Must Read; Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan

This is an amazing book and I don't think I'm biased since I actually wore a Red Lobster name tag at one point in my life. It is great writing. If you've ever worked in a restaurant you'll relate and if you haven't, you're offered a window into the world backstage, the prepping of lunch/ dinner, how much they think of you before and after you sit in their booth. Stewart O'Nan does an incredible job of describing the bleak and the hopeful that are rolled into one when you work in a restaurant. He articulates the small things you do to connect to customers and the tiny acts of kindness and precision that define who we are in that moment, while we work.

Noe

Amazing tomatoes and gelee, one of the nine course we indulged,
explored and inhaled at Noe for my birthday. It was wonderful in every
sense.

The Smell of Defeat...

Just when I'm feeling sort of proud of myself in the kitchen, I go and
blow something so badly that I'm sure the neighbors are wondering what
the hell happened. Tonight I burned black eyed peas. I bet a dead
horse would smell better than my kitchen right now. Julia Childs says
don't apologize, but I wouldn't be surprsed if someone from the city
showed up on a hazmat suit. It stinks.

Wonder what I can make tomorrow that will restore my confidence and
mask the stench?

Sent from the moon

Licking the beater...

Angel food cake with strawberries soaked in a little balsamic
vinegar... Who 's in?

And it looks like it's climbing right up to the sky...

First corn of the season! Little lime, little olive oil and salt... It
all starts now.

Fresh eggs...

From our neighbor's chickens. Nothing's better. (Except maybe their
duck eggs.)

Spring Soup Interlude

More leeks than potatoes, fresh basil... Perfect weeknight soup.

Eating Our Way Through Austin

I'm way behind on blogging, although the eating and cooking have been going fabulously. I had the amazing opportunity to go to camp for grownups, grownups who write poetry... It was just lovely. I flew to Austin with two of my friends, we flew the airline that offers TV's and SNACKS! FREE SNACKS! That part alone was work the trip. We arrived to a slightly muggy city that was spitting rain. It has changed so much since I lived there, but the heart and soul of the city is eccentric and easy going. We stopped at Mellow Johnny's Bike Store where we picked up bikes and grilled the guys who worked there about what to eat and where to go. They directed us here... but on our way, the traffic picked up and we started to feel the fact that we had only had FREE SNACKS all day, and it was almost 6pm. So as we stopped and started along Congress in the traffic, I saw Magnolia Cafe and we did a u-turn and were in front of a bowl of queso and chips in a matter of seconds. In minutes we had huge orders of pasta, quesadillas and gingerbread pancakes and life was great again. When we wander back out, fat and happy, we saw that there was a line of cool airstream trailers parked across the street, each offering a specialty food. We landed on the cupcakes of course, and they were above and beyond. I had a vegan mint choc chip, Mark had a vegan orange cupcake with almond frosting and Augusto had a yellow cake with choc frosting. They offer this cool option of whip cream jammed into your cupcake, to make it more airy and wonderful and because we needed to confuse the vegan option, we did it. Can't wait to do that at a kid birthday party.

We headed out to the festival which was out of town, in Round Top Texas about an hour and a half away from Austin. It was drab and rainy and eventually dark when we arrived. I egged Mark along a two lane road, in the pitch black, not knowing that we were very close to being stuck in the water and mud if we veered off the pavement, and eventually we landed at Festival Hill. Mark said landing there in the middle of the night was like a fever dream and it was.

Stay tuned for more about the next day... and Royer's Round Top Cafe.