Taste =Tested
March 21st, 2012 § 7 Comments
Question: Can the average Joe (or Bro) REALLY tell the difference between a fresh egg and an egg from the fridge?
As keepers of chickens, we get that question semi frequently. We always answered with a resounding “YES” because, well, we want to feel justified in our chicken raising. But can we really tell or is it just wishful thinking? Who better to test this theory than the one and only Bro? A manboy who exists solely on a diet of sloppy joes and ravioli and has practically no picky eating habits to speak of whatsoever is the perfect subject on which to test this theory.
Hypotheses: I predict, that even with the palate of a common man, fair Bro will be able to distinguish the fresh egg from the friged one.
The experiment: First things first…gather materials. One fresh egg and one from the fridge.
Both yolks side-by-side. Guesses as to which is which?
To test accurately and fairly, it had to be a truly blind taste test with both eggs prepared under identical conditions. Both eggs would be cooked over easy, on the same type of pan, cooked over the same heat for the same length of time. They would even be served on the same plate. No differentiation whatsoever.
And we couldn’t add any fixin’s like salsa or salt and pepper. Only egg in its purest form would do. 
Bro prepares.
Bro chooses his favorite.
Bro chose the fresh egg! We are vindicated!
The Result: In the end, Bro finished both eggs but said there was a clear difference, and the fresher egg was “more robust.” He said there was more flavor, thought it wasn’t over powering…just preferable.
So there you have it. Fresh eggs are finer. Another hypothesis tested and proven.
Special thanks to Frannie Sue, the Scientific Method and Bro for contributing to this post.
Hearty Party
February 6th, 2012 § 1 Comment
I had ulterior motives when I offered to host this year’s Super Bowl party–mostly I wanted to choose the menu. I’m not a picky eater but Heath and I have been on a health binge lately and I wanted to keep the menu tame-ish. Maybe some hummus instead of home fries and quinoa instead of queso. I carefully constructed a veggie heavy menu and set out for Central Market to acquire the ingredients. The menu would be a fresh (but still delish) alternative to traditional Super Bowl fix-ins.
The Menu
-Quinoa Tabbouleh
-Veggie Shish Kabobs
-Southwestern Bean Salad
-Guacamole
-Red Pepper Hummus
-Fresh veggies for dipping
-Jalapeño hot dogs (because, well this is still America and it’s still the Super Bowl)
I spent almost all day preparing. I was going to make fans out of my non veggie-loving friends even if just for one night.
“Oh no,” I told my guests. “You don’t need to bring anything. We’ll take care of it.”
Those were famous last words. Somehow during the course of the evening, things took a turn and I learned a valuable lesson: don’t tell your food-loving friends to bring “nothing” to a party.
The good…
The Bad…
The Ugly…
By the end of the night I had nibbled on a carrot or two, sure, but also downed a bacon milkshake, fist fulls of pizza dip, mac n cheese, creamy jalapeno dip, peking duck and more. I was grateful for the whirlwind tour of terribly unhealthy edibles, but I did have a killer food hangover the next day.
Maybe I’ll lose the weight by next year’s party.
La Condesa
January 25th, 2012 § 2 Comments
I COULD go to trendy new restaurants soon after they open and THEN blog about them, but I much prefer waiting a few years until everyone already knows how awesome Eating Establishment X is, and then write about it like I’m the first to know. I’m talking, in this case, about La Condesa.
I ventured to the downtown TexMex restaurant for lunch recently and was pleased to see the hype wasn’t for nothing. I have no trouble believing this place will be a regular contender when the mister and I find ourselves in the “where should we go for date night” predicament.
Right off the bat I liked La Condesa for the location (across from Austin’s super cool City Hall, The W Hotel, Moody Theater and Lamberts). At night the trees light up and the people watching is superb. So kudos, LC, for picking out some pretty prime real estate in which to serve tacos.
Besides being situated in the heart of mucho A-town action, the architecture and interior design is jaw dropping, astounding even. You could sit inside and stare at the textured walls, vibrant murals, swanky lighting, everything…before you realize it has been 10 minutes and you haven’t even opened your menu. I’m not overselling either. In fact, the restaurant won a people’s choice restaurant design award from AIA Los Angeles. Pretty nifty.
If you weren’t already intrigued, allow me to go on. I’ve always heard you can tell how good a TexMex restaurant is going to be by the chips and salsa. Perhaps forecasting this very school of thought, the brains behind the La Condesa menu offer not one, but four salsas on which to over indulge before your meal begins. There’s a classic salsa roja, as well as a fresh and creamy avocado tomatillo, chipotle salsa and a super spicy but delectable option. Four salsa choices AND a generous helping of warm chips. Don’t mind if I do.
The main meal itself (fish tacos, my go-to taco when breakfast tacos aren’t an option) was splendid as well. The serving wasn’t too massive, but was still plenty filling and the tacos themselves really hit the spot. The best part about the entree, however, was the extra tortillas that come with the meal. Some places (no names) up-charge for extra tortillas (not cool), but La Condesa included two additional corn tortillas right on the plate, just like that. It was an unexpected treat and came in handy for scooping up extra salsa, black beans and rice. It’s such a small thing to do, but that alone would have tempted me to return for another visit.
By lunch hour’s end, I had been converted. The tasty array of salsas, visually entrancing atmosphere, and surprise bonus tortilla had me singing the praises of La Condesa to anyone that would hear it. Unfortunately I can’t speak on behalf of their margaritas. I guess I should return for happy hour in order to tell that tale.
Ski
January 19th, 2012 § 2 Comments
I’m not a skier.
My friends and skiing compadres told me that when I was 15 just after I mistakenly darted through a half-pipe at 90 miles an hour, narrowly missing my fellow terrain park ski bums. That was fine with me. As far as I was concerned I could go the rest of my life without setting foot or ski on another slope. Texas has a shortage of snow-capped mountain peaks anyway, so what did I need to know how to ski for?
As it turns out, when your buds Maranjanark offer up their family’s condo in Vail for a long weekend of gratis mountaineering, you don’t exactly turn them down. So, away we went with a few other snow-loving Austinites for a post-Christmas friend trip to the great state of Colorado.
I’d had one other brush with Vail before taking off. A summer Vail vacation with my family when I was 13 was pretty enjoyable until a 40-year-old naked male sunbather opted to position himself right outside our condo window. Heath knew only that Vail was “where rich people go to ski.” So that’s what we were working with. Vail: a destination for the wealthy and naked.
The trip to Vail proved neither pricey nor scantily clad. The little mountain town does rob you blind with $100-a-day lift tickets, but that was about as bold as we got when it came to emptying our wallets. We saved a chunk of change by cooking at home rather than shelling out dollar after dollar at over-priced downtown restaurants. (Like seriously over-priced, we’re talking the neighborhood of $9 for a warm Bud Light…cruise ship expensive.) So rather than wine and dine in town, we munched on breakfast tacos by Nick, Mark’s meatloaf and Jaime’s Oreo cookie balls. At nights we drank boxed wine on the couch and enjoyed locally brewed beer over riotous games of Things. Perhaps it’s not how the rich and famous (and naked) do Vail, but it is how we rolled on this particular MLK weekend.
We did live it up too, of course. There was mountain skiing (no half-pipes this time), ice skating, gondola riding, snow tubing, city walking, photography jaunting (I feel like Vail is a place people “jaunt”), snow ball throwing, salad bar cruising, brewery touring, Australian tourist meeting and even heated pool swimming.
We packed a lot of living into 3 days of vacation, but as all trips by privileged 20-somethings go, it was the company and conversation, not the location, that made the weekend getaway one for the books blog.
You are what you eat
January 10th, 2012 § 6 Comments
To start the new year off with a bang (and to undo some of the damage we inflicted upon ourselves over the holidays) Heath and I vowed to go on a two week binge of micronutrients. No savory poultry, no delectable cheese, no fluffy breads or creamy desserts or salty snacks. Just a lot of this…
this…
this…
and this.
Think blueberries for breakfast, salads for lunch and veggie stews for dinner. Snacks of Hershey’s kisses have been traded for fistfuls of Craisins, and desserts of red wine are being subbed out for freshly squeezed OJ. The dining table is topped with celery and salsa instead of chips and dip, and a shiny, substantial juicer is taking up valuable real estate on the kitchen counter. Overhaul indeed.
The fruit/veggie cleanse/fast was inspired by some friends who endured a juice fast (and swear by its powers) and further spurred on by agenda-pushing documentaries like Food Inc., Supersize Me and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. We realized over the last few months we ate far too many processed Cheez-Its and far too few fresh spinach salads. We wanted to do something that would make us more conscious of what we put into our bodies and perhaps influence our future eating habits. Boy has it.
It’s day 10 of vegging out and here’s what we’ve discovered:
-It’s nearly impossible to dine out. I’ve heard vegans make this complaint before, but didn’t understand just how saturated modern menus are with the things we have declared temporarily forbidden. You can be hard pressed to find a salad without cheese and croutons or a soup made without chicken broth. The diet has certainly pushed kitchen creativity to the limit.
-Fresh foods–turns out they really do keep you fuller longer. On lazy days, or days where I thought I earned a treat, I’d be known to grab a breakfast taco or two to start the morning. About 4,000 calories and 2 hours later I’d be hungry again…and usually for something equally greasy and icky. But on the fruit/veggie diet I can stay full for hours on a freshly blended smoothie or guac salad. It really gets you thinking about how your body digests food.
- I really miss cheese. I miss bread and eggs and fish too, but cheese…that’s the kicker. I know cheese rounds out the the top of the list of foods that are pretty horribly unhealthy, but I can’t help but fantasize about chomping down on a slice of cheesy goodness. I have even dreamed of swimming through pools of queso. It’s been the hardest habit to kick, hands down.
With 4 days of apple juice drinking, pistachio snacking and salad munching left, I feel pretty good about the whole experience (and by “pretty good” I mean, confident I can survive the remaining days without cheese). I know we are no heroes; we didn’t endure a month of vegan-ing, or a 60-day juice fast or 2 week Master Cleanse, but we did find a way to incorporate more of the good stuff into our routine and think differently about how the food we eat affects our mood, mind and waist line. I think it’s the beginning of a major diet overhaul and hopefully a longer life.
Not your grandmother’s farmers market
August 28th, 2011 § 2 Comments
How, HOW can I possibly make my life appear as exciting and exotic as possible? I mean, I’m competing with the entire internet. Have you seen the internet lately? There is some crazy stuff happening there. So how can I make a trip to the farmers market sound invigorating and modern and sexy? Maybe by mentioning some of the more interesting details of the HOPE Farmers Market.
Invigorating: The free cocktails and beer. Free drinks are becoming increasingly mandatory at Austin events and the HOPE market is embracing that idea tenfold. To ease the heat-related sorrows of midday market goers, HOPE offers obscenely delicious cocktails and local brews for the price of free–a good move considering the river of free flowing vodka lemonade kept us in the 100-plus degree heat about an hour longer than I would have normally planned. Live music…that didn’t hurt either.
Modern: The location. The setting of the HOPE market has an intriguing history. During the South by Southwest music festival, the small collection of art studios on East 5th Street is transformed from a mini artist colony into a hipster’s dream also known as Fader Fort . But when the glitz and glam of SXSW is over, the East side art space transforms yet again. Only this time the change is less hipster, more hippie. Less one-week parade and more a 4-hour celebration of all things local, namely the HOPE market.
Sexy: The Art. One perk of hosting a farmers market within an artist’s paradise is the easy access to pieces by local artists. Fresh food and free art…sexy indeed.
So, yeah, Internet. I’m cool too. I can hang. My life, and specifically this blog, is invigorating, modern and sexy. Deal with it.
They grow up so fast
August 24th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Little Francis Sue has joined the egg layers club. Yesterday we found two tiny bright white eggs in the coop.
Her egg laying days could not have come at a better time since Marion is on hiatus from her egg laying. Her embryos are nowhere to be found, at least not in the coop; although it’s possible she could have stashed them somewhere in the yard as she is known to do. If she did take a vacation from laying, I can’t blame her. It’s too hot outside to do anything but think about being inside.
At any rate, here’s a toast to Francis Sue’s coming of age and the promise of many omelettes to come.
Monumental
August 9th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Do I really want to drive an hour north on I 35 to Georgetown for good eatin’ when there are hundreds, nay, thousands of trendy eating establishments in Austin? It certainly doesn’t seem like a task I would volunteer for. But after consuming vast amounts of freshly made strawberry lemonade and more than my fair share of flaky, buttery biscuits, I dare say a return trip to Georgetown is in the cards. Monument Cafe, thou hath converted me.
The cafe’s organic backyard garden provides much of the restaurant’s produce, and what isn’t grown there is sourced from local farms. The same goes for the eatery’s meat, poultry and dairy products. The on-site garden and menu of rich comfort foods combined with the sleek and minimalist interior provides a unique atmosphere that feels simultaneously homey and upscale.
And the food is good, really good. The menu is simple: club sandwiches, chicken fried steak, catfish, etc. But it doesn’t need to be fancy or novel because the quality of the ingredients and attention to detail is what has kept people coming to the cafe repeatedly since 1995.
It may be in Georgetown, but I can always find an excuse to visit the Round Rock outlet mall or stroll Georgetown’s historic square if it means I can stop for lunch at The Monument Cafe.
July 4
July 5th, 2011 § 1 Comment
When fireworks are banned across Central Texas, the only logical substitue for outdoor explosions is to watch Independence Day projected onto a sheet in your backyard while enjoying sliders, potato salad and watermelon. That’s what we decided to do, anyway. What’s more American than mini sandwiches, and excessively large TV screens? Nothing, that’s what.
A peek at our makeshift movie theater.
The Menu: Chips and salsa, watermelon and peaches, turkey sliders, BLT dip, curried potato salad and lots of beer.
Friends–also an important July 4 ingredient.
Happy b-day, America.
Brunch
June 14th, 2011 § 3 Comments
I get the concept of brunch. You take the first meal of the day, breakfast, and combine it with the second, lunch. Tada…Brunch. Noted. I got the concept just fine; it’s breakfast for late risers.
For some reason I was never a big bruncher. Weekends are precious and we don’t have the time to waste preparing elaborate mid-day meals. The days ought to, instead, be filled with swimming, shopping, dog walking and other activities that are “productive” and don’t squander the best part of a summer Sunday, the morning time.
But when Ranjana suggested a group brunch where each couple spends the morning contributing to a divine breakfast/lunch combo that tickles all the senses and provides a much-needed bonding experience, I found it hard to say no. Brunch it would be.
The menu:
• Pigs in a blanket
• Scrambled eggs with cheese
• Chipotle sweet potato tamales
• Fresh peaches, strawberries and blueberries
• Bacon
• Bloody Marys, coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice
• Salsa
It turns out cooking with friends and enjoying a community meal, even if it is mid-day, is not a squander of time. It’s a celebration of diverse backgrounds, friendship and genuine deliciousness. What better way to create a family away from home than over a group brunch? Consider me sold on Sunday brunch.
Heath prepares the O.J.
A Bloody Mary sans celery and instead with bacon. At the end, the bacon tastes so good. Give it a try.
Even the dogs get to enjoy a little brunching.
Brunch time agrees with Heath.
