Cold Weather Camp Chili
Cold winter weather makes me crave deep, warm, rich foods like pot roast and hearty soups, so when I went camping in the Ozarks in the middle of winter I knew we’d need to make something substantial for dinner. As the temperatures dropped into the twenties I got my buddies to help prepare cast-iron cornbread [...]
Thanksgiving 2012: Camping in the Ozarks
Thanksgiving really snuck up on me this year. All of a sudden it was a week away and we hadn’t booked the plane tickets that we’d promised, and I was feeling like this year Thanksgiving was going to be a big disappointment. Then one night over a few beers a friend mentioned that a group [...]
The Salt & Time Butcher Shop Salumeria Needs You
Our friends Ben and Bryan of Salt & Time Butcher Shop and Salumeria have been working hard toward opening a permanent location in East Austin. Their goal is fantastic: to create a full-service butcher shop stocked with local and sustainable meats, fresh and custom cut as well as their famous cured meats, and a bar [...]
We’re going camping for Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday. I love cooking a huge meal and enjoying it with my friends and family, lounging in a house stuffed with good smells, and sharing all of the things I’m thankful for. But this year is going to be a little different – we’re going on a camping and climbing [...]
How to Pack a Camp Kitchen: Backpacking Kitchen Update
On a recent backpacking trip I made a strong effort to remove all unnecessary items from my camp kitchen, mostly to eliminate weight, but also because I was feeling encumbered by all the things I usually pack but never actually use when trekking long distances. So today I’m sharing all the contents of my Backpacking [...]
Happy Camper’s Hot Cocktail
It’s really cooling off this week here in Austin and I’m getting excited for wintery adventures, so to celebrate I dug up this recipe for hot peach bourbon toddy that I created while we were backpacking Big Bend earlier this fall. One thing I enjoy endlessly while backpacking is the challenge of creating delicious meals [...]
The Anatomy of Dinner: Butchering and Curing Class with Salt & Time
Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending a class on butchering and pork curing basics by the wonderful guys at Austin’s very own Salt & Time Butchershop and Salumeria. Benjamin Runkle and Bryan Butler are two guys with a passion for making and sharing delectable cured meats, handmade sausages and responsibly farmed local [...]
When Avery Beer Meets Easy Tiger Cooking
Yesterday, out of the blue, I won a contest on Twitter, and made an impromptu night of celebrating two of my favorite things, good food and good beer! Easy Tiger, the best bakery and sausage joint in Austin, hosted and excellent evening of Avery Brewing Company beer paired with a special chef’s six-course dinner. Ryan [...]
Canning in the Old Fashioned Style*
I’m craving pickles right now. And since I can’t get any pickles, sharing my great grandmother’s recipe for Spicy and Dilly Pickled Beans is the next best thing. When my mom was in town a few months back we got into the box of old recipes she gave me and made a few things for [...]
Cooking Dinner With the Sun: A Solar Oven Story
Everybody knows the summers in Austin get hot – last week we had a record of 110°! When it’s such an oven outside it only makes sense to gather the heat of the sun and concentrate it into an aparatus that can cook your dinner for you – keep that heat out of the kitchen! [...]
On Food in Costa Rica
[Or, What I ate and what I thought about it] Phew! It’s been quite a roll, documenting and sharing the first half of our trip. There are some fantastic photos from the second half that I can’t wait to share, but I want to take a step back and share a bit about the food [...]
Hibiscus Mint Sun Tea & The Royal Tea Cocktail
My mom was always making sun tea in the summer when I was a kid. I never made my own until she gifted me a bag of organic dried hibiscus flowers from her adventures in Mexico. So on the first hot day of the summer I taught myself how to make sun tea out of [...]
A Perfect Picnic
Picnics are one of the best things about a new summer! Gathering at the park with friends and seeing fellow picnickers with their romping dogs and kids, shaking out a blanket, searching for the perfect spot, pouring the first drink, unpacking the basket of goodies, unwinding and finding comfort on the lumpy ground…These are my [...]
Homemade Pizza 2 Ways
What is there to say about pizza that hasn’t already been said? It’s the best comfort food, social meal and it’s so good eaten cold the next day (if you’re lucky enough to have any leftovers!). I began making pizza in earnest a few years ago because I love to experiment with new flavor combinations [...]
Continue Some Good
Last Saturday I met a bunch of really great people at a BBQ that I was invited to by the good folks at HourSchool. The party was intended to smoke an inappropriate amount of beef brisket as well as carry on the vibe created at the Start Some Good Pitch Some Good presentations last month. [...]
The Perfect Picnic Sandwich
Summer means picnic time and there’s nothing better than packing a fresh, flavorful spread for you and your friends to enjoy. I’m so excited to make my next smorgasbord, which is my personal picnic style, but if you crave a main dish instead, give this sandwich a try! It combines the best of the picnic [...]
Chocolate Chip Date Cake: A Recipe Card Adventure
I have a few trusty cookbooks that I reference when I need inspiration for a meal or a refresher on a technique I’m utilizing in preparation of a meal, but I don’t often look up recipes to make on a whim. One thing cookbooks and recipes are essential for is baking, which is more precise [...]
The Perfect Summer Drink: Rum Soda
This week it’s gotten up in the 90s here in Austin, and the only way I’ve found to beat the baffling heat is to put on some short-shorts and water the garden with a tasty beverage in hand. So by request from my friend and fellow gardener Daniel Nadeau, here’s my very own, very secret [...]
Camp Cooking: Dinner in the Wild
Cooking while camping can seem like a daunting task: you’re dirty, you’re hungry, the sun is going down, you have limited resources…and you’re out in the wilderness. Making a good meal in camp depends heavily on your ability to plan ahead of time, prepare and store food on the trail, and cook efficiently. This is [...]
Cheddar Biscuit Bliss
There’s no better treat on the weekend than a big homemade breakfast. Ryan is an excellent breakfast cook and I believe his favorite thing to make is a huge brunch – eggs over medium or omelettes, french toast, bacon, pancakes, juice and coffee, and breakfast sandwiches – of which I am the luckiest benificiary! I [...]
Summery Grilled Shrimp Salad
To celebrate the beautiful weather this spring and fuel up for lots of climbing after work, we’ve been eating lots of greens and salads. The grocery store has been carrying fresh (never frozen!) gulf shrimp regularly, the texture and flavor of which are always very good. Ryan proclaimed that this was one of the best [...]
Garden Cocktails
The herbs in my garden have been growing especially fast since the recent rains we’ve received and I’ve been trying to find plenty of ways to use them. The weather is warming up and the evenings have been nothing short of beautiful, so I’ve begun mixing up new and delicious cocktails with these herbs, fruits [...]
On Fennel and Fronds
As spring becomes fully sprung in these parts the cold-weather vegetables in my garden explode with new growth. When I planted the first iteration of this garden almost two years ago I casually sprinkled a few fennel seeds in the north bed and dismissed them with a well, it’d be interesting if these grow…I’m not [...]
Hillside Farmacy is Finally Open!
Ryan and I had a lunch date yesterday at the new Hillside Farmacy, a just-opened cafe on the east side of Austin, right next to the Muddy Water Shop and AC4D’s Hackberry House. Officially the Farmacy opened on Monday, and being Thursday I expected most of the kinks of the new restaurant to be resolved, [...]
