An all too fast week in Texas: Seafood out

Please excuse the late posting. I got back from Texas at the very end of August. It is now approaching the end of September, and life has been a whirlwind of mostly positive experiences. Let's start back in my home state, Tejas (Tay-hahce).

I traveled there from New York to visit my family before heading back to school: most of my mother's and father's families are from and are still located in TX (with few exceptions). It's not easy to get down there, mostly for financial reasons, so I don't see them often at all. In fact, it had been a year and a half since I had seen my dad, which is FAR too long. This was a much needed trip and I enjoyed pretty much every minute of it! It was one of the very few times in my life I've been sad to leave Texas, and all of those times were for leaving some of the most important people in my life behind. Texas itself is simply a force to be reckoned with, and I do not currently possess the power to do so. Maybe in the future.

On to the food! Although many people surely think of rattlesnakes, cacti, tumbleweeds and other such symbols of the southwest, I am from the Gulf of Mexico. This extremely humid, sometimes even marshy area is much more akin to Louisiana than to say, New Mexico, Arizona, etc. Enter here my obscene love of seafood, particularly shrimp and these delicious little monsters referred to by us as "crawfish." I ate as much shrimp as I possibly could while I was there, and I loved it all. As you can see in the photo, they're pretty sizable! And the taste certainly matched the size. The fried items (I tried to limit my intake of these) are hush puppies and... fried pickles. I did not eat the fried pickles! Now if they were okra, it would have been a different story. However, pickles they were and I stayed away. I did enjoy a couple of hush puppies. People from North Carolina might be taken aback by the more savory Cajun hush puppy with bits of jalapeño inside; it's quite a distinct taste from one puppy breed, if you will, to the next. Both delicious, of course!

Part of the title of this post is "Seafood out," which means seafood at a restaurant. Before driving to Austin to visit a dear friend from my adolescent years, I dined with my dad, my uncle David and my aunt Linda. I used to see them quite a lot while growing up. Interestingly enough, I was able to squeeze in a short visit with one of their daughters who lives in Austin! That will be another post. It was such a great part of my trip, sharing food with the people who are so very similar to me (biologically). After so much time apart, it amazed me to find how alike we still are. It never surprises me to realize this about my father, who, it seems at some times, might have actually cloned himself to make me. Just kidding; I am actually very much like both my parents, naturally, but when I spend time with my dad it just couldn't be any clearer that we are cut from absolutely the same cloth in almost every way. And when talking to my grandmother who is a few years shy of 90, I realized we were incredibly similar as well. Hopefully I will have inherited her longevity! What a woman.

There will be more posts to come about my food adventures in Texas, perhaps in a more timely fashion than this one ;)

Quesadillas a la Ben

I was extremely happy to let someone else do a little cooking last night, especially because it was here at home and it was fast. Josh and I spent somewhere around 4 hours working in a Starbucks so I was sort of out of my mind stir crazy and was thrilled to receive an offer from Ben to make quesadillas for dinner. Mine contained a simple mixture of black beans, shredded cheddar cheese and chicken. Josh's and Ben's had a more complex assortment of goodies: chicken (seasoned with taco seasoning), cheese, beans, guacamole and salsa. Sounds great right? It was.

The picture has some shadow going on but you get the idea. In fact, I'd like another right about now.

Seaweed salad and my powerful brain

I'm not sure how healthy this was, but I was feeling very down and out yesterday and my brain was under the impression that eating this would make my stomach feel better. Or, rather, that it would not make it more upset than it already was. I was right: it did not make me feel worse, and I was able to mope around at the same speed I had all day until I eventually went to sleep and moped unconsciously. Still feeling under the weather now but coming out of the fog, I think.

It is incredibly interesting to me that the body is so very influenced by the brain, that if I sincerely think a latte, a croissant or a seaweed salad from a hole-in-the-wall sushi shop is going to make my stomach calm down, it will. This, I think, is probably absolute bull because coffee and milk are both likely to upset one's stomach - especially with the frothed milk of a latte - not to mention cause heartburn (for people like me). A croissant is made up of an ungodly amount of butter, which should theoretically also cause my stomach to have problems and / or upset my heartburn. This is all certainly logical. On the seaweed salad, I don't think there's anything that would cause me problems so it's less of a wonder, but it still brings me to ponder over the immense influence my thoughts have over the actual physical response of my body despite all the chemical evidence to the contrary. Don't get me wrong, I've never convinced myself that fries would make my stomach feel better. Experiment?

If I could study anything (besides what I currently study - *perhaps* in lieu of it), it would be nutrition. Still time, if I quit eating croissants!

Boar's Head hot dogs on Shelter Island

Now I have to admit, although I generally avoid eating hot dogs or any kind of sausage type meat at all costs, this particular brand of hot dots fogged my brain of all reason and by the end of our moving adventure I had eaten at least two of these. I honestly can't remember if I ate more than two because the time flew by in a complete blur! But I will get to that in a bit. First, let me tell you more about these delicious dogs.

Not having thought to check and see if Ben's parents already had ingredients for making hot dogs, we went to the supermarket upon arriving to Shelter Island and bought what we thought was the most interestingly packaged collection of wieners: Boar's Head. I really love their smoked turkey and their provolone cheese, so I was all about trying out their dogs over Nathan's, Ball Park and the other usuals. It was well worth the risk. They were excellent! Ben lathered them in BBQ sauce before throwing them on the grill for ten minutes or so, which added a great flavor. The best part about these dogs was that while grilling, they develop a kind of roasted skin (sounds gross but tastes wonderful) which is crispy, making an interesting textural combination with the juicy hot dog inside. I added shredded cheese to mine and we had some crispy Cape Cod potato chips on the side. Very very simple, but very cheap and it saved us from eating out, which I hear isn't great on Shelter Island. However, we felt pretty silly after returning from the supermarket to find ALL the supplies we had just purchased in the fridge already. But! If we had paid more attention, we wouldn't have ended up with Boar's Head hot dogs, so one can only assume it worked out for the better.

On to the island adventure itself. After moving countless items, getting horribly sweaty and taking countless showers, and eating countless hot dogs, I'd say it was a physically tough but fun couple of days. Once we were finished with the hard labor, we drove around and saw beaches, random sites from Ben's younger years, went on a walk through the Mashomack Preserve and had delicious ice cream (separate post). We also watched a little bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender (quite a different experience on such a large screen!) and The Iron Giant, now a favorite movie of mine. It's too bad that Josh couldn't be there with us, but he really lucked out in a way because the humidity was just a bear.

It is a little silly to post an entry about hot dogs from a culinary standpoint, but I'd like to mention again that I associate memories with the food I eat and this blog is, in a way, kind of a journal that will hopefully serve me well in the future. I just threw in a picture for the heck of it :) Also, if you look closely you can see the skin I was talking about...

Blueberry muffin on way to Shelter Island

Man it has been a long day! Ben, Josh and I packed up Ben's stuff around 8:00 AM this morning, after which Ben and I drove it all in a U-Haul truck from Manhattan to Shelter Island. Before we got in to the our final destination, we stopped at this little farm and got blueberry muffins. I'll include the information at a later date; the day is winding down now and I'm getting to hit the hay soon.

This was by far the best blueberry muffin I've ever had! It wasn't super sweet and it was so full of blueberries that it really didn't need to be sweet. Ben said that he's been coming to this place for years getting blueberry muffins and other treats, and I can see why! I would be a loyal fan and customer if I came here regularly, no doubt about it :)

Muenster BBQ burger with homemade potato chips

I have been suffering from a serious craving for cheeseburger and I finally cured myself of it tonight! After a fun but slightly wearing day in the city, I very much enjoyed making a nice tasty cheeseburger at home.

The day started off with a play in Manhattan near NYU, directed by a friend of mine from Tennessee. It was exciting for me as I really enjoy catching up with people from other parts of the country (or world) in places far from the site where we originally met. I keep seeing people from TN in places like Boston, San Francisco and NYC (almost Costa Rica!) and it gives me so much joy to have these encounters. Unfortunately, they normally don't last all that long. In any case, I got to have a short visit with Patrick Harrison. I thoroughly enjoyed his play! I'll post a link to information about it at the end of this post, in case anybody is interested and will be in NYC.

After the play, I hopped back on the train to meet Ben and grab some food to head for the park. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling so well (probably in part due to the massive amount of cake I sent home with him yesterday), so he sipped on a Schweppes ginger ale while I feasted on a bit of pasta salad. We sat on the grass in the park (not something I get to do terribly often here in NYC) and watched people, listened to somebody playing an instrument that could have been bagpipes (but we will never be sure), and contemplated the adventure that will be moving his furniture from Queens to Shelter Island tomorrow. We then returned to Astoria where Ben, having healed from drinking the ginger elixor, got himself a Subway sandwich. We briefly escaped the rain (RAIN!) so that I could pick out some acrylic paints - can't wait to use them by the way! - we then grabbed umbrellas and met up with Josh. While I was having my own adventures, he was attending the Affiliate Summit East, a giant conference that is pertinent to his world of affiliate Internet marketing.

The day really wasn't that exciting after I got home. It was filled with domestic chores (laundry, dishes, etc.) and I was so worn out from the previous fun that I fell into a little nap, after which I was fairly hungry. Enter cheeseburger. I ran to the supermarket and got some hamburger patties (frozen, much to my dismay) and potatoes. I grilled a patty up for me (Josh had hot dogs instead of hamburgers) and fried some sliced potatoes in a modest amount of extra virgin olive oil. I toasted the whole wheat buns, added a bit of BBQ sauce under the patty and topped it with some deliciously and easily melted muenster cheese. It was along the same lines as most of my meals - very simple but extremely tasty and satisfying. We of course sat down to watch an episode of Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls. :)

The next couple of days should bring some real food adventures, as I'll be helping Ben move a mountain of belongings, doing a bit of hiking/walking/beaching (weather permitting) and will surely be quite hungry!

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BBKKK is part of this international festival: http://www.fringenyc.org/

Aang upside down cake for Ben's last day at work

I have to admit, I've been seriously neglecting this blog. I think I might have posted more frequently from Costa Rica! However, the current lack of content contribution had a very worthy cause. I have been putting together a little party for Ben to celebrate his last day at work. Although it really was a small affair, I wanted it to be very silly and very fun - not to mention, of course, tasty. The true star of this party was the very unprofessionally decorated chocolate cake you see at the end of this post. It turned out well considering the challenges I faced (having used entirely too much frosting, namely). This is Aang, protagonist of a Nickelodeon series called "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Here, he is frozen in an iceberg in the Avatar state. The image is taken from the first episode of the show, entitled "Boy in the Iceberg." However, since he is mercilessly trapped in this cake, I referred to him here as Boy in the Cakeberg. In any case, it was a very humorous adventure and I really didn't mind that it turned out looking so silly because, after all, it is chocolate cake. Very hard to mess up the taste of such a delicious and highly coveted dessert item. Like I anticipated, although aesthetically unimpressive, it turned out wonderfully in terms of taste!

The most important part, however, is that Ben and Josh found it to be very amusing and tasty. I myself am still eating it as I make this post, a day later :P (just a couple bites for my midday snack). I normally am NOT a fan of frosting of any kind but I used a cream cheese frosting and I rather enjoy it. Dangerous! But I can talk myself out of feeling guilty by going into the city later to walk around with Josh.

Although this cake was the main attraction, it followed some pretty darn tasty skewers that I failed to photograph. I had to make them in the oven and therefore got very impatient, throwing all the pieces in the skillet in the end. I used steak, chicken, zucchini, mushrooms, orange pepper, pineapple and shrimp. I seasoned half of the skewers with teriyaki sauce and the other half with Italian dressing, but in the end they all ended up tasting pretty similar because when I combined it all in the skillet, I poured the remaining pineapples and juice into the mix which overpowered the marinades. Before serving the meats and veggies I piled them onto some basmati rice. Fantastic!

After dinner we played Pin the tail on the Appa, our own special variation of Pin the tail on the donkey. I included a couple of pictures of the original Appa and Ben's attempt. He and Josh were much closer than I was, so they both won "prizes," goody bags full of candy and silly party favors. Finally we shared the cake. All in all it was a very fun evening and well worth the planning that went into it :D

Now I can get back to my regular posting! I've got about a week before I head to Texas, which should be full of food adventures! For now, I'll do my best here in NYC.