Monday, March 28, 2011

Ninfa's Green Sauce

What's the one things at Ninfa's that's even better than the ninfaritas??? The green sauce of course! Last Thursday in my excitement about my trip to Austin for Round-Up, I decided to try and recreate on of my favorite dips for my friend and wonderful weekend hostess, Alex Butts. It turned out to be a big hit so I thought I'd share the recipe. 


Ingredients:
8 oz of sour cream
1/4 tablespoon of salt
3 small garlic cloves
jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 avocados, pitted and sliced
3 medium-sized GREEN tomatoes, chopped
4 tomatillos, cleaned and chopped 


if you don't know what tomatillos are, they look like this: 


Instructions:
Heat chopped garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, and jalapenos pan or wok by adding 1 cup of water and bringing to a boil. Once boiling, lower stove to medium heat for 10 minutes then turn off stove and let cool for 10 minutes.
Add warm tomato mixture with the cilantro, avocados, and salt in blender and blend until smooth then pour into a bowl and stir in sour cream. Chill in the refrigerator before serving with tortilla chips!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

When Cooking Gets Fishy

Love the benefits of eating fish, but out of yummy ways to cook it? Here's a refreshing recipe that is quick, easy, healthy, and great at removing that fishy taste.


Ingredients:

2 fillets the fish of your choice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper
1 lemon
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh chopped basil

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees


In a shallow baking pan, sprinkle a small layer of pepper and a little bit of salt. Using no more than 1 tablespoon of olive oil, rub oil and ½ tablespoon of lemon juice over fish fillets and place in baking pan. Sprinkle tops of fish with pepper and a little salt. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until fish is cooked through.

While fish is baking, mix together ½ tablespoon of salt, ¼ tablespoon of pepper, 5 tablespoons olive oil, and 3 tablespoons lemon juice.  Add finely chopped basil to food processor along with the mixture and blend until a semi chunky liquid.

When fish finishes cooking, drip the basil vinaigrette all over the top of the fish and serve. 

SXSW Recap



Thursday
After spending Wednesday night camping on the Guadalupe River near New Braunfels, my spring break crew made the trip to Austin just in time to grab some breakfast at Juan in a Million (if you haven't been before, I highly recommend it) and make it to The Parish right before The Joy Formidable got on stage. I've spent over a year and a half being obsessed with this band, so this moment was a little bit of a dream come true. Even in her appropriately stylish dress, Ritzy (lead guitar/vocals) jammed out all over the stage, played each song with remarkable likeness to the quality of its album version, and with relentless energy, captured the crowd's attention throughout the entire show.




When they finished, we hopped over to the MTV Garage Party where Matt & Kim were in the middle of their set. I watched the rest of their show from the top of a fence on the border of the party where there was a perfect view of the stage. As they ended and the crowd started coming out of the party, we ran inside and happened to come across Matt talking to fans near the stage. Talk about perfect timing...


Later we made our way across Lady Bird Lake to where the The Strokes were about to go on. The fenced off area was way past capacity but we found a perfect place to sit and listen to the show.



Friday
We had breakfast Friday morning at another Austin hot spot, Kerbey Lane Cafe, before going to see GIVERS perform at Emo's downtown. Even though this was my fourth time to see GIVERS live, I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. As always, they performed with a happy-go-lucky energy that pulls the entire crowd into the great time they are so obviously having. 



I don't know what you've heard before about Friendly Fires but with a frontman like Ed Macfarlane, they give the genre dancepunk a whole new meaning. Watching this guy perform is something I think everyone that has ever head-bobbed to one of their catchy songs should have to witness. These photos can hardly capture it so you've got to see it for yourself.




So overall, SXSW was a total success and we managed to see every band we REALLY wanted to just by hanging out at the free parties. After a weekend like this, I'll for sure be back next year.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

20 Bands Worth Seeing at SXSW

For part of my spring break I'm hanging out in Austin to catch some of the music portion of SXSW this year. Without the money for a $600 wristband, I'm trying to just cheat the system and take full advantage of sxsw's free parties. Lately I've been RSVPing to as many parties as possible to hopefully get to see some of the bands on my top twenty list. Thanks to The Fader, I got a wristband to Fader Fort and among all of the great lineup, Matt & Kim and Bon Iver have got me soooo excited I  reserved a spot with them. Oh and did I mention Kanye was announced to headline this year... well that's just a peak at my list of top twenty bands everyone should see at SXSW 2011.


If you don't know them, check them out NOW


Joy Formidable 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W66yhfMb4d0

Givers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6RVfIMUAks

Klaxons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4yxoHwNzEE

Matt & Kim 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0oIhUqO8QE


Bon Iver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9lrVZdaluk


Starfucker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z8oYH_bhnA

Kanye West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE


TV on the Radio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6FUTNa6WJk



Said the Whale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlPpllrfDDY


The Limousines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ2qAwXCgwk


The Cool Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrCfNhN2GFA


Tahiti 80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlPgkaq2xmw


DeVotchKa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfi1UQ_PKQI


Cold War Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfDvpfC2bw


City and Colour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btjhdHX8pMo


Lupe Fiasco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrF4BJ1cwPE


Cary Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3kALKf9oUY


Bright Eyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiK6VDqhQ4


Sundress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnNH6lKSXA




Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Five Things I Can't Live Without



Although I should probably kick off this new blog with something a bit more original, I've seen a little blog game going around called Five Things I Can't Live Without and coming up with those was simple enough, sooo... here are the five things I simply can't live without:



my phone
we've obviously been through a lot together

camera

my bicycles

balsamic vinegar

music, duh
Ghostland Observatory Concert - Halloween 2010