Weekend in Calvert and Hearne

After Turkey Day my friend Maryloretto and I decided to venture to Hearne/Calvert/Bryan for 2 days.

I started out at the Bush Library on the campus of Texas A&M University. I am a University of Texas graduate and I have never been to the A&M campus before. I drove past it once in high school on my way to my grandmother's in Louisiana. Then I met Maryloretto at the Wind Dancer B&B. It is located outside of Hearne, TX. If you need to go to A&M for anything, this is is just 20 minutes away off of Hwy 6. It's in the country so it's nice and quiet. Breakfast is fabulous. Denise is finishing her culinary school in December.

We then went to Calvert for lunch. We went to Cocoamoda. They are known for their truffles, but have a restaurant too. They were totally overwhelmed but the food was fabulous. You just can't be in a hurry. Maryloretto had the cassoulet and I had the monsiuer something or another. We split a salad to begin with and it was all excellent.

Next we were off to Messina Hof. We did a wine tasting first and then went to dinner. You can get a dinner for two that includes appetizer, main course and dessert with a bottle of wine. Each person gets to select their own course. The food was excellent. One of the desserts was great the other was OK. This is our dinner at Messina Hof. The wait staff was fabulous.

Saturday morning after our fabulous breakfast, I went to see Twilight. I know it didn't get great reviews, but I enjoyed it. Then Sunday morning I saw Australia. Hugh Jackman deserves the Sexyist Man Alive award.

New Washer and Dryer

We had a new washer and dryer delivered this week. I am so excited. My laundry room is hard to get a good picture. They are amazing. The washer uses 3.5 gallons of water where the old one used 15 gallons of water. It also uses 60% less electricity than our old one. The dryer has a rack that you can put in it to dry sweaters or shoes. Our old dryer would put everything in a big ball and I would have to go in there every 10 minutes to separate things. I washed the cat beds and they came out so clean.

Little Kalliope does not know how to use a pillow. She crawls under it and goes to sleep.

Thank you Kimmie

Thank you Kimmie,

Kimmie over at Living in Dallas and Loving It has given me an award! Thank you, thank you! Her posts are great, she shares her cooking adventures, her wine adventures, her food adventures and anything else that comes along. In case you don't know, Kimmie is my favorite niece. It doesn't matter that she is my only niece. She is still the favorite. I love reading about her and her friends. The scary thing is, they have the same fears, adventures and clothes that I had at their age.

First I must list 5 things that I find fabulously addictive:

1. Listening to books.

I love listening to books. The readers are so fabulous. I started listening to books on trips - in the car, on a plane, in airports - then along came the iPod, the best invention ever. The local library can save you a bunch of money. Our library, Harris County Library, as a fabulous online system. I can order books on CD online and when they are ready, I get an email. My branch, The Lone Star College Tomball, is open till 9:30 every night and has a drive up window. What more can I ask for? I load up my books, then I listen while sitting in doctor's offices, waiting in line, on my way to work, at work, while watching TV, you get the picture.

2. Reading recipes.

I don't always make them, but I love to cook and I have a lot of fun reading recipes. I do love making appetizers! Bill and I tend to eat in courses. I'll make one thing and if we are still hungry, I might make us something totally different.

3. Watching Dancing With the Stars.

Bill hates it but I love seeing the dances.

4. Watching movies.

I love all kinds of movies. I can't even list my favorites, since there are too many. But a few are Definitely Maybe, Stephen Spielberg's Taken, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (and I don't even care for Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie), The Incredibles, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Moonspinners. Too many to list. The new movie theater in Tomball has a gelatto bar too!

5. Tea.

I love hot tea. And it has to be good loose leaf tea. And I love anything that goes with tea. Favorite places to buy tea are Teavana, Tea Embassy, The Steeping Room, and Chado Tea Market. I love going to high tea. The best so far is the St. Regis in Austin, second is The Adolphus in Dallas, then the Four Seasons in Austin. The place I want to have high tea is the Fairmont in Vancouver. Places I've had high tea is in Lisbon, Portugal, London, England, and Savannah, Georgia. There is nothing better than going to tea with friends and family to have a nice relaxing afternoon.

Now to share the love with 5 fabulous bloggers:

(Some of these are repeats because I don't know very many bloggers)

1. Ali and Pat at Bumfuzzle. They have a story of sailing around the world in 4 years and now are driving around the world in a 1959 VW bus. They are the nicest, most down to earth couple. Read about their adventures. They don't listen to others, they do their own thing. And what you see if what you get. There is nothing pretentious about them.

2. Amanda at Meet the Joiners. Amanda cracks me up over living in small town Texas after living in Highland Park her early years and Westlake for her middle school and high school years. I think I laughed the loudest early in her marriage when she realized that she needed to buy frozen food last.

3. Allison at Meet the Blogivers is Amanda's twin sister. Her fear of new things reminds me of myself at her age. And listening to the adventures of Wade the Treehugger is very similiar to Bill the Treehugger that I live with.

4. Tom and Amy at Dreamcatcher are a hoot. I especially like Tom's adventures in sewing. He has made some nice covers for his boat cushions.

5. Kimmie my favorite niece. She started all of this.

Christmas Photo

Here is our Christmas photo. I had to look for a long time to find software that would let me know this and it was on my computer the whole time! The picture in the middle is of the cats getting ready for Hurricane Ike. As you can tell, they were pretty upset.

Snack Bars

Today I made snack bars. Ever since seeing the recipe on Tastespotting I've been dying to make some. Today I went to the HEB Vintage Market and picked out various seeds and nuts in the bulk aisle. I got sesame seeds, poppy seeds, rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pastachio nuts, almonds, and walnuts. After dry frying them, I added honey, molasses, karo and a dash of vanilla. They turned out quit tasty.

Kalliope, the Perfect Cat

This is Kalliope, the perfect cat. I picked her from the hoardes of cats at the Humane Society in Montgomery County. She has more personality than any cat I've ever seen. She is a snuggler and loves to sleep either on top on me or plastered against my legs.

Bill has taught her to fetch mice. And she can catch my hair bands in mid air. She is a talker though. She wants to be where anyone else is. And she is so curious. She is into to everything, but she doesn't mess anything up. She will just play with things like Bill's chapstick or my eye drops. We find them all over the house.

So remember what Kimmie said - go adopt. And make sure they are fixed.

The Great Cupcake Debate

My sister Becky was in town to go to the Quilt Show. We made it through the show in record time. We decided to check out the cupcake stores in Houston. First we went to Sugarbabies. Becky to the Red Velvet and I got the Smores.

We found the store to be very cute with lots of cupcake accesories to buy. Hoever the cupcakes were a bit dry. The icing was amazing through.

Next we went to Crave Cupcakes in the Uptown shopping center. This is a no frills store that is strictly buying cupcakes. Becky got a cinamon one and I got a coconut. They were amazing. And they were moist! We can't wait to try other flavors. Some of the ones we want to try are not made on Fridays.

Sprinkles Cupcakes will be in Houston next Spring. We can't wait to try them.