Wrapping Up October

Time for the monthly wrap up, because for some reason, November starts tomorrow. I have no idea where this month went. Or where the entire year went.

Person of the month: I will give this to Rachel, my office mte, because she managd to defend her master's thesis and turn it in this month. I have so much respect for her because of this accomplishment. I honestly do not believe that I have it in me...either the passion for the research or the motivation to finish. But she does. And that is awesome.

Moment of the month: Crying during the father daughter dance at Matt and Patricia’s wedding showed me how much of a huge sap I can be at weddings. I am scared to see what I do at my own wedding. Warning: I am a super emotional person. I do have my awkward moments and sometimes do not know how to react to things. So sometimes when I should be sad, I will laugh, and the other way around.

Outing of the month: Going to Austin for the science and engineering festival last weekend was amazing. I had no idea it would go so well or that I would have so much fun.

Book of the month: Name All the Animals. This book is the only one that has sucked me in and has kept me reading. I am almost finished with it, and I honestly can’t wait to find out how the author chooses to leave me. She writes about such a sad subject in a very detached, yet touching way.

Movie of the month: It’s Kind of a Funny Story was the best movie I have seen in a while. I am still thinking about the movie and the themes and messages 2 weeks later. If you hven't seen it, see it.

Accomplishment of the month: Interviewing for a job that I actually want. Now hopefully good news comes tomorrow... Also, the Austin science and engineering festival was an awesome accomplishment. I don't often take on leadership positions, but when I do I think I do an awesome job. For some reason I can trust the process much more easily if I am in charge of that process.

Restaurant meal of the month: The Republic. Even though I was slightly disappointed with the portions, the taste of the food was incredible. And it was a pretty phenomenal dining experience. Thank you, Stephen.

Beer of the month: The beer of the month is NOT Shiner Octoberfest. It was the most disgusting beer I have had in a long, long time. I didn't drink it. I actually could not drink it. So beer of the month, as in: worst beer of the month, is Shiner Octoberfest.

Cooked meal and dessert of the month: Tonight's dinner has to win this. It was a lot of work, with making tostones, homemade tortillas and then baking them into tostadas, cooking fish, setting up the toppings, etc. It was also incredible. Absolutely delicious. Dessert is definitely carrot cake with apple pie in a very close second. Stephen's favorite was the apple pie.

On to today's food, and some extra fun.

Breakfast was oatbran with banana, peanut butter, and ice cream on top. Yes, that is a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. It is Sunday and Halloween. I am allowed to have ice cream for breakfast!

I decided to make lunch today. I always enjoy my own sandwiches more than those at any of the local restaurants. I know, I am a bit picky with sandwiches.

I made sausage sandwiches with red peppers, onions, mozarella cheese, and bbq sauce.

Grilled up and absolutely delicious.

I tackled a new dessert today. It is a German Chocolate Brownie Cake. I am not going to share the recipe, because I am still deciding whether or not I loved it.

The coconut and peanut topping. This part was delicious.

The brownie cake.

The topping on the brownie cake before baking.

The topping after baking.

It looks pretty delicious out of the springform pan.

And even more delicious cut up.

The brownie cake is from Dorie's book Baking: From my home to yours. I was expecting a more moist and rich cake, because I think I was expecting it to be more brownie than cake. Nope. It is very much more cake than brownie. I think I like it...I mean, I finished my piece. But I don't think it is my favorite dessert ever. Stephen enjoyed it, and I didn't hate it. So I guess that is something!

I found a praying mantis today! One of my favorite bugs! I am not a bug person, but I adore these guys.

I made Stephen his breakfast bars this afternoon. I always make these on Sundays, but I rarely post them on the bog. Here they are! These have dates, peanuts, raisins, dried apples, and cinnamon.

Dinner time! Fish tacos.

The condiments laid out on a large plate. I really need to get a nice platter.

Yummmm, avocadoes and tomatoes. Salted and doused in lime juice.

Tostones. I will never grow tired of these. In any form. But especially in this form.

Tilapia coated in sour cream and onion chips.

Served on tostadas. I ove assemble your own meals. It is fun and messy. It is also far too difficult when sitting on the living room floor. But it is very much like a picnic, which makes me smile. One day we will grow up and have a dining table that we actually eat meals on. Maybe...

And now I will leave you with a bite of your very own. I am off to get ready for a night out for some Halloween fun!

If you like me and my blog, entire my giveaway!

Tag and Tomato Coconut Curry Soup

I have been having so much trouble coming up with anything original, unique, or even remotely interesting to write about lately. Thankfully, Eden tagged me today, so I will answer some questions. And then you get to answer some questions, too.

1. What was your favorite game to play as a child? Pick up sticks. I have the most vivid memories of playing pick up sticks throughout my childhood. The simplicity of the game is so incredible, yet it left us occuppied for hours. I also had an Adams Family board game that I loved to play with my parents.

2. Would you rather be good looking or rich? Honestly, I would be good looking. I do not have the mentality to have a lot of money. If anything, the more money I have, the more I stress out. I feel like I should be using it, but then I overanalyze what I should spend it on. I can get super controlling when it comes to money (both spending and saving). So I woul definitely benefit more from being very attractive. Of course, the ideal would be to believe that I am actually attractive without getting cocky about it. It annoys me when people act like they know they are pretty.

3. If someone wrote a book about your life, what would they title it? Sugar Coated with a Dash of Crazy. Okay, so maybe much more than just a dash of crazy. Upon first meeting me, I come across as very optmistic and happy. I do tend to be optimistic...but I have spent the najority of my life believing that people would only like me if I was happy, sweet Astrid. You see, the parents were not happy with me if I was anything else but sweet. Fast forward to adult Astrid. I kind of love the fact that I can go from sweet and silly to crazy in about 2 seconds. It is more real. Emotions should not be muted or hidden, because they will find a way out sooner of later. I do try to get my crazies out by painting, cooking, baking, or soothing it with some yoga.

4. Have you ever eaten something not exacty edible? For some reason, I was scared of spitting out toothpaste when I was brushing my teeth. I guess I believed that my teeth would come out with the toothpaste? So I went through quite a long period of always swalowing my toothpaste. I would do it when my parents were not looking, so I wouldn't get in trouble. I was also pretty notorious for eating grass. I remember field day in first gradae. All I cared about was sitting in the midde of the field nd eating the grass. I won the sportsmanship ribbon that year.

5. What did you want to be when you were a kid? Sally Ride. I wanted to be an astronaut. I also wanted to be either a teacher or a nurse. I loved my teachers and my nurses when I was little, so it makes sense that I would want to be like them when I grew up.

6. Halloween candy of choice? My favorite has always been reeses peanut butter cups. I also love the chewy runts packets that are given out sometimes. They are so tasty!!

7. Weirdest thing you got trick or treating? I had a neighbor when I was little that put popcorn into plastic gloves and made "monster hands" one year. One of those hands ended up in my candy bag. I thought it was pretty cool.

8. Who is the last person you called? I honestly hate calling people. So the only people I regularly call are Stephen, and my mom and dad. I think the last person I called was my dad. I needed someone to chat with while I was walking home. My dad doesn't like phones either. I take after him.

Please chime in with some of your answers! I am going to skip the tagging part, but I invite you to answer these 3 questions in the comments.

1. If you had the chance to take care of one zoo animal, what would it be? I would love to pet a panther. Huge black cats are amazingly gorgeous, and I bet they are super soft, too.

2. What was your favorite halloween costume growing up? When I was 3-5 years old, I was Snow White every year. I had shiny almost black straight hair and pretty pale skin during that part of the fall, so I made a very pretty snow white!

3. What do you want your life to be like 5 years from now? I want to be married and planning to have children/have one on the way. I want to have a job that I am good at and excited about, hopefully in education. I want to still live with Stephen, Ginger, and Fred in a nice house. I also want to have my yoga teaching certificate, and I still want to paint and cook. I know, I know, I want a lot!

Your turn! Ready...go.

I have coconut milk in my fridge. It is pretty amazing. You see, Stephen and I decided to make homemde pina coladas, because we are trying to get rid of our rum. I just mixed 16 oz pinepple juice, 1/2 cup coconut milk (I use Goya), and 2 shots of dark rum. I throw it all in the blender with lots of ice and ta-dah. Amazing. Simple, but absolutely delicious.

Now I have plenty of coconut milk left to cook with. I decided to make a tomato coconut curry soup for lunch today.

Tomato Coconut Curry Soup

1 clove garlic minced

olive oil

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup coconut milk

In a small pot or saucepan, cook the garlic in some olive oil until fragrant. Drain the can of tomtoes slightly and then dump in into the pot. Add the curry powder and stir. Allow to simmer at medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. It really doesn't need that much time.

Pour into a blender with the coconut milk. Return to a low heat and make sure that the soup is heated through.

Eat!

If you want more sustenance, add some chopped up chicken (like I did), or some tofu would be good, too.

Serve with some bread and carrots if desired.

Note: This serves 2 people, so I had plenty left over to use as a pizza sauce. So that is what I did.

Pizza crust.

Topping: tomato coconut curry sauce, ground turkey, mozzarella, colby jack, blue cheese, raisins, and onions.

All baked up.

Aside from being a little too thin towards the center of the pizza, this was delicious.

Pizza never fails to satisfy. Never. Ever.

If you would like to enter my 400th post giveaway, please do!

The big 400 (almost)!

"I look forward to being older, when what you look like becomes less and less an issue and what you are is the point." ~Susan Sarandon

I love this quote, because it doesn't say that what you have done is the point. The important thing is what you are - what you stand for, who you have become, etc.

This quotes comes at an approprite time, because I am trying to figure out what I wnt to do with my life next year, and this is almost my 400th post (it is #399). When I started graduate school, I really had no idea of what I was going to go with it or what I wanted to do afterwards. There was no goal in mind. I applied to grad school because I didn't know what else to do after college. No wonder I've been so lost in this journey! I do believe that everything happens for a reason and that there is a reason for the choices we make. I learned a lot about myself. And honestly, I never had any idea that I loved painting and baking so much! I have always had a thing for cooking, but baking always scared me off.

I am learning to stop making decisions based on what will impress other people. What my life looks like to other people should not be important! I am now trying a little thing called following my own heart and having an intention to my decisions.

When I started this blog, I had no idea what waas going to come from it. I liked the idea of having a place for the things I cooked and the art I created. I wanted to have my own little corner of the internet and connect with people that I don't see as often as I would like. Now, I have made great friends through my blogs and have met a few cool bloggers at The Healthy Living Summit and I will meet more of you at FoodBuzz next weekend! So excited, but the way. And terribly nervous, too.

What my blog is not:

A  "healthy" blog where I document every meal I eat. I share the meals I create that I find especially delicious. I believe in eating real foods in moderation, including butter, cheese, red meat, bread, etc. I believe that vegn nd gluten free diets are to be used if you have allergies or certain medical conditions. But if your body cn handle the foods that you enjoy eating, go ahed and enjoy. Life is too short to restrict or limit yourself. Sometimes this is easier said than done. I know.

A popular blog with lots of readers and comments. I have met some amazing people through my blog and have a handful of readers. That is enough. I may never have a million hits in a month, and I may never have more than 10 comments on  post, but it is still my blog and I love it.

Professionally (or well) photographed. I am learning and practicing every single day that I take pictures. I do not own n SLR camera and really see no point to spend that much money on a very heavy piece of equipment that I would be reluctant to carry round with me.

What my blog is:

Real food and real art. Food and art are my therapies. Cooking and creating meals and desserts makes me feel like a superhero. It is really cool to take individual ingredients, mix them up, plate them, and devour them. It is almost as if I feel more nourishment from food that I make. With art, I feel like I am breathing for the first time in my entire life, every time I paint or draw.

Honest. I usually have a hard time admitting that my life is not "perfect" and that if anything, I am pretty dull and confused with my life. So some days I complain and I may sound really down about things. But there certainly are days when I am excited and very positive. Our moods change every day. Why pretend that everything is shiny and sparkly every time I post?

Today I made a fun Halloween Cookie. Black and Orange in honor of the holiday!

Chocolate Oatmeal Pumpkin Blossoms

Adapted from Chocolate Oatmeal Drops from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From my home to yours.

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (hershey's special dark)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 stick unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces

1/2 tbsp water

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

5 ounces dark chocolate chips

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup rolled oats

Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses unwrapped (about 20)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a microwave save bowl put the butter, water, sugar, and chocolate (in that order), and mcrowave for 1 minute. Stir it well, ensuring that it is all melted. Mine melted after 1 minute.

Whisk the egg and vanilla into the chocolate mixture.

Whisk in the dry ingredients just until combined.

Stir in the oats.

Drop the dough onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets by the tbsp.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Press a kiss onto each cookie when you take them out of the oven.

Allow the cookies to cool.

If desired, place in the fridge until the kisses harden up.

I left mine in the fridge while we went out to date night. We went to Texas Road House, becuse I ws having humongous cravings for chicken tenders. With honey on the side for dipping. You see, when I was little, my fvorite resturant meal ever was the chicken fingers at Friendly's. I would always get a pcaket of honey on the side to dip them in. I probably went through 3 or 4 packs of honey each time. To this day, I still njoy this meal. It just makes me happy.

I love havng a good dessert to come home to. I warmed up two cookies and served each with  scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Yum.

GIVEAWAY!

In honor of my 400th post, I want to give all of you a little present for reading my words and making me a part of your day. I am going to put together a package for one "lucky" winner.

It will have:

Cookies

A painting

Extra surprises

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. About anything. Anything at all.

You have until Monday night to enter, and I will pick a winner on Tuesday morning!

Completely normal (or not)

It is completely normal (or not) to...

...do yoga every morning instead of running or more vigorous activity.

...stay in a head stand for 4 minutes (woohoo!).

...watch the latest episode of Glee over and over again. The Rocky Horror episode is AMAZING.

...wish that you could be friends with Christina and Meredith. Yes, I am that obsessed with Grey's.

...get your hopes up over a job or opportunity you want. I am allowed to get excited!

...dance to the music in your IPOD...on a crowded bus.

...walk all the way home from school instead of walking to a different bus stop.

...taking care of your boyfriend and letting him forego date night to study for a test.

...do far too much research on the right color of lipstick. I don't want to look dead or like a clown!

...feel some envy over the cool things other people are doing. A guy I went to school with has won an award for doing geological work in afghanistan. Umm...yeah...incredible, right?

...still wear a green jean jacket that you have had for 11 years. Yes, since I was 15.

Today I made some comfort food for dinner. Mac and Cheese with shrimp! I based the recipe on this one from Smitten Kitchen. She complains about this meal not being forgiving on your figure. It has lots of butter, cheese, milk, and is simply gooey deliciousness. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

I used mozzarella and feta cheese for this amazing mess. This is prior to baking in the oven. I baked at 400 F for about 25 minutes.

After baking. Looks amazing, right? All nice and golden and bubbly.

Did you know that I have no idea what box mac and cheese tastes like? I can't ven tell you the last time I had it. All I know is that home made makes me smile. It smells amazing, and is truly simple and satisfying to make.

I served it with some veggies on the side. I like filling up on the colorful stuff. What can I say, I love my veggies.

I wish you could have tried some. So delicious!

Today, the 28th of October is a pretty cool day. This is why:

Cool people were born today: Bill Gates in 1955 and Julia Roberts in 1967

It is also St. Jude's Day: Patron Saint of hopeless causes

In 1866, the Statue of Liberty, sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, was dedicated

Some words of wisdom from Bill Gates:

"It's fine to celebrate success but it is more iportant to head the lessons of failure."

Big anxieties

"I don't have big anxieties. I wish I did. I'd be much more interesting." ~Roy Lichtenstein

Today is Roy Lichtenstein's birthday. He was born in 1923. Have you seen his art work? It is pretty amazing. Pop art using comic strips. Here are some of my favorites from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation:

I am pretty sure that there are some interesting things going on inside of his head, anxieties or not! I know that my anxieties give me a lot of character, but they can also be pretty limiting. For the sake of making this fun, I am going to share some of my anxieties and some of my strange quirks that make me...me.

• I am terrified of driving. I actually panic behind the wheel. I am 26 and do not have my driver's license. This is one reason why I should live in a cool city with good public transportation.
• I am scared of spiders. I once almost hurt Stephen when I jumped away from a spider that was on the bed.
• I wake up really early without an alarm no matter what time I go to bed.
• I sometimes fanatasize about the future in musical form. Similar to the My Musical episode in Scrubs.
• I have watched the episodes of Grey's Anatomy (all seasons) many many times.
• I am 26 and want to try on Disney Wedding dresses and visit Harry Potter at Universal Studios. Will I ever grow up?
• I can talk myself out of buying anything. No, I don't really need a tube of toothpaste!
• When I was little, my mom read me a book with the planets, and I believed that we lived on Saturn!
• Since my mom and I have the same birthday, I thought that we were born on the same, exact day (year and everything) and that she just grew up a lot faster and "got to be" the mom. I thought it was this way with all mothers and daughters.
• I have always been scared of disappointing people. So being less than awesome at something still causes anxiety.
• I get really anxious if I don't like what I order at a restaurant. I hate not feeling satisfied.
• I get really excited about good food. I will even moan if I love what I am eating!
• I get scared of getting close to new people. Making friends feels like dating. All of my life, I have been so used to makng temporary friends. I always mde the "best" friends on vacations. A week is enough time to have fun with someone, but not enough time to start finding out what about them bothers and annoys you.
• No matter how many times I tell myself that I am not "perfect", it still makes me flinch to here it.
• I wear my cowboy boots over my jeans or with shorts even though I know it looks silly. My boots are gorgeous and I feel like everyone needs to see them.

Do you have any quirks you would like to share?

 

I realized that I hadn't made pancakes for breakfast in a while.

 

These were pretty incredible.

Banana Bran Pancakes

1/8 cup wheat flour

1/8 cup oat bran

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

pinch of baking powder

pinch of sea salt

splash of vanilla extract

Half a banana sliced up

Mix together and cook on a skillet.

 

These were stacked with banana slices (from the other half of the banana), peanut butter, and cottage cheese.

I taught lab today, so I made myself a little breakfast for (early) dinner.

 

Omelet with mozzarella cheese and red peppers, brussel sprouts, and...

 

...a chocolate muffin! It was pretty delicious and gave me just the right energy to teach lab.

Now back to watching the last few minutes of What's Eating You. I am liking this show. I love finding strength and inspiration through other peoples' amazing strength. I love learning that everyone has their own "sob" story that they have overcome or are overcoming currently. Growing up, I thought some people had trouble-free lives. That nothing "bad" ever happened. I actually thought it was possible to go through life without one argument, one mistake, or one person dsliking you. Maybe I would have been better off living inside my Barbie dollhouse? But how boring would life be if I lived in a dollhouse?

Hope your Wednesday was wonderful.

Pets

Little known fact: I never had pets growing up. No siblings, no animals, just myself and my stuffed animals and Barbie dolls.

My very first pet was a beta fish during my freshman year of college. His name was Blueberry Muffin. He was amazing and required no care whatsoever. You see, he lived in the vase of a plant. So he took care of the plant and in turn, the roots were his food. It was great. He died while I was in England that sprng break. Yeah, betas usually last longer than 6 months or so, but this one did not.

My sernior year of college I took another shot at owning a fish. I got a goldfish and named it Monster. He was doing well (for some reason I assume my fish are boys). Then I decided to buy hi a castle. Obviously any fish named Monster needs a castle. I think I should have cleaned the castle before putting it in the bowl, because not even a week later, Monster was dead.

Two dead fish. Not cool.

These days I have my very own cat and chinchilla and am very happy to say that neither have died yet. And when they do, it will be of happy old age, and not of neglect!

Ginger grew up being Stephen's cat, but Fred is my pet. I was there when he was born, and I take care of him. He is the best first pet ever. Very lttle maintenance, and he will live for 10-15 years. Pretty awesome, right? All I need to do is feed him, bath him, and make sure his home is full of cool chew toys.

Today Fred got new food, a new wooden house, and new dust.

I think it may have confused him.

But he has already started chewing at his new little house.

He will be entertained for a while. It even has little flavored chewing blocks that you can stick on the side. Good for healthy teeth! This little guy will hopefully be happy now.

Dinner was simple and delicious tonight.

I made turkey burgers with mozzarella and avocados.

Delicious roasted red potatoes on the side.

It was so good. I haven't seen Stephen scarf down a meal that quickly in a long time. I enjoyed mine, too, expecially the part where I had a slice of pie with ice cream. Delicious. I am definitely an apple pie a la mode person. Apple pies are amazing.

I have a question. How in the world do bakers choose what to bake and what to work on perfecting? There are so many cool things to bake!!

Treats I still want and need to learn to bake:

Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Cheesecake

Donuts

7 Layer Bars

Treats I want to tweak and perfect:

Carrot Cake

Apple Pie

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fudgy Brownies

Any things you would like me to try to make? I am open to anything!
Hope you had a great Tuesday!

Apple Pie!

If you could spend a night in any museum, zoo, or aquarium in the world, which one would you pick and what would you do?

Today I read about a girl that is living in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for an entire month. She won a contest and has her own rooms in the museum. She has her meals catered and can go anywhere in the museum. She can even sleep in some of the exhibits!

I think it would be awesome to live in the New England Aquarium, or one of the bigger Museums of Natural History like the Smithsonian or The Natural History Museum in New York. How cool would it be to explore every nook and cranny and touch things that are usually off limits?

I woud also love to help a curator in a museum. Being a mineral curator is a job that would be a dream for me. It may get old after a while, but I think doing it for a month would keep it exciting.

Some days I want to feel like a ittle kid. On these days, I make fun peanut butter sandwiches. Ths one has celery and raisins and is toasted. It was delicious.

But not as deicious as pie.

Today I made an apple pie. I based it on this recipe, and added some ginger and cloves, lemon juice, lemon zest, extra vanilla, and no brandy.

The bottom crust.

Apple slices.

Top crust. Messy, I know. But there is a star cut out of the middle, making it look kind of pretty.

All baked up. The apartment smelled amazing.

I waited until after my lab to share some pie with Stephen. I was so excited to try it, because this is the first fruit pie I have ever made!

It looks pretty promising in my opinion.

We had it with some ice cream. It was AMAZING! I have to take back the idea of not being a pie person. I do like certain types of pie. I like cookie pie and apple pie. And who knows what other kinds of pie I will fall in love with once I make the. Here is the thing: I love pie crust. It is delicious, and amazing that butter and flour can create such an incredible, flaky, heavenly element to a desert.

And now I will leave you. Have a delicious piece of pie and an excellent night/day!