Back from outter space

So, I decided to try to keep this from being the most boring blog in the world. I think I am going to give it another shot at being consistant and informative.

As of June 1, Ryan and I live in a hotel room in SW Austin, TX. He got a summer internship with a surveying company called SAM, Inc. He mostly likes it, and is learning a lot and getting good training. The plan is that he will continue working for them when he finishes school next summer.

In our little hotel room, we do have a kitchenette, with a 2 burner stove top, microwave, fridge, and sink. I am able to cook well enough, but sometimes I just need an oven. And wouldn't you know it, there is no oven in this place. I've begun my experiments with oven-type cooking on the stove.

We have found a really good pizzaria down the street called the PIZZA GARDEN, where they make gormet type pizzas and salads. We've gone there 2wice in the past 2 weeks, so you must know it's pretty good then. On our first visit, we ordered the Nyce Bryce, which has pizza sauce, pepperonis, garlic, basil leaves, and feta cheese. Thats it. And that is really all it needs.

So I tried to re-create this delicious pizza at home. On the stove. I used some tortilla-type flat bread, sauce, feta, garlic, (no basil), turkey pepperonis, and added black olive slices, quartered artichokes, and mushroom slices. It was, eh, alright. We decided that next time, I'll leave out the extra stuff and stick to the basics. The canned artichoke really covered up the flavor of the rest of it all. And I had to cook the garlic in oil, instead of roasting it in the oven. So we missed out on a lot of that yummy garlic flavor that really makes the pizza as good as it is.

Then, I tried to make a kind of fancy salad, a type of Mediteranian Greek Spinach salad. But the salad was a little old and wilted, so Ryan said it should be a Wilted spinach salad. What a GOOD idea. It turned out pretty good. I used slightly cooked spinach, tomato, carrot, cucumber, kalamata olives, feta cheese, artichoke quarters, and pepperoni slices.

In the end, we ate about half the salad, and half of the pizzas (I made 4). Ryan took the leftover pizza to work for lunch, and I ate the left over salad for lunch.

For my next trick, I'll attempt a type of casserole, and perhaps corn bread. But for dinner tonight, I'm planning to pan grill mixed squash, shrimp, rice, and probably throw in some Screamin Dill Pickle Pringles for good measure.


This part is a reminder for me to write about things in the future: Inks Lake camping trip, all the babies everyone is having, my dreams, Mexico, henna, being married, Austin, Corpus Christi, San Marcos, being unemployed, using a laptop, my guitar, ex-box 360, cell phones.