Bone Chilling Fun. #MusicMonday

Aloha Sizzlers! I hope your weekend was great, and I hope you're feeling rested, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I was basically a vegetable all day yesterday, but I haven't had a day to do "nothing" in a WHILE, so I think I'm fully re-fueled. 

MainSqueeze and I had a very busy couple of weeks. Lots of dinner, dancing, laughing, catching up with amigos and general pre-holiday hustling. 

So I wanted to tell you about this band that we saw Friday night. 

Every once in a while I'll catch a show that I was expecting to be good, but then I'm totally blown away. MainSqueeze and I were exhausted Friday night, but we were dressed for Halloween and I really didn't want to miss this band. 

We drove to the show bleary eyed from sleep deprivation and hustled into Fitzgerald's to catch the last 30 minutes of the show. We clambered up the stairs to the second floor and were greeted by zombies, slutty princesses and a couple Grinches who were too cool to dress up. 

We meandered into the crowd and found the perfect space. And then I was struck by the sound. Shovels & Rope is a husband/wife duo from South Carolina who have some of the most incredible sound I've seen live. Carey Ann Hearst has a voice that stays in your bones, and her talent goes beyond singing. The two together create a full, beautiful sound that tricks you into thinking there's a full band on stage. I laughed, I clapped, I even got teary eyed. It was such a pleasure to see these two rock it out. I HIGHLY recommend seeing them live. Such a treat. 

And just to start your Monday off right. Here's a pic of my Halloween costume complete with two baby pugs. My good friend and her husband had us over pre-concert to see their precious new babies "Mac & Cheese."

I had the perfect Halloween night, puppies, good friends, and an amazing show. These are the days of our lives, amigos. Stay tuned again for more recipes, #nomcity reviews and a couple Holiday treats!

Ears Perked.

Bonjour Sizzlahhhs. I'm enjoying my time here in Hawaii, so much so that I'm absolutely dreaddding coming home. I can't wait to share all my island adventures with you! I've been busy in the kitchen too, so plenty of recipes comin' atcha too!

For now, I want to give you a Monday night ear snack. There are some things I think you need to be listening to. I have embedded some videos for you for songs that are live recordings and won't be available on Spotify/iTunes/etc. Then I'll include a link to the playlist I've been spinning the most these days. 

1.) If you know me, you know I'm a FAN of Jack White. I find him terrifyingly talented. By terrifyingly, I mean that I think I would actually be terrified to meet him in person. I'd melt into a puddle of jelly and lose my ability to speak. I'm also fairly certain he is not totally a human. The video below is of a performance in a French Chateau. Does it get any better? As a self-proclaimed francophile, the answer is a resounding 'non'. You can definitely hear the Nashville creeping into his new album Lazaretto, and Mama likey. Enjoy. 

2.) If you still know me, you also know that it doesn't get much better than Iron & Wine. I was lucky enough to see them at Fitzgerald's a few years back and it was just unreal. I also find him wildy talented and will make my children listen to him. Here's a real treat of him singing in Gruene Hall. I love it. You should too. 

And now for TheSizzles September Sizzle playlist.  CLICK HERE and follow it so you can check out what I add in the coming weeks. September is also my birthday month, so it's just special in general, because DUH. 

So there you have it. A #musicalmonday for you folks. I hope you enjoy and I'll be back this week with a recipe and an adventure! 

happybirthdaymonthtome, 

Tuesday Tune-Up

Sizzlers, 

It's time again. For Tuesday Tune-Up and for TEAM USA! The World Cup has given me heart palpitations, heartache, excitement and the great desire to run very fast for 90 minutes and pretend to be a world class athlete. Right?

In the midst of my unpacking frenzy and general life nuttiness, I thought I'd take a few to tell you about 2 things. 

1. Treats.

2. Good tunes.

Great combo. Treats and tunes are two of my favorite things. 

1. The "treat". 

Summer must.

For those of you who know me personally, you know I have a little obsession...With leopard/jaguar print. The phrase " as far as I'm concerned, leopard is a neutral" has crossed my lips (though originally it was coined by Jenna Lyons, who is amazing). So you can imagine my excitement when I was sitting at The Swell Cafe in Mission Beach with MainSqueeze, flipping through a local magazine when I saw the absolute gem pictured above by Maslin & Co. This company does animal print, and they do it WELL. Tasteful, classy, with the perfect touch of funk. Find these gems here.  

2.) The tunes. 

I don't know about you, but seeing all the pics from #FPSF, Glastonbury, Coachella, etc. I've been jonesing for some live music out in the sunshine. 

My last night in Hawaii. Amazing sunset (and the company wasn't too shabby either...!!!)

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to sit outside in the sunshine and listen to live music. One of my favorite live performances was in Austin, 2010ish(?) and Band of Horses played an incredible set as the sun started to sink off into the horizon. Unreal. I'll never forget it. I know you've all had an incredible concert experience, no? 

So, my friends. I leave you with a link to my Spotify profile where you can see my playlists. They range from what you want to listen to when you're having a cold brew outside, to what you want to listen to when it's raining and grey out. CLICK HERE FOR EAR CANDY.

Next on TheSizzle we'll talk about #NOMZ. All the vacation nomz I had, all the nomz I've had in between, and nomz to come in the future. Thank you for your patience during my flurry of craziness! 

Up & Away

Bonjour Sizzlers, it's been a heck of a week! The Spurs won last night (yeehaw) and I'm off on another trip tomorrow. This time I'm going on a beach vacay to see one of my college besties get hitched! I'll be FL bound in the am and MS gets to come too. 

In the meantime, I'd like to give you the full Hawaii/San Diego experience, so I'm working away on those posts. BUT I won't leave you empty handed. And now, I introduce to you....Tuesday Tune-Up. 

Below you will find a short list of some of my favorite tunes for the week...I hope you enjoy, and you can always just follow TheSizzle on Spotify to check out our musical side! I'm working on my blog intricacies, but all the songs are clickable and will send you to the music!

EAR SNACKS:

Hozier- From Eden

Whiskey Wit- Kwesi Kankam

Badfish- Sublime (I mean obviously)

All I Need- The Cerny Brothers

Baby- Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti 

You Go To My Head- Oscar Peterson & Louie Armstrong

All I Want Is You- Barry Louis Polisar

Fur Coat Blues- Jamestown Revival

River Water- Moon Taxi

I Got Loaded- The Wood Brothers

Let's Get Lost- G-Eazy, Devon Baldwin

Stolen Dance- Milky Chance

Cigarettes and Coffee- Otis Redding (oldie. goodie. makes me tear up a little in the best way)

I hope you enjoy, I will be instagramming on my trip and enjoying every single second. Because that's what life is for. The little seconds. It's too short not to. 

A Belated Weekend Rundown

Amigos, my apologies for being so quiet! We've been suffering from a bout of insomnia and literally are walking zombies at this point. If this post goes off the deep end, you'll know why!

So this past weekend I went to Galveston to visit a dear friend of mine. We nommed, we danced, we girl-talked, and sat in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was glorious.

Crab tower at Olympia Grill. 

Saturday consisted of driving back into town and eating Vietnamese crawfish and shrimp with my Mama for a pre-Mother's Day celebration. We tried 88 Boiling Crawfish. It's way out West, and we ordered to go. I highly recommend. 

#nomcity

Sunday morning I snuggled up with my sweet sweet puppy and Mama and I had Mother's Day Brunch. We picked up authentic deliiiiiicious Mexican Carnitas and I surprised Mama with one of our favorite desserts. The fruit tart from Central Market. It's super fresh, and the crust is almondy, and if you don't know how much I love anything almondy, then you don't know me well enough. 

Central Market Fruit Tart

Sunday afternoon was lazy and perfect, it included Pondicheri, pool time and catching up on cleaning and organizing (one of my favorite things). 

Iced latte and a delightful confection with blackberries, orange and quinoa. 

Anywho, this week has been an insomniac whirlwind as I start revving up for my big trip! I'll keep it a secret till it's time...Gotta keep y'all interested, right? 

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a wine recommendation and a playlist that'll keep you light on your toes. Click here for the list! 

Stay awake Sizzlers, I'll be back tomorrow with the most delicious dinner spread you've seen in a while. Send me sleep vibes!

Friday Essentials

Hola Sizzlers! I hope yesterday's post didn't leave a bad taste in your mouth, but I couldn't not tell you about it. I do have some exciting things up my sleeve for today and the weekend though, so perk up!

Last night me and some amigas headed to Uchi for HH. I wanted to enjoy the HH and decided to stow my phone away and refrain from pics. BUT I did snap a photo of my beer. If you read my previous beer/wine post, you'll remember the Kitachino Nest Beer I am obsessed with. Well, last night I tried a new one and it was bombtastic. 

sheer delight.

We tried everything on the HH menu, and everything was fantastic. My stand-outs were the Uchiviche, the Wallu Wallu, and the Machi Cure. #Nomcity. 

Now for weekend plans: 

-Sunshine

-Crawfish

-Tunes

Click here for my favorite sunshine/pool/happy day playlist. 

If you're in doubt this weekend and need some suggestions,I give you this:

-Go walk around the Menil Collection, then drive/ride down the road and have a cocktail at LowBrow. 

-Take your dog out for a walk and head to West Alabama Ice house for a cold one. 

-Hit some balls over at Memorial Park Driving Range or meander to the sand volleyball courts and see if you can catch some court time.

This weekend in Spring, TX, the Texas Crawfish Festival is going on and there are some great bands playing. So if you catch a wild hair head on out!

Have fun, be safe, use your SPF, call a cab, eat like a king and be happy. The end. Happy Weekend Sizzlers!