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by Emily

Spicy Thai Breakfast (Yes, Breakfast!) Noodles

It has been extremely stormy in Austin lately. It’s kind of romantic, and since we are an eternal drought it’s good for the land, but it also puts a huge damper on your social life. Nobody feels like driving downtown and looking for parking to meet friends at a patio bar in a thunderstorm. No thank you.

Last weekend, on one of these thunder-and-lightning-no-way-in-hell-am-I-leaving-the-house mornings, Rob and I found ourselves in quite the conundrum. We had a good pot of coffee brewing and we were SO ready to eat something, yet we had zero breakfast food. We’d used up all the produce from our weekly CSA box and the only morning-ish stuff we had in the house was one last egg in our carton, a gross old yogurt I found in the back of the fridge, and some stale cereal. Bad situation. What can I say? Not leaving the house means getting really behind on your grocery shopping.

Sooo I had to improvise with the one egg, some leftover Thai takeout in the fridge, and (duh) Sriracha. The result was surprisingly delightful. If you’re a savory breakfast type person, I encourage you to try this at home!

Spicy Thai Breakfast Noodles

Sweeten Up Your Usual BBQ… with Vanilla?!

Memorial Day Weekend is HERE! Thank god for my first official three-day weekend of 2014. I don’t know about you guys, but it’s not a true holiday weekend with out some solid grillin and chillin. I’m going to my friend Katie’s BBQ on Monday and I was brainstorming what I want to contribute when a press release from the peeps at Nielsen-Massey, announcing new BBQ recipes incorporating their premium vanilla. Vanilla as a meat seasoning?! A bit outside the box for me, but their recipes do sound ultra delicious. Give this one a try.

Apricot Mango BBQ Baby Back Ribs

And in Breaking Taco Bell News…

It’s no secret that here at ES we have a weird soft spot for Taco Bell. Here’s the latest thing that caught my eye. Do you want Taco Bell but also want dessert? And ALSO you’re at the grocery store? Well, I have just the product for you…

Taco Bell dessert kits! Is this new or is my local HEB just now getting it in stock? Either way: what? Why did the world need this? Who is buying this as part of their weekly grocery shopping? And, more importantly, which option would you choose: Cinnamon Nachos or Chocolate Taco? I think I’m more of a Cinnamon Nachos girl, myself.

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by Emily

Apps vs. Cash Money: How Do You Pay Your Tab?

I guess it’s not fair to say I had lunch with Tabbedout because, more accurately, I had lunch with Ashley, a longtime ES reader/commenter and fellow blogger (at Quarter Life (Crisis) Cuisine) who recently moved to Austin! She just happens to also work in marketing for Tabbedout.

Have you used Tabbedout before? I’d heard of it, but never actually used it or even saw it in action before Ashley met me for lunch. (Speaking of lunch, shout out to the lovely Winflo Osteria and their ultra-delicious Neapolitan-style pizzas. See above for evidence of their glory.) Anyway, it’s basically an app that helps you easily split and pay your bill at various bars and restaurants. Usually when I’m trying to split a bill with friends and we don’t have cash or whatever, one of us will put everything on their card and then the rest of us will Venmo whoever paid. This cuts out the middleman, which is pretty nice.

Unlike my beloved Venmo (my friends and I seriously use that for everything from paying rent to buying concert tickets to splitting Thai takeout), Tabbedout is specifically for dining in restaurants and bars. It’s pretty easy to use, too – first, you download the app, make yourself a little profile, and load in your credit card information. Then when you’re at an establishment that takes Tabbedout, you just let your server know you want to open a TO tab, then at the end of the night (or whenever you’re ready to go) you just pay directly through your phone. You don’t even have to wait to ask for your check.

So is this it? As time goes on and technology advances, apps like Tabbedout and will become even easier to use and accepted by more and more restaurants. What do you think – is cash money basically becoming obsolete these days?

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by Emily

The Best/Worst New Invention for Your Summer 2014 Drinking Agenda

Cool, look, a new stereo system!

No, wait, it’s just sugary pre-made cocktails in a candy-colored boombox packaging. Who needed wine in a box when you can have “wine-based cocktails” in a Beatbox? I was too afraid to purchase and taste-test for myself when I saw these at my local HEB, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty curious. If these aren’t 100% horrible, I could see myself ironically bringing some to a summer pool party this year.

The three flavors I’ve seen, ranked from most to least offensive:
3. Blue Razzberry Lemonade (“raspberry” spelled with not one, but two Zs!)
2. Box A’Rita (you can’t make a real margarita with wine, come on now)
1. Cranberry Limeade (it’s the one that sounds least like Guy Fieri named it, so I have to give it my thumbs up)

Someone out there has tried these, right? Y’all know my affinity for funny/novelty cheap packaged booze. Tell me if the joke is worth it.

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by Emily

Endless Eating at Austin Food & Wine Fest

Austin Food & Wine Festival was three weekends ago, so this recap is definitely a little later than I would like, but to be honest, it took about three weeks to recover! I attend a lot of food events these days, and AFWF is the mother lode of all food events here in Austin. I ate and drank more in those three days than I did in the rest of 2014, I swear. There wasn’t a moment I wasn’t stuffing some sort of caloric goodness into my mouth. So much wine, specialty cuisine, celebrity chefs, fanciful tacos, sugary sweet macarons… I could go on, but you get the idea.

I’d rather show than tell, though. Here are some highlights from my three days of gorging:

Georgia Pellegrini‘s “Dough a Deer” taco from the Rock Your Taco competition. Green plantain tortilla with parsnip puree, venison tossed in a Cuban oregano vinaigrette, pickled jicama and carrot, tomatillo salsa, smoked Adobo sauce and pickled mustard seed. SO creative and delicious.

The “Not Enough” (salted caramel ice cream, pecans, and bittersweet chocolate) ice cream sundae cup from Jeni’s. Have you had Jeni’s ice cream? It’s seriously some of the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. It’s a little pricey, but worth hunting out. You can find it in upscale groceries and specialty markets.

Croque Madame from Chef Lawrence Kocurek of TRACE, made with duck bacon and quail egg. Disclaimer: I work for TRACE, too! But my completely unbiased opinion is that this was one of the best bites I had in the entire Grand Tasting inside the fest.

Cocktail O’ Clock: The Royal Monarch

In honor of the fact that I finally started to watch Game of Thrones this month (Up to season 3 holla! Better late than never, right?) and my boyfriend and I are kinda addicted, here’s a very royal cocktail from Crown Royal. It uses Crown XO, their reserve-quality whiskey which is suuuuper smooooth. This goes down way too easy. Just like some of the characters on Game of Thrones. Ha ha.

The Royal Monarch

1 oz Crown Royal XO
.75 oz sweet vermouth
.235 oz maraschino liqueur
.25 oz herbal liqueur (Benedectine)

Combine in a mixing glass. Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

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