Welcome to Full and Content.
Life, as told through the story of food.
This blog was born in June of 2011 and has been around long enough now that it appears it will stick around for a while longer.
Full and Content is how I have always described that feeling of having eaten just the perfect amount... right before you get all bloated and the regret sets in. It seemed a perfect metaphor for pretty much everything else in my life too. That's the state of being I seek out: that just right feeling of having enough but not being over-the-top, of having rich and meaningful experiences and relationships, and being content with what I have and who I am and what I am doing. Sometimes it just is, and sometimes I have to work for it, but when it's there, there is nothing better.
The Characters
Well, there's me: my name is Lisa, and I live in Austin, Texas where the food is pretty darn great. I cook a lot, I eat out a lot more than I should, and I sometimes blather on about food a bit more than is socially acceptable at parties (thus, the blog).
There are also my two kiddos, who have the pseudonyms Slim (my son) and Curly (my daughter). They are just like I was as a kid, insanely picky. I'm hoping they'll also be like me as adults, not insanely picky.
Other friends and family pop up occasionally in posts, and I've gotten in the habit of giving them silly ranch hand names, because it amuses me.
The Food & the Approach
As a native Texan, I am heavily influenced by the food of this region. But I like pretty much all styles of food and have sort of an adventurous attitude towards eating, usually choosing the thing I have not tried over the thing I have.
I try to eat local, organic, and minimally processed food first and choose sustainable meats as much as I can. I also recognize how hard it is to put this into practice, depending on what resources are available where you live and that they can be pricey. Plus, it is not easy to change habits that have been there for a lifetime. And that is part of all this, the gradual shifting of habits along with the continual process of understanding the very complicated and ever-changing issues of what we eat and how what we eats impacts everything else. Try to change everything at once and you will likely feel overwhelmed and fail at all of them... choose one thing at a time and you're more likely to find success. Or at least that's how it works for me. It's a journey, a tasty, tasty journey.
The Underlying Threads
There are some common themes in my posts, in any of which I may make an unexpected detour and start musing on life, the universe, and completely random things. Just go with it. Here is some of what you'll find on this blog:
I really love BBQ. A lot. You'll find all my BBQ-related posts, including the 2013 City Guide to BBQ in Austin, right here.
I get a bi-weekly delivery of produce from local and area growers from a CSA program called Farmhouse Delivery. This is where I keep tabs on how I used all that produce, including the unfamiliar ones, and I share recipes when they are good enough to share.
I eat vegetarian meals way more often than just one day a week, and not always on Mondays, but I like the principle of reducing meat consumption by 1/7 for both health and environmental reasons (and it's good for the wallet too).
My kids' school has its own farm... which is just the coolest! This is where I talk about what's going on there for the benefit of other members and anyone else who happens to be interested in school farms.
Bartering is the new pink! Not sure what a food swap is? Well, they are tons of fun and you score all kinds of great goodies. I have a group of friends and friends of friends that gets together irregularly to trade whatever we have on hand. Here's a post where I explain how it works.
In a city filled with great food + smart & creative people, there were bound to be more than a handful of food bloggers. And in typical Austin fashion, we are organized, including publishing an annual city guide to help visitors & locals navigate our vast and ever-changing food scene. You'll see links to AFBA recipes sprinkled throughout this blog, and any AFBA specific posts can be found here.
And of course there are the recipes. Don't forget to browse them on the index page. Or, if you are looking for something in particular, try one of these handy links below:
Thanks for visiting! I hope you'll be back.
