Cooking with Citrus

by Elizabeth Winslow • Photography by Thomas Winslow

Juicy, bright and bursting with vitality, citrus is Mother Nature’s recompense for weeks of cold, gray winter days. Here in Texas, we’re spoiled for choice with Meyer lemons, navel oranges, Persian and key limes and ruby grapefruit in abundance in orchards down in the valley, and kaffir limes, satsumas and kumquats easy to grow in our own backyards. Sure, you can just peel and eat, but isn’t it more fun and delicious to turn all this culinary sunshine into inventive dishes that celebrate the tart, pucker-y glory of it all? Yes.

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Oatmeal Redux

by Elif Selvili • Photography by Kate Lesueur

Part of oatmeal’s claim to fame is its ability to lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. In light of this, many dutifully health-conscious people tolerate their morning bowls of mush with the excitement of a good patient taking a daily dose of medicine. It’s also true that oatmeal is noted for being the measuring stick with which to gauge all blandness. Well, we think oatmeal deserves a second chance at the table.

Let’s first consider the history of oats and how they’re used. Ancient, wild versions of today’s oats trace their roots back several millennia to the fertile lands in the Near East. The cultivated versions of the wild grass started showing up a...

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Kombucha Makers

by Claire Cella • Photography by Melanie Grizzel

In a casual phone conversation with an old friend from upstate New York, I mentioned I was writing an article about kombucha brewers in Austin. After a noticeable pause, my friend asked, “What’s kombucha?” 

I was astounded. Within Austin’s city limits, it seems nearly impossible to walk into any convenience store, grocery or even restaurant without seeing some presence of this fermented beverage, and I was incredulous that kombucha’s fame wasn’t yet nationwide. But with this realization came another: Not only do Austinites have access to, and a general familiarity with—if not an acute affection for—kombucha, we’re also home turf to four ver...

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