Ama Lur

Ama Lur was a restaurant that was inside the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, TX.  Mike and I celebrated his birthday there in 2009.  What stood out to us the most at Ama Lur is that they bring you out a basket of cactus shaped, blue corn cheddar jalapeno bread.  It was not only unique but very tasty.  So tasty in fact, we immediately came back home and looked at several different grocery stores and could not find any blue corn to try and make these on our own. 

Fast forward to almost 3 years, we are walking around Whole Foods, and low and behold we find blue corn meal.  Talk about excited!! 

So... here is my version of Blue Corn Jalapeno Cheddar Bread:

1 ½ cups flour
½  cup yellow cornmeal
1/8 cup sugar

1 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoons baking powder
2  large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1 stick butter melted

2 Cups extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers

-Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

-In separate bowl, combine milk, eggs, and butter.

-With wooden spoon, stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until all dry ingredients are moist.  Do not over stir it.

-Mix in 2 cups of cheddar cheese and jalapenos and allow mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

 

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Grease a square pyrex baking pan and pour into pan.

-Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

-ENJOY!

 

All Star Burger

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to drive on down to the Hill Country Galleria.  We had nothing to do for the day and had never been there before.  We are finding that our new favorite places are the ones where we just drive around, while hungry none the less, and stop at new places.  This day was no exception. 

The first place we came to was All Star Burger.  I could eat a burger every day and if we have leftovers, I have been known to eat the leftovers for breakfast.  GASP!  Crazy I know!  So, since we were starving, it was the first thing we saw, and duh, it was a burger, so we went in.  It was a super cute place and it was very patriotic and Texas-y.  Once inside, we learned that they support only local farms and vendors to get the very freshest ingredients. 

I went with their "The West" burger.  It had cheddar, bibb lettuce, roasted jalapenos, and garlic-cilantro cream cheese.  It was to.die.for.  There is something about the roasted jalapenos and the cream cheese that made it a whole new experience. 

                                      {Photo courtesy of FedManWalking}

Doesn't that look so delicious?!  Mike went with the western twist called the Ranch Hand (I think) of BBQ, cheddar, and bacon.  He said his burger was equally as appetizing.  Their house fries were just ok.  They weren't anything special but they make their own potato chips in house, which was pretty cool, we just didn't try them.  We would definitely go back.  The only down side is that they are not centrally located and it took us easily 45 minutes to get there from Pflugerville.  But, if you are ever in the area, or just want to take a drive out to the Hill Country, make room for a burger from All Star Burger.