I'm salivating....

Excuse my gross title....but seriously, this looks incredible! 

Photo credit:  Elaine Skinner

What an amazing concept!  A transient restaurant that travels from venue to venue (sometimes farm to farm) with ever changing menus fit to echo the setting, city or hands of the people who bring food to the table.  This sounds like a foodie dream complete with local ingredients and a local, celebrated chef all dining elbow to elbow at a long table together. 

If only I had a spare $400 lying around for Blake and I get experience this!

Running on Empty

I wrote yesterday about how we have been grilling everything this summer.  Sure enough, just in time for a going away dinner party with friends, our tank was completely empty.  I guess I will be eating my words that we will be grilling all of our dinner this week. 

We cranked up our oven and filled it to the brim with pork tenderloin and veggies.  Plan B worked out okay! 

Last night was so bittersweet.  Our dear friends, Carrie and Bryan, will be moving to Dallas next week.  We had one last dinner with them to send them off.  They quickly became very dear friends to us right after we moved to Austin.  They will be so missed!  We have learned so much from them through their friendship.  I have greatly admired their honesty, vulnerability, authenticity and servant hearts.  They have been wonderful friends.  We have had so many fun evenings of dinners at eachothers house and hours spent on the couch chatting.  We have been so blessed by both of them and their sweet daughter Charis.  I am excited to see how God uses them in Dallas.  

Can't wait to go visit them soon when baby Annabelle comes.  Glad they won't be too far away!  We will miss you Hendersons!

Menu Plan Monday

It will be a short week for the menu plan since I will be traveling for the majority of the week.  But wanted to give you a couple of the ideas we have in the works with the remainder of our CSA box veggies and few fresh things we picked up this week. 

 

This summer we are into grilling EVERYTHING.  It's the best solution to not having to heat your house up by turning on the oven.  It's been fun to try to grill everything under the sun including veggies, pizza, breads, meat, and even fruit.  The grill is not just for burgers and hot dogs my friends!

 

Hope you all have a lovely week!

 

• Grilled pork tenderloin, glazed & grilled butter nut squash with goat cheese & roasted (on the grill) beet salad
• Grilled chicken, green salad & grilled zuchini squash
• Pesto grilled chicken and pasta

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner: Grilled Potato Salad

This was such an awesome dish!  I found this recipe on the Johnson's Backyard Garden FB site.  They have tons of great ideas to use our CSA veggies.  I highly reccomend this tasty summer salad.  I avoid creamy potato salad since it's just not that great for you - other than family BBQs and the 4th of July - so this was a great alternative with a light vinegarette dressing!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
Ground black pepper
9 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds medium red potatoes, scrubbed
1 large red onion
1 large red or yellow bell pepper
Salt
3 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
1.  Create dressing by whisking vinegar, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 6 tablespoons oil in large bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup dressing and set aside for finishing salad.
2. Slice potatoes into 3/4-inch planks, unpeeled onion into 1/2-inch rounds, and bell pepper into bite size chunks.  Toss in olive oil and season vegetables with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Grill vegetables, uncovered, over moderate fire until well charred on both sides, 5 to 10 minutes per side (onions and peppers will take less time than potatoes). We used a grill basket to keep the veggies from sliding through the cracks.  Remove vegetables from grill.
4. Toss grilled vegetables with dressing (not 1/4 cup reserved dressing). Toss in capers and cool salad to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Just before serving, toss with remaining 1/4 cup dressing and parsley.
Source

Second Honeymoon

Here I go on catching you up on life as of lately....

At the end of May, B and I traveled to St. Lucia to celebrate our first anniversary.  The trip came at the perfect time for us where we were both needing a break from work and the business that comes with the day to day hustle and bustle.  We were so grateful for a week full of relaxation!  We nearly missed our connection after sprinting through the Atlanta airport.  Once we arrived, we were in full on vacation mode complete with all inclusive food, drinks and activities.  No pressure, no problem.  (A local idiom that we quickly adopted).

St. Lucia was beautiful!  Above you can see the famous Pitons peaking out of the palm trees.  The island was so lush and green.  We had great weather too.  The forecast looked like rainy skies every day, but we only had one or two showers while we were there  and there were great reprives from the intense sun. 

My handome hubby with some leftover volcanic mud on his face.

One of the best things we did was learn how to sail during our time in St. Lucia.  Blake was a natural!  I was a bit more timid on our small cat boats.  Once we got the hang of it - we did it a few more times while we were there.  We also ocean kayaked, swam in the ocean and did a whole lot of laying around reading and drinking fruity cocktails.  We also did a power boat excursion that took us around the island, stopping at some of the key sites for us to explore.  We saw the famous Margot bay, climbed to a waterfall, took a mudbath near the volcano in volcanic mud and snorkeled.  A great way to see so much in one day!

Yum! After dinner drinks!

Nightime view of the bay

It was a wonderful trip and the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary!  We are already thinking about where we want to go next!  Any suggestions!



Time flies....

I'm not exactly sure how it is the middle of July already, but it's been way too long since I've been posting regularly!  Time has been flying by.  Just trying to catch my breath, do our laundry, keep up with work, take care of our house and have some fun on the side. 

I'll bring you up to speed and give you the Cliff Notes version of the last couple of months or so....

• I've been traveling A TON.  I've been to Minneapolis at least 3 times since the end of April, Orlando, multiple trips to San Antonio, Houston & Corpus.  And that's just all for work! 
• I had a chance to see one of my best friends at work tie the knot on a perfect Arizona day.  She was a beautiful bride!
• While I was there, I also got to see God's goodness as the ultimate healer. We nearly lost my grandma and He is healing and restoring her.  Praise Him for that! 
• Blake and I took a much needed vacation to beautiful St. Lucia to celebrate our one year anniversary (again).  It was so wonderful and so relaxing.  I'll post some pics soon of our travels!
• My sister and her boyfriend (our friend Tommy) visited us in Austin since they were here in town for a wedding.  Great time together! 
• Bonus!  We got to have lunch with my parents on Sunday since they were here for a marriage conference.  So nice to all be together. 
• Blake headed to UMARMY with the church we grew up in.  He had a wonderful week serving. 
• We headed to East TX for our annual trip to Lake Quitman for the 4th of July with Blake's family
• We just got back from a wonderful trip to the Pacific Northwest.  We got to tack on a few days of vacation to a work trip.  We had some awesome time with Blake's family there and even got to explore Vancouver BC. 

I can't wait to share pictures and more stories about our summer adventures.  There has been so much going on!

Menu Plan Monday (on a Tuesday)

Life got in the way and the blog was one of the last things on my list.  No excuses though, I'm just a hot and cold blogger these days.

In efforts to get back to blogging I thought I should wait until next Monday to share my menu plan, I will just share it with you today, one day late.  We've been getting a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) box from Johnson's Backyard Garden, a local farm here in Austin.  We are loving all of the fresh, organic veggies.  It's really challenged me to think out of the box and try some new things with veggies I wouldn't normally pick at HEB.  Here's our menu this week!

Sunday:  Marinated flank steak, Grilled Potato & Veggie Salad

Monday:  Melon and Prosciutto Pizza on the grill, garden salad

Tuesday:  Cold & creamy cucumber soup, Quinoa with shrimp & veggies

Wednesday:  Grilled chicken, cous cous with squash and cranberries

Thursday:  Travel day - dinner on the road

Friday:  Eggplant parm