3 Part Post

Part 1

Dinner Party pictures are up! I don’t have them yet but if you want to see a series of pictures chronicling the entire party and don’t mind looking at good looking people eating good looking food then click here.

Part 2

I had the opportunity to eat at Hill Country tonight for a friend’s birthday. Hill country is one of the new set of restaurant serving what they claim to be authentic Texas BBQ. I use the word to claim because I don’t know that I’ve ever had authentic Texas BBQ. While the layout of Hill Country is a little confusing, the food is really pretty good. In order to obtain your meal at Hill Country you carry a tray around the restaurant cafeteria style, stopping at stations that serve meat, sides, drinks and desserts. You then get your card punched and pay as you check out. I suppose the system is based on the premise of southern hospitality, but if you manage to get a hold of an extra card it would be possible to sneak out of the restaurant without actually having to pay.

As for the food, the meat we tried was really good. The pork ribs were piggy, smoky and peppery and were not drowned in a pool of bbq sauce, that might otherwise obscure their s delicious meaty flavor. The moist (read fatty) brisket was indeed moist and mouth meltingly good and the Kreuz sausage was one of the best sausages I’ve ever had in a restaurant. The sides were a little disappointing and were not good enough to finish off once we had eaten our fill of meat. In the end, Hill Country is a great place to go if you like meat, a poor choice if you like veggies and an above average place to watch football (there’s a huge flat screen downstairs) if you find yourself craving meat and football.

Part 3

Unfortunately, I had to leave the party at Hill Country a little early. Not only is Monday night a work night, but I also had some late night cooking to do. I’ve decided to donate two tarts to be raffled off at the school bake sale this year and wanted to get a head start on the pate sucree.

As me and my friend left the party we ran into another friend just arriving (law students don’t have the same work curfew us normal people have) with two girls. The conversation went something (more or less) like this:

Unnamed friend: Hey you guys are headed home?
Me: Yeah we have work tomorrow.
Unnamed friend (a little perplexed and needing more of an explanation): Oh.
Me: Actually I have to go home and do some cooking
Girl #1: Oh, you’re the cook.
Me: I guess that’s me
Girl # 2: What are you making?
Me: I’m donating a couple of tarts to my school to be raffled off
Girl # 1: Will you marry me?
Me: Look I even have this in my pocket right now

I pull something out for the girl to look at

Girl #1: I love guys that carry those around

It was a vanilla bean. The funny thing is I have conversations like this all the time. I admit, I’m a little strange.