Mini Saige's Report from Austin

In my last post, I mentioned I was out of town for Mardi Gras, thus my posting about the gumbo a few days late. Not that that was specifically for Mardi Gras, but anyway. You get the point.

So, where did we go?

No, not Washington again...

Austin, Texas! My very best friend moved down here a couple years ago, and I snuck down to visit her for a couple days last weekend! Anddd then got stuck at the airport because of bad weather. I forgot how bad traveling in February can be!

Anyway, this isn't a full post because I didn't come down to take over her kitchen and lecture everyone about historic foodways, but I did specifically want to share one highlight of the trip... and a few others.

Remember back when I made the World War I trench cake and said I was going to mail it to Ari to see how well it held up to being shipped somewhere? I got lazy and didn't, so I made one before heading to see her and shoved it in my backpack along with some pepparkakor. While the pepparkakor didn't really weather the trip well, I'm pleased to report that the trench cake arrived in one piece, even after being crammed under airplane seats and dragged around an airport in a bag with a couple books and a computer!

Please note that the missing chunk is from someone eating it, not the airplane ride.

While there, we also got to meet her roommate's new bunny, Oreo...

Who unfortunately I didn't get to smuggle home in my suitcase.

Went to the Bullock Texas State History Museum...

Which featured artifacts owned by Stephen F. Austin, dioramas of the Battle of Gonzales and a scale model of the Alamo, plus some bonus artifacts belonging to a Texas WASP and her Army Air Force boyfriend-turned-husband. Guess what I was most excited about?

I mean the dioramas were cool, too. Did you know the WASP logo was designed by Disney?

We went to Amy's for some tasty, but kind of overrated ice cream.

And made a pit stop at Central Market, which is easily the best super market I've ever been to because I found at least three or four ingredients I'd needed for blog posts that had been a pain to find on my side of the country and was intensely jealous at this promise of one stop shopping.

And that's the report! Mail your trench cakes fearlessly, people, it can hold up to the trip.