Dinner's over!

We had a fabulous time! I made veggie burgers out of black beans, onions, mushrooms, garlic, cilantro and goat cheese, with bread crumbs as a binder. Sadly, the lady for whom I made them didn't show. She's the only vegetarian in the group, so I wanted to make something for her.

I made eggplant stackers the recipe is on my previous blog. I made a simple balsamic vinegar and oil with italian seasoning dressing, and they marinated all day! Then, grill them and grill tomato slices with the same dressing (prevents sticking to the grill!), and layer eggplant, tomato, slice of feta cheese and repeat. Then move them to a part of the grill without direct heat until the cheese melts. I have never had eggplant before, but I will certainly make those again! Very yummy!

I set a couple of tri-tip roasts on the smoker about 3, and should have taken them off about 5 instead of 5:30, but they were still tender. The leftovers are in a crockpot as I type this with A-1 sauce for some delicious sandwiches tomorrow!

There was potato salad, fruit salad, garlic bread, oh, and I grilled onions, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant, the onions were the best part, but all good! For dessert, someone brought a cherry/cheesecake/brownie concoction that everyone said was fabulous!

So my husband and daughter were troupers about helping me get the yard and house ready, so I've just finished cleaning the kitchen and started the dishwasher. While I had company, Butch and Allison went to see Iron Man.

Well, I'm pretty well tuckered out, so I'm going to read "Stop dressing your six-year old like a skank and other words of delicate Southern wisdom" It's pretty funny so far!

Getting ready for dinner party

I have this month's gathering of the girls who sat together on jury duty a couple of years ago. We spent nearly two and a half years together, and we got to know each other, each other's kids, etc. A couple of them even cruised together.

So we get together every couple of months, just to catch up. One is moving to Florida this weekend, so we'll miss her, but she'll be back. I put a tri-tip on the smoker at 3, it's about half done, should be perfect timing! I also made some veggie burgers with black beans and mushrooms, I've never tried one! I'm also making eggplant stacks on the grill, as well as tillapia for those who don't want red meat. There will also be some yummy side dishes to go along with it. I'll have to post a picture of my home made smoker! No, we don't live in Arkansas, but I took an old electric stove, took all the electric parts out of it, cut a hole between the pull out drawer and the oven box, put a vent cover in the hole to prevent drips from getting on the charcoal. Voila! All you really need for a smoker is a fire box, and a box for the meat. Now I have handy racks for the food and everything! We enclosed it in a cinderblock station so it didn't look like we had a stove sitting on our patio, and I painted it black!

Memorial Day

Day was kind of boring, woke up waaaaaay too early, about 4. So I came downstairs and finished my book which was pretty good for a young adult novel. Kind of timely; it's a novel about a future society and students in high school must pass a test called XCAS or they don't graduate, and in addition, some questions are targeted to identify security risks, and those folks just go straight to jail. The slogan is "No child left behind" hmmmmm. Anyway, through a series of events, the students boycott the test. The only downside to the novel is the conclusion where everything is wrapped up in a couple of paragraphs. I've never written a novel, but it felt like "oh, it's the end of the story, so I better answer these questions on the last page."

After I tidied the kitchen, I picked Allison up from work, and we drove to Virginia City to pick up Liz and Jessica from the Bucket of Blood Saloon. They hiked from Washoe Valley to Virginia City in the morning, having left their car at the trailhead. We agreed to meet at 4, and I didn't get there until 4:30, but apparently they made it to Virginia City by about 1:30. They weren't angry, there is a lot of shopping and touristy stuff going on there.

There isn't anything else going on right now, just working, getting the yard ready for summer.

Adventures in Texas! (really long, sorry!)

We just got back from Austin and San Antonio, Texas. We had a great time, despite the heat and humidity! We were there for the National Bus Roadeo; a conference for mass transit industry and a driving skills competition for coach operators (bus drivers) which was fun. There were six of us on this trip. Have you ever met someone for the first time, but felt an instant connection? It was like that with one of the gals, and then I find out we both collect Nativity sets. How perfect is that?! The six of us had a great time and laughed a lot.

The first night, we had dinner at Bess Bistro, Sandra Bullock's restaurant. We were a party of 6, and waited an hour for a table, when there were plenty of empty tables, they just weren't the two they push together for a party of six. The reviews were mixed, felt like the waiter was surly, and not everyone was impressed with the food. I had the seared chicken paillard, with lemon tarragon sauce and grilled asparagus, and that was fabulous! The atmosphere was cozy, and it looked like it had a comfortable regular crowd.

On Friday we drove in to San Antonio to see the Alamo. It is in the heart of downtown San Antonio. You can’t take pictures in the shrine, but here is a picture of the outside! We went on a weekday, figuring there would be less of a crowd, which is probably true, but the tradeoff is the school tours! I picked up my first charm for my charm bracelet at the Alamo!

We walked on down to the River Walk, a series of channels from the San Antonio River with shopping, restaurants and lodgings along the walk. We took a boat tour, then wandered around and had lunch at the Saltgrass Grill. We headed back to Austin for the evening.

Saturday morning was the coach operators practice session on the driving course. All the winners of local competitions go to Nationals to compete. Imagine driving a 40 foot bus through an obstacle course! Those of us who wanted to were allowed to ride the bus during practice; that was a new experience for me! More sightseeing in Austin, with live music and lots of restaurants on sixth street! With six of us, it was nice that most of the restaurants had menus posted, so we could decide if there was something on the menu that we could all order! They were also having the Pecan Festival, with lots of street vendors, so we spent a couple hours wandering around there, and I found a new Nativity set. In May, I was stunned. It’s a carved and decorated gourd, then when you open it, the crèche is inside!

Sunday was the actual timed driving competition. We did some more sightseeing, and then went back for the “swap meet”. Okay, that’s a trip! The local companies all provide things like hats, shirts, cups, bags, etc, and in one large room, you barter and trade hats for hats and the like! It was a zoo, and kind of competitive! We started wearing our hats at the practice on Saturday, and people stopped us to ask if we were going to trade them! It was wild, and we got up to 7 regular baseball caps for our one bucket hat, what a hoot! Since we were out there trading things, we each got to choose a couple of things to keep. I chose a stainless steel coffee mug, and an insulated bag/pouch that will be perfect for taking lunch to work! Kind of a nice perk! We walked down to the river where there's a long bridge with bats under them. At dusk, they all leave the bridge to eat the insects in the fields. I couldn't get pictures, because it's dark, and we were far away. The rest of them went again on Monday, to the correct side of the bridge, but also mentioned the smell! Maybe I'm glad I missed that one!

Monday was a great time for me! I have a friend with whom I used to work who moved to Texas a few years ago, and I got to visit her! I drove down to Stonewall. She teaches at the same school Lyndon B. Johnson attended as a child! She took me to a lovely bistro in Fredericksburg called the Altdort. Then we shopped around the main street, and guess what? I found another Nativity set! Again, in May! I spent the night out at their ranch, and it was so peaceful, with deer, black buck deer, turkeys, turkey vultures, cattle, etc all roaming free. What a treat to be able to sit back after dinner and catch up, she’s a delight!

Tuesday while some of the guys were in conference sessions, the rest of us went to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We got some beautiful pictures of flowers native to Texas. It was a great park, with a very natural look.

Wednesday was the last day in Austin, and the rest of the folks were headed home, but not until the evening. We got packed and loaded the cars, then went walking again. At the conference, they had given all the participants (and even spouses) a three day bus pass, so we took the bus up to Schlotzky’s for lunch! One of our party loves that restaurant and they’ve all closed here it town! He even sent his daughter a picture of his lunch to make his point! Cracked me up! Then we went to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. It was mostly to just have something to do, I’m not a history buff, but they had some fun exhibits. We got in trouble for taking pictures inside, but it wasn’t posted that we couldn’t. Maybe it was just the Space exhibit.

We headed our separate ways, and we drove on into San Antonio. The Wyndham resort is gorgeous and a few blocks from the River Walk. Thursday we visited Mission San Jose just north of San Antonio. They had a fun way to get a souvenir--a crayon rubbing of the 4 missions in the area, so I spent some time making that. We headed back to the resort and relaxed by the pool. The pool is outside on the sixth floor, with a beautiful view of the city!

We did a lot more than this; we visited the LBJ library, wandered the UT campus (I was expressly forbidden to bring home anything Longhorns by my Aggie friends!), and saw the sights.

Thanks for slogging through this very long blog, we had a great time.