Oklahoma is OK!

This weekend, Oklahoma in all respects was victorious. OU beat a truly pitiful (really, the pity was palpable) University of Tennessee-Chattanooga football team, 57-2; Oklahoma so far avoided any effects of Gustav and delivered me safely from the Midwest to DC; and Oklahoma generously provided me with enough fodder to create an interesting (or at least excessively long) blog entry. I arrived Friday night, slightly harried from my travels and the ubiquitous crying-on-plane baby. But, I was so glad to get home. We went out for seafood when I arrived (Houston's airport was only good for a $4 fruit smoothie) at one restaurant of Edmond, Oklahoma's burgeoning restaurant scene called Fish City. The gumbo was nothing to write home about but I was with my parents anyway, so there was really no need for it to be so good to do so. However, they have a clever cubist rendition on their website that I like, so two thumbs up to their web developer.

I woke refreshed Saturday morning (houses are nice because typically neighbors who like techno music with lots of bass don't live the floor below) and we headed over to the Edmond Farmer's Market. It's a small farmer's market, but full of farmers from all over Oklahoma, selling beautiful produce. Peaches are great in Oklahoma, but a large, overalled farmer told us this was probably the last week for them. I supposed this is ok, because I also like orange produce of the squash and pumpkin variety, but nothing beats summer peaches. To the right is an example of Oklahoma peaches, taken from the Web site of Livesay Orchard, purveyors of Porter peaches.

After picking our produce (see how catchy alteration is?), we went to Java Dave's, a local coffee shop. I know I have lots of weekend events to detail, so I will just say my coffee was good. Plus, I don't want to write much more without a germane Java Dave's picture; an image of a Java Dave's gift basket is not useful for my purposes.

So was any stellar food consumed on this trip, you wonder, multiple paragraphs in? Por supuesto, en Oklahoma. Oklahoma has its culinary gifts, which include phenomenal Mexican restaurants of all varieties. This trip it was a quirky restaurant, the Iguana Lounge, in an old brick garage north of downtown. My parents were very impressive in that they planned to take me here, not just because of the blog, but because they know I'm always looking for good new restaurants in OKC, which was thrilling. But, I'll be brief because the restaurant's too new for a Web site and I'm afraid you'll stop reading if I don't get to another picture soon. The food was delicious: we had a bowl of orange, blue, and white corn tortilla chips with guacamole served in scooped-out avocado shells, in addition to a variety of salsas: verde, habanero-apricot, a hot tomato salsa with orange zest, and normal salsa with cilantro. I had a delicious taco al carbon with cilantro, lime, and queso fresco and a bowl of cilantro-lime beans. The waiter was new, but gave free salsa, so we liked him.

We drove around downtown a bit, saw the lovely Block 42 townhomes around the corner from the restaurant (the downtown area is quickly becoming dense and hip, with really refreshing housing options), and then headed back home.

After a nice walk around the neighborhood (I passed a house with a permanent garage sale in the front yard), the mood turned serious as we prepared for Oklahoma's 2008 football premiere. My Yiayia (grandmother) came over, the pastitsio (Greek lasagna, see right) was put in the oven, and we sat down, tears-in-our-beers, to find that the $29.99 Pay-per-View game was nearly unwatchable because of a bad connection. Even though Oklahoma was the highest-ranked upper-division team the Chattanooga Mocs had played since facing number three-ranked Tennessee in 1951 and even though it's probably not entirely neccessary to be concerned about OU's performance until mid-October when we play Texas, to have the viewing experience so cruelly misunderstood by a Cox Communications associate who couldn't fix the reception was heart-rending. But, of course we still had dinner:

And the world went on, while we listened to the game on AM radio.

The next day was church. Greek women are crazy; however, that's not why I write. After a nice family meal at Bravo! Cucina Italiana (the emphasis theirs, but not undeserved), my mom and I went shopping. However, that's also not why I write. That night, we had delicious leftovers and I made another horiatiki salad, this time with Edmond vegetables.

I fearlessly wield paring knives.

Answer: Kalamata olive.

I'm afraid my dad knows "Under the Tuscan Sun" is on the TV.

The flight home was nice, but I won't bore you with the glories of airport Subway sandwiches, new Samsonite luggage, or the cloud-less Alexandria sky. But stay tuned (or beware), dear readers; I'm off to Columbus, Georgia this weekend and am likely to be equally verbose!