Draft Day

So I joined a Fantasy Football league the other week. Yeah, I have no clue what I am doing, but I am rolling with it. Some current and previous co-workers along with a few others make up Prince Pacey's Grand Prix 12 team league. My team is named "Heisenberg's Heroes" in reference to Breaking Bad (which I am almost done re-watching the entire series and am pretending to contemplate moving to New Mexico based solely on the gorgeous scenery shots from the show...but any way...). Another BB themed team name is "Los Pollos Hermanos". I think half the fun of this whole thing is coming up with your name! I stressed for a bit before deciding on mine and I know that not everyone will get it, but hey, watch Breaking Bad and you will :) Did you see how many Emmy's they just won??

Prior to the draft day I attempted to do some research to educate myself on how this whole thing works. Nearly everything I read or watched instructed you to pay attention to the bye weeks when drafting players. If half of your team has the same bye week you will in essence be screwed that week (no one to play = no way to earn points) and therefore fall in rankings. It was also stressed that selecting your kicker last was the way to go--I deduce that they are not major point makers and thus do not deserve much thought in selecting. Otherwise I was at the mercy of the information that Yahoo provided regarding potential points and rankings (this league is set up through Yahoo). I ended up with Drew Brees as my quarterback so I am pretty pleased with that. I got another Saints player, Pierre Thomas, and a former Saint, Darren Sproles as well. Other than that I really don't have a clue who the players are on my team. My hope that this is a) fun and b) helps me understand the game better because I will be forced to pay more attention to how points are acquired and make decisions about my players each week. 

I have downloaded the app on my phone and now have a little less than a week to figure out how to adjust my roster before the first game of the season! Woo hoo for American football!!

Chickpea Cookies

Chickpea cookies...yes, you read correctly. Do not adjust your monitors. Your eyes have not deceived you. These are chickpeas added to other tasty ingredients to create delicious cookies!

Movie Sarah shared this recipe with me and I was pleasantly surprised by how they turned out. The purpose of the chickpeas, or as they are sometimes called: garbanzo beans, is to replace any flour type ingredient. Mixed with peanut butter (or any nut butter of your choosing), vanilla, baking powder and agave (or honey) until a dough like consistency is achieved, you then stir in chocolate chips, form into balls and bake. Simple as that. 

Now, these are not like normal cookies in that they do not really dry out or spread much. The oil from the peanut butter mixed with the pulverized chickpeas creates a very soft texture. You can see in the pictures above that the baked and the unbaked dough look very similar. Once they have spent about 10 minutes in the oven the chocolate is all melty and ooey gooey inside. It is like warmed up peanut butter, chocolate chip cookie dough that has no eggs and therefore no risk of salmonella! Score! 

If I had followed the recipe exactly I would have used "all natural" peanut butter which would have eliminated the oiliness of the cookies, but I just used the Peter Pan creamy peanut butter I had on hand. In theory, if prepared using the right things you could have yourself a gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, vegan dessert. While none of those things are top priority for me, I like that these are an alternative to a normal recipe and definitely up the protein factor of a sweet treat! Find the recipe here and let your taste buds be the judge!

An Evening With Zorro

I had the immense pleasure of spending last Friday evening with the one, the only, Zach -Zorro- Addison! Whenever I get to see him we always have the most fun! NOLA Brewery entertained us the first half of our evening as we socialized with a bunch of his pals. I discovered that the "7th Street Wheat" beer is quite tasty and the perfect antidote to a hot New Orleans summer night!

We continued our party at Tipitina's where I had the privilege of introducing Zach to the wonders of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes! Long live the electric cello :)

Culture Night

On Saturday, after running a few errands around town, Sara and I went to see The Hundred Foot Journey. What a sweet, charming movie! Not only was the lead character adorable, he was just the right amount of naive and confident, making audiences empathize with and thus root for him. As I am sure most people did, we left the theater hungry for dishes fancier than any chain restaurant could provide! After watching them whip up omelets, chicken tecka, and enough bechamel and hollandaise sauce to make any mouth water, we set out to find a late night dinner worthy of Madame Mallory's seal of approval. 

 

We chose the route of adventurous with Cafe Abyssinia, an Ethiopian spot Uptown that neither of us had tried before. Holy moly! We chose right! Since we arrived a little later than the normal diner, we had the restaurant to ourselves and thus the full attention of the two staff members. A nice older gentleman helped guide us through the menu, making recommendations, and explaining how the food would come. Sara chose a lamb course while I went with chicken. Both came on the same plate accompanied by injera (a sourdough-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture) that you use to eat the main course with instead of cutlery. To err on the side of caution, washing your hands prior to sitting down is a good idea :)

Pardon the poor photo quality:

It was nice to mark this place off of my "to try" list and I will be going back to try more! Seems like a good place to go with a few friends so that everyone can try different things. 

The Kings of Summer

I have not loved a movie so much in a long time. This was on my "to see" list but I do not recall it ever making it to any local theaters last summer when it was released. While scrolling through the OnDemand options I came across the title and did not hesitate to push play.

The Kings of Summer is a coming of age story enhanced by the right mixture of dry and smart humor and accentuated by unique camera work. The script was on point. The characters equally dreadful and lovable. I wanted to run away with them.

Check out the trailer:

And if my mini review sold you, feel free to watch the movie:

Pre-Season

Thanks to our UPS rep at work, a co-worker and I were given tickets to the second pre-season game of the year. The Saints beat the Titans in the first Dome game of the year. Some of the usual suspects got field time, but other veterans sat out, giving rookies a chance to prove themselves. 

It is always fun to watch games inside the Dome: Saints fans = the best fans! So much energy!

Robin Williams

Cori & I were savoring our French Quarter dinner when we heard about the untimely death of Robin Williams. It was pretty shocking news. To pay homage to his comedy we watched his Live on Broadway special with AV later that night. Having not watched any of Robin's stand up before, it was crazy to see how smart his jokes were and how intense of a show he puts on. The man had a good 17 water bottles on stage with him and sweat through his entire outfit! A few days later I re-watched The Birdcage and plan to doing some more classic viewings within the next few days. Very sad to lose someone who touched so many people's lives through their comedy and giving nature.

Wax Museum & Quarter

Monday afternoon Cori and I ventured to the French Quarter to see what we could see. It was nice to get to go during normal working hours so there weren't as many people out. Our first stop was at the Wax Museum. Neither of us had ever been, so we didn't really have any expectations. It turned out to be a walk through Louisiana history with a side exhibit of random creatures from literature. 

We were just waiting for one of them to blink and make a move! Wax figures are kind of creepy.

 I thought these were interesting bits of history about how names came to be:

 Scary, non-historically accurate figures

After our history lesson, we wandered around the French Market, and up and down the streets checking out little shops and art work. 

Well, which is it? | Cori discussing a piece with the artist

We stuck around downtown to indulge in a delicious seafood dinner at Tujague's. Cori having heavenly scallops and myself practically licking the bowl clean of lobster, wild mushroom gnocchi. While the restaurant was insanely chilly, forcing us to eat quickly, the meal was spot on! I don't eat in the Quarter often, mainly because parking can be such a pain, but also because I assume most spots are geared towards tourists, but I am discovering that there are some gems in the middle of all of the action.

Socializing

After our brewery tour we came back to NOLA to continue the fun. Made an effort to go to Pizza Delicious, but they were closed for an August vacation (I forget that places do that here: it is a slow month for the food industry), so we meandered to Booty's instead. The night took us to St. Joe's before the yawning set it. 

Lazy Magnolia

When Cori visited last week we headed east to Kiln, Mississippi to the Lazy Magnolia brewery. All breweries (at least the ones I have toured) seem to have a rule against air conditioning because this one was quite sweat inducing. Thankfully the other end of the brewery deal is multiple samples of a variety of beers! It all evens out I suppose.

As I already expected, I am not an IPA fan, so Sara ended up with a few extra samples in her cup! My favorite is still Indian Summer, but the Southern Pecan was tasty too. We took our complimentary glasses and purchased a few extra items including jars of honey, a t-shirt, couple of koozies, a keychain, and a bottle of mead that turned out to be less than tasty! 

Zucchini Bread for Days

AV brought the biggest zucchini I have ever seen back with him from Kentucky the other week. T'was a monster really. I had agreed to make zucchini bread with whatever he brought back so I am glad that I thought to re-stock the basics. I ended up multiplying my recipe by five to accommodate the 10 cups of grated zucchini this baby provided!!

For size reference I propped him up by a roll of paper towels.

 When it came time to mix the wet ingredients with the dry I ran into the dilemma of not having a large enough bowl. Luckily AV is an outside-of-the-box kind of thinker so he grabbed the smaller crawfish boil pot, sat it on a chair and we transferred everything into that! 

In the end we baked off eight loaves, a 9x13 pan and 8x8 pan. I took four loaves to work, put the other four in the freezer and we have been eating off of the other odd sizes. Yum!

Dining Out

I have enjoyed some excellent culinary outings across town. Photo graphic evidence follows...

Mais Arepas with the kitchen gals. 

Watermelon Mint Mojito & mini arepas sampler!

District Donut with Zack. 

Softshell crawfish, fried chicken liver with bacon, cheeseburger, and a red beans & rice donut. Sinfully delicious!

Mopho with Zack & Averill.

Porkbelly rice bowl. I had this twice in one week!!!

Sing!

I am super behind on posting so here comes a flood of things that have gone on in recent weeks:

Sara spent weeks practicing and rehearsing to perform in a musical show called Sing! on the north shore. Zack and I went to one of her shows and were blown away by the talent! The group moved from early twentieth century harmonies through the decades up to current hits. She is sporting a Pharrell hat in the last picture because she sang "Happy"!

Niceville

Last weekend I went on a little road trip to Niceville, Florida. What is in Niceville, Florida you may ask? Well, besides being home to the Eglin Air Force Base as well as the annual Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival (named for the fish, not the hair style), my college pal Whitney lives there with her adorable family! When the military moved the Babbs within driving distance of me I knew a visit was in order. I had not seen Whitney or Mike since their wedding in 2012 and thus had yet to meet their precious little girl, Presley. OMG she was too cute! Lots of "hi!"s exchanged between us as she checked me out and tried to figure out what I was doing in her house. 

Possibly the first picture of us taken in 2004 at Natural Bridge | Roanoke College didn't pair us up as roomies at first, but determination got us in the same Marion room eventually!

New Years celebration in DC | Graduation 2008

Whitney visited me in NOLA 2010 | Wedding day 2012

  

The Babbs :)

It was so nice getting to catch up and reminisce about the good ol' days in Salem while getting to know Presley! My goal is to not let another 2 1/2 years go by before seeing them again!!