Living in Munchkinland

This is John Currence's recipe. I made them this afternoon. Let's hope they are as delicious as the ones he made at the festival. The house smelled amazing and this was such an easy recipe! Pickled Grapes Ingredients: 6 cups mixed red and green seedless grapes ¾ cup granulated sugar ¼ cup light brown sugar 2 ½ cups apple cider vinegar ¾ cup white wine 2 tablespoons coriander seeds, crushed 2 tablespoons mustard seeds, toasted 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 7 whole cloves 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons peeled and thinly sliced fresh ginger 2 jalapeño peppers, finely diced, seeds included Directions: Remove the stems from the grapes and barely slice off the top of each grape with a sharp paring knife. Combine the granulated and brown sugars, vinegar, wine, coriander and mustard seeds, cinnamon, cloves, slat, ginger, and jalapeños in a large nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer for 5 minutes and the...

Michael and I had a wonderful weekend at the Austin Food and Wine Festival. This is their third year and they are much improved. This was the best year yet and they keep getting better. Again we stayed at the Hyatt Regency. This is a perfect location, since we can easily walk to and from the festival. We opted to do the Taste pass rather than the Savor and again, we think this was a better value. Someday the festival may grow so large and crowded that the Savor pass will be worth it, but that hasn't happened yet. Friday night we drove up to Uchiko and did the tasting menu. This year's tasting was not as good a previous tastings, but there were still lots of wonderful bites. Saturday we were in line early for the festival. When they play the Star Wars theme and we walk through the gates, I get all fluttery with excitement. The anticipation always slays me. I ran for the Richard Blais tent and we got great seats. I have had a crush on Richard since I first saw him on...

I can't get motivated today. I have spring fever, bad. I don't want to pack any more lunches, help with any more homework, drive kids to any more lessons. I have a lot of things on my to-do list today, but while I linger over my tea, I thought I'd turn to the blog and share some of the things that I currently use and that I'm in love with. In no particular order: 1. Intellishade This stuff is amazing. It blends in perfectly with my skin so I don't look all orange. It is matte, so it doesn't make me all greasy and it really protects my skin from the sun. A little of this, some bronzer on my cheeks and some lip gloss and that's all I need for the summer. 2. Smoked Paprika Smoked paprika is a wonderful spice that I use all the time to give foods a more "meaty" taste. I use it almost all my stew, chili and beans. You can sprinkle it on starches too, like potatoes, rice and flat breads. 3. T-Fal Actifry This is my new toy and I lo...

Michael and I hosted a three day Easter celebration down at the river behind our house. We offered a come and go camping opportunity as well as a potluck celebration and outdoor movie on Saturday night and a big Easter potluck lunch, Easter egg hunt and piñata on Sunday afternoon. Many of our friends and family attended and it was wonderful. Michael and I set up our tent, but never actually slept there. We spent all our waking hours down at the river with our friends, but sleepily headed up the hill late at night to shower and cuddle in our bed. It was perfect. Michael and I were able to set up our brand new outdoor movie theater on Saturday night thanks to both sets of our parents and our inaugural video was Return of the Jedi. Michael was so happy and it was so wonderful to sit outside on the banks of the river in perfect weather and watch a movie with our friends. The kids sat on picnic blankets in front of us and hopped up intermittently to battle each other with lightsab...

Our day in Costa Maya was my birthday. I had reserved a table and chairs at a local restaurant on a beach. I didn't have much care about Costa Maya, as it is a made-for-cruise-ships port, but I DID care about chips, guacamole and margaritas, so we went ashore. Unfortunately, there was lots and lots of wind. Huge wind. Wind so strong that the smaller ship that came in to port behind us, couldn't dock. So we went ashore, took a taxi to the restaurant, ate the required mexican food, rented the kids a kayak, did a little shopping and then walked back on to the boat in under two hours. Once on the boat and protected from the wind, we made our way to the pool deck where I plopped myself down in the hot tub and spent a blissful hour. When we got back to the room, it had been decorated for my birthday (thanks to my sweet husband) and a cake had been delivered. We ate said cake and then cleaned up and headed out to the jewelry store onboard where Michael bought me an amazing, ...

Our favorite day of our cruise was our day in Roatan. I had researched the port extensively online and came across the Little French Key as a favorite destination. I emailed them and booked a package there. It included (and I quote) 1. Entrance and a comfortable boat ride to Little French Key Private Island 2. Great and delicious Fresh island Style Lunch served on the private island, which includes little french keyBrochettes of Fillet Mignon, Lobster, Shrimp, marinated chicken breast, fresh homemade yucca chips, fresh homemade salsa, rice and beans and Island salad 3. 2 drinks of your choice 4. Use of all our facilities and all non-motorized equipment such as snorkeling equipment, Kayaks, water beds, water chairs, chase lounges, etc…… 5. Guided Tour of our Private Zoo with friendly and tamed Monkeys, Macaws Parrots, Toucan and Jaguar Cubs, Island Rabbit and Island Deer. 6. Round trip transportation to and from our facilities. 7. Guided snorkel tour of the adjacent reef (th...

The third grade class at Davis' school had a "Texas Day" last week. The children have been studying Texas history all year and this is the culmination of months long study. Each student was assigned a character. They read the biography and made a poster and wrote a three page report on their character and then on Texas day, dressed up as that character and presented their report. Davis was Juan Seguin. After their report presentation, we (the parents) served up a Texas cowboy lunch and then manned stations for the children. I was assigned to the games station and taught the kids a hoops game and marbles. There was also an archery and roping station, a craft station where they built little covered wagons and a horseshoes station. My dad spent the day with me at the school and though it was very, very windy, the sun shone brightly and we all had a great time.

We woke up early the next morning and packed up for our NCL Excursion, "Sharks and Rays Getaway". We met in the theater for our excursion and they led the way through the bowels of the ship to a tender boat. They were rushing us and threatened that we would be left behind, because one family had been missing the mother and had held us up. Luckily, we got on the tender just fine and made it to our meeting point for our excursion. We followed like good little sheep behind a man holding a sign and got onto another boat. This was a large catamaran and was very nice. We settled in the back under a canopy and enjoyed an hour long ride through the mangrove islands. There were maybe 40 people on the boat with us and several guides as well as the captain. Our main guide kept us entertained and instructed. We ran through a pod of dolphins that played along side the boat for quite a ways as we made our way to Caye Caulker. When we finally arrived in Caye Caulker, we docked a...