THE KLEONS: ADVENTURES IN AUSTIN, TEXAS

SOMETHING FOR THOSE 100-DEGREE MORNINGS

2007-06-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Mmmm. Iced coffee.

Cold-brewed coffee is actually dirt simple to make at home....But you can also bang it out with a Mason jar and a sieve. You just add water to coffee, stir, cover it and leave it out on the counter overnight. A quick two-step filtering the next day (strain the grounds through a sieve, and use a coffee filter to pick up silt), a dilution of the brew one-to-one with water, and you’re done. Except for the time it sits on the kitchen counter, the whole process takes about five minutes.

And:

New Orleans Cold Drip Coffee

Adapted from Blue Bottle Coffee company

Makes 8 cups coffee concentrate

1 pound dark roast coffee and chicory, medium ground

10 cups cold water

Ice

Milk.

1. Put coffee in a nonreactive container, like a stainless-steel stockpot. Add 2 cups water, stirring gently to wet the grounds, then add remaining 8 cups water, agitating the grounds as little as possible. Cover and let steep at room temperature for 12 hours.

2. Strain coffee concentrate through a medium sieve, then again through a fine-mesh sieve.

3. To make iced coffee, fill a glass with ice, add ¼ cup coffee concentrate and 3/4 to 1 cup milk, then stir. To make café au lait, warm 3/4 to 1 cup milk in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into a mug and add ¼ cup coffee concentrate. (Concentrate will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.)

WE WEREN'T BORN IN TEXAS, BUT WE GOT THERE AS FAST AS WE COULD

2007-06-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we may not have checked off many of the things on my list during our trip to Austin last week (no bats! no BBQ! no Barton Springs!), but we did manage to:

find a great apartment
see Luke Wilson in the security line at the Austin airport
spot Leslie in South Austin
see some of our fantastic Austin friends

The real estate market is crazy down in Austin (well, at least compared to Cleveland...) and our apartment hunt was stressful. So we were really happy to find a condo that's a quick bus ride to campus, right down the street from the Thunderbird, and a landlord that's going to let us paint and get a doxie. It's in a small condo complex (just 8 units) with a nice little side yard, and a balcony off the kitchen. Some photos of the complex from the street, and looking into the gate:

We had a great time staying with Megan in her adorable duplex (and arguing over who got to sit on her fitness ball while we searched Craigslist for apartments). She was also a good sport about driving around town with us, even when we almost ran out of gas. We also got to spend some time with Stephanie and Adam, who have a terrific little house in Megan's neighborhood, and are a very cool couple. (Megan and Stephanie are a year ahead of me in the MS Sustainable Design program at UT)

Austin and I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Tim for lunch at Quality Seafood, and with Tim's lovely family for dinner at Central Market while we were in town. Tim was so welcoming - and full of great suggestions for our apartment hunt and Austin's job search.

We feel incredibly lucky to have so many wonderful friends in Austin already, and can't wait to see them all again in August.

(More photos from our trip)

STUFF MEG WANTS TO DO ON OUR NEXT TRIP

2007-05-31T05:21:00.000-07:00

The big block party on South Congress is the first Thursday of every month - so we'll be there for it!
Swim at Barton Springs
Bring a picnic (from Whole Foods?) and watch the bats emerge from the Bridge - looks like they're coming out around 8:45
Alamo Drafthouse for movies and a beer
Drive up Mount Bonnell and enjoy the scenic view
Central Market - supposed to be a pretty awesome and huge market

Eats:

EL CHILE CAFE - HOME OF THE PUFFY TACO!
BBQ at Salt Lick (about half an hour outside Austin) is supposed to be awesome
Chuys is supposed to be great Tex Mex
Magnolia Cafe for breakfast
Guerros for Tacos on South Congress (should do this sometime that is not during the middle of the big block party)
Iron Cactus roof patio!!!!

LUKE WILSON'S AUSTIN

2007-05-31T05:16:00.001-07:00

I don't know why I'm posting this, I guess he just seems like a pretty cool guy for a celebrity, and he has some fun recommendations.

A GREEN CITY

2007-05-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of reasons we're moving to Austin, but the biggest is so that Meg can study green building in a green city. MSN reported today on The 10 Greenest Cities in America, and Austin was at the top of the list:

The politics in Austin, Texas, home base of Whole Foods Market and Lance Armstrong (at least part of the year), have earned it the title of “the blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup.” But the city’s energy portfolio could make it known as the ray of sunshine in the field of oil pumps. If you want to sign up for green power from Austin Energy, possibly the greenest power grid in the country, you can get in line—this year’s demand was unpredictably high, and they’re fresh out. Austin’s growing list of proactive energy maneuvers is, to say the least, striking. Not only does Austin lead the country in wind power and biodiesel production, but it has built advanced plug-in hybrid vehicles into its energy strategy.
As part of the recently announced Austin Climate Protection Plan, all facilities, fleets and operations will be carbon-neutral by 2020, and 100 percent of city facilities will be powered by renewable energy by 2012. There will also be CO2 caps and reduction plans for all utility emissions, something the federal government hasn’t dared do. According to Roger Duncan, Austin Energy’s deputy general manager, the city is ramping up to make both residential and commercial building codes the most energy-efficient in the nation, starting by making all new single-family homes “zero net-energy capable”—meaning they could produce as much energy as they use—by 2015, and increasing energy efficiency by 75 percent in all other new construction. The Clean Energy Incubator, sparked by the National Renewable Energy Lab and managed by the University of Texas at Austin, works closely with the power utility and serves as a test bed for budding startup companies to develop green technologies ranging from solar, biofuels and wind to Internet-controlled irrigation systems.

It's a really exciting time and a really exciting place for Meg to be going back to school.