Bat You'll Never Guess What We Did

A couple of nights ago, Eric and Peanut and I met some of his classmates to watch the bats.  We were trying to have a fun family outing but Payaya said she ain't got time for bats so she stayed home and napped in the closet instead. Eric asked me earlier in the day if I wanted to go see the bats and for half the day I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't talking about going to a baseball game since in Louisville, the team is called the Riverbats. 

No, he was talking about real, live bats. Thousands of them. They live under the Congress Avenue Bridge and according to Wikipedia, there are more bats under that bridge than people living in Austin. In fact, it is the largest urban colony of bats in the world. In the summer, the all the bats leave the bridge at dusk to search for food. So there are thousands of bats flying off into the evening sky and it is quite a spectacular sight. It's amazing how it seems that nothing is happening and then, all of a sudden, they all leave at the same time. You can watch the stream of black wings going on for miles and the moon sat just above them in the sky for a picturesque experience. 

Afterwards, we went to Amy's for a special ice cream treat. We both got Sundays with some unique toppings and the server was generous and friendly. I made a kind of s'mores Sunday with Mexican Vanilla ice cream, graham cracker crumbles and marshmallows mixed in and hot fudge on top. I've been trying not to go overboard with the sweets but I think that was my big indulgence for the week, maybe month. And it was totally worth it! 

Dreams of Being a Chef

This weekend I took on some exciting cooking challenges. I'm still riding the wave of being a good stay-at-home mom for the time being and besides, I've always wanted to go to culinary school so I really enjoy having the time to cook new things. If I ever get rich, I'd have multiple awesome properties and switch careers to own a little B&B and spend my time welcoming strange and interesting people with delicious breakfasts, violets on their pillows, and sweets by the bed. I'm pretty sure there's a movie like this and the main character has a beautiful child and nothing ever goes wrong. Or maybe it's just the Gilmore Girls...ah, I miss Rory. 

Anyway, I spent most of Saturday trying to be an extreme couponer but I think I only used one coupon all day. I went to the nearby Farmers' Market and got a ton of amazing veggies. Then I decided to try a new-to-me grocery, Sprouts. It was pretty nice, with lots of organic veggies and good quality meats, all at pretty good prices. It reminds me of Trader Joe's but I must say that I still miss Trader Joe's. Then, I finished out my shopping at HEB, a standard grocery store where I picked up cheap basics. 

On Saturday night I baked bread and used our new dehydrator to dry figs (I love wedding presents!). The bread is a dill bread that my Mom makes and it's super light and fluffy with a mild dill flavor. It makes two loaves but after only two days, we have nearly finished a whole loaf. Yesterday, I slow-cooked a roast for about six hours and served it with mashed potatoes for dinner. It turned out so well and I don't think I've ever made a roast before. It was falling apart when I took it out to serve. 

I also made my own granola bars yesterday. I first did this when I was in the Peace Corps and wanted something easy to take with me on long trips to visit friends. I must say it's a ton easier to make these in an oven instead of over a fire! These are also a great pregnancy food because I was able to mix the ingredients so I could load them with things that I need. My parents got me a book for my birthday called, 100 Best Foods for Pregnancy by Charlotte Watts. I love it because for every food it mentions, there is also a recipe and a photo of the dish. Under the Sunflower Seeds page, the is a recipe for Apricot, oat and sunflower seed bars. I could have used this but I wanted to include some other flavors so I went to a granola bar recipe in Better Homes and Gardens. The main thing I did differently was rather than use a whole cup of chopped nuts like the recipe called for, I used 1/4 cup nuts, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup coconut flakes and 1/4 cup flax seed. They turned out great. The only problem is that I want to eat them all right now! 

The nice thing is that I now have a lot of great options for foods that are easy on my stomach. The bad news is that I can't tell if I ate too much or if I'm starting to get a belly bump!

Not-so-extreme Couponing

Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, and I'm talking about taking care of my babies, Pnut Rose and Papaya, I have a lot more time on my hands. I've been spending a good amount of it watching random stuff on Netflix. One of my recent favorites is "Extreme Couponing." I can't decide if these women are slightly crazy hoarders or just geniuses. Their stockpiles of coupon-purchases overflow throughout their homes as a kind of general store with beds squeezed in between the aisles. One kids room had so much toilet paper under the bed that it looks like a strange version of the princess and the pea. However, everything they buy is either severely reduced or free. I saw an episode where a woman purchased over $500 worth of stuff but paid about $5!!! Who cares that there were 80 tubs of yogurt that will go bad in a week? She's my hero! 

I can't get out of a grocery store without spending about $100, and that's when I use coupons. I'm pretty sure that using the coupons makes my trip to the store more expensive because I'm completely drawn in thinking I'm getting a great deal with the $1 off 5 items when I probably would never have purchased those 5 boxes of $4 cereal in the first place. I rarely even eat cereal! 

Except now that I'm pregnant, I'm eating all kinds of random things that I wouldn't always eat. I'm 13.5 weeks pregnant and the all-day sickness just keeps coming. Pregnancy really is such a beautiful time, isn't it? My husband thinks I'm gorgeous when I'm throwing up into a ziplock in the car (this has happened more than I'd like to admit). So, my diet consists mostly of whole wheat frozen waffles, boxed Mac n cheese, and whatever I can throw together for dinner. Man, if I could find a coupon deal for free Mac n cheese, I'd be in heaven. I thought I'd gain weight during pregnancy but instead I'm down to my lowest weight since high school, not that I'm skinny by any means. One night after reading a book about pregnancy where the woman ate a whole pan of Rice Krispies treats, I started craving them and proceeded to do the same thing she had. One pan down in three days  and still no weight gain. I guess I should be pleased about this but I'm constantly worried that without realizing it, I'm going to start putting on the pregnancy weight and then overdo it. But, I guess for now that cereal coupon is coming in handy. 

Nothing Brightens a Day Like a Kevin Bacon Fan

My husband Eric and I have been living in our apartment in Austin for about three weeks now. It was a whirlwind getting here and trying to get settled before Eric had to jump into school mode. He's starting his MBA at the University of Texas. When I started my MA program, I may have had a couple of hours to meet with my advisor and schedule classes. Eric, on the other hand, has been in pre-classes and networking events since we arrived. The weekends have already been filled with homework and classes haven't even officially started yet! I think this means he's going to get a great education and he's already working really hard.

I have been busy trying not to rip all my nails out from fretting about how I still have not found a job. In my first week things looked pretty positive and I had a callback after one interview and an interview with another organization lined up. The interviews went smoothly but as the days and weeks pass, I've slowly accepted that I didn't get these jobs and I'm going to have to keep going with this painful and stressful process. In the meantime, Facebook has kindly informed me that a former co-worker from my days as a barista at Highland Coffee, has just become the winner of her own TV show on the Food Network! http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130811/SCENE/308110065/Louisville-chef-Damaris-Phillips-wins-Food-Network-Star-?nclick_check=1My feelings about this range from true joy for Damaris, overwhelming jealousy (when will I finally get my own show?), and despair over the fact that I just applied for a job at Godiva (I at least get to eat the chocolate, right?) while my peers are moving on to such heights. I'm going to chalk up these rapidly changing emotions to the pregnancy hormones for the time-being. Oh, did I mention that I'm also pregnant?

Since I'm not able to drink and Eric has valiantly decided to surrender alcohol in solidarity, we haven't been exploring much of the exciting nightlife in Austin so far. Also, did I mention that I don't yet have a job? That also has a limiting effect on our social life for the time-being. But, I turned 33 last week. I almost forgot about it until I was setting up an appointment to get a food subsidy for my unborn baby and the kind woman on the phone reminded me that it was only two days away. Birthdays are kind of a big deal in my family so I immediately started looking for something we could do that wouldn't cost too much and would be fun even without a margarita. Luckily, the Alamo Drafthouse happened to have a Footloose Dance-Along going on that night! The Drafthouse is known for its quirky movie choices and action packed evenings. They also apparently have really great food. The menu was diverse and not what you'd expect from a movie theater but I can only comment on the deliciousness of the chocolate chip cookie milkshake I devoured. Anyway, upon arrival everyone was issued Kevin Bacon fans, balloons and confetti poppers to use at various points in the movie. Before the movie started, there was a chicken dance contest that I competed in because I was one of three ladies there celebrating my birthday. I really tried to mix up the chicken dance but the other girls got more applause for their dances....you can just do so much more on your 22nd birthday than your 33rd. Actually, I think they just had more friends in the audience. The movie was pretty great and was actually a combo sing-along, quote-along and dance-along. So, my first real "Austin" experience was a hit and I'm hoping to find more of these experiences as I get to know the city.

 drafthouse.com/austin