Family fried fall weekend o' fun

A few weekends ago we had alllll the parents in town, pretty much just to go to the epicness that is the State Fair of Texas and eat delicious fried things.  Seriously.  This was the plan.  Momma Dale mentioned this summer that she'd really like to come to town for the fair, so we booked it for post-10/15 (you know, crazy tax deadlines and such) and had the whole gang in town for some Texas-sized adventures.

Ready for fair adventures!

And then we went and had a generally fabulous time and we ate allllll of this (LOTS of sharing on the food - otherwise you would have had to roll me out of there):

1. Omg, we started with Twinkies - they were handing them out FOR FREE as we walked into the fair, presumably to celebrate the fact that Twinkies still exist.  What a way to start and prep our palates.
2. Fried Thanksgiving dinner - this was one of our favorites!  It's impressive when an early contender can hang in the competition for so long.  Basically a giant fried ball of turkey and dressing goodness with gravy and cranberry sauce for dipping.  It was really, really good.
3. I think they were called...pig's toes?  Essentially a deep fried jalapeño bacon-wrapped situation with chili and nacho cheese for dipping.  Disgustingly delicious.
4. Fried spaghetti & meatballs - also one of our favorites.* Spaghetti and meatball bits with plenty of melty, gooey cheese and marinara.  Yum.
5. Fried shrimp & grits, also delicious but a little greasy.  Imagine that, the piles of deep fried are getting a little greasy.
6. The classic, Fletcher's corny dogs - both original and jalapeño
7. Free baby cones of soft serve ice cream!!  One of my favorite reasons to visit the Food & Fiber Pavilion.
8. Fresh, delicious, life-giving fruit.  Yes, a giant cup of fresh fruit.  Mom's decision, and a really, really good one.
9. Fireballs - this fried pimiento cheese situation, which sounds delicious in theory but just wasn't very good.  Too spicy and kinda blech.
10. Deep fried biscuits and gravy.  Pretty much gravy inside a biscuit inside fried.  Also greasy along the lines of the shrimp & grits situation, but pretty good.  Didn't blow my socks off.
11. Bratwurst...yeah, on a stick!  One of the few non-deep fried items, just delicious meat on a stick.
12. Fried King Ranch casserole IN THE SHAPE OF TEXAS.  Pretty dang good.
13. Fried Cuban roll.  Also a bit of a grease bomb, but really delicious.
14. Red beans and rice - one of the best bang for your buck items at the fair, and it may actually qualify as "real food" instead of a just an artery-clogging fair specialty item.  Props to Mom for being the voice of reason.
15. Fried grilled cheese.  This was AMAZING.  It came with those little crunchy potato sticks on the side AND had tomato soup (which tasted very, very, very much like Campbell's out of a can) for dipping.  I loved this.
16. Fried jambalaya - spicy and delicious.  Our last of the savory items.
17. Fried Nutella - time for dessert deliciousness, and this was delightful.  It even came with fresh fruit on top, which made it totally healthy.
18. Fried peanut butter & jelly sandwich - I'm counting this as dessert, and it was really delicious.  You know how fantastic peanut butter is when it gets all melty and warm?  Throw some jelly and powdered sugar into that situation and you're doing ok.

* with this and the Thanksgiving dinner, maybe we just liked the fried food when served in softball-sized form?  hmmm....

This list does not account for beverages...none of which were fried, thank goodness.  That fried beer incident was truly awful.  Check out all the shades of brown below.

Shrimp & grits on the left, giant spaghetti & meatball situation on the right

You can't go wrong with a corny dog, as long as you have plenty o' mustard

Dad, double-fisting the corn dogs - nice work!

Omg - King Ranch casserole, Cuban roll, red beans & rice, and fried grilled cheese.  Holy moly spread of food stuff.

A healthy heaping of Nutella - oh yum

Deep fried PB&J in all of its 100%-bad-for-you glory

Ok, putting it in a list is kinda scaring me.  We all made it out alive, though.

Yeah, it was mostly about the food, but I mean, it wasn't allllll food.  There was also plenty of car show time for the boys...

...and breaks in the ridiculous massage chairs (twice! they were amazing) and making new puppy friends...

...and more animal time (horses and rabbits and tiny adorable baby kittens, oh my! and checking out new Big Tex (I thought he looked a little scary).

Happy fair weekend, y'all!

Pie season is upon us

It's pie season!!  Or what normal people might just call "fall" or "November" or "the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving" - but no, to me it's definitely pie season.  Last year I made four pies for six people at Thanksgiving.  Excessive?  No, not at all!

Apple, pumpkin, coconut cream, and pecan. Dig it. And dig in.

I. love. pie.  Happy pie season, y'all.

Hi y'all. Life happened.

I'm back.  Fresh start.  Let's do this thing.

It's been a long summer, parts of which I'd love to just file away neatly and never experience again, parts of which have been just amazing.  I GOT A NEW JOB (put that under amazing), and Craig's in Houston all week every week for work until quite possibly the end of time (less amazing), and after just four short months from his diagnosis with cancer, we lost Craig's dad.  It's been a long summer.  A very long summer.

But today marks the official start of fall, a new season, time for a change.  And back to the blogging, because it really is something I enjoy and it bugs me when I let it slide.  New season, new start.  Too bad it's going to be 94 DEGREES this afternoon while we're out Oktoberfesting, enjoying biers of the world and some tasty German food.

Oh, and it's football season - we're all pretty excited about that around here.

Autumn light

Pencils of justice!

My sister made it out of the forest and came to visit last weekend!  We had a lovely time doing important things like exploring historically significant buildings, marveling at the awe of our nation's capital, AND...shopping.  Struck a nice balance, if I do say say myself.  One of her few DC-ish requests was a stop at the Supreme Court, which sadly isn't open to the public on weekends, so we hustled ourselves over there as soon as she got in on Friday afternoon.  Side note: it's kinda fun to hop in a cab and say "to the Supreme Court, please!"

We missed the last guided tour by a few minutes, but still had an hour or so to wander the hallowed halls of justice, which are so SO impressive...

...and we spent probably more time than is necessary admiring the set of self-supporting spiral staircases, which are just entirely too cool and lend themselves nicely to fun sister shots...

...and then we also found cool sculptures of the justices (justii?), and I had fun taking pictures of those because I take excessive pictures of absolutely EVERYTHING...

...and then because we were short on time, we cut short the educational/awe-inspiring part of the trip and headed over to the most important part - the gift shop, of course!  There we found quite possibly the most awesome board game ever...

...as well as PENCILS OF JUSTICE!!  How awesome are these?!?  Ok, probably not quite as awesome as I make them out to be, but any double-eraser pencil that basically functions as a Supreme Court gavel is pretty outstanding in my book.  These, of course, are the only thing we actually purchased.

Then, since we had some lovely late afternoon fall lighting in our favor, we had to do some Supreme Court photo shoots.  Good times were had by all, I assure you.

Then we went hunting for squirrels on our way over to Union Station....

...and stopped for some lovely shots of the Capitol, which also has its very own reflecting pool.  You're not so special, Washington Monument!

A delicate balancing act!

Upon our arrival at Union Station, we immediately had to ring the Freedom Bell.  And it actually did ring a little bit! 

After stopping by the convention center to pick up our tickets to see Paula Deen at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show (yes, the Queen of Butter!!), we headed in the general direction of home...and dinner...but not without a stop at a bar I've been meaning to vist, The Passenger.  It's a very cool bar that mixes very cool drinks and serves really tasty tiny olives and Marcona almonds.  I'm kinda in love.

Then we had some tasty Thai food for dinner and did exciting things like make a grocery list and go to Whole Foods (where we almost got stuck in the parking garage - not cool!) and chill to the "Gilmore Girls."  That's just how we roll.

We slept as long as Harry would let us (silly kitty!), then enjoyed some cake for breakfast along with LOTS of coffee and even more "Gilmore Girls," and then we pulled ourselves together and walked over to the convention center to take in the food insanity.  It will never cease to amaze me how people line up for free samples of ANYTHING.  Let's just say Amanda and I were big fans of the Northeast Beef Promotion Board (or something like that...I missed their actual name), where they were handing out STEAK NACHOS WITH GUACAMOLE.  And no one was lining up for this.  What is WRONG with you people?!?  At any rate, that satisfied us as we fought our way through the hordes and into the "theater" to check out Paula Deen in all of her buttery hilariousness.

And she did not disappoint.  This woman is a hoot.  I mean, truly ridiculous and quite entertaining.  We enjoyed her antics for about an hour and a half while also taking in the delicious smells of Thanksgiving that were wafting our way...cornbread dressing and glazed ham (I'm sure she would have opted for turkey, but seeing as how Smithfield owns her these days, it was most definitely a Thanksgiving ham) and sweet potato gooey butter cakes, oh my!

Then, time to escape the crowds and take in a quick afternoon snack at Busboys and Poets before heading home to embark on a tapas adventure.  We rounded up three kinds of Spanish cheese and a couple of cured meats and sliced French bread and scooped out quince paste and olives and grapes and then attempted to recreate patatas bravas (which I LOVED in Spain...and I'll tell you about them...I promise) and madengrilled chicken skewers and some of the most amazing cookies ever in the form of salted-almond honey wafers, which had me very concerned when we were attempting to make them happen...but they turned out to be delicious and amazing.  Oh, and of course there was sangria!  Then we had a couple of boys come over to eat all this food and watch football and have game night.  It was awesome.

Bobbing for apples, sangria-style

Quite a spread!  And yes, I made cheese signs out of sticky notes and toothpicks - it made me so happy. =)

Sunday was reserved for shopping adventures.  After all, what are sisters for?  Oh, and we also ate more cake.  Kinda perfect.  Great weekend.  Photo spread available here.

Wordless weekend

More apple adventures

There are a lot of apples at my house.  Some of them went into an apple cinnamon buttermilk cake.  My sister and I ate slices for breakfast this morning.  It was tasty.  Make it.

Happy fall, y'all.

Yes, this is short.  I have sangria and tapas to whip up.  Woooohoooo!

If I'd known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake

Oh, wait...I did!  Last weekend two of my best gals came to town for some much needed girl time (and a reunion of the never-formed middle school girl rock band Erin & The Karries/Carrys/Kerries), and I decided we needed a cake.  For breakfast.  That's how I roll.  Plus remember all those apples?  I have to do something tasty with them.  I give you cranberry apple cake, which was at its best in breakfast form with some whipped cream.

Now that I've addressed the cake...on to our weekend.  Oh, wait, one more specific food/beverage item.  There's a fabulously beautiful pitcher I picked up in Spain - I realize your first photographic introduction to it is happening right now, sorry about that - and there's only one thing to do with this pitcher: fill it with sangria.  Pour that sangria into three glasses, accompany with cheese and crackers and grapes, and proceed to have GirlFest Talk Session for hours.  That's what Friday night was for.

After starting Saturday with healthy breakfast fruit (ahem, fruit in cake form), fortifying ourselves with coffee, and generally annoying the cat...

I believe someone has claimed the bed...

...we had a quick (and actually relatively healthy) lunch at Chop't (straight-up salads, ya'll!) in my neighborhood before heading out to Georgetown for an afternoon of shopping.  Since shopping is exhausting, we rounded out the afternoon with a random Erin-narrated driving tour of various parts of DC, then chilled with a down period at home.  More cheese, more crackers, and some Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Yes, please.  We then took Kerry to Virginia for the first time (check it off the list!) and picked up the boy for dinner - Mexican food at El Paso Cafe! 

All about that Mexican food!

We followed up our plates of cheesy goodness with dessert and wine at Grand Cru, where I apparently was rather focused on attacking my fondue.  Melted chocolate is pretty delish.

Chocolate, you are mine!!

Sunday adventures - we took a lap through the Air and Space Museum, pausing to reflect on such crazy things as people actually coming up with the idea to fly and to oh yeah GO TO OUTER SPACE.  Oh, and I made the girls pause in the middle of the street for a picture.  Don't worry, there's space for this...not smack dab in the middle of the vehicles...

We then headed over to the Musuem of the American Indian for lunch (I know, it's the only place I ever eat over there - it's just SO good!), and then a failed attempt to tour the Capitol.  I forgot it wasn't open on Sunday.  Oopsie.  And the Library of Congress isn't open on Sunday, either.  Drats.  But Starbucks is!  We walked over to Union Station, appreciating the beautiful fall weather and foliage along the way, and enjoyed some warm and tasty beverages.  Then, since nothing of historical significance seemed to be working out, we shopped again.  I'm very skeptical of this whole skinny jeans thing, especially on my non-skinny legs, which is why you need supportive and honest friends for the process.  I think it could be a possibility...

After further shopping adventures, we made our way home via the White House and a quick pass through the presidential portraits at the National Portrait Gallery.

After some tasty pizza at Matchbox, we dropped off Carrie at Union Station (boo - stay forever!), and then Kerry and I took our tired selves home and laughed our way through When Harry Met Sally.  I really think that might be my favorite movie.  Oh, and of course we stayed up too late and talked and talked and talked.  And Harrison did eventually warm up to everyone, even if he was being a little pushy about having lap space ONLY, no petting, thank you.  Silly boy.

I took a lot of pictures.  Check them out here.

A couple of my forever people here.  I think I'll hang onto them.  Love you girls.