Luke Bryan at the Houston Rodeo 2012

While Jesse was visiting Houston I had to take her to the Rodeo, it's only right. We saw Luke Bryan who was amazing and is a biiiig fan of the pelvic thrust dance move. I captured a few pics of his performance for ya:

 Tried to catch him mid pelvic thrust haha

 This ridiculous scene is the Houston Rodeo trail ride that they have every year to start off the rodeo. It rode by my work at lunchtime one day so I got to see it for the first time. Weird.

Great Urban Race, Houston 2012

Crazy admission: I'm not the biggest fan of running. I know this doesn't make sense since I run a lot and play soccer nonstop and ran track (indoor and outdoor seasons) in high school. I occasionally like running, but for the most part I find it boring and I lose interest pretty quickly. However, if you spice running up with say a scavenger hunt, now I'm totally pumped. That is why I love the Great Urban Race. I did it two years ago with Christine and I think we did an awesome job considering that neither of us had a smart phone at the time. This year, my sister, Jesse, came to visit on the Great Urban Race weekend and she agreed (she actually likes running) to do the race with me. In case you're not familiar with GUR, the idea is that everyone is given a sheet of 12 tasks that you must complete before returning to the finish line. You have to figure out where the task is by the clues they give you and then run there and complete the challenge. You can do the tasks in any order and you can skip one non-mandatory clue. We placed 68th overall (out of 262 finishers and 47 non-finishers) with a time of 2:46- GO WOLFEPACK! Here are some pics of us during the race:

Feeding a stick of gum to a stranger:

 Learning to segway and then completing a course:

 Trying a brownie and guessing it's flavor:

 Giving a stranger a piggy-back ride:

 New friend at the YMCA:

 Jesse wanted some python action too:

 Shots of salsa at Cyclone Anaya's:

 I chose verde sauce:

 Dying of heat at the Houston Fireman Museum:

 Finish line:

This race is seriously so much fun and you should totally do it next time it's in your city!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with the Sprinkles Recipe

I know that many people love Sprinkles cupcakes, but when I'm in Highland village (the Houston location of Sprinkles) I only bother stopping in if they are serving the peanut butter chocolate cupcake because it's amazing. Their other flavors are good, but the one that has always been a standout (no matter how many I try) has always been peanut butter chocolate. This is described on their website as a "chocolate chip-studded peanut butter cake with fudgy milk chocolate cream cheese frosting". Amazeballs. Candace Nelson went on some random talk show called 'Home with Lisa Quinn' in 2009 and divulged her recipe. I tried it once and thought it was a miserable fail. I actually threw out the cupcakes (gasp!). I recently decided to give it another go and see if I could figure out what I did wrong. I have no idea what I did this time, but they were amazing. Just like in the store and I couldn't be happier! Now if I could only get Crave to divulge their white chocolate macadamia cupcake recipe I'd be money! Here are my version of the Sprinkles cupcakes:

Recipe
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes (from Sprinkles owner Candace Nelson)

1c flour
1t baking powder
1/4t salt
6T butter, softened
3/4c smooth all natural peanut butter
1/2c dark brown sugar
1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1t vanilla
1/2c whole milk
2c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4c butter, softened
1/2c cocoa
 powdered sugar
heavy cream

Preheat to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and blend until smooth. In a small bowl, combine mils and vanilla. Alternately add flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into liners and bake about 22 minutes. Cool completely.

For the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and butter. Scrape down sides. Add cocoa powder. Beat until well mixed. Add powdered sugar and heavy cream until desired consistency is achieved. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Buddy Bites Seabrook, TX

I recently saw an ad in the monthly local coupon booklet for a doggie bakery in Seabrook (where I live). I drive by the address they were listed at on a regular basis so I was confused as to why I had never stopped in, being that I spoil my dog beyond rotten. When Jesse was visiting I remembered the coupon I had cut out and we stopped in to check out this place, Buddy Bites. Turns out it is in half of a building shared with a dog grooming company and the grooming company sign dwarfs the bakery sign, so it was no wonder I had never seen it. We went in and it's set up just like a bakery with the display cases. There are items for sale by the item and by the pound. There are also dog accessories along the wall. I got Baloo a leash as well as a woofie pie, pup pop and a few others (told you he was spoiled). He inhaled everything, of course, except the cheesy bites because they molded over before we go to them. My advice to the company is to sell the more delicate things in sealed bags instead of the tied closed bags. other than that, Baloo is one happy customer:

Baloo's birthday is at the end of the month so maybe I'll have them make him a cake or something. Check out Buddy Bites if you're in Seabrook, their prices are reasonable and they make organic and locally sourced yummies!
Enjoy!

Vichy Bonus Birchbox

So, last month in addition to my subscription box, I received a bonus Vichy Birchbox full of samples from the Vichy company. This sucker was not only a surprise, but also FREE! I'm loving this Birchbox company more and more. Here's a look inside:

Pretty sure this was a sponsored box, but still pretty cool to have the hookup from Birchbox. If you haven't signed up yet, I highly recommend it, this product only gets better (in my experience).

Ooh La La Cupcakes Katy, TX

So I've finally tried what I consider to be the last major cupcakery in Houston! I stopped by Ooh La La Cupcakes on my way home from Austin in February. I was very impressed with both their flavor selection and taste! Too bad they're all the way out in Katy (where I never go). Note: they are not just a cupcakery, they sell pies, cookies, cakes etc. But you know I roll cupcakes so that's what I tasted.

Storefront:

 Cherry Limeade (a la the Sonic beverage) mini cupcake:

Smores cupcake:

Peanut butter cup cupcake:

These cupcakes are ginormous so the $3.25 price is justified. I wish more places offered delicious minis (they are hard to keep moist due to the large surface area exposed to the air)- they're very convenient when you want to try lots of flavors. I give this cupcakery an A+ and I wish they would move more South east ;)

Austin, Tejas

Over President's Day weekend I visited Austin with my friend, Rob. Nothing like celebrating by going to where some of my least favorite presidents and presidential candidates served as governors... The last time I was in this fine state capital, I saw very little of the city since Christine and I were basically doing a drive-by on her mad dash out of Texas. I wanted to make sure I saw more than 6th street this time around, and we did! I still think several more trips are in order because I love this city, but that's for another day.

We started things off with an adult bev at the Jester King Brewery a little outside downtown. Things were really festive with a 2 washboard band:

Brewery:

Inside by the bar:

The creepy taps:

There was also a food truck for pre-drink coating, Chilantro BBQ and while I was skeptical of its self-described "Korean-Mexican fusion", I was beyond pleasantly surprised with the flavors in my pork quesadilla with "Caramelized kimchi, Bulgogi, cilantro, onion, Chi'Lantro salsa, magic sauce and sesame seeds"! If you are in Austin, you must hunt down this food truck!

That evening we went to Papi Tino's for some Mexican food. I don't have any pictures because it was so dark I could barely read my menu. Food was very good but the place was super tiny and crowded. We then ventured out on 6th street to see the shenanigans of the night. Cops were out in FULL force, I guess since it was so close to Mardi Gras.

The next day we went in search of food around lunchtime and came across a bar called Jackalope. I ordered a most interesting Pulled Pork Pizza. Definitely a wise decision. It was so big it took up most of the table and I definitely didn't finish it, but it was crazy good. The service was eh, but I think she had a lot of tables to cover and we weren't in any sort of hurry.

Yummy eats:

 In case you were wondering what a jackalope might look like:

Next, Rob agreed to go to the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary with me! I love zoos! This was a very small zoo with lots of random animals, but very cool in that you are super close to all the animals since it's so informal. And it had me experiencing flashbacks to St. Mary's College with all the peacocks that were running around.

They had a ton of wolves and husky/wolf mixes:

 They totally knew I was coming:

 Lemur:

 Lioness napping (no zoom):

 Jaguar chilling in the sun (again no zoom):

 Mountain goats escaping the pigs in their pen:

 Crazy peacock on the move:

 Rob and I at the zoo:

 Tiger nap:

We wanted to scout Lady Bird Lake and the running trail situation and possibly check out the bats emerging from congress st bridge. Austin has the largest urban bat colony in America. In the summer you can see more than 1.5 million bats emerging to eat at dusk! We were there in February when most of the colony is still in Mexico, but we were still able to see a few bats emerging at dusk. At literally the exact time listed for sunset, streams of bats began emerging from under the bridge:

For dinner that evening we hit up Parkside. I had read that the chef was one of the youngest to ever create a 5 star restaurant and the pastry chef was winning awards left and right as well. Can't really beat that! I had the butternut squash soup and we ordered the apple cake for dessert. Everything was crazy good, and while we didn't actually get apple cake, I think what was served to us was even better: some sort of apple tartarin with creme fraiche and caramel sauce.

We then went in search of an off 6th street drinking hole and came across a Texas bar called Shiner's Saloon. There was a good country band playing when we walked in, but I think we were catching them at the end of their set. The decor in this place was pretty amazing. Lots of leather, hides, and wood. I was drinking cowgirl juice.

Skulls, hides, and leather arm chairs, very Texas:

 The huge mural along an entire wall:

The next day we were finally able to meet up with Mary (friend since elementary school) and she showed us some really awesome spots that she likes. I needed to get my cupcake fix, so we went to the Hey Cupcake! food trailer to sample their wares. The cupcakes were really good, but their menu variety was dismal. Simple the usual vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, and carrot. Not a lot of imagination there, which is surprising for Austin!

Mary took us to one of her fave places to eat, Trudy's, to get fried avocados! Normally I try to steer clear of fried anything, but this was an amazing decision. It's not something I've seen anywhere else and was really well done. No pic, I ate it too quickly, but you can check it out on their website. We then traveled to Rio Rita's, easily the least pretentious mixology bar I've ever been to. They make all their own infusions and had some seriously inventive drinks on their menu. 

 Barely noticeable from the street:      Note the vintage couch:

So, Austin is amazing and I already want to go back. Why did I move to Houston again??? One last view of the capital on my run around Lady Bird Lake: