For our poolside Memorial Day party, chips and e.’s delicious homemade salsa.

He also made us some raspberry lemon iced tea with mint. Refreshing!

Penn-Mex.

We grilled burgers, corn on the cob, and Giada’s Lemon-Cumin Chicken.

Our friends Mike and Laura brought these amazing, spicy Cowboy Burgers from Central Market, which we topped with cheddar slices, grilled, and served on jalapeño buns. A great pairing!

e. surveying his cheese pie at Salvation Pizza. It was good.

Beer flight at Fredericksburg Brewing Company. They have some great beers; recommended.

They were also seemingly the only place in Fredericksburg that serves pretzels! That mustard was out of control, though. So hot.

Sausage sampler plate, Fredericksburg Brewing Company. Very good, especially the German potato salad. A lot of food, and a good deal.

Breakfast for dinner: a minimalist version of our favorite meal at Fado, the Hangover Sandwich. This one’s just fried eggs and bacon on fried sourdough. Yes, fried, not toasted. Like in England. Well dench, innit.

One of Eric’s mint juleps, with homegrown mint and homemade syrup.

Hazelnut and chocolate gelato, double macchiato, Lavazza Espression on Congress. Dolce far niente, y’all.

Dinner: blue corn tortillas, refried black beans, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses, Cholula sauce, sour cream, and homegrown jalapeños!

Read about my nacho theory, and see my vegan nacho recipe, here.

Lots of things taste as good as skinny feels. Like this hunk of brie, salami, and pecans I had for lunch.

Super decadent breakfast tacos: fresh corn tortillas with refried black beans, scrambled eggs with cream, grated cheddar, Cholula sauce, and bacon.

Perfecting my biscuit recipe.

Biscuits, butter, and Gruene Three Berry Jam. Nom.

Lunch special at El Mer. One cheese enchilada with sour cream sauce, one beef taco, rice, and black beans. Oh, and a $3.50 margarita. Oh, yes.

Gyro plate at Kismet Cafe. Prettttttty good.

Dad’s Roman Holiday. Recipe here.

My Old School Tex-Mex Cheese Enchiladas with The Fieldmarshal’s Old School Tex-Mex Sauce. They turned out kind of flat (the horror!), because my tortillas were old, but they were darn tasty.  Not pictured: raw, diced white onions, added to the top.  Crunch, crunch.

We finally made it to Contigo. These tempura fried green beans were delicious.

A salad of wilted arugula, onions, mushrooms, and spicy dressing, Contigo.

Contigo salumi and pâté plates, Contigo. The foreground is rabbit pâté.

I’m just going to go ahead and call it now. This will be the summer of German sausage plates for me and e.; Contigo.

Two weeks’ worth, once again! I need to post more recipes and less recaps, and hopefully I’ll have time to do so again soon. Until then…

We finally went to Rainey Street.  At Banger’s, and at Kris’s insistence, I ordered the fried chicken sausage with braised greens, horseradish mustard, and a honey biscuit.  I was not disappointed. And their prices are reasonable, making this dinner a bit of a steal.

Of course, the Banger’s beer selection is also a draw.  I’ll never say no to an Austin Beerworks Black Thunder Schwarz (especially on draught!).

We also stopped by Craft Pride, where I couldn’t resist trying a pint of Guadalupe Brewing Company’s Texas Honey Ale. Texas honey is used in this gem with part of the proceeds benefiting Texas A&M Bee Research!  And it’s 7.32%!  If I keep drinking it, it’ll heal my allergies, right?  Positively medicinal.  Highly, highly recommended.

Our fish dish of the week was pan-fried salmon in lemon and herbs with lightly curried Brussels sprouts and buttered farfalle pasta.

Not bad at all.

We took my coworker Chaz to Burrito Factory this week, where he tried his first burrito suizo.  He actually finished it, too!

Challah and my plain chicken salad. (Not to be confused with my Southwestern Chicken Salad or my Chipotle Mayo Chicken Salad!)

The Brahman Wrap from The Green Cart, at BookPeople. A vegetarian Indian wrap, with rice, curry hummus, spinach, carrots, onions, sundried tomatoes, and corn.  Very good indeed.  We were there to see Robert Jensen talk about his new book, Arguing for Our Lives: Critical Thinking in Crisis Times, which I also highly recommend. Here’s a video of his talk.

How about some fried plantains with melted cheese and sour cream?  My friend ordered this at our recent brunch at Polvo’s, and I can see why it’s one of her favorite items.

I also ordered the chilaquiles with scrambled eggs and salsa verde.  This was fantastic, and so much food that I ate it for three breakfasts in a row.

In addition to the Fried Polenta with Creamy Mushrooms I developed this week, I also made some delicious pasta: fresh tagliatelle tossed with butter and topped with pork and venison sausage; homegrown, wilted basil and sage; parmigiano reggiano; and toasted pine nuts. Divine.

We also went to Dog and Duck Pub three times this week.  Last night, I had fish and chips.  Still the best in town, hands down.

We eat very well, and I’m grateful.  Life is good.

Another big post!  Apologies to all of you who really hate scrolling through pictures of delicious food.  Oh, wait…

First, Easter eats!

Work lunch: tuna salad, Dr Pepper, Cadbury Egg

Cheese enchiladas with sour cream sauce, Spanish rice, refried beans – El Mercado Uptown.

Lunch by Wheatsville Deli: macaroni and cheese; chicken and biscuits; ham in apple jus; Sweet Leaf sweet tea.

To belatedly celebrate my Dad’s birthday, we went to the County Line on the Lake.

We started with a sausage plate…

…then we had some of their delicious, homemade bread with whipped honey butter. Mmm…

…and beers.

I had a loaded baked potato.

My dad had a whole plate of ribs.

On Easter Sunday, we went to Hoover’s. My dad had the Cajun roast pork with mushroom rice pilaf, macaroni and cheese, and green beans, which was one of the Easter specials.

I had the fried chicken breast with creamed spinach, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fried okra. Also pictured: cornbread, sweet potato biscuits, sweet tea. Why don’t I eat fried chicken more often? This was so good, I’ll go back to Hoover’s specifically to order it.

We also had coconut cream pie.

…and chocolate cream pie (my favorite).

…and pecan pie.

When I got home, I had a glass of wine… and another Cadbury egg! And there ends the Easter feast. Amen.

Back to work. Loaded beef nachos at Qdoba.

Recipe developing (because what this blog needs is more taco recipes): creamy cilantro chicken tostadas.

Another work lunch: banana; Stilton and Brie; almonds; dried apricot. This was surprisingly filling.

I’ve also become a bit of a biscuit fiend.

We now consider this a reasonable dinner. (Homemade biscuits and homemade cream gravy with bacon fat. Yes.)

Friday afternoon at Dog and Duck.

I also made a trip to Houston, which means a stop at Hruska’s!

Mmm… warm cream cheese kolaches.

On the way back, we stopped at Ooh La La Sweets in Katy. Where I ate another piece of chocolate cream pie. Deal with it. (Note: the have a whole array of gluten free baked goods, and do catering, including cakes!)

Just because.

Fancy bangers and mash with grilled onions and red pepper, plus homemade Irony red wine onion gravy.

Hal’s Hot Love, a creamy garlic jalapeño salsa by Shanita’s Salsitas, and chips. This was dinner. Hal’s is so addictive, y’all!

Three tacos al pastor – mixing it up, flour tortillas! – at Burrito Factory. So delicious.

Cucumber lime martini (Don Julio Blanco, Cointreau, fresh lime, and cucumber) at Manuel’s at the Arboretum. I love their courtyard. Lovely.

Bean and cheese flautas, with salsa verde and sour cream, also at Manuel’s.

Two cocktails, the Flip Envy (Angel’s Envy bourbon, Disaronno, lemon, chicory syrup, and egg white); and Eric’s refreshing vodka-spiked ginger beer with lime and mint. Freedmen’s in West Campus, which was also the site of our Austin Food Blogger Alliance cookbook launch party! Learn more about our cookbook here (hint: it includes one of my most popular recipes!). The building has a fascinating history, which I wrote about this winter for the End of Austin: West Campus project.

Freedmen’s sausage plate. Goodness gracious.

Brunch migas by Eric.

Dinner by Eric: quinoa penne with with sage butter sauce, garlic, and homegrown spring onion.

Homemade lamb burgers.

Tex-Mex lamb taco-burgers… ? Basically my Mediterranean Turkey Burgers recipe with lamb, substituting flour tortillas for pitas, and served with homemade garlic and mint sour cream sauce.

Vegetable fried rice at Thai Spice on the Drag. Really good.

The best breakfast tacos in town (Taco Joint on San Jacinto) with the best salsa in town (Hal’s Hot Love).

Roasted chicken thighs with kaffir lime and chili spices, on a bed of my Horseradish Cheese Grits, topped w/red wine mushroom sauce.

Lal Toofan (a sweet concoction loaded with four types of rum,mango and pineapple juices, and a float of grenadine) at Clay Pit.

Clay Pit’s Peshwari Naan, stuffed with nuts, raisins and cherries.

Crushed coriander-breaded calamari, flash fried and served with a creamy garlic-cilantro sauce. Amazing.

How Eric ended the week.

Speaking of kolaches, please join me in making a donation to the American Red Cross, Heart of Texas Chapter (Waco), to help the victims of the West fertilizer explosion disaster.

If you are able, please also consider donating to the Boston One Fund.

E pluribus unum, y’all.

Peace.

Okay, so, this is more like “three weeks’ eats,” but what can you do?

And, yes, I did eat this many tacos.  My coworkers and I recently decided that approximately 75% of our diet consists of tacos.  Deal with it.

Sagra Trattoria and Bar is open!  Their new location at 1050 East 11th Street is really nice, too.  These are the profiteroles (basically, a profiterole ice cream sandwich with chocolate and caramel sauce!).

Oscars salumi platter.

Homemade sausage sandwich with butter-toasted sourdough, apple- and gouda-stuffed sausage, English cheddar, and shreeded red cabbage.  Delicious.

Two tacos al pastor (my usual), from the Burrito Factory in Dobie Mall.

Homemade curried coconut pork with shredded red cabbage, carrots, homegrown cilantro.

Dad’s Beef Tacos

Potatoes roasted in duck fat.  Remember that time I roasted a whole duck.? Yeah.

Potato, egg, and cheese breakfast taco from the amazing Taco Joint on San Jacinto (my second favorite taco joint after Burrito Factory!).

Veggie samosa at Clay Pit. Addictive.

Peshwar Martini at Clay Pit: Stoli Vanil, Frangelico, Chambord, cherry.  My new favorite.

Macaroni carbonara with homgrown wilted arugula.

Bearded Seal Stout at Pinthouse Pizza – really good.

The Cannonball at Pinthouse: sauce, cheese, crumbled sausage, bacon, pepperoni, Canadian bacon.

Standard cheesesteak at Texadelphia on the Drag.  I could drink that mustard sauce.

Eggs Francisco at Kerbey Lane Cafe on the Drag: English muffin (subbed homefries!) piled high with scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado slices, and queso. Served with two sides (bacon and sausage!).  Whoah.

Homemade breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon, and hot sauce.

Homemade grilled salmon tacos with homegrown cilantro, grilled mushrooms, and sour cream.  Drool.

Dad’s Beef Tacos (again)

Half and half pie at Austin’s Pizza: half Pesto A-Go-Goat (my favorite) and half Super Pep.

Homemade beef and broccoli.  A recipe I’m working on.  Turned out really, really good, especially considering the only ingredients were beef, broccoli, broth, and seasonings.

Breakfast with leftover taco meat.

Bearded Brothers Might Maca Chocolate Energy Bar.  Delicious and highly recommended.

Y’all know what this is.

Breakfast from Dai Due at the Mueller Farmer’s Market: Fried egg and sausage with diced potatoes; pork belly sandwich.  Yes.

Dad’s Tacos (again – with venison from Dai Due!)

Homemade biscuits.  First time ever.  Turned out amazing.  Inspired by weekly biscuit-making badass Jessica Luther.  I made Smitten Kitchen Cream Biscuits, sans sugar.

Leftover biscuits for breakfast.  Pan-fried in butter and bacon fat.

Matzocrack, courtesy the amazing Laura!  Chocolate, white chocolate, salt and chocolate, coconut and chocolate, almond and chocolate… Chag Pesach sameach, y’all!