food and more food

Ok, I read Eat Pray Love. And I admit, I liked it, a lot. So did everyone else, I know. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, maybe a bit idealized for the sake of sales, and certainly it lost some charm for me when I realized her adventure was paid for by her publisher. But it was the Italy part that really sold me. I love the idea of a complete surrender to self-indulgence, just for a little while. I think gluttony can be forgiven if it’s only temporary, right? Anyway, I fully intend to copy Elizabeth Gilbert someday and give way to my ever-present hunger (literal and metaphorical) for something new and delicious to eat. Italy would be ideal. Or Spain (mmmm paella). But Texas works too if it comes down to that haha. Hey there’s some of the best Mexican food in Texas!

I had a taste of Americanized Italian at Carino’s the other night for Cory’s 25th birthday dinner. I don’t care how far from authentic Italian that place is, it’s just soooo damn good. I don’t remember what my food was called but it was really simple angelhair with lemon butter sauce and mushrooms, olives, capers, and grilled chicken. Give me a glass of pinot grigio and I am good to go.

My phone’s camera can only capture the goodness so well. It was a much needed treat, as both Cory and I have been strapped for cash the past few months. I hate being broke! Having no money has really made me realize how much I spend on food haha. I’ve actually cooked once or twice! I wish I liked cooking more but I just can’t make myself get into it. The few times I have cooked, though, it’s turned out alright (no one’s died yet anyway)! But I am more than happy to let others cook food for me to eat You know what would be a good blog though? A search for all the greatest food and/or recipes for a tight budget. Hmm… yep I’m doing it.

lately

A couple weekends ago my sisters and I went to Houston to visit my grandma and my Aunt Roxy. I take for granted how easy it is to go see them. Julianne only sees them once or twice a year though, so it was nice to all be able to go together this time. My extended family is just as amazing as my immediate family. We went to my grandma’s house in Houston first and did some shopping, then dinner at a really great hole in the wall Italian restaurant. Red wine and eggplant pomodoro made for a classic and delicious meal. That night my sisters and I revisited a long-lost Penny family tradition: playing with my grandmother’s vintage Barbies. She has this awesome old-school Barbie set with a ton of handmade clothes and Barbies with 60s hair. We used to spend hours dressing them up when we were little. Somehow they were so much more fun than our Barbies at home. And trust me, we had a lot of them (three girls + no interest in sports = several giant tubs full of Barbies and accessories).

The next day we drove the short distance to Katy where my Aunt Roxy lives. We went to dinner at another favorite Mexican restaurant of mine, Los Cucos. Their fish tacos are sooooo good! I like my fish tacos with grilled tilapia with cabbage and some kind of a creamy avocado sauce, and Los  Cucos does it just right. They also make guacamole fresh at your table which never hurts.

So we filled our bellies and went home to watch Fatal Attraction, which amazingly none of us had ever seen. It’s definitely one of those movies that everyone should see at least once. Not only is it obviously a really good movie, but there are so many references to it in pop culture that I never picked up on before haha. Like the Family Guy episode where Meg is obsessed with Brian and sits on the floor in her bedroom turning the lamp on and off over and over again. Yeah I never knew that was from Fatal Attraction. So anyway, the next morning it started raining and didn’t stop all day long. It was the best kind of rain though, where the temperature is just right and the rain is steady for hours. And watching the rain from my aunt’s front porch facing her lake didn’t hurt either. You’ve got to appreciate things like that.

All in all a great trip that needs to be made more often!

love and sushi

Like a lot of people, I have a sort of love affair with sushi. I will go out of my way to eat it, and there are few things in the world that make me happier than doing so. I don’t pretend to know a lot about food (especially cooking it), but I DO know what tastes good to me. I am a connoisseur of deliciousness, if you will. And sushi – top 3 best tasting foods for sure. So while my 21 year old sister, Julianne, was visiting from Colorado, she and I and my 17 year old sister, Brooke, went to Kona Grill for a sister/girls night. If you’ve never been to Kona Grill, you’re really missing out. The only one I’ve ever been to is the one at The Shops at La Cantera in San Antonio. That whole area is really nice – great shopping (they have everything) and some really amazing restaurants. Especially in the summer, it’s a great spot to eat outside at night. So Kona is right smack in the middle of all this. Inside it’s dimly lit and intimate, with a huge saltwater fish tank separating the bar and dining room. The bar area only has five or six high-top tables and then there are maybe ten tables on the patio, also considered part of the bar. All of the food is great. I almost always get just sushi, but I’ve tasted several of their chicken and seafood entrees and they have all been excellent. The best part, though, is their happy hour. San Antonio voted it “Best Happy Hour” in a city-wide poll. It’s M-F 3-7 and 9-11, and it not only includes drink specials, but SUSHI SPECIALS too. Um, yes please! The catch (of course!) is that you have to sit in the bar area to get the discounts. And unfortunately, the deals tend to attract the entirety of the city of San Antonio. So when my sisters and I went, we waited a good 20 minutes for a bar table to open up, and finally just gave in to our rumbling tummies and sat in the dining room. Full-price sushi is better than no sushi at all! See below the eel avocado roll and wave roll, with some edamame on the side. To quote the wise Rachael Ray: YUM-O.

But the best part was spending time with my sissies. I am so incredibly lucky to have such great sisters. I want to have all girls someday so that they can have the same built-in best friends that I do.

favorites

Weekend in Missouri was a grand success. The road trip getting there was half the fun! Funny how the saying “The journey is the destination” can be interpreted literally. I think I’ve lived long enough now to be able to say with some credibility that I’ve acquired favorites. Favorite coffee shop, Mexican restaurant, study spot, scenic drive. Two of those were visited on this trip, the first of which was Common Grounds, my all-time favorite coffee shop. We stopped there on the way north for a little pick-me-up (the cowboy coffee is heaven).

The rest of the drive was just a lot of Jack Johnson, beef jerky, and good conversation. Road trips are so much fun if they’re with people you love. I went on a road trip once with my best friends from Colorado. We drove to San Clemente, California to go camping on the beach and it was just wonderful! I think I wrote about it after actually. Lots and lots of laughing was done on that trip.

So anyway we got in at like 2:30 in the morning and crashed outttt. All we knew was to go to cabin 8, so that’s what we did and just crossed our fingers that the guy sleeping in the bed downstairs was Cory’s cousin and not some stranger haha. Friday and Saturday we spent canoeing down the Elk River, drinking (a lot), and hanging out with Cory’s family. The drive home was even better because it was during the day and so gorgeous the whole way. PLUS we stopped in Waco at yet another favorite place of mine, Taqueria #8. Seriously, I’ve lived almost all my life in or around San Antonio so I’ve had some really amazing Mexican food. But this place I found while going to school at Baylor, and once I tried the pork tacos I was hooked for life haha. I go there every chance I get. Since that discovery, I’ve made a point to try the pork tacos at every Mexican restaurant I go to, and I have yet to come across a better one. In fact, it’s even crossed my mind to make a blog entirely about my search for the best pork tacos haha. That might be a little ridiculous. So we stuffed our faces with that, and for the rest of the day nothing could ruin my mood. Food has a way of doing that, doesn’t it?

Delicious tacos aside, I had an amazing time, and decided that Arkansas and Missouri are two of the most underrated states. I also got to see my best friend Lacey on our way through Arkansas, making the trip just that much better! Now, in the same way that I am on the search for a better taco, I’m always looking for another good trip to take. Where to next..?

condensation

Jack London’s “The Shadow and the Flash”

I’ve never really gotten into short stories because, well, frankly I guess I forget about them. You hear all about the New York Times best sellers and the newest Harry Potter or Twilight novel, and it’s easy to forget about the short story. Do you ever Google something, and then something else catches your eye along the way and so you Wikipedia it, and then you find an interesting link in the reference section, and then you look up and it’s been 2 hours and you’re reading about something which has absolutely nothing to do with what you were researching in the first place? Kind of like an electronic version of retracing your thought process. I think that’s how I stumbled upon “The Shadow and the Flash”.

In any case, it’s clever, funny, and held my attention all the way through. I’m one of those chronic book readers that never actually finishes a book. I think I’m probably in the middle of like 8 books right now. I get halfway through, and I somehow lose interest. The short story, on the other hand, by definition must condense the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution into a smaller package, thus leaving little opportunity for distraction. I like that. I also like being able to pick up a book, put it down, and pick it up again at my leisure. But essays and short stories provide a welcome break I think. I bet there’s a great anthology out there of all the greatest short stories. I’ll have to go find it.

flow

From Wikipedia article “Kairos”:

In Panathenaicus, Isocrates writes that educated people are those “who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day, and who possess a judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the expedient course of action.”

This thought caught my attention because I recently began reading a book called FLOW by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. He proposes the concept of flow as “the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.” We all know that feeling where everything seems to be going just right and our abilities are perfectly reflected by our successes. I was reading about the ancient idea of kairos (the right or opportune moment), and it referenced Sophism and its emphasis on taking advantage of kairos. As is evident in the quote above, Sophists believed that an educated person is one that can fully extract the benefits of and adapt to the circumstances of kairos. While the Sophists of ancient times characterized that ability as being educated, in modern times people like Csíkszentmihályi call it flow. Funny how thousands of years really don’t change the human condition, only how we describe it.

I think there’s a something to be said about taking advantage of kairos or flow or whatever you want to call it. I picked up Csíkszentmihályi’s book in the first place because I recognized something familiar in this concept. I think I can speak for any person in saying that we crave and seek out those moments of flow, or when we experience kairos and adapt to it in just the right way. It doesn’t really matter who or where you are either, we all experience it, and we all want more of it. Imagine if every moment of our lives were that way. Maybe that’s what life is all about, finding and appreciating moments of flow, and doing our best to sustain them.

progress

It’s kind of funny/embarrassing to look at all that’s happened since my lost post. I’ve been working at Plucker’s now for almost a month. As much as I hate that I’m a college graduate serving people chicken wings for a living right now, the money is great for how little actual work I have to do. I’m able to fully enjoy the quiet and ease that comes with living on your own. I finally get to do things on my own time without worrying about whether I’ll be too loud or the feeling of impending doom that comes with knowing there’s a test the next day. The “embarrassing” part I was referring to before is the fact that in little over a month I’ve gone through nearly four seasons of House. That is the definition of too much free time haha. BUT the part of my life that redeems me from my laziness is that I’ve accomplished my ultimate goal: being accepted to and confirming that I will attend graduate school at Trinity University! Some of the time it’s frustrating knowing I’m just biding my time here in San Marcos until my lease is up, but at the same time it’s exciting knowing I have a future waiting for me when it does. Amongst all this very welcome laziness, I do have to stop and appreciate the sense of accomplishment this has brought me. In other words, it makes me feel good to know that I haven’t lost my touch despite the relative lack of mental stimulation these days.

breathing easy

It’s been 10 days since I moved in and I am so loving it. Then again, I don’t start working til next week so my typical day goes something like this: wake up at 9.. 9:30 if I’m extra comfy, drink some coffee, do some Internetting (yes I just decided that was a verb), work on some grad school applications, maybe run an errand or two, then, glass of wine in hand, watch House on DVD/read Harry Potter/watch a Netflix movie until I get sleepy. I do realize that this is a ridiculous way to spend day after day and that pretty soon I’ll have to wake up and join the “real world”, but until then I’m going to pretend like spending all day in sweats is completely normal, thank you very much!

I actually have done some productive things in the past week and a half, believe it or not. I interviewed with the director of the School Psychology program at Trinity last week, which went really really well! I also have nearly finished applying to the 4 graduate programs I’m interested in. I applied to and was hired at Plucker’s, so hopefully I’ll have some cash in the bank soon. And I’m almost done unpacking here, so that’s not bad, right? OH and I’ve watched all of Season 1 of House. I feel very accomplished.

movin on up

So today is my long awaited move-in day! Unfortunately I can’t fully enjoy it just yet because I can’t move my furniture until Sunday. Between taking the GRE on Saturday and Cory’s work and school schedule, that’s the soonest it can get done. Even so, today is the day that I get my keys and that’s good enough for me! This will be the first time I’ve ever lived alone, and not a moment too soon. I have vowed never EVER to have another female roommate. It’s just not a good idea, not for anyone really. I’ve learned from experience that women are not made to coexist in close quarters.. It’s unnatural.

So for the time being I’m gonna go to my new place, study for the GRE that I take tomorrow, and when I’m not studying I’ll just sit in the middle of an empty room and imagine how great it’ll look in a few days

picture of the day: germany