So Zack decided to go ahead and fall in love with a vegetarian. He’s been very flexible and understanding of my dietary restrictions, and generally will just eat meatless dishes with me, or cook a filet of some kind on the side*. However, this normally means one of three entrees: pasta, veggie burgers, or pizza. I’m not exactly a picky eater, but I’m a very particular** one, and I have to be in the mood to eat what I’m eating. To change things up (slightly) this weekend, we decided to cook our two dinners at the apartment and see what we could do. We still involved pasta, but in a re-imagined way so I’m counting it.

*This is pretty rare. Only a handful of times do I make a little chicken or fish to go with what we’re making for dinner.

**She’s especially picky/particular for a vegetarian. She doesn’t like avocado, mushrooms or spinach, aka the building blocks of a vegetarian’s alternative meals. 

On Friday night, we went with a pasta-and-salad combo to up our veggie intake and offset the literal entire container of feta cheese involved in the pasta*. This was my favorite of the two dinner recipes, by a slight margin, because the pasta was SO delicious. Plus, it went together in a flash. The salad actually took longer to make because I had to hand-peel zucchini slices for the base of it. We indulged in purchasing some pine nuts** for the pasta, which was a great choice. We forgot, however, to snag parmesan for the pasta because the site with the recipe was laid out really oddly. Here’s what we did:

*I’d advise using half as much feta as suggested, but it was pretty darn delicious with all of it.

**Things I learned when buying ingredients: pine nuts are $36 a pound. And actually worth it.

Zucchini Ribbon Salad

1 cup diced fresh tomato (from 1 average sized tomato)
10 large basil leaves, thinly sliced (plus extra small leaves, to garnish)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1 lb zucchini, peeled into ribbons (see note above)

Sea salt
Fresh black pepper

In a large mixing bowl, toss together the tomato, basil, vinegar, olive oil and garlic. Add a big pinch of salt and some fresh black pepper. Let that sit as you prep the zucchini.

When zucchini is ready, add to the bowl and using your hands, toss to coat. Taste for salt. Garnish with basil leaves and serve!

Really liked the salad, loved the pasta. I’d make both again. I think Caitlin would only make the pasta again.

Angel Hair Delight (I named this just now, it’s terrible, I’m sorry*.)

*I think it’s de, wait for it, lightful! Delightful!

Ingredients:
8 oz. angel hair pasta
⅓ cup olive oil
½ cup chiffonade basil
3 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 ½ pounds tomatoes – diced
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
1 cup coarsely crumbled feta
⅓ cup pine nuts – toasted

Instructions:
Bring water to boil – add salt
Toast pine nuts – set aside
Coarsely crumble feta – set aside
Dice and deseed tomato – set aside
Mince garlic – set aside
Chiffonade parsley and basil – set aside
When pot of water it is boiling -
Add oil to a skillet, when it shimmers, add garlic – just until fragrant about 20 seconds – careful not to burn.
Drop angel hair in the pot of salted boiling water for 1 minute to soften.
Add diced tomatoes to skillet – just to warm through – about 45 seconds
Off heat – Add in parsley, basil, crumbled feta, salt, and pepper – stir gently.
Add a little pasta water if needed to loosen dish.
Remove angel hair from boiling water; drop into skillet toss gently.
Taste for salt – (remember feta can be salty)
Place on a warmed plate – when plating use tongs; twist pasta into a mound – this will help hold the heat.
Top with toasted pine nuts.

We were so starving after seeing The Great Gatsby on Saturday* that we didn’t end up taking photos of our dinner before we nommed them down, but the photo above comes kinda close to what we did? Minus the chopsticks. We’re heathens and ate with forks. Anyway, this recipe comes from Zack’s co-worker** who is also vegetarian, and I decided to copy word-for-word to capture his eloquence in its entirety.

*Surprisingly good. Not great, but worth seeing in 3D.

**Thanks Eric!

Easy as fuck bowls of awesome
Soba noodles (they take 3 minutes to cook)
Chopped veggies (broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, whatever the fuck you want)
Some sliced mushrooms
Garlic
onion
Sauté the onion and garlic in some butter or margarine (mined or chopped garlic, sliced or chopped onions)
Add the mushrooms and cook them in the garlic onion buttery goodness
add the other veggies and sauté them long enough to bring out the color. You can even pop a lid on your pan and let the steam do the work
Put cooked noodles in a bowl
Put the other shit on top
Put sriaracha on top of that*.
Eat it the fuck up

*I went cray on the rooster sauce.

Et voila! For our chopped veggies, we chose shredded and seasoned carrots, broccoli, squash, and snap peas. I dressed my bowl with soy sauce instead of sriaracha, and I opted out of mushrooms because I hate mushrooms. These were SO GOOD and definitely the healthier of the two meals. All I can really say is, how lucky am I to have someone who adventures to veggie town* with me, and enjoys it!

*I love going to veggie town and can’t wait to make all three of these again, and try a few new recipes as well. I’d say the zucchini salad was a 7/10, the Angel Hair Delight was a 9/10 and the Easy as Fuck Bowls of Awesome was an 8.5/10.

There wasn’t an explicit discussion, but after such a jam-packed first day of hanging out around Austin, it felt universally agreed upon that we’d all sleep in as late as we wanted and get up leisurely. We woke up sore from our Go-Karting, making us all feel a little bit older than we’d hoped* (and, the boys had horrific bruises on their backs from being bumper-car’d into the whole time), so we decided to fight this feeling with a healthier lunch. We headed to Whole Foods to grab some sushi and treats, and then wandered around that area, hitting up Waterloo and Book People, where I invested in a tin Beatles lunchbox that I now use for my work lunches.

*It’s sad how much easy it is to get bruised and sore muscles in your late 20s.

We contemplated swimming, but even though it was warm, it wasn’t quite warm enough to justify the 68 degree waters of Barton Springs. So we headed off to bowl a few games, and I managed to broke 100 in both! We had a good time trying to improve each throw, and Brittany was able to break her no-strike streak with two at the end of the second game. Sam, on the other hand, was plagued with a series of only being able to get 9 pins, and he ended his second game on an appropriate score of 99. I rolled a 179 and 143 and could never string two strikes together, but my spare game was tight.

What I imagine Zilker looks like to Scooby. I can’t imagine he sees the skyline. I think it’s all dogs and trees to him.

We grabbed Scooby at that point and decided to take a stroll through Zilker Park. It was a nice jaunt*, and I even got a free tiny cupcake (they follow me wherever I go, I swear) before promptly stepping in some dog poop that was so squishy it shot up and got on my leg. This was the deciding factor for me that I was going to take a shower before we headed into our night.

*Me and Sam snuck in some football toss, my favorite thing.

When we all got showered and beautified, we headed to the Driskill for some tasty and semi-fancy dinner. Everyone enjoyed their meals, although the highlight again seemed to be the ice cream sandwiches we nommed down for dessert. Then it was off to a magical world of lights, bubbles and colorful animations while we rocked out to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr*. It was a peppy, dancey way to round off our weekend with the Nelsons, and we had an absolute blast.

*These guys are just getting better and better. I could say the same about our visits with the Nelsons. Next year in Indy/Bloomington!

Zack and I both forgot that a holiday was upon us this past weekend*, but because our beloved Chicago Bulls were playing the Dallas Mavericks and my mom lives just outside of the big city, we felt it’d be a great excuse for a long weekend of family and relaxation. My mom’s family got bigger since we last visited her — instead of just her and my stepdad Scott, they now have two “little ones” in the form of Browndogg and Cinnamon, their sister Airedale terriers.

*Texas Relays weekend! Oh, right. Easter. We bought these basketball tickets in like November, so we didn’t really consider anything except ‘Is this during SXSW?’ 

Zack and I enjoyed our three-plus hour drive up to the big D on Friday morning, stopping (finally!) at the famous Czech Stop for “breakfast” kolaches (Czech stop vine).

Zack ended up going to town, snagging a box of 6 amazing cheesy garlic biscuits to share with me, a pulled pork kolache, and a dessert-type strawberry cream cheese kolache (I saved that one for Saturday night.) I just went straight for a plain cream cheese and a lemon cream cheese, warmed to melty, mouth-watering perfection. I can see why this stop is so popular, and even though the line was long, it moved comparatively quickly and gave us a chance to let Scoobs stretch his legs.*

*This was easily the longest drive we’d ever taken Scooby on and he handled it like a champ, alternating between sticking his wet nose out of each backseat window and hopping up front to hang with us.

When we got up to my mom’s neighborhood, we detoured to a nearby park so that Cinnamon and Browndogg could meet Scooby and then “bring him home” (aka walk home with him and Zack while I drove my car). Everyone got along fairly well from the start, although Browndogg was pretty much nervous around everyone. Cinnamon was immediately excited about having a new friend, but things got a bit out of hand when Scooby actually took her up on her request to play and started chasing her. She snapped at him, feeling afraid for herself, so my mom squirted her with a bit of water* as a corrective measure and all was well again.

*We’re totally getting a spray bottle for Scooby. He really reacted to it and it’s way easier than tugging on his collar when he’s misbehaving.

I have to say, throughout the weekend I was incredibly impressed with how polite Scooby was. He really acted like a different dog, letting the girls feistily fight among themselves while he took the high road. When they got snippy, he just tilted his head up so he wouldn’t make eye contact. He was extra cuddly all weekend, too, which was an added bonus for us. My favorite was Scooby slowly learning how to use the doggy door. Just as I predicted, he didn’t learn how to go through on his own until right before we left. He was a great house-guest.

Vine of Scooby chasing the puppies around the backyard with Zack narrating.

The first night we spitballed grand schemes of a zoo or bowling trip*, but ultimately took it easy, having a late lunch, doing some laundry, watching some TV and playing Sequence, Zack and my new favorite card-meets-board game. I cleaned up that night, winning 2/3 games (Zack won the other one). We watched some Daily Show, and then played some Wii Monopoly**, which Zack thoroughly destroyed all of us on.

*We kept driving by this place called “Shenaniganz” that has glow in the dark bowling, go kartz, a lazer maze, lazer tag and black light mini golf! Next time we have to go. Anything with that many z’s is guaranteed fun. 

**I was being kind of a jackass during the game, telling everyone they were playing poorly by only building one house on their properties and berating anyone who wouldn’t trade with me. Sorry about that. Monopoly brings out the worst in my family. I’m a third generation bad sport at Monopoly.

The next day was the Bulls game, which you can read about here. My mom says that when Zack and I left for the game, Scooby camped out by the front door, sadly waiting for us and fearing we may have left him forever. She says she took him back to our guest room to show him that all of our stuff was still there and we were just gone for an errand, and that cheered him up and she says he was ready to play with the girls after that. He still gave us the warmest reception we’d ever had* when we got back, jumping all over us and was clearly relieved that we were home.

*Said in Buddy Valastro from “Cake Boss” voice.

We headed out to dinner at that point with my mom, Scott, and Scott’s mother Rita*, and made a quick stop at Rita’s new lot just up the road from where my mom lives. She’s building a house there that will be ready in October, so we got to see the location and the model home that is an approximation of what hers is going to be like. I will admit, I was looking around for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies like they used to have at the model house when my family was building our place in San Antonio. No dice**. However, I’m excited for my grandma to get new digs. She’s been through a lot of tough change over the past year. She lost her husband, my grandpa Bill, just about a year ago, as well as three beloved dogs. Now, she’s going to be closer to my mom and Scott, as well as some small-town action, but she’ll still have woods in the back of her house to remind her of her country living.

*Speaking of ‘Ritas, see above.

**We did get latte flavored hard candy though.

We chowed down at Johnny Carino’s and I saved plenty of room* for an amazing turtle cheesecake** to make up for my lack of cookies earlier. Then it was back home and time for some Sequence with my mom and Zack. We each won a round, and then played a tie-breaker that my mom dominated. It was only right that the hostess with the mostest take home the ultimate crown for the weekend.

*She super did. She only ordered the bottomless salad and soup, had light salad dressing on one serving of salad and didn’t touch the soup since it had bacon bits on top.

**Unpopular opinion alert: I think this turtle cheesecake was even more amazing, bite for bite, than the ice cream cake I got Caitlin for her birthday last weekend. It was so rich and delectable, it should be illegal. P.S. how gorgeous does Caitlin look in this dress?! You are the sweetest. But when it comes to dessert, nothing is ever better than DQ ice cream cake.

On Sunday morning, the Easter bunny dropped off chocolate bunnies for Zack and me*, which, even at the age of 26, I thoroughly enjoyed. I had already gorged myself on Easter candy Thursday night while we sat through a heartbreaking IU basketball game at our friends Riley and Bennett’s house. But, as they say, you can never have too much Easter candy.

*I don’t know how the Easter Bunny made it. The weather was insane Sunday morning. I was half awake when I took this vine of the hail after hours of lightning.

My mom, Zack, Scott and I all shared goofy inside-jokey laughs throughout the weekend. We giggled as the pups did silly things, and as we did sillier things. I took a nice evening stroll with my mom and the dogs, and we talked about the future and my career and how I’m slowly learning to live with the risk of mistakes. Zack and I belly-laughed at our dance moves and bent-neck giraffes, and I left feeling recharged and ready to tackle this week.

Then, after Caitlin’s mom and Scott loaded us up with goodies (They couldn’t have been more generous all weekend!) we drove home with the skies clear, the iPod on shuffle and Scooby asleep in the backseat. Such a fun weekend. Thanks for having us, Cathy and Scott (and Browndogg and Cinnamon!)

Caitlin and I have plans this Friday night to watch the Talking Heads movie “Stop Making Sense” with our friends Mark and Amelia*. Mark has the Blu-Ray and will be making dinner, so we offered to bring dessert and wine. Caitlin’s the baker between us, so she went Pinteresting for recipe ideas. She came to me with two potential ideas. My response: “#2 by a million miles. #1 looks like poop i make after I eat paint.**” #1 is above. Good lord, why would anyone eat that? Caitlin said she was “def making them some day.***” I told her “for my funeral.” She agreed. So, if you’re forced to eat these terribly ugly cookies with plain boring M&Ms inside, don’t blame me. I’ll be dead.

*This will be my first-ever viewing and I am SO excited.

**When I was reading back over that at work today whilst looking up my link to the second recipe, I literally laughed out loud at my desk. Yes, we are adults. Sort of.

***How can you not love these?! They’re PINATA COOKIES! They actually have stuff inside!!

See these lemon bars? They look amazing. We’re making these. *

*We’ll let you know how it goes. So far, I’ve been 3/3 for Pinterest recipes. My favorite of the three were these pumpkin cupcakes (some of the most moist ‘cakes I’ve ever, ever had), with the Rolo cheesecake bars coming in second, and these neopolitan cupcake-brownie concoctions a close third.

I tend to not have terribly fancy tastes, but there are a few things in this world that make my ladyheart swoon. I love a beautiful fancy dress, a cute pair of shoes, big romantic gestures and the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas. There is something about its grand halls and tall ceilings that get me every time. So when Zack was asking me where I might want to share a make-up Valentine’s Day dinner with him, it didn’t take me long to suggest the Driskill’s 1886 Cafe & Bakery. I had been there twice before, and I was enchanted by fancy bread baskets and not-too-overwhelming prices; it was a very nice, but still affordable way to dine in the Driskill and make-your-own meal. Zack made us reservations for Friday night*, well before our Los Campesinos! concert, and I took the opportunity to wear a fancy dress and heels, and enjoy my man’s company and some delectable treats.

Unfortunately, the horse and carriage ride I’d arranged to take us to dinner was canceled due to rain, but my ’02 Honda Accord was a lovely chariot as well. 

We started out with a spinach dip and bread, which I thought was fairly tasty*, although I don’t love cooked spinach — I tend to like it fresh. However, it was sprinkled with enough cheese to see me taking a few bites. The bread was hard to act as a good scooping tool, but I preferred our bread basket with a variety of carby goodness, including pretzel-like sticks, soft and fresh white bread, and some flat, crispy stuff with seeds baked in.

*Generally, I prefer a gooier spinach dip, but this one was solid. I ate way too much bread. 

We ate our entrees so fast that we didn’t even take photographic evidence of its existence, but Zack had a chicken salad*, and I had a pizza-like dish made of pita bread, piled high with veggies and cheese. We tried to keep it on the lighter side, because we knew we’d want to indulge in desserts.

*I  had the cobb salad, which had some delicious chicken strips in it. I asked for no egg, though. I don’t get hard boiled egg in a salad. Gross.

Indulge we did. Although everything presented to us looked delicious, we opted for a chocolate cake with a scoop of ice cream on top, and a serving of ricotta cheesecake with caramel sauce and whipped cream garnish. The chocolate cake was melt-in-your-mouth good, with the cake part itself being light and springy, and the rich chocolate sauce acting as the perfect bath for it to swim in. There were also raspberries paired with it, fresh and juicy. The ricotta cheesecake was equally decadent, a creamy texture that wasn’t too heavy, and I had fun dipping my finger in the caramel sauce.

To counter my childlike finger-dipping, I also ordered an adult drink — “adult” hot chocolate, with vanilla-flavored vodka, Kahlua and other liquors mixed together in a devilish hot chocolate brew. This tasty treat kept me warm in the cold and rainy weather. I was definitely considering a fancy dessert drink as well, but thought regular coffee would help me digest the big meal. Caitlin was kind enough to let me have a sip.

Of course, I had to share with Zack, and he had to get himself a bit of a whipped cream mustache — it was only right.

Overall, we had a great night at the Driskill — the food was delicious, the atmosphere was unbeatable, and I couldn’t have asked for better company. I can’t wait to go back here. We still need to try the full grill part of the restaurant.

Better start looking for some travel and leisure promos!

Caitlin and I got our dear friends Lisa and Eric a pie machine for their wedding gift. They had made a couple pies for parties we’d attended in the past, but we’d never had a full pie meal. They invited us over Friday night and we got our pie on. Look at these beauties cooling. Unfortunately, no windowsill. 

Lisa is about to top the Strawberry pie. Lisa told us she used a Pillsbury pre-made dough, and she put some lemon zest in the strawberry pies to keep them fresh and zingy. 

Once the pies were covered, Lisa popped them into the pie machine. I snapped this pic right before it closed. I like that the pie machine is right next to the toaster. If I ran the world, those two appliances would be staples of every home.

Dinner’s on! The four to the left are spinach and feta pies. I had one of those. Yum town. The other two pictured are egg pies. I’ll let Caitlin describe those since she had it. There was also an awesome onion one. The egg and cheese pie was PERFECT. I don’t know what kind of cheese Lisa used, but it was creamy goodness in just the right serving size. For dessert, Zack opted for a banana and caramel pie, and I went strawberry. I usually hate bananas in desserts, but I actually loved that pie even more than my strawberry one — it was perfectly sweet and yummy. I only had a bite of the strawberry one and was really glad I had the banana and caramel. It was a bit too zesty for me.

After the pie was consumed, we got into a lively game of “Dicecapades.” Earlier in the day, Caitlin and I had a picnic at Zilker park where we played Yahtzee! with 5 (count ‘em, 5!) dice*. Dicecapades has 133! I’m not sure more dice equals more fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it’s incredibly arbitrary for one, and it’s essentially a ton of mini games, and many of the mini games aren’t great. The first one we had to do was perform five impressions in 30 seconds. I got people to guess Johnny Carson, Ace Ventura, Austin Powers, one other one I can’t remember now and then I said “Aah! Monsters…” And no one had any idea what I was doing**. Neither did I. Apparently I was trying to be Lady Gaga? What is wrong with me? Welp, next turn we lost a tag team arm wrestling match to Derrick and his son (Caitlin let him win…supposedly***) and then we fell way behind. The game was cool. I wish we got more trivia questions and less random dice rolling, but I’d play it again****.

*Actually, this was done the day after pie night. I remember because Zack abandoned me for football after I whooped him at Yahtzee. No regrets. The second half of that Saints-49ers game was epic.

**Before Zack even started, someone yelled, “Jack White!” He should have just said, “Exactly!” and we would have won that round. He was not quite on his game. Then again, I didn’t even do any impressions, so I certainly can’t talk. 

***Psh. Supposedly. The kid was like 7. I think Zack and I should arm wrestle and we can put that “supposedly” to rest.

****I actually loved the game, I thought it was a blast!

There are often grocery coupons for Pillsbury and other pie-making ingredients.

As I was raised Catholic, I had never celebrated Chanukah before in my life. I was aware of the Dreidel song, and knew about potato pancakes because they make ‘em in Germany and call ‘em Kartoffelpuffen — which, incidentally, was my favorite German word for a long time and thus became my nickname in middle school. Anyhow, the only Jewish tradition I’d ever been able to participate in before was a friend’s Bat* Mitzvah, and I didn’t even go to the awesome party** part at the end. So I was very excited when Zack said he wanted to throw a Chanukah party to celebrate the beginning of the 8 days. He made delicious latkes, I made our long-awaited Dublin Dr. Pepper cake, we invited our dearests over and asked people to bring red wine and $10 for quarters. It was time for a party.

*Caitlin pronounces it Bat (Like the guy who fights the Joker or the nocturnal upside-down black flying dudes who hang out under the Congress bridge. If you’re wondering, it’s pronounced Bahh-t)

**A perfect metaphor for young Caitlin. She went to the boring, school-ish part and not the party. She’s now sticking her tongue out at me while reading this. I assume.

Zack worked tirelessly* on these latkes to make them absolutely perfect, and kept them warm in the oven so they’d be ready for nomming as soon as we took them off of the pan. I decided to eat mine with applesauce**, and it was super moist and delish (although I did continue to taste onion*** and egg the rest of the night in my mouth).

*It took about an hour altogether. You mix a couple eggs with two cups of water and the mix. Yeah, I used a mix. We didn’t have a potato grater and I didn’t feel like buying or using one. 

**I went with applesauce as well. My dad calls it “the under-rated side dish” and I agree. I even bought a giant jar of cinnamon flavored, even though that wouldn’t go well on latkes. I’m also still getting over my fear of white gooey foods, so sour cream was a no-go. 

***Same deal with me. I apologize for that. I snuck one more latke after I brushed my teeth and I’m sure it rivaled the time when I had a third of a tray of stuffing while drunk the week after Thanksgiving. Again, sorry.

I was really pleased with how the Dublin Dr. Pepper cake came out*. The cake was moist and springy, and although some of the corner pieces stuck to the pan, the chunks in the middle came out beautifully. The frosting was my favorite, though — sweet, rich and decadent. Mmm!

*It was every bit as glorious as we imagined. In addition to sticking to the corners, the bottom of the cake stuck as well, but that means you get to scrape the bottom of the pan, which is a fun game.

I sported one of the awesome Star of David* stickers that our friend Lisa brought to get myself in the spirit. I also got nervous** about the candles, and went so far as to ask if we should blow them out before they burned all the way down to prevent a fire. I’m new at this.

*How adorable is my little Shiksa? I didn’t know she knew what the Jew stars were officially called.

**I think we all know your nervousness had little to do with your newness to Jewness and more to do with your “never leave the oven on if you’re not in the room,” fear of fires.

My handsome* man, posing with his latke mix and wearing the awesome White Stripes shirt I bought him.

*Ugh, could I look worse? Here, shoot me from underneath and I’ll scrunch my chin(s) into my neck.

Tiffany and Antonio are the reason we have photos of the night at all. Thank you, awesome friends!

If you haven’t read their account of this, you really should. http://ohspooning.com/

The first thing you’ll notice in this photo is what we like to call Robface. However, apart from the other Caitlin’s adorable nose peeking into the photo, I’d like to point out that my younger brother Edward looks like he might as well be the younger brother* of Eric P., sitting to his left on the couch. Beards? Check. Plaid shirts? Check. Sweaters over plaid? Check. Facetious sense of humor? Oh-so-check.

*I wouldn’t go so far as to say doppleganger, but long lost brothers!

The Pulsifers! I love this photo* of them next to our Christmas tree (we send mixed religious messages at our parties, thank-you-very-much).

*It’s almost as adorable as their Christmas card. The card captures their wedding joy so well and they personalized the card so thoughtfully. And, Eric let me borrow his jumper cables last night. It’s great to have married friends to be your rock in Austin. 

In my cell phone, I have our friend Monte’s name written as “Monte Money*.” This expression combined with this circumstance have never warranted that title more.

*Even more Money was his Chanukah gift to me. An Elmore James blues record. For whatever reason, it says Elmo James. I’m half hoping when I play it, it sounds like that Muppet. Caitlin isn’t. She hates Elmo.

Our pals Melissa and Nick, mid-dreidel spin. That’s a nice lookin’ spin*, y’all!

*On the other hand, Melissa was the only one who never figured out how to get a good spin going. Some of us could even do it upside down, but we weren’t able to pull it off in-game. Dreidel is a lot of pressure, you guys.

Our big dreidel winner! Antonio walked away with $40-plus dollars in quarters. I started out great, as my first spin allowed me to take everything in the pot. However, turns 2, 3 and 4 swiftly undid all of that, and I wound up losing all of my money. I was a bit of a spoiled sport about it, but I have to say, the game of dreidel itself is definitely fun. Next time, I’d want to lower the stakes a bit*.

*I can’t believe we’ve gone this long without talking how dreidel went down. Or my killer soundtrack! We split the dreidel into two games, the “kids table” for those playing with $5 in quarters and $10 for the big boys and girls. Eric and Lisa, Nick and Melissa and Edward sat up at the kids table. I taught each table the rules and advised the kids table to put in two quarters every time someone got a hay and four quarters in every time someone got a gimmel. They soon realized these stakes were too high and went down to 1-2. The big kid table should have played at 2-4, but we were at 3-6. There was a run on Gimmels (the best thing you can get.) Rob, Monte, The Other Caitlin, Tiffany and Antonio all got Gimmels. In lamens terms, you lost 30 of your 40 quarters if you weren’t one of the gimmel getters. (We debated on whether Gimmel Run or Nun Run would be a better band name.) Caitlin and I were the two who did not get Gimmels. We lost our $10 almost immediately. I bought back in and Monte Money spotted her a few quarters, but her luck soon run out. I ended the game losing a total of $10, with The Other Caitlin up $24 and Antonio raking in $32 in profit. 

Between Zack’s impressive Chanukah mix*, wonderful friends and a night of relaxing with games and food and drink, I think I’m sold on Chanukah. L’chaim!

*I made a 50+ song playlist on Spotify to fill 2+ hours of partying, but narrowed it down to a 17-song best-of playlist for you (Click Here) Light those candles. L’Chaim!

Besides the 30 bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper, which we’ve been carefully rationing out*, the big get from the Dublin Dr. Pepper tour was a cake and frosting mix. We’d been plotting on when to bake it. Caitlin wanted to do it as soon as possible. I wanted to save it for a time when we could share it with our friends**. It’s just dangerous to have a cake around. (I’m having flashbacks of leftover Halloween cake.) Anyway, we decided that it would be perfect for the Chanukah party, so Caitlin took over as our resident baker. I’ll tell this story in picture comments, since that was pretty much my only contribution, besides telling Caitlin she was waiting too long to make the frosting, while playing iPad games on the couch. I’m awesome***. Here Caitlin is, scooping the cake mix into the pan.

*I think there is an unspoken competition between Zack and I as to who will make their stash last the longest. It’s totally spoken. We keep tally marks on the box and you bragged about having one more than me already this week.

**I am not a sharer. Especially when it comes to delicious baked goods. I take the Twix approach.

***He was moral support at the end, and he usually cooks for us, so it was my turn.

When you have a stick of butter* and Dublin Dr. Pepper from a bottle, how could the result be anything but amaze balls? Caitlin melted these together to add to the frosting mix. Personally, I would have done it on the stove, but she zapped them in the microwave. I don’t know much about baking or cooking, but I think the microwave only messes things up**.

*The recipes for the cake and frosting combined called for 3 sticks of butter. We’re all going to die tonight.

**We tasted the frosting and it was magic. So eat your words (and the cake), sir.

Hmm, is the cake ready? Lemme stick this tooth pick in…

Umm, no. No this cake is not ready yet*.

*And they call me impatient. Hmmph.

Now, the frosting. The frosting is so ready. 

We didn’t eat any of the cake, but we did have a bunch of spoon fulls of this (best) frosting (of all time) after the cake was properly frosted. Even though we only got the frosting that was stuck to the inside of the bowl, it was richer than Richie Rich.

You really need to go knuckle deep if you’ve got a finger full of frosting. It’s kind of a rule. 

Clearly, Caitlin hates it*.

*No, but I hate this photo. Forever. I wish it had been posted in time for my brother’s Christmas video including terrible photos of everyone he knows. This is primed for that. Daww. I think its’ adorable. It looks like you have pretty dimples.

The last step. Frosting the cake. It was pretty hard not to have a slice or three, but we’ve got friends to feed*.

*I still vote that we pretend the cake got destroyed in a fire and hide it away just for us. OK, OK, it’s the holidays, I’ll share. A little.

Even though my mom lives in Texas, she’s about 4 hours away in Dallas*, so we don’t get to see her as often as we’d like. Luckily, I was able to ask for some time off of work and take Zack up to the big city** to hang out with my northernly based familia. We drove up to my mom’s house, which was already adorably decorated for the holidays. Her tree shone in her front window with bright white lights and burnt orange decorations, and a toy train circling the base. Zack said immediately that we needed to film the train for his baby cousin, Ellie, whom we both adore. She’s kind of obsessed with trains.

*Caitlin’s mom doesn’t live in Dallas. She lives in Royse City. It’s like 40 minutes away.

**If you can say the phrase, “We have a Walmart coming and the locals think it will ‘put us on the map,’” you are not in a big city. Even if you’re anti-the new Walmart, you are not in a big city. I honestly didn’t want to go to Dallas, so this was more than fine by me. It was totally relaxing and fun.

We nommed on fantastic pizza from Mandela’s for dinner, and sat around chatting* until it was way past all of our bedtimes. Zack and I then started up my first viewing of Rain Man**, the 1988 film with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. We only got halfway through before we were just too tired to go on, but when we finished the story the next morning, I was glad to have finally seen the classic. It’s a sweet story that is very appropriate for a family weekend.

*I can’t believe you left out that we beat your mom and Scott in pool twice. <Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh.>

**This is one of my dad’s all-time favorite movies, up there with the first two Godfathers, Hoosiers, Cincinnati Kid and Animal House. He quotes everything from “20, definitely 20″ to “K Mart sucks” to “uh oh, fart” and every other line in the movie. I smile every time one of those lines comes up.

Zack and I lazed about on Friday, until it was time for me to go in to my mom’s high school. She teaches English, reading and ESL to kids of all ages, but I was set to speak to her senior classes at the end of her work day. Although I used to swear up and down I’d never teach, I can’t deny my love of it any longer. I absolutely love teaching people things. It feels great to watch someone’s face light up with understanding and enlightenment when they get it. So, I was very excited to go in and talk to seniors in high school. 

During my talk, I realized how far removed from high school I am now. Questions about the difference between high school and college made me strain my brain to remember what that transition was even like. It also made me happy to see kids excited about higher education and finally finding their niche somewhere (even if I had to explain what the word “niche” meant). My mom’s drive to her work is also gorgeous. It’s along super bumpy, curvy roads passing donkeys, horses, roosters and cows (although Zack informed me I can’t win “Cow, I win!” without him being present*).

*You’d be surprised how many episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” are on during the day. I also read a bit. But mostly I just enjoyed having access to cable, since we don’t have a T.V. 

That evening, we had tacos and headed to the movies to watch The Muppets. I was worried that the second viewing wouldn’t hold up*, but I laughed just as hard at maniacal laughing, Swedish chefs and other gags, and my mom seemed to love the film just as much, although she didn’t fall for Miss Piggy as much as I did.

*I think Doug Benson scared her away. We saw his Doug Loves Movies podcast the week before and he said he wasn’t a big fan of the movie. He said it was annoying how every character needed to be given a pep talk to re-join the Muppets and wasn’t thrilled that Walter’s special talent was whistling. I think he was just annoyed because he saw it with kids running up and down the aisles, and since he saw it with his mom, he couldn’t be … in his usual movie-watching state.

When we got back home, we played Monopoly on my mom’s Wii. Zack destroyed all of us, even though we made efforts to team up and take him down*. He was unbeatable, and deserves a hearty congratulations I wasn’t able to give him at the time (since I’d eaten so much junk all day I’d made myself sick by halfway through our game).

*Caitlin’s mom traded her the blue monopoly, three railroads, electric company and water works and more for literally $1. It was the most unfair trade of all time, not involving Native Americans. Luckily for me, they don’t know the secret of how to win at Monopoly. I’d tell you, but I’d prefer to just beat you regularly until you no longer want to play with me. 

Saturday, it was time for Zack to meet Grandma Rita* and Grandpa Bill. We heard stories about Grandpa Bill’s lodge friends, Grandma Rita’s shopping excursions, and the pairs menagerie of animals and their adventures. My favorite was how their big furry dog Rusty had come to adopt a male goose, and so they had to hide the goose’s remains when the smaller dog, Inky, accidentally did him in. To Inky’s credit, the goose kept biting him through the fence, so Inky was just trying to say “Lay off, bird” and didn’t know his own strength.

*Grandma Rita is the sweetest woman of all time. I didn’t get to meet her under the best circumstances. I was still getting out of the shower when they arrived, and they were positioned in the hallway between the bathroom and guest bedroom, so I was forced to walk right by them in my towel. Grandma Rita made a sweet joke about it and treated me like she’d known me all my life. It was really refreshing. She even promised to make us a Milky Way pie, that sounds unreal. Those farm stories were wild, too. She needs her own reality show.

We had a delicious meal at Spiral Diner*, the vegan restaurant in downtown Dallas. Even though we had many meat eaters in our midst, everyone seemed to enjoy the food they got, and especially enjoyed our indulgent vegan desserts. I got the Marble Cake, which was moist beyond belief and had the best icing I’d ever tasted.

*This place ruled. I got the “Festivus” sandwich described above. It was basically vegan Thanksgiving on a sandwich, with gravy and sweet potatoes on the side. It was incredible, but oh man, that sandwich came back to haunt me. I’ll explain in the road trip post. The ambiance was really cool. It was a bunch of friendly hipsters serving us, and the music playing in the restaurant included Phoenix, a live Talking Heads song and a couple other of our favorites. I will say that the waiter was only half-in on the Seinfeld joke of the sandwich. I told him I “brought my aluminum pole” and he gave me a nervous laugh. But then when he brought the sandwich, he said “A Festivus for the rest of us,” asking as if he knew the episode. I countered, saying I was excited for the feats of strength. He was so confused. 

Mom and her husband, Scott, shared a banana split that was gone lickity-split* (I know, I know, forgive the pun).

*Sorry. Vegan ice cream is not ice cream. I enjoy a ton of vegan substitutes. The vegan “queso” was pretty awesome, I eat vegan “burgers” and “chicken patties” several times a week, but fake ice cream misses the whole point. I had one bite and that was enough. 

After saying our goodbyes, Zack and I ventured off to the promised land of Dublin, Texas. As I explained to Zack, I always get sentimental when I’m leaving my parents. I know I’m 24 and should probably not be so sappy anymore, but I can’t help it. I’ve always been very close with my family*, so I ache a bit when we part. But I always know they’ll save us a Dr. Becker and a game of pool for when we make it back. 

*They treated me so great, I missed them immediately as well. I hope we get to come back soon.

Our dear friend Alex just turned 25, and to celebrate, she hosted a fantastic pizza party at the Lighthouse. Coincidentally, our friend Lisa and my imaginary (thus far) band is going to be called Pizza Party, so watch for us when we eventually write a song. Anywho, Zack and I, after much deliberation*, decided on a dessert pizza, and picked up a delicious recipe online.

*I was really against the dessert pizza at first, for no good reason, but eventually came around on it. I really under-estimated the bold flavors of sugar cookies, you guys.

For our pizza, we bought a roll of sugar cookie dough, way too much whipped cream*, and a bunch of our favorite fruit. We flattened out the cookie dough to be very thin, nearly filling our pizza plate. We baked it for about 20 minutes**, and when it was perfectly done, we took it out and put it in the freezer to assist in the cooling process***. Once the whole plate felt cool, we cracked open some whipped cream and spread on a thick layer. Next up, Zack’s ingenious addition to the recipe was crushed up cinnamon-flavored graham crackers****, which we sprinkled around the plate. We then carefully laid out beautiful Maraschino cherries, blueberries, finely chopped pineapple, sliced strawberries and raspberries in rings around the plate. We finished everything off with a dusting of graham crumbs. It was totally yummy, with a fabulous chewy texture. Win!

*Cool Whip, or as my family used to call it, “Cool Vip.” It was funny in the way that pronouncing Target, “Tar-zjay” is funny.

**I checked on it at minutes 12, 15, 18, 20 and 21. I was being such a pest.

***I tried to take it out way too early, again. 

****My only real contribution besides chopping the fruit.

Here you can see our pizza next to Monte Money*‘s dip dish straight from the Cowboy’s Cookbook** (the football team, not the lifestyle), as well as an almost-empty plate with the remains of Rob’s fantastic marshmallowy, peanut butter and chocolatey dessert concoction. I thoroughly enjoyed this, although it was almost too decadent and I couldn’t finish my slice.

*Caitlin has our friend Monte in her phone as “Monte Money.” Even she doesn’t know why. He does manage a bank and is so money, he doesn’t even know it. 

**This is the Jason Garrett Spinach dip. It replaced the Wade Phillips turd in a punch bowl halfway through the party. 

In the bottom left corner, we have the challenger, Rob’s smore concoction. This bad boy was richer than Jerry Jones, and twice as sweet. I was a big fan and cut myself up a couple slices. In the upper right, we have Alex’s bacon pizza. It was almost gone by the time we arrived, and with good reason. It was bacon on a pizza, so clearly it was the best thing at the party. Well played, birthday girl. That was your second best move of the night. The first was putting on Stop Making Sense on DVD, which a shockingly high number of people at the party hadn’t seen.

These two absolutely delicious pizza treats were my vegetarian options, and I adored them*. On the top you see a classic cheesy pizza with the addition of what was either feta, goat cheese or some kind of chunky parmesan**. Whatever it was, it was my favorite savory slice. Right below it is a close second, though. These individual treats had fresh greens on top, melted mozzarella and either goat or feta cheese underneath that, and marinara on bottom, all contained on a tasty English muffin (I think). Yum town. 

Even though I knew we had a pizza party coming at night, I had accidentally consumed three slices of mediocre Double Down Dave’s pizza at work. I really didn’t want to. I didn’t even go up to the break room where the pizza was, but they brought a bunch of pizzas down to my break room and I’d stopped in to see the Cowboys game and three slices ended up in my mouth when I wasn’t looking. Even though I had a solid pizza base, I couldn’t stop eating all these delicious ‘zas. Thanks for having us, Alex and the Lighthouse! 

*I ate them and liked them, but thought, “this is good and all, but that one has bacon, so…”

**I’m pretty confident it was goat. (I wanted this clip to be Dwight talking about how all the meat he’d sell Robert California would be goat, but this other Dwight goat clip will have to do.)