Beauty, Gardening and Food: Perfect Austin Weekend

There are two specific reasons this was the perfect weekend...the first one is my 7-year old daughter.  The second on is my 7-year old daughter. 

Our men (son and father) were off in Detroit for son's 10th birthday trip...yeah, don't ask.  He was born there and it's been a dream of both of theirs for a while.  They've been having a blast, which is all that counts.  So, anyway, this ended up being a girls weekend, and we tried to fit in all of the things we both wanted to do--as well as all of the tastes she has on her list.

For a couple of years now our daughter has said that she is going to grow up to be a 'food taster', which sounds perfect to anyone she tells this to...their eyes go a little dreamy, and you can tell they are thinking to themselves, "God, that sounds so good.". They are, to a person, just a little jealous of this dream.


So us girls spent yesterday getting our hair done (she got red stripes), having lunch (great veggie burgers at PTerry's), then dessert at another place with an old friend (blueberry chocolate brownie with almond ice creme, THUMBS UP), then massages at Milk & Honey--they were awesome.  We stopped by Whole Foods for big bakers, avacados and cheese (blue and gouda), then home for dinner and  a movie. 

Today we got up late, breakfast ala Starbucks, then to "The Great Outdoors" for plants and then we spent a very happy afternoon planting about 25 plants in various pots...beautiful weather, and according to daughter, the "best work day ever!".  Shower, lotion and getting 'prettied" up, and then out to a "fancy" dinner at Olivia on South Lamar.  She had gotten her chocolate and cheese, but wanted "...to try some more new things, so everything has to be new to me at dinner".

Our daughter had the grilled escargot skewer with mashed potatoes (THUMBS UP on both), then we shared the cheese plate (surprisingly THUMBS DOWN on the cheese...).  Here is the thing, she loves blue cheese, and any other cheese with big taste...for some reason, the Brazos Valley Blue and the Tarentaise didn't do it for her.  I, however, was very happy.   I had the beef carpaccio, which we both thought was excellent...definately THUMBS UP.  For our mains, she had the Kobe Shortribs with Truffled Risotto, and she was in heaven...especially the sauce..."Oh, my god this is so amazingly awesome." I had the rabbit-mascarpone ravioli with brussel sprout greens and pancetta creme...OMG...so very, very good. And she loved it as well.  I had a lovely la valentino peccorino and she had a peach juice/sprite concoction which was excellent. The owner or manager came over and complimented her palate and actually applauded her sense of adventure, which I thought was fantastic--earned my everlasting gratitude for supporting a growing 'foodie'.

All in all it was a 'high-five" dinner--and while the escargot were not technically new as she's had them before, "these are on a skewer, mom" and so I caved.   We both came home with that great day, warm planting muscles, food coma feeling.  Next, our  jammies and settling down for a movie.  She keeps talking about little things from the weekend--the too big robe at the spa, the stick the escargot were on, the ladybug we found on one of the plants...and all of the different tastes...to her these are the things that made the weekend so amazingly wonderful. 

Then she asks me what made the weekend perfect for me,  I, honestly, say "you, mon sweet petite".  She rolls her eyes and tells me I'm a goof. 

Seriously perfect weekend.