My favorite place & sautéed duck breast
This past weekend some friends of mine, my parents, and I went down to my favorite little spot in Texas. When my mom was in high school my grandparents bought and fixed up a house down on the bay. Since then it has been a cherished place in my family and I have countless memories of family, friends in high school and college enjoying our time on the bay and the memories just keep coming. 
The bay in 1973, when my grandparents bought it.
This was taken this past weekend. There is so much to do at the bay, we wakeboard and ski, tube, hang out on the beach, drink many adult beverages, and this past weekend we did some fishing and duck hunting.
After spending an afternoon hanging out on the beach, the guys decided it was time for duck hunting. There is a lot that goes into duck hunting at the bay, you have to scout out a good spot, set up decoys and blinds and wait and wait and wait for the birds to fly. I had never been duck hunting and neither had my two girlfriends, so with lots of convincing that we wouldn’t get in the way the boys agreed to let us tag along (something I think they now regret!) So we(the boys) packed up the gear and we were off in the boat to find a spot to do some hunting.
Here’s Brit and me in our blind! Let me tell you, it was muddy! We were sinking in the mud left and right, falling all over each other and making quite a mess while the boys were trying to set up. The most skeptical about this hunting extravaganza was my friend, Meghan. Her husband assured her that she would be fine, and wouldn’t get that dirty.
He was wrong…
Once we all got situated it wasn’t long until we were laying down and the boys were getting all set to shoot.
Brittani’s husband John and their new baby, Pipin!
Eric’s all ready…
The boys shot 4 ducks real quickly, so we decided to pack it up and go back to the house for some happy hour, a staple at the bay. Many beverages were consumed before we decided to start cooking dinner. We decided we should grill up the ducks that the boys shot in addition to the delicious pork tenderloin that was already planned. By this point we were having so much fun that no more pictures were taken, maybe next time. Blame it on the al al al al alcohol.
Although I didn’t take any pictures, I do want to share this amazing Sautéed Duck breast with Cherry Glaze for your next duck hunt!
For the duck: score the skin of the duck breast, be careful not to cut into the flesh. Then season the duck breast with S&P and carefully place the breast skin side down in a pan, medium to low heat to render and crisp the fatty skin. You won’t need any extra oil, as the fat from the skin works great. Baste the duck with its own fat, cooking slowly until internal temp is 130-135. Flip over about 1 minute before its done.
For the sauce: you’ll need 1/4 cup dried cherries, 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, 2 Tbsp water, S&P, 6 oz veal or duck stock(you can also use water). In a dry sauté pan add sugar and water to moisten, heat and wait for most of the water to evaporate. Once it’s at an amber color add the red wine vinegar and give it a swirl. Add the cherries and let it reduce a touch. Add the stock and let it reduce to a syrup consistency.
Slice up your breast and serve with the sauce and any sides you fancy!
I had such a blast this weekend and can’t wait to go back. I hope you had a great weekend too, happy eating!
Peach Crisp in Fredericksburg
When I was about seven years old my grandparents moved from the big city (Houston) to a small German town in Texas, called Fredericksburg. They bought a lot of land with a little shack on it and my grandpa, being the engineer that he is, drew up some blueprints and began building his and my grandma’s dream house. For many years now Fredericksburg has been a cherished place for my family.
This past weekend my mom, her oldest sister Stephanie, and my cousin Frank headed from Houston to Fredericksburg for a little getaway weekend. Being that Austin is so close to Fredericksburg, only about an hour and a half drive, I decided to head on over Saturday afternoon and spend the night with them.
We spent the evening watching football, playing chicken foot, drinking some wine and relaxing.
If you don’t know, Fredericksburg peaches are DELICIOUS! They are sweet and juicy and down right perfect. So with some of Grandma’s peaches we decided to bake up a scrumptious peach crisp.
What you’ll need: 5 fresh peaches, sliced, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 a stick of softened butter, 1/2 orange, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup pecans chopped.
Mix together the peaches, orange juice, a touch of the brown sugar and vanilla together and add to a small cast iron skillet.
In a mixing bowl add your dry ingredients, this is going to be reserved for the “crisp”
Then with a spoon add in the softened butter and mix well.
Chop up the pecans and add them to your dry ingredients. We used fresh pecans from Grandma and Grandpa’s pecan trees and beat them up with a mallet. Don’t mind my un-manicured hands…
Now start sprinkling the dry mixture over the top of the peaches.
Once it is all topped, cover the skillet with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Then remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until the topping is crisp and brown.
Let it rest for just a few minutes. Top it with some whip cream or ice cream of just eat it as is, just be sure to serve it warm. It is so delicious and perfect for a fall desert. Mmmmm Mmmmm
Make this soon, you’ll be glad you did!
Elizabeth Street Café
I have been hearing about Elizabeth Street Café since day one of moving to Austin. Elizabeth St. Cafe serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and has an in-house bakery that makes classic French pastries and desserts. The small French Vietnamese café seemed charming and with a name like that how could I resist? So today for lunch I packed up my camera and headed down to South Austin to try it out.
Although parking can be very sparse in South Austin, I held tight to my mom’s mantra of “there’s always room up front” and sure enough I scored a perfect spot right outside the restaurant. When I walked in my first thought was that this little café is exactly the type of place that could be featured in a rom-com chick flick movie. It’s stinkin’ adorable! And led by Chefs Larry McGuire and Tommy Mooreman I knew I was in for a treat.
I was greeted enthusiastically by the hostess and she informed me that I could grab a table inside, sit up on their countertop bar but that outside would be a few minutes. Since I was by myself I didn’t want to take up a table, so I hopped up onto a bar stool and started pouring over the menu.
I immediately knew that I wanted to try more than one thing, everything just looked so intriguing. The menu features a slew of options from pho, báhn mì, bún, specialty items and spring rolls. They also have a wide range of beverages from beer and wine to saké, but since I was dining alone and it was early afternoon, I stuck with my H2O.
A sucker for a good spring roll I opted to start off with the BBQ pork roll.
BBQ Pork, Shredded Carrot, Daikon, Basil, and Mint all wrapped up in Rice paper, these babies were yummy. They came with three dipping sauces; a Sweet Chili Vinegar, Classic Peanut Sauce, and my personal favorite the Ginger & Jalapeño.
mmm mmm goodness gracious
What came next was equally delicious. Eyeing the passing dishes going by me I decided to go with a bún dish. Bun (pronounced “boon”) is a great, cooler alternative to pho – it has the same thin rice noodles, fresh vegetables, but no boiling hot broth. It’s basically like a rice salad, and with grilled meat on top. I chose the Grilled McAllen Ranch Flank Steak with rice noodles, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber, carrot, peanut, jalapeño, and radish. Topping it off with a Nuoc Cham, a vinegar fish sauce dressing that was delicious.
I was worried for a wee minute about the chop sticks, but accepting the challenge they weren’t too hard to use and I gobbled the salad right up.
Even though it was like pulling teeth to get my waitress interested in helping me, although who could blame her; I was a girl sitting by herself taking pictures of her food, I loved Elizabeth Street Café and will definitely be back. Bravo Chefs Larry and Tommy!
So with my leftovers and cappuccino in tow, I’m headed off to my next culinary adventure.
