No Grocery Store, Days 353-355 December 12, 2010

Yikes, I didn’t realize how far behind I had gotten!  Time flies in December.

Day 353, was very long and I started with some yogurt, made from raw milk by my friend Jamie.  I had to take my mom to 3 Dr. appointments through out the day – we were either driving, or waiting all day.  We had lunch at 34th street Cafe, since it is over near all the medical offices, and I had the BLT.  It was one of my favorite things I’ve gotten there.   I did get an exciting call mid-day, from Marla Camp, the publisher of Edible Austin.  I had won the Better Bites of Austin blogger gift basket!  So, I picked that up before the last Dr. visit of the day.  It was huge!  Filled with Texas Gourmet pasta, Reel Popcorn, Delysia Chocolate, Texas Olive Ranch Olive Oil, Nazareth Olive Oil, Gluten Free products from Bona Dea, Coffee from Third Coast Roasting and more.  It was a lovely treat on a difficult day, and I greatly appreciated it.  I skipped dinner.

Day 354, yogurt for breakfast, lunch was a Deli Belly taco and a Bison taco from Taco Deli.  These were their 2 Eat Local Week offerings, and they were both delicious.  For dinner I had the Reel Popcorn from my Better Bites basket.

Day 355, I had Bola Pizza breakfast pizza, which I shared with a couple of vendors at the Farmer’s Market.  Breakfast has been a struggle for me this whole year, not so when Bola hit the market.  It is so good, with Full Quiver Cheddar, Salt and Time Pancetta, red onion, and a perfectly cooked egg.  Genius.  No lunch to speak of, as I hosted a Holiday Shopping party that afternoon.  The afternoon’s snacks included cheese from Antonelli’s cheese, a Full Quiver cheese ball, some cookies and savory cheese wafers from Food Food, gluten free cookies from Bona Dea, and cheese paired with Confituras preserves.  I knew we would be cleaning up at dinner time and wouldn’t want to cook, so I brought home several curry dishes from Thai Fresh from the farmer’s market, that that was dinner.

So, there are less than two weeks left to my No Grocery Store Challenge.  I’ll be reflecting back on the year, and the lessons learned in a post in the next couple of weeks.    So much has happened in the last year, and I’ve met so many wonderful people who have inspired and helped me along the way.  I appreciate you all.

No Grocery Store, Day 352 December 9, 2010

This week has been hectic, as the holidays always are.  It”s Edible Austin’s Eat Local week which brings a variety of events every day, and on top of that, neither of my folks are driving right now, so I’ve been running here and there taking them where they need to go.

Anyhoo, Day 352, my bad habits have returned, and I missed breakfast.   I took mom to lunch at a new spot on South Congress, Hopdoddy.  It is an adult burger joint, with a full bar.  We each had a poblano burger with fries.  The burger was really quite good, on a home baked bun with fresh veggies.  The sign on the wall says the restaurant supports local farmers, although the menu did not say where anything came from, so I can’t say what was local.  The french fries were oddly dry and sort of hollow.  Perhaps some tweaking is in order.   I headed down to City Hall for Edible Austin’s Eat Local Week, Better Bites Holiday Fair.  I ended up staying to help out and got home a bit too late to cook dinner, so I broke out some tamales from our Sunday tamalada.  And that was dinner.

Edible Austin Eat Local Week Starts this Saturday November 30, 2010

Edible Austin’s annual Eat Local Week, benefiting Urban Roots, starts off the week of events, Saturday morning at the SFC Farmer’s Market at Republic Square. (downtown)  The Mayor will be on hand to launch Eat Local Week with a proclamation, and a 24 carrot salute and other fun events.  There are events throughout the week, supporting local vendors, coffee, cocktails, art and an Urban Bike Farm Tour of my favorite East Austin Farms.  See all of the events here:

http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/events

BookPeople Preview event
Urban Farm Bicycle Tour
Pig Roast and Harvest Dinner
Drink Local Coffee Festival
Drink Local Night and Tipsy Texan Drink Local Cocktail Contest
Better Bites Holiday Gift Fair at City Hall
Fine Food and Art Night
Media Celebrity Cook Off
Texas Craft Brewer Mini-Festival

The events I’m looking most forward to are the Pig Roast and Harvest Dinner at Springdale Farms, the Better Bites Holiday Gift Fair at City Hall on the 8th (free event) and the celebrity cookoff between local media celebrities, Nic Ciccone of FOX 7 News and Addie Broyles, from the Austin American Statesman on December 11th at the SFC Farmer’s Market.   In addition to the special events, many restaurants are participating throughout the week with special dishes and menus using locally sourced ingredients.  A list of participating restaurants is here:

http://www.edibleaustin.com/content/participating-restaurants-a-markets

Antonelli’s Cheese Shop is hosting a Texas Cheese and Charcuterie Class on December 8, 2010 benefiting Urban Roots.

Con O’lio Oils and Vinegars in the Arboretum is donating a portion of their sales to Urban Roots as well.

Come on out to the SFC Farmer’s Market downtown this Saturday for Eat Local Week launch, grab a delicious, wood-fired pizza from Bola Pizza, and get a taste of our wonderful local farmers and food makers have to offer.

 

Give the Gift of Local, Part Deux November 23, 2010

Aside from the gift ideas straight from the SFC Farmer’s Market downtown, there are lots of other great choices for keeping your gift giving funds in our local economy, and exposing friends to new local businesses they might not be aware of.

Antonelli’s Cheese Shop is loading up on gift type items, and has a catalog in the works to make shopping easier.   Aside from fabulous cheese, charcuterie, wine, beer, olive oils and preserves, Antonelli’s has a great assortment of serving pieces, like cheese boards, cheese knives, cheese plate markers, and an entire wall of other items that would be great for the cheese lover in your life.

Gift ideas from Antonelli's Cheese Shop

They have one of the more interesting wine selections in town as well.

Wonderful wines

Another product I’m hoarding for my gift baskets is the locally made Cajeta and Bourbon Cajeta from Blue Heron Farm.  Oh, heck yes!  Goat milk caramel is to die for.  Spoon it over Vanilla ice cream, please.

http://www.antonellischeese.com

Other gift items can be found at Con Olio, in the Arboretum.  This shop has an amazing variety of olive oils, balsamic vinegars, pastas, sauces, and another interesting wine selection.

Con Olio

http://www.conolio.com

One more amazing local food maker and purveyor is Delysia Chocolates.  Nicole Patel has a way with her chocolates, imparting some of the most interesting flavors I’ve ever tasted.  There are wine flavored chocolates, autumn inspired flavors, and some off the radar flavors like cigar, which is evocative of a cedar cigar box.  I am partial to the chocolates infused with heat from peppers.  Delysia has also now introduced a line of chocolate barks.  Big Fan.  www. delysia.com

Delysia Chocolates

Yet another interesting idea is to give the gift of a CSA Membership.  You choose the frequency of delivery of local produce from area farms.  Farmhouse Delivery offers not just produce from local farms but locally made products, such as Confituras’ locally made delicious preserves, and local cheeses.

http://www.farmhousedelivery.com

Edible Austin, a wonderful resource for all of the local goodness that Austin has to offer, would also make a wonderful gift.  Subscriptions are a mere $28 annually.  http://www.edibleaustin.com

If you are building gift baskets, as am I, another good resource is the Better Bites of Austin, Local Holiday Gift Fair event at City Hall on December 8, 2010 from 4:00 to 8:00.  This is a free event, where you can meet and shop from our local foodmakers and buy local products.

No Grocery Store, Day 257 – Virgo Pizza Party! September 14, 2010

Genius, Superstar and Sister Virgo Jodi conceived of a Virgo Food Lover’s party, which evolved into a Bola Pizza Party at the lovely home of Christian and Jamie. Virgos are special, you see.  Maybe more special than any of the other birth signs.  Once the stars align just right, special things happen.  And we were all together to celebrate our special fabulousness.  Plus 1′s were invited, but I fear they felt inferior to our Virgo specialness.  Our bad.

While the pizza was being prepared, we dined on Burrata, and CKC Chevre from Antonelli’s Cheese Shop with Confituras tomato jam.  Yum.

Burrata, CKC Chevre and Confituras Tomato Jam

Then Christian started firing pizzas in the oven he had pre-heated the night before to 1000 degrees!  Crazy.

Pizza in the hot oven

The same pizza, about 7 minutes later:

First pizza out, wow!

The reason this pizza has ruined me for all other pizza, is that the crust is really flavorful, fermented for 3 days, and the gluten is allowed to really develop; the ingredients are the highest quality, local ingredients; and the thoughtful combination of flavors are beyond great.  This isn’t cardboard crust, loaded with generic tomato sauce and loads of cheese and fake meat pepperoni.  This is good food.

Uhm. Yep, that's a rockin pizza

The new Mushroom Pizza

Jodi brought a peanut butter and chocolate cake from Suger Mama’s Bakeshop, that simply said Happy Birthday Virgos.  We sang Happy Birthday to ourselves, congratulated each other on our individual and collective wonderfulness, and ate more.  It rocked.

Virgo Cake

Then Christian made one more pizza:  The new mushroom pizza.  It was perfect:

Gorgeous Mushroom Pizza

Speaking of rocking, uber Virgo Christian, had compiled a playlist of all Virgo artists.  No, I’m not making that up.  It turns out, some of the coolest artists are Virgos: Michael Jackson, Pink, Gloria Estefan, Otis Redding, Beck, Elvis Costello, Amy Wino, and many more.  The dude from KISS.  Anyway, it was a super fun evening, hanging out with like signed folks.  Two common bonds, love of great food, and Virgo.  We rock!

Green Living Home and Garden Show Starts Today! April 23, 2010

The Austin Green Living Home and Garden Show starts this afternoon at 2:00, in the Austin Convention Center.  Come on down and say howdy.  Austin Urban Gardens has a big booth set up right in front by the front doors, and sustainability stage.  We will have drawings to give away garden seeds, some garden gloves, and an Earthbox, and will be selling Earthboxes.

There will be lots of interesting food, Green Building things, Chicken Coops, Better Bites of Austin, and really cool landscaping booths.  Edible Austin will also have a big presence.  I was set up early, so I’m not sure who all is there this weekend.  If you come, please come by and say hi, I’d appreciate it!  Today, 2-7, Saturday 10-7, and Sunday 11-5.