Poco-Cocoa

Today was a pretty good day. I had a busy but productive day at work, and then came home to make this lovely dinner with my husband. It’s so fun to cook together…we turn on some tunes and start cooking. I chop stuff, he mixes stuff. I saute, he peels. And after it all, he cleans the kitchen. How did I end up with this amazing deal? I don’t know, but I’m grateful.

Anyway, the dinner. Delicioso. The sandwich has such a great mix of flavors, with pungent goat cheese and smooth avocado, plus the freshness of cucumber and tomato. And over it all, a lovely peppercorn dressing.

And then there’s the potato salad. I had some tiny red potatoes left from my last trip to the farmer’s market, so I decided to try my hand at potato salad. It was smooth and a bit tart, with a nice crunch from the celery and shallots, and was even nice a bit warm, as we had just cooked the potatoes and the eggs. I’m looking forward to the leftovers.

In other news, I finished Harry Potter the day after I bought it. I am sad to see the series end, but I’m pretty satisfied with the last book. Now I’m looking for another book to start on. I really need to catch up on my magazine reading, though…I have a stack of Gourmets and Saveurs that need to be read. And when lovely recipes like these come from their pages, I’m anxious to get started.

The avocado sandwich recipe can be found here.

The potato salad recipe can be found here.

I can’t believe I’ve lived in this apartment for 2 1/2 years and I have never used my broiler. I forget about it, really. But I found this recipe in a recent issue of Gourmet and had to try it.

How brilliant! Roasty toasty flavor, bubbly goat cheese, meaty shiitakes…ready in just a few minutes. You guys just have to try this one.

So this weekend we were in Houston for an urban adventure race that Justin did with a friend. He had a lot of fun riding his bike and running around town, getting lost along the way. We stayed in the Alden hotel, which was great, and had a fabulous dinner downstairs at 17. We opted for the five-course chef’s tasting menu, and we weren’t disappointed. There were fresh figs and honey mascarpone, handmade pasta with lobster and English peas, seared salmon with salsify and parmesan broth, rare lamb chops with perfectly roasted vegetables, and the most amazing dessert…a deconstructed carrot cake. It was two slices of delicious gingerbread cake, a slab of cream cheese ice cream, fried shavings of carrot, and a carrot anglaise. So good.

We walked around downtown a bit, had a mediocre meal at an Italian place (where the servers had no idea that their job was to actually provide service), and sat around in a+, the hotel bar. I didn’t see much of Houston, so I can’t give it a fair review, but we won’t be rushing back.

There was quite a bit of hubbub on Saturday night, with lots of limos pulling up to the door of the hotel, and tons of young people dressed to the nines, all with a bit of a hip-hop edge. And on Sunday morning, we saw that young Indian guy from American Idol in the lobby…turns out he was staying at the Alden, too.

So, we’re glad to be back in our lovely Austin, where I can walk downtown by myself and not feel creepy, where the shopkeepers are friendly, and where my kitty cat curls up next to me, safe and warm.