Snacking On: Carrot Cake Ice Cream

I love it when a random trip to a store results in a new-favorite-something. Like Lick's carrot cake ice cream I picked out at in.gredients last week. Such a perfect sweet treat for that in between summer and fall time in Austin. Just plain goodness.

They also sell a seasonal butternut squash ice cream that I need in my future...

Lick // 2032 South Lamar // ATX, 78704

Also available to buy at Quickie Pickie and the Flag Store.

This and That

Love this robin print.

Twig salad server set.

What does 200 calories look like?

I signed up for Miranda July's email project.

Twenty books to read before the movies come out.

This. Is. Everything.

(Image via Pinterest)

Tomato and Zucchini Gratin

Summer, where did you go? You technically ended this past weekend, but it just got breezy and beautiful in Austin. It's still in the 90s. You're doing a really poor job of convincing me that it's autumn actually. So. This side tastes like a protest to the end of you. Which is perfect because until I'm cozily wearing that orange polka-dot sweater I bought at Madewell on impulse even though it was nearing one hundred degrees outside I refuse to act like you're gone.

Tomato and Zucchini Gratin
Serves 4

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced

Mix Panko, Parmesan, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in bowl and season with salt and pepper. Heat the rest of the olive oil in ovenproof skillet over medium heat, and add tomato slices. Cook, turning once or twice, for about 5 minutes. Layer zucchini slices and then Panko mix on top of tomatoes, then bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

(Adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2013)

Etsy Finds

Now that our wedding is long behind us, and all the purposeful buying of tags and favors and signs and cards is done, I can finally go back to using Etsy for what it's really for: finding awesome things I totally don't need but have to have. Like all of this:

Gold triangle necklace.

Adorable birthday card.

Gorgeous handmade shoes.

Vintage French copper pans.

(All images from Etsy store sites)

Spinach Pasta Dough

You should make spinach pasta dough at least once in your life. Why? The gorgeous color! 

Right after you pour the blended spinach and egg mixture on top of the flour, it looks like a pretty, fuzzy, vibrant green mold is growing on top of a white-sand beach. Seriously. I'm not crazy. I know that sounds like crazy-person talk, but look:

Spinach and egg mixture, pre-blending.

Then blended and poured on top of flour.

Gorgeous, moldy green sand dunes! I love it.

Spinach Pasta Dough
Makes about 1 pound

8 ounces fresh spinach
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed and for redusting
1/2 teaspoon salt

Special equipment: Pasta maker and blender

-Steam spinach for 2 minutes until softened. Let cool and then squeeze out liquid with paper towels.
-Puree spinach in your blender (or food processor). Add eggs and yolk to spinach mixture and blend to combine.
-Combine spinach/egg mixture, all of the flour, and salt in your stand-up mixer bowl. Mix 30 to 45 seconds with flat beater on low speed. Then replace flat beater with dough hook and knead on level 2 for 2 minutes. Remove and then hand-knead for 2 more minutes. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
-Divide dough into 6 to 8 pieces, about 1 centimeter thick. Flatten each piece and then feed through pasta roller attachment, refolding and feeding through 3 or 4 times at setting 2 until the dough is smooth and the width of the roller. Redust dough with flour as needed. Increase roller setting to 3, and continue refolding and feeding dough through the rollers 2 more times to flatten further. Repeat at settings 4 and 5.
-Replace pasta roller attachment with fettuccine or spaghetti attachment and feed your beautifully green pasta sheets through. Or use to make some sort of tasty ravioli. Or a green lasagna! Your call.

(Adapted from a recipe in the KitchenAid booklet and also one from Martha Stewart)

Diner en Blanc

Has anyone heard of Diner en Blanc? Thousands of people all dressed in white meet in a recently disclosed location that has been kept secret and have a picnic. I have had a few FB friends post about going in the past month (in Philly and NYC), and I want to go to there! It seems so old-timey and weird and elegant. It's held all over the world and in thirteen cities in the US, and I'm thinking Austin should be next.

New York

Paris

(Photos from Gothamist and the New York Times)

HBD Dinner at Bufalina

This last weekend was my birthday, and a group of friends and I headed to Bufalina for some delicious Neopolitan-style pizzas. Chris and I got the fresca with prosciutto, arugula, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and parmesan, and also the margherita. (We excitedly over-ordered for the two of us and ended up taking almost half of each home.) The restaurant has a sort of low-key, modern vibe to it with its communal picnic tables and white wood-fired oven and was definitely a great place to bring a bunch of friends for a cozy b-day dinner. Definitely putting this place on my Revisit List. 

Bufalina // 1519 East Cesar Chavez // ATX, 78702

 Fresca pizza

Cab franc

InstaMax photos

Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

Every time I make this sauce to serve with spaghetti or chicken, I wonder why it's been so long since the last time I whipped it together. It's that good. And takes less than 10 minutes. So: WIN.

Last night we had it with homemade spinach spaghetti, and yep-po! Delicious. And also Christmas-y in appearance, which is always a plus.

Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Serves 2

1/2 tablespoon butter
1 large shallot, minced
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil (or substitute with fresh, if you didn't somehow manage to kill the basil plant your mother gave you)

-Sauté shallot in butter for 1 minute.
-Add whipping cream, white wine, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil. Bring to boil. Cook 6 minutes or until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.
-Season with salt and pepper to taste.
-Serve with pasta of your choice or over chicken.

Obsessed With: Welcome to Night Vale Podcast

Have you heard of the sci-fi podcast Welcome to Night Vale? I read about it in the New York Times, and then listened to three episodes in a row right after. And then I started obsessively googling and clicking on links to articles and fan art and transcripts. Can't stop, won't stop. One of the co-creators did an interview with NPR and said this, which pretty much sums up my first impressions of what the show is all about:

I've always been fascinated by conspiracy theories. And also, to a lesser extent fascinated by the Southwest desert. Fascinating things probably happen there on a regular basis. So I came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.

So think David Lynch meets Eerie, Indiana meets Welles's The War of the Worlds. So far, I'm hooked.

Here's cool map of Night Vale fan Melissa Dalton made (via i09):

And other fan art collections can be found here and here.

This and That

Did Shakespeare really do it?

Cacoon hanging chair.

Perfect mug to keep your coffee warm all fall.

Twenty-five crazy creative (and free!) fonts.

Maybe new J. D. Salinger books coming out? Yes, please!

DIY spray painting vinyl desk chair tutorial. Love.

An interview with Lisa Frank. So mysterious!

(Image via Style Sight)

Dinner at Barlata

When I lived in Brooklyn, there was this sort of divey tapas place two blocks from my apartment that was perfect for an after-work drink and snack. They had exceptional cocktails and delicious chorizo. So I was excited when Barlata opened in Austin a few months ago, and we finally had time to eat there last night. It's not as divey as my favorite Brooklyn tapas place (and by divey, I mean an old building, comfy chairs, you could sit there for hours and no one would care), but the food was pretty amazing. Chris and I shared the shrimp with garlic and adobo sauce, Catalan toast with serrano ham, and the paella Barlata with saffron rice, chicken chorizo, mussels, and shrimp. I also got to add two more wines to our Spanish wine map we've been keeping: whites from Rias Baixas and Somontano.