So you’ve heard that I crave Thai food in the warmer months.  Well, I crave Mexican food even more, and here’s the proof…

Yesterday we got out for lunch at Taqueria del Sol with but one goal in mind: Drink margaritas on the patio in the beautiful spring-like weather!

Well, it ended up only getting to around 62 degrees out when we left for lunch, so instead of sitting outside with a pitcher of margaritas for a few hours like we intended, we decided to grab a quick bite and just one drink then walk around Decatur for a while before stopping in somewhere else.

We always start with the chips and guac at Taqueria del Sol, it’s the perfect consistency and always full of ripe chunky avocado and juicy tomatoes. The house margaritas are never too sour and are always deceptively strong!

Jeff got his usual beef enchilada with red sauce, he usually gets two but he got some tacos to share with me instead.

Two fish tacos are my usual. They are lightly fried, never greasy, and come with more super-hot jalapenos than most people can handle and a cooling lime cilantro aioli. My lips are always swollen and burning when I eat these!

Jeff got another fish taco and one of their featured “special” tacos, the Al Pastor. It tasted like vinegary pulled pork barbecue topped with a limey tomatillo salsa.

After that we did some window shopping and walking and inevitably ended up at Leon’s. I love that their bar is open to the sunny patio, it’s flooded with natural light and cool breezes. I got a Mikkeller Limoncello beer which was very herbal and zesty, it had that oily feel in the mouth that a citrusy beer gives but without feeling like you’ve bitten off a mouthful of chapstick. Very refreshing, I would order this again for sure.

And today, we essentially repeated yesterday’s margarita celebration, but with more vigor!

Jeff’s youngest brother Bryan and his girlfriend Caitlin met us for lunch at Raging Burrito. They have the largest outdoor patio in all of Decatur—perfect margarita conditions!

We got a pitcher of texas style margaritas which have a higher grade tequila plus orange juice to split between Jeff and I. Bryan was being a gentleman and not drinking since Caitlin had to drive.

So for the second day in a row we chomped down on delicious Mexican food for lunch. I had two veggie-stuffed tacos with rice and beans and Jeff got a monster quesadilla…really, that’s what it’s called.

So, yeah…I just had heavy Mexican food and margaritas for two days in a row now and I feel great about it! It’s not like I’m gonna eat this way all spring and summer or anything.

I think it’s very healthy to allow myself to indulge in this new pleasure of seasonal food and fresh drinks in the sunshine while it’s still comfortable enough outside to do it. Once true summer rolls around I’ll be too sweaty and sluggish to eat such heavy food in the oppressive direct sunlight and chug a pitcher of alcohol in a daze as the sun further bakes my hot brain.

See? It’s all about balance. I haven’t had a tomato in all of winter because I know that they are just not worth it while they’re out of season, watered-down and expensive in spite of it. And a margarita and quesadilla will be just as unappealing in hot-as-h311 august as it was in the freezing cold of december.

This pleasure has its place, and I’m getting my full joy of it now while it’s still enjoyable.

Are there any favorite foods that you only enjoy at special times?

February 27, 2011 Alayna Discussion 6 comments

I have been trying for over a year now to make Jeff some oats and honey flavored granola bars from scratch. Every time something goes wrong; I either burn them, they never bake in the middle, or they just fall apart.

This time, they just fell apart.

It was ok though! I tasted the oat crumbles and was completely in love with it as an unintentional granola.

Lemme show you what I did and what I came out with…

For the almond butter and honey oat granola I used:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Start by toasting the oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring almost continuously so that nothing burns.

Microwave almond butter and honey together in a bowl for 40 seconds, stir, then heat for another 10 seconds and stir again.  Pour this over the toasted oats in a large bowl and mix together completely.

Line a loaf pan with wax paper and pour the mixture in.

Press mixture firmly into the loaf pan. I used the bottom of a drinking glass to really smash it down into the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

At this point I wanted to get it out of the hot pan so it wouldn’t continue to cook the bottom and edges, so I pulled it out and placed it on a cooling rack.

You can see that it started to crack and crumble immediately. I tasted a corner and it was really yummy though, so granola it is!

Here it is cooled and crumbled up, ready to top yogurt, cereal, ice cream, whatever…

I had some this morning over strawberry yogurt with bananas on top. The combination of the fruity yogurt and the almond-buttery granola reminded me of a classy PB&J sandwich!

I think if I were to make this again I could skip pressing it into a pan (since I’m not aiming to make it into bars) and just crumble it over a sheet pan and bake it for less time, maybe 10 minutes should do it. It’s certainly a very simple granola to make with only four ingredients.

Almond butter and honey oat granola

Super-fast honey oat granola recipe with the rich roasted flavor of almond butter.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: About 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/8 cup honey

Cooking Directions

1. Toast oats and oat bran in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring almost continuously.
2. Microwave honey and almond butter together for 40 seconds, stir, then another 10 seconds.
3. Pour melted almond butter and honey over oats in a large bowl and mix well.
4. Either serve as is or bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees for extra crunchiness.

In your opinion, what makes the perfect granola?

February 26, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 4 comments

I am really loving all this nice weather we’re having in Georgia right now. February is normally the coldest month of the year, but we’ve had temps in the high 60’s for almost 3 whole weeks now. I’m just waiting for the inevitable cold snap to hit and crush all my dreams. 😉

I love it when it’s warm enough that we can walk into Decatur and grab a drink or a bite to eat; it makes me feel like we live in a real city!

One thing I always crave when the temperatures start to rise is spicy food. Mexican and Thai are all I want in the summer, and the heat wave has me craving both already.

I’ve been disappointed in the Thai restaurants in Decatur though, that is until we finally visited Garlic, a relatively new place that we’ve been avoiding like the plague.

First off, they’re in a spot that has had a few failed restaurants in it previously, so for some reason we just assumed that it was equally crappy. Secondly, they advertise $1 sushi between the hours of 5pm and 7pm, which is a surefire way to have me running for the hills. I’m of the opinion that you need to pay a good bit for sushi for it to be any good. It doesn’t have to break your wallet, but $1 is ludicrously low, and that fact left me skeptical of the quality of all their food, not just the sushi.

Well, the other day we wanted Thai and didn’t want to go very far for it. Since we already knew we weren’t that into the other Thai places near by, we figured we’d at least go to Garlic once so we could confirm our unfounded bias that it must be awful and never have to wonder about it again.

Well, it turns out we were wrong and Garlic was oh-so-right!

We started off with two thai iced teas and this plate of barbecued eel for an appetizer.

It was so good dripping in eel sauce and set atop both fresh and grilled veggies. It’s just one of the many tapas style items they offer. We were also eyeing the fried lotus root chips, one for next time!

Jeff got red curry with pork. This is his “litmus” dish for Thai food; if the red curry is good, it’s all good. And it was good!

It was lightly sweet and creamy with a creeping heat in the back of the throat. The best thing though was that it had a sourness to it that was much more authentic-tasting than typical Americanized curries which are always just cloyingly sweet.

I got a green curry with fried tofu that was out-of-this-world! The veggies were cooked but still snappy, the tofu tasted beany rather than bland, the sauce was rich and plentiful, and the frizzle-fried basil was so fresh and green-tasting.

One of the better curries I’ve ever had.

We didn’t try any sushi, but with the quality of their other offerings I’d be willing to give it a go now.

I haven’t made Thai curry at home in quite a while, whereas it used to be one of my weekly meals. Nope, I don’t only cook Japanese food, that’s just what I gravitate towards most often.

I think it’s time to bring back the curry, or at least walk up to Garlic more often and order some of theirs since we were so wrong about it.

Do you like Thai food? What is your favorite Thai dish?

February 25, 2011 Alayna Discussion 4 comments