Baked Beans & Sausage

Recipe from Everyday Health

What you need:

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup water

2 TBsp tomato paste

1 TBsp molasses

1/8 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 TBsp vegetable oil

1 medium onion (chopped)

4 cups collard greens (rinsed, chopped, stems removed)

9 oz chicken sausage (cooked, halved lengthwise and sliced)

30 oz Great Northern beans (rinsed)

How to make it:

Whisk barbecue sauce, water, tomato paste, molasses, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Add onion and collard greens and cook, stirring occasionally until collards are wilted, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Add sausage and cook, stirring until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes more.

Reduce heat to medium-low, add beans and sauce mixture to the pan.

Gently stir to combine, cover and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Then ENJOY!

Tangy Coleslaw

Recipe from Billy Parisi

What you need: 

1/2 thinly sliced head of green cabbage

1 cup of thinly sliced red cabbage

2 whole shredded carrots

3 thinly sliced green onion

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp of grainy mustard

1 TBsp honey

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 1/2 tsp of celery see

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

In a small bowl whisk together vinegar, mustard, honey, and olive oil; set aside.

In a separate bowl mix together cabbage, carrots, green onions, and celery see.

Next, pour small amount of the dressing on the cabbage mixture and mix together until combined and until desired amount of dressing is achieved.

Season with salt and pepper.

Chill before serving.

Then ENJOY!

Visiting the Capital

     With our bellies full we thought we would take in some sights.  But where to go?  Why....downtown to see the Capital Building, of course!  I've never been down there, neither has the hubby.  It was nice to drive through the tall buildings and act as tourist for a bit.

We are getting close....

Before we headed inside, these crazy little squirrels came right up to us.

I guess they must have been used to all the people visiting, they weren't shy at all.

Such a pretty building, so much detail was put into it.

There's a lot of history in Austin.

I didn't know you could actually tour the inside. 

After going through some metal detectors, these two statues of 

Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston greet you.

It was so big and beautiful on the inside, so many things to look at.

My favorite was to look up at all the balconies.

And looking down from the top balconies.

We even found one of the elevators that had doors made out of gold, well it looked like gold.

Since the Representatives weren't in session, 

we got to see the inside of the House of Representatives.

We would've checked out the Senate, but it was under construction.

Here's looking from the top balcony.

When we were done looking around, we went to leave and halted in our tracks....

there was a HUGE thunderstorm outside waiting for us.

We waited a bit till it died down, then bared it and ran in the rain back to the car.

We were soaked!  We got a good laugh when we got in the car.

So, in soaked clothes and smiles on our faces,  we drove off in the rain through the puddles to go find those awesome Margaritas we had yesterday!

Chocolate Banana Bread

Recipe from It's Always Autumn

What you need:

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Spray a standard loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with flour.

Beat sugar, eggs, and oil in a bowl of an electric mixer until well combined.

Beat in mashed bananas and vanilla until incorporated.

In another bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until top is cracked and bread is cooked through.

Let cool in the pan before turning out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Then ENJOY!

Red, White, & Blue Potato Salad

Recipe from Cooking Light
What you need: 2 cups fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise (peeled or not peeled) 2 cups small red potatoes, quartered (peopled or not peeled) 2 cups small blue potatoes, halved lengthwise (peeled or not peeled) 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion 2 Tbsp fresh parsley 1 Tsp chopped fresh dill 1 TBsp chopped fresh chives 3 hard boiled eggs (finely chopped) 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 2 TBsp olive oil 1 1/14 tsp salt 2 tsp Dijon mustard 1/2 tsp ground pepper 1 garlic clove (minced) How to make it: Place fingerling and red potatoes in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until tender. Drain, cool slightly. Place potatoes in a large bowl Place blue potatoes in a sauce pan, cover with water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until tender. Drain, cool slightly. Add blue potatoes, onions, parsley, dill, chives, and eggs to bowl, toss gently. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients. Pour over potato mixture, toss gently to combine. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled. Then ENJOY!

Good Morning Tea & Buns

     The next morning bright and early we packed up our stuff, checked out of the hotel and found La Patisserie, the pastry shop famous for it's Morning Buns (the ones we got to taste on our Austin Food Tour).  There was so much to choose from and everything looked delicious.  But I went with the Morning Bun and a cup of Austin Breakfast Tea.  It was my first time putting cream in my tea, it tasted quite good.  I think I will be doing that from now on.  The hubby tried out a latte and a Jalepeno Pillow pastry.

It was a cute little shop, so we decided to enjoy our breakfast and beverages for awhile.

It was very nice to sit down (without the kiddos) with my hubby and actually talk to each other without being interrupted by the littles.

After breakfast, we gave mom (MeeMaw) a text and everything was going well, 

so we decided to find some other activities to do in Austin before going back home.

Cheese? Why yes, I have a bite or two or three....

     So, if you read my last post you know that we stuffed ourselves full of Austin's best and yummiest savory creations all down South Congress Street on our Austin Food Tour.  Well, we didn't stop there!  After enjoying our slice of pizza from Home Slice we furthered our culinary journey to Antonelli's Cheese Shop.  Our friends told us we just had to visit this place, and boy were they RIGHT!  The hubby and I are big cheese heads so for us, we were like two kids in a candy store.  There were all sorts of specialty salamis, prosciutto, peppers, olives and of course CHEESE....We started with the meats and took us a few samples, ok, A LOT of sampling, to finally decide on two really yummy ones.

   
     With the meats chosen we finally headed over to the cheese cases.  Oh man, we didn't know where to start.  Good thing we had our very own Cheese Monger to guide us through the many wheels, wedges, logs, and spreads.  We got to try all sorts of cheese.  Just when I thought I couldn't take another bite, I did, over and over again.  They were just too good not to try!

 

So here's all the scrumptious treats we picked out!

I also picked up a couple of chocolate bars from Lolli and Pops

I really liked the Honeycomb bar by Chauo

     We picked up some strawberries, olives, and wine from HEB and a baguette (from Easy Tiger), then went back to the hotel to put our goodies away and get ready to go to dinner.  We asked some of the local Austinites where a good place to go for dinner and many suggested Vino Vino.  So that's where we went.  I really enjoyed my stuffed quail and barley risotto.  We happened to go on the night they served up big batches of Paella, the hubby tried out the seafood one.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to enjoy our 

tasty tidbits while watching the World Cup.  

WOW! We had a very eventful day of eating and eating and eating!

And the next day we planned on doing more!

Touring Austin One Bite At A Time

     The next morning after that long baseball game, the hubby and I woke up early, packed up the car, then headed up north to Austin (leaving the kiddos with MeeMaw & PapPaw) for a mini vacation within our vacation.  Before leaving for Texas I did some research on Austin and found Austin Eats Food Tours.  This was right up our alley!  We are such foodies and it was perfect!  I secured our spots on the tour online and printed our itinerary.

     We drove into Austin and to the meeting place for the South Congress Walking Tour.  We started our tour at Jo's, a local coffee shop known for it's Turbo Iced Coffee.  The tour guide Chris, brought us some Morning Buns from La Patisserie, which were sooooo AMAZING, to enjoy with the coffee (which I didn't drink, it was WAY too strong, since it was straight up without all the cream or sugar, how I drink it.  I mean, I order white chocolate mochas from Starbucks which is a little espresso, and tons of the other stuff).  After we all (there was about 12 of use total) finished our, well their coffees, and our morning buns, we walked down the street to our next stop on the tour......

   
     Our next stop was Snackbar, a local restaurant attached to the historic Austin Motel.  The owner came out to talk to us about her culinary adventure of opening up her restaurant and the vision behind it.  She was very sweet and shared her favorite and most popular dish, the Tamago Yoko, which is a shrimp, bacon, cabbage & leek hashcake topped with two over medium eggs, wasabi aioli, bonito, and nori.  To be honest it wasn't my ideal snack, but I tried it, on the other hand the hubby LOVED it!

     Our third stop on our culinary journey was Guero's Taco Bar.  Oh man, this place was AWESOME! They had some chicken tacos with in-house made tortillas, chips with three different salsas and the most A-Mazing quesco!  Oh, and I can't forget, the Margaritas!   Everything was delicious!  On a side note, some of the movie Chef, was filmed in their garden.  Now, I really want to see that movie!

   
     Next, we walked down to Hopdoddy, which was created to unite handcrafted Beer (Hop) and hormone/antibiotic free black angus beef (Doddy), the nickname given to the native cow in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Their whole menu looked good!  We tried the Classic Burger accompanied with their Kennebec Fries and then for dessert their famous Salted Caramel Shake.  Oh man, we were stuffed after this stop!  But we pressed on....

     Just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, we DID!  We crossed the street over to Burro Cheese Kitchen to savor their Croque-Madame.  Which is a spin on a Croque Monsieur.   I would have never thought smoked ham, Fontina cheese, pesto aioli, topped with a fried egg and Dulce de Leche sauce on sourdough bread would marry well, but OMG! It was divine!

     So now that we enjoyed coffee, pastries, hash cakes, tacos, chips with salsa & queso, margaritas, burgers, fries, shakes, and grilled cheese...we had one more stop!  Our last and final stop was Home Slice Pizza.  I tried a slice, it was tasty, but the hubby was so full he couldn't eat another bite, so he just enjoyed some local beer.
   

     After our Food Tour, we were SO full, but very happy and satisfied!  We thanked our guide (tipped him well), then headed out to explore some more of Austin!  If you are looking for something fun and yummy to do in Austin, totally check out Austin Eats Food Tours! You'll have so much fun eating your way through Austin!