Wetzel's Pretzels

Today I was on vacation, so hubby and I went geocaching and to the mall.  While at the mall we decided to try Wetzel's Pretzel Bitz as well as Auntie Anne's pretzel bites.  The two cost a penny different (Wetzel's was more), but there was no comparison on anything else.  The portion was much larger at Wetzel's and the flavor was fantastic.  They were light, fluffy, buttery, and had just the right amount of salt.  As much as I dislike going to the mall, I would make the trip back just for Wetzel's Pretzel Bitz.  

Disappearing Tripe

Have you ever been certain that you have a certain ingredient in your kitchen, only to find it is gone?   That happened to us today.  Hubby and I planned to make Menudo this weekend and knew we had the tripe in the freezer.  Tonight, hubby went to pull out the tripe to thaw.  We have no clue where it went.  We didn't cook it and we didn't toss it out.  Our final conclusion.....a tripe thief snuck into the house and took it.  

Thai Spoon

I had Thai food for the first time last night at a little place near our house called Thai Spoon.  Their food was beyond excellent.  I had the Pad Thai with the Potak soup.  Hubby's meal was excellent too.  He had the Pad Prik Pow.  

We will definitely be going back again. 

Beau's in Hutto

We have a new specialty meat place and deli in Hutto.  It is called Beau's.  They serve sandwiches and then have stuffed pork chops, stuffed chicken, sausages, and other meats they prep and make in house.  They have only been open for a couple of weeks, but hubby and I have been multiple times.  If you are driving through Hutto, you should stop by and have a sandwich at Beau's. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.  

Hydroponic Lettuce

I have recently discovered hydroponic lettuce.  I really like the taste better than any other lettuce we have tried.  My favorite is the hydroponic trio.  

Have any of you tried this lettuce?

Whataburger Taking Bribes?

About three weeks ago, I was in Whataburger on a Sunday afternoon to grab a quick burger to go.  It was Sunday, so they were pretty busy.  There were three orders ahead of me in line and a large group (about 6 people) in line behind.  We all placed our orders and waiting on our food.  About 5 minutes after placing the order, a member of the large group behind me went up to the counter and spoke to the team lead.  He offered her $20 to push their order ahead of all of the other orders.  She asked him if he was kidding.  He said no, and placed the $20 on the counter.  From where I was sitting, I could not see if the team lead picked up the money (the credit card machine blocked her hands), but I do know that the man did not walk away from counter with the money.  The man nodded toward the money and the team lead smiled and walked back to the line to talk to those preparing the orders.   Within a couple of minutes, the large group had their order and left.  As soon as they left, many of the employees on the line started talking about the situation and debating if they would have taken the money or not.  It took at least another 10 minutes before the rest of us began getting our orders.

When my order was done, I asked to speak to the team lead who looked to have taken then money.  The young lady told me that she was on break, so I couldn't speak to her.  I wanted her to know that I saw what happened and found it appalling.  I was never able to speak to her, so I left.  The next day, I placed a call to both the local restaurant and the home office, but still have never received a return call.  I also have NOT been back to any Whataburger since this incident.

What would you have done if you had witnessed this situation?

Austin Food and Wine Festival

This weekend was the Austin Food and Wine Festival. I would have love to have gone in the hopes of meeting Andrew Zimmern, but the ticket costs were way out of my budget. They ranged from $250 to $850 for both days. There is a food and wine festival coming to Round Rock soon, hopefully those tickets will be more reasonably priced.

Ritz Munchables Buttery Thins

Ritz made a cracker that we discovered last year called Munchables Buttery Thins. These were small (about the size of a quarter) and had a buttery flavor. They were great with soups or to just for a quick snack. I bought my last box in November and now that we are running low, we haven't been able to find them again. 

I finally reached out to Nabisco to see how I could find them. They wrote back today to tell me that this item had been discontinued due to lack of popularity. I can't believe they weren't popular. 

Nabisco, what do we have to do in order to get these crackers back?

Native Texan Hatch Green Chile Bean Dip

This is one of the items we picked up at Central Market this weekend. I really like dips and sauces (I attribute that to my grandfather who wanted a sauce or gravy with every meal), so I am always up for trying new ones.

I had this one today and it is fantastic. There is a little heat from the peppers, but it is packed with flavor.

The Fat Daddy

The Fat Daddy is the name of this sandwich that hubby had for dinner last night at a local bar called the Hall of Fame. It is like a Dagwood made with barbecue. If you eat the whole thing, you get your picture on the wall of fame. Hubby was the first person to ever finish it.

Red Robin

Hubby and I love eating at Red Robin, but only at one particular location in Austin. The other location has good food, but horrible service. We were going to go to our favorite location about 3 weeks ago, only to find that they had gone out of business. We were so disappointed.

Then last week we finally gave in and decided to give the other location another chance. As it turned out, a couple of the waitstaff transferred to that store and we were lucky enough to get one of them as our server. The overall atmosphere still wasn't as good as the other location used to be, but it wasn't as bad as previously.

We are still stunned that they closed our favorite location considering it was always so busy, but apparently it just wasn't profitable enough.

Rack of Lamb

I had my first lamb today at Outback Steakhouse. It was very good. It went great with the green beans off of hubby's plate.

Dim Sum

We decided to extend hubby's birthday celebration and go out to have dim sum today. Curry Squid is my favorite dish. We also had Peking Duck, Coffee Ribs, Chinese Broccoli, Turnip Cakes, Mango Custard, and so many other delicious dishes.

Longhorn Steakhouse

Last night hubby and I tried a new restaurant in our area called Longhorn Steakhouse.  Our neighbor raved about it and said the one on the east coast was fantastic.  Sadly, we were not impressed.  The temperature in the restaurant was so cold it was affecting the temperature of our food.  We had to ask multiple times to get it adjusted so we could eat comfortably.  The service was extremely slow and the place was not that busy.  One salad was so overdressed it was drippy and the other salad had virtually no dressing.  The chicken was overcooked and what they called a chicken breast was actually three chicken strips covered by a portabella mushroom.  Hubby's steak was cooked properly and he said it was good, but the rest of the meal was unimpressive.  Not a place I would go back to again.

BJ's Brewhouse

Yesterday hubby and I tried a new restaurant for lunch - BJ's Brewhouse.  We didn't know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised.  For an appetizer we had crispy artichoke hearts with a garlic aioli.  I had never had artichoke hearts, but they were really good.  For my lunch, I had fish tacos and they were quite honestly the best I have ever had.  The fish was lightly breaded and the tacos were not overdressed.  They served the two tacos with some chips and salsa which made for a really filling and light lunch.  Hubby had a burger melt with shoestring fries.  He said it was very good.  You could actually taste each of the flavors and the angus beef they used was cooked perfectly.  We really wanted to try some of their beers, but since I was on my lunch break and hubby had to drive back home, we decided we would leave that for another time.  If you have a BJ's near your area, I really recommend you give them a try.

TSO & Serrano's

The TranSiberian Orchestra concert was on Wednesday and was fantastic as usual.  Hubby went with me this year and it was great to share the concert with someone who enjoys their music as much as I do.  Unfortunately, our dinner before the concert was not as great.  We went to Serrano's and it was the worst Mexican food ever.  The food was greasy and bland.  I had grilled fish tacos and the corn tortilla as deep fried and was so full of grease it was nasty.  Besides, what is the point of grilling the fish if you are going to deep fry the tortilla?  Hubby has brisket guisada tacos and the dipping sauce was supposed to be the best ever.  Unfortunately, it had no flavor and was so hot that it killed your taste buds.  Needless to say, we won't be eating there before the concert next year.

Collard Greens

I have been so behind in posting lately.  So, no apologies or explanations as to why, just a post about collard greens.

Hubby wanted collard greens with Thanksgiving and I had never had them, but wanted to try them.  The day before Thanksgiving I went out and got all of the ingredients.  While at the store, I met a lady name Miss Mabel.  She was giving the produce manager a hard time because all of their collard greens were unappealing.  I introduced myself and told her I was going to be trying them for the first time.  She helped me pick out a good bunch of greens and gave me some pointers on how to make them.  On Thanksgiving Day, I began following the directions and somehow misread the recipe which caused me to add too much salt (1/4 cup instead of 1 tablespoon).  Hubby tasted them when I was done and couldn't even swallow the bite because they were so salty.

Determined that I was going to make collard greens, we went out the day after Thanksgiving to get more.  After some searching I found a store with some greens left.  Using the method that Miss Mabel had showed me, I picked a nice bunch of greens.  On Sunday, I made them again with a nice pork loin and this time I used the proper amount of salt.  The came out tasting fantastic.  I loved them and they even met hubby's approval (he is a tough critic).

I have found another veggie that I will definitely cook again.  They are not quick to make, but definitely worth the time.

Food Blahs

Do you ever have those times where you are hungry, but nothing really sounds good?  I call those the food blahs.  I have been having them a lot lately.  Usually when that happens, I look to hubby to choose what we eat, but today we both had the food blahs.  Since nothing sounded good to either of us, dinner was a mish mash of stuff, we had chili dogs, stove top stuffing, and broccoli with a tex-mex cheese sauce.  I suspect I will regret those combinations later, but it was what we came up with at the time.  How do you combat the food blahs?

Eden Eats

Last night we walked a new show on the Cooking Channel called "Eden Eats".  On last nights show she spent 24 hours eating in various restaurants in the Austin area.  I was a little hesitant about what restaurants they would show since most travel/food shows tend to feature all of the same places  Thankfully, Eden didn't stay on the normal path.  She chose an Ethiopian restaurant, a Cuban place, a Moroccan food truck, a Filipino restaurant, a Lebanese bread place, and a Hungarian restaurant.  It was great to see places other than BBQ and Tex-Mex featured.  A couple of t he places are not too far from where I live, so maybe we will have to check them out.  If you want to see some of the recipes they tasted, you can check them out on the Cooking Channel.

Salt Pork

Hubby really likes having salt pork with his breakfast on Sunday's.  We found some in the beginning that was really salty and had a great flavor, but lately we haven't been able to find any that is actually salty.  We have tried a couple of different brands, but have been disappointed.  We will have to keep looking to find some salt pork that is actually salty.