With chocolate and cheesecake

As I wrap up 2014 I leisurely sat back in my recliner, sipped a wonderfully made hot toddy and watched Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby croon "White Christmas"...

...if only that were true.

In reality, I spent the last weekend in a blind panic making chocolate truffles as gifts because I could not think of anything else and I am supposed to drive 14 hours to Illinois in 3 days.  I am still finding chocolate in crevices and there is the not-so faint smell of peppermint where I spilt the bottle of peppermint oil.

Zazzles, my cat, will not go into the kitchen now...

Anyhoo, I did get to spend yesterday evening with a wonderful friend (Shaun) and her zany family while making mini cheesecakes for the Illinois crew.  My test subjects for the evening seemed to enjoy the peppermint mocha cheesecakes.   I sang songs with her mother, talked university politics with her PhD sister and essentially terrorized Shaun's two daughters although they would not let me rap (CoolPapaD... Yo!).  It was definitely the break I needed and appreciated.  I even felt confident spilling peppermint oil in her kitchen.

It is the holiday season and I really miss my two young 'uns and a certain lady (and her daughter) who live in the DC suburbs, but having such a good friend here in Houston alleviates that a bit.  Thanks again, Shaun!  (She told me that she reads this thing...)

My second year here in the Bayou City comes to a close and I am bumbling towards 2015 with the same smile on my face.  Houston is a wonderful city with so much to offer and after two years, I have only scratched the surface.

Salut!

They have a mold for that!?

Last year, I made flavored chocolates for my daughter and bought a variety of hot sauces for my son.  These Christmas presents were a hit and has driven me to try a food item as a gift once again.  So this year, I am going all chocolate.  I am going to do my best to replicate Pease's Candies truffles and Peppermint bark.  I grew up with Pease's Candies in my hometown of Springfield, Illinois and it was always fun to take part in one of the tours of the factory every once in a while.

Anyway, I hemmed and hawed back and forth about whether to make cupcakes or chocolates this year and landed on the side of chocolates.  It also gave me a chance to go back to a store that is just a treat to visit.  Amazing Cake Supplies (yes, their website is just horrible) is just a fun place to visit.  I mean, they have damn near ANYTHING you would want in the baking and candy making arena.  I have spent nearly an hour (which is a lifetime for me) just walking about in the aisles looking at all of the gadgets, candy molds, baking molds, flavorings... I mean it is just fun.

Last weekend I made the Peppermint Bark and experimented with making the truffles.  Making the creamy filling and coating that with milk chocolate.  It made a wonderful mess and was quite fun to be frank...

So this weekend, I will have a friend over and we will make an assembly line of chocolate making goodness.  I will travel back to Illinois with a car packed with boxes of truffles and feel really good about myself.  That is...until I hit the 20 degree weather.  Then I will wonder why everyone doesn't just come down here to Houston for the holidays.

Free Traditions

Off to see The Nutcracker at Wortham Theater

I should have written about this on Sunday or Monday but I was completely lazy.

Hey... it happens...

Anyway, I have a wonderful friend who knows my cultural bent and called to ask if I wanted to attend the Houston Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.  She had an extra ticket and offered it up to me.  I jumped at the chance.  I have seen The Nutcracker on numerous occasions and (quite frankly) it is not the actual production that is the draw (although this one was phenomenal), it is the atmosphere that makes folks from all over flock to it.

As you can see from the photo here, the Wortham Theater was decked out and the patron were dressed to match the atmosphere.  Behind me was a HUGE golden Christmas tree all lit up and kids were all flocking all around it.  Children enjoying a wonderful cultural experience.

...And that is the crux of a performance of The Nutcracker.

Children dressed up in their best outfits, little boys running about in their suits, little girls running about in wonderful dresses, and their parents chasing after them dressed to match.  I saw a few fathers dressed in tuxedoes holding their little girls hands, mothers in their finery sitting next to their little men who are pulling at their collars... they are trying, bless their little hearts.

Inside the theater

They all file into the performance hall (which is gorgeous, by the way) and when the ballet starts, there is almost an audible "wow" coming from the children as the production begins.  For so many of them, this is their first professional stage performance and the Houston Ballet does not disappoint.

I have been to a few of the Ballet's performances at Miller Outdoor Theater, but there is something about seeing the troupe in their home building.  We are very lucky here in Houston to have such a wonderful group of dancers.

The afternoon was simply wonderful and seeing all of the folks enjoy the production just made me think of my own (soon to be) 12 year old girl and (very soon to be) 15 year old son.  It made me really want to bring them out to see the production next year.

...now I just have to get that tux.

I moved...

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I was looking for a new apartment.  Well, over the Thanksgiving break I picked up and moved to the new place.

The doctor says that I will be out of traction in a few weeks...

Seriously though, I am as sore as sore can be... and even though that is whining for the sake of whining I have to admit that I have a whole new respect for movers.  Pushing a sofa up a flight of stairs is not easy.  Thank god I had a wonderful friend helping me with the heavy stuff.  She (and her daughter) were a god-send.

Another aspect of a move was the discovery of just how much stuff there was hidden in closets, in drawers, under beds, and lying about the floor.  I was in the last apartment for two years and I accumulated a LOT.

Now I have boxes piled up in the new place.  Boxes upon boxes.  I tried to empty them as I brought them over but as the end of the week got closer and the panic started to manifest itself, the boxes just started to get stacked.  I now have my weekends planned out for the next few weeks.

But it will be worth it... I now have a sushi place, an Italian restaurant, a pie shop, and a couple of Indian restaurants within walking distance.  Yay me!

Tamales and Beer

A wonderful thing happened this past weekend.  Okay, a couple of wonderful things...

First off, it was the birthday of a very special friend who flew down here to Houston for her birthday.  Had a great time.

On Sunday, the two of us participated in the other wonderful thing... the first Texas Tamale Festival.  This was indeed a good thing.

After a couple of rather chilly, rainy days the sun was shining brightly and the temps hit the upper seventies.  Not a cloud in the sky and a wonderful Texas blues band was playing.  I have always loved the hard driving blues that comes from this neck of the woods.  Just think ZZ Top...

Anyway, the festival was held at the No Label Brewery and I have to say that the beer was really good.  I had the bock (the name escapes me) and my lady had the Ridgeback Ale which we both agreed was the better tasting of the two.  I am not saying that the bock was bad, I am saying that the Ridgeback Ale was THAT good and at $3 a pint, it was a great deal.

Speaking of great, the tamales were really good.  It was all you can eat for $10 and they served beef, chicken, pork, black bean, and a spinach tamale.  All of them were very tasty and provided by a company called Texas Tamale Company.  I have to say that I was really impressed.  There is just something about tamales and beer.  The only thing missing was some Illinois Chilli (not a fan of the Texas Chili...)

To top off the afternoon of music, beer, and tamales was the obligatory tamale eating contest.  First one through two dozen tamales was the winner.  It did not take long for a large man in a beige shirt to win.  He beat out a man holding a Danish flag by half a tamale.  Afterwards, the Dane did not look very good and everyone cleared a path for him as he made his way to the porta-potties.

Little Mr. Cranky Pants

It is just desserts, you know... but I am still not happy.

I have spent the last two years extolling the benefits of living this far south to those friends and family members that live up there in the hinterlands.  I have literally called my dear, sweet, seventy year old mother in January while she is suffering through two feet of snow and temperatures in the single digits.  I have called her to tell her that I may need her to send me an "emergency sweater" because it might get down to 50 here.  I chortled heartily as she used language that I never imagined her using in conversation.

Well, this week it got down below freezing here in Houston.  Yep, below 32 degrees...and it is only mid-November.  I thought I left behind all of this nonsense, but here it is.  I now have to bundle up and occasionally blow into my hands.  The furnace is on and the comforter is on the bed.  Yuck.

But all in all, I still say that I have the better end of the stick.  You see while I am experiencing this bit of a cold snap right now, it will be back up to the mid-seventies by the end of the week when I have a special friend coming down to visit.  My folks and friends up north will still be stuck in this until April.

Can't wait to call them...

A trip to the moving picture show

Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24

I have always been a bit of a movie buff.  I remember sitting with my father and watching old Laurel and Hardy, Bowery Boys, and Abbot & Costello movies via KPLR TV (St. Louis) on Saturday afternoons.  I would listen to him tell me about some of the stars and co-stars from these flicks and what other movies they were in... so needless to say, I have had a love and knowledge for movies drilled into my noggin'.  I have always tried to see at least one movie a month at the cinema.

One benefit of living in a city as large as Houston is the absolute breadth of theater choices we have.  There is everything from the shiny Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 (what a name) complete with restaurant attached (Harlow's), to the great megaplex AMC 30 on Dunvale, to the quaint and intimate 14 Pews which literally has 14 pews for seating.

My kid's favorite is the AMC megaplex because the ticket booth is outside in the courtyard, although they do love the muli-storied theater at Edwards Greenway.  They loved taking the escalator up to the theater.  I might also add (for all of you adults out there) that there is bar service at the Dunvale location.  Staying in the alcohol vein, 14 Pews regularly serves free beer (donated from St. Arnold's Brewery) to it's patrons.  I am not sure what all of this alcohol service has to do with going to the movies, but who am I to argue with having a drink before a show.  They have been doing that at live theater events for decades.

I also hear tell of a theater that serves dinner while watching... may have to check that one out.

Cheers!

Doing nothing...

It was bound to happen, you know.  Before long I had to come to this point...

I did not do a blessed thing this weekend.  Nope, I sat on my backside for most of the weekend and watched the ole' idiot box.  Forgoing all possibilities and obligations (such as a much needed cleaning of my bathrooms), I stared at a television and a computer screen.  I think that sometime Sunday evening, I actually started to grunt monosyllabic sounds while stuffing a frozen Snickers bar down my gullet.  Yeah, it got pretty bad there.

Now wait a minute... that is not necessarily true.  On Saturday night, I attended a wonderful gathering with some good people for a couple of hours.  The gathering had a New Orleans theme so I made some pralines for the occasion.

Yes, let's stay with this topic.  Because it occurs to me that our little get together happened on November first and we dined outside.  Yup. Outside.

The web guy dining al fresco in November

Now let's think about that for a moment... for those of us that were born and bred north of the city of Dallas, the very notion that you could relax outdoors on November 1st without the aid of a jacket or bonfire is a bit out of the ordinary.   I informed my family out there in the hinterland about my al fresco dining experience and discovered that my mother can have quite the potty mouth on her.  They woke up to freezing temperatures on Sunday morning.

We are entering the time of year that makes Houston a fantastic place to live.  While everyone else is starting to bundle up and there was even snow in Boston this weekend, I am sitting outside eating a wonderful dinner with some friends.

So, yes... I did do something this weekend.  There, I feel much better about myself.  Now I just have to come up with something that justifies wiping out an entire box of frozen Snickers while watching Netflix...

A moment, please...

Web Guy with a Napoleonic complex
(and sporting a Mickey Mouse watch)

Gentle reader, I may need a moment here...  I have had my heart laid bare and stomped upon.  Yes, I am more than a little distraught right now...

You see... I did not make the list of Houston's Most Eligible (and hottest) Bachelors (sniff).

Perhaps it is my age that keeps me off the list.  I am pushing 50 you know.  Or maybe it is my position as an administrator at the University of Houston that dulls the senses of the judges.  Who knows...

But it is precisely this type of thing that is fantastic about living in the fourth largest city in the United States.  An online magazine like Culture Map that gives us all of the society news.  Galas, fundraisers, and eligible bachelor lists.  It is something that I genuinely look forward to receiving in my email and reading every morning.  Plus they have the best calendar of events site in the city.

Then there is a fantastic magazine called Houstonia Magazine which I subscribe to and look forward to monthly.  It has all the information about the places here in the Bayou City.  Neighborhoods, bars, restaurants, and the like; it is the quintessential reference point.

So while I will sit here in my dark office and shed a few tears over my obvious bachelor snubbing, I shall persevere and continue to thoroughly enjoy life.  After all, The Addams Family stage show is starting tonight at Miller Outdoor.

An apartment hunt...

This past weekend was all about the hunt to end homelessness... specifically my own.  My lease expires on my current place at the end of November, the proposed raise in my rent has spurred me to move on and in my usual fashion I put off finding a new place until panic starts to set in...

Well, this weekend was when the panic set in so off I went...

There are so many levels of apartment living in Houston and to be quite frank, I love the area that I live.  My current abode is on Westheimer Road past the Galleria and as I have stated before, it is basically a five mile long strip mall just full of restaurants and shops.  But being a good steward and in good faith, I broadened my horizons.  I looked at apartments a couple of streets over as well as the ones on Westheimer.

Anyway, I found a place that is much cheaper than the current one I am inhabiting which probably means that I am about to enter a housing unit that is full of thugs, bugs and nightly police raids (I read the Yelp reviews...).

Oh well, it will give me something to blog about.  Cheers!

Culturally refreshed...

Weekends here in Houston are just something to behold.  As I am sure there are in Chicago, Los Angeles, or (gulp) New York activities are plentiful on the weekends.  BUT, I would challenge them to a certain distinction.  I would challenge them to the number of times that the "big guns" of the cultural landscape come out and give fantastic performances for the public... and oh yeah... for free.

Saturday started off wonderfully with the Bayou City Art Fair.  This HUGE art fair brings artists from all over the country to display pieces from almost every medium.  The spring version is held at Memorial Park and the fall version is held downtown.  There is nothing quite like walking around for three hours enjoying some fantastic creations.

Then in the evening hearing the wonderful musicianship of the Houston Symphony at Miller Outdoor Auditorium.  It was the annual Lunada concert celebrating Latin American composers.  The music just floated wonderfully and allowed a person to just drift away.  Hokey..?  Sure.  But that is about the best way I can describe it.  This was the Symphony's fourth (at least) free concert of the year for the public.  When you combine that with the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, and the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company all giving free performances at Miller...

Well, it just doesn't get much better than that.