San Antonio, Revisited

I jetted off to San Antonio for a quick overnight for work, and I loved it.  I was last there for work a year ago (read about it here), and once again it included some delicious adventures!  I've found that once your coworkers know that you have a thing for food, they put a lot of care into picking out places to go eat.  I'm fortunate that my boss, also on the trip, is a foodie too, so I had a very happy tummy.

Pretty tiles in San Antonio

The first place I ate is known more for their upscale dinners than lunches, but their lunch is probably the best deal in town!  Bohanan’s Prime Steaks & Seafood is classy to its core.  The restaurant, open for dinner, is upstairs, but the beautiful bar downstairs is open during lunch.  The prices for lunch are very reasonable, and we loved the smaller portion sizes.  I chose one of the house specialties, braised akaushi short ribs over pappardelle noodles.

The food was absolutely delicious.  I would go back and eat the same dish in a heartbeat!  The service was impeccable, both attentive and professional.  The bread they served was hot and wonderful too.  What a beautiful experience!

After our work was done, we headed to the Pearl brewery area as I had last trip, where I made a beeline to Bakery Lorraine for more macarons.  I had pistachio (x2), strawberry, Earl Grey, salted caramel, and raspberry.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!  My Instagram post caption got some chuckles from folks: "If loving macarons is basic, my pH level is like a 14."  If you get it, we can be friends.

For dinner, we had a reservation at Cured next door.  I LOVE MEAT.  (That's what she said.)  Y'all know that.  So to go to a restaurant centered around their meat was right up my alley.  And isn't the old building they chose just stunning?  I was excited to try it, given I'd briefly met the chef a year ago while eating at Bakery Lorraine.

The first thing you see upon entering the restaurant?  Meat curing.  Yep.  So it's no wonder that we started our meal with charcuterie!

We had Apple Jalapeno Pork Rillettes, Bresaola, Smoked Duck Ham, 90 Day Pork Belly, a lamb pick (I'm not a lamb person), and cheese.  I would venture to say you NEED to try charcuterie when you're here.  They can help you make your picks, and it's killer.  For dinner, I was hoping to try their pork chop, but they'd just run out.  I settled for grilled flat iron steak, which came with fries.  OMG.  It has been a long time since I enjoyed such a tender, well-seasoned steak.  Awesome place and concept!

Our last big meal was lunch at El Bucanero, a Mexican seafood restaurant.  I must admit, I was nervous about this one.  The menu has some pictures, but not much description outside of names in Spanish.  The decor is seafood-related and kind of cheesy.  It's casual, loud, and packed with people.  Not to mention, fish and seafood are not my favorite thing in the whole world.  I stayed quiet, wanting to play the part of "super cool foodie" as we ventured in.

We ordered an absolutely enormous Hawaiian-themed ceviche... it was a mix of fruit, seafood, all served up in half a pineapple.  I mean, it was a mountain.  And you know what? I liked it!  I have a personal policy that I'm always going to try something once, food-wise.  I may not love it, but at least I gave it a go.

For my lunch, I chose fried fish tacos.  They were delicious!  I almost detoured and ordered some traditional, non-seafood fare, but after the delight of the ceviche, I had a "when in Rome" moment and decided to get fish!  Definitely a happy surprise.

San Antonio, you're wonderful.  I loved staying on the Riverwalk again, and taking a morning walk along its edge.  I hope to come back again, visit the Missions, eat more food, and absorb the culture of this great city!

Tiny Strawberry Cakes

The Cake Mix Doctor's Fresh Strawberry Cake recipe has been a perennial favorite of my coworkers for years now.  I keep trying to tell them how simple it is to make, but I think they're now convinced that it's "Aubrey's strawberry cake" and not the genius that is Anne Byrn.  Sorry, Anne!  I'm a big fan, and I'm SUPER PUMPED she is speaking at a DAR event this coming April.  I NEED her to sign my books!

It was my friend JL's birthday, and like our other friend MM, strawberry cake is her preferred birthday baked good.  This is an annual tradition now, I'd say!  But now that I can make this cake in my sleep (memorized it, seriously), I wanted to do something a little different with the cake itself.

I used a biscuit cutter to make little mini layer cakes, with piped frosting in between.  I put them in cupcake liners, and people ate them with forks.  They did slide around a little, so next time I'd probably refrigerate them so there's no lopsided cakes sliding around.  I used a gold glitter-like sprinkle, and it felt very feminine and stylish for my friend JL.

These cakes are easy, but I got enough comments about them on my Facebook that I figured I'd share the photos in a post!

Sunday Lately: Fighting, Relaxing, Daydreaming, Delivering, Amusing

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe. We e-hangout every Sunday, sharing a small glimpse into the past week of life in our own worlds.

FIGHTING... the urge to be lazy!  I definitely have a list of things I need to do and work on, but I haven't really been that into it this weekend.  My parents came to visit, and I had acupuncture and Korean class yesterday, so between appointments and socializing, it was kind of a busy weekend!  So today I'm lucky I got laundry done.  Need to do more DAR work and prep for a work trip.  I have a quick overnight in San Antonio tomorrow.

I did distract myself Friday by making an arrangement (plus some smaller vases) of bulk Kroger flowers.

RELAXING...  Yeah, I guess I did a lot of that today.  I hung out in PJs, showered, and put clean PJs on!  Also enjoyed reorganizing my tote bags in my closet, as I added a few SUPER cheap monogrammed bags from Krafty Chix to the collection.  As in $20 pleather bags with embroidery.  Boom, FTW, they're cute.  I have the perfect monogram, totally symmetrical, which brings me an inordinate amount of joy.

DAYDREAMING... about houses.  My Pinterest is more busy lately, because I keep daydreaming about when we might someday build or buy a house that has all the things that we want.  I'm thinking in a few years, once we know more about our future family and where we want to settle down!

DELIVERING...  nada.  I'm lucky to be hitting deadlines lately!

AMUSING...  I'm amused by television lately.  Some of the SNL stuff has been pretty funny lately.  I keep up with Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and Jane the Virgin.  Dan and I watch The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones together.  And then I have added This Is Us.  Otherwise, it's series that I Netflix binge.

Here's a cute picture from a girls' lunch with my friends this week.  No reason, it just makes me happy.  Crazy Kondo lady says to keep things in your life that bring you joy, right?  So I guess I get to eat more sandwiches?

THIS PAST WEEK...

• On the Blog:  Reviewing CourseHorse, which aggregates all kinds of classes near where you live!  Don't forget, Nashville locals can enter to win $100 towards courses!  Check out the post even just to see the cookies I decorating in my class.
• On Twitter:  Does anyone else watch Jane The Virgin?  I just caught last week's episode and I was CRYING.
• On Pinterest:  I'm making this gnocchi casserole for dinner later.  I couldn't get my act together to cook this weekend while my parents visited (minus our tradition of Sunday pancakes for breakfast!) but tonight I am throwing something together before I have to go to San Antonio for work.
• On Instagram:  Cat owners know, this is often the first thing you see when you wake in the morning.
• Shopping:  My cousin has this Pottery Barn cubby organizer, and I want it.  I just have nowhere to hang it right now.

How was your week?