Insta-lately

Sharing a Shiner with 'Brodder'

'Merica (taken on the 4th of July)

Guacamole. Maggie. Flemings.

New bike!

Possibly the most refreshing drink when living in constant 95 degree heat...the Moscow Mule everyone.

If you subscribe to Real Simple, I attempted to make the cover dish after a trip to the farmer's market.  It was delicious!

The cutest and cuddliest house guests.

Kale pesto via The Sprouted Kitchen Blog, #delicious

Today is Sam's birthday! And she's flying to Austin tonight with her bf!! I can't wait to celebrate this weekend :)

Weekend Recipes

This weekend I decided to enjoy and embrace the rainy weather and succumb to my lingering desires for fall comfort food.  Considering that it is still in the high 80s in Austin, we have a lot of warm weather left so the rain was the perfect excuse to try out a couple soup recipes, a pumpkin scone variation and an impromptu cookie batch.

The two soups that I made were both recipes from one of my favorite food blogs: Eat, Live, Run.  I am so happy that Alli introduced me to Jenna's lovely recipe collection!  On Friday I made Kale and White Bean Soup with Golden Beets and Spicy Sausage and it was soul satisfying-ly delicious, not to mention packed with so many good vitamins.  Saturday afternoon meant football, which obviously spells C-H-I-L-I in my book so I tried Creamy White Chicken Chili and was not disappointed! It reminded me of the chili that Greta would always have in her freezer, and now I have plenty in mine too :)

Now, I'm normally not one to bake but for some reason I just had a pumpkin itch that I had to scratch.  I had read on twitter or facebook or on a blog or on the internet about the combination of pumpkin, white chocolate and pecans...as a scone.  Immediately after reading I started googling recipes.  I traced back a recipe to We Heart Food blog for Pumpkin Scones, a la Starbucks.  Actually, now that I think about it, I've never even had a pumpkin scone from Starbucks but will have to look out for them in the future to accompany my Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  Long story short, making scones wasn't as hard as I thought, and I threw in a bar of roughly chopped white chocolate and fancy pecan pieces into the batter before rolling out.  I baked off a couple to try, and froze the rest for another chilly (or rainy) morning.  The scones were moist, well spiced and the white chocolate added the perfect amount of sweetness and the pecans a nice crunch.  I didn't ice mine, but probably will in the future (as in next weekend when I bake some for Luke and I to have with coffees). 

Last but not least, I received two jars of homemade raspberry jam from my mom last week and have been searching for applications to eat it because I can't stop! It is delicious.  Last night I just had to make a half-batch of Ina Garten's thumbprints and they were divine.  I left off the egg wash and coconut and just filled them with heaping spoonfuls of raspberry jam.  Yum.  Also, I have many in the freezer for future visitors, although I can't say how long the jam will last...

Coming soon: Texas Monthly BBQ Festival next weekend with Luke and a weekend in Portland, OR!

A Celebration of Southern Ingredients

This post's title comes from the tag line of Husk restaurant, one of the amazing spots Alli, Annie and I visited while spending Labor Day weekend in Charleston, South Carolina.  And what a celebration the weekend was!  From lounging on the beach, to hanging out at the pool, touring historic downtown, indulging in ice cream and playing beach volleyball it was certainly a good time and we were happy to be reunited for a bit!

I'm a Delinquent...

Blog poster that is.  I'm actually very not-delinquent in real life, but for some reason posting regularly on this site just has not been happening lately (as Paige so kindly reminded me).

But I guess I can only improve, so on this particular Thursday afternoon as my work checklist for the day is all checked off, I've decided to update y'all on my life.  It's not going to be that interesting but then at least I'll have somewhat of a fresh start by bringing everyone up to date.

I've decided a monthly summary would be most appropriate given that it has been since March since I've last written.  I'll be referencing my Outlook calendar to refresh my memory...geez it has been a long time!  OK, crap, my Outlook calendar doesn't even go back that far.

APRIL:
Audrey came to visit!  It was so much fun to see her again and show her around Austin.  We went wine tasting in the hill country and sampled all that Austin has to offer.  Also, we participated in the downtown dash and won a giftcard for coming in last place (we stopped at lululemon on the way back-duh). #winning

MAY:

• Went to Las Vegas for the National Sales Meeting, went for a helicopter ride and hated the food at the meeting (sorry I'm a foodie/fatty). 
• Came home to MN for a family wedding and for sister's graduation! SISSY!

JUNE:

• Went on a really fun bar crawl for my birthday (gosh I just love day drinking), came home to MN for some work training and got to see all of my midwestern loves! 
• Moved out of my apartment in downtown Austin and into a new townhome in south Austin. 
• Survived infestation of crickets in Austin.
• Succesfully organized a trade show for schools held in Austin and was real happy when that was over. 
• Ran/Walked/Dragged Albie (Alli's foster dog) in the Keep Austin Weird 5k.
• Had probably the worst day of my life: the day I dropped my keys down the elevator shaft at my storage unit complex.  Apparently some elevator shafts only get serviced every two years! And this elevator was one of those...spending 5 hours waiting for a locksmith while being locked out of your car (which has your phone and wallet inside) is a really quick way to make someone feel really frustrated, alone, hopeless and helpless.  I was suprised at how upset I was; well actually not really that surprised because I'm pretty emotional, and I knew how much money it was going to cost me.  I spent a lot of that day asking "why me?"  Finally the locksmith arrived and I ended up paying $300 for a new car key to drive home, $90 for a new garage remote at my old apartment, $25 for a new garage remote at my new apartment and $85 to get new keys made.  What an annoying, expensive mistake.  At least I'll get my original keys back in November of 2013.

JULY:

• Traveled home again to MN for a week to celebrate the 4th of July.  Was invited up to Lake Vermilion for a lovely ladies weekend with Sam and Greta and have been planning my return trip since #amazing. 
• Hung out with the family, spent time in Paynesville with Luke and the Peterson clan and won the 5th Annual Fleming Best Burger Contest NBD.
• Got sideswiped at an intersection in San Antonio.  Drove back to Austin with 1 mirror.
• Survived Phorid Fly infestation.

AUGUST:

• Family vacation to Seattle and Alaska!  The cool weather was almost as amazing as the scenery.  We hiked, kayaked and saw whales and sea lions.  I am still depressed about coming home/back to work.  Also, we ate.  And I mean, WE ATE.  Every time I've worked out this week I can just imagine all the bread and little silver dishes of butter I inhaled coming out of my pores.  It was all worth it though.

So kind of eventful, but nothing crazy.  The keys and the car accident really sucked, but I am thankful that everything was able to be replaced.  And, I am so sick of the critter infestations and I think Texas needs some big frost to come down here and kill off every little bug that will never die!  I kid you not, as I am writing this post, a spider crawled up the wall next to my desk.  It will never end.

Here are some fun photo collages I made using Diptic from the past few months.  Happy Thursday!

What I do.

Normally when I tell people that I work for General Mills, they assume I go into grocery stores and stock cereal boxes.

But, that's not really my job...Instead I work with the cereal, yogurt or snacks that you buy in your office cafeteria, or when you're at the hospital or even what your kid eats for school breakfast.

Sometimes I go to food shows/trade shows/vendor shows and set up display of what General Mills has to offer.  And I have samples to feed the feeding freenzy which normally occurs at these events.  Below are a few pictures of what my table looks like.

So as you can see...there is a lot of crap involved...so my apartment sometimes feels like GENERAL MILLS IS EVERYWHERE! Also, just think about fitting everything into a Ford Fusion.  Ahhhhh yes. Work.

Sushi Rolls and Blog Post Promises

Ohhhhhkay. So I've been a bad blogger.  I'm guessing most of you haven't noticed....

But I've felt guilty slacking off and not documenting my life here in Austin.  So I'm making a promise to you (but mostly to myself) to write and upload 5 posts in the next week.  So here's the first one:

It's about sushi. (YUM/NOM).

I love sushi! I love how light and fresh and healthy it tastes as well as the wine and beer that usually accompanies sushi during countless sushi happy hours. Miss you Wakame.

Since moving to Austin, Alli and I have been spending many an evening making dinner, watching the bachelor or a movie and sipping on a few glasses of wine.  One of this evenings, she suggested we make sushi.  I was a bit surprised as Alli's cooking skills appear very limited: i.e. she has 1 broken cutting board, and 2 pots in her cupboards but alas, she certainly knows how to make amazing sushi.

After gathering the necessary fillings and making two batches of sticky sushi rice (best brand I've found is Whole Foods private label) we began rolling.  The outcome was easy and delicious.  Probably the best part is the fact that you can choose your favorite fillings/ingredients and customize your rolls. Wasabi, ginger and spicy sauce can be found by the sushi in any grocery that has a sushi case. Check out some photos below as well as a helpful website if you'd like to make your own some night.



Need to find a sushi set like Alli has!



Sushi that Luke and I made...we attempted the inside out roll, and succeeded.



Weekends

Here's a few snapshots from the past couple weekends.  Halloween costumes, carved pumpkins, BBQ Festivals, tailgating, wine tasting and yoga in the vineyard, beautiful Austin days and nights.