Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A Mexican Weekend

When I first started this blog, Hubby & I were living upstairs from The Family Who No Longer Lives Downstairs... As their new name suggests, that is no longer the case because we were able to save up & buy our own home! So I have been thinking about another new family name for this precious family!
Let me introduce you to Rib, His Rib, & the Riblets! :)
His Rib celebrated her birthday last week & I got to try 2 new Mexican food restaurants! So of course I had to tell you about them! On her birthday we went to Mercado Juarez Cafe in Arlington for lunch. Their beef fajita meat is so tender & flavorful!
The grownups got Fried Ice Cream, & they had ice cream sundaes for the Riblets :) Their fried Ice cream isn't actually fried like at other places I've had it. Instead, it is coated in coconut & corn flakes, & comes in a fried dough cup which is covered in cinnamon & sugar.
Over the weekend a group of us met at Posados Cafe in Bedford for a true birthday celebration. I had been here before, but it had been many years ago. That needs to not happen again, I forgot how yummy they are! Their beef taco meat & shredded chicken taco meat was well seasoned & yummy! They bring you fresh tortillas straight off the machine. I wanted to get a picture of the tortilla machine, but after we were done eating the lunch rush was over & they had given the machine a break. The tortilla soup had big chunks of chicken in it & was covered in cheese! I would be happy if all my meals were covered in cheese! :)
Happy Birthday!!
Aww :)
After lunch some of us took a drive to get snow cones. Bedford Snoball doesn't just have snow cones though, they have a menu of gourmet ice cream! I got Mexican Vanilla to go with the theme of the weekend! They also had little lawn games for little ones & plenty of tree covered seating.
So if you find yourself closer to Fort Worth than Dallas, these are some places I recommend you try out!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Going Out

We have been out & about, which means I have some recommendations for you!
We met our friends a couple weeks ago in Bishop Arts for dinner. We decided to try Eno's Pizza.
I got the Heirloom Spinach Ricotta White Pie, which came on a wafer thin crust. Everything on it was super fresh!
We also ordered the Pig Smiley which had honey, ham, sausage, & pepperoni. Hubby was not a big fan of their sausage seasonings, but it was a good pizza overall.
They have a rotating tap selection, which they print on their weekly menu. That's a great idea except when you run out of them before the week is over. It seemed every beer we ordered was out, but our waiter saved the day with his knowledge of in stock options that were comparable to our wants :) I got to try Mokah Southern Tier, which is a chocolate stout that I could drink all day! Very chocolaty, very dark, just lovely!

After dinner we introduced our friends to the reason we eat in Bishop Arts, Emporium Pies!
Because you can never have enough chocolate, we decided to stop in at Dude, Sweet Chocolate.
They have quite the selection of out of the ordinary chocolates! We decided on their Vietnamese Coffee House Style Fudge & a piece of chocolate covered bacon to bring home. That fudge! Oh my, it has a very strong coffee flavor, perfectly paired with sweet, dark, creamy fudge. Definitely a to be savored chocolate.
I have been wanting to try Pecan Lodge since they were still in the Dallas Farmer's Market! Hubby & I finally got the chance to go & our moms joined us :)
Pictured: The "Hot Mess" (a sweet potato stuffed with barbacoa, bbq sauce, chipotle cream, cheese, butter, & green onions), fried okra, The "Pitmaster (Brisket, Pulled Pork, sausage, slaw, bbq sauce, & fresh jalapenos on a bun), & bacon mac & cheese
Not Pictured: Southern Fried Chicken
Let me just start out by saying that our cashier colored our entire dining experience because we left not really wanting to return, but now looking at this pic I would like to try the food again.
Having said that... Hubby & I did not care for the Hot Mess, I thought BBQ sauce on a sweet potato was weird. Hubby did not care for their barbacoa & wished it had come with brisket of sausage instead. Hubby's mom liked the Hot Mess :)
The pitmaster was very tasty & large! I split the ingredients into 2 open faced sandwiches & then only ate one of them. Hubby said the sausage from the Pitmaster was the best thing on our plates! Next time he just wants sausage :)
The fried okra was perfect! The bacon mac & cheese had green chilies mixed into the cheese & it was scrumptious!
Hubby claimed the Fried Chicken was the best he has ever eaten! I had some with their bbq sauce on it & that was really good! Their bbq sauce is not thick like most, it is a sweet & spicy liquid mixture that I could eat on anything (except a sweet potato, that really was just weird!)!
Overall I think we did enjoy our food, but first impressions are everything, & the aloof I would rather talk to my coworkers & play on my phone than help this line of people attitude, was not a good one.
For Hubby & my anniversary breakfast we decided to try Cafe Brazil in Bishop Arts.
I ordered the Brazillian Breakfast, which is 2 eggs (I substituted the hasbrown casserole because I'm allergic to eggs, which makes going out for breakfast very difficult!), a chorizo empanada topped with spicy cream sauce, rosemary potatoes, a jalapeno, & grilled homemade white bread. 
Hubby ordered the classic breakfast, 2 eggs, bacon, & pancakes.
Sitting at the table we were already talking about coming back so I could get their pancakes! So fluffy & tasty! Hubby & I both loved the hashbrown casserole! The rosemary potatoes were cooked perfectly, but could have used more rosemary & maybe some garlic, but then again I overseason ;) & that homemade grilled bread! It was a thick dense bread & held up well to lots of jelly :)
My empanada though was disappointing. It was very bready & felt baked rather than fried. I love crispy empanadas & this was soft & doughy. Also, the chorizo in it was bland, which I didn't even think was possible.
We will be going back & ordering the biggest stack of pancakes they have! :)
For Independence Day this year & last year we went to Lake Carolyn in Las Colinas to see their fireworks show & eat at some yummy food trucks! NVN Burgers knows their burgers! :) I got the Diablo Burger & Hubby got the BBQ Burger. They both required a stack of napkins! But we talked about those burgers all night! You can check their Facebook page to see where they will be so you too can cover your face in a burger :)
As soon as we saw that YimYam was back this year, we knew we needed an order of their Flaming Sweet Potato Fries! They cover them in spicy seasoning & then drizzle a spicy mayo over the top. They are YimYam Yummy! ;)
The Gourmet Bread Pudding Company works out of the Dallas Farmers Market we found out, so we will be finding them again out there! They had blueberry bread pudding, peach bread pudding, & white chocolate bread pudding, & we tried them all! The peach was my favorite, the white chocolate seemed to be everyone else's favorite. However, my most favorite thing was that they didn't put raisins in any of them! I really really hate raisins, & raisins are always in bread pudding! I once read that you can make anything with raisins better if you switch the raisins for chocolate chips... I completely agree!

Well there you have it, go out & have some great meals! Then come back & let us know what you tried!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Book 11 - With Intent

There are now 11 books on my Empty Shelf! :)
"With Intent" by Laurence Henderson was a relatively quick read, which I kept putting down because I have been reading 3 different books at the same time! That is something I never do, & yet here I am doing it!
It was an interesting police investigation story, which did not end the way I would have expected.
Now I have 2 more books to finish, & then I intend to go back to one book at a time :)

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Trampolines Everywhere!

For Elias' 4th birthday trip, we went to Flight Deck. This room had so many trampolines! Elias just kept running/jumping one big circle around the room :)
They also had one section with dodgeballs, & he had fun kicking them against the wall. Maybe he will play soccer like his mommy!
The foam pit was his favorite area! He kept flipping & tumbling all around!
Then he told me he was king of the world :)
We went during toddler time, so all the kids there were under 6. It was the perfect trip! I can imagine it getting rough with older kids there. He had so much fun, & I got to jump with him (not much, he
has way more energy than I!). Glad we finally got to take your birthday trip Elias! I can't believe it's been over 4 years!