Sunday wine down

We updated our kitchen light fixture above the sink and got rid of the "globe" bulb we had from the original construction.  This gives us so much more light and we were able to accent the tops of the cabinets with position of the lamps.  It looks great and matches the aluminum light hanging above our dining table.  We also finally bought some patio furniture!  After shopping around, we ended up piecing together our set from a few different stores and it turned out perfect.  At some point, we are hoping to cover our patio, but for now we got a sweet little umbrella that is super close in color to our house paint.  We knew we didn't want something bright and the earth tones look very calming.  Perfect for our first meal outside at sunset.  After a short rain, it was just cool enough to enjoy dinner and a couple of wine spritzers!

Cooking it up!

I thought I would share the recipe for my vegetarian Pad Thai.  In the past, I have tried several types of rice noodles and "meat" options.  We had this for dinner last night and it was delicious!  

Probably the best version I've made yet. 

Beefless Pad Thai

(vegetarian or vegan)

prep time: 25 mins 

Ingredients:

1 box-Annie Chun's all natural Pad Thai rice noodles with sauce

1 9oz bag-Gardein beefless tips

2 large-eggs (omit for vegan recipe)

1 tsp-minced garlic

4 thin slices-red onion

5 sprigs-thyme

1 sprig chopped-cilantro

1 cup-bean sprouts

1 small-lime

1 Tbsp-brown sugar

1/2 tsp-white pepper

1 pinch-black pepper

1/2 tsp-kosher salt

1 pinch-table salt

1/2 cup-crushed peanuts

4 Tbsp-soy sauce

1 cup-canola oil

Prep:

Marinate frozen beefless tips in canola oil, garlic, thyme, brown sugar, white pepper, and kosher salt for 15 minutes. Stir tips in the marinade every so often.  Prepare to saute the tips by combining the soy sauce, red onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, and the juice from 1/2 of a lime in a wok or large skillet.  Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil.  Drop the package of Annie Chun's noodles in the boiling water and cover.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Add the beefless tips and marinade to the ingredients for saute.  Cook over high heat for 5 mins.  Strain any remaining oil from the beefless tips and return to cook.  Strain and rinse noodles.  Add strained noodles and Annie Chun's sauce packet to the beefless tips.  Cook another 3 minutes stirring frequently.  Beat eggs with pinch of salt and pepper until fluffy.  Scramble eggs over medium heat.  Pull beefless tips and noodles from heat and stir in egg.  

Portion and garnish with any remaining cilantro, crushed peanuts and a lime wedge.  Serves 2-4 

What a day, what a night!

This week we had a visit from Matt's Mom and Gramma, when Carrie and the girls decided to make a quick trip down for the night to hang with us, too!  Despite the intermediate rain, we managed to take a loooooong, sweaty walk to the river and get in for a few minutes to cool down.  Everyone had a blast, even the dogs!  Later that night, we made plans with Vanessa, Graham, and their boy Blake for what was supposed to be an outdoor movie nite.  The rain cancelled the movie, so we all met up at Phil's Icehouse for burgers and ice cream from Amy's!  I was a success and the kids had a great time as well as the adults, who polished off a bucket of beer and a bottle of wine.

His and Hers

This is a very accurate display of our things around the house on a daily basis.  Just like our closet, my side is always FULL, as is my side of the bathroom counter cluttered with with soaps, lotions, and makeup.  Is it just a curse on women to need all this stuff?  For me, it takes work to get ready and work to clean it all up!  If only all I needed was a fancy baseball hat and some cool t-shirt...

Using that green thumb!

My Mom was in town visiting and we decided to do some plant shopping.  There is a great nursery in South Austin called Plantescape that functions out of an old house.  It was so fun to observe all of the different kinds of greenery to choose from.  Our front yard has more of a traditional look to it, so we wanted to change it up in the back yard and go with something a little more "green".  I reused an old ice bucket for cold drinks and turned it into a new planter.  I'm on a mission for patio furniture, but I haven't had any luck yet.  I'll know it when I see it!

Kayaking the Colorado

This was the first time since our move-in that we have had to take advantage of the river access in our neighborhood.  Our drop in point was around the 14.0 mile marker and we paddled about 7 miles down to the Little Webberville Park.   Desi and Adam went with us and in total it took about 4 hours.  We paddled leisurely and took a swim along the way while hunting for shells in the river bed.  What a great way to spend time outdoors!  It was like having our own private river.  We are definitely going to enjoy having the river access right at our fingertips.  Renting the kayaks was a breeze as well.  It was so much fun, we even discussed an overnight camping trip.  Strap everything on the kayaks and sail away to tranquility!  The link below is the website we used to guide ourselves down the Colorado River adventure.

http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/colorado4.html

Feelin' Crafty

The birch tree curtains pictured are made from a shower curtain that I re-fashinoned and hung in our master bath.  I love the way they turned out! They also match the shower curtain that is in our guest bathroom and it helps tie the two rooms together. 

Created Using Android's PRO Paint Camera