Red Hot Brownies

I invented a fabulous recipe the other day. One box Ghirardelli Brownie Mix, made to specifications. Add 1 tablespoon dried red pepper to the mix. Bake as directed.

This is a tasty treat -- the pepper adds a zing to the chocolate that is hard to beat.

Food Tours

We're visiting New York soon, and as part of that trip we're doing a food tour of the Meat Packing district. It got me thinking -- Austin is a great place for food tourism (I take visitors to both Central Market and the downtown Whole Foods), but we don't seem to have a food walking tour. (Ok, ok, so Austin's not the friendliest walking city, but still....)

So if someone was to start a food walking tour of Austin, where would you take it? Here are my thoughts:

Downtown:
Whole Foods
Downtown Farmer's Market?
IronWorks BBQ
Manuel's

I'm thinking there could also be one of the South Congress area, and perhaps of many of the ethnic restaurants in the North Lamar area. Any other ideas?

Undercover Bridesmaid

I went to the wedding of a friend this weekend. The wedding was lovely, but what I particularly want to point out one of the ways she simplified her wedding to suit her Quaker values. Quakers don't have ministers at their service, so you can imagine that a bunch of attendents in matching dresses would be a bit gauche. Instead of having attendents, her would-be bridesmaids dubbed themselves a variety of names ("faux bridesmaids", "not-a-bridesmaid", and probably the best "undercover bridesmaid") and we took on many of the traditional duties, but without the expensive dress and flowers: fielding panicked phone calls from the bride, throwing a shower tea, helping her dress, etc. I have to say -- it was lovely and I recommend it to anyone looking for a way to simplify their wedding.