He's probably right

Maple-bacon cupcake

My friend is moving out of country, so she basically had a free-for-all at her apartment.  We grabbed a bunch of stuff, including some cupcake tins.

Colby: Guess how many cupcakes we can make at once?
Me: Um.. 36, I think?
Colby: Too fucking many.

Corner Bakery Cafe

When I was in the 7th grade, I went on a big class trip to Chicago.  This was a big deal because it was an overnight trip and we went by bus.  One of the places we stopped by was the Field Museum.  As embarrassed as I am to admit this, the only thing that i remember from the museum was what I ate for lunch.  I went to the Corner Bakery Cafe with my friend and we split a salad and a pre-made sandwich.  We picked out this particular sandwich because it had brie on it and, at the time, brie was a super fancy cheese that grown ups ate.  We ended up finishing the salad and were both full, so we wanted to return the sandwich because we hadn't touched it and then realized that we were never charged for it, so one of us quietly put it back in the refrigerated case.  

Fast forward 13 years (oh my gah how am I so OLD?), and I found out that a Corner Bakery was opening up super close to where my brother-in-law lives and where Colby works.  We kept meaning to stop in at some point and then I was contacted by the awesome people at CB to see if I wanted some vouchers to try the food there.  Yes, please.  We've been there several times and, between the two of us, have sampled a large part of the menu.  Here's what we got:

The Uptown Turkey Sandwich was really good.  It's basically a club with avocado.  I also really like their chips and Colby likes their pickles.  I know this because he always tries to steal mine.

 

Uptown Turkey Sandwich - $7.29

 

They have a lot of combo offerings, from soup and salad to salad and sandwiches, etc.  I got the chicken noodle soup and a half turkey pretzel sandwich.  The soup was unremarkable, but the sandwich was pretty good.

Signature Sandwich Corner Combo: Chicken Noodle Soup and Turkey Pretzel - $7.69

Another combination that they let you get is a whole lot of salad and some soup.  Here we got the broccoli cheddar soup, again not remarkable; the Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula Salad which tasted like a MTA salad... so very good; and the Southwest Avocado Wedge salad, which was great except that it had cilantro in it.  If you don't hate cilantro, and you're looking for a really good, refreshing salad, I'd go with this one.

The Trio: Southwest Avocado Wedge Salad, Mozzarella, Tomato and Arugula Salad, Broccoli Cheddar Soup - $7.99

 It's chicken and pesto, which is one of my favorite combinations.  Very well executed!

Chicken Pesto Sandwich - $7.49

It's the Turkey Pretzel sandwich again -it's that good!  Also, no soup.  This also comes with ham, which we haven't tried.

Turkey Pretzel Sandwich - $6.99

This chicken pomodori panini is probably my favorite sandwich of the bunch.  There's nothing better than a good panini and between the cheese and the chicken and the tomatoes, it made for a really tasty, filling dinner.

Chicken Pomodori Panini - $7.59

And who could forget dessert?  I honestly would come here specifically to get the sugar cookies.  I'm not a huge sweets person, but these are really quite excellent and maybe my favorite thing that I've had here.

Chocolate Chip and Sugar Cookies

In essence, this place is great for lunch if you're in the Arboretum area of Austin or for a light dinner.  We've been there several times now and it's already becoming one of our regular spots in Austin.

P.S.  If you happened to grab a turkey and brie sandwich from the Corner Bakery in the Field Museum on a Spring day in 1999, please know that we never opened the sandwich and that it was perfectly fine that you ate it.

Disclaimer: I received vouchers that covered the cost of part of these meals, but the opinions are all my own.

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere

And by somewhere, I mean here.  It's 5 AM.  And I'm up because I'm a mama and a grad student, but can't really actively be both at once.  It's not okay to be this sleep deprived and stressed out, but this margarita?  Totally makes it less not okay.

Mackinaw Brewing Company

Continuing on our Michigan vacation, we made it up to Traverse City with the in laws for a couple days of beaches, wineries, and great food.  The first stop we made was the Mackinaw Brewing Company, a local restaurant in the downtown area near the waterfront.

Traverse City is the cherry capital of the world, so I obviously needed to try the cherry lager.  It was really tasty.  I also started feeling buzzed after drinking about half of it.  Before I got pregnant, I was a lightweight, but after being off the sauce for almost a year, my tolerance is completely and totally gone.

I really miss freshwater fish when I'm in Texas, so I make it a point to eat as much of it as I can while I'm home.  We started with the smoked whitefish dip, which was served with toasts and tortilla chips.  It was really good and was delicately smokey.

Smoked Whitefish Bake - $7.99

Next came the entrees: a reuben for Colby and a whitefish sandwich for me.  I'd say that I won lunch that day, not because Colby's reuben wasn't good, but because HELLO whitefish.

Reuben - $8.99

Whitefish Sandwich - $8.59

Everyone really liked their meals, including Ramona, who decided that she wanted to nurse while we were waiting for our food.  (Don't worry, I fed her before I started drinking).

happy baby - priceless

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.