Lately…

Since Megan is now an 8 to 5-er at her new gig, we’ve been adventuring into the late Spring evenings these days.  That consists of after-dinner strolls with the pups, early evening cocktails (the house gin and tonics down the street at The Blue Plate are very tasty! They make their own tonic!) and bike rides to the bridge to watch the sun go down.  (And we’re not telling you how many times we’ve walked to Rita’s for Italian ice these past two weeks.) These warm, lingering nights are getting us excited for Summer.  We can’t wait to experience our first Chattanooga Summer.

What have you all been up to lately?

Mentone In The Spring

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”  -Joseph Campbell

We lie about food at times.

We say we want a waffle or popcorn or chicken nuggets so we get said food item and eat it. But we really don’t want a waffle or whatever, really we want butter and syrup. Or we want salt and butter. Or we want BBQ sauce. The food is just a conveyance for the condiment. A couple of days ago Megan wanted BBQ sauce so we fried up some tofu and baked some sweet potato fries and she downed it all with a beer and a half a bottle of BBQ sauce.

Here’s how Kaylon makes fried tofu. It’s vegan-ish.

1 pack extra firm tofu

1 cup almond milk

1/2 cup cornmeal*

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/4 cup fresh chopped basil or whatever herbs you love

Oil to fry in.

*Cornmeal isn’t absolutely necessary but it makes for a beefier batter, and since tofu is super fluffy I think it helps quite a bit.

Start heating the oil.  Use a Frydaddy or pan fry or try some other method - your call.  We use a big cast iron dutch oven that we cook everything in.

Press off extra moisture from the Tofu and cube it into half inch cubes or there-abouts.

Mix all of the dry ingredients and the chopped herbs.

Dip tofu into the milk, then coat the milky tofu with the flour/season/herb mixture, and then place it into the oil until it’s a golden brown cube of delicious.

Finally, cover the fried tofu in BBQ sauce (we represent Austin and use Stubb’s - it’s quite tasty!) and eat!

Last week I took a little trip to Florida to see my big brother graduate.  Woo hoo Scotty!

Seeing family, eating way too much, dipping my toes in the Atlantic and coming back home still with sand in my shoes… it was all so nice.  So nice that it’s taken me a week to sit back down in front of this computer to blog about it…

places worth going  Taco Mamacita on the North Shore

***warning:  this post includes some taco snobbery***

After living in Austin, when we think tacos we wax nostalgic about those  floppy, juice-running-down-your-arm, slow cooked, taco truck tacos.  Oooh they are delicious.  That is not what you are getting at Taco Mamacita, so just stop it!  Get those messy tacos outta your head right now!  Because Taco Mamacita is an entirely different kind of delicious.

They specialize in funky-fusion tacos so the more creative your thinking, the more Mamacita excels.  Just embrace the fact that they put cucumber, lamb and feta cheese in your taco.  Because cucumber, lamb and feta cheese are delicious.

And hey, look at that!  A vegan menu for Megan!

And hey, look at that!  Half price sangria on Sunday!

Also, here’s a tip… if you like spicy (which we do!) ask the server to ask the cook to whip up a super spicy salsa to add to your tacos because otherwise if you say, Can you make it spicy? they will assume you want Sriracha.  And though we love Sriracha, Sriracha does not make sweat bead on our forehead quite like the good pepper-loaded salsa that comes out of their kitchen.

And since we’re talking Tex-Mex tacos, does anyone know of a place in Chattanooga that comes close to those classic taco truck tacos that we miss so much?

Dear Chattanooga,

We love you.

Sincerely,

The Tuttles

As we were laying in the grass earlier this afternoon soaking up the sun, we notice a guy standing alone in the middle of the park holding up a sign.  It said Rachael will you be my girlfriend?  And then along came Rachael.  I think she said yes.  And then the whole park cheered.  How sweet!