A few weeks ago we were playing what a friend of ours calls “Pantry Survivor” — where you invent new dishes based on what’s in your pantry. We came up with a great veggie burger combination.

The ingredients you’ll need are:

• Wheat bread
• Cheddar cheese (we used white cheddar)
• Veggie burger patties (we used California-style patties from Boca Burger)
• Yellow onion
• Refried beans
• Roma tomatoes
• Pickled jalapenos
• Mayonnaise
• Olive oil
• BBQ sauce (we used Stubb’s Wicked Chicken Wing Sauce)

Slice about half an onion and cover with olive oil. Also slice some cheddar cheese (1-2 slices per burger). Slice tomatoes julienne style, then chop into about 1/4″ pieces.

Grill onions and veggie patties. We grilled them using an indoor grill pan from Pampered Chef, which allows enough air underneath the food to give it a nice crispness that you won’t get with a normal skillet.

Meanwhile, heat up your refried beans and toast your bread. Also mix equal parts mayonnaise and BBQ sauce together.

About one minute before the veggie patties are done, place the sliced cheese on top of them to allow it to melt.

Place a healthy amount of the mayonnaise/BBQ sauce mix on one side of the bread and a healthy amount of refried beans on the other. Place pickled jalapenos and tomatoes on the refried beans side, along with the grilled onions.

Place veggie burger and cheese on the other side. Serve and enjoy!

This is a great Texas-style burger that can easily be made with things you already have in your pantry or refrigerator. Very tasty and filling. We decided that this type of burger needs a name, so we have coined it “La Raquelita.”

Technorati Tags: vegetarian cooking, veggie burgers, burgers

Friday night we met a friend for dinner at Brooklyn Heights Pizzeria, a neighborhood restaurant that we frequent. Our friend grew up in New York and was eager to try it out.

This restaurant was originally a great little coffee shop called The Coffee Plant (funny, the website is still up). They served great deserts all day, but my only complaint was the service was slow. One day Coyote Mercury stopped in for a latte and got to talking to the owner, who was about to close the coffee shop and redesign the space as a “Texas-style pizza pub.” He was even putting in his own water filtration system to balance the ph to the neighborhood in which he grew up in Brooklyn.

So we eagerly awaited its opening, and that day finally came. For the first several months they did not have a liquor license but would give you a beer or a glass of wine on the house. Most of the waitstaff seemed to be brand new to waiting tables, but everyone was really friendly and that made up for any slowness in service. 

In addition to some of the best pizza in Austin, the great thing about Brooklyn Heights is the variety on the menu. You can choose from about two dozen specialty pizzas, do-it-yourself toppings, hot wings, and even onion rings. They even have cheesecake shipped from New York’s Carnegie Deli.

On this visit we ordered “The Mad Italian,” a 16-inch pizza complete with banana peppers, Italian sausage, bell peppers, red onion, and garlic. This usually also comes with pineapple but we skipped this last night. The sausage is slightly spicy and sliced finely, which is a nice complement to the slightly sweet red sauce that is not overly thick but also does not allow toppings to slide off the slice.

When Brooklyn Heights opened I would often tell people that it was equal or superior to Home Slice, but slightly different. I liked the crust at Home Slice better, as it was a little thinner and more akin to pizza I have eaten in New York, but the sauce at Brooklyn Heights was better.

But today I’m not so sure. The restaurant has undergone some management and menu changes, and today the pizza is a little thicker than before and not quite as greasy. Grease is a good thing in pizza in my book, but nevertheless Brooklyn Heights still makes a fine pie that is worth the drive to check out.

Technorati Tags: Austin, restaurants, pizza

Yesterday I went with a friend to Vivo for lunch. It’s a great place for me to dine with former co-workers from my old job, as it’s about halfway between there and my current company. Plus, they have an outstanding salsa that has more black pepper than most restaurant salsas and is packed with flavor. But be careful: During the week it’s best to try to get there before noon or you’ll have to wait for a table.

We had a lovely lunch of puffy tacos and enchiladas. My only complaint is that they smothered cheese over just about everything but the rice on my plate. Now I’m a big fan of cheese, but there was practically more cheese than beans. That’s just a little much for lunch.

As I was leaving I noticed the following written on a dumpster outside in huge white letters:

“GO WEST YUPPIES. STOP GENTRIFYING THE EAST SIDE.”

Technorati Tags: food, Austin, restaurants, urban

All three of my greyhounds were poisoned as a result of the latest recall from Natural Balance pet food.

The official diagnosis was stable kidney failure. After 36 hours of heavy IV fluids to have their kidneys flushed, Daphne and Phoebe are recovering and came home Tuesday night. They are still spending each day at the vet for more fluids and observation. Joey did not do as well and ended up at a specialty hospital in canine ICU. Yesterday he finally turned around and is on the road to recovery, but with the possibility long term kidney damage. He comes home on Friday.

What you need to know is that the food they were eating does not contain wheat, but still contained melamine — an industry chemical — which was found in rice protein this time around. They had no more than three meals of the tainted food, and several thousand dollars later it looks like they are all going to make it. The long-term effects, however, remain to be seen.

Bottom line: The FDA does not have a handle on what’s going into pet food. I STRONGLY URGE you to switch over to cooking food for your pets today. While it may be more work, think about what’s happened to us and you may think otherwise.

Symptoms that affected our dogs: Nausea, excessive drinking, excessive urination. If you see any of this in your pets I would call your vet, regardless of whether or not your food has been recalled since our dogs were sick days before the recall actually happened.

Technorati Tags: pet food recall, natural balance, melamine, food safety, rice protein, imports

I’m all about cooking things on weeknights that are simple and take under 30 minutes to prepare. We made a Thai-style basil chicken dish on Monday that was awesome and only took about 15 minutes to prepare:

• 1 lb. chicken breast, cut into cubes
• 1 package basil leaves
• 1 red bell pepper, coursely chopped
• red pepper flakes
• olive oil
• 4-6 large garlic cloves, chopped
• soy sauce
• brown rice

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in pan; sautee garlic and bell pepper. Add chicken and cook. Add red pepper flakes (to taste), basil, and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Let cook an additional 3-4 minutes.

Serve over brown rice. Makes 2-3 servings as a single dish.

Technorati Tags: thai food, cooking

Despite the rain, we went to Iron Cactus Sunday night. My husband had been craving a margarita for quite some time and I really didn’t want to keep walking in the rain, so Iron Cactus seemed like a good stop.

We arrived about 7 pm and were seated immediately, being probably the only two people in the restaurant without a SXSW badge. My husband ordered that margarita he had been wanting, and I ordered a Negra Modelo (which was listed as a Negro Modelo on the menu).

I ordered the Ancho Chile Rubbed Pork Tenderloin, a very tender piece of pork that had been seared so that the rub is basically burned onto the meat. It was presented sliced into five pieces with a chipotle demi glaze sauce, which did have a smoky flavor but lacked the kick of most chipotle sauces. The tenderloin was served with a heaping side of mashed potatoes, which were lightly mashed with skins and green onions. They did not appear to be too heavily loaded with butter or cream, making them courser and more flavorful than most mashed potatoes. The plate also came with sauteed zucchini, squash, and broccoli, which were very lightly cooked and retained most of their crispiness.

The food arrived within 10 minutes and was all very good. The wait staff was friendly and polite, and also very knowledgeable of the menu. I don’t know how busy Iron Cactus is on a weekend, but recommended for a weeknight.

Technorati Tags: dining, austin, restaurant

My birthday celebration continued into yesterday. I received a phone call from the front desk to come pick up a package. Inside that package was several dozen warm cookies, a pint of ice cream, and a couple of cartons of milk, courtesy of some of my girlfriends. A gift from their office to mine.

The cookies came from an interesting little company called Tiff’s Treats, a cookie delivery service serving Austin and Dallas. A very nice touch was that the cookies were warm when they arrived. We enjoyed very moist, very rich white chocolate chip and almond, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin cookies all afternoon.

I believe I had six cookies in total yesterday. For the rest of the week I’ll be restricting myself of green tea, water, and some nice salads.

Technorati Tags: birthday, desert, cookies, delivery, gifts

For my birthday a co-worker brought me the biggest, fanciest cupcake I’ve every seen from Whole Foods.

The cupcake itself was a nice chocolate that was not too overpowering with a slight, delicate texture. The icing was as tall as the cupcake itself and had an ice cream sundae appeal to it: Three balls of icing in chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla topped with melted chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, and cherry flavored icing shaped like a cherry on top.

Needless to say it was probably the best cupcake I’ve ever had but I could only get through about half of it before I crashed.

Technorati Tags: birthday, celebration, party, holiday

I met some of my girlfriends for appetizers and drinks Friday night at Mesa Ranch, a seemingly quiet but upscale neighborhood restaurant.

We arrived about 6 pm and were seated immediately outside so we could enjoy the nice evening before the cold front. The hostess (who may have also been the owner of the restaurant) was very polite and enthusiastic about their signature drinks, so we took them up on the offer:

• I ordered the Mexican Martini with the middle grade Hurradurra tequila. The twist here is that they use a splash of Spite in the mix, and I have to say that it gives the drink just a hint of sweetness that I really liked.
• My friend ordered their version of The Manhattan, which she liked but said it was a lot sweeter than what she’s used to with drinks.
• My other friend who doesn’t drink asked for something that would look like a “big girl” drink - club soda with a splash of cranberry juice and a twist of lime. They were very nice, but her drink arrived in literally an iced tea glass, which sort of made her look like a lush but overall we thought it was a little endearing.

The menu is heavy on wild game, somthing that none of us really like, but we chose the location based on proximity to everyone’s houses. We ordered a round of appetizers, careful to avoid things like elk and venison. We ordered:

• Mesa Ranch Quesadillas with Chicken - These are standard quesadillas, but came with about 12 slices on the plate, a much larger portion than standard appetizers. The highlight of this was a corn relish, which was added cold to the quesadillas just prior to cooking.
• Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms - This was two portabello mushrooms stuffed with a poblano stuffing and topped with cheese, and looked to have been baked. I’m not a huge mushroom fan so I only had a bite but my friends raved about it.
• Fried Jalapenos - These were fresh (not pickled) jalapenos stuffed with - get this - goat cheese and bacon. If that sort of richness doesn’t make a person feel sick I don’t know what will, but they were very good when I ate them. The jalapenos appeared to have been dipped in a corn meal batter and then flash fried to create a very crisp outside with a tender middle.

So all that was good and well and I would recommend the restaurant as a slightly off the beaten path, not entirely unlike Ranch 616 date place, but of course no quiet evening is complete without a little excitement. The patio section had several tiki torches light to create a warm ambience, and it was very windy. With one wind gust kerosene spilt onto a lamp and we then had a nice torch that was quickly snaking down the torch to the deck railing.

I went inside to let the waitstaff know that the fire department may make a surprise visit if they didn’t do something, and the hostess from earlier came out to investigate. She found a planter with potting soil (and no plant), and poured that on the fire to put it out. Now, I don’t know what was in that planter, but I’m assuming it must have been full of fertilizer because the minute she did that the fire got bigger and managed to make it down to the ground.

Then the calvary came in. Several waiters came with pitchers full of iced tea and water and began pouring it on the flames, but with each pour the kerosene spread making the fire worse. My friend started handing them our glasses of water, but to no avail the fire wouldn’t go out. Finally the hostess instructed a waiter to grab the tiki torch, take it out to the parking lot and lay it down, and I believe they poured sand on it and the fire went out.

We politely asked them to put out the other tiki torches and proceeded to enjoy the rest of our visit.

Bottom line: This is a nice little place that seems to be good for dinner and conversation, and has an interesting menu if you like game. The wait staff is friendly and solid, and you really feel welcome in this establishment.

Technorati Tags: austin, restaurants, food, happy hour

I have never liked sweet potatoes or yams. I have tried them a variety of ways, including every year at Thanksgiving, but could never get into them.

Tonight I found a way to prepare them that matches my palette: It’s all in the toppings. Instead of going the sweet or bland route, we topped baked yams with hatch green chiles, a small amount of butter, sea salt, pepper, and chile powder.

This is a great way to spice up this super food, which also promotes heart health.

technorati tags: food, cooking, recipes, health, heart