Dinner with Cousins & 2nd Cousin, or maybe 3rd Cousin?

Tonight we went into Austin to have dinner with Mom's cousin Geoff and his family. They live in Austin but I don't see them often, so it was fun to get together while Mom was here. We went to an AMAZING restaurant on South Congress (right near the famous Congress Ave bridge with all the bats) and had a spectacular dinner. Vespaio is Taylor's favorite restaurant, and since it was her birthday today (10), that's where we went. I wish I had taste like that when I was 10! Anyway, it was delicious and really nice to catch up with family.

During the meal we tried to figure out how we are actually related to each other. We're kind of dumb, apparently, because we still don't really know. Geoff and Mom are first cousins. Does that make Geoff my 2nd cousin or Taylor my 2nd cousin? Hmm? Either way, Taylor is a beautiful and completely lovely little girl and it was a pleasure to spend her birthday with her.

Here are a few photos of our dinner with Cousins Geoff, Jenifer & Taylor.






And for those of you who enjoy reading about food as much as I enjoy eating, writing about and cooking it, this is what we had:

Housemade Mozzarella & Heirloom Tomato Salad
Hummus & Foccacia
Parmesan Polenta with Wild Mushrooms & Gorgonzola butter

Mom had Spaghetti Carbonara with Bacon, Proscuitto & a poached egg.
Joseph had the Grilled Meat Trio, which strangely had four items and two of them were poultry. Regardless, it was all delicious... Grilled Quail, Duck Confit, Parmesan Crusted Short Ribs & Osso Bucco.
I had the Mixed Seafood, which had an amazing Crabcake with hollandaise, grilled Salmon with Pesto & Giant Poached Scallops with different, but equally delicious polenta.

Taylor had some blood orange sorbet with a candle, but the adults were all too full.