Adventures in Cooking

Last night I took my first dive into promise to try and cook new things. Both the recipes that I used were from the The Peachtree Tea Room Cookbook. Let me tell you, if you have never been to the Peachtree Tea Room in Fredericksburg, TX, you must. It. is. fantastic. Fredericksburg is great little town in Central Texas, full of boutiques, antique shops and lots of German food. The Peachtree Tea Room is a small restaurant and gift shop that is just perfect for stopping in and enjoying a fantastic freshly prepared lunch while your doing all sorts of shopping.

I've been going there since I was in middle school. My grandmother used to take me there when we would come visit her and now that I live only an hour away I try to go as often as possible. My husband and I spent three days in Fredericksburg a week ago at a bed and breakfast and the Tea Room was one of first stops to eat lunch. I had their chicken salad sandwhich, chilled avocado soup and then Jerad and I split a peach cobbler. Fredericksburg is famous for their peaches. Everything we had was so wonderful.

When we got back to Austin I asked my mom to borrow her Peachtree Tea Room Cookbook because I wanted to see if the recipe for the chicken salad and avocado soup were in it. Thank goodness they were! So, that is what I made last night, Cynthia's (Really Jo's) Chicken Salad and The Peachtree's Chilled Avocado Soup. I served the chicken salad as a sandwich in a croissant and (because I'm craving them all the time) I also served some nectarines on the side. I'm not going to provide the recipes for you because you can go online and order them here. I will tell you about the few modifications that I made to the recipe. The chicken salad called for homemade herbed mayo using raw eggs. Because I'm pregnant I was fearful of the raw eggs, so instead I just substituted real mayo from jar and added the herbs the recipe called for. I wish that I made the mayo in the recipe because mine was a little thin and the one at the restaurant was more creamy. When I'm not pregnant I will definitely make it again using the original recipe. The avocado soup calls for jalapenos and I was afraid that my little boys might not eat it if it was at all spicy (the one I had in the restaurant did have a little bit of a kick to it). So, I left those out. I wish that I had divided the soup and made part with jalapenos and part without. I really enjoyed the spice of the one at the restaurant, but I know my boys wouldn't have eaten it. Wyatt loved the soup and I did too. Seth, Reece and Jerad weren't big fans, but I think sometimes cold soup takes getting used to. So, I don't blame that on the recipe at all.

There are so many more recipes in the book that I plan on trying. My poor mom may never see her cookbook again. Although I do have birthday coming up, maybe that would be a good gift (hint to any family reading this : )

I definitely think this first time into cooking something unfamiliar to me was a success and I can't wait to decide what I'm going to make next!