Restaurant Review: Meringue Bakery, Farmers Branch

Meringue Bakery
http://www.meringuebakery.com/

Category: Bakeries

Address: 13605 Midway Rd, Farmers Branch, TX 75244

Star Rating: 4/5

Meringue is the best cupcake place in town. Down to earth staff, simple tasty flavors, and cupcake happy hours on Friday. They can't be beat. The best cupcake they have is their s'mores cupcake, but I never see it for sale. Other great flavors are their red velvet, wedding cake and carrot cake. Yum!

Show Review: Cirque du Soleil's Dralion

Cirque's official description of Dralion: Fusing the 3000 year-old tradition of Chinese acrobatic arts with the multidisciplinary approach of Cirque du Soleil, Dralion draws its inspiration from Eastern philosophy and its never-ending quest for harmony between humans and nature. The show’s name is derived from its two emblematic creatures: the dragon, symbolizing the East, and the lion, symbolizing the West.

In Dralion, the four elements that govern the natural order take on a human form. Thus embodied, each element is represented by its own evocative colour: air is blue; water is green; fire is red; earth is ochre. In the world of Dralion, cultures blend, Man and Nature are one, and balance is achieved.
 
My review: Cirque's Dralion was, as all of the Cirque shows I have seen, spectacular; something I call Cirquetastic. There will never be a Cirque show I attend that I will say is bad. They all have some amazing acrobatics, innovative tricks and fun characters. I had two favorite parts of this show. One was the amazing singing done by a very talented duo. The man's falsetto was incredible. And, the way the pair sang together was almost magical. I absolutely love that Cirque always has live music performers.
 
My second favorite part of the show had to have been the aerial ribbons performance. I loved the romantic love story that played out between the two characters both in the air and on the stage. I love watching the strength of the performers. Aerial acts are always my favorite and I absolutely love a good aerial ribbon performance.

This is the fifth cirque show that Ryan and I have seen. Their rankings for me are:

1. Love
2. Ovo
3. O
4. Dralion
5. La Nouba

Now even though I would place Dralion close to the end of my Cirque shows list, it is really hard to compare perfection to perfection. Love was the best simply because of the Beatles music and the story the show told. Ovo was excellent for much the same reason; the story of bug love was irresistible. O was spectacular because of the high diving and water aspects of the show. Dralion was great because of the acrobatic feats. And La Nouba? Well, my mom always said if you didn't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all.  There was a small troupe of five Chinese acrobats in the La Nouba show that was amazing. Other than that, not a La Nouba fan.

I can't wait for the next Cirque show to roll into town or to head to Las Vegas to see one again soon!

Book Review: Life is Like a Sailboat

Book: Life is Like a Sailboat

Author: John Grogan

I have to say that I love books like this. I love books with short little stories that you can read quickly. Sometimes I don't have time to donate to a whole chapter, but I simply can't bring myself to stop in the middle of a chapter, so this type of novel is the way to go. This way, I can pick to read one little 2-3 page story or fifty of them. Each of these short stories are actually articles from Mr. Grogan's newpaper column in The Philidelphia Inquirer. The stories each tell a short little life story that has some lesson associated with it. I love how these are lessons that I can easily apply to my own life and to the situations that I face on a daily basis. While some of the stories deal with life issues that I have never faced, they are still interesting to read. The one story that I thought was really funny was about junk mail. More speifically it was about those AOL Free Trial CDs that everyone used to get in the mail. The "moral of the story" was about green living and waste. It was an interesting way to introduce that lesson, one that seems so obvious, yet so obtuse.

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5. This is not a book that I would reccomend to everyone, which is why I didn't rate it higher. It is still a book that I really enjoyed, though.

A Must Add to Foodie Finds

I have a select few blogs that I have added to my Foodie Finds section of Love at First Write. Although not a blog like the others which are all recipe based, this blog for sure deserves a place on the short list. The Disney Food Blog.  This blog offers in-depth news about food and restaurants in Disney's parks and resorts, along with reviews and photographs of and about anything food-related in Disney parks, resorts, movies, and events. They even have a Disney food reference index for go-to info about Disney dining discounts, Disney dining plans, dealing with special diets at Disney, restaurants at-a-glance, menus, and more.

I am a Disney fan, as it is. That is where Ryan and I had our Honeymoon and we plan on going back next year we love it so much. I will definitely be using this guide to help us plan for our next trip!

PS: They even have a cute little icon they have created for their blog. So cute!

Recipe: Quarter Pound Bacon Cheeseburgers

Today I decided to make Quarter Pound Bacon Cheeseburgers for dinner. They were some of the best burgers I've ever had, save In & Out. Let's just say they were some of the best homemade burgers I have ever had. The recipe goes a little something like this:

1 lb lean ground beef
1 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
10 shakes liquid smoke (approx. 1/2 tsp.)

I mixed all of the above together with a large spoon. I then used a 1/4 lb. burger press I had given Ryan for Christmas to make four even patties. Although I think they might have tasted a bit better if I had done them on the grill outside, it was just too hot. So, instead I used our griddle indoors.

Just listen to that sizzle!

Toasted bun, melted cheese, fresh cooked bacon, tender and flavorfilled patty. What a beautiful burger!

I'm a Tweeter

Although I joined Twitter a year or two ago, I only sent around 50 tweets and then stopped in April of last year. This past weekend I decided to get on Twitter again as I know a lot of people who tweet. I am not sure that I can be supremely funny, engaging or witty in 140 characters or less, but I'll give it my best shot. Follow me by clicking the link below to go to my Twitter!

14 x 2

One last Happy Birthday to the greatest husband in the world. Best wishes for a wonderful 28th year. I can't wait to spend it with you! I love you always!

The Big 2-8

Today was Ryan's 28th birthday. He didn't want to do anything grand. He simply wanted to stay home, to order from his favorite pizza and wings place, to watch Firefly and for me to make him his favorite cake (yellow cake with chocolate buttercream). A pretty simple night, but I have to admit that with as much as we have going on in our lives, it was a nice change of pace. Happy Birthday Ryan! I love you!

Woot Lovin'

Most every day I have a list of deal websites saved to my favorites that I check out to see what is selling for cheap. Although I often look at these sites, this is the first time I have ever bought anything from one. On Woot! the other day, they had a lot of five colored watches from Breo listed for just $7.99. The totwl of the order was $14.03 by the time shipping and tax were added.  So, for a little under $3.00 a piece, these watches were a steal!  They are so cute and very functional for me as I hate wearing actual metel watches. I wore the black one to work today, it was comfortable and I found myself looking at it more often than I thought I would.

It was random which 5 colors, out of 9 total, you would receive. I got grey, pink, black, green and blue. I was pretty happy with the colors that came and I can see wearing them all. What a great buy!

CrowdTap

I don't plug a lot of things on my blog, but this site seems kinda cool. It's called CrowdTap. It is a site where you can rate things, answer questions and earn money. I haven't actually earned any money yet. And with sites like these I am always worried that it sounds too good to be true. What I can say is that it is really easy to sign up and get started in participating in services. So, even if I don't end up getting any money from it, it didn't take up that much of my time to get started. Try it out! (For the first five people you get to sign up, they get $1 and you get $5 - $1 for each person that signs up!)

Taste of Dallas 2011

A quick rundown of all of the foods Ryan and I sampled at the 2011 Taste of Dallas:

• Beef and Lamb Gyro
• Green Chile Pork Taco
• BBQ Brisket
• Ceviche
• MGD 64 with Lemonade
• Blue Moon Summer Seasonal
• Hot Dog
• Iced Tea
• Gelato (Ryan - Salted Carmel, Char - Carrot Cake)
• Yakult Probiotic Drink
• Pineapple Mango Smoothie
• BBQ Pork Rib
• Smores Cupcake
• Drinks (Ryan - Water, Char - Diet Coke)

A successful journey through the various food options, if I do say so myself. The best things? Torchy's Tacos (Green Chile Pork Taco) and Meringue Bakery (Smores Cupcake). The worst thing? MGD 64 with Lemonade. It was absolutely disgusting.

I can't wait for next year's TOD!

Red, White and Brookhaven

This was the first year that Ryan and I got to go to Brookhaven to watch the Addison Kaboom Town fireworks. We decided to stop off at Melting Pot first for a quick drink and some cheese fondue. It was pretty yummy! Then, we showed up to the club around 7:30pm and set out our blanket on the driving range grass. There were a few other families there, mostly enjoying the pool. Ryan and I also partook in the buffet complete with grilled sausage, ribs and turkey legs. It was pretty good as you can see.

Around 8:30pm, a lot of families started to arrive and set out their blankets too. There were probably around 200 people there. It was so cute to see all of the little kiddoes in their Fourth of July clothes. At 9pm, the club handed out glow sticks and necklaces to all of the kids. Most of them were well behaved with them and it was neat that they got to play with them. Then there were the few kids who couldn't help but throw them all around, even during the fireworks. Oh well. I need to stop being an old coot about it. They were having fun, afterall.  The fireworks lasted around 30 minutes.  They were spectacular. The best part of it all though, was that we had a huge space to ourselves on the driving range, and it was a breeze getting out of the parking lot. I always hated watching fireworks at a crowded location that then took 7 hours to get out of once the show ended. I can't wait to watch the Kaboom Town fireworks at Brookhaven again next year!

Another Free Way to Help

The Breast Cancer Site has another way to help raise funds for breast cancer research. For every minute you play one of these basic Facebook games, up to 10 cents is donated to breast cancer research. Simply visit the BCS Facebook page by clicking here. You don't even have to register or anything in order to play. So, play for 10 minutes a day, every day for a year and you can give around $365 to the cause with no cost to you. Click and play!

The Breast Cancer Site

Visit The Breast Cancer Site and click on big button at the top of the page to help donate mammograms to women who need them. It is free for you, takes two seconds, and could save a life. Plus, you can visit the ste daily to click and help. It's a quick and easy way to make a difference. Get to clicking!

Momma Post Surgery

The long road of baby steps has begun. The surgery is over and momma is healing. Hurting, but healing. I will be by her every step of the way. She is the strongest woman I know, so me being around doesn't matter much in that regard, but we are extremely close and I can always make her laugh. I know that laughter will be one of the most important things over the next few months.


Tonight I am spending time with both Momma and dad, just enjoying being together. Having dinner, watching a movie, nothing fancy. I have always cherished my time with them, more so than most adult children do with their parents, but I love it even more now. My mom and I text all the time. I am always sure to tell her I love her at least once per day, even though I know she knows. It never gets old to hear that someone loves you.

Chemo, here we come...