Bayou Teche Mardi Gras Beer Dinner

This past Monday, after a somewhat lazy President's Day off work, the boyfriend and I walked over to Sal and Mookie's to meet my cousins, Cary and David, and our Raise Your Pints friends for Bayou Teche Brewery's Mardi Gras Beer Dinner. 

Cary and I had talked about the dinner a week or so before and knew it was something we wanted to all check out together. The menu looked incredible:

I'm going to go ahead and admit, I was so excited about the beer/meal pairings (all shared family style), my photos are a little after the fact, but we did eat well!

Fettuccine with mussels

Salad with tomatoes, apricots, mozzarella

Crawfish Etoufee

We had a great time and a lot of laughs...

Cary said she enjoyed it too!

We had a great time and we hear they'll be back again next year. Can't wait!

Valentine's Day

You know, there are some things that I imagine women love hearing. "You're beautiful," or "You mean the world to me." Well, I heard the magic words last night after work: "Take your time and come around six. Romantic dinner in yoga pants?"

Yes. Those magic words. So, I went home, cleaned, hung a piece of art I've been meaning to hang, and went to the boyfriend's house... in my yoga pants.

So, I arrive at Fondren Corner and this is what I walk in to:

Salmon, rosemary shrimp, crabcake, basmati rice, and sweet and sour green beans. Great cocktail with an Argentinian wine Fondren Cellars wanted to try out on us, New Age.

I had given him his gift Sunday because I couldn't wait (a beautiful large platter from circa. that he had been wanting and homemade chocolate covered strawberries), but he gave me these beautiful earrings (also from circa.).

And a dozen roses, which I took home and arranged. Love having flowers around!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day, whether with your loved one or thinking about them.

Surprise Valentine

The boyfriend has had something up his sleeve for weeks for Valetine's Day and he wouldn't tell me what it was. So, last night, we got in the car and I had no idea where he was taking me. If you know anything about me, you know it was killing me. 

Where'd we end up? At cooking class at the Viking Cooking School!

Just look at the menu:

Even though I'm not the biggest beef fan, I joked before we walked in that I hoped it was one with steak. I was happy to see it on the menu.

Two couples worked at each table and we'd watch them demo before going and doing it at our own table:

This is how it came out:

I couldn't finish it all and I was sad about it. Everything was WONDERFUL.

I had such an awesome time. Happy (early) Valentine's Day to all of you!

A-Team

I hate to brag, but I gotta. Just go ahead and call the boyfriend and I the A-Team (as in AWESOME). 

I've been searching all day for an iPhone tripod mount so that I can live stream a press conference in the morning (of which he'll be taking photos for). After going to a couple stores, I texted the boyfriend about my lack of luck. Not 20 minutes later I get this picture:

He Macgyver'ed his own mount. 

And that is why I keep him around.

Curious George

I have a friend... and his name is Curious George. We hang out a lot these days. I just make sure he gets bananas and we're good to go. 

He's headed to the Museum of Art at the beginning of March for an exhibit, but until then, I try to make sure he doesn't get into trouble around the city.

I've shown some of you guys our adventures, and you can check them out on our Facebook and Twitter pages. 

While you're at it, check out this cute blog post the Museum of Art did about our partnership and our travels around the city!

Whole Wheat Cookie Skillet Cake

I'm in love with Pinterest. If you haven't had time to get involved with it, it might be a good idea. Or rather, it may be a bad idea because you'll never get off it. It's so visually stimulating, you could play for hours. 

One of the things I love about Pinterest is that I "pin" recipes and then my talented cook of a boyfriend cooks them for me. (Do you see how the roles have reversed? It's a little scary.)

The other day, I pinned this recipe and showed it to the boyfriend. Knowing we were going to Erin's house on Sunday and that we had all the ingredients, we set our sights on making this recipe.

Oh, it was good. So good in fact, we made Kevin and Erin keep the rest of it for fear we'd eat it all by the end of the night. Check out the recipe and try it for yourself!

Food, food, food

As if I couldn't get enough food in with Appetite for Jackson, the food train kept rolling! After AFJ finished on Saturday, I had to make my way to Pie Lounge at Sal and Mookie's to shoot video. A week or so earlier after workshopping with Jeff Good about the revamp of the bar, I came up with an idea: since the remodel would happen in two days, let's make it an Extreme Bar Makeover. We could do even better than "Move that bus!" We've got the Fondren Trolley. So, after a call to Jeff and Captain Ron with the trolley, plans went into motion for me to follow the action and make a video for them, documenting the process.

I had a lot of fun with it, starting with last call on Saturday, two days of filming, and a fun reveal that was a big hit.

Take a look: