Monday, April 15, 2013

Toddy Iced Coffee at Home - The Coffee Sock Co.

Monday Morning Coffee Talk:

It's Toddy season people!  It's warming up and I only want cold brewed coffee from here on out!  Toddy is a trademarked cold brewing system but is synonymous with any sort of cold brewed coffee.  No longer do we just throw ice cubes in our otherwise warm coffee!  Grodie!  Who wants watered down coffee!?  Cold brewing refers to steeping your grinds in room temp or cold water for an extended period of time.  This process of slowly extracting flavor from the beans produces a different chemical profile than conventional brewing methods.  The result seems a bit sweeter due to lower acidity and much more concentrated.  This brew will definitely kick you into high gear!  Last year around the holidays I was gifted this amazing Toddy maker by Corina Guillory of The Coffee Sock Co.  I'm so excited to finally use it! 



I've known Corina for many moons, she being a long time customer of the market I used to run.  Her company makes reusable, organic cotton coffee filters, tea bags and cold pressed coffee kits...genius!  She hand sews all of the bags!



Toddy Filter


HERE is a list of her products.  Corina is incredibly sweet and crafty and I am so proud of her!  You can purchase her products or find out where to buy them HERE.

So...now we know what Toddy is but how do we brew it!?  It's easy folks.  The Coffee Sock Co. Cold Brewer comes with simple instructions to help you out.


Here's what you do:

1.  Grind your beans COARSE.  Muy importante.  Like so: 



2.  Keep your Coffee Sock folded over your jar and fill with the grinds.  Corina suggests 2 cups of grinds per 7 cups of liquid.  So fill that bad boy with roughly 2 cups grinds.

3.  Pour water over grinds to make them bloom.  Simply wet (not soak) them for about a minute.  You will see the grinds rise and break apart a bit...like a muffin rising. 

4.  Add 7 cups of cold water to your grinds.  You will see the water seeping out like so:



5.  Tie up your Sock.  I wrapped the string around LOOSELY and then placed the ring around it.  You don't want to wrap the Sock too tightly.


6.  Place in fridge for roughly 12 hours.



7.  Pull out sock and enjoy!  



 These Socks are reusable.  Just rinse out, dry and use over and over again!







 


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Big Bend Vacation!

Mo Chillaxin'
Rosie Chillaxin'



West Texas,

We Heart You!







We packed up the dogs and headed out West!

As a life-long Texan, I've never been to Big Bend!!  Can you believe!?  Well that's all changed now, ya' see.  I'm a desert gypsy, a rock collector, a star gazer!  I AM a West Texas Wild Child!

We started our week off in the hip, artsy town of Marfa.  Dusty roads and tumbleweed the size of beach balls.  It's a 1-light town.  We stayed in one of Liz Lambert's renovated hotels, The Thunderbird.  It was actually a little run down...needs a bit of upkeep.  The pool was green :/  BUT...they had record players, vinyl and cruisers to rent....so that made up for the pool. 



We rode around town lovin' the isolation and the freedom!  We ran into the same 10 people...a couple of which I recognized from Austin of course!  It feels like it could be a sweet, cozy town...but I didn't get a lot of warmth from the people there.  Just sayin'.

 

So Rude!  ;)
Brad & Rosie waiting for bfast tacos!

 **If you are going to bring your pups, be aware that there aren't too many green spaces in Marfa AND the green spaces they do have, are loaded with stickers.  Ouch!

Places I recommend:

1. Moonlight Gemstones - cool, little rock shop loaded with rocks, gemstones and fossils
2. Pizza Foundation - old, converted full service gas station now serving wood fired pizzas.  yum!
3. Maiya's - Italian food - right in the heart of it all.  Amazing space and great staff.

4. Marfa Book Company - really cool book shop - specializing in all the goods - art space connected to it
5. The Get Go - natural food store
6. Frama - the coffee shop in Marfa - adjacent to Tumbleweed Laundry
7. Future Shark - from the owners of Food Shark trailer that wasn't opened when we were there :(  This is an actual restaurant space.  It's cafeteria style but super yummy and great wine selection

Ok...that's almost every place in Marfa.  Ha!  Have fun!

McDonald Observatory
A MUST SEE if you are heading west is the McDonald Observatory.  Check their website to attend a Star Party.  I think tickets are $25/pop...but all goes back to the Observatory and it's so worth it.  The party starts at around 8:45pm.  You and a couple 100 other people sit outside in a circle and listen to the director of the program talk a bit about what you can expect to see that evening.  He had this AMAZING green laser pointer that he then used to point out all the goods!  I now know how to find the North Star, that you can see Jupiter at this very instant and where to find the galaxies M81 & M82!  After about 45 minutes of oohing and aahing, he lead us to the telescopes.  The lines were long but again...so worth it.  This is a perfect excursion for the kiddos!

Star Gazers
Onward & upward...we head down to Big Bend!  Our destination is the Lajitas Golf Resort in Lajitas, TX.  Lajitas is smack dab in the middle of Big Bend State Park and Big B
end National Park.  We made our way south and then east through Presidio, TX.  The drive is amazing!!  You drive right along the Rio Grande.  Although mostly bare...the mountain drive was beautiful!  Something like the picture below but there were no clouds and hardly any water.


Big Bend
 It is hot down here in the spring!  97 degrees I think it got up to!  But it's that yummy dry heat...AND the pool at the resort was super cold.  I have nothing but amazing things to say about
Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa.  It wasn't overly posh (no room service!) but it was very nice.  Golf, spa, horseback riding, ghost town tours, gun shooting, hiking, biking, canoe trips, kayaking....they have it all!  We just wanted to relax mostly so we hiked a bit and mainly sun bathed and read by the pool. 


Lajitas Resort Pool - Big Bend
The resort's restaurant is delicious and the bar there is super low key and comfortable.  The resort also has a few small shops on the property.  I loved the store Christina's World.  Chris has all sorts of little treasures...including an amazing jewelry selection, some of which her and her partner create!  \

I fell in love twice while in West Texas.  My first love is the Ochitillo Plant.  They were in full bloom.  They reach up to the sky with their spiky, green stems and full, juicy, red blooms.  Absolutely stunning!  And...they're everywhere!


My second love I found out west was here all along!  Ms. Patti Smith.  I picked this lil' gem up at the bookstore in Marfa.  She has lived a fascinating life...always at the right place at the right time.  I'm not a huge fan of her music but her poetic sense is spell binding and so is this book!  I look forward to getting to know more of her work.

 
 An absolute must down in these parts is the kooky little town of Terlingua.  Be sure to grab a beer at the cavernous La Kiva and a bite at Starlight Theatre.  Take in the night on the benches in front of the Theater.  Characters a plenty!  Great people watchin'! 



Get Me Home!
 Loooong 8 hour trip home.  Pups were glad to be back! 











Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Vegan White Russian Recipe

My blog is getting quite the buzz over in Russia this week.  So to celebrate with my new friends...I give you the Vegan White Russian!  Mmm-mmm good!



You will need:

1 shot Coffee Liquor (go HERE for a home made vegan version!)
1 shot Vodka (my fave is Monopolova)
Splash of Coconut Milk Creamer
Splash of Light or Unsweetened Soy Milk

Mix it up and enjoy on the rocks!

Naslazhdaites'!
(enjoy!)