Ruby + Mangos = One Happy Julian

Julian's such a freakin' delight to have around. He's a happy child, whose few tantrums don't seem to affect the true nature of who he is. He figured out how to say "Ruby" and "mango" today. Ian's got him saying something that could be discerned as "yellow," and I swear the kid told me my necklace was "pretty." In baby talk, of course. Anyway, here's a few of his new words, plus the crazy happy spinning dance we should all do when sometime elevates our spirits.

A road trip to Missouri, baby in tow

Julian and I drove up to Dallas to pick up my old Spanish roommate, Erin, so we could go visit another roommate, Rachel, and her husband Russell, who were visiting the Southwest Missouri homeland. We had a grand time, driving 12 hours each way through the backroads of Oklahoma and Arkansas to spend two days with our closest friends and family.

It was a fantastic four days.

Blueberry pickin'

We're back to Texas and back on the busy train. Wrapped up the blueberry/recipe column, which has the above video to go with it.

That Jessilyn Akin, she's a wonder. After we did our interview and were just catching up on what keeps us busy these days, she said to me, "Ed would be proud," referring to my grandfather, under whom she worked as a teacher for many years. Brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart to feel his loving gaze upon me, picking blueberries with the most important women in my life (GaGa, my mom, Rachel, Rachel's mom Susan and Erin) and doing a bit of work with a blueberry farmer he also had much respect for.

More on the road trip later...

Work, work, work, today. Off to Dallas tonight. Arrive in Missouri with Erin and baby J tomorrow afternoon to see Rachel and Russman! It's been a year February since we've seen them. Julian was just 4 weeks old and nursing (he had his first bottle with them!) when they saw him last. We took our first road trip with the baby to San Antonio while they were here, too. Oh, how quickly things change.

On this road trip, it will be just the three of us (Ian's staying here for some quiet time.) for just a few days. Floating the James River and picking blueberries are on the agenda, as are unforgettable times with many of my favorite people on Earth.

But before I go, I've got to finish next week's column and go out to a rabbit/chicken/duck farm for an interview.

Missouri, here we come!

A late night snack

I was putting Julian to bed tonight, and he kept signing "eat." So I open the fridge, ready to allow him a food free-for-all, but he didn't want anything. I did the same with the pantry, but the kid kept signing for more food.

As a last ditch effort, I made a peanut butter sandwich and served it with applesauce. He loved it in his dreary I-shoulda-been-asleep-an-hour-ago state.

He throws in a shout-out to his dad, who deserves one today. He's the hardest working stay-at-home-dad and we love him immensely. Thank you, Ian.

Plus, Julian wanted to wish you good night.

Help the lost comments

So it appears La Vie Dansante has lost its commenting ability. I have no clue how to fix this. I've played with the comment settings, but nothing seems to work. Anybody got any ideas? I'll be pretty sad if we lose that ability to communicate...

Since you can't leave a comment, send me an e-mail via the link at right or send me a direct message on Twitter, which you can get to at the spiffy new Twitter badge at right, too.

Yummy Julian

A little video for the Julian lovers. I accidentally deleted a third of the video. Triste, I know. Oh, well...

Honeymoon in the swamp

Well, our honeymoon last month wasn't exactly entirely in the swamps, but you could feel its presence everywhere we went in Lousiana. From the casinos in Lake Charles (we came out $12.50 and 6 drinks ahead) to the long stretches of highway over the wetlands to New Orleans, which is a city in the swamp. From crawfish to oysters, muffaletta to pirogues, boudin to cochon, we stuffed our little faces.

To round out our tour, we actually took a boat ride through a swamp with a man named Norbert LeBlanc, who's been doing this for 40 years. (Shhh, don't tell anybody about the moonshine he's serving in these photos:)) Saw some gators, met a really tan lady and enjoyed cascading through the wild green carpet, which made me realize why they call it "wet lands."

Wouldn't have chosen to have our honeymoon anywhere else. And a special shout-out to Nola: Thank you for reigniting your spirit and sharing it with us.

Wine and beef jerky?

Gary says yes.

Gary Vaynerchuk is on purpose

I wonder if Gary Vaynerchuk and Wayne Dyer know each other. Both Dyer, the spiritual teacher and author, and GaryV, the host of Wine Library TV who I wrote about in today's paper, spend a lot of time using their natural ability to affect change on people.


Dyer does it outright with all those books and seminars (check him out if you don't know him), but Mr. Vaynerchuk uses, of all things, a wine blog in which he shouts at plastic wrestling figures, spits in a bucket and asks viewers about the last thing that made them smile. Don't groan. He means it. He wants to know where the love is at.

When you are achieving your destiny, Dyer calls it being "on purpose." Those Ask and It is Given folks says you are in vibrational harmony with the source. I got the essence of what people love about him. The sincerity, the passion, the heartfelt words. I've met few people who are so truly on purpose as him.

Garyvee is on path in his role as a uniter and motivator. We had such interesting conversations about media and community, two things that are merging so publicly and virtually with the explosion of social networking. But talking about that led us to talk about strengthening our real-life relationships with friends and family. What gives us true joy, what losses hurt the most, what events will bring the next wave of personal change. I met a ton of people at a wine tasting with him in Houston who left the party feeling closer with the friends they came with. When I got home the next day, I kissed my family a little longer.

Gary's keenly aware of these interviews and public appearances and the process through which his words make it into newspapers, magazines and Web pages. So, even though these quotes from the drive (they didn't make the story) are out of context, I think they really give some more insight into what Gary's up to.

"I'm so not into things that separate people into groups."

"People talk about the romance of opening up the newspaper. There was a romance to making smoke signals, too."

"I don't feel like a jerk talking about (my charisma), because I don't think I deserve credit."

"I'm never half pregnant."

"If you think, 'Ooo, video blogging, I'm going to make money doing that,' you've already lost."

"It is my life to build community."

"LeBron James didn't read about being a great basketball player. I didn't read about marketing."

"Until I know someone, I'm not going to judge them. It's the same thing with wine."

"People are scared to go after what they want because either their parents or society told them not to and they believed them."

"People don' t understand how hard I really work. That's the part that's not sexy."

"I think the reason I'm so in tune with my palate is the same reason I'm so in tune with my soul."

Wish you could be on 'Top Chef'?

If you can't get on the show, you can always bring 'Top Chef' home:

FOOD & DRINK

'Top Chef' comes home

For tonight's finale, this group plans to cook Polish food

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Up-and-coming chefs try to whip up fabulous (but sometimes mediocre) meals to impress models, journalists, restaurateurs and celebrity chefs on Bravo TV's hit reality show "Top Chef."

Some Austin friends who meet each Wednesday night for their own "Top Chef"-style competition and watch party just want to impress one another and earn a few bragging rights.

Robin and Tom Gerrow started hosting these "Top Chef" parties for their foodie friends several months ago when the fourth season started. The season ends tonight with "cheftestants" Lisa Fernandes, Richard Blais and Stephanie Izard vying for the $100,000 prize.

The Gerrows had enjoyed watching "Top Chef" with their friends for several seasons, and while watching the finale last season one of them had the idea that they should host their own cooking competition before the show started each week.

Continue reading...

What it's like to be a food writer, so far

I haven't written much about the new job, well, because I've been writing a lot at the new job. Stories, yet, but you wouldn't believe how many keystrokes go to blogging and e-mails alone. I do love me some technology, however, and have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon (broylesa is my name, so have a look and see what you think.) and have been trying to blog like crazy over at Relish Austin. By doing it regularly, I'm hoping to get some readers and get myself used to that blend of work/personal, laid back/professional. It's a tricky balance right now, but I'm working on it.

Since getting back from my road trip last week with Gary Vaynerchuk, I've been booking it on some stories and trying to keep my head above water with e-mails, possible stories, contacts and reader feedback.

The e-mails are mostly from PR folks wanting me to check out a new product, Web site, cookbook or strange berry from South America that will lower my risk of cancer. Some reader mail, which is always fun to reply to. (Only one or two nasty ones, a pretty good record I'd say, seeing as how people take their pie pretty seriously in Texas.) Not too many comments on the blog still...(hint hint and thanks to those who have)

Oh and the snail mail and packages. Even before I started my job officially, I was getting tons of promotional items from companies hoping I'll write about their product. I've received everything from charcoal to spices to a block of Parmesan cheese. And don't forget the books. It's easy to get buried beneath the piles of books, on subjects ranging from cupcake decorating to kosher meals to the best clam shacks in Massachusetts. I donated a bunch to the company book sale earlier this week, the profits of which go to charity. I've held a few back for reference and taken a few home to try.

Speaking of the blog, the "What's in Your Fridge Friday" feature I'm really excited about. I've already lined up a couple of great locals (a hip hop artist/VJ and a nationally renown author) for the next few weeks, so give it a look. And send me a photo of your fridge :).

I'm also going to start a monthly meetup, where I get together with whoever the heck wants to at some random place in town to get to know folks and talk about anything remotely related to food. Appetizers with Addie. I'll launch it this week, probably to take place the week after next. Where should we go? The Ginger Man? Jovitas? Some place up north I don't know about yet?

It's weird being around food (and everything food-related) all day and simultaneously thinking about your own food needs and likes and dislikes. I've already learned that going to our weekly food meeting leaves my stomach painfully grumbling after it's over. Hearing Dale Rice talk about his recent trip to China and all the good food he ate and learned to cook, or listening to our designer regal us with stories of her garden's bounty.

I got caught eating a cup of instant noodles (I was in a pinch, promise!) when I first started, but around the holidays, I'm sure I'll be able to sustain myself on office food alone. Haven't gained any weight — so far.

I've received some new products I thought would taste great but that actually tasted horrible (olive oil, certain trail mixes) and some products I thought would be gag-worthy but that were actually pretty good (cocoa almonds).

Just shows you can't judge a food by anything but its taste.

Millions of peaches

Here's a taste of this week's Relish Austin column on peaches...

Cobbler, schmobbler.
For me, a pie is just peachy

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Think of fresh Hill Country peaches, and you can almost feel the juice trickling down your chin.

Well, grab some napkins, 'cause peaches are here.

The first batch popped up at local farmers' markets several weeks ago, but June marks the height of the season in Central Texas, specifically Gillespie County, where about a third of the state's peaches are grown....

Now, what to do with those heavenly peaches? Jams, cobblers and even smoothies are grand, but for me it's all about the pie. And I promise this column won't be just all stories of my grandmother's incredible cooking, but it would be baking betrayal not to share her peach pie recipe.

This is my favorite of her pies, and she always makes one for me when I visit my hometown, but I'd never seen her actually put the thing together.

So when my grandmother and mother were both in town last week, we made a pie using fresh peaches I bought from a roadside farm stand in Oak Hill.

My grandmother Carolyn Cook started by sifting the flour for her never-fail pie crust, which uses shortening instead of butter, while my mom and I peeled and sliced a large basket of peaches.

"You know, I don't do this at home," my grandmother said of the exact measuring. "I've always done it by guess and by gosh. Hardly anybody measured anything back then."

Despite, or perhaps because of, the exact measuring, this particular pie crust didn't turn out exactly as she'd hoped. After she rolled out the dough circles, they fell apart when she picked them up to assemble the pie. Like a true cook, she didn't throw her hands up in despair, but instead pieced the dough back together like a puzzle for both the bottom and top crusts.

As for the filling, the smaller peaches I'd bought added up on the shy end of the 4 cups required for the filling, so my grandmother added a half cup of blackberries and raspberries, which added a nice color and tartness to the final pie.

With this improvisational attitude, she can use this same recipe to make just about any fruit pie, just as long as the total amount of fruit equals about 4 cups and the amount of sugar is adjusted to taste.

The pie went in the oven for about an hour, and when it came out, it might not have looked flawless, but it sure tasted that way.

I don't know about you, but I prefer a pieced-together pie crust that is savory, light and flaky than one that looks perfect but tastes like it came out of a freezer.

It's the same way with peaches themselves. The small, dark, less-than-perfectly round ones we used for this pie were much tastier than the picture-perfect peaches I bought at the grocery store earlier this year.

Perfection, just as in life, isn't the goal in the kitchen.

And that's the great thing about a good pie. Unless you burn it, there's little you can do to it that a good dollop of ice cream can't fix.

Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

My sister and mom at Mangia Pizza
just a few days after the wedding last month.

My dear sister Chelsea is celebrating a birthday today. Happy birthday, sis! She's in such a great place in her life, graduating from college, getting her first teaching job, wrangling all these kids in her youth group, keeping a happy marriage with husband Kenny. I'm so blessed to have her. She was the mastermind behind decorations at the wedding, and she did an awesome job. She's as capable as decorator as a teacher, in my mind. :)

Love you, Chelsabels!

Are Texas tomatoes safe to eat?

Check out my first news story for the paper, about the salmonella outbreak that's linked to tomatoes and more than 80 reported cases in 11 states.

Relish Austin

Ya'll reading Relish Austin yet?

A lot of my blogging time will be spent there in coming months, so check it out. Leave me a comment! Tell me what you're eating!

Julian photos May 2008

What a month! A new job for MaMa, a wedding for MaMa and DaDa, and a whole new Julian. New words (baba for apple, tsss for teeth, fuh for foot, fuh for food, quu for squirrel, tuh for truck, baa says the sheep, ohoh says the monkey, babo for belly button, uhoh for drop, and I swear I heard him say "water" one day), climbing on top of chairs and tables, gathering berries, sticks and leaves outside. He had such a fun time with all the wedding guests, getting to know the grandparents and the boys again and some friends he'd never met. Oh and the laughter. What joy Julian brings to this world. We are so thankful for him.

Pre- and post-wedding photos

Ian and I are still buzzing from the good energy spread around at our wedding two Sundays ago. We were surrounded by some of our favorite people, many who traveled a good number of miles to join us in a celebration of love. Here are the photos I got with my camera, so there's not many from the actual wedding celebration itself. These are from the pig roast preparation and post-wedding party.



You can buy any of my flickr photos at flickr.com/broylesa.

Also, I've never given a shoutout to the Web mind who makes it so that I can produce these slideshows. A Fabio Cavassini has made a site where you can use photos you've uploaded to flickr to make slideshows. Thanks, Fabio!