Every Sunday, I have coffee with my friend Jeff. Occasionally, we venture out beyond my front porch to sample some of the fine coffee shops around town. Usually this involves me getting into his car and ending up wherever he decides to take me. Today we wound up at Thunderbird Coffee.
I have been hunting around for a decent fish cookbook for a long time. I love well prepared fish dishes, but I have had difficulty making them myself (outside of grilled salmon) to my satisfaction. You can only imagine my glee in discovering in my June edition of Gourmet that not only is Gourmet starting a cookbook club but that the first book they’re suggesting is a fish cookbook!
In an unassuming house on South Lamar, you will find culinary treats whose equal I have yet to find in Austin. Uchi is a restaurant that prides itself on using fresh local produce and for having a wide variety of seafood, at least some of which comes from the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. I had been wanting to try Uchi for a long time. We finally decided to go to celebrate both our recent wedding anniversary and my recent departure from my miserable, soul-sucking job. It was meant to be sort of a culinary last-hurrah (at least for a little while).
I punked out and didn’t really cook too much for dinner tonight. Consequently, I figured I had enough energy to make dessert. I had eggs that I needed to use up before they went bad, so I figured I’d try a souffle recipe I have been wanting to make. So for dessert this evening, we had Hot Grand Marnier Soufflesfrom the December 2003 issue of Cooking Light.
Have you ever had a day where you cook several different things, and they just all seem to turn out really well? In my mind, I count these as good food days. Yesterday was a good food day.
With all the craziness around our house lately (largely revolving around my job and one of our pet cats), I forgot that I have cooked some over the past few days, and the meals have been more interesting than I’ve put together in quite a while.
Every once in a while, we indulge in a caloric splurge and have a plate full of wonderful cheeses and cured meats for our dinner. It reminds us of some of the most enjoyable meals we had in Italy last fall and gives us an excuse to sample a variety of food items without having to commit to figuring out how to use them in a recipe.
I pride myself on being a DIY kind of cook. I like to start with basic ingredients and make things from scratch whenever possible. That said, with a demanding schedule, in an effort to cook at home more often, I sometimes resort to items of convenience. Enter Homemade in Minutes - Cincinnati Chili.
I was unhappy when Starlite moved locations. I feel the restaurant was better when it was in the little converted house on 34th street. However, the pizza joint that moved in instead, Salvation Pizza, is generally a winner, and I’m happy to report the pizza is delicious.
I happened to notice mention of making Beer Bread on a friend of mine’s blog. Fortunately, she was kind enough to send me a link to the recipe!