stretchin' my tummy to the austin city limits!

last week marked the yearly nerdy nerd fest i always attend - the society of american archivists annual meeting.

every year we nerds descend upon a random US city to discuss such pressing issues as EAD, mass digitization, archives and web 2.0 capabilities, issues surrounding photographs and film and preservation in general.

throw in a healthy dose of eye glasses, knitting and cat stories and there you have it - an annual meeting of archivists.

i'll be honest - i really dig all that archivist mumbo jumbo. i like hearing what other archives are doing cuz some of 'em have big budgets and a staff that actually adheres to archival best practice.

some repositories are just doing amazing, amazing things - like the brooklyn museum's flickr page and the archives of american art's online collections (digitization of entire manuscript collections! incredible!) and i thought this was a pretty bitchin' idea too!!

and of course, the next best things to all of that is eating and exploring in a new city! i'll be honest, i may like that better that the archivist stuff. but just a lil'.

i've been to texas but that was year's ago and it wasn't austin, which is apparently the coolest, least texan city in texas. and you know what they are famous for in texas? you guessed it....BBQ! brisket to be specific.

friends - you know my heart lies in the mustard and vinegary pulled pork of the carolinas but i also heard that nowhere, NOWHERE, does brisket like texas and i was ready to see what all of the hype was about.

upon arrival in austin i was very hungry and with temperatures over 90 with the sun setting - very, very thirsty.

i hit lamberts.



happy hour meant half off beers and all food on the bar menu. woohoo!

i had a fireman's #4, the broiled gulf oysters (good but raw on the beach is WAY better) and the brisket sammich. it was pretty fuckin' good. (and it was only $15!!) oh, and these guys were playn' - the moonhangers.

(insert contextual clue - i was in austin for 4 1/2 days. i didn't eat bbq every single meal but i did have three incredible bbq experiences that were certainly worth noting.)

so, i rented a bike for 24 hours. it was at least 100 degrees every day and walking miles and miles and miles in that kind of heat was unappealing (and buses are on a schedule AND cost money!). instead i decided to bike miles and miles and miles. it was still oppressive but i could cover more ground in less time.

and because i walked all the way to the bike shop i stumbled across this place.



the green mesquite.

ok, i lied. i didn't stumble upon this place. i am a librarian for christ's sakes. and at a librarian's conference no less. i had 2 pages in my notebook dedicated to bbq joints and other points of interest - addresses, telephone numbers, pros and cons provided by local yelpers.

i pride myself in being an educated traveler (and a gigantic nerd). i don't have to hit all of the spots but i list them all over the city anyways and i guess if i stumble across 'em i might as well stop in.

i had to go for the brisket sandwich.

$3.99 plus a couple of bucks for a dos equis on draft.
man, i like texas.



this was so good. smoked meat on cheap white bread. just a lil' sauce. mmm!

and the servers were wearing shirts that said, "horrifying vegetarians since 1988." that made me chuckle while i stuffed my face with brisket.

and then i had a life changing experience.

i went to the salt lick.

i cannot even begin to explain this place and their amazing bbq. if i believed in a god he was the man behind this grill. this was a fuckin' religious experience. the food, the people, the wooden tables and the iced tea. heaven. better than heaven.

they serve 4 kinds of meat - brisket, pork ribs, sausage and turkey. you can get a plate with 3 meats along with beans, potato salad and cole slaw.

here it is. man oh man. there are no words.



my fellow bbq enthusiast (she drove over from houston to experience the salt lick with me) and i stuffed ourselves to the gills. i sliced up the jalapeno and mixed it into my beans. i ripped off a hunk of bread and made a brisket sammich.

they gave us extra sauce in those little metal pitchers that diners use to serve tea or syrup for pete's sakes!

and of course we had to get dessert! think i'm gonna go all the way to driftwood, texas and not order the peach cobbler with ice cream?



and look at this.

just. look. at. this.



the salt lick has a really cool history and it is one of only a handful of open pit bbq joints left in texas.

that pit, just a few feet from where i ate my dinner, is the most beautiful things these eyes have ever seen.

i saw other sights in austin. the hike and bike trail around the lake is beautiful. the bats were amazing and barton springs was incredibly refreshing. i tooled around the state capital and the university of texas. i had a beer at the driskell and one day i fully intend on returning to austin and actually shacking up there. and of course i made my way up and down 6th sampling beers, margaritas and live music.

austin, texas fucking rules and i can't wait to go back. good people, good bbq, and lonestar for a mere $5.79 a 6-pack.

keep austin weird indeed.

soooooooooooey!

here she is. we named her sooey. she was 82 pounds of delicious!

we put her on the hot coals around 7:00 am and basted her all day with a mop sauce of cider vinegar, thinly sliced onions and jalapenos, dry mustard and brown sugar. by 6:00 pm our guests were stuffed to the gills and shouting our praises.

woohoo!

how are you celebrating our nation's independence?

i'm going whole hog.

that's right. an entire pig. slow roasted. all day on a spit. rubbed down and then mopped all day with a vinegary sauce.
buns optional.

back to broken

sad news for the 2 people out there who read my blog. i took my new camera to nag's head with me last month in order to document good friends, good drinks, good food and good times and the damn thing busted on me.

yep, "lens error" is all i'm getting.

what is it with me and cameras at the beach? camera I died in delaware in october and camera II dies in north carolina in may.

DAMN!!

i didn't mistreat it. i was careful to keep it packed up in my lil' bag while i was actually on the beach to avoid sand infiltration. still, it breaks and once again this blog is image-less and without photos it just isn't the same.

i'm not as excited to tell you about the cream puffs that are cooling on wire racks on my kitchen counter cuz i can't show them to you. it's not as sweet to talk about the different cupcakes and butter cream icings kp and i have tried out in the last week cuz i can't show them to you! (fyi - kp and i got booked to bake someone's wedding cake. how sweet is that? kick ass!)

and the pan seared lamb chop, baked sweet potato and corn on the cob i had for dinner? barely worth mentioning since you can't see it! (although, i guess you're not missing much. i'll admit that the chop was a smidge overcooked).

in any case, i am camera-less once again. and i don't think one is gonna drop outta the sky like last time (thanks aunt deb - sorry i broke your gift) so until i learn how to upload photos from my crappy camera phone or until my wealthy benefactor finally shows up i guess i'm on a bit of a hiatus.

i am erratic after all.

movin' on up!

a few weeks ago i whipped out the ol' bucket grill for a twin peaks feast of bbq chicken and sausages. i love that grill. i bought it for $10 at world market two summers ago and that lil' guy has treated me right. sure, it's small but it did the trick.
besides, i'm no size queen.

i would've used the bucket this summer too if i hadn't run across the deal of the century at marc's the other day.

for a mere $20 i got this gem.



here she is gettin' nice and warm for that kick ass pork loin i was about to grill!

i picked up two sweet potatoes and the loin at duma's for only $5! i marinated the loin in honey, soy sauce and some minced garlic while i putzed around my apartment cleaning and doing laundry.

i put the coals on the sides and left the middle of the grill coal-free so the loin wouldn't cook on direct heat.



i basted the loin a few times with the leftover marinade and left that baby alone for about an hour. once it reached 160 degrees i took it off the grill and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

while my loin was resting i steamed some brussel sprouts and added a lil' butter, salt and pepper to the sweet potatoes.

man oh man. this was DELICIOUS!



the pork was soooooo juicy and so tender i barely needed a knife. killer!

man, this grill is so sweet. i'm going to be grillin' and cookin' out all summer long!

sprucin' up an old standby

after lifting weights with the martini and spending 30 minutes on the treadmill i was hungry. lucky for me our special collections librarian hooked me up with a big, beautiful tomato. she said it was a "hot house" (which most are this time of year) but she claimed her mother-in-law brought it from some greenhouse in canada and it was the best "hot house" around.

it did look nice. and it smelled pretty good.

how about a blt?!

first things first - a beer. i'd worked up quite a thirst and brooklyn was there to quench it. today i went with the lager. tasty.



next - the bread. lucky for me i picked up these lil' ciabatta loaves at aldi's for like $1.50. i made chicken salad on sunday night and have been eating it on these mini loaves all week. perfect sammich size. yum!



you bake 'em in a 425 degree oven for like 8 minutes and then they are nice and crusty and yummy.

i also decided i'd roast a few potato wedges. i seasoned them with lawry's season salt and some lemon pepper and then i tossed 'em with some olive oil.



notice that perfect potato alignment? that's called neuroticism.

i cooked my bacon on my stove top cast iron grill and then drained it on paper towels. with nice crispy bacon, a crusty piece of ciabatta and chopped veggies it was time to assemble.

i only like a teeny bit of mayo. whenever i order blt's i always get the mayo on the side. you just need such a small amount - no gross slatherin' here.



next comes the lettuce. usually i'd like a whole leaf but i'd already chopped up my romaine for my lunch salads so chopped it was.



then the bacon.



then to mix things up a bit i added some slices of avocado. mmmm....avocado.



last but not least - the canadian tomato.



and here's my dinner.

who killed laura palmer?! not my bbq chicken!

first - a disclaimer. i noticed it's been a whole month since i posted last. hence the name, ERRATIC epicurean!

for the last year or so a group of friends and i have been getting together to eat (everyone brings something tasty) and watch twin peaks. you are correct in assuming that since it's taken us over a year to watch a mere two seasons of 1990s television that we were a lil' erratic with our get-togethers.

we got together a few weeks ago to finish up and in honor of the sunshine and the season finale i thought i'd get out my lil' bucket grill.

i stopped by difeo's after work to pick up some whole chicken legs and then some good lookin' sausages wooed me. i picked up some hot italian sausage, some boudin sausage, and some turkey sausage (for the shitetarian of course!).

i already had some of my kick ass bbq sauce in the fridge so when i got home i rinsed and dried the chicken with some paper towels. i seasoned the legs liberally with salt and pepper and then roasted them in the oven on a wire rack over a cookie sheet until they were just about done.

why did i roast them in the oven and not just slap 'em on the grill? you'll see. it's a space issue.

while the chicken was roasting i lit the coals. once those were nice and hot and gray i started my sausages.



oops. maybe a lil' too hot for those lil' turkey links!



the turkey sausages were done pretty quickly so i took them off the grill and wrapped them in foil. the larger links took just a bit longer.

mmm. look at those babies. soooooo goooood.



with the sausages cooked and wrapped in foil it was time to start bbq'ing the chicken. i had 6 chicken legs total but due to my space constraints i had to bbq in batches.

i like to brush the chicken with bbq sauce, let 'em sizzle just about 20-30 seconds and then flip and brush and flip and brush and flip and brush until the skin is nice and crispy and and the sauce is caramelized.

here they are when they were just about finished.



YUM! bbq chicken legs are one of my all time favorite foods to grill. i'll be eating this many more times as the weather turns warm.

as for twin peaks...it did not disappoint. what an ending!