Cooking; Ginger Man; the Mink; Bryan night 1; Bryan night 2; Voxtrot/Spain Colored Orange; Dessert
3/27
Mom & Dad have been on a new diet recently, and though i'm skeptical of its scientific merit, I think it does a good job of incorporating particularly filling ingredients. Particularly, I had a stuffed bell pepper dish they made with bulgar wheat, which makes a good substitue for starches like rice.
So I decided to experiment. I cooked up some taco meat using an off the shelf seasoning mix (but adding some of my own touches. With that I sauteed some fresh tomatoes and jalapeños, some cilantro, some black beans, and finally fortified the pound of meat with some bulgar what (it was a cup uncooked, but matched probably three quarters of the volume of the beef once cooked. The mixture needed more seasoning once the what was added, but in the end it tasted pretty good, particularly over fresh tortillas with cheese. Thanks to the extra bulk from the wheat, they were quite filling, which was the original goal.
3/28
Cindy and I ended up at the Ginger Man for beer. These nights, too, ran together, although I suspect this was the night we ran into some people Cindy knew from school, particularly Donald, who stuck around longer to have some extra rounds with us.
3/29
Dan and Kristin were hanging out up at the Mink, so I went and joined the for a few rounds. Nothing out of the ordinary...
3/30
Lisa was in Galveston for a conference, so Bryan caught a plane to Houston to hang out with me for a couple days before catching up with her and going to visit relatives. After picking him up at Hobby airport and getting a little lost trying to get to Midtown from 45, we met up with Cindy and (eventually; there was a misunderstanding) Sabrina at Mai's for a little Vietnamese food. Sabrina had to cut out afterwards (stupid school), but the remaining three of us went on to the Harp for some additional rounds. I tried St. Arnold's Summer Pilsner for the first time; it was good. A little extra hoppiness in there added some good flavor.
Bryan made a reference to the blog in passing in front of Cindy. That's a no-no, Bryan.
3/31
I put in a half day at school while Bryan went for lunch with Sabrina and crew. He came to pick me up afterwards, which was when disaster struck—or, rather, when I realized disaster had struck. There was a dent in my car. A big one. In the passenger side door (which explains why I hadn't noticed it before). I suspect that it happened in the very tight parking lot in Austin, or perhaps that questionable type with the red civic that parks next to me at the apartment...
Anyway, I tried to swallow that, and enjoy my afternoon with Bryan. We played some Nintendo and listened to the 5.1 mix of The Soft Bullettin that I had recently acquired. Sabrina came and picked us up for dinner at Goode Company, and then we went downtown to the Flying Saucer. We each picked out flights of five beers (although two or three of my top choices were taken), and then had a few pints of our favorites. Cindy joined us at some point.
4/1
Cindy and I did dinner at Thai Spice. My first couple of trips there weren't overly impressive, but this time around our Tom Kah Gai and curry were really good. Afterwards, we headed to Walter's to catch Voxtrot. They were good, but my appreciation for them has grown substantially since I've started listening to their two EPs.
Dan and Kristin took off before Spain Colored Orange to catch James McMurtry, who I would have liked to have seen, but we chose to stick around for the show that we had already paid for. I had previously caught part of a Spain Colored Orange show and heard enough to catch my ears, but Cindy and I got bored and took off.
4/2
Cindy brought over some good desserts from Whole Food and we watched Grey's Anatomy.
Mom & Dad have been on a new diet recently, and though i'm skeptical of its scientific merit, I think it does a good job of incorporating particularly filling ingredients. Particularly, I had a stuffed bell pepper dish they made with bulgar wheat, which makes a good substitue for starches like rice.
So I decided to experiment. I cooked up some taco meat using an off the shelf seasoning mix (but adding some of my own touches. With that I sauteed some fresh tomatoes and jalapeños, some cilantro, some black beans, and finally fortified the pound of meat with some bulgar what (it was a cup uncooked, but matched probably three quarters of the volume of the beef once cooked. The mixture needed more seasoning once the what was added, but in the end it tasted pretty good, particularly over fresh tortillas with cheese. Thanks to the extra bulk from the wheat, they were quite filling, which was the original goal.
3/28
Cindy and I ended up at the Ginger Man for beer. These nights, too, ran together, although I suspect this was the night we ran into some people Cindy knew from school, particularly Donald, who stuck around longer to have some extra rounds with us.
3/29
Dan and Kristin were hanging out up at the Mink, so I went and joined the for a few rounds. Nothing out of the ordinary...
3/30
Lisa was in Galveston for a conference, so Bryan caught a plane to Houston to hang out with me for a couple days before catching up with her and going to visit relatives. After picking him up at Hobby airport and getting a little lost trying to get to Midtown from 45, we met up with Cindy and (eventually; there was a misunderstanding) Sabrina at Mai's for a little Vietnamese food. Sabrina had to cut out afterwards (stupid school), but the remaining three of us went on to the Harp for some additional rounds. I tried St. Arnold's Summer Pilsner for the first time; it was good. A little extra hoppiness in there added some good flavor.
Bryan made a reference to the blog in passing in front of Cindy. That's a no-no, Bryan.
3/31
I put in a half day at school while Bryan went for lunch with Sabrina and crew. He came to pick me up afterwards, which was when disaster struck—or, rather, when I realized disaster had struck. There was a dent in my car. A big one. In the passenger side door (which explains why I hadn't noticed it before). I suspect that it happened in the very tight parking lot in Austin, or perhaps that questionable type with the red civic that parks next to me at the apartment...
Anyway, I tried to swallow that, and enjoy my afternoon with Bryan. We played some Nintendo and listened to the 5.1 mix of The Soft Bullettin that I had recently acquired. Sabrina came and picked us up for dinner at Goode Company, and then we went downtown to the Flying Saucer. We each picked out flights of five beers (although two or three of my top choices were taken), and then had a few pints of our favorites. Cindy joined us at some point.
4/1
Cindy and I did dinner at Thai Spice. My first couple of trips there weren't overly impressive, but this time around our Tom Kah Gai and curry were really good. Afterwards, we headed to Walter's to catch Voxtrot. They were good, but my appreciation for them has grown substantially since I've started listening to their two EPs.
Dan and Kristin took off before Spain Colored Orange to catch James McMurtry, who I would have liked to have seen, but we chose to stick around for the show that we had already paid for. I had previously caught part of a Spain Colored Orange show and heard enough to catch my ears, but Cindy and I got bored and took off.
4/2
Cindy brought over some good desserts from Whole Food and we watched Grey's Anatomy.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 12:10 PM
