Kenobi

Our new fave restaurant is Kenobi, a sushi place at the Arboretum. They have a rockin' $2 [yes, that's two dollars!] happy hour on Monday nights and a really cool modern asian bar area. You know, the kind that plays groovy latin electronica for upscale hipsters. Their rolls are ok, the sushi pretty good, and the beef yakitori excellent.

And for a grand total of $37.23, we had:
1 bowl edamame
1 chicken yakitori appetizer
1 beef yakitori appetizer
1 pork dumpling appetizer
1 bowl fried calamari
3 pieces sushi
1 spicy tuna roll
2 lemon blueberry vodka cocktails
2 domestic beers



Kenobi Lemonade

Beef Yakitori

Calamari with 2 kinds of sauce.

The last of the pork gyoza dumplings.



Unhappy Karma in a paper hat that we made for her.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Tony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, besides being a highly amusing read, is a great resource for simplified french bistro recipes. He's got a really easy recipe for the french classic boeuf bourguignon, and I modified it a little to add some of Julia Child's techniques. Boeuf bourguignon is basically a glorified pot roast with A LOT of wine in it. The key is to sear and brown the beef cubes before adding the vegetables and liquids.

Here's my ingredient list:
2 lb beef roast (I used chuck)
1/4 C olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
2 tbsp flour
2.5 C red burgandy
6 carrots, chopped
2 C beef stock (used Jimi's homemade semi-demi-glace mixed with water)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bouquet garni
salt & pepper

Four hours later and... voila! Meat that falls apart, swimming in a thick rich sauce. Serve with a crusty piece of bread and a big glass of red wine!

Pumpkin Carving Day 2

I convinced Jimi to join me in my pumpkin carving madness. He opted for a traditional theme, but I continued with my "alternative" designs. Here are the tools of the trade, a pumpkin carver from HEB and a cheap wood working tool from Hobby Lobby. I also used a large nail for the eye pupils.


Michelle's before...

Michelle's after...

Jimi's before...

Jimi's after...

All in a row before...

All in a row after!

Jimi's Birthday & Pumpkin Carving Day 1

For Jimi's birthday, we had a crab boil. Got some live dungeness crab & Kirin from the chinese market down the street and boiled them out back.



Chocolate mousse birthday cake from Central Market.


I found some pumpkin carving stencils on this cool web site and decided to do a non Halloween themed design. I hadn't carved a pumpkin since I was about 12 years old, but this one turned out really well. I didn't go to art school for nothin'!

Livestrong Challenge

My brother, sister-in-law & nephew came into town for the Lance Armstrong Foundation Livestrong Challenge on Saturday morning. The weather was fabulous, and I think around 3-4,000 people showed up. A lot of people wore "in memory" and "survivor" cards, and some of the stories were really heartbreaking. Some of the sick kids who were unable to walk were carted around in rickshaws, and the crowd threw up a big cheer when they passed.








For the rest of today's pics, go to our Flickr site.