Category: Girl Eats World

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 129)

April 19th, 2013 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Austin, Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America, Bob the Dog, Girl Eats World, New Thing(s) of the Week, videos 9 comments - Tags: , , ,


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel, we talk about our favorite shows.



Youtube Link


2.

Today marks 5 years with my little from Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America. I wrote about our first date here.

We are celebrating by going to the motorcycle races at Circuit of the Americas. It’s an awesome opportunity afforded to us by luck of the draw and a generous donation to Big Brothers & Big Sisters. I look at photos of her when she was eight and I can’t believe how much she’s grown. At 13 she can pass for much older! (Which is kind of scary to me.) Here’s to another five years!


3.



Speaking of five year anniversaries, Alan and I finally properly celebrated ours which was last month. I wanted to check out The Elephant Room in Austin. It’s been around the whole time I’ve lived in Austin which is 12 years now, and I have yet to experience the jazz scene there. We were going to go to celebrate in a timely manner but SXSW made it complicated so hence the delay. I’ve never listened to live jazz. It’s even more soulful and sexy live.


4.

I love Bob’s body language in this one. His paws make him look freaked out.


5.


If there was a theme this week in food it was bacon. I had lunch with a coworker while running errands. Beer & Bacon Ramen. Nuts right? Then I saw our bacon was going to go bad soon so I cooked up all 8 slices. I used the bacon grease to make my own croutons! I’ve never made my own croutons before but what a genius way not to waste stale bread!


6.

We’re 25 days out from leaving for Paris! I have been declining a lot of friend dates and dinner dates in an attempt to save up all my pennies. It makes me feel like a downer but the exchange rate and pricing over there is steeper than here! How soon is too soon to start packing?


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ jazz club date with Alan ♥ beer bacon ramen ♥ beer grease croutons ♥ banana nutella cupcakes from my favorite cupcakery ♥ Boston loved ones are safe and their loved ones are safe ♥ 5 years with the little ♥ Kim and I exchanging everything we see about Paris ♥ good vegetarian night ♥ the comments on my last blog post ♥ finally getting to level 3 of Jillian Michaels ♥ conversations with dad during rush hour

Question: What shows do you watch?

Weekend Recap

March 11th, 2013 · · Creative Endeavors, Girl Eats World, Love, Memories, Misadventures 7 comments - Tags: ,

I had a lovely weekend galavanting around Austin during SXSW. I spent most of the weekend with VEDA alums and it felt like a mini vacation!

Friday night, I had a date with Treavor who was in town from Seattle. We gorged ourselves on fried foods and chatted about our usual topics, life and love.

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Saturday, we met up with Anita and Patrick at the 4th Annual Bacon Takedown. I am very proud of the fact that I haven’t missed out on a Bacon Takedown yet! It was also the first time I met Patrick, yet I kind of felt like we were old friends. That’s the beauty of having Youtube/Twitter friends. They start to blend into your everyday reality so much that when you meet them, it doesn’t feel like it’s for the first time.


Photo Credit: Patrick Pho

Sunday, Anita and I went to Chris Guillebeau’s meetup and book signing. There was a point before the talk where Chris stood beside me and caught me stalking him on my phone. That was slightly embarrassing. I managed to feign having my wits about me enough to meet him before his talk and then once again to get my book signed. I bought his $100 Startup which was kind of a big deal to me. I haven’t purchased a book for myself in a long while and when I do, I use Amazon to get the best deal. I paid 25 dollars for the copy on site! It was worth it though to have him sign and acknowledge my future attendance of World Domination Summit with “See you in July!”.

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We followed the book signing with a lunch date at a vegan restaurant. (We were in the neighborhood and up for adventure.) We were solely disappointed with our food mostly because we had just been spoiled by a full day of bacon. But also, what was I thinking ordering a raw vegan Pad Thai? Don’t ever do that to yourself.

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After our disappointing but healthy lunch, Anita and I went to peruse the sketchbooks at the Austin stop of the Sketchbook Project tour. I was shortly reunited with mine and was able to check out Suki’s before their internet system went down. Below, you’ll find a collage with 3 snaps of my favorite random sketchbook. The artist had a thing for dinosaurs and created a fun and holey book centered around the extinct reptiles. I love that shot with Anita peeking from the other side of the sketchbook.

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Oh, I also high-fived Mario. Winning weekend indeed!

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Question: What are the top four highlights of your weekend?

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 121)

February 1st, 2013 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Girl Eats World, videos 18 comments - Tags: ,


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel we are vlogging about what makes us laugh. I tell you about a joke I told a stranger.


Youtube Link


2.


(photo credit)

In the excitement of finding an awesome deal to Paris, Kim and I failed to see that we had a 17 hour layover in Istanbul, which is enough time for dinner and a breakfast and a bit of sightseeing! We already booked our one night there in a hostel. It’s almost like we scored an extra country!


3.


I started a Facebook album called “Bob with Things on His Head”. Now that all the photos are grouped together, I am motivated to find more things to put on his head.

Bob the Dog


4.

Happy February to all! I had a fairly productive January in terms of my resolutions. I’m lagging behind the goal to post twice a week on the food blog but am pleased with my overall progress. First progress report will be posted first of March!


5.

I normally don’t tell people my dreams because I find generally dreams are boring except to the people who are in them or had the actual dream. But this nightmare was a cautionary tale for me! I dreamed that Alan and I were coming back from a walk with Bob and we had left our door unlocked. A burglar was in our apartment and we knocked him in. He was smug and told us he came by yesterday too. He then took his Samsung Galaxy III phone and bumped it against our phones under the ruse that he’ll show us what he stole from us. Instead, he ended up wiping clean our phone memories. I seriously started wailing because my phone has over 2,000 photos on it. I woke up so relieved to find that it was all just a dream.

In my actual life, I have over 2,000 photos on my phone. I really need to work on backing them up.


6.

I made my first pot pie and am adding this into my winter rotation. It’s a Garam Masala pot pie and the only changes I made to this recipe was I reduced the amount of garam masala according to taste. I also cheated and used frozen carrots but according to the reviews, if you use fresh carrots, you should cook them a bit first or they will stay hard.

pot pie

I called my Best Dudie Friend who is my cooking life line and had him coach me into doing patch work with the puff pastry to properly cover three of these pot pies. The tragedy was I left the third one out inadvertently and so I threw it out as to not risk food poisoning. I hate throwing out food.


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ stopping a man who was buying apple sauce at the grocery store to tell him an apple sauce joke ♥ “Bob with Things on His Head” photo album ♥ puppy snores ♥ cupcakes from my favorite cupcakery ♥ finally deposited some money in my gift fund for the parents ♥ planning Paris ♥ booking lodging in Turkey ♥ Alan’a first time as my plus one to a blogging event ♥ face time with a Mosasaur ♥ booking a darling apartment for the first leg of our trip under budget ♥ starting a cookbook book club!

Question: How often do you back up your photos on your phone?

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 120)

January 25th, 2013 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Girl Eats World, videos 15 comments - Tags: , ,


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel we are vlogging about the small ways we make a difference.


Youtube Link


2.


So four days after I purchased my roundtrip flight to Paris, Anita and I bought our tickets to Portland. We figured since there are many people flying into Portland for World Domination Summit, we better get to it even if it is in July. I’ve never been to Oregon and am excited to eat at Voodoo Doughnuts!


3.

My funds are pretty tied up right now with these two ticket purchases sitting on my credit card. I am tempted to sign up for my first travel rewards credit card. The annual fee of the one I’m looking at is a hundred dollars. I can earn two round trip tickets in the first three months if I just use it to pay for everything. I’ve never had a credit card where I had to pay an annual fee! Any insight would be appreciated.


4.

Currently Reading:
How to Travel the World on $50 a Day
Daring Greatly
Anna Karenina (free Kindle version!)


5.

One of my goals is to get my mojo back when it comes to posting more regularly on my food blog. I posted a baby post last night. I’m dipping my toes back in with writing more regularly and started with a corned beef, cole slaw, and french fries sandwich!


6.

Made the 2nd of 24 vegetarian dinners of 2013 last weekend. I made creamy avocado pasta with roasted tomatoes and it was delicious!

Creamy Avocado Pasta


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ buying Portland tickets for WDS2013 ♥ Architects of Air Adventure girl date ♥ fun time catching up with food bloggers at the AFBA Cook Book launch party ♥ roasted beets ♥ scary movie date with my little from Big Brothers Big Sisters ♥ grilled cheeses ♥ flirting with my food blog ♥ Bob hanging out with the same group of dogs almost every day ♥ morning snooze with Bob on the couch ♥ watching Anthony Bourdain on The Taste ♥ wearing crazy teddy bear socks I received from my sister

teddy bear socks

Question: When was the last time you were surprised by your preferences?

Orange Scented Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

November 12th, 2012 · · Girl Eats World, National Blog Posting Month '12 One comment - Tags: , ,

I am posting a blog post every day in November for National Blog Posting Month. Today’s post is over on my food blog, Girl Eats World. I share a Thanksgiving potluck recipe for orange scented twice baked sweet potatoes. It is an easy recipe and perfect for your Thanksgiving spread!

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 111)

November 9th, 2012 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Austin, Girl Eats World, National Blog Posting Month '12 11 comments - Tags: , ,


1.

This week on Totes Awesome Channel we share our childhood fantasies that are no longer.


Youtube Link


2.

I picked up a pig snout costume accessory from Austin Wine & Swine Festival last weekend. The first thing I did when I got home was torture Bob with it.


3.


Tonight I’m going to Austin’s first Oyster Festival with Alan and his parents! I love oysters. The first time I had raw oysters, my friend Nam went uh, “oystering” (?) and he brought me and the guy I was with at the time a Styrofoam cooler full of live oysters. I was bewildered. He then instructed us to just shuck the oyster shells with a screwdriver and slurp. Flabbergasted as I was, I followed his instructions and and as soon as I swallowed my first slimy oyster, my world changed. 9 years later, I’m going to an oyster festival.


4.

2012 is the year of crazy reunions. In 2011, my sister whom I hadn’t seen or heard from in 16 years found me via Facebook. I finally saw her in person for the first time in 17 years this year. This week, I found my childhood best friend via Facebook. I hadn’t talked to him in 16 years!

Facebook, subsequently, has a very loyal follower in me.


5.

Have you seen this video?


6.

It’s festival season! Last weekend was Wine & Swine. Tonight is Oyster Festival, and tomorrow I make my yearly pilgrimage to Texas Renaissance Festival with the same two ladies I go with every year.


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ making it this far in NaBloPoMo ♥ goodies from Maggie’s Farm ♥ finding childhood best friend on Facebook ♥ catching up with a few of my favorite food blogging friends ♥ a phone date with Naz, complete with crying together (I’m glad we have each other to share the hard times) ♥ good reads ♥ fun workmates ♥ fake fights with Kim ♥ some good tasting swine ♥ getting some Christmas shopping done ♥ the Election results


Question: What are some of your childhood fantasies?

VEDA – Why We Food Blog

April 24th, 2011 · · Girl Eats World, VEDA, videos 13 comments - Tags:

For today’s VEDA, I managed to rope two food blogging friends into telling me why they food blog on camera. Today was the first time I’ve met Foodie is The New Forty in person and I’ve been tweeting at her and following her food blog for over a year. I have to admit I was a tad starstruck by her. Miss Julieboolietran is a new food blogger with an infectiously happy disposition and a deep love for Chilantro’s (a post from my food blog).



Youtube Link

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 33)

March 4th, 2011 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Girl Eats World, Lists, New Thing(s) of the Week, the not so single life 12 comments - Tags: ,


1.


Alan is taking me to my first NBA game tonight! The other night he commented, “How sick is that this will be your first NBA game and you get to see the Big Three?”

I excitedly agreed but totally had to later google who the Big Three are. I knew only one by name and only because it was such a big stink when he left Cleveland for Miami.


LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh


2.

I feel very blessed for the close friends I have. I feel beyond blessed to have my bestie as my surrogate sister. Earlier in the week I commented to her crabbily that I finished the last of my dark chocolate orange bar and wished I had some chocolate on me. Shortly after I walked away from my office for a bit to come back to a delivery from an Austin cake ball business (aptly named Austin Cake Ball). There were chocolate balls and (wait for it….) DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE BALLS waiting for me!

What did I do to get so lucky to have such sweet people in my life?


3.

We had our annual work cocktail party this week. It was my first since last year I missed out as I was still working an additional night job. Apparently they have a longstanding tradition of the ladies taking a photo sitting primly on the love seat in the ladies’ room. I don’t know about the previous years, but we did not sit very primly on that tiny love seat.


4.


I love Steve Martin as a writer and am reading my fourth book of his. I loved this line: “In spite of their odd beginning, he was deciding not only that Lacey Yeager would make his life wonderful, but that her absence would make it tragic.”

I want to be with someone who thinks the same of me.


5.

My nervous smile:


6.


I wanted to come up with a clever DJ name for myself to use as a caption for this photograph. Everything I came up with sounded cheesy.

Alas, I’d never be cool enough to pull off being a DJ.


7.

This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ pizza for breakfast ♥ Board Game Night ♥ surprise deliveries ♥ free dessert at our downtown sushi joint ♥ doggy kisses ♥ making friends at food trailers ♥ food trailers


Question: If you were to choose a DJ name for yourself, what name would you choose?

Friday 7 Quick Takes (vol 29)

November 26th, 2010 · · 7 Quick Takes (Fridays), Girl Eats World, Holidays, Lists, National Blog Posting Month '10, Resolutions 2010, the not so single life, Travel 4 comments - Tags: , , ,


1.

Create your own visited map of the United States here.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to visit a new state. Well, we’re entering December and I haven’t done one lick of traveling this year. Abysmal since I vacationed twice in 2009 despite being unemployed for 5 months (Bestie gifted me her miles to visit her for one of those trips, but still!). One thing that impedes traveling by car in Texas is that you can drive a full day and still be in Texas. When Cindy emailed me about possibly helping her spend some vacation days, I immediately recruited her as a road trip buddy. We mulled over New Mexico or Oklahoma. Oklahoma won out because the two of us have horrendous sense of direction and it’s just a straight shot to Oklahoma from Interstate 35. Also, it’s a 6 hour drive as opposed to 9 hours. We’ll be road-tripping to Oklahoma on December 10- 13. Can’t wait!


2.

It’s also decided we’re going to eat and drink at Pops. Located on Route 66 and has 500 soda pop flavors. I am EXCITED!


3.

I told you in last week’s 7 quick takes, how I was late in the game in discovering This American Life. Well, my last night in Austin, Kim sent me a TAL episode about break ups and we listened to it simultaneously while online. It morphed into this virtual date of listening to sad break up songs just because. It felt very much like that Celine Dion’s All By Myself scene from Bridget Jone’s Diary. Except better because it was with a friend and was more funny than sad.

Me:
Seriously, where’s the wine?

Kim:
Oooh girl, it’s not even a wine song. It’s a tequila song.


4.

Tomorrow, I’m meeting up with the Kim for food and movie. I’m not sure where we’re eating yet but we’re watching Love & Other Drugs. Kim sent me a teaser interview that I surprisingly enjoyed. Anne Hathaway is adorable and my notion that Jake’s gay is wearing off.

Also, Kim told me that in another interview, they asked Jake what his favorite love song is. His answer: Willow’s Whip My Hair. A crush seed has been planted from that answer alone.


5.

I was under the impression that Texas trees do not do that pretty orange autumn thing and typically, they don’t. But this pretty tree stands outside my apartment. It’s kind of orangey right? I’m counting it.

Anyway, it’s a pretty view that greets me when I walk out of my apartment.


6.

Because I do not have internet access in Houston, I totally wrote yesterday’s blog post, today’s blog post, and tomorrow’s blog post ahead on Wednesday and scheduled them out. Magic!


7.

I met up with Alan on Wednesday before the work day to do our see you after the holidays hugs and kisses when he surprised me with an early Christmas gift. :) He upgraded my camera.


Question: What is on your Christmas wish list?

Austin’s Gypsy Picnic

November 6th, 2010 · · Austin, Girl Eats World, National Blog Posting Month '10, Photographs 4 comments - Tags: , , ,

I just came back from Austin’s first Gypsy Picnic, a Trailer Food Festival. Austin’s really big on the trailer food scene and the concept of Gypsy Picnic is fantastic but it was WAY too crowded with lines averaging 45 minutes long and vendors running out of food. I ended up discouraging friends who hadn’t left yet into coming. But here are pictures! In honor of National Blog Posting Month – Day 6!

Hope you guys are having a lovely weekend so far! See you tomorrow for Day 7!