Hill Country Saturday
June 13th, 2011 § 2 Comments
A pilgrimage to the Texas Hill Country can take on many forms. For some, the visit to one of the most beautiful regions in Texas means miles of tubing, beer in hand, down cold, rapid-filled rivers. Others ponder hikes through thickets swarmed with wildlife and wildflowers, but on this particular Saturday a trip to the Texas Hill Country meant lots of peach ice cream, local wine, and a farm-developed seed vacuum cleaner.
The first stop on our hill country hangout was in Blanco to visit the popular lavender fields which have made Blanco the self-proclaimed Lavender Capital of the World and host of the area’s Lavender festival. Unfortunately the summer’s drought made hills of purple pollen scarce, but droves of arts and crafts vendors and sellers of lavender-themed knick knacks still came to profit from the Lavender craze in Blanco’s historic square. While the flowers were scarce, the local charm wasn’t and Blanco made a great stop for a light lunch. Check out Zocalo Electric Cafe for a menu that’s small but is customized daily to reflect the freshest ingredients available at the cafe. The food is light and wholesome and the atmosphere of the converted bungalow adequately reflects the small-town charm that brings visitors to Blanco in the first place.
From Blanco it’s about a 20-minute drive to Fredericksburg, a city I’ve grown up knowing for its German heritage, wineries, and most-importantly…its peaches.
We arrived at a long-time family favorite pit stop for peaches, Burg’s Corner. The roadside stop for all things peaches hasn’t changed since the 1970s and offers hungry Hill Country visitors loads of peach paraphernalia, produce, picturesque picnic areas and peach ice cream. Licking up scoops of the Blue Bell peach ice cream at Burg’s Corner is a memory from my youth I’ve carried into adulthood and will hopefully one day emerge itself in the memories of my future offspring. The stop is humble but it’s one of those places that for some reason nests itself in your subconscious and begs to be revisited over and over again.
This view from a picnic area around the corner overlooks the Pedernales River. This beautiful and serene piece of scenery is not only the setting of dozens of family picnics, it’s where we go to remember my Oma who considered this picnic stop a Texas treasure. Her ashes are scattered here.
Down the road from Burg’s is Becker Vineyards. A road surrounded by orchards and vineyards on either side leads guests up to the limestone headquarters of this local winery. Ten dollars gets you in for tastings of sublimely delicious Texas wines, but part of what you pay for is not only the rich and delightfully cared-for beverage but also recommendations from the vineyard’s staff of the best wines and nearby sight-seeing opportunities and the spectacular view of the Fredericksburg countryside.
Further on down the same road that hosts both Burg’s and Becker is Wildseed Farms. The massive wildflower mecca is the proverbial candy store to many a Texas Gardener. Their covet-worthy seed selection fills an entire room and acres and acres of innovative irrigation systems water not rows of corn or tomatoes but instead fields of flowers. The grounds are certainly a site to behold.
There’s no limit to the combinations of experiences the Texas Hill Country can afford, but on this Saturday the combinations of flowers and ice cream and peaches and wine couldn’t be rivaled.
To market, to market
June 7th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I really don’t like going to the grocery store. I always choose the wrong checkout line, parking can be a hassle and the aisles always seem to be filled with shrieking children and the ever-oblivious slow walkers. Since patience is not one my best virtues, grocery store shopping has always been high on my list of Things I Must Do But Don’t Really Wanna. It’s sandwiched right in between getting my oil changed and poop scooping. But when we moved down the street from a Central Market, all that changed. Sure there are still the oblivious aisle walkers and treacherously narrow parking lots, but the stunning selection of produce, beers and wines, fantastic cafe and flattering lighting has made trips to the grocer feel like trips to some exotic, air-conditioned farmer’s market to the stars.
I suppose in my quest to determine whether we at the doodle house are hippies or yuppies, my unconditional love of Central Market should put another tally directly under the yuppie column.
FDP-Live Oak Brewery Turns 14
April 17th, 2011 § 2 Comments
“You’ve got to tour Live Oak Brewery,” our friends Nick and Melissa told us. “It’s the best beer in Austin.”
Seeing as how we take the advice of Nick and Melissa very seriously, we penciled in a tour of Live Oak Brewing Company for Saturday after our farm tour. Because after all, why make promises to indulge in healthy veggies if you aren’t going to follow it up with the consumption of unhealthy beer.
It turns out we picked the perfect time to hit up Live Oak, as it was celebrating its 14th anniversary with free beer, live music and delicious food. But free beer or no, the brewery is still worth checking out and the beer is certainly worth paying for. Their hefeweizen is full of flavor and texture, but doesn’t weigh you down the way other varieties might. And their new chipotle beer left the back of your throat tingling after even a small sip— maybe not great for everyday drinking but certainly a great conversation piece. The staff was friendly, the crowd was grateful, and the beer left me wanting more.
If you’ve never had Live Oak, I highly recommend it.
Who doesn’t love a Boston Terrier in a bicycle basket?
We saw this buggy on our exit from the brewery, which got Ranjana really excited and reminded her of India.
Oh Austin adventures, you never cease to amaze me.
Fruits of labor
April 14th, 2011 § 2 Comments
The garden has been offering up an abundance of leafy greens and broccoli, but recently we’ve seen the first signs of other veggies like sugar snap peas, banana peppers and tomatoes. We’ve even gotten to pick a few strawberries. We’re a ways off from competing with Central Market’s produce section, but when that first little tomato popped up, it sure felt like Christmas at the doodle house.
..and why not throw in a snap of Wyatt too? He’s a good garden helper.
Tavern=not tight
April 11th, 2011 § 4 Comments
There are certain food stuffs you dream about as a child but never really imagine you will have the opportunity to behold unless you befriend an eccentric billionaire. A swimming pool full of jello, a house made out of chocolate, a blanket of cheese perhaps? The Tavern‘s Cheddar Blanket Burger provides the opportunity to partake in a queso quilt—an opportunity that’s better imagined than experienced in 3D.
The laughs produced by this ridiculous cheese to burger ratio was about all the fun The Tavern provided on this particular Friday night.
After a rousing debate of Which Sports Bar Can Host Heath and Kelsey’s Pretend Anniversary/Ranger’s Watching Party The Tavern, for one reason or another, came out on top. We arrived on a Friday around 6 p.m. and despite it being the optimum time for end-of-week drinks, the place was pretty barren. I don’t usually like to give bad reviews of restaurants, as I believe it’s better karma to not put those negative vibes out into the universe, but The Tavern was pretty terrible. It met all of the “don’t eat at this restaurant” requirements:
• The wait staff was MIA. We waited 20 minutes for a waitress to acknowledge us at our table, despite other people arriving in our vicinity and being tended to, and by the time she did arrive we had already ordered at the bar.
• The wait staff was rude. After other friends arrived to join the party and were directed by the server to order from the bar because the restaurant was “busy,” the table was then chastised for having some drink tickets at the bar and some at the table. “Well that’s confusing,” she said without first consulting the brain-to-mouth filter.
• The wait staff was incompetent and slow. They couldn’t split tickets, they couldn’t remember drink orders and they couldn’t ring up the credit cards and adjust the bill without error (causing a delightful double charge on the trusty Visa). That being said, the former waitress in me still tipped a commendable 20 percent, so servers of the world hath no fear.
• The food was excessive and mediocre (see cheddar blanket above). In actuality I don’t have super high expectations of bar food, but when everything else is terrible, you want something stupendous from the menu to perhaps make up for it. My fried egg BLT was on par with something I could have made at home (with fresh eggs nonetheless), and Heath’s burger was, despite the entrée’s title, unexpectedly saturated in cheese. Come now, who orders a cheddar burger and expects to be drowning in cheese? Not until last Friday did I come to realize there is such a thing as too much cheddar.
Perhaps my sour recollection of The Tavern is partly rooted in the fact that, through no fault of the Tavern, The Ranger’s game was rained out, which put a pun-intended damper on the evening. Or perhaps I’m being blind to the difficult serving circumstances that can arise with a large dinning party. Perhaps the server was in training, or had some severe personal issues that prevented optimum attention to the table. Whatever the circumstance, the long-standing Austin grill and bar was a severe disappointment. The Tavern did, however, deliver on one promise—it was air conditioned.
[At least we had the company of friends to bring a much-needed silver lining to the evening.]
Eastbound and Down
April 10th, 2011 § 3 Comments
This weekend we headed to Nacogdoches, home of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, to support Heath’s sister Megan as she performed in her senior recital. A skilled flautist, Megan put on quite a show for Heath, myself and more than a dozen other friends and family members that had us tapping our toes in rhythm and sighing in disbelief at both her stamina and melody making abilities. Job well done, Megan.
After being thoroughly entertained and blown away by Nacogdoches’ most skilled musician, we took a walk around campus to experience a day in the life of a Lumberjack.
Heath really liked the trees.
It turns out there is no such thing as too much purple at SFA.
After the recital comes the heart of any family gathering—in this case, a hearty dinner at Clear Springs Cafe.
…Followed the next day by a stroll with Gramps and Elouise at The Azalea Gardens.
The walk included a requisite tree ring counting, obviously. (This is Heath and Gramps we are talking about.)
As all adventures tend to do, this one ended too soon but was filled with fun and family and afforded us a much needed change of pace from our usual Austin antics.
Seeing Red
April 7th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I never thought I would be so happy to not eat free tacos.
Yesterday, I had a simple goal: get free tacos from Torchy’s. The local business was celebrating the opening of a new South Side location with free tacos and beer, so I had made it my mission to enjoy both as a sort of mid-week treat. After work Heath, myself and some former colleagues jumped in the car, braved rush hour traffic and headed down South Lamar Boulevard with tacos on our mind. But as we approached it became clear tacos would be a no go. The queue for quality queso wrapped around the parking lot and nearly out into the busy street. Our stomach’s rumbling, it looked like it would be at least an hour or two before any taco consumption would take place. Alright, I guess we will have to pay for our dinner tonight. What’s nearby? RED’S Porch. OK. Why not?
RED’S Porch is the second restaurant by the creators of Austin’s North by Northwest. Like it’s sister restaurant, it features dozens of draft beers, signature drinks and a great happy hour (which we were fortunate enough to take advantage of). The food is great, too; a unique blend of cajun, Tex-Mex and Southern specialties that are moderately priced and great reflection of the region. But the best selling point of RED’S was the view. Typically, tourists and Austin local’s alike head to The Oasis for great patio dining and scenic views, but RED’S offers a comparable atmosphere at a third of the distance, wait time and cost as the lakeside eatery. One covered and two open patios make up the outdoor dinning spaces while the inside bar and lounge areas still receive a healthy dose of fresh air and have a breezeway-like feel provided by several huge open windows and doors surrounding the space. The second floor of the relatively new restaurant offers spectacular views of Austin’s greenbelt that catches first-time visitors by complete surprise. One minute the rush hour traffic of South Lamar was whizzing past at the speed of light, the next we were surrounded by a Central Texas paradise.
If you head to Austin for a visit, expect to stop by this place.
Resolutions
January 1st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Resolutions
Here they are. The New Years Resolutions for the dwellers of the Doodle House. I feel like posting them online will provide more incentive for me to stick to them.
1. Experiment more in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking, but I’ve gotten into a bit of a rut. Lately when it comes to cooking I don’t stray from Asian-oriented foods: Thai food, stir fry, Indian curries, etc. They are mighty delicious, but I feel like I’m limiting myself. This year is going to be all about trying out new techniques in the kitchen—hopefully lots of vegetarian dishes as well to limit our meat intake. So if anyone has good recipes, send them our way.
2. Out with the old and in with the new, restaurants that is. When we do leave the kitchen and eat out on the town, we’ve made a vow that it must be at never-been-to-before restaurants. We have two bad habits when it comes to eating out. First, we don’t like to leave about a 5 mile radius of our house. Blame it on laziness or an eagerness to get food in our bellies, but we generally eat within our zip code. The second is that we have 4 or 5 restaurants that we frequent again and again. Sure, they are delicious, but there is more out there. So from now on, we’ve got to be bold when making dining decisions. Austin is rich in local restaurants so we really ought to be taking advantage of it.
3. Grow a garden. This one is high on Heath’s list. Over Christmas he was blessed with an abundance of books about growing vegetable gardens (Square Foot Gardening, Plants for Texas, Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening). So plans to grow cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, celery, broccoli and more are in the works. We will be sure to keep the blog updated with the literal fruits of our labors.
4. Save money. Since we teachers have two glorious months off work to spend together, we plan to do a healthy amount of traveling (road trips to Cape Cod, Yellowstone and California have already been discussed). But for travel we need cash. So this year we will probably have fewer trips to Central Market, and more visits to HEB. Those days we do eat out will be fewer and far between, and evenings at the movie theater will be traded for evenings with Netflix. It won’t be easy, but with visions of beaches and buffalo in our future, I’m optimistic we can make it happen.
So it’s official. The resolutions are out in the cyber world for all to see. Hold me to it, internet.
Happy New Year!
Holiday Adventures [part 2-
December 22nd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
And so it begins, the second installment of our HOLIDAY ADVENTURES! series.
Part 2: The local tourists
There is quite a bit of Austin we have yet to see and do. I’m even embarrassed to admit some of it, but we thought the holidays would be a perfect time to scratch some of those “haven’t done ‘ems” off the list and move them to the “been there, done that” column.
Tuesday we begin our adventure with brunch at the South Congress Cafe.
I’m a big fan of brunch and it’s a down right shame that I don’t take part in the delightful hybridity of eggs and french fries more often. The chic cafe has retro touches from its light fixtures to its orange and turquoise color pallet. But, unlike other South Congress staples, it’s anything but gaudy. We were greeted by a hostess but opted to eat at the bar where guests can shave 20 percent off the total cost of their meal with no cuts to service. Plus, I always enjoy the people watching, which is a bit more ample at the bar area.
After staring at the menu for some of the 10 most difficult minutes of my life, Heath and I finally decided which food would be lucky enough to wind-up in our bellies. For Heath it was the Carrot Cake French Toast and for me it was the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. The french toast dish was scrumptious but also rich and proved too much for Heath to finish in one sitting. My fun twist on Eggs Benedict (sub english muffin for crab cakes and eggs for spinach quiche) was equal parts crunchy, moist and creamy. Don’t ask me how they do it, ask only for seconds.
After finishing our meal we took off for another never-traveled-to destination: the zoo. Austin’s zoo can’t really hold a candle to the Fort Worth zoo or other animal theme parks of larger cities, but it’s not suppose to. The Austin zoo is a quaint non profit that was established to be a rehabilitation center and animal refuge. You know how you hear about people who get tigers as pets and then realize, “Oh crap, this thing is a tiger!”? Those are the animals that end up in the austin zoo. Each animal habitat has information about where the animal was rescued from and how it ended up in the zoo. Some had been seriously injured or abused before winding up in the zoo, but all seemed happy to be there when we visited.
Stay tuned for more holiday adventures to come.
Your Mom
September 18th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
So Your Mom’s automatically gets points for:
1) being located on the East Side (yes, it’s a proper noun in my book), and
2) referring to itself as a burger bar.
This counter-service restaurant is probably what you’d expect from the name: kind of quirky and in-your-face, but still a classic.
As you probably could have guessed, they specialize in burgers at Your Mom’s. But, and yes I am going to do it, these aren’t your grandmother’s burgers. They are stuffed. Think of a tame version of some of the goodies that appear on This is Why You’re Fat. With menu items that include things like burgers stuffed with blue cheese, jalapeños and bacon, it’s to be assumed that this isn’t a burger joint for the faint of heart or waist-line sensitive.
But who goes to a burger joint with calories in mind? At any rate, don’t do it at this place. I’ve never been a fan of fried pickles, but they called to me at Your Mom’s. As did the fries, as did the burger patties filled with ingredients I’d never imagined combining.
The patties are juicy, thick and, I assume, prepared on the fly as the wait to consume one of these bad boys was longer than I would have liked, but it does speak to the freshness. Though the burger was easily triple the size of a fast food burger, I consumed my fair share. As did the rest of the lunch patrons at our table. In addition to hit-the-spot greasy food, the service and atmosphere at your mom’s are worth mentioning.
It’s refreshing to dine in a place where the staff seems to be genuinely happy to serve the food that they do. And the friendly folks there on this Sunday afternoon fit that description to a T. This particular fellow certainly displayed a sense of pride as he lay the tremendous burgers before us and our dining companions. And the hip covered porch creating a not-quite-inside, not-quite-outside dining experience felt exquisitely Austin.
It’s probably not a good idea to make a habit of it, but go ahead. Eat at Your Mom’s at least once.
I’m not usually a fried pickle fan, but who can resist these?
