Chili, lasagna, Mac and cheese, comfort food in general.

B's tacos up in Leander, make their own tortillas too. I also like the Torchy's breakfast tacos. For huge and you only need one J&Js BBQ.

Poached eggs on top of a toasted English muffin with cream cheese. A touch healthier than eggs bennie.

The Lakeline Mall, also Cedar Park Farmers Market, has one over in Round Rock on Wednesdays.

When a wine is bottled can be a few months to a few years after the grapes were picked and the wine process was started. We didn't bottle our 2009 reds until early 2011. Some of us home wine makers can even buy the leftover unused printed corks from the larger wineries at a pretty good price every so often so I really wouldn't worry about the printing on the cork, just that the cork is in good shape when pulled.

What about the Lion & Rose?

They had prime tbones at the Leander HEB this last weekend.

Are you looking for bread, pastries, cupcakes?????? For bread the Panera is about the best sourdough we've found. For other things it depends on what you are looking for....

We stopped here recently and were a bit disappointed. Service was fairly slow that day, food was ok. We had a taco plate and the chili rellenos lunch. The rellenos was a better dish. If we're hungry and near there, we might stop in again, we wouldn't go out of our way to eat there though.

We had a snack there, as was said, if you happen to be there it's a lovely break but not worth going out of your way for. I think you have to pay admission to get to the cafe.

I've had good ones from this stand too. Also a stand at 620 and 2222.

I use peanut oil, on the stove, when hot enough for three kernels to pop, pull it off the heat and add the rest of the kernels, count to 10, back on the heat. We get very few old maids this way. Sometimes I'll put the salt in the oil to start, sometimes we add that and butter and garlic powder. I can't use coconut oil, very allergic to it, and I refuse to use the microwave brands.

Finally! They started talking about this last year.

We love lamb, have it once a week usually. Lamb chops, rack of lamb, loin chops, leg of lamb, lamb sirloin, even lamb shanks all are good on the grill. For leg and rack we usually put foil underneath them and slower cook them. Usually just salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic for seasoning is all that's needed. If we're roasting we'll add some mustard too. Chops are cooked similar to beef steaks, just a little less time.

I prefer to braise the lamb shanks but we've grilled those too. We've never found it gamey, to us it tastes like lamb. Also never understood the mint with lamb, but we like lamb for what it is.

Huh, we never had an issue with rice, it took a few minutes longer, more like 25-30 minutes than 20. Pasta definitely took longer, about 50% more time than at lower elevations. Everything takes longer to get to a boil, actually, it boils at a slightly lower temp so it took longer to get to boil, but then to really get to the right temp would take longer still. We had a convection oven so roasting took about the same amount of time as it did for me at lower altitude. I never tried a rice cooker up there, but I gave up on my bread maker. It was just easier to try bread from scratch or have our visiting relatives/friends bring us sourdough when they would come up. Pies work great, cakes are also an issue.

We lived in Reno for 10 years on one of the highest altitude streets in town at 5300 feet, besides baking for high altitude and pasta taking longer to cook and some other foods taking longer to roast, what kinds of issues is your cousin having? For roasting or grilling, use a thermometer to get foods to the right temperature internally, ignore times, food will just take longer to cook up there. It would help to know what kinds of issues your cousin is having though. For the most part the altitude is not a big deal, but it can be a factor.

Most places with an outdoor patio will allow dogs at the outside tables. I-35 is still a pretty broad area, north? South? Dogfriendly.com has some listings. Our beagles like a few of the restaurants at the Domain, Opal Divines at Mopac and Parmer, pretty much anywhere we'll take them really. There are a lot of options but a little more guidance on location would help.

Roasted, I drizzle olive oil and balsamic over them, a little salt and pepper in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes or so and done.

My variation is:
Romaine lettuce cleaned and torn
Shaved Parmesan
Homemade croutons-fresh bread cut into cubes, mixed with crushed garlic and parsley and toasted under the broiler
Chopped avocado
Sautéed portabella mushrooms-sliced, sautéed in olive oil and seasoned with garlic and parsley, salt and pepper
Dressing-chopped garlic, drained anchovies chopped, salt, pepper, worcestishire, touch of Dijon, olive oil and raw eff all blended together.
For us the amounts vary a bit for what we're in the mood for that night,

We went to Uchi last night, had the Mustang and Fukuoka Selection for the first course, both were very good. We had the Sasami Yaki and Hamachi Nabe for the second course, had a little more sushi and then the Coffee Panna Cotta and Lemon Gelato for desert. The flavors on the Sasami Yaki were fantastic, those who don't like cilantro may not like it though. The Hamachi Nabe was also very good, not as much a wow factor though in the flavors as the Sasami Yaki, but very good. Both deserts were excellent.

The restaurant was packed, as usual. We're going to Uchiko on Sunday.

I make a shiitake mushroom sauce for steaks, basically sautéed the mushrooms, add whole grain or Dijon mustard, add a little port, cook this down while the steaks go on the grill, then add a little cream or half-n-half for the last few minutes.

Salmon and chicken with mustard are always big in our house too. I'll mix the mustard with a tiny bit of mayo or some horseradish depending on if we want spicy or mellow.

I stopped by there yesterday just for an everything with plain cream cheese and was quite happy with it. They are still going through new opening normal issues for new staff. They also have a coupon for a free bagel on their website if you sign up for their email club. I'll try them again next week for one of my normal orders instead of a need it on the go, late for the office morning. Parking can be tough in this little center, so just be prepared to walk a bit.

Slow roasted leg of lamb at our house too. It's a tradition now. I use garlic, rosemary and dried Coleman's mustard for the seasoning and then we slow cook on the Big Green Egg, usually asparagus on the side.

yummm, Trader Joe's! Can't get them here soon enough!

Austin Restaurant Week is going on then, Uchi and Uchiko are part of it. You may want to get reservations for some places on that Sunday through Wednesday. I think the website is restaurantweekaustin.com.

Very simple but very tasty dessert - berry syrup over vanilla bean ice cream (also works with angel food cake).
Take mixed frozen berries or various fresh berries that you like, clean them, put them in a large pot.
Drizzle some brandy over the berries and a little sugar, how much depends on frozen vs. fresh and how sweet the berries are.
Simmer the berries until they break down and get a little syrupy.

Drizzly berry sauce over a good quality vanilla bean ice cream.
Yummm!