About Sweet Hazel's Sweets

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Houston, Texas, United States
My blog will focus on baking and traveling. I chose these two because I want to share with others my love and wonderful experiences I have when I bake for others, and the intersting things I taste and see when I travel. If you are wondering where the name came from, I named my bake shop after my mother who LOVED sweets, and also like to travel, but I think she liked the sweets more. On October 20, 2015, my mother passed on, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, although this disease took over her mind and body and her world she still remained the sweet gentle woman she has always been. So here's to sweets for my sweet Hazel.

Friday, February 22, 2019

San Antonio !!

In between attending sessions at a conference that I attended in San Antonio, I decided to explore the area near where I was staying.  While walking near the River Walk, I stumbled across a Bar-B-Cue Restaurant called Bill Miller's Bar-B-Cue. It was crowded with mostly locals on their lunch break, and a few tourist:


Bill Miller's have been around since 1953, and my lunch was so good, and I ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture of it. 😆  I had a smoked bar-b-cue chicken sandwich, with steak potato fries (try to use your imagination, I"ll get a picture next time I go).   The meat was so flavorful that bar-b-cue sauce was not required.  I then washed all of this down with a big cup of lemonade (I managed to get a picture of that).  Overall, I enjoyed my quick tasty lunch at Bill Miller's.


That evening, I decided to continue exploring my surrounding, and I ran across a cool little place called Rosella at the Rand:





I called it a cool little spot, because that's exactly what it is.   The music was REALLY good, and it was a cute small restaurant that played THE best music.  Music that had a neo-soul vibe to it such as, A tribe Called Quest and De  La Soul.  Although the atmosphere was loud, it was also cheerful and vibrant.  While I sat at the bar, bobbing my head to the music, I enjoyed two glasses of wine, a steak salad, and watched the bartender mix some very unique cocktails.  I would definitely return to this restaurant again for an evening bite and cocktail or glass of wine.


That evening, I also ran across  La Pandaria, one of the city's local bakeries.



I landed here after I left Rosellas', but who goes to a bakery in the middle of the night? I do, especially when you spot this in the window:


Since it was late in the evening, the young lady encourage me to stop by in the morning when there would be more items to choose from and everything would be fresh out of the oven.  So that's what I had planned to do until I ran across these two bakeries the next morning.


While at the counter, at CommonWealth coffee and bakery, contemplating on what I should order, something  kept nudging at me to look around the corner, not a real person, but I felt like I should look around the corner.  When I did this is what I saw:

Any one who knows me knows that there are several things that I like and like to do and that is baking, traveling, eating good food, and of course I am a HUGE Prince fan.  I ask the gentleman behind the counter where the painting came from and he informed me that a local artist ask could she showcase her pieces in their establishment, and she did.  What talent!!  Ok, I had gotten distracted for a little while, in which I often do, so let me get back to why I went to CommonWealth, and that was to eat. I ended up ordering a cup of coffee and a turkey croissant sandwich topped with Bechamel Sauce, boy was it GOOD.  The turkey was SUPER flavorful and moist and the croissant was buttery and toasted, I enjoyed every bite of it.   Needless to say, I had a great breakfast with Prince at CommonWealth ( well his picture).

Before I left San Antonio to return to Houston, I decided to make one more stop at another local bakery and look what I found:
A three Pound Cinnamon Roll at Lulu's Bakery



 

Since i had just eaten at CommonWealth, I decided to order one of these large monstrous cinnamon rolls and take it home to share with the family.  The cinnamon roll came with a full cup of icing so that every little piece that you cut, you could pour the icing over it after it was warmed in the microwave.  When I walked in my home, with the cinnamon roll in my hand, I don't know if my kids were more  happy to see me or the cinnamon roll.  Anyway, it is great to be home again!