A Potluck to Remember

We have had a pretty busy couple of months. I worked for almost two weeks straight, with twelve/fourteen hour days during November due to Formula One. Then we followed that up with Thanksgiving.

December has also been filled with jam packed weekends.
We spent two weeks doing our Christmas shopping. I also convinced my "accountant" that we needed some new home furnishings from Ikea - I mean that's Christmas worthy right?! I love Ikea. I'll talk Ikea in another post, cause this one is all about our weekend in the garden.

The second weekend in December we had a mandatory workday at the garden. There is some neighborhood construction going on and a neighbor (of the garden - not of ours) donated a fence! So we all got together to install the fence and do some heavy duty general work.

The guys got together with saws and tape measures and lots of pencils and lots of ideas. B went to the garden early so they could get a jump on the measuring and such and I took my fat ass out to eat like a greed monster.

One of my girlfriends from Houston was in town for a football game so we met up for an awesome lunch at Bacon. My girlfriend has a food blog so it was completely necessary that I skip the first part of our scheduled workday to show her a good time. You should check out her awesome blog.

If you are in Austin you must try Bacon!

It's a baconfest over there and seriously, who doesn't love bacon?!?! Bacon is a once a quarter type of meal. Their portions are huge and very sharable. I don't share, but if you are into that sort of thing then by all means have at it. Surprisingly they also have some of the best fried chicken in town! I stuffed my face full of fried chicken and bacon waffles and all the ladies cooed over Howie. It was heavenly.



Photo courtesy of the Austin Statesman

We left Bacon and went directly to the garden. Howie was a trooper and didn't spazz out until much later in the evening. He really loves being outside with the plants and trees. I laid out his mat and he hung out with our other garden baby. It is so awesome to have another baby that is so close in age to Howie. They were talking up a storm and eating leaves together. I can't wait to see how they mature as time passes.

The guys worked on the fence while I did a little weeding (emphasis on little). I did however pound some rebar into the ground and set up the pvc tubing so that we can cover all the crops with canvas for any upcoming cold weather. It was juuuuust enough work to feel useful. I have learned to skip my usual Saturday morning workouts on garden days because it is too exhausting to do both. It's hard work out there!

After all the hard work was out of the way we all washed up and had a great pot luck feast outside on the picnic table. You can click here for my sweet potato and swiss chard gratin! It was a hit!! yaaaay Wine was poured, a fire lit, and music was blaring through the garden. Howie loved the fire and he stayed up well past his bedtime. We had to leave at about 9:30 or so because he was ready for bed. We had a really great time. Thanks to everyone who participated.

The garden just before sunset.
  A smart person would have taken a picture of the new fence...

I was able to get Howie down for a mini nap.

a tapeworm named harry

Every year for Thanksgiving my family gets together at a beach house and we have every kind of competition you can think of and a few you can't. We started this tradition about ten or eleven years ago and it's been going strong ever since. I have four brothers, so once you add in their families and/or friends you get a house full of crazy in no time at all.

We look forward to Thanksgiving all year long. We start trying to pack our bags by October and can't sit still from excitement for the entire month of November. There is laughter, amazing food, a few curse words, and tons of booze for four straight days. We also have our version of the Olympics. In the past we have played a combination of Monopoly, boccie ball, football, American Idol, limbo, Dance Dance Dance (that's what I call all of the Kinect dance games), soccer, and other video games.

My niece, who is also one of my for real best friends forever, and I use the rest of the family as guinea pigs for our food experiments. This year we tried a sweet potato & swiss chard gratin, orange french toast, naan stuffing, queso fresco mac & cheese, brussels sprouts, mango cranberry sauce, ham, pork smoked in banana leaves, and we can't forget the fried turkey! 

Hi, my name is D and I have a tapeworm. His name is Harry. Harry is the only explanation I have for eating all of that food, but it was fantastic. It always is, unless it isn't. But almost always, it is.


Say hi, harry.

Here are some of the pics from our holiday. Hope everyone is well in your world.