I love weekends with no plans. Or weekends with no expectations, to be more precise. Where you lounge around and get up to do things that sound fun, but if you don't, it's no big deal because nothing firm has been set, there are no disappointments to be had.
That's how this weekend was. On Friday night we had some pizza and met friends for the new Bond movie. Which, while not my favorite, was still pretty great.
On Saturday it was cold and overcast which I don't hate. A quick glance at Facebook reminded me Little Rock had a Cornbread Festival!
Located in the popular SoMa district, we found parking in a random field and made our way in. $5 per person got you a wristband in.
The event started at 11am but we didn't show up until closer to 12:45. Next time, we'll make sure to get there closer to when it starts. There were still plenty of food options and booths to explore but even at 12:45 some people had already ran out of food and packed up to leave.
Still, lots of tasty samples to try.
The live music was awesome - the lead singer went from singing to playing the trumpet to a clarinet. And they were hilarious too!
But for all of the deliciousness of the cornbread, EH and I had our sights set on something completely different from the beginning.
The Excaliburger.
EH had done all his homework - apparently this guy mastered his burger and set out on the road to share it with the world. Too many repairs on his food truck put him out of commission for awhile but now they are back and Little Rock rejoices because of it.
I don't even like pickles on my cheeseburger but on this burger they were perfection. If you're local, make sure to add the bacon for $1.00 more. Bacon makes everything better.
Southern Gourmasian was also in attendance, which I hate to admit I still have not tried. But I've heard amazing things!
Also Banana Leaf..which I have not tried either but it looked delicious!
After devouring our burgers with no napkins, who would have thought!, we made another round and back in time just to see the winners of the festival.
This group won several awards including Best All Around! I wish we would had arrived sooner so we could have tried their food. Now we know for next time!
The rest of our weekend included watching our Razorbacks win against Ole Miss, fires in the fireplace, and sleeping in on Sunday.
Overall, the perfect weekend. Hope you had a great weekend as well!
EH and I rarely have a weekend with no plans, or at least that's what it has felt like lately. So this past weekend when I checked our calendar and saw nothing, I got ridiculously excited.
After a lazy Friday night, I woke up Saturday and checked Facebook only to see it was Bacon Fest at the State Fair Grounds! Bacon. Fest. Who wouldn't want to check that out?
The food lines were all incredibly long, and it is still stupid hot here, so we picked one to wait it out, Pat's Kitchen.
Which had more traditional bacon wrapped items, sure, but we were starving at this point and bacon wrapped potato skins sounded divine. Spoiler: they were.
Deep fried potatoe wedges that were then wrapped in bacon, breaded and fried again. They were really good - if they could have incorporated cheese or sour cream they would have been over the top.
Jalapeno Poppers! These are mine and EH's favorites so we couldn't resist.
And candied bacon for dessert! Loved these.
With some of our favorite beers from Diamond Bear Brewery and Lost Forty Brewing!
After we devoured everything, we took another lap to see if any of the lines had shrank and to snap pics of all of the menus. Some of the items were outrageous!
The funnel cakes sounded awesome and if I wasn't already full I would have been all over the bacon topped batter fried cheesecake.
I didn't see anyone walking around with a bacon armadillo egg but that's not to say people didn't try it!
This last stop had a short line and a few things we really wanted to try so we jumped in for a bacon wrapped fried oreo and a jalapeno bacon lemonade. Jalapeno. Bacon. Lemonade. Whaaa?
Which we completely expected to hate. But it was delicious. It felt really wrong. We finished it all.
Which got us thinking.. would this be good turned into a cocktail? Add some vodka, serve in a moscow mule mug with a piece of bacon for garnish? Weird? We may just have to try it.
My favorite part of the day were the action shots of EH trying the bacon fried oreo.
First was observation.
Action shot.
And if this isn't the look of satisfaction, I'm not sure what is.
And it was good! Though not as crispy or warm as we thought it would be.
Saturday we met EH's Dad and his Wife to watch what we were sure would be a Razorback victory. Judging by our faces you can tell how the game went. Still love our Hogs!
Sunday, we headed to our favorite new brunch spot - Lost Forty - to try and recover from our defeat. If you are local and haven't checked out Lost Forty for brunch on Sundays, you absolutely should.
Two options for Beermosa's - fresh squeezed grapefruit or orange juice. We ordered one of each!
I went with my favorite, their biscuits and gravy with two fried eggs.
While EH went for their cinnamon apple pancakes. Their pancakes alone are delicious but with big slices of fresh apples...just decadent.
While we were stuffing our faces all weekend, Moose got a haircut! A very much needed haircut.
Which he still is super fluffy but it's stuffed animal fluffy and not overgrown alpaca fluffy.
I'm very grateful for this no plans weekend - lots of good food and good company. It doesn't get any better than that.
It finally feels like Spring here and I think a lot of that is because of Easter. And because of the warmer albeit moderately rainy weather.
I love Spring - it makes me feel motivated to get things done around the house, pick more colorful clothes from my closet, and just feels like a fresh start.
EH seems to feel the same - he's been working in the yard trying to conquer some weeds before the grass comes in. So on Saturday, we ventured to Cantrell Gardens.
Here were some of my favorites from walking around.
I've been talking about this Chocolate Mint for days now - I think I need this in my yard.
I'm a sucker for succulents!
Easter Sunday we met one side of the family for lunch. I love Easter - great food, spending time with family, and fun Easter dresses. EH and I even made little baskets for our nieces - though I think it was more for me than them!
After coming home Sunday afternoon, it was fun to see what had blossomed in our back yard!
Hopefully the weather is warming up and flowers are blooming near you! If it weren't for the pollen, I would say this is my favorite time of year! (Though I think I say that about every time of year!)
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hopefully you have survived any over indulgence of green beer.
We decided to celebrate this past Saturday since that's when the Parade happened downtown. To do so, we went to one of our local favorites - Dugan's Irish Pub.
We started out with beer and appetizers.
Which turned into Irish Car Bombs. (Also, I'm the worst at taking shots. It took me several minutes to recover from this.)
Which eventually turned into green jello shots.
Which finally turned into photos with some of my favorite people.
We only caught some of the parade but we had a blast without it. I enjoy any holiday that allows day drinking with friends.
On Sunday we cleaned up around the house and marathon-ed episodes of Scandal. We're about to start Season Three and I can't wait.
The weather here is turning beautiful and nobody is embracing it more than Moose.
Moose loves to wallow in the yard and I'm always curious about what is just so enjoyable about it. Wait until Friday when he gets a hair cut, the yard loving becomes really intense when he's got shorter hair.
Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day! And that spring like weather is near you soon!
