FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Oops & Goods

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Running to Town Lake Trail and then to Whole Foods = Good

Arriving at Whole Foods with no list = Oops

The downtown Whole Foods is not only new-to-me-store-layout confusing, but it’s also a total circus.  Focusing on a new recipe was impossible.  Heading to the salad bar was boring.  And whatever I was going to do I needed to do fast because it was getting darker by the second and I’m super afraid of walking home in the dark.

I supermarket sweep-ed a bunch of random good-ish sounding things and headed home.  I couldn’t help but think of how unappetizing everything looked as I was putting everything away.  But without much choice, I marinated some cukes, poached an egg, talked to my mom on speaker, and transferred cottage cheese and tabbouleh onto a plate.

The tabbouleh, cottage cheese, and cukes actually went really well together.  I scooped and mixed until it was all gone, saving the perfectly poached egg on perfectly burnt toast for last.  On my to-do list?  Perfectly poaching eggs as much as possible and making my own tabbouleh.

Familiar Faces

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Whether your an over-Facebooker, under-Facebooker, or somewhere in between, I’m certain you have a strong position on the positives or negatives of Facebooking that cause you to be this way.  I’m a self-admitted over-Facebooker that can see both sides, but I tell ya…  Being an over-Facebooker is the only way to be when you move to a new city.

Facebook not only allows you to shout off the virtual rooftops how much you love your new home, but it provides the means to meet new friends of friends and connect with old friends with whom you’ve fallen out of touch.  For the past two weeks I’ve been galavanting around Austin, posting every last one of my whereabouts and who-abouts.  This is mostly a reflection of being so darn happy with my where’s and who’s lately.  But!  It’s also a subtle way of saying “Hey Facebook friends, I just moved to Austin and if you’re here or have a cool friend here, let me know!”.

Here’s where Matt and Lauren come in.  Matt, who I’ve been friends with since Safety Harbor Middle School days, saw somewhere between one and one thousand of my one thousand status updates about Austin.  So, via Facebook, he invited me to dinner and drinks with him and his wife, Lauren.  So you see, this little over-Facebooking thing of mine worked out pretty well.

Our (unpictured) first stop was East Side Show Room, where we sipped on Moscow Mules and nibbled on happy hour small plates.  We exchanged stories about how our adult lives led us to Austin and I immediately found happiness in sharing my time with two friends that call the same place home.

Our next stop was Contigo Austin.  We went straight for celebratory prosecco and two of Matt and Lauren’s favorite apps: the white bean dip and crispy green beans.  Everything we had at both places was really tasty (actually, everything in Austin has been really tasty), but I was especially impressed with the crispy green beans.  They were the only fried veggie I’ve ever had where the integrity of the veggie wasn’t totally tossed out the window.  For all intents and purposes, they were perfectly steamed green beans with a little crispy crust.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATaFzMIMHo&w=500&h=369]

I had such a wonderful night (thank you Matt and Lauren!!) and am very much looking forward to our next get together!

The Box, In French

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It’s a shame to be cooped up in a cubicle on a super sunshiny day, like borderline painful.  As soon as it was an acceptable time to hunt around for lunch plans and not look like the hungriest kid on earth, I did.  The first taker to my lunch-outing offer was my co-worker Elizabeth.  She suggested this food-truck-ish place that she called “the box, in French”.

We chatted our merry way to La Boite and stepped into the box of a restaurant.  The menu was small but amazing.  We both ordered the pain au lait sandwich vegetarien du jour and a Topo Chico.

The outside seating was adorbs.

Our chatter continued as we decided we could live off of bread (perhaps this bread) alone, and went to town on the goat cheese and veggie perfection that sat in front of us.