Lunch: I ate the rest of the tuna noodle casserole for lunch (1 and a third pieces).

Dinner: We ate leftover Chinese food from Asia Cafe.

We ate a big early dinner at Asia Cafe (8650 Spicewood Springs Rd, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 331-5788). We had mustard greens with pork noodle soup, won ton soup, yang zhou fried rice, stir-fried rapa (rapeseed plant), and braise pork belly with preserved vegetables.

Lunch: Busy, busy day - ran a lot of errands (Ikea, Eddie Bauer, Calendar Club, Costco, Relax The Back Store, Crate & Barrel, Restaurant Depot, and Eco-Wise for biodiesel) and ate a quick lunch at Costco around noon. Polish sausage.

Dinner: While (slowly) preparing a meat lasagna (to be baked tomorrow), I made a corn soup, toasted a scallion pancake (cong you bing), and microwaved a beef & potato tamale for dinner.

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What I Ate: January 2, 2010 (Costco)

Lunch: We heated up a couple slices of the leftover Tuna Noodle Casserole before heading off to the Long Center for a Texas Christmas Carol (a holiday variety performance).

Dinner: I grilled chanterelle mushrooms over indirect heat and served it with ostrich meat bacon cheeseburgers.

Happy New Year!

Lunch: Torchy's Tacos in South Austin (4301 William Cannon Dr, Austin, TX 78749 (512)514-0767) where we tried several different tacos.
Green Chili Pork (roasted pork carnitas with green chilis, queso fresco, cilantro, onions, lime and green sauce) - our favorite last time and still my favorite. It's excellent with just a little of the salsa it's served with.

Naughty Santa (grilled shrimp & chorizo, cilantro, avocado, pickled onions & jalapenos, jack cheese, with roblano ranch sauce) - the December special taco - Tina's favorite from this visit. Excellent without any sauce - the flavors compliment each other very well. With sauce, we felt like the sauce was intruding on the main flavors.

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What I Ate: December 31, 2009 (Torchy's Tacos, Me So Hungry Food Truck)

Our second to last What I Ate post of 2009…
Lunch: Tina cooked some Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with the extra meat balls and fish balls that we didn't use for hot pot the previous day.

Dinner: Tina followed my recipe for Tuna Noodle Casserole (more or less) for a lovely dinner with plenty of leftovers.

Lunch: Tired of cleaning the grooves in our hot pot (our hot pot has a non-stick finish, but the interior is ridged like a grill pan so thorough cleaning requires going into each groove), Tina decided to try to put together her own (superior) hot pot with a stainless steel clad pot set on a portable induction cooktop. This worked like a charm, providing her a pot that was easy to clean as well as digital temperature controls.

Dinner: I grilled up bacon cheeseburgers made from ground ostrich meat, three year aged sharp cheddar cheese, and hickory smoked uncured bacon. I also grilled up zucchini. These were excellent, but the ostrich meat was a bit lean for my taste. Tina spread some chopped avocado on and took the burger to the next level. As a meat, ostrich has the texture of lean beef but with less flavor. Overall, it's a fairly mild tasting protein.

Lunch: Tina made an awesome bacon, avocado, and egg sandwich for lunch.

Dinner: We had the last of the Christmas dinner leftovers - prime rib, corn, sauteed fresh spinach, and Yorkshire pudding.

Breakfast: We drove up to IKEA to take advantage of their one day sale on POÄNG chairs ($50 each instead of $90). As part of their holiday deals, we also got free breakfast - some scrambled eggs like substance, potatoes, and two strips of bacon. We split a Greek salad as well.

Lunch: After church, we went over to Chen's Noodle House (8650 Spicewood Springs Rd, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 336-8888‎).

Extremely crispy and flaky cong you bing (scallion pancakes). When I bit into it, I immediately tasted something in the oil that I usually associate with sweet pastries, but I couldn't quite place it. It wasn't sweet - it was savory and had a decent amount of scallions, so I wasn't sure what it was. I remember last time tasting the same flavor (a flavor that I don't normally associate with Chinese food) in their cong you bing, but I didn't find out what it was that time. We asked this time and it turns out they add a tiny bit of butter (which is why it doesn't taste like Chinese food).

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What I Ate: December 27, 2009 (IKEA, Chen's Noodle House)

Lunch: We headed off to the Barton Creek mall for some Day After Christmas Sale shopping and stopped in at Nordstrom Cafe Bistro for lunch. The last several times we ate here, the food has been excellent, but not today. The soup was fine, but the pasta dish was lacking and the pizza was merely okay.

Potato Soup

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What I Ate: December 26, 2009 (Nordstrom Cafe Bistro)