Austin Restaurant Week, Updated

We have now also committed to dinner on Sunday with my sister, her friends and our roommate. The restaurant: Jasper's.

I wasn't thrilled when Lil' Sis brought it up. I've been to Jasper's only once, and it was good. Great, even. But I like to think of ARW as a time to try places you've never been to, always wanted to try, or can't afford to go to regularly.

I just pulled up the Jasper's ARW menu to see what we'd gotten ourselves into. And all I can say is, HOLY CRAP, LIL' SIS! I can't wait to try this stuff.

Arroz Con Leche is a melody, too

I didn't grow up eating a ton of Arroz Con Leche, but both my mom and grandmother raised me on the song. I was raised on version #3, and it has been burned on my brain since I was a very little girl:

Arroz con leche me quiero casar
con una señorita de San Nicolás
Que sepa coser
Que sepa bordar
Que sepa habrir la puerta para ir a jugar

Con ésta sí
con ésta no
con esta señorita me caso yo!

Translation:

Rice pudding I want to be married
To a young lady from San Nicolas
Who knows how to sew
Who knows how to knit
Who knows how to open the door to go out to play

This one I will
This one I won't
This young lady will I marry (soon).

In retrospect, the lyrics are ridiculous. They just sound better in Spanish. (You'll have to take my word for it.)

Last night I made Arroz con Leche (rice pudding) for the very first time. I followed the recipe I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, using whole organic goat milk instead of cow's milk. I halved the recipe, and therefore I was sure I could shave a few minutes off of the cooking time. Not the case. I sampled it after about 40 minutes, and then kept stirring for another 20. After a full hour, the arroz con leche was perfect. Smooth, creamy, comforting on a cold Tuesday night.

I cannot wait to make it again.

Q: What Rhymes with Snow?

Din Ho!

It's snowing in Austin today. My office and at least some schools and state agencies (read = Mike's office) shut down around noon. I immediately emailed Mike to tell him I had the afternoon off, and he suggested we meet for Chinese food. We don't often get together for lunch since we work on opposite ends of town, so this combination of lunch with Mike + snow day + Chinese food made for a very rare triple treat.

Din Ho is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in town. I've celebrated a couple of birthdays there, and it's the restaurant where Mike first met my parents. I love the Peking Duck, the roast BBQ pork, the soups, the noodles. Even their fortune cookies seem to taste better.

Today, we agreed on two main dishes + a vegetable to split between the two of us. Below: Pepper steak and flat noodles in black bean sauce with sauteed Chinese broccoli. Not pictured: the all-too-quickly devoured combination BBQ pork/duck over white rice.

After lunch, there was only one thing to do. Head to Mike's for video games, movies and, of course, that work we were going to do from home!

(Yes. This is enough snow to cause half the city of Austin, Texas to shut down. Suck it, Yankees!)

Kitchen Sink Frittata

Most frittatas are a bit kitchen sink-y, aren't they? Just about anything goes - and last night, anything did.

We got back from a far too short visit to the gym and threw together our farmer's market eggs, leftover cooked spinach, onions, leftover chicken from Mike's lunch, a random zuchinni, and then threw on a few heaping handfuls of more fresh spinach.

Hopefully the pictures are clear enough to spot the difference between the cooked and uncooked versions.

Austin Restaurant Week

I've lived in Austin for roughly 16 years and have never been to the acclaimed institution that is Jeffrey's.

All of that changes next week. I just made a reservation -- $35 for three courses. Here's to celebrating Texas' Indpendence Day with crispy oysters, seared sea scallops and flourless chocolate cake!

An Austin Weekend

This weekend was just the right amount of everything - down time, social time, sunshine, time in the kitchen, time spent outdoors, lounging time.

We kicked it off slowly with a movie at home Friday night, allowing us to manage a farmer's market appearance at a respectable 10:00am (early enough to get in on some of the goods that tend to disappear first). Armed with $50 worth of greens and proteins (pork belly! eggs!), we headed to Antonelli's, Austin's newest - only? - cheese shop in Hyde Park. I'd say I went a little nuts, because I know Mike will read this, but the truth is, I showed tremendous restraint. We sampled only 4 cheeses and purchased 3 of them. Three very remarkable, very distinct cheeses - a creme fraiche, a Bianco Sardo (parmesan meets gruyere), and a Winnimeire. I walked in and immediately asked for a triple-cream brie; the Winnimeire is a cow's milk cheese, just as gooey and soft as brie but with a tangy bite.

After some tennis and napping, we made dinner before going out to a show. The newly purchased Bianco Sardo offered an opportunity to make pasta -- the pasta I'd been wanting to make since it first appeared here. Our homemade pasta turned out a little too thin to duplicate Smitten's recipe successfully, yet despite some clumping and sticking to the pan, it tasted just fine. Perfectly paired with local spinach, wilted under caramelized onions and generous amounts of garlic. (I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of the plated pasta with spinach. Bad blogger!) While the recipe says the pepper and parmesan are surprisingly sufficient in bringing flavor to the pasta, I believe I improved mine with a squirt of lemon and some red pepper flakes.

A Sunday birthday brunch led to a massive sugar high, tempered by some time in the sun and a couple of glasses of water.

Sunday evening, we ventured into the unknown: The Land of Amberjack Fish.
Taking the fishmonger's advice, we sauteed the fish on medium-low heat in the cast iron skillet with only garlic, butter and oil. The only thing we added was a pinch of salt and fresh lemon once it was on the plate. It was meaty yet tender; substantial yet light. I'm already an Amberjack convert, and I hope to try this fish again soon, perhaps in a marinade and adding a couple of minutes under the broiler. The fish went well with roasted baby brussel sprouts, also procured at the farmer's market. The perfect finish to a perfect weekend.

Smothered Pork Chops

I defrosted a few pork chops for dinner last night, but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I spotted a large yellow onion in the bowl of assorted fruits on the counter; it was still in good shape despite the fact that it had been there a while. So I've got some pork chops and an onion. Now what?

A quick search for caramelized onion and pork chops led me to this recipe, which frankly couldn't have been any easier. I paired my chops with some fresh greens and a homemade dressing my roommate says I need to bottle and sell. It's a very basic lemon+soy+oil vinaigrette with a few twists of the pepper mill. No need for salt as the soy brings plenty of MSG.