Month: December 2011

Christmas 2011

For the last 15 years (at least – I think it’s more like 17 or 18 years now), instead of exchanging gifts, we’ve enjoyed a family brunch at a nice hotel or restaurant. Most of those years, we’ve gone to the Four Seasons in Austin. They have a wonderful brunch for Christmas morning and they treat us so well, we go annually without question now.

Round 1, I’m obviously not a food stylist.

Round 2 was sushi and I ate it before I realized I hadn’t photographed it. They had several rolls that were doused in some spicy sauce they could/should have left on the side. It burned our mouths!

Round 3 was from the carving station. OMG, this was SO delicious but I was getting full and needed to save room for dessert that I only ate half of this lamb. The mashed potatoes were PERFECTLY smooth and buttery!! The halibut was good but not quite the flavor I was hoping for, especially paired with the lamb and mashed potatoes.

Round 4 – DESSERTS! Have I mentioned that stressed spelled backwards is desserts? This is why:

There was plenty more to choose from in all categories as well. I just couldn’t fit it all on the plates or in my stomach! I keep saying that I need to take photos of the entire buffet but that just seems too odd. I think I get enough strange looks taking pictures of my plates of food. Maybe next year – we already have our reservation!

We weren’t in Trio this year since we made our reservations too late but we were able to get a table by the window and this was our view. Nice and peaceful!

While we were there, there was some excitement on Lake Austin (I just can’t call it whatever else they’ve named it now) – a party boat caught on fire and its 3 propane tanks exploded. It was all over the news for at least 2 days after so it was HUGE news in Austin. The explosion was so big, it popped open those doors in the last pictures at least 3 inches. After brunch, we walked around outside a bit and the boat was still on fire and adrift:

We were glad to hear that no one was hurt. Property loss sucks (see “The Fire” post) but I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to loose a loved one. I still have no idea how that boat fire got started. I’m sure if they’ve figured it out, it was listed as “old news” so they either didn’t report it or reported it is as an after thought and no one caught it on the news.

The Four Seasons always does such a beautiful job of decorating, too. They always have gingerbread houses and this year, the theme was Texas History or Significant Buildings in Texas or something like that.

Some of the buildings are for sale. Who would have thought I could buy the Capitol Building for less than I bought my house for?

It’s a little blurry but I love how ornate they make their lobby:

Love my parents!

Merry Christmas from the Benfords!!

The Fire

I’m still not 100% sure of how it all went down but on December 6, I got a strange message from my mom, asking me to call her because something wasn’t quite right. I tried to call my parents on their home phone but got an automated message saying the number wasn’t working. I called my mom’s cell phone and although she sounded like things weren’t quite right, she assured me that it wasn’t anything and everything was fine.

Either the next day or so, I talked to mom again and she finally let me know there was a fire in their house and they were living in a hotel. I got more details from my dad when I spoke with him. The fire was in their full bathroom (they have one full bathroom and one toilet room) in the lighting unit. Now that I’ve seen the damage and heard the story a few times, I’ve pieced together most of what happened. My parents are just coming out of shock of it all and are able to remember more details of that night.

My mom had gotten home from work and one of them went to turn on the light in the bathroom and it didn’t work. My mom says it was really warm in that part of the house, too. Soon after, the lights and other electrical things in nearby rooms stopped working. My mom smelled smoke and went outside and saw smoke (no flames) coming from the roof. She had my dad call 911 and they said the Austin Fire Department were there within minutes. Luckily, they live about 5 minutes away from a station on Manchaca Road. They had to take out a lot of the ceiling and some parts of the wall to reach all of the fire but luckily, it was tended to so quickly, the fire (which was really all smolder, really) remained in that bathroom area and no one was hurt.

Now, it’s all about finding a good construction company to repair the house (some of the roof will have to be replaced, even) and a company that can remove the smell of smoke from the walls. That maybe the hard part.

So here’s what the damage looks like:
You can see the majority of the smolder was right by the doorway. There was a heater/light/fan thing installed there, which the fan went out on. All that was left was light and heat – good sources for fire.

Here, you can see that the fire had burnt out quite a bit of two of the crossbeams:

This is the breaker sub-panel that went out and caused the electricity (and potential for more fire) to stop flowing throughout the house. It’s right outside the bathroom so it didn’t have far to go to stop the flow of electricity:

This is in the living room, right above the couch…which is now destroyed from water damage. Not too much of a loss, it was an old couch.

They didn’t have to do too much damage to the ceiling and wall in the bedroom:

The insurance company was really good (at first) about getting them set up in temporary housing, first a extended stay hotel and now a one bedroom apartment, but I think that’s the end of unusually cooperative insurance company treatment. With some of the little things we’ve negatives encountered since I’ve gotten back, we’re starting to have a feeling that an insurance fight might be coming. I sure hope not ’cause none of us have the strength to go through that.

As far as rebuilding goes, it looks like it will be a minimum of 6 months before they can get back in the house. I’m thinking it will be closer to 9 months to a year. Luckily, I’m on the house note and insurance so I can help quite a bit while I’m away at school. Let’s hope for the best, though.

This house is 38 years old and I’m sure a lot of the wiring is just as old. If your house is fairly old and hasn’t had breaker panel maintenance or at least an evaluation from a licensed electrician, please have it done.

Love you, mean it.
~C

Winter Greens and Fresh Tomato Soup

Right now, my parents are staying in an apartment while their house is being repaired from the recent fire (more on that in its own post) and cable/internet haven’t been connected yet so we get about 5 different PBS stations and a few other local ones and that’s it. As I was lounging on my air mattress one afternoon, I caught an episode of The Victory Garden and they cooked this soup that sounded really good so I decided to make my own version of it that night.

You can add in sausage or meat or thicken it up and make it more like a chili if you’d like but it’s quite hearty and delicious! I decided to add leeks and white beans.

Basic ingredients:
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
Kale
Collard Greens
Variety of small tomatoes
Stock
Oil

1. Chop garlic and onion and saute in oil:

2. Wash (first run) green veggies. There will be a lot of dirt on it all so you’ll want to wash them a few times.

3. Cut greens and leeks into large pieces and wash again. I filled my salad spinner with cold water and let the veggies just soak after rinsing them through the colander a few times.

4. I carefully removed the colander from the water – there’s LOTS of dirt still in that water, even after rinsing several times. Those greens hold in a lot of dirt!

5. I wilted greens and leeks in the pot with the onions and garlic (oops forgot to take a picture) then added the broth and white beans (drained) and let it all simmer.

6. While that was simmering, I cut a few of the larger tomatoes. Aren’t they beautiful? They’re delicious, too!

7. When everything was nice and warm, I added the tomatoes and gave it a minute or two to heat them up as well.

8. Final product!

It was really good. I didn’t add any spices or seasonings (not even salt or pepper) and it was just perfect! That’s the nice thing about cooking with high quality, fresh products – they all have their own distinct flavors that don’t need a lot of other spices. Enjoy!

Love you, mean it!
~C

Looooooooooong awaited update.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I feel like I start every blog post thinking that. I guess because it has been. It’s been a busy semester but I couldn’t be happier to be in graduate school! My professors are wonderful as well as the other students. I’ve managed to get home about once a month for various reasons so I don’t totally feel stuck in East Texas. And even if I didn’t get that opportunity, it’s beautiful here with the pine trees and all the living creatures that live in or with them.

I can’t believe this semester is almost over. I have a final on Monday evening and I’m done with my first semester of graduate school. 3 more to go for my Masters! Next spring is going to be really crazy busy as well with the Jazz Ensemble performing at TMEA and the Wind Ensemble at CBDNA. Organizing these trips have been a HUGE part of the adventure this semester as well. Who’d have thought that these “simple” trips could be such a complicating endeavor? Gotta love the trickle-down effect of everything that’s been so topsy-turvy in education recently. Combine that with a change in procedures (mostly a change because there are obviously different procedures from RRISD) and it creates for a unique adventure in trip planning. 🙂 Luckily, everyone I’ve worked with so far have been magnificently supportive and understanding of all the hitches along the way. We will get on the road this spring, by golly!!

What else is coming up? I’m conducting the Symphonic Band in February. I’m not sure of the concert date off the top of my head and the paper that date is written on is in the other room. I’ll be conducting the Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite. I’m also going to continue working with the Jazz Lab Band and at some point later in the Spring, I’ll have a singing debut with one of the jazz ensembles. Fun, huh? Maybe I’ll take a page from my friend Mandy Lauderdale when I sing. No, not the red hair. That’s totally her thing and I couldn’t think to borrow that.

I can’t wait to spend a few weeks in Austin with my friends and family! Hopefully, anything I do I can remember to keep it on the cheap since I’m still a college student living on a college student budget (in other words, there’s little money to budget…there is a very positive spin I can put on this) when I’m hanging out with my friends. Christmas Brunch will again be at the Four Seasons with my family, one of my favorite outings of the year!

Clipford & I are very lucky to have the lives we have. I couldn’t ask for much more. Okay, back to the books. There’s a paper due and a final tomorrow!

Love you, mean it!
~C