Porter House

Arrival Night at Chef Mickey's

We arrived in Orlando on time. We rented our car (and got a free upgrade), then drove to our hotel. Our Tom Tom was indispensable. We borrowed it from my mother-in-law. I really want one now. The hotel was amazing, it was also huge. I am very glad we had our own car. We brought all our bags to our room, and changed into our swimsuits. We walked over to the Dig Site pool. The kids had an great time on the slide. After a couple of hours we went back to our room and changed. Then we drove over to the Contemporary Hotel.

We had reservations at Chef Mickey's that we were really looking forward to. You get to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy. The food was average buffet quality, but they had a lot of variety. We secretly ordered Ryan a My Mini Cake Surprise in anticipation of his 6th birthday. It was a small cake that came in a Pirate chest along with a few toys.

The kids got all their autographs in their book from last trip. It was a lot of fun. After we made it back to our hotel room, we were all pretty beat. We knew we had an early morning so we went to bed early. It was a wonderful way to start the trip.

My plans in May...

I want to tell you about what I have been planning for a couple months now, but first I have to explain how it came about. I am going to a conference in Orlando in May. It is FORCE's annual conference for people with BRCA1/BRCA2 or people who are otherwise at high-risk for hereditary breast or ovarian cancer. Breast, ovarian, prostate and other cancers have been rampant in my Dad's family for years. It has affected pretty much every member of a certain age range. When my cousin was diagnosed in her early thirties with breast cancer, she took the step of getting tested for the gene. She was positive for BRCA1. A few years later my Dad got tested in the hopes of eliminating the risk for his three daughters. He had a 50/50 chance, but he was positive as well. So a few years ago I finally got tested myself. I also came back positive. This gene mutation carries with it up to an 85% chance of getting breast cancer in my lifetime. These hereditary cancers also tend to strike earlier and be more aggressive.  It also increases the ovarian cancer risk, which is notoriously hard to find early.

Everyone has BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. They are breast and ovary tumor suppressant genes. If you have the mutation, one copy of the gene is inactive. This means that you do not have the defense against developing cancer that people without the mutation have. (This is how I understand all the information. I do not claim to have a perfect grasp on it all. This is where the conference will help a bunch.)

I am excited about this conference. It will provide tons of information, straight from the people who really understand it all. It will give me a clearer picture of maintaining my frequent screenings, as well as discuss my preventative options. I am still secretly hoping Christina Applegate will pop up at the conference ;). She is also BRCA1 or BRCA2 positive...

A lot of people have mentioned to me that they would not want to know if they had the gene. I certainly can see their point of view. However, I feel much safer knowing my risk, and having my breast MRI and mammograms every year. I am a mother. I feel I need to do what ever I can to assure that I will be here for them.

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

Now! On to the lighter side of this post. I could not fly all the way to Orlando without visiting Disney World. Originally Justin and I were going to fly down together, and tack on a couple of days there alone. I have never been good at leaving my kids for any length of time though. Poor Ryan (at age 5 1/2), has still only spent like 2 nights away from me. Besides it was Disney World, right? I decided after talking to Ryan's teacher that I probably could pull them out of school. (I am pretty relaxed on this subject anyway.)

So, in only three months the four of us are flying to Florida for 7 nights. Two of the days, they will do their own thing in the parks while I am at the conference. The conference happens to be on Disney Resort property, so it works perfectly. We are staying at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. They have an awesome Mayan Pyramid themed pool with a water slide, that the kids are going to love!

The other exciting thing is that we will be there over Ryan's 6th birthday. This ties in perfectly with Disney's What will You Celebrate campaign. We cannot wait for this trip. It is going to be even more fun because we learned so much two years ago when we went.

Perdido Key, Florida

 Florida...I can finally post my pictures. We all stayed at the Indigo Condominiums in Perdido Key. It was a 4 bedroom/4 bath condo. We all had enough space to ourselves and it all went very smoothly. The condo itself was very nice. The view from our 19th floor beach front balcony was as good as it gets. We cannot thank my in-laws enough for the invitation. (Especially since we have lived with them since we got back home.)

 

We rotated between cooking and eating out. I made CI's Lasagna Carnivale one night. It was one thing that I knew we'd all eat. Before the week was out I also made CI's blueberry scones, CI's Fresh Margaritas, and Mojitos. Oh, I also made guacamole to go with  my bil's fajitas. We also grilled a couple nights. It was nice, there was a lovely grassy area close to the grill. We played ball.

We went out to dinner together one night. There was a local seafood grill/bar called The Reef. It was pretty good. I got the blackened fish poboy. We had some laughs...as usual when we are all together.

(That last one is the look Staci gives me...well anytime, but especially when I am engrossed in discussing food.)

One night, just the six of us went out to dinner: Justin and Becca, Staci and Jeff, and Ashlie and Chris. The grandparents watched all eight kids. Awesome right!

 

We went to a fresh steamed seafood place in Alabama. Justin got a steamer platter that serves two people. I helped him out on the boiled potatoes in butter, but he finished the mussels, shrimp, and crab legs himself. It took me a minute to get used to the shrimp with their heads on, but they were quite good.

We even had time for Hannah's birthday party and a trip to a water park. The water park was really nice. They even had an old wooden roller coaster. The six older kids all rode it, I was proud. I only got one picture. It's funny because every picture I have of Justin and Chris, ot seemed like they were mirroring each other.

Justin and I accidentally took some pretty cool pictures of each other. I really like the one I took of him.

I will leave you with some pictures of the beautiful ocean. We got in some great time in it.

Florida...

I have almost finished packing everything up. We are spending the night with my inlaws tonight. Tomorrow morning we are driving to Florida. I have felt a little out of sorts lately. I think a relaxing week at the beach is just what I need. I am certain I will will come home with a renewed urge to cook, bake, and then blog.

I would like to say hello to any new readers that may happen by this week. Please read through my archives and be sure that I will return with new posts after this week. Thanks for coming!

I'll try to take lots of pictures.... Have a great 4th of July everyone!

Still Camera-Less...

We made it home Sunday at about 3:00. The drive was a little scary. It poured on us the whole time. This wasn't comforting for several reasons. Mostly because I had hundreds of dollars of purchases in the back of our Tundra. Justin and I kept telling each other that as long as we were moving, the rain wouldn't reach our stuff. Justin showed off some very admirable driving skills.

*Driving  7 1/2 hours with only one lunch break.
*Not rear ending all the people who suddenly slammed on their brakes.
*Driving without any visibility, without ever pulling over.
*Not floating away in the flooded streets of Carthage.

Amazingly, nothing was ruined except packaging materials. Thank goodness. When we arrived home we were in for a wonderful gardening surprise. Our broccoli plants had 2-3 inch florets on them. Too cool!

I really need to find my battery charger. You would be seeing some pictures of delicious beef shish kebabs with wild rice. As well as pictures of the best berry fool ever. Both CI recipes, the fool is in the newest issue that just came out online. Unfortunately I still haven't looked for found it.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I signed up for Netflix Sunday. It was bound to happen after Karen (By the way, did you know It. Snowed. there?) gave it such a high recommendation. The main reason I signed up was to get the miniseries The Stand on DVD. I am currently about 1/3 through the book. My dad told me it was the best Stephen King book ever written. I believe him.

Of course, it is the only movie in my queue that has Very Long Wait beside it. The new releases are all available. I assume they do not have many copies of The Stand, it also seems to have some sort of cult following. So if you happen to be rewatching The Stand from Netflix for the 3rd time or something please put it back in circulation so that I can watch it.

Random Vacation Pics

Who can name the locations?

Okay, so I might have given some pretty obvious clues...

Texas 2008- Day 2-3

Day 2 in Austin-

I am afraid that the price of Canon accessories stopped my heart in Austin. I decided to settle with just using my Dad's camera until we get home and find my charger. We ended up not taking any pictures in Austin. We were just going to too many places. We hit 2 Whole Foods, 2 REIs, Central Market, a camera store, Threadgills, and Costco. Justin picked up quite a few new biking accessories, and I bought quite a few grocery items. Lets see I got: Costco coffee, peppercorns, a case of Mexican cokes, cracked green olives, Nicoise olives, Seeduction Bread, El Rey white chocolate, flageolets, lentils de puy, almond meal, matcha, bao zhong tea, Gus grapefruit soda, ditilini pasta, bucatini, perciatelli, potato starch, pappadams, chocolate wafers, KA white whole wheat, as well as a few snacks.

Threadgills was just okay. I had read on Chowhound that this would probably be the case. At least now we can say we have eaten there...

********************************************************************************************************************************

Day 3-

So today was a full day. A very good full day, and I took quite a few pictures. My dad picked up breakfast for us; savory kolachies and doughnuts. This was a good start with a cup of coffee. After a leisurely breakfast, we got dressed and headed to Wonder World. The kids played around in the gift shop while Papa sniffed out a complimentary cup of coffee. Then it was time for the very cool train ride through the wildlife park. As you drive through the trail, a trail of deer begin to follow you. Pretty soon the train stops and the deer surround you. They wait unpatiently for you to hand-feed them the deer food.

There were a ton of animals, including fainting goats, llamas, peacocks, turkeys, and emus. Lots of fun. After the train ride it was time for a little spelunking in the largest dry-formed cave in the country?

After the long cave walk with our entertaining guide Ryan, we moved on to the observation tower and the anti-gravity room. By this time we were ravenously hungry. I got to thinking that City Market in Luling was sounding pretty durn good. Before long we were headed there.

We ate good. Brisket, ribs, sausage, bread, pickles/jalapenos, pintos, and potato salad. I have to say though that Justin and I still make the best brisket. I really loved City Market's sauce, especially on the sides.

On our way back I fell asleep. I was just too content with my full belly. We drove out to a local park to fly an awesome kite my dad bought Ryan. It was a nice windy day, perhaps too windy.

It was at about this time that I mosied on down to the river nearby. The gorgeous, cool, clear, spring-fed San Marcos river. I rolled up my jeans, kicked off my flip flops and waded in. It felt SO good in the hot sun. I decided quickly that it was indeed hot enough to swim. I couldn't wait. I went and gathered everyone, and we ran home to change into our swimsuits. Within a half hour we were stepping in. This river has a pretty fast current and a lot of hard granite rocks. I managed to scrape my knee within seconds. Once I got accustomed to it again I felt pretty safe. That is until the boys started body surfing through the white water areas trying not to drown or wind up taking off a length of skin on one of the hidden boulders. Sounds fun right? Well it is. However it is advisable to do it on a tube instead. Which we are doing all day tomorrow. I got up the nerve to try it once, and then you couldn't stop me. I got a new injury about every other time. A few jammed toes and a scraped knee. It wasn't until my knee slammed into a rock right on that I decided to call it a day.

We  walked along the river for a while. They eventually found a rope swing. Even Ryan took a couple of turns. (I didn't though because I was happy sunning.) The kids played a while on a man-made island (TOO cool) and on a very nice playground.

Daddy and I started to crave coffee at this point. We drove home, had some coffee, and enjoyed a couple of pizzas from Papa Johns. We are all exhausted but highly anticipating a whole day on the river tomorrow. I'll try to get some pictures of the unimaginable river...

Texas 2008- Day 1

Well we are in Texas! We made really great time, we arrived at about 3:00. I have one small problem. I have thoroughly misplaced my camera battery charger. I was hoping my Dad's would fit it but no luck. I will have to buy a battery and charger today. We are headed to Austin! Hopefully I can just take pictures with Daddy's camera to post tonight.

I really wish I had had it last night though. We got in so early, that we were able to go to the Outlet mall in San Marcos. It is actually a large Tanger outlet right next to a huge Prime Outlet. They even have a high-end section containing Perla, Neiman Marcus, la Furla, Kate Spade as well as quite a few more. We did not stop here :).

We picked up some sorely needed jeans and shorts for Justin and Kacey. We didn't stay long. We had somewhere to be. Herbert's Taco Stand. I have visited my father many times over the years. He didn't take me to this place until the last time. It is fantastic! You do not know how good it was to consume my Herbert's Special, along with chips/great salsa and fresh flour tortillas with butter. I was so happy. I left feeling great about my first meal in Texas. (Okay technically we stopped for lunch at a WHATABURGER in Crockett, TX.) Kacey was wearing a new Hannah Montana shirt my Dad had picked up for her, as well as a Hannah Montana "cowboy" hat. This adorable Mexican boy came running out the doors after Kacey. "I LOVE Hannah Montana. She's my girl!!" I think he was flirting with my girl. It was too funny.

Hopefully my next post will include pictures...

Weber Performer

Well, I have a lot to discuss. We decided last week that it was time we bought a decent grill. We have been using this offset grill/smoker that Justin built several years ago. It actually worked good, but it used a ton of charcoal, and was too tricky for me to operate.

We will not talk about the time that we were smoking the turkey for Thanksgiving at his parents house. About an hour after it went on the grill Justin got called in to work. I had to finish. I did manage to do a fine job. When I went to drive over to their house, my car battery was dead. His dad had to come pick up myself, the kids, and the turkey. Not Fun.

Anyway, I did a ton of research. I fell in love with Cook's Illustrated's top rated grill. The $700 price was just too much though, and really...when are we going to be grilling 4 14-lb. turkeys at one time?

So I started looking into the standard Weber Kettle. The Weber One-Touch Gold was also recommended by CI. The price was certainly better. After reading a bit though we discovered the Weber Performer. It was basically just like the Gold, with a lot of bells and whistles. We really like the large table, the charcoal storage bin, and the tool hooks. However, what really swayed us was the gas ignition. It is a charcoal grill that uses a small propane tank to light your charcoal. No more nasty lighter fluid or mildly irritating chimney starters. You get about 12 10-minute ignitions out of one camping size propane bottle. Awesome right! By the way, the One-Touch ash removal system works beautifully. It sweeps out all the ashes into a connecting pan. You remove the pan and dump it. It takes two seconds and you do not even get your hands dirty. We were lucky enough to buy a fully assembled Performer at Academy Sports here in town. At $299 we felt it was the perfect compromise.

Justin is starting his 5 days off tomorrow. Perfect timing. We already grilled the last two nights and we will continue at least all weekend long... First we made CI's Hot-Smoked Salmon, Grilled Potato and Arugula Salad, and Grilled corn. Yes, we were very grill happy the first night. That grilled corn was SO good...

Last night, we had cheeseburgers. I usually grind my own meat for burgers using my Kitchen-Aid meat grinder. I had bought my chuck roast, cut it into pieces, salted it, and let it refrigerate over night a la Zuni Cafe. When Justin went to grind it we discovered that the little knife portion of the grinder was missing. Now this happened to us about a year ago. We ordered a new one. Since then I have been so careful with it. I just used it last week, I think it is lost in the dishwasher. We ended  up having to grind it in a hand-crank grinder that would not secure to the counter. This was a nice 30 minute workout. We grind our meat twice. Luckily we did feel completely guilt free when we went back for seconds... To go along with our cheeseburgers, we made CI's twice-baked potatoes with cheddar, broccoli, and scallions. These are so very good.

This weekend we are going to get a little more ambitious....

******************************************************************************************************************************

Guess what...I am headed back to Texas! This time I am bringing my family, and we are going to Texas Hill Country.  We try to visit my dad 1-2 times a year. I would move there in a heartbeat. It is such a wonderful area for so many reasons. He lives right in between Austin and San Antonio. So far I know we will be visiting:

* Fredricksburg- Der Kuchen Laden and Rather Sweet Bakery  as well a many more great shops!
* San Marcos- Wonder World and Prime Outlets, Tanger Outlets
* Round Rock- Keria Teas and Ikea
* Luling- City Market (Barbecue)
* Austin- Central Market, REI, Whole Foods Flagship Store, and Costco   

Seeing this in print makes me so excited! My dad is impossible to keep up with, but I think this list may even tire him out. Luckily we have a week. We will be gone the week the week after Easter. I should be able to post some though. My dad has an awesome computer, unlike my sad one. I will not be posting daily, but I will be checking in. Hopefully I will have lots of great pictures to show you!

Dallas, Texas- Day 2

I woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 and made coffee. I got in trouble for doing stuff while drinking my coffee. Karen likes to sit and drink her coffee uninterrupted. I usually drink my coffee while surfing the internet and getting Kacey ready for school. This morning though, I was just ready to get to La Duni before the crowds.

We drank our coffee, got dressed, and strategically rearranged our luggage to make all of our purchases fit. I removed my beloved wild yeast starter and spent grain from the refrigerator and put it in my purse. We checked out of the hotel with no problems and were on our way by 9:00.

We found La Duni without any trouble. Parking on the other hand was more complicated. They have a small valet lot. We do not believe in valet services when the walk is at most 10 feet. We attempted to park at the Crate and Barrel across the street but the nice security guard turned us away. We  admitted defeat and valeted the car. There were only a few people there already and we were seated right away.

Our very nice waiter quickly served us our drinks and arepas. I had a mimosa and Karen got a bellini. They were strong but delicious. I had read a few posts on chow.com about some bad service at La Duni. It might have been the early hour but our service was quick and wonderful. Before we knew it our chilaquiles and chile rellenos were served.

Our first bites of these dishes blew us away. The potatoes were by far the best potatoes I have ever had. They were positively infused with flavor. The fried tortilla chips in my chilaquiles were crispy and chewy at the same time. The green salsa was my favorite; it was bright and herby.  There is something so special about truly fresh ingredients. Meals like this are what make meals like Humperdinks unacceptable to me. I just cannot tolerate shortcuts and artificial flavors anymore.

W ate as much as we could of our meals before turning our attention to coffee and dessert. They had a very nice selection of espressos and coffee drinks. I strayed from my usual strong black coffee tendencies and ordered a French cappuccino. Karen got a light espresso.

Even though we had already gotten quite full, we decided we just couldn't skip dessert at a place known for their desserts. We decided to split the signature dessert. Quatro Leche Cake.

By itself, it would have been too sweet for us. However, when eaten with our strong unsweetened coffee it was absolutely lovely. We paid our very reasonable bill, paid  the valet, and headed to Penzey's spices.

It was wonderful to finally walk into one of these stores. We were able to smell all the different herb blends. The ladies in the store were very nice and not at all pushy. I ended up buying herbs de provence, Northwoods seasoning, Mexican oregano, Hungarian sweet paprika, Chinese cassia cinnamon, dried red chipotles, and crystallized ginger. Karen picked up quite a few  items as well.

We still had time before we needed to head back to the DFW. We decided to head to a fabric store so that Karen could check it out. She had already programmed the address into TomTom. When we pulled up into the shopping  center I squealed. Guess what just happened to be next to it? Whole Foods; what are the odds of that. So of course we immediately separated. I got to look around for a while. Karen joined me shortly. I picked up an array of different Emergen-C flavors, a milk chocolate hazelnut candy bar for Justin, and a dark milk chocolate bar for myself. I also found some cracked wheat I needed for bread.

We started back towards DFW. We managed to stay on the right roads and not head off to Denton. TomTom took us a back way into the car rental return, it probably shaved off quite a few minutes. We returned the car and it cost even less than we had expected. We managed to arrive at the shuttle back to the airport just before it departed. A few minutes later we were off the shuttle and headed to print our boarding passes and get through security. We checked one bag each, and prayed our glass jars wouldn't get broken in the suitcases. We of course, forgot one bottle of my Gus (soda). I love this stuff, good thing since I had to chug it before we could pass through security. Luckily my starter and spent grain didn't trigger any alarms and we made it through.

We stopped at the restroom. It's shocking I know after all that soda. Then we walked straight to the nearest Starbucks. Luckily there were literally 3-4 on that level of the airport. After we got our coffee we bought a couple magazines and books from the awesome little store. Then we found our gate and sat down. Okay, so perhaps it wasn't our gate. Perhaps we sat at the wrong gate for 20 minutes. Perhaps the only reason we made our flight was because a very nice man asked if we were headed to Kileen. What ever. Saturdays flight was just a bit bumpier. There were a few clouds in the sky this time.

I read my new Michael Connoly novel. Karen and I even got to sit with each other. After I switched seats with a nice guy, who Karen realized she used to babysit his kids in High School. Small world.

Getting off that plane and having my kids and husband there waiting for me was fantastic. It was great to be home. I am so glad the whole trip went so smoothly. Thanks for coming with me Karen, I hope you had as much fun as I did.