Archive | Texas

our Saturday morning

October 19, 2011 at 2:59 am

It’s becoming a tradition in our house to walk to the Pearl Farmer’s Market every Saturday morning. The temperatures still rise into the 90s almost every afternoon here in San Antonio, and so it’s motivating to get on our way while the day is still new.

This past Saturday, though, we were distracted by the annual King William neighborhood garage sale. We’re staying in the King William Historic District while in San Antonio and, although of course the last thing we need to do is acquire more stuff, we had to check it out.

It wasn’t that great, though; our neighbors kept all their good stuff. Oh well, we didn’t need anything anyway! We took off down the River Walk towards the farmer’s market about 2 miles away.

Remember the previously-featured amazing overpass with the fish sculptures (that light up at night!) “swimming” underneath? One of the river tour boats came around the bend as we passed by.

Finally we reached the market, where we enjoyed playing on the grass again!

As we explored the farmer’s market, we discovered the annual San Antonio Herb Market. We loved growing our own herbs on our kitchen windowsill in our Capitol Hill studio. If we had a little more time in San Antonio (only one more month here as of tomorrow!) we’d buy our own herb pots to grow here. Instead, Elliott is about to start growing mushrooms in the closet; his mushroom growing kit arrived from Amazon today. More about that cultivation later!

We bought some more locally grown okra at the market, as we’re becoming fans of roasted okra. After browsing other market stalls and the wonderful bookshop, we headed for home. The picture below was taken as we walked back into the beautiful King William neighborhood. Sometimes it reminds me of Capitol Hill… maybe it’s all the trees? No rowhouses here, though!

Here’s our favorite recipe for roasted okra, taken from AllRecipes.com:

Roasted Okra

Ingredients

18 fresh okra pods, sliced 1/3 inch thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons black pepper, or to taste

Directions

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Arrange the okra slices in one layer on a foil lined cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

0 :: in eat this, family, Texas, weekend

our Saturday morning

October 19, 2011 at 1:59 am

It wasn’t that great, though; our neighbors kept all their good stuff. Oh well, we didn’t need anything anyway! We took off down the River Walk towards the farmer’s market about 2 miles away.

Remember the previously-featured amazing overpass with the fish sculptures (that light up at night!) “swimming” underneath? One of the river tour boats came around the bend as we passed by.

Finally we reached the market, where we enjoyed playing on the grass again!

Here’s our favorite recipe for roasted okra, taken from AllRecipes.com:

Roasted Okra

Ingredients

18 fresh okra pods, sliced 1/3 inch thick
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons black pepper, or to taste

Directions

Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Arrange the okra slices in one layer on a foil lined cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

0 :: in eat this, family, Texas, weekend

chips and salsa, please, Daddy!

October 5, 2011 at 5:09 pm

One of our evening walks recently was to Blue Star Brewery, an unassuming place along the River Walk with outdoor seating. We set off as Lena examined her toes…

Diaper blowout! Pit stop.

Once at the brewery, with a glass of Whithead Wheat and a pint of stout, we started into some chips and salsa. Lena was immediately focused.

She tried so hard, poor thing.

But to no avail. Her parents gave her no crunchy chips or spicy salsa. Maybe next time. I think she knows we love her.

3 :: in eat this, family, Lena, Texas

chips and salsa, please, Daddy!

October 5, 2011 at 4:09 pm

One of our evening walks recently was to Blue Star Brewery, an unassuming place along the River Walk with outdoor seating. We set off as Lena examined her toes…

Diaper blowout! Pit stop.

Once at the brewery, with a glass of Whithead Wheat and a pint of stout, we started into some chips and salsa. Lena was immediately focused.

She tried so hard, poor thing.

But to no avail. Her parents gave her no crunchy chips or spicy salsa. Maybe next time. I think she knows we love her.

3 :: in eat this, family, Lena, Texas

a night at the museum

October 4, 2011 at 5:17 pm

Tuesday evenings at the San Antonio Museum of Art are free, a discovery we made on our long walk to the farmer’s market a week ago. We could see the beautiful brick building rising from manicured lawns as we passed by on the River Walk. The beautiful Café des Artistes floated out from the grounds and hung over the River Walk itself; patrons of the museum sipped cool drinks between visiting Greek and modern art displays. The museum itself is the old Lone Star Brewery complex, rich with historical significance and San Antonio flair.

We set off for the museum on a 2-mile walk down the River Walk on a beautiful late September evening. These two goofs make life so much more fun.

Inside the beautiful gardens of the museum we saw more magnificent passion flowers, some of our favorite foliage in Texas.

The first display we visited inside the museum was a bit of a shock to the senses. Photographer Daniel Lee has combined human and animal faces in his photography, creating bizarre anthropomorphizing animal features in creepy human bodies.

From left to right, Lee created a monkey/man, ox/man, and a cock/woman.

Or what about this one? The funny side of it is that you really have seen people that sort of look like these dogs, or dogs that sort of look like these people. Or dogs. Or people. Whatever these creatures are.

Inside the museum we discovered a wonderful glass elevator, the “skywalk” between buildings, and a room full of ancient Greek sculptures. Around us in the sculpture room an art class diligently sketched the muscles of a marble arm, the flowing folds of a stony dress, the shadows of an ivory face.

We’ll readily admit after this experience that visiting museums isn’t easy with a little one after she’s seen enough Grecian urns or Roman coins. But every now and then it’s worth it for an hour or two, her parents believe, and hopefully one day she’ll agree!