Dad, What's For Dinner?

As some of you know, I still live with my parents. I love living with them. I know some people would be like "Okay! I'm 18,  let's get out of here!" I was never like that. I don't think I'll move out until I get married or have to move for work (IF I have to move for work). But for now, since I'm still in college, living with them is awesome. One of the best perks, besides getting to see my parents on a daily basis, is my dad's delicious food. Even if it's a simple dish, my dad makes it amazing.

So the other night I got home from the Austin Food Blogger Alliance HH and I was starving. My mom said just come home, dad is making dinner. When I pulled into the garage, I saw my dad cooking. We cook in the garage so it doesn't make the house smell. I asked, "Daddy, what's for dinner?" He said "eggs and rice are for dinner k?" I WAS DELIGHTED! I'm guessing you're like "eggs? REALLY?!" My dad makes these amazing egg "pancakes/omelettes" with some eggs, salt, pepper, and onions. Simple as that. I've loved it since I was a kid. We usually eat it with rice, but you can also wedge it in between some bread and it's awesome.

Daddy's Egg Pancake

My little bowl of rice and eggs =)

The joy of my night was sitting down for dinner with my parents and boyfriend, Jonhnny. It's rare that we all get to sit down and eat together because all of our schedules are hectic and different. I'm pretty lucky; I have the best parents in the world.

Food Photo(s) Friday - Piggie Goodness

Honey had a meeting at work yesterday and his manager bought everyone Rudy's (since it's right by Honda). There was enough to feed everyone and then some. So honey got to bring a bunch home for dinner. BBQ for lunch and dinner? I'm in! 

Brisket, Sausage, and Pork Loin

Piggie goodness ;]

Rudy's cup filled with their famous BBQ sauce

I could literally drink this stuff!

"MOMMY! GIMME SOME GIMME SOME!!!!"

Look at the little beast tryna sneak some

HEHE. Sorry Rudy's is too good for just one photo. =)

Road Trip to Houston

I had planned on leaving Austin @ 10:30AM, but the boys always lag! (GRR!) But that's ohkay. We still had enough time to hit up 3 eateries and HK4 in Houston. So that's 4 places in 4 hours. LOL. We did a lot of eating in a very small amount of time. Here are some photos of our food!

1st place: House of Bowls

6650 Corporate Dr
Houston, TX 77036

Curry beef and rice

Egg pancake and rice

Beef fried rice w/ an egg

Japanese style Ramen w/ seafood

Japanese style Ramen w/ beef (I think.. LOL)

Garlic and scallion chicken wings

(Food was AWESOME. My friends were right in recommending this place.)

2nd Place: Juice Box
9889 Bellaire Blvd #109
Houston, TX 77036

 Fresh fruit =)

Strawberries, watermelon, and mangoes w/ ice cream, shaved ice, and condensed milk

YUM!

The 5 of us shared this... It was massive!

Strawberry juice

(Now I know why this place is all the rage.. It was yummies!)

3rd Place: Thai Spice Asian Bistro

13602 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77083

Pad Thai w/ chicken and shrimp

Drunken Chicken

(Ehh. The food @ Thai Spice was ohkay. It wasn't the best Thai food I've had.)

Food Photo Friday - My Guilty Pleasure

Chick Fil A's Chargrilled Sandwich w/ Large Waffle Fries & Polynesian Sauce

(Please excuse my sloppy image. I couldn't help myself and started eating before I realized I wanted to take a picture)

I feel like I just ate my weight in Chick Fil A.

DELICIOUS.

Homemade Birthday Cake

28 =)

Happy 28th my love.

My little PHAMily

Our PHAMily of Domo-kuns; Julie Boolie Tran, Snuggles Tran Pham, and Jonhnny Pham =)

Our prizes from Dave & Buster's.. YAY!

Polkadots Cupcakes

A lot of my friends told me that I REALLY need to try Polkadots Cupcake Factory. I've been wanting to try Olga's cupcakes for quite some time. My boyfriend's birthday was coming up and I couldn't bake a cake for him in time for his birthday. I was thinking maybe I'll just bake a cake for him when we go to D&B Saturday. I figured he would be happy with a birthday cupcake (he's pretty easy going). On my way home from school, I stopped by Polkadots to get him a cupcake. I think I got there around 6:30ish, and luckily there were still yummy cupcakes to choose from along with the delicious chocolate and peanut butter cupcake (my cupcake of choice). I got Jonhnny something simple, yet adorable; the vanilla vanilla cupcake with cute colorful sprinkles on top. I told the lovely lady that helped me that the cupcake was for my boyfriend's birthday and she gave me a candle and offered me a decorative fondant that said "Happy Birthday." It was only $1. What a steal! I think the fondant made the perfect touch for honey's cupcake. My cupcake wasn't bad either. Chocolate cupcake w/ peanut butter frosting and chocolate drizzle. Oh yum. Not too sweet, not too much peanut butter. It was just perfect. My friends were right, Olga's cupcakes are amazing! Can't wait to go back for another cupcake.

Yum.. Look @ that drizzle and frosting =D

That is one cute cupcake!

The cupcake on his birthday Thursday night =)

Food Photo Friday - The Red Devil

We went to Imperia for honey's birthday instead of Uchi (kinda sad..), but the food at Imperia was DELICIOUS. I would definitely go here again. Here is a picture of my favorite roll of the night, the Red Devil. (Spicy marinated tuna rolled w/ black sushi rice and roasted bell peppers. Topped w/ spicy mayo and white angel sauce.) It's was delicious. I love that it had like a crunchy top. And the black sushi rice was easy on the eyes too ;]

& Happy birthday to my love, Jonhnny <3 =)

Houston for the day =)

Jonhnny had to go pick up some car parts today in Houston and another friend asked us to pick up some car parts for him also... So I was super excited to get to eat some good Houston food! We had Tan Tan off Bellaire and Ranchester and after lunch, I desperately wanted to try Crave Cupcakes since I saw them on Girl Eats World's (Linda) foodie blog.. YUM. When I got there, I was SUPER excited. I took out my camera like a little tourist and started snapping photos. The bakery seemed busy because everyone came in groups, but other than that, it wasn't that busy. I was curiously looking through the glass at their lovely cupcakes. As I was snapping photos, they were angrily asking to help whoever was next. I didn't appreciate that. Let me take in all the lovely cupcakes, don't ruin my mood. When I got to the counter, the young lady took my order... in an annoyed fashion. I asked her what was good, and she just told me something that she had seemed to memorize. Eh, wasn't the best service. I ordered two strawberry and two red velvet cupcakes. The strawberry was good, I liked that the cupcake was moist and had real strawberries in them, but I think the frosting was too sweet (always an issue for me). I've been to Sprinkles Cupcakes before and I thought the cupcakes were super cute too just like Crave's. But they both are just average cupcakes to me; not enough cake, too much sweet frosting, and a little too expensive for a cupcake. Don't get me wrong, they are delicious and beautiful cupcakes... Just not my perfect cupcake. Next time I'm in Houston, I might just go to Sprinkles since their cupcake makers and sellers are a lot sweeter. No pun intended ;]

Pretty cupcakes =)

Two Strawberry cupcakes, Two Red Velvet cupcakes =)

Cute box. Love the colors

Food Photo Friday - Dad's Fried Chicken + Soup

So last night my daddy made one of my FAVORITE meals; Daddy's fried chicken and his chicken and veggie soup. Dad marinates the pieces of chicken overnight and he pan fries it. 

Drooling yet? ;]

The best part of this veggie soup was that I got to help my dad make it. I got to spend quality time with my dad and make delicious soup! There's potato, carrots, some other veggie (I only know the name in Vietnamese), chicken breast, and green onions. The soup is so simple, but the veggies make it so sweet and flavorful. I love it. 

This is my definition of comfort food. Fried chicken, rice, and soup. Yum!

My lovely daddy with his pup Poppy =) I love my daddy <3

Valentine's 2011

So this is gonna be my first "official" blog. (I know I'm a little late, but just deal with it hehe) I don't know where to begin. I've been having a really good MONTH.. No scratch that.. Really good YEAR. What has contributed to my lovely year? I guess my significant other contributed to this. We've had our ups and downs in our two years of being together, but I think we're at a really good point in our relationship. Ok, ok I'm not gonna get all mooshy on ya'll. But for our two year annniversary in January, I got a little disappointed because all I wanted were roses and my boo didn't come through. Before Valentine's day, I told him I really just wanted to go out to dinner and I wanted some roses... 

On Valentine's day, I was rushing home from school so I could get ready for dinner. With my luck, I got stuck in horrible traffic from Stassney Lane all the way to Howard Lane. I was in traffic for about an hour. When I finally got home at 7:30PM, I hurried to fix my makeup and put on my sweetheart-strapless dress. Our reservations to Moonshine Grill were at 8:30.. I was FREAKING out because Jonhnny is never on time. I think he takes longer to get ready than I do! So come 8:00 my love arrives at my house and when I opened the front door, my jaw dropped and remained dropped for the longest time. 

Jonhnny, my JONHNNY... is not a mooshy lovey dovey kinda guy. He's not really the type to go out and buy girly gifts for his gal. But to my surprise, he came to my door step with a huge bag filled with gifts, roses (MY FAVE), and a cute ol balloon that they fill with a stuffed animal, chocolates, etc. I was overjoyed.. I couldn't even describe how I felt. 

So after being flabbergasted with gifts, we proceeded to dinner. I was making reservations at the last minute, but I was lucky enough to make reservations at Moonshine Grill. One of the BEST decisions I've ever made. The restaurant was so cute and the dim lighting made us feel very homey. As we sat down and observed the menu, our waitress, Devon, approached us with a warm smile. We were open for any recommendations she had.. She told us about the two specials they had for the night; Grouper w/ crab and a Peppered beef tenderloin w/ shrimp. I'm not big on seafood, but it just sounded so delicious! Jonhnny was like "babe you should get the grouper" and I agreed. We ordered the Moonshine "Corn Dog" Shrimp for our appetizer, and both of the specials. Along with our meal, Devon brought us the delicious cajun popcorn and yummy cornbread (Jonhnny's FAVORITE). Not only was the food good, but even the conversation we had with our waitress Devon was awesome. She was a dog lover just like Jonhnny and I. Great food, great convo, great DATE... Nothing better than that!

Everything was DELICIOUS. It was pricey... But I loved it. If this was a "once in a while" go to dinner place, I would not mind forking out the money for their food. 

Grouper w/ crab, peppers, and lemon butter sauce. 

Side of baked macaroni (w/ pimento cheese and bacon gratin) and delicious, sweet carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Jonhnny's Peppered beef tenderloin w/ onion strings and shrimp.

Side of steak fries and veggies.

Jonhnny and I cruising around downtown after dinner =)

We ended the night meeting our friends @ Trudy's. I had a Mexican Martini w/ top shelf tequila. I was pretty buzzed/tipsy. Oh what a night! It was the perfect Valentine's day.