Food update!

Yesterday Amy and I went to Shady Grove on Barton Springs.

Wow.

I had had a craving for fried chicken (something which NEVER happens to me). So she chose that restaurant for us to go to.

I got the Chicken Fried Chicken plate with the corn on the cob and side salad with thai peanut dressing! I got the gravy for the chicken and ended up not using it, instead I dumped my left over dressing (which I also got on the side) on my chicken. It was amazing amazing amazing. The chicken came out so hot, you could tell it was freshly fried. The corn was delicious. It was just the perfect amount of food, although I ate half the corn (the cob was split into two pieces).

Amy had the catfish with rice and twice baked potato.

In the past couple of days/weeks we've cooked so much. We made chicken parmesan which was literally to die for. We just lightly breaded the chicken in flour and then browned it and then put it in a pyrex and covered it in tomato sauce, cheese and red onions and baked it in the oven. Oh. My. God. All I can say is that for the first time in my life I actually craved chicken over chocolate.



We also made chicken with plums, sage and onions and balsamic vinegar. It was amazing. With couscous!

We've also been making hot chocolate - the on the stove kind! Milk, a little half and half makes it extremely creamy, cocoa powder, sometimes sugar sometimes chocolate syrup, cinnamon and chili powder!

We also made some delicious kidney beans with lots of garlic, onion and some brown sugar!

And this black bean, sweet potato soup with lots of cumin - a little too strong for my taste but it was good.

And tomorrow? My last lunch in Austin before going home for the Christmas break. We're going to Hyde Park and I get to have my Asian salad one more time!!

Oh, also, the other night we went to a place on Guadalupe and 29th? called Conan's Pizza. We had the thin crust vegetarian, it was delicious. With a whole wheat crust! It was really really good, surprisingly, and fresh made. After we went to Dolce Vita and I got chocolate with hazelnut gelato. Their gelato is so creamy and rich. Not too sweet, it's the best chocolate gelato I've ever tasted. Amy got the largest piece of chocolate cake I had ever seen (I had to help her with it, of course, and we still took some home!). I didn't like the cake very much, kind of boring with a strange mocha tasting buttercream?

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of restaurants.

Tonight we went to La Madeleine and I got the salad sampler. Some french onion soup, caesar salad and spinach salad. It was all good. The french onion soup was absolutely delicious. The salads were nothing special. I think it's too expensive for what it is, almost $9!

We also tried Trudy's a while back. We started with a chicken poblano soup which was really delicious. Apparently it was from South Congress Cafe it was the perfect start on a cold day. Then Amy and I shared the famous stuffed fried avocado. It was stuffed with chicken and sauce and then deep fried and topped with a green chile sauce, if I remember correctly. It's served with rice, beans and a little lettuce. We shared it and with the soup it was the perfect size for lunch. And then we shared their flan. It was quite small (the price was less than $3 so it was reasonable) but compared to my mom's, it was bad. Not smooth and creamy enough, not caramely enough, not milky enough, too eggy. Amy really did not like it.

The Melting Pot

Getting the job done

'Ray Knight said, "Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary" and very succinctly summed up about half of the tenets of sport psychology. Much-loved Longhorn and coaching legend Darrell Royal summed up the other half when he stated, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."'

Mental toughness as important as physical strength

Back to basics: good nutrition, great taste

For lunch: the best shake ever. After the past 3 days of absolutely abominable food consumption (not necessarily unhealthy, just in very large quantities) it's time to remember the simple, delicious things in life, like this:

1 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk
about 1/2 to 2/3 cup water
1 tblsp agave nectar
1 tblsp creamy peanut butter
2 tblsp wheat germ
1 medium banana
1 1/2 cup frozen sliced strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries

Blend it all together and enjoy! I drank about 2/3 of it, my dad the rest.

I say this was my lunch but don't fret, after so much stomach stretching over the past few days I'm sure I'll be hungry again soon. It takes a little time for your stomach to contract back to its normal size, unfortunately.

Pictures!

CORN BREAD, ASPARAGUS, CHICKEN, POLENTA FOR DINNER (CORN BREAD LEFT OVER FOR TOMORROW!)

Chicken breast marinated with orange marmalade and usually fresh ginger but we had none so we used ground ginger (I say we but really it was my dad making my mom's recipe)


2 cups polenta cooked with 1 cup fat free milk, 2 cups chicken stock and 3 cups water, a good handful of salt. Layered with fresh mozzarella cheese and topped with grated parmesan cheese. In the oven until all melty.





CORN BREAD AND LEMON MERINGUE PIE!







CORN BREAD

Recipe from the package of the whole grain cornmeal

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup AP flour
2 tsp salt
2 tblsp sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups fat free milk
4 eggs
4 tsp baking powder


SWEET POTATO SOUP


STREUSEL PECAN SPICE COFFEE CAKE





GIBLETS COOKING FOR GRAVY


BOOKS USED FOR RECIPES!





MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKES:

Some serious cooking

Pictures to come later.

In preparation for Thanksgiving today I have so far made:

-A Pecan Streusel Spice Coffee Cake from my new Coffee Cake book by Lou Seibert Pappas.
-Hot Chocolate fudge cakes from the new December edition of Cooking Light-
-My mom is making the Lemon Meringue Pie from my Williams Sonoma Pies and Tarts cookbook but with her own coconut crust

Apple pie will be made tomorrow, my mom rolled out the dough today.

I also have some cornbread in the oven for tomorrow! The turkey is seasoned and brining as we speak.

Also, for dinner tonight we're making my mom's AMAZING ginger orange marmalade chicken with asparagus and polenta. Yum yum yum yum.

Also my mom and I went to the grocery store today to buy the vegetables for my side of roasted vegetables. I got red onion, carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, brussel sprouts, turnips and sage. That's all I can remember... I think that's it.

Oh and my mom bought some yukon gold potatoes to make her oven roasted potatoes. She peels them and cuts them in large chunks and then tosses it in olive oil, salt, pepper and some herbs. She roasts them in the oven and they get this golden, crunchy crust on the outside with a really creamy center.

The other families who are coming are bringing pork loin, rice, farofa (a traditional Brasilian side dish), french cut green beans... not sure what else.

The fourth dessert (the Lemon Meringue Pie) was last minute because we have a lemon tree in our garden which has tons of lemons on it and my mom wanted to use them. She thought four desserts was too much but I know how much she loves lemon stuff so I made her make it. So now there's something for everyone! Lemon-tart (she makes her lemon curd super tart), the spice cake I made super spicey, the chocolate cakes are really dark and rich and the apple pie will be just nice and classic.

The cornbread was also very last minute. I had thought of making it but then gave up on the idea because I thought it'd be too much. (And it will be) but my sister and I love cornbread to death so I thought, hey, good excuse for a ridiculous amount of left overs.

Pictures will be coming on all the prep and then lots of pictures of the final products tomorrow. I'll keep you updated! Time to make dinner.

The best hot chocolate ever (and lunch at New World Deli)

Recipe?

About 2 1/2 to 3 cups of 1% milk
About 6 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 teaspoons chili powder

As much chocolate chips and whipped cream as you want for the top.

Literally, seems like it should be illegal for how ridiculously delicious it was.

LUNCH at New World Deli. I had the Tomato Basil soup, not very good. Then I had the roast beef and swiss sandwich on the whole wheat sunflower bread. It was pretty damn good. However what took the cake was Amy's reuben with I think it was corned beef? It was... wow. Wow. Wow. Then we shared a brownie and I had some coffee. The brownie was your standard chocolaty, fudgy brownie.