Tomorrow I am getting married (again) to the love of my life. Let’s have some cookies to celebrate, shall we?

These cookies are powdery and crunchy, much like biscotti. Eating one alongside a cup of hot coffee or chai is a total pleasure.

They have great flavour from the cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, and cloves – they’d make excellent holiday cookies, but we have a wedding to celebrate!

Spiced Mexican Wedding Cookies

from The Kitchn

Makes 12

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup ground almonds, pecans or walnuts (I ground mine with a mortar and pestle)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and 1 cup powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the flour, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, cardamom, clove and salt. Add the ground nuts and stir until well-blended. Form dough into a 2″-wide log, cover and chill in refrigerator until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Remove dough from refrigerator and slice into twelve equal disks, smoothing out edges into an even circle if needed before placing on parchment, 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and set on cooling rack until cool enough to handle, but still warm. Using a small sieve, dust the tops with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Notes: I know it seems weird that there is no egg included in this recipe but these cookies have a light, dusty consistency. Don’t be alarmed when you’re mixing the dough and it seems dry. It’s okay, I promise. Cooling it in the fridge will firm up the dough and it should turn out just dandy.

I didn’t truly discover Migas until the last time I was in Austin, a year ago. I’d heard of them before but never really paid much attention. Well. The more fool me. You can bet your bottom dollar that on this trip, I will be making my merry way to brunch and ordering a giant plate of migas on more than one occasion. It’s only right.

Migas are made up of scrambled eggs, fried corn tortilla strips, salsa and cheese. As with Spanish Migas, the Tex-Mex version is based on the use of day-old bits and bobs – tortillas that have been sitting around for a while are perfectly used up here, in the same way that day old peasant bread is used in Spanish migas. I made them for us the morning after a night of enchiladas.

They are also a winning hangover cure, in case you’re in the market for that kind of thing. If you’re in Austin, head to Trudy’s for some of the best. If you’re not in Austin, try these.

Migas

adapted from The Homesick Texan

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• generous splash of milk
• 3 tbsp peanut oil
• 3 corn tortillas cut into strips or 1 cup tortilla chips, crumbled into small pieces
• 1/4 an onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced (de-seed it if you’re not a fan of heat)
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheese such as Longhorn cheddar or Monterrey Jack
• 1/2 cup of salsa
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk eggs together with milk. Add a dash of salt and pepper.
2. In a large iron skillet, heat up peanut oil on medium-high, and place tortilla strips into skillet, cooking for about three minutes, turning once. Remove the tortilla strips with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Drain the oil from the skillet leaving 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
3. Add onions and jalapenos to the pan, and cook for a couple of minutes
4. Add egg mixture and tortilla strips to the skillet and let eggs sit for about one minute or until set on the bottom and then gently stir.
5. Sprinkle cheese on top of eggs and continue to cook until melted.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and top eggs with salsa and cilantro.

Serves two.

[source]

There is a place in my heart for cheese and it’s a very, very big place. Anyone who knows me in person, knows my deep-seated love of cheese. It’s actually genetic, since my brother and mum are similarly obsessed. And my grand-dad, by my mum’s account, had a cheese sandwich for his lunch every single day.

Have I convinced you that it’s in my blood? I can think of no other food that I can gorge myself on in the way that I can with cheese. Enter: queso.

Queso simply means “cheese” in Spanish, but in Tex-Mex cuisine, it refers to a spicy, cheesy dip for tortilla chips. You order it in Tex-Mex restaurants in Austin, in the way that you would order salsa in other parts of the country. Completely normal to be digging into what is essentially a giant bowl of melted cheese…

The “classic” version uses Velveeta “cheese” and Rotel. I use the quotation marks because Velveeta is a processed cheese product that can weirdly sit on a shelf, unrefrigerated for weeks. Wrong. But so, so right.

My husband may not forgive me for erring from that classic queso, but I wanted to try a somewhat more wholesome and fresh kind, and I found it from Homesick Texan. This lady knows her stuff.

It’s not for the faint of heart (6 cups of cheese, plus butter and sour cream anyone?) but it might be the most addictive thing on the planet. Make with caution. I will no doubt be drowning my sorrows (literally) in a bowl of this stuff, upon my return from Texas. Join me?

Chile Con Queso

from Homesick Texan

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 3 Serrano peppers diced
• 3 jalapeno peppers diced
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 6 cups of shredded cheese, can use any combination of Longhorn cheddar and Monterrey Jack
• 1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped
• 2 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced (about 1 cup, can use canned if tomatoes aren’t in season)
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat, and then cook the onions and peppers for about five minutes or until onions are translucent.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Whisk the flour into the butter, vegetable mix and cook for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes.
5. Turn heat down to low, and a 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese stirring into the white sauce until completely melted. Repeat.
6. Stir in the sour cream.
7. Add salt to taste.