Archive | hospitality

a visit from her Grammie

November 16, 2011 at 6:51 pm

Last week we were treated to a three-day visit from my mom. We’d been talking up San Antonio for awhile and she was eager to see some of the places we’ve come to love here. However, she was much more eager to see her little granddaughter!

We took her to see a San Antonio landmark: the Alamo. She took a few family photos for us… always a treat!

The next evening my mom watched Lena while Elliott and I went out on a date! We chose an exciting location for this date: the top of the Tower of the Americas, 750 feet off the ground. We were totally excited about our first one-on-one date since Lena was born (can that be right?!) and loved our little window booth with a view of the whole city.

The restaurant rotates on top of the tower so you can get a 360-degree view. We tucked a tiny piece of paper onto the window to see if we would make it all the way around. It took about 2 hours for the piece of paper to get around, and we missed it the first time. Four hours later we were still savoring our wine and conversation when we discovered our tiny slip of paper again. By then it was dark (this restaurant likes ambiance!) and impossible to take a picture without a huge flash. We thought this was funny at the time.

Of course no trip to San Antonio would be complete without some evening exploring along our River Walk.

My mom took us out to a local gastropub (ie. foodie restaurant) on her last night in town. The dishes were amazing! We chose about 6 or 7 little tapas-sized plates with Brussels sprouts in a sweet chili sauce, Bourbon pork belly on sweet potatoes with torched marshmallows, fried chicken in Old Bay spices, cauliflower and paneer in a curry sauce… I’m getting hungry just remembering it.

Lena went to town on the aforementioned sweet potatoes, which were pureed as though intended for her.

I finished off the meal with a delicious mug of thick cinnamon hot chocolate. Sooo good. Highly recommend this if you come through San Antonio; it’s called The Monterey.

The next morning we all got up at 3:45am to go to the airport. Ouch! My mom flew back to Virginia while our little family flew to California for the weekend. More photos to share about that trip tomorrow.

2 :: in eat this, family, hospitality, Lena, Texas

a visit from her Grammie

November 16, 2011 at 5:51 pm

We took her to see a San Antonio landmark: the Alamo. She took a few family photos for us… always a treat!

Of course no trip to San Antonio would be complete without some evening exploring along our River Walk.

Lena went to town on the aforementioned sweet potatoes, which were pureed as though intended for her.

I finished off the meal with a delicious mug of thick cinnamon hot chocolate. Sooo good. Highly recommend this if you come through San Antonio; it’s called The Monterey.

2 :: in eat this, family, hospitality, Lena, Texas

cousins come to town

October 31, 2011 at 8:54 pm

On Saturday morning I told Lena that her second cousins–my dear cuz Katie (or Kt) and her hubby Alton–were coming for a visit. She was a little surprised, since she’d just woken up and no one had mentioned it before.

But then she realized she would get lots of snuggles and attention, and got very excited.

And sure enough she did, beginning as soon as they arrived and lasting till the very final squeeze.

We introduced them to many things we love in San Antonio: breakfasts at MadHatters, walks through King William, ice cream cones on the River Walk, an outing for sushi (where Lena tried tofu for the first time and loved it), splashing in the river, and two intense games of Settlers of Catan.

Thanks for coming, Kt and Alton! We love you guys!

3 :: in family, hospitality, weekend

cousins come to town

October 31, 2011 at 7:54 pm

But then she realized she would get lots of snuggles and attention, and got very excited.

And sure enough she did, beginning as soon as they arrived and lasting till the very final squeeze.

Thanks for coming, Kt and Alton! We love you guys!

3 :: in family, hospitality, weekend

dinner with 5 veterinarians

October 28, 2011 at 4:59 pm

Elliott is currently over halfway through Captain’s Career Course, a requirement for all U.S. Army soldiers who would like to advance from the rank of Captain to Major one day. In this course of about 200 Captains, there are only 6 veterinarians. The veterinary world is small and so most of these vets already know each other, or went to school together, and have already built memories together over the years in the Army.

So it’s a pretty easy thing to have them over to dinner. They entertain themselves with stories of life pre-vet school and pre-Army, or regale each other with fantastical tales of how they saved the life of Chestie, the U.S. Marine Corps Band’s mascot, a chunky little bulldog who swallowed half a softball.

After the vets arrived, we wanted them to see our beautiful King William neighborhood (sorry I still haven’t shared photos… maybe tomorrow!), so we took a walk…

… and wound up at Blue Star Brewery, which you might remember from this post.

Hipster chick Lena fit right in with the brewery scene.

Later we reconvened at home for a hearty meal of baked chicken a la Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes, whole wheat rolls, salad, French and Italian wines, and–for dessert–pumpkin bread. Elliott and I love cooking and entertaining, gathering friends around our table, and sharing a meal together.

After supper we might have turned on the TV. The TV? In your house? you say. But yes, we did, for something huge was happening on TV, namely my beloved Cardinals* vs. the Texas Rangers for game 6 of the World Series. What a nail-biter! My enthusiasm in cheering the Cardinals to victory may have roused my sleeping daughter. But ahhhh! can’t wait for game 7 tonight!

*Yes, I cheer for the Cardinals… and the Boston Red Sox. My grandfather took me to a game every summer in St. Louis, so the Cardinals won my heart early. The Red Sox claimed their own piece of my heart after Elliott and I lived and loved in Boston. Oh yeah, and the Nationals… yeah, they have a piece of my heart too. I love baseball! Just don’t ask me anything about football.