FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Gospel Brunch

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Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for the ATX visitors to start rolling in again!  This past weekend, Val and Katie flew from sunshiny Tampa to experience everything I raved about when I was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We went to some of my tried and true favs: La Condesa, Midnight Cowboy, boutiques on South Congress, the lake house.  And then we checked out a few new things, one of which was Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ.

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We followed the crowd to the buffet line and filled up our plates with a solid mix of southern goodness and Tex-Mex.  I snapped a shot of Katie’s plate as it was much more fun than the rest our ours.  My plate looked something like cheese grits, cheese grits, biscuits and gravy, cheese grits.  Fifty shades of white is about as uninteresting as it gets.  But let me tell ya, the cheese grits were where it was at.

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As we crossed over to the full-bellied side, the band came on and an instant energy filled the room.

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We clapped along and waved our arms and all the while our smiles grew.  Gospel Brunch was certainly the most uplifting brunch any of us had ever experienced.  I think it’s safe to say that everyone in our group would gladly go again!

A Quick Dallas Trip

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I had a whirlwind of a Dallas trip last weekend.  After Austin rush hour traffic died down on Friday, I hopped in the car and headed to Dallas for the CBS Baking Show open casting call.  I woke up bright and early to the tune of Juliette squealing and laughing and got to work in the kitchen.  I baked a mini pie for the casting call and a full sized pie for Ginnean for being a wonderful hostess.

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After the casting call, Ginnean, Juliette and I met up with our friend Phil for lunch in my old neighborhood (Uptown).  Bowery Tavern had some serious curb appeal and lured us in.  We sat down and I immediately had an I-just-survived-another-audition-what-am-I-thinking-kind-of-excited glass of prosecco.

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The incredibly adorable Juliette entertained us with napkin peek-a-boo and serious smiles while we waited for our food.

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I ordered the buffalo chicken salad with grilled chicken in lieu of fried.  And when the salad arrived I was beyond impressed by super green greens and an overall beautiful bar salad, especially since this salad only set me back 6 bucks.  If I were still an Uptown resident, I’d definitely hit up the Bowery Tavern for lunch on the regular.

A Proper Goodbye

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Welcome to Austin, a place where only mild convincing is needed to get a slew of your best guy friends to eat a Sunday feast at a completely vegan restaurant!  After our last Barton Springs trip of the season, we headed to Casa de Luz for $12 all you can eat vegan goodness.

Picnic tables, a setting sun, and a fast approaching cold front set the scene for our cozy, comfort meal.

We started with carrot ginger soup and salad, which was most everyone’s favorite (perhaps because it was the most familiar of flavors).

Soup and salad were followed by greens, mixed veggies, seaweed and rice.  My favorite were the greens because they were topped with a nutritional  yeast sauce and, because I’m a freak, I totally dig nutritional yeast.

We all decided that this would be a perfect way to follow up our 2013 Barton Spring Sundays.  Until then, it’s been real Barton Springs 2012!

 

 

Olivia

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Dinner tonight was unusually disorganized, but turned out surprisingly spectacular.  I cancelled our reservation at Swift’s Attic so we could walk over to the newly opened Clark’s Oyster Bar, only to find out that they were completely booked for the night.  No biggs (except for I felt like it was biggs at the moment), we’d just head somewhere else.  After a bit of calling around to see who could fit us in, we landed at Olivia.

Olivia has been on my list for quite some time, so really the only setback was a seven minute drive.  My mom and I both had our stomachs set on oysters, so we ordered a couple and the roasted turnip soup to start while we browsed the menu.

I first ordered the branzino and, thankfully, our waitress warned us that it was a whole fish, head attached, and we’d have to pick around bones.  Ehhh…  No thanks.  So we took a few more minutes and went with the beet salad, beef carpaccio, and mussels.

The beef carpaccio was hands down the best thing of the night.  Flash fried capers, finely sliced shallots, arugula, and parmesan.  Ho-ly cow.   The mussels were also innovative and delish.  I’ve had mussels with chorizo before, but not with Brooklyn lager broth.  The smoky toast and Brooklyn broth were a cozy combination.  The beet salad was adorable and also very tasty, but I wish there would have been more beet balls.  Or more cheese balls.  Either ball, I would have taken more.  The oysters were oysters, I loved them cause they were oysters.  And the roasted turnip soup was a bit salty for my taste, but I totally dug the calamari topper.

And then, because I’m a compulsive checker-in-er, my friend Skylar texted me that she was across the street having a glass of wine and that my mom and I should stop by and say hey, so we did just that.  Somehow my planned night that became unplanned quickly became planned again, and I was oh so thankful for that!