Tag: food

Retro

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn SummerLeave a comment

Our last night in Corpus we had heard of this cool bar/restaurant that was family friendly. You could purchase a wristband and have unlimited game play for the whole night. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

We found out that on Tuesdays it’s taco Tuesday and they rent out their kitchen to a taco truck. We had our choice of Birria or Carne Asada tacos. We all chose Birria except for Hannah. They were the best tacos I have ever had. The plate came with 3 tacos, sauce and a bean stew. I couldn’t even finish mine.

Donny and I decided to eat up on the rooftop deck. The kids thought it was too windy so they ate downstairs. We loved it.

My favorite part, of course, were the pinball machines.

I caught Gavin playing the Iron Maiden one.

Hannah likes Guitar Hero.

There were so many different arcade games. Many that I remembered from going to the Quarter Deck which was our choice of game rooms in high school. The floor was see through down to the restaurant and bar.

If you just wanted to hang out and watch sports they also got ya covered.

I wish I would have gotten some pictures of Jackson, but he hates having his picture taken. He really liked this place too. We played air hockey and I think I’ve gotten him to like pinball. Well maybe.

Downtown Corpus has come so far. It used to be a place that you didn’t really want to go to at night. Now there are so many fun restaurants it’s hard to believe it’s my hometown.

I managed to snap a picture of this cool mural as we were driving back to our airbnb.

You really should visit Corpus Christi if you get a chance. It’s such a fun place and there really is a lot to do here.

These Days

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn SummerLeave a comment

I have not kept up on here like I usually do. Mainly because I am still experiencing nerve damage to the fingers of my right hand. It is getting better, but it’s such a slow process. It makes it harder to do everyday things and typing is one of them.

We are having a slow, very hot, summer. Here are a few things that we have been up to and as boring as they may seem, I still like to journal them so that I don’t look back on this time and think, what in the world did we do the summer of ’24.

Watermelon. Donny brought home this giant watermelon. It was huge. I was skeptical because it had seeds and I’d been seeing all of the videos about the awful, rubbery, disintegrating melons on social media. Y’all, this was the BEST watermelon that I’ve had in such a long time. The past couple of years we’ve only gotten the seedless variety and have been disappointed. If you like watermelon then go get the seeded ones. I think everyone has caught on because at our local grocery they had crates full of the seedless and they were on sale for $2. There were only a handful of the seeded ones left and they weren’t even on sale.

We have a little frog that hops into the corner of our patio every night and just hangs out there eating bugs.

The morning glorys around our bottle tree have come back and are doing so well.

We had to run to the mall to grab Jack a swim suit for our upcoming trip and I tried my first Korean corn dog. It was so good! I got the mozzarella one.

Milo is still determined to make friends with Monkey, but she is having none of it.

The cats are probably the only ones enjoying this hot humid weather. This is how they are living their best lives.

Jackson and I have managed to get out and go on our thrifting dates. I found a vintage rooster picture made with actual feathers in a hand carved frame. You know I like weird artwork that no one else has and it was only $1.

I also picked up this gold leaf frame, also $1.

Any time I find Talavera pottery I will buy it. I just loved this cross and it was only $3.

My very best and most favorite find that I’ve had in a long time are these Birkenstock sandals. I had debated between the Birkenstocks and the White Mountain ones for a while and ended up choosing the White Mountain. I had looked at these exact ones online, but in brown. Since I already had the brown White Mountain ones these silver ones would have been my next choice. These were in excellent condition and only $8.

If you have any cork sandals, I highly recommend getting the cork sealer. I found mine on Amazon and it really helps preserve the life of your shoes.

Now we’re going to keep an eye on hurricane Beryl. We leave in a week to head to Corpus Christi and our airbnb is right on the bay. Fingers crossed there’s no flooding.

Old Hwy 80 Sale + Easy Dinner

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Easy meals, Frugal Life, thriftingLeave a comment

For more than 25 years there has been a 392 mile garage sale than runs down old Hwy 80 from Texas to Georgia. People bring their trailers and just set up shop in parking lots and on the side of the road.

It happens twice a year, once in the spring and again in the Fall. I needed to run to Aldi today so I thought I’d take the back way down Hwy 80 aka Marshall Ave. The first one I saw were two very sweet ladies who told me that a lot of the vendors had packed up and left the day before because of the heavy storms. I’m glad I stopped because they had some cool stuff for sale. I ended up with a Buddha head and a cute little plant all for $2.00.

A little ways down the road I saw a whole parking lot filled with different vendors. There I found a lampshade, curling iron and a pretty summery blouse by Indigo Soul. I spent a whopping $9.00 there.

The lampshade worked pretty good on the lamp I was wanting it for. I like the fact that when you turn it on it looks like glowing little moon.

The Buddha head works well next to the stereo with my other brass objects.

I specifically got the plant for a flower pot that I had picked up several months ago.

When Donny got home from work we needed to run to the grocery. He’s been itching to find a plant for the rooster he got me for my birthday. It has been sitting in our living room and has now found its place outside. Please excuse the dead circles, we have moved a lot of pots to the backyard. It’s some kind of palm. I just know it works well in shade or sun.

After a busy day, I didn’t really feel like making a big messy meal. A shrimp boil is one of the easiest meals to make with very little to clean up. Right now shrimp is on sale here.

Growing up on the coast in Corpus Christi, we would go down to the T-heads when the shrimp boats came in a buy shrimp fresh off the boats. This is definitely not the same, but it will do in a pinch.

I like to use the bagged shrimp boil, but when did it start coming in the plastic pouches and not the net ones? So strange.

I also like to throw in a healthy dose of Old Bay seasoning.

I make a pretty simple boil. Fill a big pot with water. Add seasoning and red potatoes. Boil until they are tender. Add sausage and corn on the cob. Boil for 5 minutes. Add shrimp and boil for 3 minutes. You’re done.

I use a big commercial kitchen pot. I worked at a catering company and the owner gave me this pot so I’d always have one big enough to do this, gumbo, etc. Using it reminded me of the fun, hectic, sometimes stressful time I worked there. He has since passed away so it’s pretty sentimental.

And that’s it. My son doesn’t like shrimp so I made him some boudin and cut up some pineapple. Easy peasy meal.

Ice Ice Baby

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

It’s cold here in East Texas. We knew it was headed our way so we were able to prepare a little bit. My neighbor across the street took this picture of our house. The streets and roads are nothing but ice.

We have many stray cats in our neighborhood. Our laundry room is outside so we set up a heat lamp and beds. We brought Milo inside. He meowed a lot, but eventually did fine.

Milo went out with Donny to check on the chickens. We have to make sure that their water doesn’t freeze. We do have a heat source out in the coop and we crack the door because sometimes a cat or two will go out there to bed down.

What I do when we are iced in is cook. Today I felt like a short order cook in a busy diner. Since the kids didn’t have school they straggled in at different times. Our staple for breakfast is my breakfast sandwich. We changed it up today with pretzel buns.

We always loved the Whataburger Breakfast on a Bun, but these are so much cheaper to make and are actually better.

I have wanted to make corn chowder since we got the big bag from Sasquatch Trading Post. So that’s what I did. I would have liked to have added sausage, but I used ours for gumbo the other night. I decided on slab bacon and shrimp. Chowder is the best thing on a cold day.

For dinner Donny and Jack wanted big burgers, Hannah wanted a gouda grilled cheese and chowder and I just had the chowder. Ding, order up.

I had to finish off the day with, what I call, Diversity Cookies. They are just cookies with semi sweet and white chocolate chips. I could have made Mega Diversity ones by adding butterscotch chips. Maybe next time.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder so no school or work for anyone. Hmmmm, wonder what I can cook tomorrow.

Saturday Thrifting

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn thriftingLeave a comment

My son, Jack, and I like to go thrifting. We have 2 shops that are our regulars. Saturday before I had to take Hannah to work he asked if we could go. I didn’t find anything at the first stop, but Jack picked up some sing-a-things.

I lucked out at the second one and found two amazing cookbooks. All of their hardback books are only 50 cents.

This one is very old. I just love vintage cookbooks. I prefer using cookbooks to using the internet to find recipes. I just don’t like all of the ads and how you have to read and read until you actually get to the recipe.

This cookbook is huge and heavy. I’ve never really been into Italian cuisine, but i looked through this while at the store and I saw many recipes that caught my eye. Plus the photographs are just gorgeous.

I also found this cute cropped longsleeve shirt by Another Love that is the perfect color for one of my maxi skirts.

And I cannot forget this little embroidered picture because I just love handmade things.

Not a bad little haul for 5 bucks.