Dazzle Coffee: Just Around The Corner

For months I’ve been watching the construction just around the corner from my house.  This is part of the excitement of living in a popular growing city, I just hope we don’t get too popular.  I’d like to keep my commute under an hour into Austin.  But if I do get stuck in a sea of suburbanites, at least a good cup of java is going to be available en route to the ninth layer of congestion hell.

I don’t want to spoil it though!  Can you keep this a secret?

Dazzle Coffee is opening in Round Rock!

I saw some activity at the site yesterday and poked around their Facebook page.  I’m waiting to confirm the grand opening date (it might be TODAY)!

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Nites Out: P. Terry’s (N. Austin)

Go try the Ruta Maya Organic Coffee Shake @P. Terry’s now!

This is a creamy coffee shake that I found less sweet than the chocolate shake, which is a good thing.  It has a nice robust coffee flavor, and it smells like coffee!  Perfect partner to a bacon cheeseburger.

Thanks P. Terry’s for the coupon so I could try out the new shake! 

 

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Warm Greek Salad

Part of my Greenling Box was this awesome Chicken salad, which included:

organic garlic
organic crushed red pepper
organic kale
organic chicken breast
organic brown rice
organic black olives
Dill Vinaigrette (organic red wine vinegar, organic lemon juice, organic agave nectar, organic canola oil, organic mustard, organic dill)

Get the kit and make this salad!

I left out the tomatoes that came with it, Little Sister got a hold of them and demolished half the container, so she was awarded the remaining tomatoes.   I’m normally not a huge olive fan, but this worked because they provided the salty bite needed to round out the dish.  There was no salt added to the chicken, only black pepper.

Given the list of ingredients, you could expand the portions of this to feed more hungry friends.  You know you could swap out the olives for dried cranberries and apple pieces!  For those of you without allergies, throw in pecans or something.  Have fun and play with your food.

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Nites Out: Jack Allen’s Kitchen (Round Rock, TX)

After a long morning in Georgetown, I took my Dad out for lunch to Jack Allen’s Kitchen.  I’ve been hearing great things about chef Allen from other AFBA Members, so I had to feed my curiosity.  JAK sources as much as possible from Texas farms and producers, which gives me those warm hippie fuzzy feelings.

Baja Style Fish Tacos

My father, being the adventurous type like me, ordered Baja Fish Tacos, a dish he claims he could not find at home in Alberta.  He vacations in Mexico and the Caribbean, I was surprised he hasn’t encountered a fish taco yet.  However, this is Texas after all,  and we do things weird in these parts.

Chicken Enchilada

Forgive me, but in my moment of gluttony I forgot the name of the dish I had (!!!).  It resembled chicken enchiladas in stacked form, with a fried egg on top.  It was as if I was eating the circle of life, smothered in a creamy chipotle sauce.  Damn fine dish, what ever it was.  Both of our dishes would pass as gluten-free thanks to the corn tortillas.

Paired my chicken with a pint of Independence Brewery Stash IPA, it was dark and smooth, just how I like my water slides.

Key Lime Pie (to die for!)

Finished out the lunch with a slice of heaven, a key lime pie slice that is!

Our server was very knowledgeable of the entire menu, including the beers on tap.  Jack Allen’s Kitchen is perfect for any occasion to celebrate with locally sourced fare.  Reservations for dinner are recommended.  Lunch crowd was not bad at all during the week, but I would guess the weekends are busier.

Jack Allen’s Kitchen

2500 Hoppe Trail, Round Rock, TX 78681 

512.215.0372

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My loquats are showing

Fresh off the tree!

With the warmer days of late April come the golden fruit of my loquat tree.  You have to work quickly once they start to ripen, bugs and birds snack on the juicy yellowish orbs while they turn in the sun.  These are the very first loquats of the season in my back yard.  Now I have to keep the big critters from devouring them all before I can cook them down into a jelly or butter format.  Sweet and sour notes prevail when raw or cooked.  The butter I made last year was put to good use.  My friend at Full & Content rounded up recipes for this unusual fruit which will be posted soon!

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Chop & Drop Soup

This is not so much a recipe as it is a map or method to creating soul satisfying soup in five easy steps.  Let your imagination go wild, with the blessing of your taste buds of course.  Soups are a perfect way to use seasonal veggies that you may find at your local farmers market.  Say there is an unusual squash on the table, ask the grower if it is hard, bitter, sweet, or soft?  Bitter squash is not the best candidate for soups, at least in my view, so I avoid those.  Zucchini is about as bitter as I will go.  Give chop and drop a try!

Step 1

Empty the veggie drawer into the (clean) kitchen sink or counter.  Wash all skin-stay-on veggies.

Step 2

Peel and trim veggies.  Chop into manageable pieces.  Hint: the smaller the dice the hastier it cooks!

Step 3

Drop into a soup pot with a swirl of olive oil, sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Stir.

Step 4

Add liquids.  Choose your favorite stock, broth, bouillon, OXO, Knorr, or even tomato puree, or can of cream of whatever plus milk.

Step 5

Wait.  Poke the veggies to see if they are tender. Heck, you could even taste one or two.

You are ready to eat!

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Nites Out: Hopdoddy (Austin, TX)

You enter and saunter down the bar while pouring over the aptly named burgers and drinks.  I had my eye on the Vanilla Bean milkshake.

Beer on tap.

Buns made in house.

Buffalo Bill (hold the blue cheese) with a vanilla cream soda, total $12.50 + tax and tip.  Pretty darn good burger, could have used a bit more seasoning but was moist for bison meat.  At peak hours expect to wait in line, so go early to beat the rush at lunch and dinner.

This location is near the Alamo Drafthouse if you are looking for a date night movie, before or after chowing down at Hopdoddy.

Hopdoddy is located at 2438 A West Anderson, Austin, Texas 78757 and is open daily 11am-10pm  (512) 467-2337

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Greenling Local Box – Tatsoi

When I opened the latest fluorescent green tote box full of local organic vegetables and fruit I was immediately drawn to a bundle of dark green leaves.  Tatsoi.  What the hell is tatsoi?  Thank goodness my adventure into tatsoi territory was guided by the clever recipe suggestions that come with the veggies.

This was a salad with the tatsoi, lettuce, orange, avocado, green onion and English cucumber.  For the dressing, I eyeballed EVOO, rice wine vinegar, gluten-free soy sauce, tahini and a bit of the juice from the orange into a glass container.  Easier than whisking and any leftover dressing is already in a sealable container!  I saw the layers in the narrow jar and took a picture of it, I thought it was neat.

The tatsoi (from Gundermann Acres) reminded me of bok choy, like a miniature version of it.  I always wondered what was in some of those stir-fry dishes, I think this was it.  Yum!

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October is Austin-Boston Swap Month!

I missed this swap last year and was looking for a comeback this year.  The Austin Food Blogger Alliance and several Boston bloggers have organized a gift swap.  I love getting packages in the mail!

Without further ado, here is my box full of Austin goodies to send to my counterpart in Boston.

Melanie at Kiss My Glass will be receiving locally roasted Third Coast Coffee, Fara Coffee, Rudy’s Rub (gotta have BBQ in there somewhere), Texas Honey, Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar, Benitos Chips, and Thunderbird Energetica Bars.

If you are from Austin, what other local products do you like to share with distant friends?  I’ve adopted Austin as home for now and found it rather difficult to narrow down what I wanted to send!

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Plucked from the jungle

The jungle that is my garden, has gone from mildly unruly to devouring every inch inside the green house.  After a solid week of rain followed by hot clear days, there is quite a difference.

Green House busting at the seams

The melons won’t stay inside either.  That vine on the outside found itself too cramped with the others (sorry guys, I over seeded!)  Being the worry wort that I am, plus last summer’s drought and subsequent total crop failure, I planted three seeds per hill and refused to thin them out.  Same story for the lot at the south end of the yard.

South Patch doing pretty good exposed to the elements

As I poked around in the morning, I found another melon nearly full size.  That brings the total to ten actual melons!  There are more babies in the green house and south patch is starting to convert blooms to fruit.  South patch was planted about three weeks after the green house seeds (I was worried the first batch wouldn’t produce anything).

I will be overrun with orange cantaloupes by the end of summer.  Agua fresca anyone?  Suppose they will be handy when summer just.won’t.end. we will be rolling in melons.  In the meantime, I’ll be babysitting the younglings and checking the bigger melons regularly.

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