La Casa Mágica del Pan

There's a place in town, near a fabulous outdoor market (more on that another time!), which has got to be one of the best bakeries around. It's called El Bolillo (The Bread Roll) which is as great a case of understatement as I have ever heard. I gave it my own name, in the post title above, with the help of Google Translate - I can't be sure it's grammatically correct, but either way it's more accurate.

It's filled with racks and shelves (in gorgeous wooden cupboards) loaded with every baked good you could ever imagine, and a few you never could, and customers walk about and fill their trays using big silver tongs (see them on the chair?).

 You can pause for a bit at the back and watch the fresh new plain rolls going into or coming out of the ovens..

 
...or watch the tortilla machine in action, with little blobs of dough flattened and cooked almost instantly and pushed out the end, or you can admire the made-to-order extravaganzas for weddings or quinceañeras.
 

The first time we went we were a bit shy, and just observed; the next time we dived in and selected a trayful of random goodness; when we brought it to the cashier I thought we'd pay at least $15, but it was about $5. We wandered up the street munching :)

Take me out to the ball game

Last night I went to my first baseball game! The Houston Astros vs the St Louis (don't forget to pronounce the 's') Cardinals, at Minutemaid Park downtown. We got the tickets through work - non-profits sometimes get given tickets to sporting events or plays, as a thank you for the work they do. Dave, Anna and I snaffled three of them and were ready, with hot dogs and beer (or Coke, for some of us) at the 7.05pm first pitch.




As far as baseball goes, we hear we had a quick game - all done in just over two hours! Certainly there was nothing of the leisureliness of cricket about it, but it was fun to be there for all the traditions - the national anthem, the seventh inning stretch, the organ music... and the Minutemaid train (those are supposed to be oranges in the back; Minutemaid is famous for juice) which whistles and drives up and down when home runs are scored.


And the Astros won - which apparently they have not been doing, as a general rule - so maybe we brought them some indirect beginners' luck!

Cirque Mechanics: Birdhouse Factory

Part way through Thursday, Matt and Rebecca emailed us to see if we wanted to go to the Miller Outdoor Theatre to see a performance by the Cirque Mechanics, an amazing troupe of acrobats, aerialists, contortionists and others from, among other places, Cirque de Soleil and the Moscow Circus.


All performances at the Miller Outdoor Theatre are free to the public, so we knew there'd be a crowd and wanted to be there early enough to get seats in the covered area (there's also a hill at the back where you can spread picnic rugs). Matt and Rebe kindly brought us jumpers as the evenings are quite cool now!


The performance was just magical; really amazing and accomplished, fun and quirky. Every segment seemed perfectly designed to make you think you'd seen the height of their abilities, and then to go that one step further...

If the Mechanics are ever performing near you, I encourage you to check them out!

Friday

On one of the first cool-enough-to-sit-outside-on-the-verandah evenings this year, who'll join us for drinks?

Art and the City

Last weekend I spent a lovely part of Saturday at the Bayou City Art Festival - it's a yearly event here, billed as 'one of the top three art festivals in America' (which, as Dave says, you know means 'the third best') and something I would have been interested in anyway, but as I got free tickets through work I was doubly interested!

My lovely friend Anna picked me up, and we went in to the festival together - it was the first actually-cool weekend so far this year; somewhat overcast for picture-taking but extremely pleasant for walking around downtown.


The festival was held in the closed-off streets of a couple of city blocks, as well as some park space - there were loads of stalls; it was all much larger than I'd envisioned. There was so much to see! Lots of great art and photography, as you'd expect, but also textiles, jewellery, strange sculptures, wooden items... it was very interesting and lots of fun.


Dave and I bought a print - even though the exhibitors came from all over the country, our single purchase coincidentally came from someone relatively local - Jay Long, from Austin, TX.



Afterward, Dave and I went for a coffee in a hipster-cafe, Agora (I am not remotely hipster and Dave not a lot more so than me, but it's still fun to visit such places from time to time)


before going home to hang out with Matt and Rebecca. Cool weather, art, coffee, and lots of lovely friends - not far off the perfect sort of day!

Things to Do in Houston: Central Market Cooking School

Central Market is a special, up-market version of our local H-E-B supermarket (roughly a Coles or Tesco equivalent for those not in the US). We probably visit Central Market, which is located downtown, about once a month, for special things our local H-E-B doesn't stock - we can get Bonne Maman jams there, for instance, and fresh lamb, as well as a huge variety of cheeses and breads, along with all sorts of marvellous fresh produce. It's not particularly cheap, but it's great fun to visit, and worth it for treats.

Throughout the year, the Central Market Cooking School offers all sorts of culinary courses - from sushi to soufflés, cupcakes to tapas. Dave and I spotted a fantastic looking class on Whole Grain Breads, but when we tried to register it was already full. However, on Friday the organisers called me and said they'd had a cancellation, so Saturday morning saw us out bright and early for a breakfast of quiche and potato latke in the café downstairs before heading up to the cooking school.


We sat at tables of four - our table partners were Jill and Heather, both great fun - and were instructed from the front by our instructor, Marian. The class was a mixture of do-it-yourself and learning skills, so one recipe was made from scratch, the second used dough prepared earlier that morning, and the third was a demonstration (though we did get to eat the results!)


(Don't you love it when a camera catches a split-second expression you'd never normally see on someone's face?!)


My hands were too doughy to take any photos earlier in the process than this, but this is my loaf of Rye Sandwich Bread, sprinkled with caraway and a tiny bit of salt, and ready to go into the oven.


Here are our table's Currant Brioche Braid Coffee Cakes - somehow I got the lion's share of currants in my piece of dough, and as they'd been soaking in rum it was a heady experience! Plus it made the dough quite hard to form... the result was excellent though so I think worth the extra effort.



Our loaves at home... we stopped on the way to get some things at the hardware, and as we've had record-breaking heat here this past week, the car was literally like an oven when we got back into it; not only were the bread containers almost as hot as when they'd been removed from the oven at the end of the class, but the car was filled with the most heavenly smells!

We hold these truths to be self-evident

My first July 4!

We had a fairly low-key day, though very pleasant for all that... we resisted buying any fireworks from the plethora of stands that have sprung up round the neighbourhood, but we still looked the part, thanks to a local realtor who planted flags on the grass verge outside every house in the subdivision... that's his business card at the bottom.


Dave and I decided to go to Bayou Bend for their open day; we became members of the Museum of Fine Arts a couple of weeks ago, and heard about the open day from their e-news. Bayou Bend is a wonderful old house, surrounded by beautiful gardens, almost in the centre of the city (though you'd never know while there); the legacy of the incredibly named Ima Hogg, it showcases a wonderful collection of American furniture, art and ceramics, mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

But of course, I liked the gardens best...






After we'd been there for around an hour, there was a reading of the Declaration of Independence from the terrace,


while 'God Save the King*' was played.


* Actually, it was 'Our Country, Tis of Thee', but I didn't know it was sung to that tune, and was rather bemused by the choice of music til Dave explained it to me.

Come, walk with me

A few more shots of the Japanese Garden in the centre of Houston, where we were married last week.









In this last shot you can see, through the trees, the little building where we had the ceremony.