Donuts and Diner

My family and I usually try to attend church every Sunday, and occasionally we will treat ourselves to breakfast after church.  One particular Sunday we decided to try a diner not to far from our neighborhood called Pena's Donuts and Diner.  It a very small diner, so you have to get there before the crowd arrives, and if we make it to the earlier service at church, we usually get there before the crowd.

Once you enter into the diner you will be faced with something that looks like this:

By the way that is crumbled bacon on top of the donuts and kolaches.

After you have finished salivating over the counter's display of donuts, once seated at your table, you will then begin looking at all of the wonderful options on the diner's menu.  While trying to decide what I wanted to order, I drank a very good cup of freshly brewed coffee and I decided on the 3 Berry & Basil Pancakes.

The pancakes were very moist, buttery and sweet with just a hint of basil, what a wonderful combination, and what a wonderful breakfast!

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!

Spring break Week!!

My family and I usually take a trip together every year for spring break.  This year we decided to take an adventure to the East Coast.  Our adventure began in Baltimore where
 we flew in and rented a car.  We drove around for a little while to take a look at the city and also to find a unique spot to eat.   We achieved our goal  when we decided to eat at Sip & Bite.  Sip & Bite is a local diner located in an eclectic neighborhood.  Most patrons of the restaurant live in the area and the staff know them by name, very nostalgic.  The restaurant is reminiscent of a diner from the 70's era, where you can see through the square cut out and watch what the chef is cooking. Speaking of the chef, the food was so good my son said he wanted to take the chef home with him.  My husband had the seafood club sandwich which consisted of a crab cake, shrimp, and crab salad on a toasted bread topped with bacon and lettuce.  I had the french dip, my daughter had a Philly Cheese steak, and my son had a breakfast sandwich with eggs, cheese, bacon and sausage served with fries.  While eating our food we enjoyed very lively conversations with our waitress, who was fantastic.  Needles to say we left Sip and Bite full and Happy.

Our next stop on our East Coast excursion was Virginia.  Once we arrived in Virginia we settled into our Hotel and rested for the next day.  The next morning we took the subway to Washington D.C.  where we visited the Smithsonian.  We visited two museum while at the Smithsonian.  The first stop was the American Museum, then the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Both museums were amazing, it definitely brought me down memory lane and also a look into the future.

I finally got a chance to scratch this off of my bucket List, although it was still cold I got to see some of the Cherry Blossoms blooming.  They were very beautiful.

This monument dedicated to Martin Luther King was also a sight to see.  While walking towards this massive statue, I felt very humbled and happy to have such an awesome leader to lead us during troubled times.  

Pumpkin Squares with Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

I really enjoyed making these lovely little squares.  They are made with fresh pumpkin and tons of spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and ground cloves.  My home smelt divine while these were cooking in the oven.  I enjoyed several squares with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee.  What a flavor explosion in my mouth.
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Mardi Gras New Orleans 2017

HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!!

This is an areal view of what Mardi Gras in the French Quarters in New Orleans looked like this past weekend.  Of course we had sense enough to stay away from this area of town, as you can see why. Our adventure started of with my husband and two children ages 12 and 15, and one of my best friends who lives in New Orleans attending a parade Friday night.  Thank God for her, because she knew exactly which streets to avoid, where the parade routes started and ended, and which back roads to take to get there.  Saturday we attended one of the most popular parades, which was the Endymion parade.  Several other friend joined us at this parade and we had a blast.  There was a DJ, people dancing in the street, people grilling, and everyone just have an awesome time.  The parade began and the kids, and me too :), had fun catching as many beads as we could.

Our adventure didn't stop there, of course we had to taste some of the food that New Orleans has to offer.  One restaurant we tried for brunch was the Ruby Slipper located on Magazine Street, near the University Area.  I had the Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes stuffed with Cream Cheese served with chicken sausage and a cup of coffee, my daughter had the French Toast Batons tossed in powdered sugared and served with applewood bacon, my son build his own omelette, and my two friends had specials that were not on the menu.  The adults had adult beverages with our brunch, and one to go, yes you can take alcoholic beverages to go in Louisiana, gotta love Louisiana.

 After our wonderful brunch, we browsed through all of the unique shops that were along magazine street and discovered some very unique finds. 

New Orleans is a very unique, nostalgic, and a city rich in history, and I would encourage anyone who has not visited this wonderful city to visit and taste New Orleans.  

Super Bowl L1 Halftime Show

So, I decided to volunteer for Super Bowl activities since it was being held in my city.  I filled out a volunteer application and received a response that they had met their quota and I would be placed on a waiting list.  I was kind of bummed, then got over it.  About a month later I received an email stating they needed extra people in a certain area, and guess what that area was....  helping with the halftime show.   I read the email a second and third time and thought to myself this cannot be real.  I began checking credential for the production company and sure enough it was real.  I then began filling out my application, including information for a background check, and later found out I was going to be paid to volunteer for this gig.

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Although, this wasn't an ordinary gig, at our orientation I found out I would be setting up Lady Gaga's stage for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and also rehearsing with her.  I was so excited because I would be part of two of my favorite things, live entertainment and football.  

Our rehearsals consisted of moving our "carts" in and out the stadium. Picture above is an actual picture of us bringing in our"carts".   The purpose of bringing our "carts" in and out over and over again so that we can have everything set up and waiting for Lady Gaga to perform within 6 minutes. 

On the third day Lady Gaga arrived at the stadium to begin her rehearsals, she was so pleased to see her stage.  She ran around the field and gave everyone hi-fives, hugging and kisses her crew she was very happy and very personable.  Her mother was also there to watch her rehearse.

 After about a week in a half of watching the lighting, sound, pyrotechnic, and even Lady Gaga rehearse, the big day finally came.  On the big game day we all arrived at a local football stadium, ate and loaded on to our buses, where we were then police escorted to the stadium.  Once on the stadium ground, it was so exciting.  People like Simone Byles, coaches, former president George Bush were all passing in front of us.  Dogs, The S.W.A.T. Team, National Security were everywhere.  

While standing amist of all of this action, in our assigned areas, we were patiently awaiting for the second quarter to end.  While waiting to go into the stadium it felt very surreal.  I felt excited and anxious at the same time, because this was the day we all worked so hard to prepare for.  

We all rolled our "carts" in.  Once I entered the stadium and saw people sitting in every seat from the top of the stadium to the bottom of the stadium, I felt so thrilled and privileged to have been part of such an awesome event.  

Once in the stadium, we positioned our "cart" in the exact area, like practiced, and moved out of the way and stood at the Falcon's enzone and watched an awesome show that we had been preparing for.  

As I look up a  partially opened roof at the fireworks my eyes began to water, not because I was sad, but because I was so happy to have been part of such an awesome event and to meet such awesome people, and also that this was the end of a once in a life time experience.  I would definitely do this again.

Oh by the way, we got the stage set up and all of the equipment into the stadium way under 6 minutes!!!

Magnolia Market

For Thanksgiving I visited Magnolia Market located in Waco, Tx.  It wasn't exactly Thanksgiving Day, but I took a short rode trip that following Saturday after Thanksgiving. I drove from Houston to Waco, where I passed through College Station, home of Texas A&M, and into Waco home of Baylor. The drive was somewhat scenic, the highway was a little busy with people driving back to college or back home from visiting family and friends for the holidays.

When I arrived at Magnolia Market it was very busy.  Some people were purchasing items to decorate their homes for Christmas some were eating kettle corn, drinking hot chocolate, or coffee.

I then noticed a long line of people going into another building.  I wondered over to it and noticed the sign Silos Baking Co. I thought, perfect for me because I love baking and eating fresh baked pastries. The line moved very fast, before entering the building you were given a small card  to fill out stating what you wanted to order before arriving to the counter.  I choose the Lavender Lemon Cupcake, with a cup of coffee.

Once I reached the counter I purchased my cupcake, but they ran out of coffee, bummer!
The cupcake was moist, but I could taste more of the lemon and not a lot of the lavender.  The frosting was very sweet, but very light from the flavor of the lemon.

Overall, I enjoyed my rode trip to Magnolia Market, I picked up some great items for my kitchen and also enjoyed a great afternoon treat from Silos Bakery.