Austin ModHouse

The winter Kat likes to stay indoors and cook. When she does, it's an all day experience. I come by once an hour to gather up the dirty pots and pans, and clean up behind her tornado of tasty food makings. She'll carefully follow a recipe exactly. This often takes a substantial amount of time..

The real prize was the Kumquat Tart. She's enjoyed a successful fall and winter harvest from the garden this year. The bounty of tomato, leeks and kumquat has been impressive. We've still not had a hard freeze this winter, the home grown produce has been appreciated.

I'm still chipping away at the glut of leftover fancy cheeses from the holidays. This over the top mushroom quiche I made knocked that cheese pile down a bit.  

If you don't live in Austin, you may have a different grocery shopping experience. Some of the best beer bars in town are located in the middle  of the grocery store. It's a real treat to run to the store to grab a few things. We gather the items from our shopping list, then take an IPA break. It's a good life.  

BIBIMBAP: 

Friends invited us over for a sake tasting and bibimbap meal.  

These heavy stone bowls are key to successful bibimbap. The only issue we discovered was that not all burners heated the same. Some didn't get hot enough to create the crunchy rice we crave.  

It was delicious either way.  

Kat was blessed with a double yolk and a generous amount of crunchy rice. She shared her crunchy rice with me :-)

A nice selection of banchan (below). 

We helped judge a blind IPA tasting battle. The winner was: Boulevard: The Calling IPA 

We met some friends to share the Searsucker all night Sunday HH. They denied us the use of the large sofas and coffee tables, the experience was not as great. I prefer the casual family style of the sofas. The food and IPA was still good and affordable.