Austin calls my name...

I've really enjoyed the opportunity to take a quick 3 hour drive to Austin every few weeks! I love being in Austin, it's such a different scene from Dallas. There are really fun people and new experiences that I find there.

This past weekend was pretty awesome, just like always. My friend and I went for a quick run around the neighborhood which always feels great! I love getting up early in the morning and start my workout in the dark, then finish with the sun rising. It makes me feel so accomplished. Seeing the sunrise is truly one of life's most breath taking experiences. :)

After our workout, we went and volunteered at a community garden. We made soil chocked full of peet, dirt, compost, and minerals. Grow little seeds, grow!! I helped to plant broccoli, leeks, pingting eggplant, and Bibb lettuce. It was really fun! More fun than I expected...and I didn't get too muddy! The group of volunteers from the previous built this greenhouse...it is pretty awesome! It makes me want to follow through with starting a garden and building a chicken coop. (Did I just say that?)

This greenhouse is holding18 flats of baby seeds! I hope all of them get a chance to grow! :)

If I remember the leader's name...I'll update this post! She was so sweet and encouraged me to come back again. Thank you...I will be back!

Interjection:

Can I just take a quick second to say that the divisional games were such an upset to me. Good thing I didn't bet on any of my teams! I knew that Denver didn't have a chance, but I like Tebow..so I was rooting for them. So girly of a way to pick a team...I know!!! I'm going to have to choose a team that I want to go to the Super Bowl, any suggestions?

OK, so back on topic. One of the nights we decided to do a progressive dinner. We started at a co-op brewery with some really tasty beer and a yummy cheese plate.

Brie, Manchego, Blue...and 2 others.

Second, we went to a sushi restaurant called Uchicko. We were sat at the sushi bar, which is my favorite place. It's a great place to sit and watch all of the sushi chefs make the different types of cuisine. For Dallasites, this place was like TeiTei Robata Bar! We started with tempura nasu which is tempura eggplant, which was pretty good. my favorite part of the meal was the Roasted Golden Beets....

The beets were so tender resting over a bed of sykr yogurt (kinda like Greek yogurt, to me) topped with bitter greens, honey, and fresh cracked black pepper. HEAVEN!!

Let me introduce you to the SHAG roll: tempura fried salmon roll, sun dried tomato, sumiso, spicy sauce. yummmm...

Well I hope that you're hungry now!! More about my trip to Austin in the next post! I'm really trying to be better.

XO from the Big Little City in Texas,

Laura