoyed with a nice glass of wine and this character. LOVE our new wineglasses.