BLUE SKIES, GOOD FOOD

A recap of yet another trip to Austin. Can you tell that I escape from Minnesota as often as possible? As  you may have already guessed, it has been a rough year. Going from a city that I loved where I was working in my field (a feat in itself these days, as writing jobs are hard to come by) to a city that I'm less than thrilled about where I am feeling very adrift career-wise has been hard, but I know it's just one blip on a much larger path. Thank the dear sweet lord we are moving to the East Coast this summer, to a place that will hopefully offer a lot more culturally and give me somewhat of chance at finding a decent job. But back to Austin. The weather, even though it did manage to skyrocket up into the 90s, felt like pure perfection to me as my dry winter skin sopped up all of that beautiful Texas humidity. I drank enough coffee to fuel most human beings for a year, and ate more than my share of food. That kimchi ramen from East Side King at Hole in the Wall, made we wish that I could just have an ESK trailer in my backyard. The other images are of Zilker Park, which I rarely ever spend time at when not attending Austin City Limits, but we took my parents' dog out for jaunt with his fellow four-legged friends and I couldn't get enough of the sprawling green space after living in a wonderland of grey snowy slush for the past five months. 

The weather managed to get into the 70s this past weekend in Minnesota, and I was so happy that I wanted to cry and hug every person on the sunny Minneapolis streets on Saturday. Let's just hope it sticks. Edit: The high today is 44... sigh.

I hope the few of you that read this blog are well! Let's hope that May is the start to a great summer. 

WEEKENDING

Well, it's cold. And as it becomes cold I become pretty useless. There's snow falling from the sky every few days and all I want to do is eat pancakes and drink coffee. And this weekend I did. But I also did some work (I know. Progress people, progress.) Here's to a productive week, lots of coffee, and the election finally being over (if I see one more ad...). 

WEEKENDING

This weekend was a pretty mellow one, but this pumpkin danish pretty much made up for any dullness. There's just something about a great cup of coffee (or large iced latté) and an indulgent treat (especially when pumpkin is involved) that really makes a weekend for me. Here's to a great week and to a quickly approaching trip back to Austin for Austin City Limits. I'm just a little excited. 

WEEKENDING

                 

Lucky Peach / Coffee / Coffee Shopping / Bourbon Renewal

I'm pretty predictable with my weekend routine; coffee, reading, coffee, reading, good food and (hopefully) a good cocktail. I tried out this recipe for the Bourbon Renewal, which I found via this lovely ladies' blog. Much to my delight, it was really, really delicious. It will definitely become a staple in my cocktail repertoire.  Other weekend activities included seeing The Master (woah, intense) and making carnitas, which takes forever but is tasty enough to make up for it. 

WEEKENDING

apple fritter / breakfast burrito / bloody mary / delicious sandwich / soaking cashews

Another weekend passed drinking coffee, eating a sweet treat or two and, of course, eating delicious food. A little bit of cooking was managed as well and the result of this beautiful corn chowder recipe was excellent. 

WEEKENDING

coffee shop reading / biscuits & gravy / bloody mary / pancakes / mia / house ogling

Another weekend spent in Minneapolis getting away from the lack of coffee shops & bookstores in St Cloud. There was an attempt to go see the Rembrandt exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, but apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea and it was sold out. Alas, we shall try next weekend. That plate of brown up there? Well, it may not look appetizing, but it was quite delicious. I'm a southern (food) gal at heart and I can't say no to biscuits and gravy. Also consumed? A bite or two of my dude's apple pancakes and a bloody mary. Can I stop for a second to talk about some of the seriously beautiful homes in Uptown Minneapolis? There are a few Victorians that are truly epic (if you're the kind of person who thinks that old homes are rad, like me). 

Here's to a great week!

quick note: seriously digging these tracks by Chrome and the Ice Queen that I found via Kate Miss. They have a Kate Bush vibe, which is always much appreciated in my book.

WEEKENDING

spyhouse / magers & quinn / blackbird / pork bun / peanut noodles

I have to say that I definitely enjoyed my long weekend, which is probably evident by the fact that I didn't get back on here to post about it until today. Having just moved to Minnesota, we don't know much about our closest metropolis, Minneapolis, so we decided to get out and explore. On Saturday we found, I kid you not, our dream coffee shop. I always thought that Austin would hold my favorite cafe to laze at (I love you Houndstooth), but Spyhouse officially wins the award for best ambience. I could literally rhapsodize for days about how perfectly homey this place is, but I'll refrain. On top of being beautiful the coffee and confections were topnotch. Needless to say, I'll be back (I'd be there everyday if it weren't for the whole being 65 miles away thing). The rest of the day involved a badass bookstore, a great record store and a crazy good meal at Blackbird.

On next weekends agenda? A Rembrandt exhibit and copious amounts of espresso.