Winspear Opera House in Dallas

The beautiful gold gilded balconies.

Before the chandelier decends...

...and after. :)

This morning I had the opportunity to go to the Lord Norman Foster lecture at Dallas' brand new Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center - it was beautiful! I'd seen the site under construction when we had a photo shoot for the magazine I help produce at work, but to see it finished was truly amazing!

A few friends and I are getting season tickets to their Broaday Series this year, and I cannot wait to see those shows in this space, as well as the Turtle Creek Chorale's Christmas Special at the Winspear later this year. I'll also get to check out the Wyly at the TCC's "Off Broadway" performance as well.

If you live in Dallas, or are planning to visit, please do yourself a favor, and go see a show in one of these great spaces! They have truly transformed the Dallas Arts District. And if you are local, check out all of the amazing events going on this Sunday during ATTPAC's "Spotlight Sunday", which is wrapping up their opening week. All of the events are FREE, and the entire arts district is participating! Go, see, do! :)

Pozole soup

I made pozole soup this week, which has browned pork, onions, tomatoes, white hominy, & an ancho chile paste made from blitzing the chiles in the blender w/ some of the chicken stock used. Very hearty & spicy...great bowl to 'tuck into' w/ a sqeeze of lime, & some grilled corn tortillas! Mmm!

Walmart ROCKS MY SOCKS!

Now liiiiisten. Say what you will about Walmart, it's ghetto, trashy, Mex-ed out (well, at least in the DFW metroplex), but DANGIT, you can get some CHEAP-A** groceries there!

But here's the key: you gotta' be prepared! Most of you know my Sparkstein ways, and how planned and frugal I can be when it comes to grocery shopping and clipping coupons. But I'm telling you, it is worth it! I spent an hour clipping 4 Sunday paper's worth of coupons this past Sunday afternoon. NOW, I treat my coupons AS my shopping list, w/ a few other essentials tossed in. I divide up all the coupons I clip by month, and sort them in my small accordion coupon organizer (shutthahellup!). I try to use up the current month's coupon's first, obviously, but toss in other things I need from other month's. Once I've chosen all the coupons I want to use, I put them in piles of where these items are in the grocery store: Dairy, Dry Goods, Canned, Beauty, Personal Hygiene, Healthcare, Frozen, Paper Products (TP & napkins), etc. I add any additional items I may need that I don't have a coupon for, like produce, to my shopping list. Then I'm OFF!

I start w/ the non-perishables first, and take out my coupons for one section at a time, and keep them in my hand (the visuals on the coupons are great, b/c sometimes I'm trying a new product - because I have a coupon for it!) :) I tackle each section, and once I've found all the items for each coupon I have, I take out the next section, and so on. If I can't find the product, I save the coupon for a different store, it's possible I might use it at Albertson's or Kroger. For those of you that hate to grocery shop, I hate to tell you, but it's impossible to find everything at ONE store - sorry. :(

So, back to my love of Walmart...I got this entire grocery cart full for $93.58! I'm serious people! That's under $100 for a load of groceries. All my coupons added up to a $15.35 savings - SEE! And I got all kinds of things from essentials like TP, 2 body soaps, toothpaste, Dawn dish soap, and Zip-Loc bags, to cooking necessities like onions, garlic, ancho chiles, chicken/veggie/beef stocks, canned tomatoes, canned hominy (posole recipe this week) pork (yes, MEAT was in this purchase), salsa verde, Frank's Red Hot (love it on everything!) marinara, and frozen corn. And I got snacks like sweet potato chips, almonds, Fiber One muffins, fruit snacks, yogurt of all kinds, even gum!

I have to say I got a pretty good haul that will help me to spread out the dry goods in my pantry for 2-4 weeks - that's $100/mo for groceries! Pretty damn good, I'd say. I'm a happy penny pinchin camper! :)

Turkey chili time!

Dropped by the grocery store 2nite in search of inspiration for something...something fall, comforting, wanting to nest & cook something hearty 2 rejuvenate my soul. :o)

Turkey chili won out...easy, quick, definitely hearty. I sauté 1 onion, throw in 5 cloves of minced garlic, & brown 1 pound of ground turkey. Then I added 1 can of diced tomato, can of pinto beans & kidney beans (drain & rinse 1st 2 cut down the sodium) 1 packet of McCormick's chili seasoning, then a dash of salt & cumin.

Ladle into a bowl w/ some lowfat cheese & sour cream...Mmmmm good!

Sleepy-peepers.

Frankie enjoying a little shut-eye in my lap while we were @ her PaPa's last week...so precious! She's just so sweet when she's asleep-lol!

A high rise sunset.

A beautiful fall sunset from last week, as seen from my balcony. I can't wait for the time 2 change & 2 see the next harvest moon. :o)

Treats...no tricks.

This is what happens when I bring in a PetSmart bag w/ Frankie's treats. Nothin' gets by her...she was diving in the bag trying to dig them out! Lol

Pumpkins!

Ahhh, fall truly arrived week before last w/ the arrival of pumkins @ Whole Foods & NorthPark Center. Some 4 buying, the others 2 look at. :o)

Wow, I guess the pumpkin/squash mix-up is pretty popular this year...nice.

Hubba Bubba

OMG, remember Bubbalicious? A co-worker had some on her @ work, I had 2 snag a piece. Watermelon-strawberry...so tasty. For 5 minutes anyway. Lol