Austin, Texas: "I Hate Tacos...Said No Juan Ever"

                 My coworker/fellow foodie friend and I dragged our boyfriends out to Texas and promised them great music, food, and a laid back atmosphere, and Austin delivered.

Our trip to Austin wouldn't be complete if we hadn't waited over three hours for this.

Franklin BBQ's Brisket, Sausage, Turkey, Pulled Pork, Ribs, Beans, Potato Salad, Slaw, Pickles, Onions, and White Bread

Franklin Barbecue opens at 11am and stays open until they sell out. We arrived around 9:45am and already had dozens of people lined up in front of us. Good thing we brought Sangria...

The Only Things I Wait In Line For Are Food And Music 

It truly was the best BBQ I have ever had in my life. We ordered everything on the menu but the brisket stands out and has the best flavor of any meat I've ever had. Smoky, sweet, melt in your mouth beef...I dream about it at night

Franklin Barbecue

We used the site Homeaway and found a really cute purple cottage to stay in right off South Congress. I personally love the SOCO area and would stay there again...the best part was that we were down the street from La Mexicana Bakery. 

La Mexicana Bakery:Open 24hrs

This place is so authentic you will forget you're in a first world country. We went for breakfast and I got three different tacos, all about a buck fifty each! I liked the egg and potato a lot but my favorite were the Migas tacos because I've never had them before. Migas means "crumbs" in English and they are basically just scrambled eggs with strips of tortilla in them, but the tortillas are not hard, they have more of a mealy texture when mixed with the eggs, you have to try one!

Authentic Breakfast Tacos From La Mexicana Bakery

When I'm anywhere south of Delaware I crave that down home comfort food, fried chicken is the ultimate quencher and Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken did not disappoint, it was super flaky with just the right amount of spice on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside, I wish I had a drumstick in my hand right now. 

Gus's Fried Chicken

Now since pecans and Texas go hand in hand ya'll, you know we couldn't leave without some pie

Pecan Pie

Now food is not the ONLY reason we ventured out to Texas. I am proud to cross Austin City Limits Music Fest off my bucket list. 

Zilker Park ACL Entrance

Zilker park is the perfect venue, while waiting for Pearl Jam to come on we could listen to Lorde, and look over at the Calvin Harris stage and it's crazy alien light show.

Main Stage at ACL with Austin Skyline

Ok that's enough of that, back to the food, BUTTER COFFEE to be exact. 

Follow the Butter Brick Road

Picnik Austin is the kind of place you wish you had the guts to open yourself. It's literally a shipping container made into a cafe with all Paleo drinks and treats. I loved my coffee with butter and coconut oil, as well as paleo coconut chocolate chip cookies but they get pretty creative with drinks, adding mint and coco.

Diana And I Wishing We Lived In This Box

Keeping on that healthy trend, we found a really yummy vegetarian brunch place called Bouldin Creek. They are dealers in caffine, the best veggie burger in the world, and a Vegan "V-Lux" Salad (fresh basil, diced apple, chopped pecans, orange-marinated shredded raw beets, red onion, carrots, sunflower sprouts and locally grown tomatoes on a bed of mixed greens with ginger miso dressing!)

Veggie Royale: homemade veggie burger patty served on grilled ciabatta bread with green leaf, red onion, local tomatoes with homemade chipotle-pecan pesto

Here is the group on a rooftop bar on Sixth Street AKA Dirty 6. Every time I walked into one of the bars, I found myself saying "wow this is so big" and then I remembered I was in Texas and everything is bigger in Texas, especially compared to a crowded NYC bar. 

6 on 6th

Oh and did I mention Geoff Stults sat next to me on the flight? He was going for ACL too, go watch the Netflix movie called Life Happens, he was so cute in it...He is really cute in real life too! 

Airplane Selfie with Geoff Stults

Bye Bye for now, love your Foodie Friends! 

Delectable Delicata

This Fall I found my favorite squash, Delicata. how could I not have noticed it before? It's abundant in Trader Joe's, local farmer's markets, and Pinterest has a bunch of recipes!

I love Beard and Bonnet's Miso and Red Curry Glazed Delicata Squash Fries and make them all the time. It's great that you can keep the skin on the Squash and just cut them like you would regular fries. If you have the patience to fish out the seeds they can be roasted for a toasty snack. I just happened to have both fresh Miso and Red Curry in the kitchen from Japanese and Thai recipes I was trying out but you can get these both at any Asian market. The two ingredients are such a delicious flavor combination I wouldn't change the recipe, the only thing I don't bother with is heating the pan in the oven first as instructed, and I put the oven at 450degrees the whole time.

Red Curry Miso Glazed Delicata Squash
This can be an app or a side for 2-4 people


Ingredients:

• 2 small delicata squashes; stem cut off, cut in half, seeds and strings removed, formed into fries
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup white miso
• 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
• Juice of half of 1 large lemon
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional) 
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 450degrees
• In a large mixing bowl combine olive oil, white miso, red curry paste, and lemon juice. Mix with a whisk or fork to combine. Add the squash fries to the bowl and gently toss the squash in the sauce with your hands making sure that all of the squash is covered. 
• Arrange the fries in an even layer on a large rimmed baking sheet (you don't have to grease it but you can foil it if you want), place the pan in the oven.
• Bake the fries for 20-35 minutes depending on the thickness of your fries, flipping the fries over once during cook time with a spatula or individually using tongs.
• Garnish with cilantro and red chile flakes.
• Enjoy!