How I Know I'm In Texas

You know you're in Texas when:

You have neighbors who celebrate Christmas AK47 style

Texas Longhorns

Same neighbors and the majority of the population are just plum loco about football. Texas football. People schedule vacations, weddings, surgery and bathroom breaks around various Texas teams game schedules. Which leaves me no credibility at all, moving here from Michigan. Even though Austin does not even have one lousy professional sports team, they don't even consider the Detroit Lions a real football team.

If I point out the championships held by various other Detroit teams like The Tigers, The Pistons and last but not least Red Wing hockey...they just screw up their face, give me the stink eye and say something like, "huh, yeah, but that ain't the same as football".

Folks decorate their Bronco for Christmas, complete with Nativity statues

The Colorado River runs through it.

Only it changes names frequently. Lake Austin, Ladybird Lake, Town Lake, Lake Travis...yada yada yada. Most of the time it doesn't look nor act like a lake at all...that would be because its a river people.

It also intimidates most urban planners ever in charge of building highway systems. They've done everything they can to avoid building a road system straight over the thing. Instead they just take the road and go around it, bringing it to a dead end without any warning what so ever.Or they make a  nonsensical "loop".

The land of the food trailer

You can go food trailer park hopping and taste a diverse culinary trends from shaved ice, BBQ, gourmet hot dogs, crepes, Moroccan and just plain made up crazy shit to French delicacies at La Boite. All eaten with disposable utensils.

These boots are made for stompin

You develop a hankering for multiple pairs of cowboy boots. There are so many choices. Vintage cowboy boots, new cowboy boots, custom sized cowboy boots, chartreuse cowboy boots and used cowboy boots. You might try some on and find them oddly comfortable to wear and wonder why they have to be so blasted expensive.

Traditionally you think of gals wearing cowboy boots with a well worn pair of blue jeans. I've seen them worn with all manner of dress from tuxedos and sun dresses to cut off jeans shorts. At one crazy pool side concert I attended I observed a lady wearing nothing but a thong bikini and her trusty boots. I think the boots covered a much larger percentage of her flesh than the bathing suit, hands down.

After experiencing an 80 degree day on Tuesday, it's difficult to get my Christmas mojo on. Nothing reminds me that I'm not in Michigan anymore than a forecast like this:

 

Weather for Austin, TX  - Add to iGoogle

61°F | °C Current: Clear Wind: S at 1 mph Humidity: 88% Tue 79°F | 60°F Wed 72°F | 58°F Thu 71°F | 57°F

ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Who Slept With Who?

In my family we sleep around a lot. I thought we’d grown out of this phase a long time ago, but it turns out we just can’t help ourselves.

After decades of child rearing and at times the unintentional family bed, I spend a lot of time talking about how soundly I sleep on the nights I have my big king sized bed all to myself. Any parent knows that sometimes one must go to extreme lengths to eek out enough sleep to exist on.

Depriving me of sleep many years ago

How many nights of musical beds have I played in my lifetime? The fussy baby finally falls asleep in my bed next to my spouse. No way am I moving an inch. Fifteen minutes later a crying toddler climbs in bed after a nightmare. Now there are 4 bodies in my bed and I’m the only one not sleeping. So I gingerly creep out of bed to the toddlers room and climb in his bed to sleep the last hours of the night.

Is it any wonder that I’m a certified insomniac at this point?

Big Black

Whenever my husband travels I relish my opportunity to have some alone time. I march upstairs and immediately kick out the Big Black Bastard (our 130 pound resident watch dog) who will undoubtably be laying next to the bed pining away for his master. Ironically, knowing he’s on duty guarding the stairs at night helps me sleep more soundly. That doesn’t mean I want to sleep in a cloud of his gaseous odor, so I glare at him until he leaves.

This holiday had me feeling a little different. Our relocation to Austin has put a lot of distance between me and the people who used to be my babies (well, let’s face it they always remain your babies). I’m not seeing them quite so frequently and I’m longing for them much more than ever before.

 Fortunately the oldest two made it to Austin for the holiday. We were sidetracked by the sparkling lights of South Congress and arrived home later thatn expected. Certain girls who were supposed to be bunking together to leave open beds for their visiting siblings were sound asleep where they shouldn’t have been (in their own beds).

We had discussed sleeping arrangements all week as I whipped them into cleaning their rooms. Like chess pieces we had agreed who was sleeping where, which nights. Clean up the bathrooms, stock up the towels, fix the sticky door. Did you ever notice how kids like to totally mess up all micro management of the household?

The baby of the family begs her big sister to sleep with her on our big comfy sectional sofa upstairs. The Prince falls dead asleep on the couch downstairs where he sat to take off his shoes. I poke him and try to coax him upstairs to his sister’s bedroom that we fixed up for him. Besides complaining about the lousy pillow I gave him he refuses to move so I tuck him in. It seems impossible that this 28 year old man was the same toddler crowding me out of my bed years ago.

Upstairs for the night, I find the baby (who is 14) sound asleep in her own bed, after begging her visiting sister to sleep with her on the sectional. Out on the large sofa I find my oldest, Jordan, sleeping soundly curled up on one end. The strange thought hits me, “ maybe I’ll just curl up on this sofa with my first baby, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her”. And so I did.

Adult's but still sleep disrupters

I woke up a few hours later to my husbands alarm going off at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. I remember something about an early conference call to Europe. Without really opening my eyes I slink into my own bed which has been vacated by my spouse and fall back asleep.

A short while later, I feel the weight of another person climb in my bed and within seconds I hear the sound steady breathing of a sleeping person. Maybe my husband’s call was cancelled, no it doesn’t sound like him but there is no way I am opening my eyes to look or I’ll never get back to sleep. It must be Jordan, all her dad’s pre dawn noise probably drove her out of her original spot.

My eyes pop open to the sound of my son clapping his hands to wake me up, inquiring where is my laptop? He got an urgent call from his office and he needs it tout suite. I’m amazed to see it’s 8:30. I turn over expecting to see Jordan sleeping beside me but I find myself quite alone.

At 9 a.m. I’m unloading the dishwasher when my dear firstborn appears fresh from her morning jog. I asked her how did she like my new bed. She said she didn’t know as she hadn’t seen it yet. OK, now I’m confused... until my son appears and said it was him that climbed into bed with me after he was rousted off the downstairs couch by his dad chatting away on his conference call.

Turns out I got to sleep with both of my oldest babies on the first night of their visit.

The tradition of musical beds continues.

The thing that did change is that I’m no longer the sleep deprived mother of small children, and for the first time I can remember, I didn’t mind the game of musical beds.

A Sassy Celebration @ Bin 36 Chicago

The holiday season was complicated this year. That's what happens when your family grows up and children take on their adult obligations in various places that different from home base. It took a lot of thinking outside the box to accommodate our desire to spend time together during the holiday season.

The Pastry Chef & The Prince

So our first stop this year was Chicago where our first three work and live. My daughter, who is an assistant pastry chef, made arrangements for us to have a cozy family dinner (if you can consider 8 boisterous people a cozy group) at the restaurant where she's employed.

Meat flight

I was a fan of the Bin 36 restaurant group before she was hired there last year. I had been there several times on visits to Chicago, mostly sampling their vast wine and cheese selections that sets them apart from other fantastic Chicago establishments. One of the charms about this place is the various sections where different styles of gathering and dining are available.

Cheese flight

The baby is now 12 and having 3 teens to deal with daily has just about done me in. On the other hand it's wonderful to be able to go out as a group with a reasonable expectation of having everyone be mature enough to really enjoy each other out in the public arena...without too much fuss.

Well, I guess there will always be a certain amount of fuss with our group. We are not a very sedate bunch so places like Bin 36 are a fantastic forum for us to enjoy sophisticated dining in a situation that's casual and not the least bit stuffy.

For us, it's a win-win.

We began our evening with Champagne and a flight of meats and cheeses. It took a bit of coaxing to get everyone to have a nibble of some of the unfamiliar tasty tidbits set before us. Despite that signal, deeply ingrained inside me from years of parenthood, to move the show along before any big mishap occurs we were all able to relax and savor the experience.

Make no mistake, after years of parental gorilla warfare, I was the one who had the most difficulty relaxing sufficiently to appreciate the moment. Bin's vast wine selection helped me achieve my goal.

After being plied with vino, meats, cheeses and the like we decided to share some of our entrees. The staff accommodated us bringing out our entrees split and beautifully presented.

Peppercorn Crusted Blue Marlin

NY Strip with Shiraz-Shallot Butter

Bin 36 Burger (Tavern Menu)

The minute the youngest left to visit the restroom we all had to fight over a bite of the baby's burger despite having sampled our way through delicacies and sophisticated entrees. We just love to provoke her scorn. We all agreed the burger was fantastic.

When it comes to saving room for the important stuff we know how to roll. Desserts are important stuff. Especially when they include all house made delights such as gelatto & ice cream sandwiches to the more complex Crispy Brioche with Pumpkin Zabaglione, Gingerbread with apple salad and concord grape grainita.It seems that my gang was so excited by the desserts presented that we suffered a photographic failure (to take the picture before you take a bite because you never know what your crazy mother will use for her blog).

This little cutie (Sweet Potato Donuts with Marshmellow Ice Cream) was the only thing left unscathed when I returned from my brief pastry kitchen tour. Bin 36's king of the pastry department, Chef Tom is a delight to visit with and possesses the unique ability to be personable yet a creative stickler for detail in the items that roll out of his kitchen.

We almost made it through the night without anyone getting out of hand. The only criticism came by a few of my spawn complaining "enough with the camera already." I do admit to blatantly following a particular server around trying to get a picture on the downlow to prove he is Justin Timberlake's doppelganger. I did reign myself in enough to stop before asking to have my picture made with him. You know you have reached an important goal when you have a lovely evening out with your family and the only person causing any kind of a fuss is you.

Much appreciated mama lovin'

They Came Bearing Gifts

It's obvious they loved their mama and that they learned some good manners along the way to becoming grown ups. When the gang from Chicago arrived late Wednesday night they came loaded for bear.

The Bin Box

Champagne, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Cabernet by Bin 36

They know how to bring it, I'll have to give them that. The days of arriving home with a dirty bag of laundry and a car running on fumes are over. Snazzy apartment, regular paychecks, health insurance, their own utility bills- woo hoo. We have arrived. Then imagine my delight when they gave me yet another gift:

Beef Tenderloin & Grogan's Country Sausage

Did I mention that the pimp pad (aka snazzy apartment) is located in the meat packing district? Comes in mighty handy when your're a family of foodies. Walk down the street to the various butcher shops and 10 minutes later you have exactly what you went in for. Fresh, trimmed, wrapped and all for a way better price than the grocery store.

The Prince came ready to rock a tenderloin roast with a red wine reduction. Come Friday when we are sick of turkey we'll be enjoying beef, a beautiful salad and fresh veggies to counteract the carb fest of the days before. The other half of the tenderloin is going to be sliced up paper thin and rest on toasted garlic baguettes with a dollop of creme fraiche this Saturday for our post Thanksgiving party.

I hope you all are having a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday that is full of good food, fine wine and fun with your loved ones.