Special Delivery!

My best friend, Denyse, who lives in Las Vegas with her husband and two children were finally ready to add a little puppy to their family.  It would be their first so Denyse enlisted me to help her with the process.  We found the pup through a breeder in the Dallas area, Pat with Karyon Shih Tzu.  We picked her up, flew her to Vegas and surprised the kids with her.  I'm happy to report, everyone has fallen deeply and hopelessly in love with her, including me!  She is not missing out on attention, that's for sure.  I will miss her, but she's definitely where she belongs with her forever family!  Whew what a whirlwind weekend!  

Ula's Mex+Tex (Washington Corridor)

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Old Coppa spot on Washington.  Nice atmosphere.  Guacamole was great, chunky not super mashed up.  Beef fajitas were tasty. I like it when it's a little tangy.  The corn tortilla were thick, salsa a little spicy, margaritas were pretty good too, but we thought the service was lacking. Our server was friendly, but they forgot to bring our corn tortillas, didn't refill our salsa, chips or tortillas.  Overall, ok experience.

My First Herb Garden!

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I was that single girl...for the longest time…that doesn't cook, defintely doesn't garden, nor does any of those home making activities.  Then that single girl got married and then she started helping to cook dinner,  now is the sole cook, and she's also picking up gardening supplies…next thing you know she'll be having a baby...eeks!  

Ok so back to gardening.  I think most girls, in the back of their minds, think gardening sounds like a cool, nice idea.  But first it becomes a matter of life stage, time, then location and resources.  Finally when that girl gets a chance, she has no idea where to start.  That would be me.  Unlike a lot of women in my stage of life, I happen to have a mom with a big piece of land and huge herb and vegetable garden.  She occasionally brings me garlic, cucumbers, leafy greens, so I should be ahead of the curve, but I'm not.

So here I am, with the help of Buchanan's Nursery, a little research, and little extra time venturing into my possible new hobby, gardening?  Not a big garden, but a little garden, you know for those herbs and other greens you put in a salad… a small garden.  I want a really cute one too, that has a nice little set up in the backyard, not one that overtakes it, requiring a huge commitment, just a small little thing that is functional and makes the backyard look a little nicer.  I need mobility too, transferrability...because I haven't committed to a look for my backyard yet.

I have already set the groundwork and cleaned up the backyard for a nice, decent space for my little herb garden set in boxes, that's the idea at least.  I have already done a little bit of research and looked at plenty of pictures on Pinterest and houzz.  So now I am sharing my gardening journeying.

So here I finally am, officially at Buchanan's Nursery on 11th St.  I have an idea of what I want, but it's so hard to find exactly what you picture in your head. I've done so much research and haven't quite seen what I really like, so I'm just going to wing it and put some things together and see how it turns out. I have learned that the key to making a space look good is to actually complete the look.  When you're starting out little by little it doesn't really take shape until you really finish it.  So here I go...where I started, where I shopped, what I saw, what I purchased and actually putting it together and then the final look.  This is just the beginning...

Oh my gosh, this was not easy!  I know it doesn't look like much, but holy cow did it take a lot of work!  I purchased these tin looking plastic buckets, $60 each.  I got basil, japalenos, parsely, rosemary, lavender, bay leaves and mint all about $4 each.  I also purchased Landscaper's Pride potting soil, at the recommendation of Buchanan's retired engineer herbs expert, $4 each!  It took about 1 bag of soil per bucket.

I'm not totally in love with this look, thankfully everything is moveable.  I think instead I would like to grow some vines off of this wall.  But, I also would like some patio furniture on this side of the backyard, so I still have a lot of planning to do.  I will keep you posted on my gardening journey, but for now, I have a little herb garden!

Hugs & Donuts

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Small place.  Long line.  The wait is nothing in comparison to how long we've all been waiting for this place to open!  We came by yesterday just after lunch and they were sold out and closed.  Today we made sure to show up early, however it did cost us going to our class at church.  The things I do to bring you all information!  

I ordered 6 glaze donuts, 1 coconut lime, 1 lemon meringue, and a dozen of cake holes.  In the car, on the way home, I tried the cake holes and they were definitely different and they were tasty.  Not too thick, but definitely more cakey than I'm used to.  Not too glazed or sweet, but overall texture and taste was great.  So far so good.  The glazed donuts were actually a little disappointing.  I guess waiting all this time, I had done a lot of following of their progress on Facebook.  I thought they were going to be closer to Krispy Kreme quality and taste than any old donut shop.  Unfortunately, that was my take and Matt thought they weren't even as good as Shipleys.  On another note, I had these new doughnuts from Shipleys, they were the yeast one, and oh my gosh they were good.  I usually never go back for seconds, but I had 2 of them!  If we weren't out in public I might have even gotten a third!  

Ok so back to Hugs & Donuts doughnuts...I tried the coconut lime, it's ok.  The lemon meringue also ok, better than the coconut lime, but it's probably just because there was more umph to it because of the filling.  The coconut lime was just a little bland.  So overall, a bit disappointed, but not a bad place to go for just some regular old doughnuts.

Pizaro's Pizza (Montrose)

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Finally, they're open!  I have been waiting for what seems like forever!  Owner says 2 years in the making.  I had discovered them by visiting their Energy Cooridor location.  I fell in love with the pizza, the crust is absolutely delicious!  It reminds me of that amazing pizza joint, with over 2000 reviews with 4.5 stars, in Georgia called Antico, mm.  What I love about the crust is its texture, its chewiness.  You know, I love me some good bread and I never pass up bread.  I think I might be a bread connoisseur!  It's my favorite part of a thin crust pizza.  But, I find most pizza places don't quite have the right texture.  Sometimes it's just thin and it's good, but it doesn't have that chewy texture.  Anyways, enough about the crust, we ordered the potato mushroom which was good and also the Calabrese, at the suggestion of the cashier.  But I really didn't like the pepperoni on the Calabrese, it was too gamey tasting.  Also, this location has a better atmosphere than the one out west.

On another note, I referred a client of mine who is and loves Italian cuisine and she did not like it.  She said the crust was under cooked and soggy.  So, today I'm going again and this time, I'll try something else! 

Danton's Gulf Seafood & Oyster Bar (Museum District)

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I'm a newbie to oysters.  Less than a year ago I tried my first oyster and now I'm hooked!  I hadn't really known Gulf oysters, though I've heard how large they are.  This day, I experienced my first real Gulf oysters.  I've mostly tried east coast oysters and had tried some Gulf oysters before, but both times they were about the same size, small like east coast oysters.  I found Danton's for their affordable prices, $9/dozen.  When we got our first dozen, wow, do you see the size of these oysters?  I was scared!  They are double the size of what I'm used to!  I had to cut mine in half and honestly, after having a not so great experience with the oysters in New Orleans, I was feeling a bit hesitant still to jump back in.  So, this day I was still pretty hesitant and seeing the size of these oysters, I wasn't very excited about them and after one dozen, shared, I was done.  They weren't bad, it was just the size was off putting.  I think I'm definitely done with oysters, which is timely since it's warming.  Maybe next season, I'll be ready to chow again, for now, I've been officially satisfied with my oyster cravings.  

New Tastings at North Italia

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Today I tried the Chef's Board, colorful, interesting, and so much variety!  The Crezenza cheese was delicious, I wrote that one down!  Only the most delicious ones get written down, I love cheese!  Those green olives were nice too.  The prosciutto was tasty as well, lots of it too.  I don't prefer butter on my bread on my cheese board, but it was fine. 

Jennifer the manager says they just got a barista and highly recommended we try something from the coffee bar, so we ordered a cappuccino.  We found that although it was good, there was a little too much milk in it.  All in all we enjoyed out visit with our cute and wacky server, Christine.

New Orleans

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I haven't been to NOLA since...I was in my early 20s?  That's like 15+ years ago!  Well, for the first part of the trip I have to say I remembered why I hadn't been back in such a long time.  The first leg of my 3 day trip was mostly around Bourbon street, eating, hurricanes, hand granades, beignets, stinky sewage or horse manuer ordor, definitely not fabulous.  

The second day I decided to take the advice of a friend, David, whose taste I like, and make my way, solo, down to Magazine street via street car.  It was fairly easy with a little help.  It's a $3 all day pass and I spent the latter part of the day traveling through a wonderful neighborhood, Garden District.  Beautiful houses, had dinner by myself at La Petit & Grocery.  The decor wasn't anything to admire, but the food was excellent!  I know the steak tar tar doesn't look very appealing, but it was really delicious!  By the time I had made it down Magazine street, most of the shops were closed, but I could tell I liked this part of town better than downtown.  I did do a little shopping a purchase a fancy looking fanny pack for myself and Denyse.  It's close to what I've been looking for and got it for $26 per pack.  Great for traveling!

The next day, at the advice of David, we made it to Cafe Amelie before heading back to houston.  Great spot, we all loved the atmosphere!  Food was alright to good, but it was the courtyard that was the most appealing to all of us.  Well, that's it for now...I may be back to visit Magazine street, but there's definitely to rush to get back.