Links: Food

Recipes and techniques I want to try:

• Pan-Crisped Potatoes (from Mark Bittman at the NY Times)
• Roasted chicken breast (cooked with two pans - from The Cooking Loft on FoodTV)
• While I'm mentioning The Cooking Loft, I also want to try her Mac & Cheese.
• Chicken & Green Sauce (with tomatillos - this is more concept than receipe - found via Mario Batali)
• Enchiladas Suizas (Rick Baylee recipe, from Sur La Table; now that I know I can get what looks to be authentic creama at HEB, I should try this one)
• Lava Cookies (like molten chocolate cakes)
• Lasagna rolls from Giada on Food TV. I tried these once before and liked it overall. I think I want to review how America's Test Kitchen did manicotti recently and combine that technique with the flavors in this dish. Might work (or might not).
• Piquillo Pepper Pesto from Bobby Flay for HGTV Dream Home (skip to middle of page). Matt used this recipe as a jumping-off-point for our a sauce for our Valentines's Day dinner. He substituted Anaheim peppers, and it was delicious.
  

I can't get a link to show up, alas, but we are taking a class on Thursday at Central Market. It's another Tex-Mex class (we don't really need these for technique anymore, but it's a fun date-night for us). This one will be: Tacos al Pastor, Carnitas, Posole con Puerco, Refried Beans, Guacamole & Salsa, and Mexican Pralines. YUM!

Restaurants:

• So happy that Saccones has re-opened in our part of Austin (we've been driving out to Round Rock since the old location burned). Our verdict (after visting on Thursday - during their "soft open" stage) is that the oven isn't quite hot enough and staff not fully trained yet. But, my mouth was happy as I bit into our meatball-and-pepperoni pie. The new restaurant, located just south of Anderson Mill on 620, looks more high class than the old 183 location (nicer looking finishes, not many Jersey-themed-items or license plates). Not sure if that's good or bad, though. :)
• Continuing to enjoy Cupprimo. I admit I haven't gone all-out on the cupcake fad (or has it passed out of fad status by now?). But, among the places I've tried, Cupprimo is the best. Their carrot cake (special on Saturdays) is excellent -- good cream cheese frosting that's not super-sweet.