Chili & Chives

When Carl and I found out we were officially going to Dreamforce in San Francisco, the restaurant planning began. We quickly decided to try a Michelin-starred restaurant. For the other night, Carl said that he had to go to his favorite restaurant, Tadich Grill. We decided to make it an alumni affair. What I soon found out is that it is the longest-running restaurant in San Francisco. It's an old-school seafood restaurant with a very expansive menu with plenty of fresh seafood

The perfect Saturday plans consist of hours spent outside, a hot grill under the even hotter Houston sun, and meal with the family. Talal and I reserved 3-dozen gulf oysters for grilling - reminiscent of my first blog post. After what seemed like hours, we finally finished shucking the oysters. We threw them on the grill with melted butter and grated parmesan and left them until they bubbled and browned around the edges. I think we can all agree that almost nothing tops the t

When I want something light and want to grab a quick meal, I usually don't call Mikey up. We prefer our meals to be severely over priced, boozy and last at least 3 hours. But on a crazy day like today, I was just happy to leave work and catch up for a quick, light dinner. We met up at Seaside Poke where we get a big selection and great portions for the price. Pssst.. end your meal with the coconut rice crisps. I know they're green, but trust us! At Seaside Poke In Houston Wit

Talal and I always enjoy doing or trying new things. Crawfish was one of those new ideas a while ago. It's till fun for us to get the group together and crank out 30 pounds of crash at a minimum. Now that we have the crawfish pot, it's been easier to plan it. This time, we wanted to give shucking oysters a shot. At Roy's Super Bowl Cajun extravaganza, we learned about the intricacies of shucking and making grilled oysters. When i say intricacies, I'm being sarcastic. it's rea

I single-handedly decided that I want Valentine's picnics to be our tradition. Seeing as Valentine's day is a kind of made up holiday, it only seems fair to save some money. For some reason, though, I couldn't think of anything picnic worthy to make. I aimlessley walked around the store, while Talal worked on fixing his garage door at home. I settled on crabcakes and salad. It was a light, yummy option. Better yet, it was something new. Per Talal's request, we had cheesecake

We celebrated Tammy's birthday all week. We went all out! We had cake for breakfast, played Bingo, decorated her office, and went out to lunch. Friday morning was tough after my bad loss at Bingo the night before. Luckily, we planned a birthday lunch for Tammy. Technically, we just used Tammy's birthday as yet another excuse to eat out. Tammy chose Little Liberty in Rice Village. It popped up out of nowhere. Ok, technically it replaced Ruggles, but that's besides the point. I

It was the first full day in Boston. Tina and I woke up early and walked around to the Public Park, the Boston Commons, and Cheers. The park was beautiful. We stopped for a photo shoot. Cheers brought up some nostalgia, yet it wasn't what we hoped it would be. We walked for hours - miles and miles. Tina's foot blistered and I ached. We dropped by the hotel and I went to meet up with Mommy for lunch. It was a bit drizzly and very cold, so we decided to grab some New England Cl

Talal finally finished his PE Exam. He said it was tricky, but at least that burden for the last year is gone! To surpise him, I left work to buy a balloon, a bottle of champagne, and a UH Shirt (going to the game tomorrow). My surprise was lame. He made it at the same time as I did.. Luckily we were supposed to have a nice dinner to celebrate. We made our way over to Caracol. We walked in and the place was enormous. You can hardly see it from the street, yet somehow it is a

To start the new year off on a good note, I decided to treat my loved ones to Paella. It took almost 3 hours to make, but the result was amazing! And definitely better than any Paella I had in Spain! ;) I finally got to use the famous Paella spices that mommy brought me home when she visited Spain. (I forgot to use them the last time I made Paella). Since this was a special treat, I went all out. I used scallops, shrimp, cod, chorizo, and mussels. What I did differently this