FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Forcing The Conversion

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Lately, it seems as though I’m awfully committed to being a tomato liker.  When I was home for Christmas, I ordered a caprese-esque dish from Food + Drink Lab.  Shortly after, I asked my roommate to make a caprese salad for New Year’s Eve dinner.  Over the weekend, I ate tomato on a sandwich on purpose.  And tonight, a caprese salad was once again on my mind.

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I picked up a vine of yellow tomatoes at the market, hoping that their lack of redness meant a less tomato-y flavor.

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I made a super simple balsamic reduction by bringing 1/2 cup balsamic and 1 teaspoon sugar to a boil and whisking until thick.  And then I assembled: yellow tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, balsamic reduction, fresh basil.

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I was severely wrong about the yellow tomatoes being less tomato-y.  They were super seedy/slimy in the middle, but I forced myself to eat them anyway, hoping each tomato experience will bring me closer to that like feeling.  I ate a plate full and then brought the rest up the hill to the boys.  They mounged, they approved.

La Brunch

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Wade and I have been talking about creating a restaurant to-do list for quite some time and last week we finally started the email version of putting pen to paper.  La Condesa was mentioned and reservations for four immediately followed.  AG and Tut were coming along for this ride.

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We started with a round of grapefruit mimosas and quickly changed to regular ol’ orange when we realized they were on special for $2.  Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting drink specials at a place that has no problem filling itself to the brim of restaurant fullness at any given time.  So thank you for that, La Condesa!

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Following our drink order, guacamole and salsa arrived.  I wouldn’t typically order chips at brunch, but I remembered these flavors from my last visit and needed that salsa right then.  Badly.

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And then our serious brunch arrived.  Chilangos for Wade, hamburguesa for Tut, huevos condesa for AG, and the B.L.A.T. for muah.  Our entire table oohed and ahhed at each other’s selections and picked at one another’s plates.  Stories of our legendary weekend were replaced with food talk.  I ate slices of tomato, on purpose, for the second time and felt like a grown up.  I can’t tell you of a better brunch.

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I can tell you, however, that La Condesa is my third, first favorite brunch.  Just like my other favorites, the food was wonderful, the service was top notch, and the natural light was a blazing overall design of the place drew my interest.  All things that any successful restaurant in a town full of restaurants must have, but only the La Condesas of this town do it oh so perfectly!

Just Good Chocolate Frosting

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This past weekend was one for the books.  I took an unintentional vacation from FoodFash and spent almost every waking moment with my best buds.  Eating fancy food, watching bands from backstage, playing putt putt, discovering $8 bottles of champagne at Uncle Billy’s, listening to Kalu James play live from the back of a VW van, eating more fancy food, spending quality time at the lake house – total Austin, total jam packed.

I even attempted to bake a cake before putt putt, but didn’t quite plan the baking/pictures/cooling/pictures/frosting/pictures thing correctly.  I rushed out the door leaving the unfrosted cake behind, but excited nonetheless about my first experience with Just Good Chocolate’s Just Cocoa.

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FoodFash Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting (yields frosting for 2 – 9 inch cakes)

1 cup buttermilk

5 tablespoons flour

1 cup butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (Just Cocoa!)

In a saucepan over medium heat, whisk buttermilk and flour constantly until very thick.  Pour thickened milk into a bowl and allow to cool completely (this step can be expedited by putting the bowl in the fridge).  Add room temperature butter, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer and use the paddle attachment at medium speed to cream the mixture together.  It is very important to let the butter soften at room temperature for frosting as heat-softened butter (i.e. microwaved butter) will make for a runny, unspreadable frosting.  Add cooled, thickened milk to the butter and mix at a medium-high speed until all of the ingredients are combined and the frosting is fluffy.  Add the cocoa and mix one last time.  Spread on a cooled cake and serve!

Sometimes This Happens…

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Sometimes you buy a bottle of wine because the label makes you smile.  And sometimes the wine inside the label happens to be good.

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Sometimes you work yourself up thinking something is about to go terribly wrong, and it goes terribly right.  And sometimes that exhausts you more.

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And sometimes you do everything as planned (resist girl scout cookies, complete your to-do list, run like Forest Gump across town, slurp down a green smoothie dinner).  And sometimes…  you don’t.

But all the time, the virtual world enjoys you more when you’re misbehaving.

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The Kills – Cheap & Chearful