Shoestring Austin » chardonnay http://shoestringaustin.com Because living on a budget doesn't have to suck Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:40:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Austin’s spring food events http://shoestringaustin.com/2010/03/27/austins-spring-food-events/ http://shoestringaustin.com/2010/03/27/austins-spring-food-events/#comments Sat, 27 Mar 2010 23:32:57 +0000 Shoestring Austin http://shoestringaustin.com/?p=184 Spring has sprung, and Austinites are gearing up for annual food events in the great outdoors—the better to celebrate all our warm weather with, of course! After all, what better way is there to experience a city than by eating your way through it? To get you in the foodie mood, here’s a quick list of links to some of the food-related festivities you’ll want to check out during the month of April.

  • Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival (April 15-18) – Featuring plenty of local eats and drinks, plus the expertise of chefs and wine experts like John Besh (Domenica), David Bull (Bolla at The Stoneleigh), Bryan CaswellKaren MacNeil (Reef), (Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies), Mike Martini (Louis M Martini Winery), Elmar Prambs (Trio), and Kent Rathbun (Jaspers Restaurant), among others.
  • Funky Chicken Coop Tour (April 3) – Who doesn’t love chickens? Check out this self-guided city-wide tour of Austin-area chicken coops to see how others are raising our favorite avian friends, or learn how to get started building a coop to raise some funky chickens of your own!
  • Blues, Bluebonnets, Burgers and Bordeaux (April 3) – Pillar Bluff Vineyards, one of the oldest in the state of Texas, hosts an outdoor party featuring everything you’ll need to enjoy yourself on a spring day in Hill Country. Live music (blues), beautiful wildflowers (bluebonnets), tasty burgers and Pillar Bluff Bordeaux wine (among others) will be available at the winery, located at 300 County Road 111 in Lampasas, Texas (about an hour and a half north of Austin).
  • Wine and Wildflowers Luncheon (April 10 and 17) – Looking for more wine and less beef? Check out Fall Creek Vineyards’ Wine and Wildflowers Luncheons, featuring a light lunch and wine tastings, along with a souvenir wine glass for only $22.50 per person. Get out of the city and head north to Tow, Texas about an hour and 45 minutes outside of Austin, and enjoy the scenery whilst you sip sweet chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and more.
  • For those that can afford it, the Sustainable Food Center‘s Chef Series presents Spring Bounty at La Condesa for $100 per person on April 11, featuring “Austin’s most exciting and innovative chefs” on hand to “prepare an exquisite multi-course tasting menu featuring fresh meats and produce from the Austin Farmers’ Market.” Participating chefs include Rene Ortiz, executive chef at La Condesa; Tyson Cole, executive chef at Uchi; Shawn Cirkiel, executive chef at Parkside; Todd Duplechan, executive chef at Trio; Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due Supper Club; Laura Sawicki, pastry chef at La Condesa; and James Holmes, executive chef at Olivia.
  • Slow Food Austin Third Thursday Happy Hour (April 15) – A monthly event, the Third Thursday Happy Hour takes place in April at Olivia, and a portion of the proceeds benefit Slow Food Austin. Participating restaurants and farms are chosen to host events based on their support of a “farm-to-fork philosophy,” encouraging consumption of local food and drink and the support of locally-based farmers.

Got another food related event happening in the Austin area you’d like to share? Get in touch and we’ll be glad to post a link!

]]> http://shoestringaustin.com/2010/03/27/austins-spring-food-events/feed/ 0 Good to the Bone Country-Style Ribs http://shoestringaustin.com/2010/03/03/good-to-the-bone-country-style-ribs/ http://shoestringaustin.com/2010/03/03/good-to-the-bone-country-style-ribs/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:48:02 +0000 Shoestring Austin http://shoestringaustin.com/?p=169 Here at Shoestring Austin, we are nothing if not cheap gourmands. Except for one other thing: sometimes, we are pretty darn lazy. Cooking occasionally takes a back seat when you’re going about your daily business, get swamped with work, or have a family member in the hospital in another state whom you’re concerned about. (Hi, Mom! Hope you’re feeling better!)

In any case, we’ve come up with a completely fool-proof recipe, for fools like us who can’t concentrate on cooking all the time.

In honor of the motto on the BBQ sauce we elected to use in this recipe, we’ve named it Good to the Bone Country-Style Ribs. Here’s what you need:

  • 2 lbs. country-style pork ribs
  • 1 jar Texas-Texas BBQ sauce
  • 1 large shallot (that’s a fancy onion; you can substitute a red onion as you see fit)

That’s it, that’s all! We told you this was easy, right?

Here’s the entire set of directions: Cook for 5 hours on high in your slow-cooker. Seriously, what could be simpler?

Okay, here’s a couple of notes for y’all: layer onions, ribs, and more onions on top so you can soak up the tasty goodness. Trim off the fat a bit, cus gnawing through the gristle isn’t very nice (but a little fat is pretty tasty). And then just let ‘er rip!

Here’s a photo of our results:

Delicious Good to the Bone Country-Style Ribs

Final bit of advice: check around at your local grocery store, as sometimes the packages are mislabelled and you can score, like, 5 lbs of ribs for something crazy like 30 cents. Um… not that we did that. At a store that shall remain nameless. (Tip: Be calm at the cash. Don’t give yourself away. Channel Bart Simpson. You didn’t see me do it. Nobody saw anything…)

Wine recommendation: pair it with a nice Chardonnay or Pinot Gris. Superb! Or drink beer if you must. This is Texas, after all.

The Dining Companion (DC) and I will be fighting over the leftovers tomorrow!

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