Thanksgiving 2013

Sadly, I had to work another Thanksgiving so I was unable to travel to Houston to celebrate with family, and I was scheduled to work the evening shift so I didn't get to join Jason at his parents' house.  In light of everything, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner a couple of days early.  Jason made the turkey and candied sweet potatoes, and I happily made some of my family's traditional holiday dishes.  It was my first time to make my Nana's cornbread stuffing, and it was really much easier than I was expecting.  I remember her always talking about how difficult it was to make perfectly because it was passed down from her mother, "MeeMaw Hatcher", and she never wrote down specific measurements, just "a pinch of this" and "a dash of that."  I was pleasantly surprised at how simple the recipe was to follow and pleased that it came out not only edible, but quite delicious.  I also mastered MeeMaw's slow-cooked green beans and a copycat recipe for Black Eyed Pea's baked squash casserole (one of my all-time favorite dishes).  For dessert, I made a buttermilk pie, which I've made a few times before.  Everything turned out really scrumptious, and we made so much food that we couldn't even fit everything on the table!  On the plus side, we've had amazing leftovers all week.  

25th Birthday Week

As I mentioned in my last post, October wasn't very good to us, but we're trying our best to stay positive and move forward with painful lessons learned.  I had to work the late afternoon/evening shift on my birthday, but Jason and I made plans to go out to lunch beforehand to celebrate.  I had been looking forward to a delicious birthday lunch at Roll On Sushi Diner, but when we got there we were informed they were closed in preparation for a large private event.  I was pretty disappointed, but they made up for it by giving us a couple of coupons for free rolls next time we make it out there.  Instead we ended up going to a place I'd been wanting to try after driving by it a few weeks ago - Clark's Oyster Bar.  Jason and I both love raw oysters, so this place was right up our alley.  We shared a few different selections of oysters from both the east and west coasts.  For our main entrees, I ordered the clam chowder and Jason chose the burger.  We were both happily full, but not before dessert - a cherry cake and a chocolate butterscotch cake with banana ice cream.  Mmm mmm mmm.  I'm sure we'll be back at some point in the future.

As for Halloween, I had to work again, but it was pretty fun getting to see everyone all dressed up headed to Sixth Street.  I'm glad I don't work the overnight shift because I'm sure last night was a challenge for those guys when all the guests returned inebriated.

Gifts-wise, I did pretty well.  Jason got me two of my favorite albums on vinyl - Tame Impala and FIDLAR.  My mom sent me a birthday "care package" with a really sweet card from her and one from my sister, lots of candy, Michael Kors Gold perfume I'd requested, a Target gift card from my mom's friend Randy and she even threw in a little beer flight glass for Jason, the "brew master", haha.  I felt really special opening everything she sent me.  When I got to work on my birthday, my coworkers surprised me with a birthday cake and a balloon!  It was the sweetest thing ever!  My boss even brought me some cupcakes from my favorite south Austin bakery, Sugar Mama's.

Tomorrow, my dad and my grandparents are coming up for a late birthday celebration lunch before I go to work.  I'm looking forward to spending some time with them!

Overall, it was a pretty decent birthday week.  I'm a lucky lady to have all of this love and support from friends and family!  Even the last minute Facebook birthday wishes meant a lot to me.  It's nice to know people are thinking of you, even if for a split second.

Easy Breakfast Recipes

In case you missed it (shame on you), I shared a couple of my favorite go-to quick breakfast recipes on Sarah's blog last week while she was away galavanting in NYC...

I've never been much of a breakfast person.  Weird, I know.  I totally enjoy eating breakfast foods, just not usually at the typical breakfast time.  I have worked in a hotel for the past three years.  The first two years I pretty much always worked the morning shift, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and I never ate breakfast before work because that is just too early for me to be eating.  I'd much rather hit the snooze button a couple thousand times. The past year, I have been working more evening shifts where I don't have to be at work until mid-afternoon, so now, I almost always eat breakfast and I've gotten pretty crafty with it, if I may say so myself.  Two of my favorite easy breakfasts include french toast and yogurt parfaits.  

Now, my french toast isn't just any french toast.  Ideally, I like to use a good quality, thick white bread that will soak up lots of the eggy liquid.  French bread is especially nice.

Ingredients (for 1 single serving):

2 slices thick white bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or almond milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Berries
Powdered sugar

Method:

Whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Set aside.
Heat an oiled skillet over medium heat.
Dip the bread slices, one at a time, in the egg mixture and place on the heated pan.
Allow the bread to cook for about 1 minute on each side, until lightly browned.
Serve topped with berries and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Just like my french toast, I like to use certain kinds of components to make a truly delicious yogurt parfait.  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vanilla honey greek yogurt (I like the Greek Gods brand)

Berries or a fruit of your choice

1/3 cup vanilla almond granola (I get mine at HEB)

Method:

Simple - just layer it up & devour!

I hope these recipes appeal to you and that they inspire you to try a new thing or two with your breakfast routine!

xoxo

Jason's 30th

My sweet boyfriend, Jason, is officially 30 years old as of September 30!  I had decided a while back that I wanted to do something special for Jason in celebration of this milestone, and I've always wanted to throw a surprise party, so I figured this would be the perfect occasion.  I, obviously, couldn't blog about any of this before the big day so I'll walk you through the process a little bit.  I knew I wanted to invite as many people as possible - anyone and everyone that has made some kind of an impression on Jason.  I sent out emails and Facebook messages to everyone I knew Jason would want to celebrate with about a month and a half before the date I chose for the party, just to get an idea of how many people would seriously consider attending.  Once I had a rough estimate of the number of attendees, I began my search for a venue.  Originally, I was set on Max's Wine Dive, but their food & beverage minimum was out of my price range.  I checked with a few other restaurants and ended up happily settling with Red's Porch.  Jason and I had eaten there many times and really enjoy the food and drinks.  They have great specialty cocktails and a more than decent variety of local beers on tap.  It ended up being the perfect crowd pleaser, offering something for everyone.  

On the day of the party, I had wonderful assistance from my best friends Emily, Heather and Sarah and from my mom who arrived early in the afternoon to help me de-stress and get ready.  It turns out I was worrying and stressing for nothing because, even with storms rolling in all day and night, the party went on without a hitch, and Jason was absolutely shocked when he showed up and everyone yelled "SURPRISE!"  It was such a fun night, and I am so grateful to everyone that made the effort to come and help us celebrate this exciting birthday for Jason!

**All photographs courtesy of Emily's camera and Emily & Sarah's picture-taking expertise.

Guest Post from Emily of Brown Eyed Girl

Today, Jason and I are on a plane to the first stop of our Pacific Northwest adventure - Seattle!  After a couple of days in Seattle, we are going to trek down to Portland and then down PCH 101 to the fabulously colorful city of San Francisco!  I simply can't wait to share our experiences with you all as soon as we return, but for now, I've lined up some posts to keep you interested while I'm away.  Throughout the month of September, I will be participating in Blogtember, a series of post prompts thoughtfully created by Jenni from Story of My Life so you will be seeing a few of those over the next week, in addition to some guest posts from my lovely blogging besties.

Today, I'm so excited to start things off with my dear friend Emily from Brown Eyed Girl, who will be sharing one of her favorite Houston restaurants with you!  Although we met in college, Emily and I are both from North Houston and have lots of pride for the city we call home.  Many people don't know about all of the fun, cultural aspects of Houston, so I was really happy when Emily told me she would be writing about a popular Houston eatery.  Emily is fairly new to blogging, but has already accomplished so much in just a few months!  I am thrilled to have her here as a guest blogger, so I'll shut up now and let her take it away.

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Hi there, I'm Emily and I'm so excited to be guest posting for Kassie today! I've known Kassie since we were freshman in college and I'm so glad to still call her a best friend, despite having graduated and moved to different cities. I have really enjoyed reading Kassie's blog over the last couple years, and that was a big part of my motivation to start my own blog.

I wasn't sure what to post about when Kass first asked me, then I thought what better than food? We all love to eat so I figured I couldn't go wrong with that! I'm bringing y'all a review of one of my favorite Houston restaurants, Niko Niko's.

Niko Niko's is located in the Montrose area and has been there for years. I remember going as a child when the building could barely hold 20 people. It's grown now but the food is still just as good! My personal favorite dish is the spanikopita platter and I order it every single time.

Most of the meals come with a Greek salad that's pretty darn delicious. I opted for the regular salad and my mom went for the farmer's salad.

After the salads came the main entrees and we had some excellent options. I always order the spanikopita but after taking a good look at my dad's gyro (pronounced your-oh) I think I might actually try that next time. My brother got the stuffed grape leaves, which he swears are the best.

I didn't manage to get a great picture of my dad's gyro (I have a thing against flash) but basically a gyro is a pita bread stuffed with lamb, chicken or gyro meat and some veggies and topped with tzaziki sauce. It's a little bit of amazingness all wrapped up and I highly recommend it!

Sometimes when we go to Niko Niko's we end our meal with either some loukoumades or baklava (or usually both). This particular night we didn't, although I did sneak a longer-than-necessary peek at all the bakery goodness.

Doesn't that look delicious? It is, so if you're in the Houston area you should give Niko Niko's a try ;) Thanks for indulging me, and thanks to Kass for having me!