wild and crazy weather.

Today was a day for a classic dose of unpredictable Texas weather. Started the day beautiful, sunny, warm, highs forecast in the 70's. A lovely spring day. Still beautiful at lunchtime (birthday lunch at Kenny's Burger Joint for co-worker Kim) and we got back to the office around 12:45 or so. At 1-ish it gets cloudy & dark & starts raining. A little while later, the PA announcement is made that a tornado or severe weather warning has been issued for the area around the office. Then the tornado sirens go off. Then the PA announcement comes that we all have to seek shelter in the safe rooms within the building. So off we go, first to the xerox room and then to one of the training rooms, for about an hour. Finally the "all clear" and we return to our work stations. All the while I'm trying to contact Mike, Mom and other friends. No luck getting on the internet or getting a phone call through, and only about half my text messages were making it through.

Fortunately the storm passed us by, doing most of its damage in the southern part of the DFW area (around I-20). Arlington, Forney, and Lancaster were hit hard, and there was big hail at the airport and in the Coppell area. American Airlines says about 100 planes were hail-damaged, and my co-worker Christie's husband's car was hailed as well (in Coppell). But no deaths or serious injuries, so we are very lucky.

I'm glad that everyone is safe & sound tonight!

restaurant review: cowtown diner

Last night a group of friends went to Cowtown Diner in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. It's under new ownership/management and I'm not sure it's been a success yet.

We'd been there a couple of times before, under the previous owners, and the food was good but the service not so much. Tonight the food and service were both just OK. They had taken our favorite appetizer, deep fried deviled eggs (I know, it's a Texas thing but really they are fabulous!) off the menu! Fortunately they were still able to make them for us (so I have a feeling they will be adding them back to the menu soon). Good start. I had the caprese salad which is served with a tomato vinaigrette, not the traditional balsamic.  I guess I'm old school, because I don't think it did much for the salad. Among the other starters at the table, the spinach-artichoke dip and crab cakes were hits, but the broccoli soup was not.

For entree I had the rib eye. It was cooked perfectly, but on the small size (no way that was a 12 oz. steak). Side items were mashed potatoes (super smooth - like Betty Crocker potato buds smooth) and green beans that were overcooked. Mike's flat iron steak was very good; he got the same potatoes & green beans sides. For dessert, I had sopapilla cheesecake which was good but honestly, the one I make at home with crescent rolls and cream cheese is better.

The last two times we've been here, it has been very busy. Tonight, a Saturday night in the 80's, it was half empty. But even so, there appeared to be only two servers for the entire place, which meant that our server Megan was forever behind. She had a good attitude and really tried, but I think she was just overwhelmed. One more server on the floor would have made a huge difference.

After dinner we all (10 of us) piled into two horse-drawn carriages for a spin around downtown Ft. Worth. I've never done that before and it was really a lot of fun. The driver points out the sights like the Bass Performance Hall, and the people-watching is great! Then we walked over to The Cupcakery for a little sweet something to finish off the evening. Now that place was busy! A lot of people there and at the chocolate shop next door had the same idea as we had!

Overall a very nice evening with good friends, and a restaurant 3 out of 5.

today's cupcake: toffee crunch

For scrapbook group yesterday, I made these Toffee Crunch Cupcakes from Bakers Royale (via Pinterest). Let me start by saying they were delicious, but wow they were more work than I bargained for! (That'll teach me to read the ENTIRE recipe before I begin.) Basically it's a chocolate cupcake with a caramel frosting topped with caramel & chocolate drizzle, chopped nuts and toffee bits. The recipe instructions weren't in the correct order (which I would have realized had I read them all the way through prior to starting). The cupcake part was easy - basic chocolate cupcake, with the addition of espresso powder to really intensify the chocolate flavor. The icing was the tricky part: it's a cooked icing, which I rarely make, and very VERY soft. Not sure if it was due to the humidity or just the nature of the icing itself, but I chilled it for 30 minutes prior to piping and even then the frosting practically fell off the cupcakes. The recipe calls for the frosted cupcakes to be chilled and then dipped in a warm chocolate ganache, but the frosting was so soft I didn't think it would stay on the cupcakes for dipping, so I garnished with chocolate & caramel ice cream sauces, chopped nuts and toffee bits.

restaurant review: the french room

So, for a friend's birthday her wish was to have dinner at The French Room which is one of Dallas's most highly-rated restaurants: top of the Zagat ratings, AAA five diamond etc... It's pretty fancy (the men wore suits & ties) and I actually busted out a pair of panty hose (well, only because it was too cold to go bare-legged)! Anyway, it's in the Adolphus Hotel, one of Dallas's oldest hotels, and since it's not very big the wait for a reservation can be pretty long. We thought it would be nice to take Mom there for Mothers Day but the next available reservation isn't until the week AFTER, on May 19th.

But enough about that, how was it? Normally I don't make a judgement about a restaurant until we've been there at least twice. But I think I can safely say that this is a fabulous restaurant without waiting for another visit. They have a prix fixe menu (choose appetizer, entree and dessert) for $80 or the Chef's Tasting Menu (appetizer, two entrees, fruit & cheese course, dessert) for $110 or $165 with wine pairings. We both chose the prix fixe. First we were offered an amuse bouche/small bite of quail egg and beef tartare with a carrot-ginger mousse. Delicious! Next came my appetizer of pork belly with caramelized apple. Wonderful! Then came my entree of dover sole with swiss chard. Fabulous! After a palate-cleanser of apricot sorbet I had my dessert of a blood orange semi-freddo. Amazing!

I was amused to sit down to a place setting that included a knife rest (haven't seen one of those outside an antique store in a long time) and a bread plate with butter knife. As we went through the courses, the cutlery changed and we saw some rare and probably endangered species: demitasse spoons with the sorbet, a fish fork and fish knife for me with my entree, more specialty cutlery for others at the table, far beyond the usual salad fork-dinner fork-steak knife-soup spoon routine. The decor is a little over-the-top French: lots of gold leafing, cherubs painted on the ceiling, etc. but it works. The restaurant was full, but because of the high ceilings it wasn't overly loud and we had no trouble conversing with everyone else at the table.

The service for such a large group (10 of us in total) was very good with the exception of not being offered anything to drink if we didn't want wine. I had to ask three times for bottled water. For this reason only I have to take a little bit off the rating: 4.9 out of 5. I would definitely go back, especially with a smaller group. Maybe we'll take Mom for a late Mothers Day dinner?

today's cupcake: black bottom cupcakes

In exchange for help with a home improvement project, today I made Bakerella's Black Bottom Cupcakes. I'm a big fan of Bakerella's recipes - they are always delicious! On this one I'll have to take the word of my husband and my friend's husband since I don't like things with bananas. (I like bananas, just not anything made with bananas, like pudding, pie, cake, bread etc.) The cupcakes received two thumbs up from both the men so I take it they were a success!

restaurant review: ana mia's tex-mex

Second visit tonight to Ana Mia's Tex Mex a restaurant that's been open a couple of months. It's actually a new location for a small local chain, located on Preston & Parker, in the old Kirby's Steakhouse building. They've completely gutted the restaurant and it looks great! Very light & bright... The food is terrific! On our first visit last week, I had the camarones al mojo de ajo (grilled shrimp & veggies with garlic-lime) and this time around I tried the carne asada. Also ordered at our table were brisket tacos, carne asada tacos and the garlic-lime shrimp. Something unique is the tableside guacamole: they have a cart with a HUGE bowl of avocados that is wheeled to your table and the server makes your guacamole to order. It was excellent!

We think this could be one of our "go to" Mexican restaurants - can't wait to go back & try some of the other interesting things on the menu, like the rib eye fajitas or some of the fish dishes. A very good value for the price too - overall rating 5 out of 5.

today's cupcake: thin mint

Well, technically this was yesterday's cupcake, since I made these for the scrapbook group: these Thin Mint Cupcakes (via Pinterest). This recipe is a little more involved than the norm - more steps - but the flavor was excellent. I garnished them with some fresh mint which looked better IRL than it does in this photo. (I really need to work on my food photography skills.)

I don't think these were my favorite cupcake ever. I thought the chocolate cake part was a little on the dry side, not as good as the chocolate mayonnaise cake which is the best. chocolate. cake. recipe. ever. And there wasn't nearly enough frosting to do more than the tiny little dollop you see in the photo. These probably won't rate a repeat appearance.