Dinner: I cooked a large (2-1/2 pound) USDA Prime bone-in ribeye steak. Low and slow in the oven at 200°F until the interior was a little over 130°F. Then I finished it on the stove top in a fry pan with half a stick of butter. This piece had the largest spinalis dorsi (the ribeye cap) that I've ever seen. I trimmed the cap off the ribeye and served that to Tina and myself. This is the best steak I've cooked since moving to Texas and one of the better ones I've ever done. I'm especially proud since I previously did steaks only on the grill (which I don't have anymore) and it's been difficult for me to get my steaks to where I like them to be with my indoor cooking equipment.

I sauteed fresh okra pods that I purchased yesterday with a chopped up jalapeno chile in the butter that I used to form the crust on the steak. The beef and the okra together made one of the most satisfying dinners I've had in a while.

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What I Ate: June 29, 2009

Lunch: We went back to The Salt Lick for lunch. This is probably the last time for a while. The food's still good and the environment is a lot of fun, but there are a lot more restaurants in and around Austin to try, so we're going to take a break. The only reason we even went was last Tuesday's episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network.

We weren't surprised that The Salt Lick was featured on an episode about the best barbeque celebrity chef's have had, but we were surprised that Bobby Flay chose it (two chef's chose The Salt Lick) for their Beef Ribs which are only available on Sunday afternoons. On Sundays, we always get the Baby Back Ribs (also a Sunday only special) which we think are the best barbeque at The Salt Lick. So, I made us go back again and order the Beef Ribs.

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What I Ate: June 28, 2009 (The Salt Lick)

Dinner: Tina and I attended a vegetarian Indian cooking class taught by Chaya Rao in her lovely home. Chaya used to be an IT instructor before changing careers and now teaches Indian Cooking (she's been an instructor at Whole Foods and Central Market in the past) as well as running Vegicurean.

I was photographing most of the time and didn't write anything down (Chaya will email the recipes to us later) so hopefully, I'll correctly identify what I ate. (If anyone else who was at the class reads this and can put in there two cents, I'd appreciate it!) Chaya started off the dinner by showing us how to make these deep fried potato appetizers. Seasoned Yukon Gold potatoes were riced, seasoned, rolled into balls, then dipped into a batter of chickpea flour, rice flour, salt, and baking powder before being fried. They were soft and fluffy and incredibly flavorful. She served them with a simple (but incredibly flavored) carrot salad and two chutneys she prepared beforehand.

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What I Ate: June 27, 2009 (Chaya's Indian Cooking Class)

Lunch: Chicken Marsala, Capellini, and Okra

Dinner: We went to the Luling Watermelon Thump and had street food for dinner. It was pretty hot out there so we started off with a large serving of shaved ice (with watermelon and strawberry syrup) followed by some pork rinds (we couldn't resist - Tina and I had been craving chicharrones for the last week). On our way out of the festival, we passed a stand selling pupusas - a Salvadorean flatbread stuffed with meat and cheese. We each got ourselves a pupusa de chicharon con quezo (according to the sign). There is definitely a joy to eating street food that I can't get elsewhere. We also had several large cups of aguas frescas - horchata, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple.

Dinner: Pan fried leftover dumplings

Silken Tofu in Oyster Sauce

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What I Ate: June 25, 2009

Recently, I've had to deal with web browser cookies a lot, and, in one case, I had to read several cookies using JavaScript. I looked up how to read cookies and JavaScript and found out there's no built in function that parses out the value of a particular cookie key - you have to write your own function or copy an already written one. I grabbed one from a popular website that provides HTML and JavaScript lessons and tutorials, but then discovered that it was providing the wrong cookie value for this one particular cookie I was trying to read. I tried another function from another website and same problem.

The cookie I was trying to read started with the same name as part of the name of another cookie already set. For example, I was looking for "targetcookie" but an earlier cookie of the name of "the_wrong_targetcookie" exists. I got the value of "the_wrong_targetcookie" instead. I looked at the functions I had grabbed and it was pretty easy to see that the string searching implemented was too simplistic to work in all cases. (Another solution could have been to change the cookie names, but I wasn't the one setting the cookies. The API I was working with dictates the cookie names and both cookies were set by that API.)

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Accessing and Reading Cookies in JavaScript correctly

Since Michael and I moved to Austin, I have been cooking a lot more. Of all the pots and pans we have in the kitchen (various brands, mostly stainless steel All Clad), my favorite is the Tramontina 12" tri-ply clad saute pan. It not only stands up to the All Clad pans we have but is also most useful due to its size. It's 12" in diameter (without handles) and 3" deep (without lid), ~6 qt in capacity, has a loop (helper handle) in addition to the long handle, and comes with a lid.

We use it to saute vegetables, pan fry meats, make pasta sauce, etc.. It heats up evenly and is easy to clean (a little Bar Keeper's Friend does magic). We use it everyday and sometimes I wish we have more than one! Picked it up at Marshall's a few years ago for $39.95 which is a steal, and haven't seen them around since then. Recently I found it on Walmart.com for $69.97 which is still a great deal considering the All Clad 6 qt saute pan with lid is $250! If you have been looking for cookware that performs similar to All Clad at a fraction of the price, give Tramontina tri-ply clad pots and pans a try.
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Tramontina 12" Tri-Ply Clad Stainless Steel Saute Pan - Tina's Favorite

Lunch: I made myself open-faced smoked salmon sandwiches out of an everything bagel (from Whole Foods - it was dense - I didn't like it) sliced in half topped with Philadelphia brand whipped cream cheese, capers, fresh cucumbers, and a bunch of smoked sockeye salmon.

Dinner: I cooked dinner tonight: Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms (see recipe on Cooking For Engineers) served on capellini with olive oil with a side of baby spinach salad with roasted beets and capricho de cabra ("whim of the goat" cheese) dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Lunch: Tina cooked pork ribs in a soy sauce cooking liquid and served it with broccoli stems and corn.

Dinner: I joined some Austin food bloggers for trivia night at Flying Sauce Draught Emporium (815 W 47th St # 100, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 454-8200‎).

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What I Ate: June 23, 2009 (Flying Saucer Draught Emporium)

Lunch: Two leftover Domino's ExtravaganZZa Feast Pizza slices (followed by a bowl of cherries).

Dinner: Pan fried pork, shrimp, and garlic chive dumplings (and later boiled dumplings).