Taco Libre!

What is the best food on the planet? I'll give you 5 seconds to think about that just kidding it's tacos. Tacos, the most perfect vesicle to transport delicious meat and toppings into your mouth for consumption. Why are tacos great?

1. Various types of filling. You have beef, chicken, fish, barbacoa, carne asada, pork. Really anything you want as a filling is doable. Hell, there are even choco-tacos that are ice cream sundaes in a taco shell.

2. You can also top them with anything. Classic cheese and salsa, mango salsa, slaw. The combinations of fillings to toppings is essentially endless.

3. If you eat your taco over other taco shells you automatically get a new taco. I like to use my chips as a nacho, scoop the fallings onto the chip and use the salsa or the queso as a binder. Taco nachos. 
(You're welcome)

So when Taco Libre was announced for last weekend I was all over that. Endless tacos amidst beer and music for an entire afternoon into the evening? Why would I say no to that? Alex and I bought our tickets ahead of time. It was the smartest decision ever because 1. We had our tickets and 2. If you bought them online and got the early bird tickets they were $10 cheaper long as you were inside the doors by 5 PM. I do love saving money.

Alex and I got there around 4 PM because traffic was awful and find out so was the line for Taco Libre. It was wrapping around the park. To be fair, it was a small park, but still.

That was just the people in front of us, there were people behind us and it wrapped around at the corner.

During our almost hour wait in line we found out the event sold out. Like I said, we already had our tickets so it was great news for us. We assumed the line would move along quicker after that announcement but no, everyone else in line also had tickets. Seriously, we were almost in line for an hour.

Naturally, if it's sold out that means the event itself was packed, and it was. They had various taco shops along one side of the park and the lines were about 15 mins waits a piece. Booze was closer to a 20 min wait. 

Hurry up to wait

We got out first tacos at Revolver Taco Lounge.  I was starving at this point so I ordered 2 crispy tacos and 2 barbacoa tacos. For those of you that don't know, barbacoa is goat. It's actually really good. If done well it's like beef. From what I could understand the cripsy tacos were filled with meat, of some kind, deep fried, then given to us in bags with a slaw and marinade mix that we were supposed to shake. The barbacoa tacos were like typical street taco style, add your cilantro and onions and whatever sauce.

TACOS!

After that we walked around a little bit to try to find alcohol. Well, not find it, it was around, but find a line that wouldn't take forever. Heat stroke was not on my to-do list for the day. After we were refreshed with beer I wanted to try at least one more taco joint while there so we got some more tacos at Urban Taco. 

I got an al pastor taco and some type of chicken taco. Of the two, the chicken taco was better. The chicken was seasoned well and was moist. The al pastor taco was a little chewier than I would have preferred. We enjoyed our tacos and beer while hanging out in front of the stage while listening to Pinata Protest. They are a band from San Antonio and they actually had fans in the audience that knew the songs so I take it they are somewhat popular. 

At the end of the day the biggest complaint I had, and various other people, was it ended up being bigger than expected. That's obviously not a bad thing. You want events to be popular, that's the whole point. But for the location is was small with long waits. The other "complaint" would be that every station was street tacos. I love street tacos, I understand they are easy, but when you're just getting 14 restaurants with their variations of street tacos you're not going to find much actual variety. Also, it was hot, but that's Texas. 

We ended up leaving after an hour or so. The plan was to head over to the Reunion Tower Lawn Party but that changed last minute, which was fine. I didn't need to spend more money. If they end up doing Taco Libre again, which they should it's a great idea, it needs to be in a bigger location. Variety in food options should be suggested to the restaurants. Also, more weird guys dressed like this...

Chocolate, Cheese and Bubbles! Oh My

This post is centered around my most favorite of favorite foods in the word. Cheese. I love cheese. Seriously, I took a Buzzfeed Quiz once that asked "Would you rather give up cheese or oral sex?" and I gave up on the quiz.That first question was too hard. But upon further discussion about that with my coworkers we all decided we would keep cheese in our lives. That's how important cheese is.

A picture of my food pyramid. 

A couple weeks ago Megan asked me if I would ever be interested in a cheese tasting class. I then realized that she clearly didn't know me well enough if she needed to ask me that. Obviously a cheese tasting class is something that needs to happen in everyone's life, but especially mine. So we bought tickets to Scardello's "Chocolate, Cheese and Bubbles" class. They have multiple classes but chocolate, cheese AND bubbles was something that needed to happen like yesterday.

So artisan. 

Upon arrival the shop is small but it's got a rustic country chic thing going on. Based off the size you can see why these classes sell out quickly, at best you can maybe fit 40 people. Also, unless you go in a big group, be ready to become friends with your neighbors.

Look at all the chic-ness happening. So many pickled items.

I was more than ready for the cheese to come. For real. Cheese me please.

Cheeeeeeese!

What was disappointing? The sample sizes. To be fair, yes it's a tasting, and additionally no amount of sample sized cheese would ever win my heart, so I can't put that as an actual negative. I would, maybe, be satisfied with individual wheels of each cheese, plus chocolate bars and whole bottles of champagne. So being realistic here, those are hard expectations to accomplish.

Look at that glorious cheese plate.

The way they do this is they pair two complimentary types of cheese with one piece of chocolate and one type of champagne. You then, essentially, have four tasting rounds. There is also bread for you to spread cheese on, or clear your palate a little between tasting courses. As you go through the courses you learn a little background on the cheese and the champagne (not so much the chocolate but you get a little bit). They tell you the difference between one type to the other, the processes they go through. It's interesting little tid-bits of knowledge dropped on ya.

Seriously, look at that set-up. Cheese and chocolate goodness.

At the end I wanted another tray of cheese. I thought about buying a few wheels as well (as you can in store), but knew they wouldn't last (which I guess is the point). But I would absolutely buy some of those cheeses, I marked down the ones I liked for future consumption. There were only two cheeses I didn't like. One was a bleu cheese, but I don't like bleu. That one was difficult to eat too because I could tell I was trying a great quality bleu cheese, I just couldn't bring myself to like it. But the chocolate it paired with cut some of the overpowering bleu cheese flavor for me so I did finish my piece. It also dawned on me almost immediately upon starting the class that, "I'm totally bringing Caitlin here." I already told her we were gonna go to a class here, she's excited. Because cheese.

So Scardello. Go buy cheese there. There sell other things too, like wine and ornate tasting salts and pickled things. It's artisan, so you know it's fancy.

Fancy wines

Fancy salts

Take a class if cheese is your thing, and it should be. If cheese is not your thing, and it's not for a medical reason, you should keep that to yourself. Never trust a person that doesn't like cheese.

A Night to Bloom

This last Wednesday, Alex, (my main girl over at Bluebonnet Lane), and I went to "A Night to Bloom." This was a little "Girls' Night Out" event hosted by Willow Grace Beauty and BTB Jewelry to benefit Genesis.

Genesis is a woman's shelter for women suffering from domestic violence. Please check them out. This is a great cause and they raise all their own funds. Every year they support close to 1,600 woman and children with shelter and counseling. Annually, they need to raise approximately $6 million a to continue their efforts for supporting other women in need.

This is the main girl for Genesis. Such an amazing and inspiring lady.

Charity part aside, back to the event. I will admit, although everyone was donating their time and efforts a little more organization would have done wonders. When we pulled up to Dallas Palms we knew we were early knew we were in the right place, but it looked like people were still setting up and we weren't sure what events were taking place in which of the three buildings. We had donations for the shelter and carried them from building to building trying to figure out where they went. So by organization, I really mean a sign or two would have been helpful, maybe some clearly defined staff. Out of the three buildings this took place in we obviously saved the donation building for last. But we found it and that's all that matters.

One of the reasons we were there so early was the first 50 people got a little swag bag full of goodies, and naturally that swag bag had to be mine. In it there were little Aveda samples, a BTB bracelet, makeup from Willow Grace, cookies from both Christine Boudreau, a Life Coach (that we missed seeing), and the caterer (which we didn't realize was a thing and didn't eat either), a little Starbucks espresso cup and then some discount cards to some of the vendors.

#swagbag

There were a variety of vendors at the event too. Ranging from party catering, to wedding set ups, to flower headbands, to clothing items, to hair extensions. Really girly event. Here were just a handful of the vendors we stopped to shop at:

MCC: I love that coffee mug, and if coffee really were bae for me I'd be all over it. I especially love their prints and the cards they made. They look elegant and girly with just the right amount of sass.

RiffRaff: BTW, I follow these girls on Instagram and I love them so much. It was such a pleasure to finally meet them in person. Their water bottles and their coffee  mugs are my fav.

BTB Jewelry: They have an amazing collection of statement pieces. And girl do I love a statement piece.

Dowtown Aly: She makes custom jewelry holders for your home. Super cute stuff. If I wanted to be more organized with my jewelry, and also if I had wall space, (I like to hang things on my walls way too much) I'd be all over these things. Maybe in the dream home where I have a designated dressing room.

Alli K Designs: I <3 GLOBES! Seriously, I love globes. Again, in the dream house, I would have a bookshelf with various globes. Globes are awesome. When I saw that Alli K was going to be at Bloom I was positive I was gonna blow the bank on some globes. Thankfully self control kicked in, because currently I have no space for them. But I will... oh yes I will...purchase one when my living situation is a little different.

Madi's Sweet Shop: She is a Frisco-based cookie designer. One of the designs she had, in a book, was champagne shaped cookies. They were the most adorable thing I've ever seen. She also had samples. I tried the vanilla almond cookie. It was just slightly sweet. The almond added just a hint of flavor. I wanted to also try the chocolate but I didn't want to be a fatty and steal all her samples.

I honestly thought I was going to go to town on my bank account, but I was able to keep some sense about me and I only bought this druzy ring from BTB because I've been dying for one for a while. I also want a necklace. Someone find me a druzy necklace please and send it to me.

Seriously, druzy necklace. It doesn't have to match the ring.

Aside from the vendors they also had a photo booth for some photo booth realness.

All over that photo booth.

The big event was a fashion show hosted by Lucy Dang . She has some beautiful dresses.

Not my photo. This was an event photographer.

The coolest thing ever, on a personal level, is if you RSVPed as a blogger (which I am), you got front row seats to the fashion show.

Bloggers gonna blog.

 

Here are some of Lucy Dang's designs.

 Lighten up it's just fashion.

I wanted to have more photos of the collection, and I tried, but the models weren't fans of pausing, so most of mine came out blurry. But that blue finale dress was my favorite and I'm ecstatic I was able to get more than one shot of it.

But, one of the best, hidden gems of the fashion show was the gentleman helping the women come off stage. Why is a random behind the scenes guy one of the best things? He was lip-syncing to all the songs, like Katy Perry's "Firework". Uh, loved it. Loved him.

At the end of the day it was a fun event supporting a great cause. We had a blast and I would go again. The only thing I would suggest for future events would be better organization, more vendors (for a three hour event there weren't enough vendors to keep you occupied) and clearer direction for the guest. What really matters though is that so many people donated their time for such a great cause and it was an honor to witness that firsthand.

I am Sherlocked at the Perot Museum Social Science Night.

Every couple of months the Perot Museum has an evening called Social Science. It's a night where they stay open late for an adult only themed party. Last night Megan and I attended "Mysterious"; it lined up with the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes.

When I say themed party I don't mean the toga party you attended in college or that awkward 1920s themed bachelorette party you had to go to. When I say themed here I mean the events that are going on along the four floors of the museum all relate to the general theme of the evening. Some examples of the events are:

• The Forensic Challenge: When is a Crime Scene Not a Crime Scene?
• Forensic Botany
• A film on "How Sherlock Holmes Changed the World"
• DNA Extractions
• Fingerprint Analysis
• Composite Sketch Challenge
• Murder Mystery: Who Killed Ben Lion?

Of those events we did the following:

We went to The Forensic Challenge talk. It was about 30 minutes long, and funny story I'm almost positive the forensic anthropologist that assisted him on the case was my anthropology teacher in college.The is the only thing I will frown upon, they needed to warn you in some way that you were going to see actual explicit pictures of actual dead bodies. I saw about three bodies too many.

I did a fingerprint analysis on myself and learned that my thumb does not fit any of the 9 typical patterns of fingerprints. Even the guy running the booth was baffled by my thumb. But my other fingers matched a right loop pattern. 

The composite sketch challenge would not work for us but it seemed cool. They show you an image of a person for 7 seconds and then you are supposed to recreate what you saw. 

The Murder Mystery was all throughout the museum. We didn't actually do it, but it had potential to be really interesting. You were supposed to wander the museum looking for clues and evidence (stations set up for you to look at hair samples) and talk to suspects. We never saw any suspects. We found the booths for evidence but never any suspects. But again, we didn't actually partake in that events. 

The biggest disappointment though was the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes wasn't included in the price of your event ticket. I don't remember seeing that written anywhere when you purchase your tickets, but I do remember there was no option to buy an exhibit ticket when you were checking out online. We were not happy about that. It was almost the entire reason we were there. I had to talk Megan into buying a ticket by telling her it was essentially the cost of a drink. The exhibit itself looked cool BUT it was way too crowded and there was no clear set up as to what you were supposed to do. It's a murder mystery in itself, where you go to stations and look at evidence and solve the crime. After room one I was over the murder mystery and just wandered about the exhibit looking at stuff and things. It looked cool. It all looked cool. If less people were in there I would have tried to put effort into the crime game but it is what it is. 

            

While all of this is going on though you can wander the entire museum and look at all the permanent exhibits sans crying, screaming, running children and with booze.

Here's me trying to outrun a T-Rex. Jurassic Park could be real. I need to train.

Speaking of booze, they had specialty cocktails for this event, Spyglass Sour (Tuaca Lemon Drop Martini) and the Curious Southern Comfort Caramel (Southern Comfort Caramel and Sprite). 

Tasty drinky drinks

In addition to the actual cocktails they had a station with frozen cocktails. Booze infused ice cream is the best. 

These tiny samples were not enough. More was needed.

They did claim to have turned their cafe into a "Gastropub". I use quotes because it depends on your definition of gastropub. It was more than they had British-themed food options that they took forever to put on the line. We went an hour into the event to get food because everyone and their mom was eating first thing. We both wanted the fish and chips but there weren't any ready. We were behind one couple waiting for food, after about 15 minutes there was a crowd of closer to 12 waiting for food to be put up. They were making it fresh, but they were making them one at a time. Were my fish and chops and strawberry rhubarb tart (more like all strawberry no rhubarb tart) and champagne worth the $17 dollars and 20 minute wait? No. Just no. It was fine. It was food. But the cost was high for what I received. I recommend you eat before you go to one one these events.

But besides the food, and the slight disorganization of the event it was totally worth it. We ended up staying an hour and a half longer than I guessed we would. Downside, it was pouring rain and it ruined my chance to play leap frog like the adult I am.

All in all here is what I think of The Perot Museums' Social Science Adult Program:

1. Eat before you go. 

2. Go in with a semi-game plan. It can be overwhelming with the crowd and the events. Also, it will take longer to get to places than you would think. We missed some events just because time got away from us.

3. If you want to do whatever additional traveling exhibit is there know you are going to need to buy a ticket once you get there.

4. Totes go to one though! I already bought my tickets for the next one on June 19th titled Naturally.