Look how much we've grown!

Welcome to summer. April and May are in many ways the best part of summer in Texas. By July, when the rest of the country will be experiencing the heat, humidity and garden growth that we are, it will be too hot to play naked outside.





Julian's longest friend, Ruby, came over last weekend, and they got to pick carrots out of the garden together. (Isn't it crazy how much they've grown? The photo of them as infants was on their first date, when they were both less than three months old.)


Good thing they didn't hit the flowers on the tomato plants. You can see more garden updates on Relish Austin, where I blog once a week about how my garden is growing, what produce we're eating, etc.



Work is fun right now because so much is happening. CSAs are in full swing, as are the farmers' markets. The Hill Country Wine and Food Festival was two weeks ago (which is where I got to try some really great wine, including this one from the Paso Robles region of California. Ian and I are driving the coast of California this summer, and I'm ready to pass up Napa and its swanky sisters for Paso, which is halfway between San Francisco and Santa Barbara.)

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Julian has been into drumming lately, following in the footsteps of his mommy. But I think he's already better at the drum set than me:

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A few photos from April, including more fun in the garden with Ruby, Julian eating a "miracle fruit" that I blogged about this week and one of Julian's first representational structures, a ship made out of his favorite blocks/connnector thingys.

When drooling on the couch beats blogging

For fun -- or more accurately, how to maintain this personal blog and still enjoy the small amount of free time I have -- how about I start posting what I did on the weekend instead of blog?

OK, that's not a sustainable long-term plan, but for today, that's what I'm going to do.

- Hung out with Aaron and Sarah, whose Ruby has the sweetest curls and kisses for Julian. They've known each other since in utero, a special bond that will never be replaced.

- Went out to Uncle Tom's house to see Becca and him. The first time in probably three or four months, the longest we've gone without seeing them since we've lived here.

- Took a nap! Yes, with the windows open this afternoon, I closed my eyes to the slow breath of an overcast spring day and drooled on the couch pillows. Just what I needed.

- Went to a coworker's bridal shower and had a drink and fantastic food with a friend I've made in the food world. We're contemplating a 48 Laws of Power book for women. If I am truly inspired, I might toy with it here. If y'all don't mind.

- Hand-wrote two notes to my remaining grandparents, two of whom just moved to be with my family in Aurora. No sense in talking the talk and not walking the walk. Snail mail has a place, and I'll be damned if it goes away with my generation.

- And, most importantly at this point in my feel-like-an-adult-and-not-just-a-working-mom path, read a book. Not all of one, but 50 pages in a few days feels like I just finished my first Harry Potter. (For all you non-moms who scoff and say you'll find time to read, just wait until they are bipedal.)

Thank you for your patience while I blog every day elsewhere and live my life not attached to a computer when I'm not.

Watching us grow

When I was first pregnant with Julian, I started posting monthly slideshows on my Wed site under the title "Watching Us Grow." At first that was just me and my growing belly, and now we're up to pictures of Julian dyeing eggs and climbing fences. I'm up to 190 posts on La Vie Dansante, which retells only a fraction of our lives from the past few years.

I'm thankful for this outlet, both as a task that groomed me to be a better food blogger and as a record for us so that we don't forget how much fun it is to live our lives.

That is all.
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Here are the February and March photo galleries (so much for staying on schedule, right?). Also, if you can't see the photos, you'll need to add me as a contact on Flickr.

A visit from the egg-dyeing gnomes

For this fun, creative day (somewhat sparked by the awesome stop-motion music video below), we dyed eggs. Julian's first time doing what has always been one of my favorite holiday-related traditions.

Here's the video (thanks, Ricci!):

Here's a glimpse at the egg-dyeing, with an assist from a set of eight egg-dyeing gnomes/elves that were delivered to me at work. They sure helped up make some cool colors. You'll have to read an upcoming Relish Austin column to find out more :) :

(Dying eggs with a toddler is a good time, just don't expect the eggs to escape unscathed.)

SXSW craziness ends with a trip to the beach

The blog posts. The pictures. The videos. The RSVPs. Keeping track of everything in the past few weeks hasn't been easy. I knew covering the South by Southwest Interactive Festival and Conference would be challenging, but I think I still underestimated the amount of work and energy it would take to do it properly.

And boy did it wipe me out.

We went to Port Aransas/Corpus Christi on Sunday to recharge (I didn't even take my laptop!) and now we're back. Here's a quick recap (follow the links to read/see what I posted) in case you weren't skipping and jumping around Statesman.com, Austin360.com and Twitter to follow as I was doing it:

Wine Library TV video blogger and marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk and I did a video ahead of his awesome SXSW panel.

Tyler Florence was in town promoting his line of baby foods.

I covered SXSW panels on how social media is changing how we think about our "friends," what it was like blogging as a teen in the '90s when everyone didn't have an online journal, why professional blogging is bloodsport for women, why Web 2.0 is a woman's world, why we should try to do something epic with our online lives instead of create gimmicky projects, what new trends we'll see for mobile technology (ie buying groceries with our phones) and how the Internet is making sustainable food easier to access.


I, along with Austin360, Whole Foods Market and the Go Texan wine program, hosted a party for food and wine bloggers on March 16 that was a huge success. About 80 food and wine bloggers and their guests ate food from Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due Supper Club and Tyson Cole, above, of Uch (that's Maggie of Maggie's Austin, a local food blog). Hope to make this a yearly event.

Over on my food blog, Relish Austin, I wrote about eating pork belly for breakfast at the Uchi SXSW party, Hudson's on the Bend chef Jeff Blank opening a trailer to sell the famous chicken cone and Rachael Ray's big SXSW party, which featured the New York Dolls and the Hold Steady, both of whom Erin and I mingled with in the artists' lounge.

Did you see the video Rachael and I did? She's a sweet, hard-working girl whose constant cheer still annoys most people, even her fans. Shorter than me, but dressed cute as a button in her best western wear.



And a personal highlight was speaking on a SXSW panel on food blogging. I did a live chat with some of the bloggers the week before the festival, and when they were in town, we chowed on crawfish and cupcakes. My new friend Emily, receiving her very own plastic bib, right, wrote about it for Gourmet.com.















Did I mention we celebrated Ian's birthday with a lovely dinner at Ranch 616?



Whew. When it was all said and done, we headed east, to meet a man about some lamb (or rather for a story about a man with some lamb) and then to the beach, where Julian played in the sand and waves for the very first time. (He's also started drumming with Daddy in the garage.) More photos to come when I get caught back up at work (ie, next year :)).

Look, ma! Me and Tyler Florence!

Proof of how crazy this week has been. Here is a pic of me interviewing the Food Network's Tyler Florence, which is only probably No. 5 in the list of Top 10 things from this week.


Details on why this week has been one of the best ever are coming soon...

(Picture from Marshall Wright.)

Getting dirty in the garden

Proof of the fun we had outside today, raking and planting and generally enjoying the yard in 86 degree weather. A dirty toddler is a happy toddler.

Look for a post on Relish Austin in the next few days about our ever-growing garden. We added tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, chard (I know that on is a long shot this far in the year) and few kinds of pepper. Sunflowers found a home along the fence.

This month's Addie's Eat-Up (formerly Appetizers with Addie) was at the Dart Bowl, where we stuffed ourselves with delicious chicken fried steak and cheese enchiladas. The nicest waitstaff around (or at least ours was :)). Julian's full diaper made bowling a little more colorful. (Thanks, Marshall, for the photo!)

My kombucha-making is coming along. A strong SCOBY was growing on a smaller jar of kombucha I was brewing, so I added it (and the well-developed vinegar-tasting liquid is helped form) to the mama jar, which was still full of a liquid that was still too close to sweet tea to resemble kombucha.

Lots of fun playing at home! SXSW starts at the end of the week, so I'm glad I got all of this home-making done this weekend. The next two weekends will be jammed packed with creative stimulation (and free food. Another thing I'll be posting about this week on Relish Austin).

Decadent weekend of wine and crab legs

Neighbors Justin and Kerstin and Scott joined the family on a trip to Spicewood Vineyards for a chili cook-off I was judging. Delicious food and wine. Windy day, but a strong late February sun made it a gorgeous day to be in the Hill Country.



The night before, we grilled crab legs (OMG, so good. I might post about it this week on Relish Austin) in the backyard on what felt like a summer evening, cicadas and all.

My life, 140 characters at a time

Another week of Relish Austin blogging and Twitter microblogging (I'm not a huge fan of the word, but today, it serves my purpose), another week not blogging on La Vie Dansante. Here's a glimpse of my past week in a handful of tweets, or 140 character updates I send out on Twitter.

It's amazing how much you can say in such little tweets.
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"Nice singing, Daddy." "I like your brown jacket, Mommy." I love it; Julian's language is starting to stroke our egos. Well, played, kid.

Deliriously full after judging a chili cook-off at Spicewood Vineyards. Tough competition: 22 entries. 10 really good entries.

Someone watching me on WNTW just now facebooked me and asked my sign. He guessed Capricorn. Nope, Cancer.

Just confirmed: I'll be taking @glutenfreegirl's place on the @sxswi food blogger panel. (She's got a much-anticipated book to finish.)

In case you were wondering: Taxes on a $5,000 shopping spree w/ @clintonkelly run about $800.

The doom! The gloom! The dreary days ahead! I know it's bad, bad, bad, but since when was change such a horrible thing? WWO(bama)D?

"It's spring in Austin. You can't work enough; you can't play enough," my uncle, Tom, tells me during our weekly catch-up visit. True, that.

Just made delicious spring garden (read: greens) dinner. Look for recipe in next week's food section. Bok choy, kale, beet greens AND chard.

Having a yearly look at my student loan status. At this rate, it'll be 2017 by the time it's paid off. Boy, was it worth it. (Oh, Spain...)

Would you give up coffee for tea? @shannonmarieee did, and so did @majorpepper (well, almost) http://budurl.com/ug6r

Bummed I missed Obama's speech. @tipsytexan dinner and drinks wooed me. My fingers are still sticky from the shrimp boil.10:21 PM Feb 24th from web

Here's a chat about tea that @dr_oolong and I had a while back. Consider it a primer for tomorrow's article on hot tea: http://is.gd/kKm9

@italyinsf Ever since I was pregnant, I've been spoiled drinking whole milk. Pediatrician says toddlers don't need it, but what about ME?!

Sore from yesterday's softball game, where other team forced us to play w/ 2 sizes of balls. Women hit small balls, men big. *cue jaw drop*
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So if you skimmed those tweets or just plain skipped past them, let me say again the super awesome news of the week: I'm going to speaking on a panel about food blogging at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to be a part of such a respected gathering of such smart folks. Details to come on Relish Austin.
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Enough with tweets and words. Photos I've been meaning to share:

(Julian before devouring two cupcakes at his friend Addie's birthday.)

(Through Skype, Chelsea, Kenny and my parents
enjoyed a piece of chocolate with Julian.)

(Incredible sunset after Thanksgiving at Tom's)

Catching up on baby greens and unidentified plants

Sorry I've been absent from this blog in a while. I've been mostly tending to my family and my job and occasionally tending me and a garden. I finally updated the writings section of addiebroyles.com, where you can find all of my most recent articles and columns. If you've been checking Relish Austin, you will have seen my backyard/Victory garden go from two boxes of dirt to a budding produce aisle.

I've been cooking a lot for work lately. I tried to brew kombucha, but my SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) grew a mold in the first week! I was so bummed, but I'm going to give it another try. Ian and I are going to make a shepherd's pie tonight with Loncito lamb, THE Central Texas lamb dude. (Julian and I actually met and talked with Loncito - that's his first name - at the farmers' market today. Nice guy. Passionate about meat.)

As you can see, I have plants growing out of the bottom of my compost pile. I uploaded a bunch of garden and kombucha-making pictures to flickr. If you can tell me what those plants are, I'd be very grateful. Ian says the are potatoes; he's eager to eat them.

Here are our two garden beds. One is filled with carrots, beets, onion, shallots, garlic, dividing onions, chives, purple and white onions, broccoli, spinach, kohlrabi, flowers and lettuce.



The other box has peas, flowers, onions and a "spring mix" of greens.



In the "non-gardening fun" category, we've reconnected with Tasha, the wonderful friend who introduced Ian and me. It had been about three years since we'd stopped hanging out so much, but Tasha and I kept running into each other. When we finally got together for dinner, we fell in love with her girlfriend, Camille, and remembered why we befriended Tasha in the first place. They really connected with Julian. We went out to dinner last night and they all worked together on this painting. Even Camille, who is a bona fide painter, loved Julian's nontoxic, plasticy paint.