I’m a twitterin’!Feel Good Friday is a roundup of the things that made me feel good or that I’m grateful for all week. Join me and leave your Feel Goods in the comments!
Having skier extraordinaire Nick Devore play a didgeridoo over my body during Yoga Therapy class
Happy meat for just $4/lb from Homestead Meats at the Aspen Saturday Market
Monday Night Football
Gossip Girl season five premiere!
Picking up a new girl [space] friend at the bar.
Opportunities, questions, and answers…
I miss my TiVo. We got DVR because it worked out to be cheaper, but I miss the beep beep beep and the thumbs up on new shows and being able to order movies through amazon to my TV and everything else awesome about TiVo. If you love TiVo as much as me, you should look for “the TiVo Guy” around town, as he’s commencing “TiVo on the Town,” touring around Austin handing out hundreds of prizes like Netflix and Pandora gift cards, and even a TiVo.
The TiVo Guy’s September 29 schedule:
10:30a: Roaming campus at UT Austin
12:30p: Warehouse District: corner of 4th Street and Lavaca Street
2p: 6th Street: outside Driskill Hotel
5:30p: South Congress: outside near Uncommon Objects
One lucky winner at each spot will win an HD TiVo!! All your TV dreams could come true … you could watch Gossip Girl and Hawaii Five-O and New Girl and Ringer and Hart of Dixie and Charlie’s Angels and Pan Am and Glee and … oh. Maybe that’s just me?
I love cookies, and I love what the group Austin Bakes is doing with bake sales to support people close to home and far away (remember Austin Bakes for Japan? It raised almost $12,000). Saturday, October 1st from 10a to 2p, hundreds of bakers, bloggers, businesses, and consumers will unite for Austin Bakes for Bastrop, a bake sale fundraising event to help those affected by recent wildfires in Central Texas.
Over 80 home cooks and dozens of local businesses will be contributing baked goods at locations throughout Austin. Baked goods will include cookies, cupcakes, brownies, pies and pastries of all kinds. Several home bakers are creating Texas-themed confections for the sale, while others will be baking locally sourced, organic, vegan or gluten-free items. All funds raised will go to Austin Community Foundation’s Central Texas Wildfire Fund. Those who wish to make a gift in advance of the sale may do so at Austin Bakes for Bastrop’s secure, online giving page.
Austin Bakes for Bastrop locations:
Community Renaissance Market
6800 Westgate Blvd., 78745
The Flying Saucer at The Triangle
815 W. 47th Street, 78751
Foreign & Domestic
306 E. 53rd Street, 78751
Hotel San Jose
1316 South Congress Avenue, 78704
Old Settler’s Park
3300 E Palm Valley Blvd., Round Rock, 78665
Whole Foods Market Gateway
9607 Research Blvd. #300, 78759
Whole Foods Market Lamar
525 N. Lamar Blvd., 78703
Get Involved: Interested in providing baked goods and/or volunteering? Contact Kathryn Hutchison at austingastronomist@gmail.com.
Because it is awesome.
I blogged about Chameleon Cold Brew here, and I’ve just gotten word that Central Market started carrying Kohana Cold Brew Concentrate (the company is local and woman-run) too—it’s already a fave at Whole Foods.
But I’m here to burst your bubble. It’s too easy to cold brew at home for you not to know how. Then you can choose convenience or consumerism over making your own, but at least you know.
How to start cold-brewing coffee: a jar, and some coffee
Step 1: pour 1/3 cup ground coffee into jar
Step 2: Add 1 + 1/2 cups water per 1/3 cup coffee
Step 3: Seal jar and let sit 8-24 hours.
Step 4: You'll need plain, regular coffee filters. This is a single cup filter, you could also just rig up a way to hold the filter over the jar (like a rubberband around the rim with the filter going into the jar)
Step 5: Pour contents of jar over filter into another jar
Voila! Cold-brew coffee.
The resulting coffee is concentrated, so many people like to dilute it with water. You can play around with your fave concentration.
I like to make iced coffee lattes, diluting the concentrate with raw milk:
Cold brew iced coffee with raw milk is my new fave drink
Adding raw milk
Ah, morning ritual
Sprinkle a lil cinnamon on top!
Cold brew coffee is super easy to make, smooth-tasting, better for you, and awesome. Try it and leave feedback in the comments!
Despite my love for wine, travel, and the sunshine of California, I have not ever been to Napa Valley. Sad panda.
Just another reason to visit: Austin hotspot and “Best New Restaurant” James Beard Foundation Award nominee La Condesa just opened an outpost (view my coverage of the Austin location’s drinks here and food here). La Condesa Napa Valley, 1320 Main Street, St. Helena (707.967.8111; www.lacondesanapavalley.com) still features the vision of executive chef Rene Ortiz, blending traditional and innovative Mexican, an extensive tequila selection, artisanal cocktail menu, and California-driven wine list.
“The Napa Valley is one of the most beautiful places in the country, and its breadth of produce and ingredients is unparalleled,” says owner Jesse Herman. ”We’re excited to work hand-in-hand with the region’s growers and producers to combine the flavors of the Napa Valley with the spirit of La Condesa.”
La Condesa Napa Valley sources locally whenever possible and Ortiz has designed many new menu items that highlight ingredients from Northern California and Bay Area purveyors. The Napa Valley location also serves favorites from the Austin menu, including Taquitos Arábicos (seared venison, pickled cucumber, chipotle harissa, fennel pollen yogurt and cilantro rolled in a bacon-fat tortilla); Hongo Y Huitlacoche Huaraches (crispy masa flat breads topped with wild mushrooms, huitlacoche, yellow corn, farmer’s cheese, queso chihuahua, epazote and a dash of truffle oil); and Cangrejo Tostadas (lump crab meat, green mango, grapefruit, tomato, chives and chipotle mayo).
Food is cooked over a wood-fired grill imported from Texas to add an essential Lone Star flavor to the menu. La Condesa Napa Valley’s menu of unique cocktails is overseen by the 2011 42Below Cocktail World Cup national champion, Nate Wales but still features faves like El Cubico and all fresh juices.
The interior of an historic building has been retrofitted to reflect the interior, quirky Mexican of the Austin location, including the whimsical art of Ortiz’s brother.
The restaurant is open nightly for dinner, from 5-10p, Sunday through Wednesday and from 5-11p, Thursday through Saturday. Lunch will be served from 11:30a to 2:30p, Monday through Friday; and brunch service will be available from 10a to 3p on Saturday and Sunday. Take me there!
Feel Good Friday is a new series of posts I’m starting to increase gratitude and therefore happiness in my life. It’ll be a roundup of the things that made me feel good or that I’m grateful for all week. Join me and leave your Feel Goods in the comments!
King Yoga – I made it to FOUR classes this week!
A new swim cap from a friend – I think it actually tricked the lady swimming in the lane next to me into thinking I might know what I was doing swimming breast stroke laps in the pool (hey, I threw a few freestyle laps in!)
New friends – and a most impromptu Girls Night
The solitary bud left alive on my love fern after my 11-day trip
A new necklace courtesy of an eversave deal
A delish $5 Vinho Verde … shared over a chick flick
It’s not quite Movember yet, but according to recent statistics, many men are embracing the mo’ and other facial hair throughout the year. A full 62 percent of guys sport facial hair sometime in a year. Lucky for guys, Wahl, the industry leader in barber tools, will dispatch its giant barbershop and team of experts to the Old Pecan Street Festival September 24-25 as part of a nationwide ”Face the Day” tour to help guys put their best face forward.
Wahl will set up a 30-foot mobile barbershop to give guys FREE facial hair grooming and tips. Guys can also enter a national search for the best facial hair in the country. Plus, looking good supports a good cause: for every trim, Wahl will donate $1 to Movember, a non-profit organization that provides funding for Live Strong, Prostate Cancer Foundation, and Movember Foundation.
Get a free man mo’ on the streets of Austin this weekend.
The biggest beer fest in the land, Denver’s Great American Beer Fest, is next weekend, but this weekend, Austin plays host to the first annual Texas Craft Brewers Festival on September 24. Texas has some serious craft brewers popping up, and this non-profit outdoor fest (benefiting Austin Sunshine Camps) at Fiesta Gardens will showcase all the Texas-brewed beer and ale (as well as non-alcoholic beverages) you can handle!
“The Texas beer scene is on fire!” says Tim Schwartz, Director of Brewery Operations for Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco, Texas, and President of the Texas Craft Brewers Guild. “New breweries are opening all over the state and established craft breweries are expanding. This is a perfect time for the resurgence of the Texas Craft Brewers Festival. The festival brings all of this variety together in one venue. Come on out and see what Texas brewing has to offer.”
Cooler than that even? Several breweries who haven’t released beer yet are using the festival as their target date to publicly introduce their first beers!
Tix are $8, sampling tokens appear to be $1.50/ea: eventbee.com/v/texascraftbrewersfestival
September 24, 2011, 2 – 8p / Fiesta Gardens, 2100 Jesse E. Segovia St. / texascraftbrewersfestival.org
21+ Event ID required at entry / Rain or Shine / NO chairs or coolers or glass or dogs allowed
There are trifectas of awesomeness like the upcoming Charlie’s Angels remake with Minka Kelly (who didn’t love Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights when she picked bad boy Riggins to love?), then there are trifectas of getting things done, like Austinites Tolly Moseley, Candace Carlisle, and Cory Ryan—three ladies who know how to throw a party to tickle Austin’s fancy.
This Thursday, your fancy just might be a lil’ craftin’ escapade. Grab your gals and call it the perfect Girls Night.
Aviary will host the evening and will feature drink specials for guests. $10 admission gets you a drink along with beads/supplies from Legendary Beads.
Thursday, September 22, 6-9 pm / 2110 S. Lamar / aviarylounge.com
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