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.

Key Lime Pie

I love this key lime pie recipe because you can do it in 3 seconds with no effort, and because it is delectable.

Filling ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks

1/2 Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice

Mix it all up in a bowl until smooth and then fill it and bake it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. The recipe is for a 9" pie pan, but for a dinner party I did small tart pans.

Serve with whipped cream and some sort of fresh fruit, the cherries were beautiful at the store so I just had to have them.

Summer Salad

This was a really good fresh summer salad on a hot Texas night, the fruit was awesome and I will definitely make this again. We had it with spicy fish tacos so the balance between sweet and hot was so nice. I doubled the recipe because we had a lot of people, but just the one made a lot of salad.

For the dressing:
Finely chop up 2 tablespoons of red bell pepper

mince some cilantro

I love how it just layers in the jar, I think it is so pretty.

And then you shake and it looks like this (sad face), but taste delicious. I made it over night so the flavors had time to blend.

Combine some mango, grapefruit, sweet onion, and lettuce in your pretty wooden salad bowl and then sprinkle with cilantro.

So pretty! Right before serving dress and toss, it was scrumptious.

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1 tablespoon minced red bell pepper

3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

1/2 cup olive oil

For the salad:

1 small head of lettuce

2 medium pink seedless grapefruits, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large or 2 medium mangoes, peeled, pitted, and chopped

1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

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!!!!

Cowboy Cookies

We were off to the ranch for a great weekend of fun with friends... What do you cook for a ranch? Well Cowboy Cookies of course!

Start by creaming some sugar, brown sugar, and butter together... add two eggs one at a time

In a separate bowl sift some flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together

Then do something really difficult like.... combine them!

Throw in some pecans, oats, and chocolate chips

Ooey gooey goodness.

Then let's get ready to cookie!!! (said in the let's get ready to rumble voice while stomping your feet and your dog jumping up at you)

My nifty swivel scoop helps keep the cookie size consistent

And just plop them down on a greased cookie sheet "well howdy they partner..."

Take a break to nibble on a little cookie dough

The cavalry. All lined up in rows ready to battle the Indians in the wild wild west.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and let cool (but be sure to sneak a cookie before the fresh out of the oven taste goes away... curse your husband for taking the last of the milk for his fresh out of the oven cookie)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 package chocolate chips

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

2 cups oats

1/2 cup chopped pecans

To Do:

Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Sift Flour, salt, soda, and powder; add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Makes around 8 dozen.

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!

Ceviche

Hercules went fishing a few weeks back and then the next week and then the next week so we have lots and lots of fish, and my dad always does a really good ceviche so I asked him what to do: his answer was just put it all in a bowl and let it sit.

So what I put in the ceviche was:

Tomato (this device is so cool it holds tomatoes, onions, fruits still while you cut it so you don't have to always chop your fingers off)

Some Serano peppers for heat

Put it all in the bowl like dad said...

Chop up some cilantro and throw it in there

Put in a firm avocado because the lime juice will eat it up, also put it in the day you are going to eat it brown avocado just does not look as appetizing.

Pour in some good lime juice (central market has the best I think) maybe make a margarita while cooking...

Then I added some shrimp, onion, garlic salt, the fish (duh) and it was so yummy on a cracker or chips. I didn't take pictures of the rest because I was enjoying my margarita... and it was even better for lunch the next day because there was time for all the veggies and fish to soak up all the good flavors.