Lost In The Pines

We had a little getaway this weekend at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop. Pops spoke at an annual meeting for a group of managers. This is the kind of work I like for him to do. Work a little, get paid for it and get to be treated to a nice little vacation.

This was supposed to be the tanning vacation before the big vacation. We were here about 3 years ago shortly after it opened, so it had changed quite a bit.

My goal was to lay out by the pool all day and get a little tan so that I wouldn't be "pasty" for Justin's wedding. We got to the pool at 9:00 a.m. and didn't leave until 4:00 p.m. By looking at my body you could never tell.

There was one slight problem. It was cloudy and sprinkling the entire time. At some points, I was covered by the umbrellas and wrapped up in a towel. But, by golly, we were bound and determined to stay out there all day, and we did. Most of the time, we were the only people out there. It was kind of cold.

If you have kids and are looking for a weekend getaway, this place is perfect. There is so much to do. They have a spa, horseback riding, smores, face painting, hayrides, playground, pools, lazy river, golf and lots more. It is about 200 yards from the Colorado River, so if you are a fisherman or kayaker, there is lots to do there, also.

The food was just okay, but since it is so far out, its a great idea to park your car and stay in for the entire weekend. I can't wait to take Karsyn and Landrie next time.

Dinner at The Gas Station

Last weekend, we had some really good food at some really bad places. One of my very favorites is Chef Point, but it is so fattening! For that reason, we don't go as often as we used to, but I have been craving it for a while, and it was worth every single pound I gained!

We have been going to Chef Point for several years, long before it was famous. Oh, it was famous, but just from articles in the Star-Telegram, not from all of the television celebrities.

Chef Point is a restaurant that is also a working gas station and convenience store. Banks are very stingy about lending money for restaurants because the failure rate is so high. They didn't have any problem with loaning money for a gas station with a kitchen attached. This is how this restaurant got started and it became affectionately known by us and many others as, “the gas station”.

We used to go about once a week. Now we go about once every few months due to our schedules, the crowds and the calories. Back in the olden days, most of the cooking was done by the owner, Franson Nwaeze. One night we were in there and Pops was telling him about our favorite restaurant, Water Street Seafood that had closed down. We were telling him about the Crawfish Chicken. I told him I had found a recipe on the internet for the sauce and he said if I brought it in, he would fix it for us. The next week, I took him the recipe. He looked it over and said, “Do you want me to fix it now?”

That is how the Blackened Stuffed Chicken Breast was created. Instead of crawfish, he stuffed it with his crab cake mixture and pepper jack cheese. Instead of the andoullie cream sauce, he uses his own creation, asiago cream sauce. He serves it over a bed of pasta. It is delicious!

My favorite dish is the Blackened Catfish with Asiago Cream Sauce. This was a special of the day and not a regular on the menu until recently. I was always so disappointed when we would go and they didn’t have it. Now that it is a regular, it is the only dish I ever order.

Another great thing to try at the gas station is the bread pudding. This was the first place we had ever tried it. As much as I love bread, somehow eating a dessert made out of bread did not sound very good. Oh my gosh, the first time I ate it, I knew I was in trouble. The recipe was featured in Paula Deen’s magazine and it is not pretty. Lot of sugar and cream.

Go to the gas station for dinner if you want a fantastic gourmet meal with a delicious dessert. You won’t be disappointed!

#4 Is #1

I have not been neglecting my blog, I am just having trouble coming up with something of interest. Growing up, I was taught, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Thus, my silence.


We have tried a few new restaurants and our response has been: NOT GOOD! I was really excited to take Pops to a place I had gone to previously for lunch. It was really good at lunch, but my dinner was just about not edible. It is an upscale home cooking place and I ordered the turkey and dressing. The dressing was the consistency of baby food, yes solid mush, and the turkey was mushy. The entire plate was drowning in runny gravy.


The most recent D Magazine had the top 16 barbecue restaurants in the Metroplex. We decided to try the number 1 spot last week for lunch. Such a disappointment. I'm not sure I would have even placed it in the top 16. The meat had a very smokey flavor, but that was about it.


I have talked about Smokey's in Ft. Worth previously. Still my #1 favorite. Smokey's was given the honor of being the #4 spot. I would definitely move Smokey's from #4 to #1 and just knock off the #1. We were going to go down the list and try them all, but after #1 being such a disappointment, I don't think I am going to waste my time.

Blogging World

The blogging world has been fun for me this week.

About 3 years ago, I was reading BooMama's blog. For those of you that don't know BooMama, she is the Queen of all bloggers. I don't think there is any woman in the blogging world that has not read her. I couldn't even tell you the post I was reading, but as I was reading the comments, I saw that a girl named "Janelle" had commented. Since I have a Janelle, I clicked on her blog. I was so surprised when I saw that she lived very close to me.

I sent her a comment on her blog. That started our cyber relationship. We have sent comments and emails to each other over the years about how we wanted to go to lunch. We finally did.

We met Monday at Chick-fil-A with Karsyn and Ellen and had a great 3 hour lunch. The girls played and played on the playground until they were red faced and exhausted. Janelle and I had a great time talking. It was so great to meet her in real life and we plan on doing it again.

We formed a connection because of our experiences in life. In reading each others posts, we saw that we had something in common that we could help each other with. What a neat way to meet someone!

On another note, last night I was at my book club and a girl that I only know through book club came up to me and said, "Can I ask you something? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Of course my answer was, "Sure, I will tell you anything you want to know." She said, "Are you Lolly? I read your blog and I thought that was you." Small world.

Restaurant Smells

I have been given the "gift" of a great sense of smell. That can be good, and it can be bad.


I think smelling great food sometimes triggers me to overeat. I can be completely satisfied after a meal and smell dessert cooking, and that immediately triggers a desire for the dessert. That desire usually does not go away until I taste that dessert.


If I cook, which is a very rare occurrence these days, I will usually close my bedroom door and light a candle in there, so that the lingering smell of the meal will not be noticeable. If it is still lingering, I will wake up in the middle of the night and smell it all night long.


Now for restaurant smells. When I go into a Mexican restaurant, I expect to have a strong smell of Mexican food. When I go to an Italian restaurant, I expect to have a strong smell of Italian food. If I don't, I am immediately suspicious about the restaurant. If it doesn't smell like the food they are cooking, it may not measure up to my standards.


On the contrary, I have to be really prepared to go to two of my favorite restaurants, because I know when I leave there, EVERY part of my clothing and hair will stink. That would be La Hacienda Ranch and Pappasito's. Like I said, they are my two favorites. When we are making a decision about whether to eat there, I have to decide, "is it worth the smell?" We don't wear coats in there, or a scarf, or anything that can't be laundered. Sometimes, we will leave our clothes in the garage so they don't smell up the house.


But . . . the WORST smell for me is industrial soap. I have a big aversion to public bathrooms, and it is partly because of the smell of the soap. We are very easy customers to please, never send food back, don't complain if we don't like it, but if I am seated close to the bathroom, I will ask to move. It was kind of comical, but there was a period of time that it seemed like every time we went out to eat, we were automatically seated by the bathroom. I finally got bold enough to start asking to be moved.


If Pops has used the soap and is sitting across from me in the car or restaurant, I can smell it. We will be in the car and he will lovingly stroke my cheek or run his fingers through my hair. My response should be, "I love you", but it is usually, "You used the industrial soap, get your hands away from me!!!"


Gotta love a great nose!

Favorites

When we go to restaurants, we usually order the same dish. We find the dish we like and don't change from that. For me personally, it seems like if I try something new, it is never as good as my favorite, and I am disappointed. I have thought about doing a "best of" for a while, but I think the list could go on. So, here are a few of our favorites:

Burrito – Chipotle
Fried Chicken – Babes
BBQ – Smokey’s and Salt Lick
Crab Dip – Hibiscus
Mole Enchiladas – Lupe’s
Pizza – Palio’s
Upscale Pizza – Fireside Pie’s
Cheesecake – Fireside Pie’s
Burgers – Simply Burgers, Clown Burger
Cranberry Chicken Salad – Celebrity Bakery
Vanilla Thumbprint Cookies – Celebrity Bakery
Fajita’s – Pappasito’s
Salad Bar – Jason’s
Crawfish Chicken – Water Street Seafood
Mexican Breakfast – Mi Tierra in San Antonio and Esparanza’s
Donuts – Krispy Kreme
Meatloaf – Dixie House
Cinnamon Roll – Dixie House
Steak – Nick and Sam’s and La Hacienda Ranch
Seafood – Pappadeaux
Deli – Jason’s
Sandwich Shop – Firehouse Subs – The Italian
Gourmet Mexican Food – Javiar’s
Favorite Seafood Pasta Dish – Chef Point – Blacked Catfish
Brunch – Blue Mesa
Italian – Maggiano’s
Bread – Logan’s or Texas Roadhouse


Have I missed anything?

Fun Valentine's Weekend - Way Too Much Food

Since we started our Valentine holiday on Thursday, it made for a long, but fun celebration weekend.

For my gift, I got some roses and a spa gift certificate. Can't wait to use it. I got Pops a shirt and a book. The shirt was a replacement shirt for one of his favorites that got ruined at the cleaners.

Sidebar here: A couple of weeks ago, he spoke at an annual meeting for a group in Austin. There were approximately 250 people in attendance. He had picked up his clothes from the cleaners and they went straight into his baggage. About an hour before he was to speak, he started getting dressed and realized that he had a 2 inch rip in the fabric just to the side of his collar. He only brought one dress shirt, and there was not enough time to go buy a new one. I think it bothered me way more than him. I reassured him that it "didn't look bad". I asked him if anyone mentioned it and he said no, and that he had forgotten about it completely. Lesson learned: always check your wardrobe before you pack, and take an extra shirt and pair of pants.

We started our celebration Thursday with lunch at Rise. All weekend long, when we have received the bill for our meals, the joke has been that each one was half the price as Rise. But Rise was definitely worth it and we will go again.

Thursday night we went to Lupe's for some Mexican food because it was so cold and snowy. Friday night we went to Saltgrass Steakhouse. Saturday we went to Mi Chula with Justin and Shannon and we finished off Sunday big. We went to Ft. Worth for breakfast at Esparanza's and then to Frisco to Maggiano's for dinner.

It was all so good, but I am getting ready to pay for it big time at the gym.