Lunch: Tina cooked up some farfalle pasta with the last of my jarred meat sauce. She also cooked collard greens and toasted sliced French bread with olive oil, shaved parmigiano reggiano, and salt.

Dinner: We had tickets to Ballroom With A Twist, so we headed into town and tried to figure out where we could eat relatively quickly. I stopped in at Shogun Sushi (1807 Slaughter Ln W # 225, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 292-1580‎) and let them know we were in a rush to a show and had to leave before 7:30pm. It was 6:55pm and I wasn't so sure they could accommodate, but our server said it wouldn't be a problem. The next time she came back we placed our order: gyoza, crab shumai, sake nigiri, maguro nigiri, hamachi nigiri, unagi nigiri, and an alligator roll (eel with salmon).

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What I Ate: September 11, 2009 (Shogun Sushi)

Lunch: I overcooked (which is what happens when you work and cook at the same time) a piece of sockeye salmon in the oven and served it over troffiette pasta tossed in olive oil, garlic, and ground black pepper. I added a side of snow peas to the dish. The salmon was much better after we broke it up and mixed it with the pasta.

Dinner: Tina and I headed over to our friends' (Erin and Nat's) house for dinner with a group of friends. Kent provided mixed drinks, Nat provided wine, and Erin supplied a large quantity of take out from El Pollo Rico. El Pollo Rico is an Austin-based chain that provides carry-out charbroiled chicken. The chicken was excellent as were the beans and rice. The sausage was also great. This is good fast food / carry out. Real good.

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What I Ate: September 10, 2009 (El Pollo Rico)

Lunch: Sometimes I have breakfast, sometimes I have lunch. Once in a while I have brunch - which involves eating some breakfast and some lunch. Today I made myself something that is both breakfast and lunch in one. I dug around the refrigerator for something I could eat for lunch and ended up making myself an omelet filled with fish sticks and some sharp cheddar cheese (aged 3-years). I cooked the fish sticks first in the convection oven so they'd be crispy in the omelet.

Dinner: Tina and I went to Manna From Heaven in downtown Kyle for dinner. I had three crispy beef tacos and a taco salad. The beef tacos were interesting in that the beef was a ground beef patty cooked and placed at the bottom of the taco shell. It was tasty, but our meal wasn't as good as our previous ones had been. The limeade was excellent as usual.

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What I Ate: September 9, 2009 (Manna From Heaven)

Lunch: A light lunch of sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, and Dai Due headcheese.

Dinner: Leftovers from The Salt Lick - Baby Back Ribs, a spare rib, brisket, sausage, potato salad, and cole slaw.

Lunch: Braden and Kelly drove up from San Antonio and we met up for lunch at Coco's Cafe (8557 Research Blvd # 118, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 833-6588‎). Originally, they had suggested Din Ho Chinese BBQ but we had a couple of bad experiences there and Tina flat out refused to go back. We suggested Coco's Cafe next door to Din Ho which has a good reputation. We didn't know it was the same Coco's Cafe (in a different location) that we ate at a couple weeks ago.

We ordered several things to try. I had the pork belly with rice for my main dish (they called it Bacon Pork w/Rice - but I don't think it's bacon unless smoke is involved or it has been cured). My pork belly was chewy and tough.

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What I Ate: September 7, 2009 (Coco's Cafe, Burger King)

Lunch: Went shopping at Nordstrom in Barton Creek Mall (2901 S Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 691-3500‎), so we had a nice lunch at the Cafe Bistro. We split a Bistro Club Sandwich (sliced chicken breast, organic baby greens, crisp bacon, roma tomato, avocado, french green beans with garlic aioli on toasted rustic bread) which was nice and flavorful - the bread, bacon, and avocado make the sandwich. The fries and Kalamata olive aioli served with the sandwich were excellent.

We also split the Chicken Artichoke & Goat Cheese Salad (organic baby greens, roasted chicken breast, marinated artichoke hearts, goat cheese, zest chiles and garlic croutons with dijon balsamic vinaigrette). We enjoy the casual but classy food at Nordstrom Bistro Cafe and the Barton Creek location prepares their food just as well as the others we've been to.

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What I Ate: September 6, 2009 (Nordstrom Cafe Bistro, The Salt Lick)

Lunch: I took a full day training class at Cabela's in Buda, Texas, so I ate lunch from their cafe - venison bratwurst with sauerkraut.

Dinner: Tina picked me up from Cabela's at around 8:30pm, so we headed across the parking lot to Cracker Barrel. I've only been to a Cracker Barrel once (I think it was in South Carolina) and I don't think Tina's been to one before. I ordered the lemon pepper grilled trout with corn, green beans, and hash brown casserole.

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What I Ate: September 5, 2009 (Cabela's, Cracker Barrel)

Lunch: I heated the remaining piece of Dai Due cider-braised pork belly. I cooked down the apple cider and onion braising liquid and mixed in a little slurry of corn starch to thicken and used it as a sauce. Then I paired it with sweet corn and wilted arugula with cherry tomatoes.

Dinner: After watering the trees on our home site again, Tina and I headed over to Olive Garden (we tried the exact same thing two nights ago) and this time got there early enough that they hadn't closed. It also helped that on Fridays they stay open one more hour. The lighting was dim and the table small, so I didn't have much room to work in. I decided to take the pictures, handheld, at ISO 6400 (HI-2 on my camera) at f/2.8 with 1/50 sec exposure. Even at 17mm (36mm equivalent if I was using 35mm film or a full frame sensor), there's a little camera shake. To reduce noise and color splotches (blue is most common), I took several shots in a row and merged them together, averaging the pixels (with Photomatix Pro 3.2). (This can be done with Photoshop CS4, but I'm on CS3 and am waiting for CS5 to upgrade.) Enough photo talk - we started with the salad.

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What I Ate: September 4, 2009 (Olive Garden)

Lunch: Leftover Chicken Pot Pie with arugula (and Champagne cherry tomatoes - not shown)

Dinner: Maestri Pastrai lemon penne with my jarred meat sauce with sauteed turnip greens

Lunch: After a busy morning installing fiberglass insulation into my new garage, we stopped in at a Steak 'n Shake for lunch on the way home. I decided to treat myself to a root beer float.

I also ordered a Double Cheeseburger with Bacon. I think they call it something else - like a Bacon 'n Cheese Double Steakburger or something like that. Ate it all.

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What I Ate: September 2, 2009 (Steak 'n Shake, Taco Cabana)