It's been a good day: Chocolate frog, Franziskaner and ham-and-cheese croissants

As most of my friends know, it has been quite a rough couple of months. Today, however, was full of pleasant food adventures, two of which were surprises! We've got ham-and-cheese croissants (one of which I just sampled), a German beer that is VERY hard to find and a chocolate frog. I will explain the last two in greater detail shortly.

While in Texas I had a very nasty ham-and-cheese kolache (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache). This was an offense to me in two ways: 1) I love food so much that when I have dishes that taste awful due to poor quality, it rubs me quite the wrong way and 2) my grandmother makes some of the most delicious kolaches around so, this being somewhat of a family pastry, I was upset to have such a bad one tarnishing the trusty name of the kolache. I have very strong memories tied to ham-and-cheese kolaches. These were not my grandmother's, however. When my dad ran a print shop in El Campo, TX, there was a wonderful bakery called Riena's located nearby. They had incredible pastries of all kinds, but my absolute favorites were the ham-and-cheese kolaches, which they made with a sweet dough. These kolaches were somewhat of a delicacy as they could only be had on the days I went to work with my parents.

I have been thinking about those kolaches since I got back to Boston, and I decided to make something that doesn't come anywhere near them in taste or importance, but which is tasty nonetheless. I simply bought Pillsbury croissant dough and layered it with black forest ham and colby jack cheese. They turned out very well!

The real story of my good day comes in now: I caught up with Lisa, a friend of mine who happened to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter them park over the winter break. The kind young woman that she is, she got me a chocolate frog! It is mammoth. And, it comes with a collectible card of a famous witch or wizard from the series. For those of you who are at all familiar with this fictional universe, I got Helga Hufflepuff! I was really hoping for Dumbledore. Perhaps when the time comes for me to visit the park, I will get him.

After our lunch at Paris, the best creperie I know of (http://www.paris-creperie.com/), we went into Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. What I found was nothing short of amazing. While in Barcelona in 2007, I had a beer that did not make me want to gag. In fact, I actually liked it. It is called Franziskaner. I have asked about this beer for close to four years now and no one I know has ever heard of it, nor do any pubs around here have it. Well! Guess what they had at Trader Joe's! So I took a couple bottles over to the apartment of Leticia and Esteban, who have been incredibly kind and helpful in the past few days. It is just as good as I remember it! Although, I did spill a little on the floor telling a story, which was an indicator that it was all very exciting.

All in all, as my food will tell, I have had a really enjoyable day. I hope it keeps up as school is starting tomorrow. Manos a la obra!

Emergency food - honey wheat pecan bread

I'd like to take a break from all the Texas posts to focus on my storm prep food, which turned out fabulously! In my second attempt to bake a loaf of bread I used a tad bit more common sense than in the first, and it turned out in my favor.

What you see here is a loaf of whole wheat honey pecan bread! Made right in my kitchen, as I was sleeping. In fact, I am fairly certain that I got up and unplugged the machine (there is physical evidence of this) without really waking up. At least if I'm going to sleep for too many hours of the day, I know I might be taking care of chores while doing so!

My first loaf of bread, if one can call it a loaf, came out horribly. It was a hefty dense lump of cranberry flavored material with somewhere around a cup of flour stuck to the bottom of it. I have to say that I'm quite proud of the second go! It's very tasty, as well. I had a couple of slices for breakfast. It really is very hearty and filling. I put the rest of the slices in the freezer. I can't wait to make some serious sandwiches with this stuff!

It's a good thing I made survival food (which also consists of pasta salad) because it did snow like you wouldn't believe. Very fortunately, my power is ON! But I'll be enjoying the bread nonetheless :) I also picked up some new Spanish wine (another Rioja), so I will hopefully be enjoying that too with my next food adventure, which should be happening right about now.

Chao!

Chicken fried steak and saltwater taffy

It has to be one of the unhealthiest things on the planet that one can eat, but chicken fried steak is also one of the tastiest! You'll also see my bag of saltwater taffy, which lasted me the ride back to Bay City (from Austin) and a few more days after that :) I got it from that same shop where I found the chocolate-covered bacon. Delicious! I could use some right about now. The taffy, not the bacon.

After spending an all too fast day with Kati, I hung out for a bit by myself at Mozart's, a really neat cafe on Lake Austin, and then met my cousin Anna and her daughter Jade for dinner. This was my last meal in Austin before heading out, and it was fantastic! I had, as you can see, a chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. Talk about comfort food!

For those of you who might not be aware, there are debates among southerners as to whether this dish is called chicken fried steak (as I call it) vs. country fried steak (as Josh calls it). According to this wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_fried_steak, it turns out that it comes down to a difference in the batter's ingredients. Let it be known: they are NOT exactly the same thing! Though to be absolutely honest, I'm not sure I could tell them apart. This dish is extremely southern, and extremely good.

The best part of this meal, though, was actually catching up with my cousin whom I had not seen in years. We are two of the four red-headed grandchildren (out of 26 total, I believe) on my dad's side. It's a silly connection, but it's cool nonetheless. We had a really great visit and it was sad to see the dinner come to an end. But luckily we had a good photo taken so that we can remember it! And hopefully I'll see her again soon.

If I'm not mistaken, I had sweet tea or Dr. Pepper with that meal. Probably sweet tea! :D More TX cuisine to come soon.

Sushi in Austin, plus a weird treat

The food you see here is one of the meals I had on my mini trip to Austin while I was visiting in August. I had sushi with a dear friend from my very interesting childhood, who happens to share my name :D I also happened to find what you see in the glass dish: chocolate-covered BACON. Don't mess with Texas.

While I did not eat that particular mix of salty-sweet, I did enjoy a salted dark chocolate caramel! It quickly became a melty mess in my hands, but it was worth it. Very tasty indeed. If you ever need a quick fix for sea salt dark chocolate caramels, by the way, Trader Joe's makes a mean batch.

While in Bay City I got in touch with my friend Kati, who lives in Austin. Turns out there are many of my friends and family who live there! So this one-day trip turned into a nice little visit packed with catching up. Our sushi adventure took place before it was time to go, and it was delicious. The manager made us some interesting flavored tea mixes, of which I did not post a picture, but you can imagine how delicious fruity teas were in the hot HOT summertime.

After a lot of last-minute planning (surprise, surprise) and having gone through a little bit of an emotional roller coaster when I found out that the car I had reserved in order to go Austin was not available, I was saved by family. I ended up using my dad's car to head over, which although it doesn't sound like much, really meant a lot to me.

AND WE'RE BACK: Seafood In, Bay City TX

I have already been back to Texas since I ate the food you see here... which means I have been REALLY slacking on my posts! But it's been a really crazy semester, as most of you know, and we won't talk about that here. You'll see it unfold little by little as I catch up on the posts I've been neglecting. I've got just under two weeks until school starts again, which should be plenty of time to get in gear!

The funny thing about this is that these posts are supposed to serve as a kind of memory journal for me, and now I'll be reaching all the way back into August to attempt to remember what was going on when I ate these things! However, I have such a strong emotional connection to most of these meals that it should be no problem whatsoever :D

What you see here are: fried trout (which was incredibly delicious and really took me back), bacon-wrapped stuffed shrimp and fruit-topped pound cake with whipped cream.

This was actually what we call a fish fry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_fry). It was a gathering of family for the sole purpose of eating great food, which for those who know me really well is just my kind of gathering! My dad fried up the trout, with the help of little monsters known as nieces and nephews (actually though, they were precious) and I threw together the light dessert. Just chopped up berries, Cool Whip, and sliced pound cake. It was a great meal for the weather!

We ate this on my last day in Texas, an event that never ceases to be bittersweet. I was ready to be back in the northeast, but always miss my family. Luckily, this time around, it wasn't too long before I got back, as we'll see in the coming posts!

What you don't see here are the fried potatoes and plantains that I made (gobbled up by the little monsters), which I daresay were a fantastic success :)