Thankful for College Station...and lots of food

As I am preparing to tackle the excitement of preparing for my move to Colorado (plenty of time!), I have been thinking about the past 3+ years in Texas. It has been quite the ride. I know that an environment can't transform you into a happier person, but I do believe that you can feel more at home somewhere. That being said, I also believe that you can create a home anywhere you are. And that's what I did. I still cannot wait to leave Texas for a chunk of time.

Reasons to be thankful for the past 3 years in College Station:

• Getting an internship my first semester here that allowed me to save up money to now use for culinary school!
• Meeting Stephen in the first Mineralogy lab I taught. He soon become my Texas family and kept me somewhat sane through this adventure.
• I was able to spend a whole school year getting one-on-one and group therapy for my ed. It made a drastic difference.
• I learned that I love to paint.
• I have turned to cooking for comfort and it has turned into quite the love affair, and hopefully a future career!
• I needed a reason to stay accountable with my passions, so I started this blog. I have met awesome people and have gotten to travel to Chicago and San Francsico to meet some of them in person. Friends are a great thing, even if they are "virtual".
• I now have teaching experience.
• I learned that I do not enjoy doing research as much as I thought I would.
• I have now experienced what it is like to have pets! I never had a pet growing up.
• The horrible humidity has helped me learn how to exercise on my own inside. I never thought I would be doing yoga as often as I do it now. And I love it.
• I became part of the very small theater loving community that exists in this town through OPAS. I loved being part of a campus organization. Plus, my PR exec is amazing and has written me several reference letters. I need to bake him some presents!

Life is both about the journey and about where you want that journey to take you. I came to Texas to do the graduate school thing. I actually didn't give a thought to what I wanted to do with a masters in geology. I just thought going to grad school was my only responsible and sensible option. But I do not regret this decision. As you can see above, I have learned A LOT!

The decision to attend clinary school in Boulder serves to feed the very adventurous side of me, and it serves to start fulfilling my dream to cook for a living. I spend so much time in the kitchen. It brings so much joy and excitement. I want this journey to lead me into the culinary industry. I am allowing myself to both live and dream.

I am not kidding when I say I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Sundays are wonderful for this reason.

I decided to have an egg with breakfast today, which doesn't happen very often in my world. It was pretty delicious with a little muffin egg, an apple, and some cottage cheese.

I love a good runny yolk. Awesome for dipping muffins into. I need to do these types of breakfasts more often.

Lunch was BLT's! Stephens had lots of bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and mayo.

Mine: Less bacon, tomatoes, spinach, and peanut butter. I love peanut butter in my BLT's.

Pie time! Since I am making a Puerto Rican dessert for our Thanksgiving meal, I decided to make something for classic for dessert this week. Something with apple sounded great.

I based the recipe on Christina's (from Dessert For Two) Apple Cheesecake Crumb Pie. Since her rec ipe called for a 7 inch pie plate, I adjusted the amounts and I also used a different pie crust. Thanks for the inspiration!

Pie crust

Pat-in-the-Pan Butter Crust from Joy of Cooking

Preheat oven to 400F

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

Whisk together

1 stick unsalted butter, softened and cut into 8 pieces

Use the back of a fork and blend the butter into the flour and salt. You want the mixture to resemble coarse crumbs

2-3 tbsps heavy cream

Drizzle on top of the crumb mixture. Stir until well combined.

Press mixture into a 10-inch pie plate. Prick sids and bottom with a fork.

Bae for 20 minutes.

Since this filling needs to be baked, I needed to add a glaze to the crust.

Brush onto the crust:

1 egg yolk and pinch of salt whisked together

Bake for an additiona 1-2 minutes.

Now make the filling!

Cut up one large honey crisp apple.

Toss with:

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp flour

pinch of salt

Set aside

Prepare the crumb topping (my favorite part)

1/3 cup flour

3 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

some fresh grated nutmeg

4 tbsp butter cut into pieces

Combine ingredients together with your finger tips. You will create coarse crumbs.

Set aside.

Prepare the cheesecake filling:

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

3 tsp cornstarch

Beat ingredients together until well combined and lumps are minimal.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the crust.

Pour the apples on top.

And sprinkle the crumbs on top.

Reduce oven temp to 375 F. Bake for 40 minutes. I allowed the pie to rest in the fridge for a few hours before slicing.

It was so good. Not sweet at all, just a nice taste of cream cheese, fall spices, and apples. I love it. I had the entire slice. I am now full!

I baked another dessert, but this one is for my students. We are celebrating a birthday and apparently his favorite desserts are brownies and chocolate chip cookies. So of course I needed to make my own version of Dorie's Chipster brownies. Why not, right?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Topped Brownies

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter and flour a cake pan

Brownie layer:

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 stick unsalted butter cut into pieces

Melt in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir together.

Add:

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Mix until well combined

Stir in:

1/4 cup flour

Pour into the cake pan. Set aside while you make the chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer

from my Dorie cookbook

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Whisk together and set aside

1 stick unsalted butter softened

Beat until fluffy

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

Cream into the butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Beat in

Slowly beat in the dry ingredients. Stir in:

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Spoon the cookie dough in dollops onto the brownie layer. Spread evenly.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes. It is pretty hard to tell when it is done, but just stick a toothpick in the center and see if you can come out fairly clean. I know...pretty vague.

The result? A little bit of a mess, but it'll do!

I tried a bite and wow. Delicious!

I believe my students will be very happy with me.

Dinner tonight was another venison adventure. Today I made venison fajitas with some pretty amazing tortillas!

I adjusted the recipe from Homesick Texan, and this time around I did it correctly. For some reason, I have been makng these with too much flour. I reduced the flour and ended up with such pliable tortillas. These were incredible. Very very please and disappointed that Stephen ate them all. I think he had 5 tortillas.

I marinated the venison all day and then grilled it up in my grill pan (which I love).

I cooked up some onions and garlic. Apparently I did this for myself because I ate this all up. I love cooked onions. Anyone else?

My tortilla all filled up with delicious goodies.

Best taco night in a long time.

Stephen enjoyed his fajitas!

And I hope you enjoyed this very long post.