Take the Greyhound to Fredericksburg

(Suggested listening for this post: Stoned, an Old 97s classic, and ear worm of the weekend.)

July already? Good heavens, the summer's just been summing along and not a word on ye olde blog. A weekend trip to lovely Fredericksburg, TX will remedy this situation!

So my fella had a work training out in Fredericksburg Thursday and Friday, and we decided to make a weekend of it. We were lucky to happen upon a Groupon for a guest house about 10 minutes outside of town WITH a hot tub on the back porch. Yes.

While he was doing his training thing, I took in a few things that didn't include retail overload (it was easier than one might think). Thursday afternoon, I paid a visit to the National Museum of the Pacific War. The museum takes the visitor through a pretty comprehensive overview of US military history in Asia and the South Pacific from the late 1800s through the second World War. For a mere $14, I could've spent the whole day (or really, the whole weekend) sifting through gallery upon gallery of exhibits, artifacts, oral history recordings, and the like. While my attention span wasn't prepared for such a demanding experience, I learned more about this period of world history in a few hours than I did in high school or college.

Friday morning, I managed to get myself out of bed for some hot yoga at Lizard Dreaming Yoga. Good call, me! Patti Williams led a fun, invigorating adapted Bikram sequence, of the your-body-is-your-greatest-teacher variety. The studio's atmosphere was welcoming and full of natural light. Point, Fredericksburg!

Geoff finished up with his class around noon on Friday, and after lunch at our guest house, we took the obligatory trip to Luckenbach. We spend a few lazy hours drinking Pearls and listening to a rotating group of guitarists + 1 fiddler take turns playing songs (I'm assuming this is a pickers circle). What surprised me was that a few paces away from the bar and picnic tables, all the human sounds were drowned out by South Grape Creek and wildlife (mainly cicadas). It was so pleasant, and Geoff spotted a tiny frog that could have fit on a quarter.

Saturday, we had to move our little dogies along. We had one last soak in the hot tub with our coffee (recommended way to start the day), checked out of the guest house, and headed out to Enchanted Rock for a little more nature. Climbing that thing was an experience! Being 1) a bit afraid of heights and 2) quite clumsy, I was hesitant to hike all the way up the Summit Trail. But Geoff convinced me, and I'm glad he did. That big, blue, unbroken sky, wow, the stuff of Western mythos.

Spectacle crawl

What a week! I worked Monday-Friday, as usual, but still made it to several Fusebox events- a stop on both the Yoga AND Frito Pie tours (I only had a margarita, but I'm still counting it), a play without actors at the Long Center, and a bring-your-own-record listening party. Saturday, though, was the main event. 

I began the day with the final stop on the Fusebox yoga with Adriene tour. Each stop took place at a different, non-yoga-studio location- an art gallery, a theater lobby, a front lawn, or in Saturday's case, the upper outdoor mezzanine of the Long Center. I've really been enjoying Adriene's informal, do-what-feels-good approach to yoga, and here's what was pretty outstanding about this hour in particular- several other events were in progress around us, and she wove the sounds and smells into our class. The first and dare I say only time a yoga class has included roasted corn and "C'mon 'n Ride it (The Train)."

Heart open and limbs limbered (limbered?), I proceeded to my next spectacular destination: The Big Squeeze Accordion Contest finals at the Bob Bullock Museum. I went to this event last year and was really blown away. Texas has sown some amazingly talented young (and old) accordion players, and getting to see our state's finest again was a real pleasure. This year, we were treated to polka, conjunto, and zydeco styles, all from musicians under 21. I was a little disappointed that the categories also fell down racial lines- without exception, white kids played polka, Hispanic kids played conjunto, black kids played zydeco. Maybe initiatives like the Big Squeeze will encourage a little mixing. How great would be if a hybrid of all three styles, accessible to all musicians emerged from the players just hanging around together? Polkonjunteco? Sign me up.

One bus mishap later (Capital Metro, I just... ugh), I returned to Fusebox happenings for the end of Body Shift: Cripping the Streets. The Body Shift company, made up of dancers with and without disabilities, performed a series of improv-based pieces through the streets (and crosswalks!) of downtown Austin. In general, their work is challenging, uncomfortable or tense at times, but ultimately, joyful. Like good radicals, Body Shift 1) forces the audience to examine their social constructs while 2) offering an alternative to it. What are dance, movement, and participation when you don't stand, see, or have control over your body? After viewing Cripping the Streets, I would suggest those definitions are at the dancer's discretion. Have a little watch!

Setting neurons and taste buds abuzz

Continuing with Fusebox & other adventures, last Saturday was a real culture binge. I began my afternoon at the New Fiction Confab, an annual event held by the Austin Public Library Foundation (<3). I had the pleasure of listening to excerpts of the latest works of seven novelists (six actually, I was a bit late) based in Austin and elsewhere. They covered a lot of ground in those fleeting few hours- family tensions, isolation, cultural upheaval, sexual dynamics, even some laughs! I enjoyed everything I heard, but if I had to list my favorites, they are (ahem ahem):

• Mary Miller, The Last Days of California. Evangelist road-trip to the apocalypse.
• Elizabeth McCracken, Thunderstruck and Other Stories. 1920s Pinkwater-esque adventuring awaits!
• Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. Desperate times in Chechnya.

As luck would have it, a few blocks away from the library, Fusebox was holding an Art Flavours tasting: the products of an art critic's and a gelato-maker's attempt to translate modern art concepts (The Body, Spectacle, The Archive, Memory) into gelato flavors (delicious, delicious, delicious, I had to stop I was getting a tummy ache). What really struck me about this project was that it asked not only what can you translate between media, but also what cannot be translated. And of course, free and refreshing desserts.

Saturday evening, I had signed up to run the merch table for Looking for Paul, a play by Dutch company Wonderbaum about... hmm, how can I sum it up without giving it all away? Come to think of it, I couldn't possibly give this one away, but I'll still try not to. The first section is a discussion of the piece's own creation. The second section is a discussion of the piece's own creation, along everything else that happened along the way (I think). Looking for Paul left me (and a fair percentage of the rest of the audience) dazed and uncomfortable, grasping for what to make of it all. I wasn't sure I liked it, which I always count in a piece's favor. After letting my brain shake off the chocolate sauce and reflect a bit, though, I find I stand firmly in the camps of "Liked," "Enjoyed," and "Would see again."

A Little More

Food experiments have taken a bit of a spring slumber in my kitchen, but a lot of other interesting stuff has been shakin'. Given the name and spirit of the blog- also, whose going to stop me- I'm going to try rolling in what I've been up to outside of the kitchen. Not unlikely sushi.

The past week has provided a dare I say perfect opportunity to do this. Here in Austin, we're in the thick of the Fusebox Festival, a ten day party of boundary-pushing, interactive performance and visual art that gives the finger to genres and conventions (although at times, still writes them a 'do u like me' note folded into a seemingly impossible 7.5 pointed star). It's fun as hell, and I've had the pleasure of volunteering at several events.

... starting with Mozart Requiem Undead, an experiment, let's call it, spear-headed by the Golden Hornet Project. For this collaboration, ten composers from all over the map pounced upon Mozart's last work, the Requiem Mass, which he died before he could finish. Said composers filled in the blanks. For the performance, a string and brass section, several percussion set ups, a band, and keys joined a choir of 200 volunteer singers at the French Legation, a beautiful, sprawling outdoor venue in the downtown vicinity. People were climbing the walls to get in. I'm not exaggerating, I was standing guard- with selective efficacy- at the side gate.

To set the scene: the weather was perfect, the space was enchanting, and the performance knocked everyone's socks right off their tapping toes. I don't know how to talk about music in any technical or expert sense (is that a treble... clef?), the best I can come up with is this: The show was fucking awesome. The emotional swells that Mozart has such a mastery over came through, as did the fun that each composer clearly had with re-imagining their movement. The audience's anticipation of what surprises the next movement would bring seemed to consistently give way to delight. The effect of 200 voices- even untrained- singing all at once- shivers, y'all.

A lot of people have reviewed or commented on the show already, so I'll leave it at this: my boss was also there, a man old enough to be my dad, and certainly with different tastes and sensibilities than I. At work the next day, spills of laudatory adjectives burst forth as we rehashed our experiences, although making a coherent sentence seemed beyond our capabilities. We were geeking the fuck out about this shit. Golden Hornet Project, I have a cleverly folded note for you.

Coconut Cream Smoothie

It's been a while! Life has taken a turn for the busy, so I've had to put kitchen adventures on the back burner. But I threw something together last night that delighted me so, I couldn't keep it to myself.

Coconut Cream Smoothie (raw, vegan)
makes just over 2 cups, 1-2 servings depending on your appetite

1 large banana 

1/2 large apple (of the Gala, Fuji variety) 

8-10 cashews 

1 pitted date 

1/2 Cup unsweetened, shredded coconut 

1 cup (give or take) unsweetened almond milk 

optional- 1 Tbs flax seeds (I add this to every smoothie for the Omega 3s)

Put all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend to desired consistency. I've recently discovered the Smoothie Setting on my Vitamix; it's amazing! Perfect texture EVERY time!

And that is all you need for a decadent coconut flavor-trip! I almost always put a few frozen items into my smoothies so they're nice and cold, but the warm temperature of this recipe doesn't hurt the outcome one bit. It kinda feels pie-ish, which is never a bad thing.

Raw Bites

I'll see your poker chips and 

raise you a tasty snack.

Fruit and nut bar success! Unlike my last attempt at the raw food snack bar cookie thing, I ditched recipes and followed my instinct. Turns out, it's pretty sharp. Or, that making this kind of thing is so ridiculously easy, you'd really have to be over-thinking it to screw it up... 

I had a bunch of seedy, nutty odds and ends that needed using, so I combined their powers into the following recipe.

Make Room fer Raw Bites (raw, vegan)
makes 2 cups of paste, variable servings

1 Cup dried dates, pitted and soaked for about 30 minutes 

1/2 Cup almonds 

1/2 Cup rolled oats

1/4 Cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 Cup sunflower seeds

1/4 Cup sesame seeds

small handful macadamia nuts

1Tbsp coconut oil 

1-2 Tbsp vanilla

1. Put all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend on a low to mid setting. The tamp will only get you so far on this one, I had to stop that blender and scrape the sides several times.
   
   (I typically like my fruit-nut bites with a lot of texture, but if I was going for a smoother consistency, I'd grind the nuts and seeds into a meal or flour before blending. This would also be a good idea if you look around your kitchen and don't see a high speed blender.)


2. Once everything is mixed into a fairly homogeneous paste, form the paste into little bite sized pieces with your hands. I got 27. You could also make balls, bars, really any shape. Got a cookie cutter? Go crazy.


3. You can eat them right away, or chill in the fridge for a couple hours first. Store in fridge or freezer. I see a lot of recipes that recommend separating each bite or bar with plastic wrap or some such, but I never bother.

This recipe is one of dozens (hundreds? thousands?) that you could make: experiment with other dried fruits instead of the dates or use a nut butter; sub your own favorite nuts and seeds; add chocolate, shaved coconut, or other flavorings; make it savory rather than sweet. Here are some tasty looking recipes from Counter Culture Living. Here are some more from 100 Days of Real Food.

Take THAT, added salt and sugar, preservatives, and unnecessary soy!

Surprise, it's Granola!

I’ve made my own raw food bars/ snacks a couple times and really enjoy having them around. I found a neat, customizable recipe at choosingraw.com (really, I should just change the name of this blog to the choosing raw fan club). I misjudged the amount of time the ingredients needed to blend, though, so when I should’ve pulled a pan of gooey but sliceable fruit-nut-paste stuff out of the fridge, I got a bunch of crumbles. Crumbles! Fortunately, I found that the mix was still super filling and tasted amazing atop yogurt with blueberries or with almond milk as a kind of muesli cereal thing. Success!

Happy Accident Granola (raw, vegan-able)

makes about 4 cups

1 Cup almonds, raw 

1 1/4 Cup quick oats 

1/4 Cup chia seeds 

1/4 Cup raw sunflower seeds 

Pinch of sea salt 

2 tsps cinnamon 

1 Cup goji berries 

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1 Tbsp agave nectar 

3 Tbsp honey (for a truly vegan variation, just use agave nectar) 

2 Tbsp ground flax seed

Blend to desired consistency and refrigerate. This will also do fine in the freezer.

I’ll try fruit bars again (with more blender patience!), but I’ll also be returning to this easy, happy-accident granola very soon.