Recently I went to FINO with my long-term career counselor, Doug. It was my first time at FINO and I decided to try it out since I bought a gift certificate on Restaurants.com. If you hit their website at the right time you can get like 80% off of a certificate and it challenges me to try places I haven't been before. So, I got a $25 certificate to FINO for like $5 bucks. Not bad! Granted you have to buy two full entrees but it's totally worth it! One thing I didn't realize about the restaurant is that it serves a lot of Texas local meat, so I was happy to split a couple of entrees with Doug and I got to try several of their dishes; it was really good! The stuffed peppers wasn't my favorite dish of the night; it was good not great. Our server did a great job at suggesting wine pairings! Somehow I didn't get a picture of my favorite dish:
Za'atar & Roasted Garlic ChickenSpinach, Hazelnuts & AppleCurrants & Garbanzos. The chicken I will definitely be back for, the garbanzos were toasted and the chicken was flavorful and cooked perfectly! I'm not even a big chicken fan but I will crave this dish and can't wait to bring Brent in to try it. We liked it so much that Doug, in his usual extroverted fashion, raved about it to the table next to us and they both ordered it as well. I'm never that bold but he made an excellent recommendation! So, dinner was good and as always it's fun to catch up with Doug. Doug helped me find my place in the world a couple of years ago professionally. In this crazy world, if you find yourself soul searching for where you want to be/what you want to do, look him up! (His LinkedIn link is up top). Every time I meet with him he presents to me a simple yet brilliant challenge. Though he helped me find my niche a few years ago, I'm ready to spread my wings again and with his guidance, continue onward in my journey to be a Young-ish professional. I hope everyone is doing well out there and if not, head to FINO for some wine and food and I promise, you'll feel better fast.
2 Comments
So this was a big day for me (sigh), I got my first injections of Botox from eOs Dermatology and Med Spa today. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about doing this except for feeling very, very nervous. Did I say very? I felt myself turn green as I sat in the chair, seriously, but Dr. Rasmussen put me right at ease. I guess this act means my vanity is taking hold and I'm moderately okay with that. I mean, people do all kinds of things to make themselves feel better like diets, buy clothes or shoes, spend money, eat a comforting meal... so what's so bad about injecting botulinum toxin in your face?
Sometimes you just crave a burger OR a veggie burger. Might I suggest quenching such cravings on Monday or Wednesday nights. Hut's has 2-for-1 veggie burgers on Mondays and 2-for-1 burgers on Wednesday (but you can substitute veggie burgers on Wednesday, fyi). The hours for this bargain are from 6-10pm. Brent and I got out of there for under $11.00 including tip and it was delicious to boot!
Brent and I ate at G'raj Mahal for the second time last night and it was once again, delicious! This is one of the newest additions to the Austin food trailer craze and I love it. This spot isn't on Congress however and can be found on 91 Red River, over in the area of Lustre Pearl and Clive Bar, both of which I have yet to visit, but keep meaning to.
Anyways, here's my take on G"Raj Mahal. This weekend was full of relaxation, good company, and good food. We rounded out the weekend visiting with our friend Sara at Zocalo Cafe for brunch. Now that we have a car our radius of drive-ability has widened and I'm glad to be visiting some of those favorite places we haven't been to in a while due to the frigid weather. Zocalo is located off West Lynn which houses several Austin restaurants such as: Naus Enfield Drug (which has a sandwich burger spot in back), Jeffrey's, Galaxy Cafe, Caffe Medici, and another little Italian bistro Cipollina (which I haven't been to but want to try soon!)
Ok, I'm a few days behind my deadline of "getting back on track" with the blog. I've missed writing, no doubt, and things have been super busy in our house but it seems we are getting back to normal once again. So, I hope you all had great holidays and be prepared to see some serious backlog of blogs pop up!
Let's see, where to start? New in my world: a) Brent got a new job, hoorah and Happy New Year! b) Brent got a new job, therefore we got a new (to us) car! c) I'm not working for the Marc Katz campaign anymore and d) We got an awesome extension to our closet space thanks to Brent's new job and IKEA. (Brent had to finally feel my pain of lacking closet space before this beautiful addition was made.) Needless to say, our holidays were good! First of all I want to say how truly sad I am that I missed my very good friend's baby shower today. My heart longed to be there but due to our bout with flu I didn't want to risk infecting a pregnant woman since they are in the "high risk" category. For up to date information on the flu go to: TexasFlu.org. Buffalo ExchangeSo, after a restful day on the couch Brent and I decided to venture to Buffalo Exchange for some quick costume shopping. We knew exactly what we were looking for and thankfully we found it! I highly recommend this great store as they have lots of options for Halloween costumes, particularly since they have expanded the store. Also, it's oh-so-green to buy a used costume or used clothes so it pads your pocket book and either intentionally or unintentionally helps your green cause. I know, I know, I was just at Frank earlier in the week; you can see my other blog here. Sometimes you just can't get enough of a great thing though and it was the kickoff event for Flavors of Austin.
Of course your wondering, what is Flavors of Austin? Here's he explanation, directly from their site: FLAVORS of Austin: 52 Week Food Frenzy. FLAVORS of Austin: your chance to experience the best Austin restaurants at the best possible price. Each week we’ll bring you a new featured restaurant offering a discounted, exclusive, multi-course menu. It’s your opportunity to try new restaurants or re-check out your old favorites. Grab some friends and make a night of it! To make it even better, for every dollar you spend at a participating FLAVORS of Austin restaurant, a portion will be given to the Sustainable Food Center of Austin. Everybody has these kind of days... Life just seems too hard. You don't know why you bother to look at the bright side (sigh). Blame PMS, the economy, your inability to lose 5lbs, the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh for not solving the world economic woes yesterday, or the fact that starting a business is well, hard.
Then yesterday something happened, and I found my reason for hope in the oddest place. It was in the form of a gourmet hot dog place, Frank. This was an unexpected rainbow in my obviously down day and in one bite the angel's sang from heaven and light shown down on our small family unit. Don't ask me why, but Brent and I had to get up very early for a meeting today that began at 6:30 am. Thankfully one of our favorite local coffee shops, that's located in the Frost Bank Tower, was up and making the world smell good with warming coffee smells. Apparently they open at 6 am and Stephanie was there with her smiling face to make our morning start right. I've mentioned Texenza before here, and how you can get a great deal on coffee and latte's if you follow them on twitter. Now, about the food...
|