midday snack

I stopped by my fav bakery/sandwich shop in Austin (San Franciso Bakery) for a cookie and a latte this afternoon. I love this place because they bake all their own breads, have quality/inventive sandwiches, and I know the owners and therefore, am always greeted with smiles when I go there. The chocolate chip/toffee cookie was mind blowing and right out of the oven, while the latte was rich and delicious.

Thanks to Kevin for the iphone photo and John and Phuong for the great food!

Austin Restaurant Week

This year for the first time we decided to take advantage of Austin Restaurant Week. We’d heard about it in past years but never jumped at the amazing opportunity that it is.

Basically a handful of some of the best (and most expensive) restaurants in Austin create a set 3 or 4 course menu at a set price of $25 or $35/person. It’s such a fabulous deal because on most occasions you’ll walk out of any of the participating establishments with spending no less than $65-$100/person. So Yes, Sign us up!!!

So we dined like kings and queens on two Sundays in a row. First up was Hudson’s on the Bend, a restaurant known for its game fare. Highlights of the night were the duck and jalapeno appetizer that Alex ordered and a hazlenut brownie dessert that Alex also ordered…don’t worry my food was good too.

Then this past Sunday we ventured downtown to the famed Driskill Grill, always listed in the top three of Austin’s Best Restaurants. This place was a must for us because we normally would never eat at such an expensive place, unless it was for a special event. Our three course meal was complete with pretentious serving sizes and a pretentious British waiter. Haha, but the food was great. Besides being slightly disappointed with my sweat pea tortellini I had a great time eating the best lamb chop ever ordered (thanks Alex) and this sinfully, delicious raspberry chocolate mousse that thankfully I had all to myself.

All in all we really enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to participate in Restaurant Week again, I believe the event will be taking place again this spring. We already have a few places in mind for when that comes around again!

Sweet Treats

This past week I was a busy baker. Let’s just say I owed a few people after tremendous favors they’d done for me. So how do I repay tremendous favors you ask? With baked goods silly!

I prepared my famous Nutella Trifle for my mom’s office. They were all smiles when I brought it in and I heard that it was a big hit.

Fast forward two days later, I owed another friend for dealing with a major headache for the past four months. I won’t get into it. BUT when I asked her what her favorite flavor or cupcakes were she responded, “strawberry!” How very convenient because my strawberry cupcakes I believe are my best cupcakes. They come out so splendidly delicious and this time was no exception. I sent her home with at least 6 and still had leftover cupcakes and icing. The cupcakes are gone…but there’s still a bowl of icing in the fridge…it’s almost a week old (gross I know) but it’s so painful for me to have to throw it away. It’s on my to-do list for when I get home, calm down people, I’m not going to eat it, or even roll around in it…much.

Cupcakes and Pupcakes make the world go round

I’d been hearing about Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop for months. It’s a cupcake bakery on South 1st with the yummiest array of cupcakes (among a few other sweet treats) and the cutest storefront in town. It doesn’t hurt that it’s just blocks away form Torchy’s (our fav taco trailer).

We’ve gone to Sugar Mama’s twice in the past two weeks. When you walk in you’ll usually find a large group of people staring intently at the delicate cupcake display. There are some very inventive flavor combos and choosing just the perfect one is on the top of everybody’s to-do list. So far I’ve tried the Strawberry Love (my fav), the Red Velvet, and a bite of Alex’s Pin Up (yellow cake with chocolate frosting). They’re just so good and I adore the frosting swirls on top. We’re also sure to pick up a pupcake for Saci on each and every visit. They’re peanut butter flavored and she goes nuts for them. Just recently I emailed the owner Olivia with the below picture of Saci awaiting the demise of the pictured pupcake and she gave me a coupon for a free cupcake and pupcake on our next visit. It’s customer service like that and premium sweets that will keep us coming back for more!

Packaging that me likey

I read (errr look at) Dieline.com on a daily basis. Fun, fresh packaging design is something I’ll never get bored of. Take a looksie at one of the posts today. Oh Nutella, you always brighten my day!

The Best sandwiches in town are made at OUR HOUSE!

Last night Alex called me and told me he was at the grocery story. “Why?” I asked since we had a house chock full of food from our last visit not too long ago. He informed me that he had a hankering for a gourmet sandwich and was picking up fixings for the perfect sammie.

When he got home we got to work immediately. First things first…bake apple smoked bacon at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes until crispy. Once the bacon was done we started to assemble the sandwich of all sandwiches. Atop the ciabatta rolls (I kNoW!!) we stacked mesquite smoked turkey, aged white cheddar, BACON, dijon mustard, spinach/artichoke hummus, roma tomatoes, and baby greens. GAWWDDD IT WAS SOOO GOOD. And I’m kicking myself because Alex recommended me taking a picture of our delights right before we devoured them and I brushed it off. big mistake.

And for dessert, he picked up ginormo oatmeal raisin cookies that were warm from being just baked at the bakery. They were perfection!

August Food Finds

So yes, I’ve taken a wee vacation from el blog. A friend recently said that we’re all in a blogcession. And I agree. Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the yummy new restaurants we’ve tried.

A few weeks ago, and then again this past Friday we joined friends at Momiji. A no frills sushi restaurant in Northwest Austin that boasts quality sushi at affordable prices. We’ve only been on Fridays to enjoy their $3 menu. But they also have half price sashimi, rolls, and hand rolls Sunday through Thursdays as well. So back to this $3 menu, there are drinks, appetizers, rolls, hand rolls, sashimi, and desserts all for $3. It’s pretty amazing. And the stuff is goooooood. This last time we went we each had our own appetizers (pork dumplings for me and shrimp (shumai) dumplings for Alex), three rolls (a sweet potato, spicy tuna, and eel roll to share), and fried bananas for dessert. And for all that we paid $19. We were so excited we wanted to sing afterwards.

We also tried Buenos Aires Cafe for the first time a few weeks ago with a friend. It’s on South 1st in Austin and is a wee little place with cramped seating, but I really couldn’t care about that after I walked in and saw the astonishing dessert bar. There was an array of cakes, tortes, and chocolate dipped somethings that all cried out my name in unison. Needless to say we all feasted on wonderful salads, inventive empanadas, and Argentine pot pies. And then of course we had dessert. The waiter made a mistake and brought us three desserts (one each) instead of just two like we asked for. There were two cuatro leches cakes (beat that tres leches!) and a dark chocolate and raspberry torte. They were all freakin’ to die for. However, the waiter charged us for all three. And he was so darn nice that we didn’t want to be losers and correct him. So we paid the extra five dollars and rolled ourselves out of the tiny cafe. Despite the bill hiccup we’ll surely be back.

Trailer Park & Eatery

This past weekend was beyond productive, I crossed off so many things from my to-do list. The act of crossing things off a list thrills the bajeebus out of me.

One of the things I crossed off was eating at the Trailer Park & Eatery. We drove down to South 1st yesterday and parked in the gravel parking lot that also contains Torchy’s Tacos and Lee-Dee-Dah. I have been dying to try Torchy’s for I dunno…six months and mamma mia was it worth the wait. Alex and I both ordered two of their tacos: I got the Carnitas Pulled Pork and Green Chile taco on a double corn tortilla and the Baja Shrimp on a flour tortilla. Alex got the Jamaican Jerk Chicken with mangoes and the Trailer Trash (with fried chicken), both on flour tortillas. Each taco was served with a lime wedge and an individual sauce paired appropriately with each taco variety. There were water coolers close by so one didn’t need to order a drink, when all was said and done we paid $11.95 for the both of us. If you live in or around Austin GO GO GO GO to this place. We dubbed them the best tacos we’ve had.

For dessert we skipped La-Dee-Dah to try Holy Cacao which I had heard about in Austin Monthly to sample a few of their famed cake balls. Sadly, they weren’t worth the hype and quite frankly, I’ve had better balls…cake balls that is. I had Holly’s Favorite and we both tried the Red Velvet which left a lot to be desired. The Red Velvet especially tasted as if it had been pre-made and then frozen. A no no in my book, especially when you just had a rave review in one of the city’s most popular publications.

We’ll be back to Torchy’s for sure, there are various other taco combos I must try, including their breakfast tacos.

oh orchid

This post is a bit overdue. But I wanted to gush about how wonderful Alex can be (ha). Last week when I was woozy from my flight home from Arizona (the plane was teeny and the landing was rough) Alex rushed me home to my awesome house that I missed oh so much while away and had cleaned it completely from top to bottom. Also waiting for me was this beautiful, purple orchid. I developed a thing for orchids awhile ago but could never justify buying one because they’re kind of pricey. Well now, I have one and her name is Olivia.

He also made me chicken kabobs on the grill with pasta and pesto. For dessert I was told about the cheesecake brownies he bought and ate before I made it home. But all was forgiven when he queued up Top Chef Masters for me to enjoy with a glass of sparkling water.

Best Burgers

Texas Monthly released a list in this month’s issue of the 50 Best Burgers in the State of Texas. Most of them are in the state’s larger cities like Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio. A good handful also exist here in Austin. Yesterday, a few coworkers and I headed to #30 at the Roaring Fork for the “Big Ass” or “Half Ass” Burger. It was a really really good burger and the fries were awesome. My only complaints were that the bottom half of the bun got a wee bit soggy from all the burger juices and there was a tad too much raw onion on the burger. Besides that the flavors were right on and I would definitely order it again.

Next up, the #2 Best Burger in Texas at close by Counter Cafe…