Food Show? Why Yes.

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the Louisiana Food Expo in New Orleans.

I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Let's just say 'samples'.

Hello giant cow.

Bessy was our landmark.

Choot 'em?

A german chocolate brownie?

Yes.

We made a friend.  He gave us ice cream.

Hello, Handsome.

I've heard that there is a national food expo.

It is going on my bucket list.

Birthday Tiramisu

For my birthday last weekend, Mr. Z polished up his talent for cooking great Mexican food.

He made barbacoa, salsa, cilantro-lime rice, and guacamole all to mix with the tortillas, homemade chips, black beans, cheese, and sour cream. We had sort of a Chipotle nacho bar.

That is exactly what I wanted.

I'm already suffering from withdrawal symptoms from some of the awesome food I grew accustomed to over the past 3 and 1/2 years. 

Great Mexican food is definately at the top of the list. 

But for desert, I wanted a tiramisu.

Mr. Z, being the wonderful man that he is, took it as a challenge and made an awesome one.

It warrented photos.

Several photos, in fact.

But apparently just holding it will rot your teeth out.

Even while taking 2 photos...no one noticed.

The second half of the journey to 50 is looking like it's going to be just grand...

Making Texas Memories: Cake Balls

I promised V I would teach her how to make cake balls before we moved.

Her son, L, wanted to learn too.

He's a little multi-tasker.

These are good days.

Houston Greek Festival

My all-time favorite movie is My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I think my family was meant to be Greek.

We are big, loud, and love to eat.

Mr. Z and I went to the Houston Greek Festival yesterday.

We had to park at a 'near-by' school and catch a bus to the festival.

The parking was crazy! I guess everyone else loves Greek too.

After waiting about 20 minutes, we got on the huge piece of machinery that is our transportation to the festival.

I have to tell ya, city bus drivers are talented people.

But we arrived in one piece.

Oh my good gracious. The people. Everywhere.

We went into the gift shop which was actually more like an indoor flea-market.

Aren't these lanterns great?

I would have taken more pictures inside, but I could barely move my arms.

Then, we got to the whole reason we really wanted to go.

The food.

There were several food and drink stands all in a big open parking lot that was CRAMMED with people.

To increase efficiency, each booth is dedicated to one thing. You don't get your gyro, salad, and drink at one booth, you have to go to all three.

Once we got everything on our menu, we found a nice piece of grass in the shade and chowed down.

It was so beautiful outside and felt great!

After we got our fill, we decided to trudge our way back through the market of people and buy an olive tree.

They said they will do fine in this climate and will actually make olives in a few years.

They looked more like olive branches, but appearantly they were planted in cement.

It was insane how heavy the thing was!

So we made our treck back to where we had gotten off the bus.

To our joy, there was a bus already there waiting, so we hurriedly jumped on.

Mr. Z had to carry the tree onto the bus and we felt ... so out of place.

There had been many people at the festival carrying trees around, but none of those people were on the bus.

We both got so tickled at the whole situation we couldn't stop laughing.

We were carrying an olive tree and left over salad on a bus that we never verified was the bus we were supposed to be on.  A bus that was driven by a very sassy black lady who made an SUV back-up to get out of her way because they were over the line. And the music on the bus was black-gospel-have-church-kind-of music.

We left a little more experienced. A little more cultured. And very full.

Opa!

The ladies

One of the many things I have missed since we moved from that precious corner of God's earth has been card night. Ever since I was little, Momma had card night. A group of rather delightful ladies would get together, laugh, bring finger foods, laugh, drink sweet tea, laugh, play cards, laugh, eat dessert, and laugh. 

(Note: party foods are a weakness of mine. At this very moment my mouth is salivating thinking about catalina salad, corn salad, those little sausages, pin wheels, cheese cake...oh my.)

I love these women. I crave their food. I enjoy their company. And the only things these women love more than each other are their families and Jesus.
 When I was in high school and not supposed to want to stay home and play cards or dominoes with my momma's friends, I would still come home a little early. Most of the time they played way past my curfew anyway. I remember one Friday or Saturday night while Michael and I were still dating, we were a few minutes late getting to Momma's house. Of course she wouldn't have been mad, but he liked to pick at me for having a curfew. Well, we pulled up to a dead house. No light. Nothing. Momma was still out partying.

These ladies cut up. They get wild. They get crazy.

Is it gonna be Phase 10 or Mexican Train Game?

5 rounds or 10?

1 cheese cake or 2?

That's right, like I said, it's wild.

I wrote this to say: Ladies, we are scheduling a card game for May 2011. Put it on your calendars

My Birthday 2010

So the anniversary of the day of my birth was yesterday. It was quite a wonderful day! It started off with an amazing breakfast Mr. Zeagler made for me.

Chocolate dipped strawberries and grapes, kiwi, and french toast. Also, forgotten bacon that was eaten later.

I had a CPR class that morning. Kind of a downer on your birthday, but it wasn't too bad. Then Momma and Daddy took me and Mr. Zeagler to eat Greek food. Gyros, fries, and greek salad! YUM!

The sun was a little blinding...

Me with my favorite woman.

Momma and Daddy with their favorite son-in-law.

We decided not to get baklava but save room for Mr. Z's soon to be famous cheesecake.

Momma and Daddy headed home with full stomachs and Mr. Z, Beaux, and I lazed around the house and watched a few movies the rest of the day.

Lots of Love,