Torchy's Tacos Is Tha Bizomb

I have been obsessed with Torchy's Tacos for years now. We eat there like a gazillion times when we take road trips to Austin. The. best. tacos. period. Now...the gods have listened and they built one here in little old Funky Town. Praise all the is merciful. When they first opened in December there was a line wrapped around the building so Jeff and I ordered online and he went to pick up. But, today, we headed on down there for lunch and it was delish! Our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs when we go. So, it was only fitting that we ordered a metric ton of food. So much food the guy that delivered it to our table said "here comes the party" and a party it was. A bit honkin' food party that left us with big  honkin' food comas. It was all so worth it.

The street corn is to die for. I cant describe it really other than freaking awesome. Yum.

I always have to get the green chile pork taco because I am a green chile eating fool. I also like to throw a breakfast taco in too so I went with the migas taco. Again, yum, thank you very much. 

The queso is the best every. I didn't get a picture of that because we ate it all. :) So, there you go. If you live close to a Torchy's, go. Now. 

Cheers! 

Austin, TX

Austin is such a great city here in Texas. It's only about a 3 hour drive for us so that's a bonus. They have a great music festival there every year in the fall and we have been going for a while now and look forward to it every year! It has been a few weeks since we got back but as usual had a great time with friends and saw some great bands too...and there was one really awful band with a consistent pattern of explicatives. That was unexpected and even more unexpected that they scheduled that band to go on next to the kids stage. I think the children watching what was going on at the kids stage may have added a few new words to their vocabulary.

We found a great studio apartment that we rented which was walking distance to the festival. That beat years past for sure. So long La Quinta, you will no longer subject us to high transportation rates with a reckless driver leaving me wondering if I will survive the ride.

The food at the fest is always excellent. Tim Love represented too. I got down on that Love Shack burger. Of, course we can never resist a Boomerangs Guinness steak and potato meat pie.

Pies sooooooo good they require several trips to the register. Go to their website now and order some. It will be more than worth it. Plus, come to think of it, come on down to Fort Worth and go to one of Tim Love's restaurants.

Well, enough about food. The weather was great. In Texas, the weather is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. It rained on Saturday with a brief...yet heavy...down pour. Other than that It was really nice.

On Saturday, we left the fest a little early. Our dear friend that was at the fest with us is a Sommelier and just recently passed his test for Advanced Sommelier. He is pretty fantastic and can sniff or sip a wine and tell you what frigging year it was made. I am pretty dumbfounded about that one but yet he says it's easy. Anyhoo, his friend that passed the certification with him just opened up a very cool wine cellar where we spent the evening.

We also celebrated our anniversary that weekend. We stayed in Austin a few extra days after the fest to relax and enjoy the town.

We went to 24 Diner for lunch. It was delicious! Jeff had Chicken and Waffles, yum.

I had the pulled chicken breast sandwich. It had goat cheese on it. That's all I needed to know.

We walked up an down South Congress which has tons of shops, restaurants, quaint hotels, and coffee shops. There is the coolest antique store called Uncommon Objects. We were in there forever. They had tons of cool and strange things. I had to resist the urge to take pictures because of all the "no camera" signs. I saw other people do it but I guess I am too by the book, darn it. I just imagine sirens going off and the authorities tackling me if I do something bad! Ha!

We happened across a great hat shop called Goorin Bros. Jeff picked up a spiffy new hat.

This store is awesome. The minute you walk in it is like you have walked back into time. I could picture myself shopping for a hat in the early 1900's in there. I love how they wrap the hats up too! Check this place out folks!

We also happened across The Impeccable Pig. Super cute store! I got myself a nice new winter coat.

All the shopping worked up a thirst so we stopped at Jo's Coffee. Best coffee ever folks! I haven't had someone make coffee that good since I was a barista at a little old coffee shop in my under grad days called Coffee Haus. Word.

Then, it was back to the studio for a little relaxation to end our vacay and to crack open the bottle of wine our Sommelier friend gave us 2 years ago on our wedding day. Ah, the simple things in life!

 Thank you Austin. You delivered as usual.

Cheers!

Going to Mama's House

Every time I go over to my mom's house I end up coming home with a boat load of goodies. I stopped by the rents house today to pick up my Stella and Dot jewelry. It is so pretty! I love the way it is packaged so I must share.

 While I was there picking up my jewelry I also walked away with a few more things, which is pretty common when I go over there. Here are just a few of the things that I was gifted.

These cute little vintage ceramic piggy salt and pepper shakers.

I added them to my vintage ceramic collection in the kitchen

The first addition Cath Kidson catalog! I can't wait to look through it to see all the wonderful things.

And a shoe calendar for my Valentine's Day gift. I love it! I am going to learn so much about shoes and designers by the end of the year!

I have very thoughtful and very giving parents. I am very fortunate!

Since it is the Super Bowl and all and the big day is in my home town I wanted to cook something fun. Jeff and I love going to Stubbs in Austin. Not only is the BBQ great but it is also a fantastic live music venue. We saw Manu Chao there a few years back and it was a blast! So, to keep with my fun Super Bowl theme I decided to make Stubbs BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches in the crock pot. It is cooking up as we speak and smells fantastic. So, if you have not tasted the famous Stubbs BBQ sauce or marinades march to your local Texas grocery store and get some! If you are not in Texas you can order from their website.

I am also going to mix up a bit of Sangria to go with it! 

Now, stay tuned for my living room/hall way reveal. I went shopping this weekend for more things to complete the project. I am still in need of curtain rods and a rug. Once I get those things it will be a done deal. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I will be done. So far so good and I can't wait to post about it!

Cheers!

ACL

Well, I took a break from making the hat and went to ACL. I need to adjust the pattern because it ended up way too big! But, for using a pattern for the first time I did end up learning some new sewing techniques and I think I can get it right the next time I try. ACL was a nice break! Jeff, some good friends, and I went down to Austin last Friday and stayed the whole weekend. It was the first time I have ever been to the festival and it really was a great time. Much to my surprise the weather was nice and not too hot! I can't hang with the hotness. We stayed at a La Quinta that was very close to the festival. On the way down there we were kinda sweating about how we were going to get to the festival because there is no parking on site. You either have to be dropped off by personal car, taxi, walk, or ride your bike in. Now, our motel was close, but not close enough for me to walk there and back everyday. When we arrived to check in, we were told there was a shuttle for $5 to the festival. So, we hopped on the shuttle and met Frank, he was our driver. He was hilarious, even though his driving was a bit frightening. I don't think the defensive driving course he took a few weeks ago helped. Pretty much every time we were in the van with him we almost met our demise. I recall a few huge dips in the road he flew over which meant everyone in the van flew out of their seats. But, old Frank was reliable and got us to the festival and back to the motel every time. He even sent us off to the festival on Sunday with a chocolate rice crispie treat.


We saw Manu Chao, G-Love, Erykah Badu (she is pregnant by the way!), Beck, Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Black Keys, and the list goes on. Manu Chao was by far my favorite. He plays an awesome show every time. This will be the 3rd show under my belt and I hope to make it more than that! Erykah Badu and Gnarls Barkley brought the house down! Sharon Jones is just your regular female version of James Brown, awesome! I was a little disappointed with Beck. He came on strong for the first half of his set, then it went downhill from there and he ended way early! He was to play until 10 but finished like 20 minutes early. But it was all in good fun!





By Sunday we were exhausted! You have to walk at least 3/4 of a mile to meet up with Frank after the festival because they close all the streets up because when the festival is over at night there is like a mob of 40,000 people walking down the street. Usually we made that 3/4 of a mile walk like champs but buy Sunday there were parts of me aching that I did not know existed. So, we hopped on a rickshaw which was the best decision we made all weekend long!















ACL is a nice relaxed festival. The city does an excellent job making sure everything runs smoothing and that everyone is safe and has a good time. You can even swim in Barton Springs if you get hot! Now, you can't beat a deal like that. ACL is where it is at, yo!

Cheers!