Curious Notions

Recently, I reposted a Valentine cookie misadventure from 2007. In case you missed it and don’t want to click on the link, here’s a picture of how these cookies turned out in 2007. Broken hearted cookies of 2007 :( Aw. The irony. Well!! Brandi and I tackled these cookies again this year. They didn’t come out broken or smoking this time. Hurray. And are more tasty than I remembered! Irony might still be there, though. If you missed it, first tip of the hat to Valentine’s day this year here.

14 more days til my favorite holiday. I had my first celebration tonight with roommate.

I bought some ready to bake Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I got two packages to be exact. Baked 1/2 of one tonight almost as soon as I got home from my weekend in Houston.

My roommate made a Strawberry Poke Cake. Those pink stripes were made possible by poking the cake with a fork and then pouring strawberry jello onto the cake, letting it seep and set in the refridgerator. Tasted so light and delicious!

1219 South Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78704

One of my close friends, Cindy came up for a visit (first visit to Austin in a very very long time) this weekend. I met her up at Madam Mams for lunch on Saturday and then for a delightful second trip to Gourdoughs on Sunday. She was enamoured with the pictures posted from my first visit and insisted we go. How can I deny my friend?

I got to add 2 more donuts to my list of donuts (now at 9!) tried at Gourdoughs. I’m moving on up their menu.

Cindy, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s brother.

Bromance! That’s Cindy’s best friend, Vince and his old roommate, Daniel. I’ve recruited them to be my food buddies.

Mm. Black Out Donut – Brownie batter, chocolate icing, and chocolate covered brownie bites. It was so fricking rich. Pictured next to Son of a Peach.

Bring the Heath: cream cheese icing and Heath chips

I look extra chinky squinting at the sun….

Warning: A lot of food porn ahead.

1219 South Lamar Blvd Austin, TX 78704 www.gourdoughs.com I had a dinner date at 7pm with a friend yesterday. It’s 2 pm and I’m about to head out so I decided to eat lunch and try to last til 7 to be able to eat dinner. I usually get hungry about 3-4 hours after eating unless I STUFF myself silly. So I did just that and stuffed myself SILLY at around 2pm. 3pm I get a text message from Liz whom I haven’t caught up with in over a YEAR. “Hi, I’m in Austin. Want to grab a midday snack at Gourdough’s?” Dammit. I made the decision quickly but my stomach was already starting to hurt knowing what I’m about to do to it. I haven’t chatted with my Liz in over a year AND I’ve never been to Gourdoughs. Easy decision at the expense of my stomach. My poor poor stomach. I met Liz up with her boyfriend and buddies, a party of 7. I find out later that the more people you bring, the better to Gourdough’s. I’ve met some of her friends a few times through the years but the occasions were pretty unremarkable. After eating here with them, they will always be remembered as the fun-loving, food-loving hilarious group that introduced me to Gourdoughs. (4 were regulars, Me, Liz and her boyfriend were neophytes.) So what is Gourdough’s? Gourdough’s Big Fat Donuts is a trailer eatery pretty close to my first trailer-food-love, Flip Happy Crepes. What is it about food trailers in Austin? I haven’t been back to Flip Happy in a while because ever since Bobby Flay did a feature on it, it hasn’t been the same. Gourdough’s (in case you don’t know, “gordo” translates to fat in Spanish. Already, this place has charmed me; I have a strong affinity for puns.) is a gourmet donut eatery. Yes, you’ve read right, gourmet. donut. eatery. Her friend Jon, was giving me the low down on the menu. He said there’s a secret menu that is no longer secret as it’s made it on the paper menu (not pictured). Jon also instructed that once you gain more “experience” you can even order your donut with a side of ice cream (vanilla or chocolate) AND all donuts for an extra dollar you can have meat on it. Otherwise, donuts are just $3.25. He was just there yesterday and said the Porky’s really good. Porky’s is a donut with Canadian bacon, jalapeno jelly, and cream cheese. Did you read that? Go back if you need to. He mentioned a few donuts he’s had. The PB&J one which is donut with grape filling, peanut butter icing with peanut butter morsels sprinkled. The Slowburn with Habanero Pepper jelly with cream cheese. The Flying Pig with bacon and maple syrup. I cannot wait to try these creative combination of ingredients. For now I will share with you what we’ve shared. We ordered 7 different donuts but I think I left out 2 in my distraction of sheer joy and delight. Miss Shortcake Jon’s order. I love the sounds and words that kind of fall out of foodies’ mouths when they eat something SO good. It’s as if they forget they’re not alone and this is truly their most authentic and personal reaction. I believe his reaction was “………God….. this is SO. Freeeesssssshh.” He wasn’t talking to any of us in particular and we all laughed, tickled that we just got a glimpse of a private moment he had to himself. He’s right though. It was pretty damn fresh. Unknown Donut with Honey Dipping Sauce Savag (I hope I spelled his name correctly) ordered a donut that came with a honey dipping sauce. I couldn’t find it on the menu. He’s one of the more experienced Gourdoughers, so perhaps he ordered from the formerly secret menu that hasn’t been posted on the website yet. Mystery donut makes it’s rounds around the table. There he is with my friend, Liz. Here’s a sexy close up of mystery donut with honey dipping sauce. Mother Clucker Liz ordered the Mother Clucker. A donut with honey butter icing topped with FRIED CHICKEN! This was one of my favorites because I love combining savory with sweet. Moreover, the other 6 of us got sweet donuts so this one was a nice little break in comparison. The crispy chicken on the warm doughy donut was truly comforting. This is definitely going to be one of my regulars when I frequent (note I said “when” and not “if”) Gourdough’s. Son of a Peach This is Andy’s order which is from the formerly secret menu! Son of a Peach. So fricking GOOD. My friend Dave is in love with peaches. I’ve already mentally bookmarked this donut to share with him in the future. Funky Monkey My order! Donut that comes with grilled bananas, cream cheese icing, and brown sugar baste. It tasted like a banana’s foster on crack. I’m smacking my lips right now as I type this which is a feat as I’m still in physical pain from all the eating I’ve done. I was 110 percent pleased with my order. Granny’s Pie Granny’s Pie is crowned with caramel, pecans, bananas, and graham crackers. This was pretty good of course. Really rich. It didn’t completely suit my palate but I’m guessing all fans of pecan pies (all the boys that I know) would love this donut.

Closing Thoughts

As often as I rave about food, it is a little rare when I’m completely head over heels with a place. I’m head over heels with this place. What saddens me is we spoke to the nice owner and we learned the Foodnetwork is coming to do a feature and film on the 25th of the month. When Bobby Flay did that to Flip Happy Crepes, the trailer eatery is now OVERRUN with people and can take over an hour to get yourself a delicious crepe. I’m pretty sure the exposure to this modest trailer will do the same. Luckily, Gourdough’s hours are much more accessible (everyday 10am- 2am). In the meantime, I can not wait to come back to Gourdough’s Big Fat Donuts!

In comparison to 2008, 2009 was awful! The one thing I can think of that 2009 had over 2008 was that I read more than double the books I read in 2008. I’m anticipating the fresh feel of a new year that is 2010. In the meantime, here’s a review of how my year has gone with heavier emphasis on my blessings verses my misfortunes.

Note: All links open in a new window.

January 2009

• Celebrated New Years with Alan and his friends.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Saw one of my favorite movies of the year, Slumdog Millionaire.
• Kim sent me Tiff’s Treats at work to cheer me up about something.

Celebrating New Year’s with the boyfriend

February 2009

• Alan took me to my third Killer’s concert as a Christmas gift.
• Tried out Joe Dimaggio’s for the first of three times this year. Went as a Valentine’s date with Alan.
• Got flowers from Alan at work.
• Alan, his roommate, and I all played Bingo for the first time.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.

Alan and I at the Killer’s Concert

March 2009

• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Went to my first rodeo with some work friends and Brandi.
• Ate at Mighty Fine for the first time, now my favorite burger joint of the year.
• Celebrated Brandi’s birthday at Pete’s Dueling Pianos.

Rodeo, Austin, TX

April 2009

• Went to Houston for my daddy’s birthday.
• I worked a lot. Logged a lot of hours.
• Was supposed to be Jamie’s date for a wedding. We got lost in West Austin and ended up exploring Salado, Texas instead.
• Celebrated Selina’s birthday at her house on same day Jamie and I almost went to that wedding.

Selina’s Birthday

May

• Worked a lot; logged a lot of hours.
• Visited San Francisco for the first time and went with Alan. It was our first vacation together and we ate very very well.
• Put in notice at my Clincial Research Job and thus ending that career path (for now at least?)
• I finished out May working at that job and I stopped logging too many hours.
• Celebrated Sae’s graduation from Law School.
• Kim visited from Houston for Memorial Day Weekend.
• Katambra introduced me to a snowcone stand that I frequented often in the summer.
• Saw Star Trek in IMAX, was surprised to love it.

Celebrating Sae’s law school graduation

June 2009

• Ate at a lot of happy hours with old coworkers, with Alan, Sae, and his girlfriend with new free time.
• I took a certification class to become a teacher
• I went to Houston for Father’s Day
• Kim and I tried out Feast, voted best new restaurant in Houston by a handful of magazines.
• I saw Thomas in Houston and we ate at Fufu’s.
• Went on a lot of double dates with Sae and Young. (Here’s our first time at North)

Cindy and me at Grand Lux Cafe in Houston

July

• Celebrated Fourth of July with Brandi and her boyfriend at Zilker Park..
• Went on a lot of double dates with Sae and Young.
• Went to Houston for my mom’s birthday.
• Saw Cindy in Houston and we ate at Classic Kitchen.
• Kim and I discovered Hugo’s, hands down my favorite restaurant in 2009.
• Moved in with my current roommate, and long time friend, Brandi.
• Celebrated my birthday with tons of great people at Trailer Park Eatery.
• At one point, had 4 bouquets of flowers delivered at our apartment and they were all to me from different people. Felt very loved.
• I took and passed my state certification test to become a middle school teacher for science.

Brandi and me on Fourth of July

August

• The first two weeks of August, I tried to squeeze in as much time as I can with Alan because he was about to leave for Korea for up to 4.5 months.
• Starting, August 16, I started counting days Alan was gone.
• Kim came to visit the weekend of the 22nd and we saw Wicked.
• I saw 500 Days of Summer three times this month, in theatre, of course. This is the first movie I’ve done that.
• Jon visited from NYC.
• I got a part-time, part-time (yes you read that right) job, thanks to Brittany dropping a good word for me.

Alan’s last night out with friends before going to Korea.

September

• Hosted the first Alphabet pot luck. We started with the letter P.
• Wrote a blog entry about my journals, surprisingly my favorite blog entry of the year.
• Friends and I got dressed up for Deesh’s brother’s wedding reception.
• Visited Mary Ellen for a long weekend in Boston. First time I’ve gone to see her since 2005. Had best breakfast ever at Mike and Patty’s and most interesting hot pot.
• Alan surprised me by coming home from Korea early.
• Went out for Selina’s Bachelorette Party.

October

• Celebrated Alan’s birthday at Joe Dimaggio’s. Was very happy to have him back in Texas and to be able to celebrate his birthday with him and take him as a date to weddings. He had good timing :)
• Stood in Selina & Ryan’s Wedding and witnessed strong love.
• Realised I don’t really want to be a teacher.
• Threw 2nd Alphabet Potluck.
• Dressed up as a cow girl for Halloween.

November

• Went to Wurst Fest with friends.
• Went to Cathedral of Junk for the first time with Brandi.
• Texas Renaissance with Jessica and Brandi
• Had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Houston where I reunited with people I don’t normally see! (Willis, Thomas, Kim, Shane, Kelvin, Chris, Aishah, Kym, Hillary, Alex)
• Had my second progressive meal this year.

Having hot chocolate at Ren Fest.

December

• I started my new full time job and kept my part time night job.
• I struggled with what it means to be someone’s family.
• I struggled with what it means to be someone’s friend.
• I made truffles for the first time!
• Saw Avatar in IMAX opening night. Awesome.
• Attended and witnessed proudly, Bing graduate from college
• Attended annual Christmas Party for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America with my little and her family.
• Jennifer from Philly is in town and I introduced her to Teucsher.
• I went home to Houston for Christmas break and was able to see Mary Ellen, Aishah, Pinky, Cindy, and Kim of course my lovely family.
• Had hot pot on Christmas day twice. Lunch with Mary Ellen and her mom and dinner with my own family. Hot potted out! (Blog entry to come.)
• Released balloons 4 days early as part of a New Year’s Tradition with Kim. (Blog entry to come.)
• Tonight, most likely will be going downtown for New Year’s and spending it with Alan.

After party in the car.

I’m a blessed girl. Instinctively, I’d tell you my 2009 was pretty awful but when I write it all out like this and focused on the good rather than the bad, I can see now I’m still quite lucky. Farewell, 2009.

Tell me how your year went. Or better yet, if you have a year in review entry, I’d love to read yours.

We had a little informal Christmas party at my day job last week. Someone brought in a homemade gingerbread house! I’ve only made a few dinky ones with milk cartons and graham crackers in elementary school but this one was all legit! She baked her own gingerbread and everything was edible. I slacked and didn’t get to snap before pictures except for this hasty one as birthday girl started to deconstruct the house.

The windows were made by melted Jolly Ranchers. Isn’t that fantastic? Melted Jolly Ranchers!

Beautiful Jolly Rancher star-shaped windows.

I’ve been meaning to make these Oreo truffles after reading about them on a few baking blogs. I kept forgetting about them until Jordan Reid blogged the easiest recipe for Oreo truffles I’ve seen. I made a day out of it on Saturday. No joke, it took me 4 hours to make them and about an hour to clean up. It’s easy but just time consuming. I made a batch of Oreo truffles and used the same recipe to make Nutter Butter truffles.

Here’s the recipe taken off of Jordan Reid’s blog.

OREO TRUFFLES

What you need:

1 package Oreo cookies, finely crushed

1 8 oz package cream cheese (no reduced fat stuff, please…we’re talking truffles here)

2 packages (8 squares each) semi-sweet chocolate, melted (in the microwave is easiest)

What you do:

1. Mix 3 cups of the cookie crumbs with the cream cheese until well-blended.

2. Shape cookie/cream cheese mixture into 42 1” balls.

3. Dip balls in melted chocolate (use two forks and sort of roll them around until evenly coated; allow excess to drip off) and place on wax paper.

4. Sprinkle over remaining cookie crumbs and refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

My Oreo truffles

I may make these for Valentine’s Day!

These are the Nutter Butter truffles. I ran out of chocolate so those sad looking balls in the back didn’t get dipped.

I made a few boxes to give to friends. That bucket belongs to Selina but I haven’t had a chance to get them to her.

Here’s the inside of a Oreo one.

The inside of a Nutter Butter one.

These make great holiday gifts and taste luxurious, just how truffles should taste!

I’m a little disconnected and fragmented today.

The last two days I’ve hardly been online online mainly due to starting a new job and then going to an night job right after. I wake up at 6:30am (after going to bed at 3am last night) to go to work at my new job and I get off at 5pm after which I sit in traffic for 1.5 hours or 2 hours to go to my night job. By the time I make it home it’s 10:30 pm, I’m hungry and a little exhausted. I just had an eleven o’clock pork chop dinner with Alan. Brandi baked chocolate chip cookies. Though I’m pooped, it’s a good day. Alan cut up my pork chop into bite size pieces. Haha. Spoiled.

My Google Reader is backed up. I currently have 87 unread entries. I did manage to read Selina’s new blog post. She hardly updates anymore and I promised her a plug. ;) I always try to comment when friends start blogs as to encourage them to keep entertaining me/updating.

Another blog entry I read is Mary Ellen’s blog entry about word abuse. It echos a lot of my recent annoyances.

The good thing about just coming back from a packed weekend is that I have photos to blog without really haven’t to use my spent brain.

Today, I bring you photos from a high school reunion I had last weekend in Houston. I saw Hillary and Alex for the first time in a while. We’re lucky to see each other on holidays. I found some pictures of us that are duplicates of us from high school so I gifted them to the girls over Chocolate Bar’s hot chocolate. The BEST chocolate of my life STILL. I love that Chocolate Bar is purply. When I went over to pick up Hillary, she was wearing a purple shirt as well and her two sisters were in purple! Amused, her dad took a picture of us, all graduates of the same Catholic high school.

We forgot to take a picture of our hot chocolate before it turned ugly.

We asked a stranger to take a photo of us. It was kind of awkward. Note the folded hands and the nervous smiles.

So we took a self portrait. I wonder if that offended our photographer stranger.

Interestingly enough, December 2, 2007, exactly TWO years ago I blogged about my first time at Chocolate Bar.

1115 E 11th St
Austin, TX 78702

(512) 542-9542
http://www.bluedahliabistro.com/

I love the holidays because it tends to bring old faraway friends back home. On my way drive back to Austin from Houston, feeling incredibly full from Hugo’s reunion with Kim, I get a text message from my Solemate, Kym. She’s going to be in Austin for just a few hours, will I be free? Kym, Dave and I were INSEPARABLE summer of 2005. That was when our friendship budded and it was a fast friendship. Everyday during summer session, the three of us would look at each other after class and ask, “What are we doing today?” Giggling manically while scheming. So Sunday, literally 30 minutes after my 3 hour drive, Kym and I managed to pull Dave away from the library doing work to have a proper reunion.

Dave took us to Blue Dahlia, his favorite affordable romantic date place. A French restaurant especially picked to honor Kym’s Parisian roots.

Dave hadn’t had dinner yet so he ordered the egg salad. It came with capers which he picked off and Kym and I picked up. Kym already had dinner and as I said, I was full from Hugo’s, so we opted to order two desserts to share. (It’s a wonder I still fit in my clothes! I haven’t even showed you all of what I’ve eaten over the weekend!) We order bread pudding and the triple chocolate mousse.

I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Especially the desserts. I’d come back here next time I want to have a cozy place to nibble desserts and chat. I think we turned heads with all the giggling we did. Enjoy the photos.

Dessert Menu!

I’d order the bread pudding again!

Triple Chocolate Mousse

Egg Salad

Did I tell you the three of us actually have a motto?

I stole this picture from Kym’s facebook.

P.S. I started my new job today! They take 3:00 coffee breaks together. How cute is that?

1602 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX 77006

(713) 524-7744
www.hugosrestaurant.net

Back in July, Kim and I had Hugo’s for the first time and fell in love. Sunday, we went back for brunch and fell deeper. My friend, Elizabeth saw my Hugo’s pictures on facebook and shared that not only is Hugo’s her favorite restaurant but also the tres leches cake which is served only at brunch is her favorite. This Thanksgiving weekend was my first time back in Houston since then and I had to make sure I experience their brunch and this tres leches cake. So who better to go with me than Kim?!

We each ordered the Sandia Mimosa. We love champagne in the morning. This mimosa has watermelon juice in it and aguave nectar. It was refreshing and a nice twist from the usual orange juice.

Here’s a view of my first plate from their marvelous buffet. Their buffet is nicely presented. No metal buffet tins over heat lamps here. No spit guard here! If you look to the right on my plate, that is squash pudding. It was so delicious I had to get more. Light, fluffy, sweet. I’m tempted to look up a recipe!

My second plate is pictured above. More squash pudding, a tamale, something good with fried egg on it, a cheesy spicy cauliflower, lamp chop, grilled oysters, right next to the grilled oysters is beef tongue! I never had beef tongue and was excited to try. It was super tender (a good thing). I never had my oysters grilled either. I’ve only had them fried and raw. Grilled is a nice option! It’s a nice alternative for those of you who can’t stand the slimy texture of raw oysters.

Kim commented on how adventurous I was to try beef tongue. She said they actually do look like tongues which is not aesthetically appetizing. I must agree but I talked her into eating a bit of my beef tongue and videoed her experience for your viewing pleasure.

Toasting to another good plate.

My third plate: fish enchiladas, slow roasted pork, brisket, and a stuffed pepper (stuffed with chicken). The pork was so good. Brisket falls apart in your mouth like it should. After our third plate, we gleefully agreed it was time for dessert!

My happy dessert plate. If you notice, the biggest piece of cake I got was the tres leches. Also pictured is a churro, some rice pudding, a chocolate cake, and a chocolate raspberry cake. The only thing I didn’t love was the raspberry chocolate cake and that is because I don’t like raspberry. I guess I got overexcited at the dessert table.

I washed everything down with Mexican hot chocolate. Mmmm. I’ve roped Kim into agreeing to brunching with me here every time I’m in Houston.

She agreed! Lookit the joy in her eyes.