Comfort Food:

About two months ago my family lost our home in the Bastrop fires. While I can’t even begin to express the heartbreak and devastation such an event brings, I can say food basics became something I craved during this time. With the adrenalin rushing through my body during the first 72 hours, my body was constantly hungry. It’s interesting how your body handles stressed induced situations. My body was telling me to feed it, and not with just any food. I needed hearty soul warming comfort food. I sought out meatloaf and mashed potatoes, creamy tomato soup, and most surprisingly mugs of warm steamed milk- something I’ve always despised until this moment. With every bite of succulent gravy covered piece of meat, I was reassured that everything was going to be ok, and slowly it has.

One of my comfort food meals that I indulged in during the past two months was spicy meatballs with whipped sweet potatoes. I discovered this meatball recipe while I was in college and I must say it is always a crowd pleaser. Make them bite size for cocktail parties of larger for full entrée bliss. The original recipe calls for equal parts ground pork and ground beef, but I’m partial to using ground turkey in place of the ground beef. I promise it’s equally delicious! What makes this dish are the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Chipotle peppers are simply smoked or dried jalapeño peppers and they take these meatballs to the next level adding a smoky woodsy component and slow subtle burn.

Some might say meatballs and sweet potatoes are a strange combination, and honestly I was a bit worried myself, but I’m always looking for new and interesting dishes and therefore am always experimenting with ingredients. Carrying on with the spicy theme, I added red pepper flakes and about a tablespoon of the adobo sauce to the sweet potatoes. However, what I think made these whipped sweet potatoes just decadent was the fact that I used real heavy cream. Normally, when making mashed potatoes I try to err on the healthy side and use 2% milk, saving the heavy cream for special occasions only, but in the spirit of indulgence, I went full throttle and used heavy cream, making these exceptionally rich and creamy whipped potatoes.  

While it’s easy to dwell on all the things lost, like I’ve always said, what’s most important are the memories one creates and the people with whom you share those memories with. My family is lucky in the fact that we still have all of us at our table, where we can continue to dine together and create new memories.  

Julio’s Café

Julio’s has been a long time family favorite since my sister moved to Austin, TX ten years ago for school. Located in the historic Hyde Park neighborhood, there’s a quaint and inviting charm to this family run Mexican restaurant.

Within the past year, my family has experienced some exciting life changes that have one way or another relocated us all to the Austin area. It’s been about a decade since we’ve all been living in the same place, and while telephone calls, skype dates and holiday visits have kept us the close knit family we are, it’s a different family experience when living seven minutes from one another. For example, you can have weekly family dinners!

Julio’s has become my family’s new “kitchen table”. It seems we find ourselves meeting there at least once a week to gather over delicious fresh Mexican food and share in each other’s company as we unwind from our week. The small family owned establishment creates a comfortable and cozy environment allowing one to have a carefree food experience and enjoy in the moments with those around them.

One important thing to note about Julio’s is that it’s a cash only establishment. While this concept might sound crazy in this day in age, it’s definitely not hurting business. Often one can encounter a line out the door. The quality and freshness of their food represses any grumblings one might have about the cash only rule and more importantly keeps their clientele happy and simply wanting more. From their in-house rotisserie chicken to their verde sauce, and might I not forget their exceptional Mexican martinis, Julio’s is hands down the best Mexican food in Austin.  

Family Pizza Night:

“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.” Julia Child

As much as I love food and the rhythm of a kitchen, my true love of food is rooted in who I share it with. This past week my family celebrated my dad’s birthday with a build your own pizza night. What I love about the concept of build your own pizza is that it gets everyone in the kitchen. Sure things might get a little chaotic and messy, but food cooked together tastes so much better than going it alone.

We had an unbelievable spread with enough toppings to cover each person’s specific pizza preference. From tomato sauce and pesto, to the classics of pepperoni and olives to the toppings that pushed the boundaries of pizza making such as figs, we had it all.

My new favorite pizza: spicy pineapple. Take your pineapple and sauté it with a dash of cayenne and red pepper flakes. Spread an even coat of tomato sauce on your dough, sprinkle mozzarella, throw a few pepperoni on if you so choose, and the next step is where the magic happens. Top the pizza off with your spicy pineapple and jalapeños. If you’re a lover of all things spicy then this is the pizza for you.

You know what’s funny about make your own pizza nights is that people’s true personalities come out through the ingredients they choose. What I love about the ability to personalize my own pizza is that it lets me be creative and come up with new and interesting combinations, whereas others will never stray from the classics, or there are those that will just throw every ingredient on the table on their pizza just hoping for the best.

SO what are you? Are you a tomato sauce kind of person or pesto all the way? A little secret, I was a NO sauce person when I was younger.

Sauce or no sauce, it’s the people at your table that matter. Sit down and share a slice tonight.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!

Second Bar + Kitchen:

The new buzz around Austin is all about Second Bar + Kitchen. Located in Austin’s suave Second Street District and sister restaurant to Congress, Second provides an approachable experience to creative and dynamic dining. Just looking at the menu excites me. Second uses seasonal ingredients and local artisan products, such as artisan cheese from Antonelli’s Cheese Shop, to create a menu of diverse flavors and spins on American classics. From the chic industrial design to Monte Python playing above the bar, it’s hard not to have a fun and inspired dining experience.  

What immediately caught my eye was one of their signature cocktails, Gin + Jam. I am a gin lover. While I will always love a classic G&T or gin martini, I’m always looking for new ways to drink gin. And lucky me, with vintage cocktails making a comeback, it seems as if gin is back by popular demand! Handcrafting each cocktail with fresh fruits and juices (sour mix is not allowed on the premises) at Second, you can expect a good cocktail to be delivered. The Gin + Jam cocktail is just that, gin over ice with a spoonful of blueberry fennel jam. What’s great about this cocktail is that the jam is not too sweet, it simply brings a subtle fruitiness to the drink while allowing the earthy flavor of the gin to shine. But what’s more fantastic is the beautiful hue of purple the jam turns the cocktail, making it hard for anyone to resist this cocktail.

The cuisine at Second truly makes use of all the senses, making it a dynamic dining experience. From the texture component of a fried avocado atop the ceviche, to the artful display of veal meatballs in a cast iron skillet, one wonders what will come through the kitchen doors next.    

But let me back up, the veal meatballs . . . I honestly don’t know if I have words to describe them other than “to die for.” The tenderness of the veal makes these bite size meatballs melt in your mouth. The only complaint, the portion size: they were so delicious I wanted a mound of them on my plate!

 While Second is a great place for a full dining experience, Second also provides a great atmosphere for an after work happy hour. Enjoy some drinks and bites out on their wonderful outdoor patio. I would highly suggest ordering the blistered shishito peppers, a mild pepper that leaves a subtle burn running down your throat. The buffalo fried pickles also seem to be a popular menu item.

The masterminds behind Second Bar + Kitchen have truly thought of everything. From snacks to small plates that can be shared to full entrée large plates, there is something for everyone. Their dessert menu is just as dynamic and innovative as the dinner menu. And while it might be hard to even think about dessert after stuffing yourself with meatballs, well no worries just order one of their dessert bites. As a sweet lover, but often too full to order dessert, I think this is an ingenious concept. Their dessert bites allow you to finish your meal off with sweet decadence. Choose from oatmeal cookie sandwiches with foie gras buttercream or brownies with a smoked ganache and orange pop rocks. However, feeling more indulgent, go for a full plate of chocolate sticky toffee pudding with bacon ice cream. Let the sweet and savory combination transport you to another dimension.    

Second Bar + Kitchen, approachable dynamic dining and a new Austin must.

Summer Farm to Table Meal

This week here in central Texas a rarity occurred, rain. If you are living in Texas or have glanced at a national weather map lately, you will probably notice that most of Texas is experiencing a D4 drought, or in other words an exceptional drought- not sever or extreme, but exceptional. The past nine months have been the driest period since the state began keeping rainfall records back in 1895. Evidence of this drought is apparent in the grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and even my own garden at home. That being said, any and all precipitation is welcomed.

There is nothing I enjoy more than a good Texas thunderstorm. As I sat this past Tuesday watching the clouds roll in I held my breath, hoping and praying rain would come. Sure enough late that afternoon the thunder began followed by a steady downpour. The rain brought brief relief from the scorching 100s, and I couldn’t help but want to just curl up on the couch with a cup of tea. The dampness in the air made me yearn for some soul warming food. While I felt it a bit too early in the year to bust out the yams and cranberry sauce, I instead decided to conjure up my own warm summer farm fresh meal. Homegrown vegetables alongside some juicy Texas peaches and other summer flavors were the basis of my menu.

When I think of soul warming, taste bud satisfying food, I think roast. Whether it be roast beef, pork loin, or Cornish game hen, no meal is homier and satisfyingly soul warming than a meal with one of these. With chicken on hand, I made a simple rub of fresh basil and garlic, pan seared them, topped them off with my homemade preserved lemons, threw in some red onions and sent them in the oven to roast.

This summer I was so excited when my family decided to grow okra. Now I’ve already told you about my favorite fruit, mangos, but my favorite vegetable hands down is okra. I’ve spent the past four years on the west coast and sadly okra is an anomaly there. It is such an anomaly that when on the off chance the grocery store would have okra in stock, the checker at the registrar would have to ask me what this certain produce was. I did my best to educate my west coast friends. Most when confronted with okra think it some type of pepper. Shaking my head, I’m always quick to correct them and show them the light. Many people, including some southerners, are not fans of this vegetable, claiming it is slimy. For those I’m again, quick to shed some light on their misconceptions. Okra is best when they are small no more than a couple inches otherwise they get tough. Secondly, steam okra (never boil) for only a few minutes, this way the okra will not be overwhelmingly slimy. Pickled and fried okra are always delicious treats as well! Lastly, there is the age-old debate of does one eat the tops of the okra? If you ask my dad, then yes-ask my mom and you get a different answer. For me it is a personal choice. In my eyes, there is no wrong way to eat okra and tonight it was on the menu.      

With the protein and vegetable taken care of, dessert was all that was left. With some left over pastry dough in the freezer and juicy Texas peaches that needed to be eaten I threw together a peach and blueberry tart.

Who says summer meals have to be full of cold salads and popsicles?

The Kitchen Table

Growing up my family made it a point to sit down together at the dinner table the majority of nights. This enabled us to not only share in a dining experience, but to share in each other’s lives. No TV, no telephone, no books at the table. For at least half an hour each night, we would decompress from the day and reconnect with one another. This being said, in a sense our kitchen tables bear witness to our lives.

The invitation to dine together and taste the food prepared for you, is an invitation to participate in one another’s lives. Therefore, the kitchen table has come to be a place to proclaim one’s milestones in life. With a plate full of nourishment in front of us, surrounded by people we love, and with the sturdiness of our kitchen table beneath our hands, we find the courage to say, “I have an announcement . . . we’re getting married, I’m moving to New York, I didn’t get into Berkeley.” From highs to lows, our kitchen table experiences it all alongside us.

But more importantly, the kitchen table bears witness to the small mundane parts of our lives. From our first bite of solid food, to the A+ we receive on our spelling test, to conversations of politics and religion, the kitchen table is there to listen.

As I set the table for a dinner party with old family friends, I am reminded of what this table has been through, or more likely, what it has helped me through. Adorned with a white tablecloth, I place fork on the left, knife on the right, preparing to come to the table once again to share in food, laughter and love.

While faces at the table might come and go and the number of seats may change, the kitchen table remains.     

Tin Can Tony

As July 4^th weekend approaches I am reminded of how I celebrated America’s birthday two summers ago. This particular July 4^th weekend I found myself in East Africa at the start of a summer long internship.  I landed at Entebbe airport on a warm summer night greeted by a sign that said “Welcome to the pearl of Africa”, a pleasant and encouraging greeting I thought. Due to the late hour, my field team and I stayed the night in town before making the five-hour drive north to our permanent location, Mbale, Uganda. As we sat in the common room that night taking in the scene around us and enjoying nice conversation, the power blew and the room went black. “Welcome to Africa” said Rodney, our driver. Later that night, as I brushed my teeth using bottled water and climbed into bed under a mosquito net, the words “Welcome to Africa” kept replaying in my head.

The following morning we piled back into the beaten down white Land Rover, holding our breath that it would survive the long bumpy journey ahead. Seeming as it was our first weekend in the country and July 4^th weekend we headed to the mountains.

I believe that one of the best ways to get to know a person or culture is through what they eat. As we prepared for our July 4^th celebration and feast, I quickly realized I was no longer in America. If you want meat you must kill and slaughter it yourself, there’s no supermarket around the corner with a refrigerated meat section. This being a celebration, we needed something special. No ordinary chicken or fish would do. We were thinking big, we were thinking goat.

When one has to kill their own meat, one gains a newfound respect for the animal. Thus, to give our selected goat a respectful and humane slaughter we felt it proper to give it a name. Tin Can Tony became dinner that night. And with any proper Ugandan meal there must be some form of matoke, also known as plantains. Matoke, one of the national dishes of Uganda can be prepared in a variety of ways: steamed in banana leaves, grilled over a charcoal fire and then sprinkled with salt, or boiled and mashed then served with groundnut sauce, a peanut-like sauce. Matoke, unlike meat, is a staple of the Ugandan diet. It’s a starchy white fruit that is honestly quite tasteless but fills you up, and so when you live in a country where 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas, 40 percent of which lives in poverty, it is a vital and necessary food staple.

Now two years later, I find myself this July 4^th a college graduate blessed to be living in a country where I have endless opportunity, and I’ll remember that as I celebrate America’s birthday. Happy July 4^th to all.    

A Shoebox of Love

I’ve heard these cookies called many different names: Russian Tea Cakes, Sandollars, Mexican Wedding Cookies. Whatever name you so choose to call them, these buttery, nutty, melt-in-your-mouth bites have a special place in my family’s history.

The summer after my parents started dating my dad headed north to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields while my mom returned to her native central Texas home. This was a simpler time, a time before cell phones, Facebook and email. With young love in the air, long distant relationships were fostered by hand written letters and in the case of my parents, shoeboxes filled with cookies.

I’ve heard of this summer and the cookie-filled shoeboxes for most of my life. Every time I make them myself, I can’t help but to picture my mom, age 20 with long straight blond hair, carefully placing each cookie snuggly in place and then rushing down to the local post office to have it mailed off to her beau.

My good friend Andrea has a love of these cookies as well, and seeming as her birthday is right around the corner I decided to mail her a special shoebox treat.

Made simply of butter, sugar, flour, pecans and a dash of vanilla and salt then finished with a hand tossed bath in a bowl of powdered sugar, one can truly taste the love that was put into these bite size treats.

Happy Birthday Andy and to Mom and Papa, may you continue to have many more summers filled with love and sweet treats.  

Japanese Farmhouse Dining

Austin, TX: a foodie’s paradise. The restaurant scene and food culture in Austin is booming.  The Austin lifestyle is quite conducive to the foodie lifestyle. I’ve heard it said that Austinites spend more per capita on food than anywhere else in the country. But what’s particularly great about the Austin food scene, is that the city has been able to escape a takeover of the major restaurant chains. When you eat out in Austin, one encounters a true local homegrown food experience with flavors and styles of all kind.

With an endless array of options, my sister and I enjoy partaking in different happy hours around town. We find this a good way to get a taste of a new restaurant. This past week we chose to go to Uchiko, sister restaurant to Uchi and known for their Japanese farmhouse dining. Japanese farmhouse dining, yes it may seem like an unusual combination but by the end of your food experience you’ll be kicking yourself for not coming up with the idea yourself, for they have seamlessly fused the two together providing a warm inviting dining area alongside the fresh  and exhilarating flavors of Southeast Asia.

The juxtaposition of rustic wood accents with the modern charcoal grey bar top creates a space where one truly feels warm, welcomed and relaxed. Not only is the space inviting but the service is as well. I have never encountered such a friendly and genuinely happy bartender. From his genuine smile to his inviting charisma, one couldn’t help but want to engage in conversation with him, making this happy hour, or social hour as Uchiko calls it, a truly social experience.

So enough about the structural elements and atmosphere, you’re probably wondering about the food. If you go for happy hour, available from 5-6:30pm daily, you will be presented with their Sake Social menu which has unbeatable prices. For just $3-6 you can sample an array of delicious and beautiful bites. I say beautiful because Uchiko is definitely one of those places that has incorporated eating with the eyes as part of the experience. The presentation is elegant and chic, and as each dish is presented to you, your server will take the time to describe every aspect of the dish to you. So if I may recommend the Koviche, fresh sweet melt in your mouth scallops alongside fresh chopped tomatillos with hints of kalamata and black lime. Or the Yokai Berry . . . .mmmm! Impeccably fresh Atlantic salmon with Asian pear and a few blueberries tossed in, garnished with dinosaur kale and yuzu, a very aromatic citrus fruit found in East Asia.

Another item on the menu is Kakiage, crispy tempura fried sweet potato fritters served with a chili dipping sauce. I think we would all agree that anything fried is going to be tasty, and vegetable tempura is great because you’re eating vegetables so you can feel good about it right?  . . . well maybe we all won’t agree on that last statement. But this dish took me back to one of my favorite childhood restaurants, Kitok. Located in Waco, TX in a rundown hole-in-the-wall building that is anything but inviting, Kitok is a family run Korean restaurant known for serving the best burgers in town. They are also known for their oriental fires, tempura fried sweet potatoes . . . sound familiar? So, as I sat at the bar of Uchiko and ate my order of Kakiage I chuckled at the fact that this suave Japanese sushi house was serving the same dish as my grungy hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant from back home.

To top it all off and wash this meal down I would turn to the Larkin. While some might frown upon this choice, seeming as it is not sake, the Larkin is both easy on the eyes as it is in taste. Sparkling wine adorned with a sprig of grilled thyme and cured lemon. This cocktail is the perfect refreshing drink to pair with such a refreshing meal.

Mango Basil Salad

This is my favorite time of year. Schools are out for the summer, temperatures are reaching just high enough to take a dip in the neighborhood pool and your trusty roadside fruit stand is yet again open for business. The summer season brings an abundance of fresh produce, and for me, food lover and culinary enthusiast, all that good fresh produce not only gets my taste buds buzzing but my creative juices flowing as well.

I like to keep things interesting. Yes, of course eating is a necessary and vital act. So why not make it fun, delicious, different and yes of course nutritious. It’s time to change how we think about food. Eating is not just an act we partake in three times a day, but an experience. We first eat with our eyes, taking in all the different colors and textures displayed before us. Next, we might hear the sizzle of a fried egg or the squirt of juice that seeps from a perfectly roasted pork loin when sliced. Then we smell the various aromas wafting before us, and perhaps we become entranced in this familiar smell which takes us back to our grandmother’s kitchen. And lastly, we taste. We taste the creaminess of an avocado, the juicy burst from a vine ripe tomato, or the crisp refreshing bite of a slice of watermelon. Eating, is an experience.

So as I find myself standing in the produce section at my local grocery store today and I begin to eat with my eyes. It doesn’t take long before my eyes land on a mound of mangos (and if anyone knows me they know I love me a nice juicy mango). As my eyes drift upward, I notice that the sign says fifty cents each. Fifty cents each, what a deal! I load my basket up with mangos, one particularly ripe one for I know this will be my afternoon snack.

Four o’clock rolls around, my lunch is long gone and that mango sits on my kitchen counter taunting me. I can wait no longer. As I’m peeling and slicing meticulously around the large pit of my mango I’m suddenly not satisfied with just my mango. How can I make this a bit more exciting to eat? Now, this being a snack and the fact that I’m hungry now I don’t want to have to put too much effort into this. Earlier in the day I noticed that the basil in the garden was doing exceptionally well and that I had an abundance of it (time to make some pesto!). So, in the heat of my mango snack crisis I remember my basil and I think, “is it possible for mango and basil to be good together?” And this is how mango basil salad came about. Two of my most favorite ingredients together in harmony at last. You get the sweetness from the mango, and that peppery earthy bite from the basil.

While I just ate it as a snack, I highly recommend making it your new side dish for summer barbeques. Pair is with a nice juicy steak or a filet of tilapia. You’ll be bringing fresh new flavors to the table, keeping you and your friends always on their toes. Don’t be afraid to make unusual pairings. You might surprise yourself and make the unexpected . . . extraordinary. Be inspired by this season and its plethora of produce it has to offer.