Food and Friday Night

Hello!  So it's Saturday, which means I survived my first week in Austin and at work!  I finished 2 training exercises at work, and I'm learning more and more everyday.  I think I'll get the hang of it soon.

So, first thing I want to share about is what way too many blogs already talk about: food. The following pictures were taken by my roommate and cooking partner, G.

Major Dish 1: Pasta
Last Sunday, we made our first dish, pasta! I made my own sauce and everything!  The sauce was bland, but it was pasta nonetheless.  And the garlic bread was mighty fine!

There's me cooking and my mom's on the phone.

 See, my Cooking skill is only like Level 3.  So I need a mentor, my mother, to help me through it and level up more.  It's actually really funny when I call her.  It usually goes something like this:
-call to Mom-
"Cooking Central!!!!!" (she's more excited than a kid when he hears an ice cream truck)
"Hi Mom.  How high should I have the heat for the sauce?"
"Put it on low heat, let it simmer, stir it once in a while!"
"Ok, thanks, call you back."
"Ok, let me know how it comes out!!11!11!!one!!!"
-click-
-5 minutes pass-
-call to Mom-
"Cooking Central, with love and kisses from Mom!" (she absolutely loves that her son calls her incessantly for cooking help)
"Hi Mom...I accidentally melted the butter for the garlic bread."
"That's ok sweetie, just spread it on there real well!"
"Alright, I'll try, thanks Mom."
"Ok, call me back and let me know how it tastes!!!!!"
-click-

Sometimes it goes on for a few more calls, but for brevity's sake, that's the gist of it.

Look, I have a cutting board and fresh basil.  I'm like Emeril Lagasse. Bam!

The finished product.

Major Dish 2: Blackened Chicken
On Monday, G saw a recipe for blackened chicken.  He took charge of this operation, and I assisted with making potatoes.  G did a wonderful job with the spices.  The chicken was super flavorful.  My potatoes were once again bland, but they weren't horrible.  Cooking Central suggested I just put 3 sticks of butter in the skillet and fry 'em up, but I like my heart, so I just boiled them. (Sorry Mom :D )

Tell me that doesn't look delicious.

Finished Product.  That's not butter on the right, btw.  Can you believe it?

Major Dish 3: Parmesan Tilapia
We had so much food, we didn't have to cook on Tuesday!  So on Wednesday, G and I tried our hand at tilapia.  We broiled it and put on this mayo/parmesan/butter/deliciousness coating on top of it.  The coating was supposed to brown, but I don't think it was close enough to the broiler. Still, very tasty, and many leftovers for Thursday!

Tasty, eh?

So yeah, that's been some of our food adventures.  I also made pancakes this morning.  But that was easy.  Anyway...


Friday Night
Friday night was out night!  The roommates, some co-ops at my company, and I went to this trailer park eatery to eat (it was pretty tasty), and then we went to this bridge across the lake downtown to "see the bats."  At first, I was like "Wtf, bats?"  But then as we went on the bridge, we saw tons of people...and then...the bats! <<< Click the link for the video I took.  The quality is awful, as I took it with my phone, but you can see the STREAM of bats!  It was so cool!  They were so close, I was kinda getting freaked out.  Click here for another video that explains more about these bats.  The quality is much better, too.

We also saw a guy on the lake fly a kite while watching the bats.  It was pretty cool, and after a while, he even got the kite to go within touching distance from us! It was all colorful, spinning, and had flashing lights.  I was so excited, I felt like I was 7 again.  I'll draw a diagram, cause I want you to know how much this guy was super good at controlling this kite.

So yeah, that was pretty cool.  In the interest of brevity, I'll just sum up the rest of my Friday night with some bullet points:

• Went into the city, absolutely packed, streets shut down, huge motorcycle fest.
• Went into a bar, live blues music! Pretty neat.
• Ran into a friend from U of I!!! What are the chances!?
• Chilled out at my place and played some games.

Well, I just wanted to share my first Friday night, it was kinda cool and weird, just like Austin!  Now to keep on keepin' on...being an adult an' stuff...