Max's Wine Dive

So I haven't cooked all week, although it is only Wednesday, I still feel a little lazy. However, because a dear friend HAS to go to London for 4 months for something really stupid like law school we HAD to go and give her a fond farewell, 3 times in a week. Since we did go to some fabulous places and I like to think of myself as a wannabe foodie and to one day be really proactive and have my own personal food journal, I thought I would start now. This was how all of my diaries as a child started out, and then next entry would be months later saying "sorry I haven't written in a while" and it would continue like that until finally I wanted a new pretty diary and the vicious cycle would continue.

We went to....

 In the quarry extended/annex whatever is is called I can never get it right, it's across the street from the main quarry. Where of course you start your night out with a wonderful just what I needed after a long day glass of wine.

 Luckily my friends like to do what I like to do, order a lot and share everything, that way you get a taste of everything. For appetizers we had the pulled pork nachos, calamari, and the heavenly truffle mac & cheese (this is a must here). 

Hercules and I ordered the fried chicken, duh.

Christie had the sliders....

Then Schreiner and Jayson did something unexpected and trumped us all with haute dog. When I asked for an explanation of what was on top the response was "It's like cole slaw, but not" Ugh! Boys, don't they know I am trying to start my awesomely terrific food journal. Somewhere else in there was a Cracklin Chicken, Ahi Tuna steak, and some kind of salad that I had little expectations for but was amazing!

And by the way what a great motto...?

Photos are from somewhere in the cyber world.

the TWAT

I have been fishing my entire life, growing up on the water in Corpus we always went out on the boat on the weekends, the fact that my dad is down near obsessed does not hurt. I cannot complain because you get to go to amazing places: Bahamas, Costa Rica, Mexico...etc. I used to get miserably sea sick when I would deep sea fish so I was more of a dock/bay fishing kind of girl. However sometime in high school I decided it was a mind of matter kind of thing and just sucked it up and made myself go, I now love going. My parents and i the other weekend fished in the Texas Women's Anglers Tournament (T.W.A.T.) in Port Aransas. Here is a little bit of our adventure, Hercules sadly couldn't leave the dock because he had to work:(

The journey began at 1:45 a.m. (yea you heard right) of course I went straight downstairs into the air conditioned part of the boat and went back to sleep for a couple hours, and then I awoke to this. It was one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen.

And the water was like a bath tub, which if you know Port Aransas, miles offshore this is a rare rare thing.

Our Captain "Travis" Sparrow, his last name is not really Sparrow but he looked like Jack Sparrow with this wig and hat, no?

This is the drilling god my dad takes for good luck on oil/gas wells, he moonlights as a fishing god. My family is weird I know.

Our pet parrot, every pirate needs one.

Mom, searching for the fish (still REALLY early in the morning).

Hours later and still no fish: Dad decides the drilling/fishing god needed to rinsed of his bad juju.

Into the water he goes!

All better!

Miles offshore this tiny little golden finch lands on our boat sooo tired, I named her Goldie Hawn.

Goldie Hawn joins the fishing god, naturally.

We may not be catching any fish but Rose wine and Lobster Salad... not a bad day on the boat.

The fishing god kept popping up trying to get in on the conversations.

Good luck arose I caught a sailfish! Sadly the cameraman (my mom) is not very tech savvy and didn't turn the camera on... we laugh about it now.

Once it hits 4:00 on the radio they sound a buzzer, lines are pulled our of the water, and everyone races back to the docks for the weigh-in. Celebrating a full day of fishing of course.

There were so many boats just in limbo waiting to get their video/fish to the officials, it was like a floating party.

This is the weigh-in dock still boats partying all around, we got hit by water balloons by complete strangers in pirate costumes (there is a best dressed boat award fyi thus the pirate hats) it was a blast.

George Strait's boat, had to take a pic.

Once we got to the dock Hercules was waiting with ours and my parents dog, geared up in their pirate costumes! The bottom one is mine Chief, the top is my parent's dog Etta James.

Dad and Etta James decided to make new friends with the boat next to us.

They loved her and she loved them, all in all it was a fabulous day.

Instead of going to the weigh-in since we knew we didn't win, we went to a nice celebratory dinner instead at Lisabella's restaurant it was delicious and so nice after a long hot day on the water.

The tournament was so much fun i urge everyone to do it at least once in their life. 

Save the date for next year August 24-26 2012!!!!

Fashion Night Out at Meadow

If you are a girl like me you love:

1) Shopping with friends

2) Shopping at boutiques

3) Cupcakes!

4) FREE STUFF!

One of my fashionable friends works at Meadow and told me about this Fashion's Night Out, should be fun and if I were nice I would tell you the first 50 people get swag bags.... but I don't want you to get there before me. See you there!

The Park Motel Cafe

While furniture shopping with my Madre last Friday at one of our favorite stores Bygones (2 locations, the one we usually go to is on Broadway near the sonic and half price books) I was so hot and parched i forced my mother to stop in this new cafe that I had read about on San Antonio Tidbits right behind Bygones, she was so happy I did too. We got their fresh herbal tea's, they have white (peach) and black (summer rain), but a perfect mixture with the two combined. 

As we chatted with the check-out girl we learned that is was actually her husbands new restaurant and he was the head chef, she asked if we wanted a sample of the watermelon soup..... um duh! It was a-ma-zing, it was cool and refreshing and she topped it off with some feta, fresh basil, and a balsamic reduction, it was the perfect hot summer light meal. If you are wanting to try out a new place i will probably see you here because I will be going back frequently.

The Park Motel

3615 Broadway

San Antonio, 78209

(210)824-0993

http://www.theparkmotelcafe.com/

Off To The Races!

For my husbands and good friends birthday the other weekend we wanted to do something different, a little adventuresome, and to kind of get out of our little bubble that we live in.... So, we went to the races at Retama Park! I do have to give all credit to my friend Rees for the idea and planning of the great party that we got to tag along too, it was an absolute blast and won a little money throughout the night. However, what is going to the races without wearing a fabulous hat? Luckily my fashion-savvy mother-in-law has a wonderful collection of fabulous hats that she sweetly let us borrow. As they sat in my kitchen I began to notice that each hat their own personalities, and I naturally began to wonder what that girl would be that wore that hat...

Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams:

Sophisticated very stylish gal, attending a vogue launch party for a new fabulous line of resort wear.

The Wedding Cake:

Not afraid of a little bit of attention, has many different 'layers' to her. She's is either attending a tea party with a mad-hatter or a luncheon on the lawn of a plantation home.

 The Romantic:

The sweetheart who every guy wants to be with and every girls wants to be. I picture her in the roaring twenties with a champagne coupe (yep i looked that up) listening to some ragtime music while some young cabana boy fetches her fresh fruit.

Breakfast at Tiffany's:

A classic, goes with everything. I picture this gal to be polished and refined, she never swears, sweats, or  lets her hair air-dry.

The Rebel:

This gal likes to have fun, always has a drink her hand and an audience listening. She is witty and pretty and bright!!!

Sheryl, Tori, Sinead, Jewel, Fiona, Carly... Gangs all here!

The crew, well almost I kicked all of the other lame girls out of the picture that were too cool to wear hats. Obviously they missed out.

Which hat would you be?

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.

Madhatters

Every Saturday my husband's sweet grandparents go to Madhatters Tea room on South Alamo.

Not to be confused with these character's although I think it would great fun to be invited to their tea parties.

They enjoy their meal and company and then for the next couple of hours sit and play their favorite game Tac-Tik. Tac-Tik is kind of like the French version of Sorry!, they picked it up years ago during one of their many summers they spent in the South of France attending the Institut de Francais for french lessons. This is where Grace Kelly went to learn french after she became engaged to the Prince of Monaco. There was an article about the school in Time magazine, and it credited Mimi and Papo is the couple who has attended the school the most times at 11 returns. This Saturday we joined them for the amazing eggs benedict, banana english muffins, and fresh squeezed orange juice.

And of course Tea!

After our amazing meal, the games begin! You can only attain the coveted board game custom made from "a man" in the countryside in France, so there is only one copy of the game per Kilpatrick family. I managed to find an explanation of the game on a french website. Of course i had no idea what they were saying because it was all in french.

You play in pairs, with the goal of getting all of your pegs into the safety area with a few twists along the way of course. We played three rounds, and unfortunately only won the first.

Needless to say it was great fun and great company. It made me laugh a little that our waiter looked and acted a little like this little guy.