Beans! Beans! They Make A Great Soup!

I love soups! They are as easy as throwing whatever you like in a pot and adding broth! Now that the weather is warming up, a minestrone style soup like this one feels great as the evening cools off.

This recipe makes quite a few servings (I’m not quite sure how many yet, we’ve only had three bowls, but we’ve hardly made a dent!), so it’s great to make on the weekend and revisit during the week when you are busy.

1 cup navy beans

1 cup pinto beans
6-8 cups water (6-8 cups more for bean prep)
6 cups vegetable broth
5 small carrots, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup mini pasta (I used macaroni, but anything small works great)
1 ½ cup spinach (if it’s not in season, just use frozen)
fresh basil, to taste
parmesan, grated (optional)

Prep your beans. I prefer dry beans, because I can control the amount of sodium in the dish and they lack preservatives. Quick soak both bean types together in 6-8 cups of water. Boil for 2 min, and then set aside covered for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans. Boil beans in 6-8 cups of water for 1 ½ - 2 hours.

Meanwhile, dice carrots and onion. When there are about 15 minutes left before the beans are done, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and bay leaf and cook for one minute. Throw in onions, carrots, and salt and pepper to taste. Then sauté until they develop a nice brown color, which is why we are cooking them separately to begin with.

Mix veggies and broth into beans. With seven minutes left stir in pasta. In the last minute, stir in spinach until wilted. Serve and top with basil and parmesan (optional).

Easy right? Enjoy!

Park Motel Cafe

Clean, simple flavors. Light but filling. Quiet, out of the way. Good espresso.

I love breakfast food as much as Ron Swanson loves, well, breakfast food. Pancakes, omelets, waffles, crepes, yogurt covered fruit, scrambled eggs, breakfast burritos, crab cake eggs benedict: you name it, I ravenously devour it. So when I saw a LivingSocial deal specifically for breakfast, I nabbed it. And last weekend, my husband and I went to sate our hunger before the rodeo.

If it weren’t for the GPS, the café would be difficult to find. The address is listed as “Broadway,” but it is closer to Avenue B, which runs parallel between E Mulberry and Tuleta. If you are driving on Broadway, it is behind the Cheever Books, where if you are lucky, you will see the owner doing push-ups while smoking out front. Pass the book store, and drive all the way to the back of the complex. The Park Motel Café is nestled in the back.

The café was quiet when we entered, which I thoroughly enjoyed, because I don’t like too many stimuli early in the morning. We ordered our food at the counter, and then chose one of the few tables in the cozy shop. My husband’s coffee came out promptly, and he nursed it while we waited for our food. The two hardiest vegetarian options on the menu are the taquini and the panini, and they are both customizable.

The panini is pretty self explanatory, a grilled sandwich with an egg and up to four veggies. The taquini, is more or less a panini with tortillas instead of bread, which makes for a much lighter sandwich. My taquini was veggie filled and filling, but it didn’t leave me feeling weighted down. It was seasoned with just salt and pepper, simple but flavorful. My husband felt the same way about his panini.

Recommendation: Yes, for something simple, quiet, and out of the way.

Amazing Cocktails, Sub-Par Food

The Esquire

Food: skip it

Drinks: amazing!
Service: good
Atmosphere: cozy

I have to say, my expectations for this joint were low. It’s on the Riverwalk, which should mean that it’s overpriced and mediocre. But my husband’s friend was in town, and he wanted to go somewhere downtown, and my husband wanted to try some of The Esquire’s famed cocktails, so I was out-voted.

The bar look as if it hasn’t been remodeled since it opened in 1933, but for them, it’s a bragging point. The tin ceiling, the old wood bar, the tile floor, the bar tenders’ dapper attire, and the dim exposed light bulbs all gave the authentic ambience of a bygone era. One narrow path leads from the bar’s E Commerce Street entrance to its Riverwalk entrance. On one side is the long, sturdy, wood bar, and on the other is a row of intimate booths. The backs of the booths rise up high, like horse blinders, so each one feels like its own restaurant. This privacy makes The Esquire a great choice for an intimate date.

The service is a little awkward: you must order your food at the bar. However, once we ordered, service was prompt, courteous, and attentive.

When I looked at the menu, I noticed that there are no vegetarian options on their standard menu nor on their winter menu (but I assume that as the seasonal menu changes, vegetarian items may be added). Well, there is grilled cheese and salad, but I just can’t bring myself to pay for someone else to make me a grilled cheese or a salad, no matter how good. The Valentine’s Day menu, which included a beet risotto (yum!), was advertized on the table, but they wouldn’t let me order it because it wasn’t Valentine’s Day. Major bummer. I hate getting forced into eating seafood. Instead, I ordered the Maque Choux, spicy battered shrimp over creamed corn. The heat in the batter was nice, and the shrimp were well cooked. However, the corn tasted as if it came out of a can – if it didn’t, I want to know where they found uniformly colored corn that sweet in February. Unfortunately, the questionable corn made up most of the dish, and the cream softened the batter.

The meat-eater says:  I thoroughly enjoyed my cheesy, spicy sirloin burger, and my friend enjoyed his tacos con papas (which reportedly had meat in them, even though it is not mentioned on the menu description) and chalupitas.

After dinner, we ordered cocktails: the Doxycycline, Only the Besh, and Smokey Tiny Dancer. The last two were definitely the stand-outs (the doxycycline was a bit too mediciney, which is likely how it got its name). Only the Besh was creamy and spicy, yum! And Smokey Tiny Dancer tasted just like it sounds, smokey. Desserts accompanied the cocktails. The snickerdoodle ice-cream sandwich was good, but the bread pudding was amazing.

Recommendation: Only cocktails and desserts. Skip the entrees.

UPDATE, 2/21:
I received a message from the chef regarding the corn and questionably vegetarian tacos:

"I appreciate the time you took to give us a review, it seems as though you questioned a couple food items and I just wanted to clear them up for you. The corn comes from a produce purveyor Unifresh and it comes on the stalk... we add Texas honey to it to give it the sweetness that it might lack during this time of year. Not all of the corn is nice and some of it simply turns into corn stock. As for tacos they most definetly are vegetarian and we take that seriously. There was not and will never be meat in the tacos unless specified. I hope this helps.
Chef Brooke"

It's nice to know that the veggies are fresh, but the honey just made them taste syrupy, which is why they reminded me of canned corn. Also, it looks like my dining companion was mistaken about the tacos.

Rosarios

Food: varied, lots of veggie options
Service: average
Atmosphere: bright and fun

While we were downtown visiting the Institute of Texan Cultures for Buffalo Soldier day, my husband and I happened upon this restaurant on S Alamo St. Apparently, this place is quite well known, but since we are new in town, so we were lured in mostly by the pink walls and a picture of Frieda Khalo holding a margarita that greeted us at the hostess stand. The restaurant was unusually busy for 3:30, but we were seated right away, which was a sign of the pleasant, efficient service to come.

The comp chips and salsa were great. The chips were hot and fresh and the salsa was smoky. To start we ordered a ½ order of the shrimp nachos, which was large enough to share. The chips had a wonderful texture, like puffy tacos. Each chip had one shrimp strategically placed ontop. The shrimp were grilled, tender, and a little garlicky. Delicious! Each chip was also sprinkled with diced tomatoes, cilantro, and onions and smothered with cheese. Crunchy and flavorful all the way through, these were some of the best nachos I’ve ever had.

These amazing nachos really built up my expectations for the main course; however, I felt a little let down. I had ordered the Enchiladas Mexicanas, corn tortillas filled with queso and covered in enchilada sauce and topped with potatoes and carrots. The fresh cheese filling was delicious, but the carrots and potatoes were really just a garnish and not an integral part of the dish, which was disappointing, because the dish could have used a little more depth of flavor. The enchilada sauce was a little greasy and a little too spicy for me (as evidenced by the sauce left on the side of my plate. The cabbage slaw was citrusy and refreshing at the end of dinner.

My husband had the chile relleno de pescado, and he was surprised at my lukewarm view of my dinner, because he thought his was delicious.

Recommendation: The vegetarian notations and their willingness to make vegetarian alternatives increase the number of options, which is more than most restaurants around here can say. I was a little disappointed, but there are plenty of options for everyone, so check it out.

Freetail Brewing Company

This bar is pretty far out of town for me, but I needed to pick up tickets to next week’s beer and cheese tasting, so I made the trek. The bar isn’t large, but it’s a little impersonal and generic, like chain instead of an intimate, local brewery.

Since we were there, my man and I decided to get drinks and munchies. While perusing the menu, I noticed that it was created with vegetarians in mind. Many items were marked as vegetarian, which as we all know is helpful for setting the mind at ease, because nothing is worse than ordering something only to take a bite and find bacon or whatnot inside.

So we ordered a ½ order of nachos, a rye wit for me, and PirateTail V for him. The drinks came out quickly, which was much appreciated. Belgian inspired, the rye wit is light bodied with rich flavors. I thought it had fruity hints, but the man said it tasted like prosciutto – but I wouldn’t know about that. The PirateTail V was thick and bitter, and my husband thoroughly enjoyed it.

Not long after we got the beers, the nachos came out. First off, I was excited to find nachos that didn’t include bacon, chili, or some other form of meat. Our ½ order of nachos was HUGE, more than enough to share, and they were smothered in black beans and cheese. Jalapenos, sour cream, and guac came on the side. It looked delicious, but once I dug in, I was more than a little disappointed. The nachos were practically tasteless. Even the guac was a little bland. I usually complain about food being too salty, but this plate suffered from a lack of salt. Luckily, the sour cream added tang.

Recommendation: They get points for a veggie friendly menu, and I’ve heard the pizzas are great, but based on the nachos, I can only recommend the beer.

Beet and Carrot Soup

Even though my goal is to find vegetarian friendly restaurants, I really prefer eating at home. When I cook for myself, I know exactly what is in each dish, and there is no worrying whether the rice was cooked in chicken broth or if the grill was cleaned between meat and veggies. When dining out, I usually have to accept that these and other transgressions may happen despite what the restaurant claims. Since I’m a pescetarian for health and environmental reasons, I let these things go, even though I would never cook that way at home, and the only meat in the house is my husband’s lunch meat.

I love fresh veggies, and I love making soups. So, I picked up some yummy looking carrots and beets at the Pearl Farmer’s market this past weekend for a winter veggie soup. Check it out!

Ingredients:

3 medium beets
5 small-medium carrots
Olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
Fresh ginger root
About ½ cup leftover potato fondue (or mashed potatoes)
Vegetable broth
Plain yogurt

Start by roasting your vegetables: wash and peel carrots and cut lengthwise. If they are super thick - like my short, stubby ones - then cut them once more lengthwise. Cut the stems off of the beets and scrub away. Save the greens, you can use them as salad greens or use them in place of collard greens in a recipe. 

Place both on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil (I used about 1 tbs for all the veggies) and salt and pepper to taste. Fold aluminum foil over beets like so:

Roast in oven at 400 degrees until tender (about 20-25 min for carrots and 60 min for beets). Old beets will take longer.

Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a large saucepan (or a dutch oven would be even better, if you have one). Cook onion in pan until translucent. Stir in ginger for 1 minute. Then add beets, carrots, potato goop, and enough broth to cover veggies. Cook up to another 5 minutes to let the flavors blend.

Using an immersion blender, puree soup. Or, if you want to torture yourself, you can transfer the soup 1 cup at a time to a blender.

Ladle into soup bowls and scoop plain yogurt on top to taste. The dark red color makes this perfect for a Valentines dinner. Enjoy!

Game Day Cookies

Instead of bringing the same-old, lame, football shaped cookies from the supermarket to this year’s Super Bowl party, make these awesome sweet and salty, holiday appropriate chocolate and potato chip cookies. In addition to having the flavor of potato chips, these are also an alternative for those cannot enjoy the salty goodness of chocolate and nuts due to allergies.

My man is headed to a Super Bowl party today (unfortunately, I can’t go because of work. Bummer. I was so hoping to cheer against the Patriots). Anyways, I made these cookies for him to take, so that he won’t look like a total freeloader.

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups flour
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter – softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
9 oz chocolate chips
1 ¼ cup crushed potato chips

Yields about 3 dozen cookies

Crush potato chips in a small mixing bowl (I used generic Ruffles, but use whatever you like). Keep crushing more until you have 1 cup crushed. Set aside.

Mix first three ingredients in a small to medium mixing bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and all sugar in a large mixing bowl. If you have an electric mixer, set on medium speed. If not, get ready for a work out! Beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well blended.

Add the flour mixture about 1/3 at a time. Completely blend before adding the next third. Note: If you are hand mixing, you may want to add less at a time.

Stir in chocolate, then potato chips. Keep in mind that add-ins like chocolate chips, potato chips, and vanilla do not affect the chemistry of baking, so you can use as much or as little as you like. Just keep in mind that if you add more than the dough will allow, then the cookies may fall apart.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (or do this earlier if you are super speedy) Scoop out heaping tablespoons of dough and place them about 2 in apart on an ungreased (seriously) baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until lightly brown on top and edges. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for one minute, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. When cool, arrange them on a platter and show off your culinary prowess to your friends.

Or just add potato chips to your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Enjoy!