MSU Dairy Store

We returned from our great journey to the land of our youth a couple days ago, so the next several posts are probably going to be laden with pictures of food from Michigan.  We made a trip to the MSU Dairy Store in Anthony Hall when we were in East Lansing.  Anthony Hall is conveniently located next to the Biomedical and Physical Sciences building, which is where the physics and astronomy department is housed.  I used to frequent this location a lot while in undergrad and we wanted to let Ramona experience the, um, long lines since she's not on solids yet. ;)

Baby's first trip to the Dairy Store!

Something to look at while we wait

still waiting

green tea ice cream

Hoosier Strawberry milk shake (because it's really hard to eat ice cream with a spoon and not drop a baby)

Asian-inspired Salmon Filet Sandwich

Have you ever had something at a restaurant that was so good that you wanted to eat it again and again and again?  A couple weeks ago I had the salmon "burger" at Central Market Cafe and to say that I loved it is an understatement.  I've been itching to recreate it, not just because it's delicious, but because it seemed simple enough: salmon filet, wasabi mayo, erm I MEAN aioli, and seaweed salad.  This turned out to be easy peasy and, perhaps, even more delicious than the original.



salmon filet sandwich

4 salmon filets
4 burger buns (I used the same buns that I used for stuffed french toast)
2 T miso paste
2 T mirin
2 T soy sauce
1/2 t sesame oil


1 T wasabi paste (more or less, to taste)
1 t soy sauce
1 t lime juice
1/3 c mayo

maggi, to taste (optional)

seaweed salad

olive oil

1) Preheat oven to 300.  Cut burger buns in half and brush with olive oil.  Put the buns in the oven for ~15 minutes, or until they're lightly toasted.

2) While the buns are cooking, whisk together the miso paste, soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil.  Coat salmon filets with this and let sit for 5-10 minutes, minimum.  You could also let the salmon marinate for longer if you're not, say, eating second dinner at 11:00 PM.

3) In a separate bowl, whisk together the wasabi paste, soy sauce, and lime juice.  Once it's all combined, add in the mayo and stir to combine.  Taste for seasoning.  If it needs more salt, add in a couple dashes of maggi (or you could just add in a bit more soy sauce).  Set aside.

4) Cook the salmon on the stovetop over medium-high heat for ~5 minutes on a side.  The salmon will flake when it's cooked through and be a lovely pink color on the inside.

5) Assemble by spreading a layer of the wasabi mayo on your freshly toasted buns and topping it with a good handful of seaweed salad.  (We got ours from CM because I'm all about ease of preparation right now).

Yes, that's a second sandwich on Colby's plate.   It's *that* good.

This is why I haven't been posting so much food stuff:

me:  lol
like
the Mg lines have a voigt shape
is that what you're talking about?
like if you look at
5172
in hd122563
that's a voigt profile

astro:  so I guess one problem that I have with that is that it looks like a gaussian fit to that line isn't that bad

me:  oh

wait

ugh.

maybe I gave you the wrong line

there are some super duper strong Mg lines

try 5183

or

fuck

hydrogen

astro:  ok, 5183 has clear shoulders

and I'm not really interested in hydrogen in that way. We're more just good friends.

How-is-it-July-Already? Menu

This picture has pretty much nothing to do with this post, but I figured that it's nicer to have pictures than not.

I can't believe it's already July.  I have a lot of work on my thesis that needs to get done before we go to Michigan, but it always takes about 4 times as long as it should because, wow, Ramona takes up a whole bunch of time.  Since it's actually at the beginning of the week and we just went grocery shopping, let's take a stab at some menu planning

Tuesday:
Quiche with black beans, bacon, jalapenos, and cheddar cheese

Wednesday:
Grilled zucchini, grilled sausages, grilled burgers (sensing a theme?)

Thursday:
Salmon burgers with wasabi mayo and seaweed salad

Friday:
Grilled chicken and corn on the cob

I'm also planning on making chili to last through the week for lunches.  And by "lunches" I mean two maximum, because Colby can eat a pound of chili without flinching.

Baguette House and Texas Bakery

My kitchen is a horror show.  It looks like a band of hooligans came in, cooked a bunch of stuff, and used all our dishes without cleaning anything up.  It turns out that this does not put me in the cooking mood.  I told Colby that we weren't eating at home tonight and we decided on Baguette House.  Baguette House serves up banh mi and an assortment of other Vietnamese dishes, including dessert.  It's seriously one of my favorite sandwiches in Austin and I don't know why we don't go there more often because it's criminally inexpensive as well.

grilled beef - $3.75

grilled pork - $2.75 

It's always tasty.  These sandwiches come with the meat, house made mayo, and vegetables, which include pickled daikon radish, pickled carrots, cilantro, cucumber, and jalapeno all on a ridiculously good baguette.  I get the vegetables on the side because I hate cilantro with the fire of a thousand suns and also because the jalapenos are crazy hot, so I usually only eat one.

On our way out of the shopping center, we noticed a sign for the grand opening of a place called Texas Bakery (no website, unfortunately).  They have an assortment of savory and sweet pastries, along with white and whole wheat sandwich-looking bread.  We grabbed a few pastries for dessert.

coconut bread - $1.39

pineapple bread - $1.39

red bean bread - $1.29

The coconut bread had coconut and raisins baked inside.  The pineapple and red bean breads were both stuffed with filling, though there was no pineapple in the pineapple bread.  If we go back there, I'd like to try the sandwich bread, since the bread part was the better part of both the pineapple and red bean breads (as opposed to the fillings).

Oh... and since I haven't posted a baby picture in awhile, here's Ramona, helping out with the photography.

"Mama, try a different angle on that one."

"Yes, much better!"

Austin Cake Ball

It's the Ides of June and I've only posted once.  It's been busy around here, between trying to figure out the best way to work at home and my ever-growing baby.  As of last Saturday, Ramona weighed 16.5 lbs.  My assumption is that breast milk is magical.  One thing that we have been able to fit into our schedule is trying out different restaurants while Ramona is still content to sleep in her carseat while we eat.

A couple weeks ago, we went to Austin Cake Ball with Dustin for dinner.  The food totally exceeded my expectations.  I started with a chicken and potato curry soup.  It was good and I don't have anything else to say about it.  For my entree, I got the chicken and mushroom crepes, which were tasty and covered in a rich gravy.  The salad was a nice way to break up the extreme richness of the meal.  Colby got the gnocchi alfredo.  These were excellent.  On the salty side, but I like things on the salty side.  Also, (again) incredibly rich.  There's no way I would have been able to make an entire meal of out them without getting sick.  Colby ate a lot of my salad.  Dustin got the roasted chicken with brussels sprouts and bacon.  This was definitely the winner.  If we ever go back there, I'm ordering that.

The cake balls themselves were a bit disappointing.  Every time I have a cake ball or a cake pop, I'm always reminded that I kind of hate the way candy melts taste, so it sort of takes away from the experience.  They're also CRAZY expensive.  At nearly $3 a piece, these cake balls are on the small side.  Dustin said that the peanut butter cake ball was worth the expensive, though.  We'll likely come back here again, but I'll probably skip on the cake balls.

obligatory menu shot

chicken and potato curry soup - $3

chicken and mushroom crepes - $12

roasted chicken - $14

gnocchi alfredo - $13

German chocolate (left) and salted caramel (right) cake balls - $2.95 each

peanut butter cake ball - $2.95

Cakeballs!

Chocolate monsters

microwaved eggs

I love my microwave.  Yes, I know it's totally uncool to declare my love for a machine that makes atrocities like Easy Mac possible, but I'm going to hazard a guess that most people who declare war against microwaves don't have kids.  At least, they don't have infants and can usually eat breakfast before 5:30 PM.

I've read about microwaving eggs for awhile now, but I haven't tried it until tonight.  I really should have done it earlier.  Ever since Ramona's been born, I've basically let myself eat whatever it was that I wanted.  This has actually been a good thing because my milk supply is amazing and the ratio of fats and carbs and protein in my milk has been sufficient to grow a very happy baby who is in the 95th percentile in both height and weight.

Mushroom omelet from the hospital about 20 hours before Ramona was born. I GUARANTEE this egg was microwaved.

This has not, however, been so great for my waistline.  Well, I guess it hasn't been that bad either, I'm down 5 lbs, which sounds wonderful, but isn't when you consider that I'm about the same size as I was before so there's some not-so-great redistribution going on.  Suffice it to say, I should probably start monitoring what I'm eating again and my current plan is to get back to what I was doing for the gestational diabetes and monitor my carb-to-protein intake.  I used to eat a ton of eggs while I was pregnant, but now it's a big process to figure out how to get out a pan, cook an egg, and then eat it all while holding a baby.

Enter the microwave.

2 eggs
salt, pepper, whatever else you put in your eggs
oil

Grease a microwave-safe bowl with a little bit of oil.  Whisk together the two eggs plus whatever seasoning you're going to put in.  Microwave on high for ~45 seconds.  Remove the bowl and stir.  See if there are still wet bits.  If so, microwave for 30 second increments until everything is cooked.

So how do these microwaved eggs taste?  Like eggs.  Their texture leaves a bit to be desired, but they're protein and it's nothing that a little bit of sriracha can't fix.