God, I miss Texas. I probably miss Texas mostly because of the people that I left that I love there, but also because it has just been such an amazing place to live. This is especially true for Austin, so I decided to make a list of some of my favorite places in Austin, TX and the Austin area. Obviously, there are probably many more great places that I never had a chance to go to… but here is my top 10 in no particular order. I can’t say much about the quality of the photos coming up because I took a lot of these with my phone… which has a horrible camera, just FYI.

1. PTerry’s

By far my favorite burgers and fries anywhere. The price, flavor, and quality just can’t be beat… not to mention it makes perfect hang over food. I went here all the time. I’m really going to miss it. I’ve even tried In-N-Out burgers here in California, and I still think I am a bigger fan of PTerry’s.

2. The Taco Joint

Drool. I unfortunately didn’t find out about this place until my last semester of senior year, but let me tell you… this place has the absolute best breakfast tacos I have ever had in my life. After the first time I went here, I came at least once a week until graduation. Again, great hang over food (not that I was hung over a lot). If you are curious, every time I ordered the bacon and egg breakfast tacos and then put the chipotle and red sauce all over it. O.M.G. If you are living in Austin, please don’t miss out on this.

3. Enchanted Rock State Park

Sam and I went here a lot. We came some to camp and we came here to climb. This is a great place for camping, hiking, and climbing. In fact, I think it was one of my favorite places to come climb. It is really beautiful out here. Definitely take some time to explore E-Rock and hike off the beaten path away from the main dome. It’s stunning.

4. Hey Cupcake

Hey Cupcake changed my view on cupcakes forever. I used to just think cupcakes were so-so, but now I am addicted and these are amazing. They have several locations in Austin, and sign up for their emails because every now and then they will do a bunch of “mini” cupcakes and you can get a box to sample their many different flavors. Yum.

5. The Greenbelt

The Greenbelt is great for hiking and swimming. All along the hiking trails are places to get into Barton springs and relax and cool off from the summer heat. There is also some good climbing out here.

6. Ken’s Donuts

Don’t get me started. Best donuts (besides Krispy Kreme’s glazed donuts) ever. Open 24/7… perfect place to stop by after a night downtown.

7. Austin City Limits Music Festival

This is just part of the whole Austin experience. If you are living in Austin you should definately try to go once. It is a huge music festival in the fall that lasts 3 days at Zilker Park. We got to go to 2 of them while we were in Austin.

8. Hamilton Pool

This place is so cool! It is this natural swimming pool outside of Austin, and it is a lot of fun.

9. 6th Street

Whether you choose dirty sixth or classy sixth, 6th street is like no other place I’ve been when it comes to bar hopping. Don’t miss out.

10. Kebabalicious

Whether you are trying this for lunch or after a night downtown, they make delicious European-Turkish street food.

Some other notably great things include Lucy’s Fried Chicken, South Congress, The Highball, Rainey Street, McKinney Falls State Park, Kerby Lane’s Queso and Lemon Poppyseed pancakes, The Salt Lick, Lady Bird Lake, Pedernales Falls State Parke, Peter Pan Mini Golf, Home Slice, Trudy’s Mexican Martinis, Barton Springs Pool, Mt. Bonnell, Gourdough’s, Halcyon, The Alamo Draft House, Mandolas, Rita’s, Hopdoddy… the list could go on and on. I know I probably barely experienced all the awesome things there are to do in Austin, but these are some of my favorites.

Hope this list comes in handy for those still living in Austin, and I would love to hear about any other great places in Austin. Although I am currently living in California, and I am sure I am going to have many great times here… my heart will always belong to Texas.

Ciao! Well, I haven’t updated this blog for some time now because after graduation, Sam and I went to Italy for 3 weeks. Then we were living with my mom in Houston for about a month until we moved to California where we will be for some time now. Now that I am finally moved in, I actually have some time to update things, and I thought I would start with our trip to Italy. I am going to try and condense our Italy trip to just one photo per place visited and I am going to keep to the highlights since it was such a long trip. In reality, I took over 1500 pictures. We started in Northern Italy and then made our way down to Southern Italy. We began by flying into Milan…

1. Milan

We flew into Milan’s Malpensa airport and then took a train into the center of Milan. We wandered around for about 30 minutes with all of our luggage looking for our hotel, and finally found it. We stayed at Hotel Vecchia Milano. The picture is of their big Duomo there in town, which is basically all we saw there because we didn’t stay too long. Beautiful though. I got my first gelato in Milan too.

2. Varenna

From Milan we caught a train to this cute little place called Varenna, near lake Como. We stayed at Hotel Villa Cipressi. Our first day here we took it easy. We just wandered around, ate good food, took naps, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Did you know George Clooney has a villa somewhere near this area? Unfortunately, George was out of town and so we couldn’t go visit him… I think he was really torn up about missing us. Oh well, C’est la vie. haha.

The second day here we got a ferry pass and went to the other little towns near Varenna, like Bellagio and Cadenabbia, where we just window shopped and ate. At Cadenabbia we went to the Villa Carlotta which is an old villa here that is maintained through tourism. More gelato, a hike, and a fantastic dinner. I am going to do a post later on the food in Italy, so I won’t go into detail here.

3. Verona

On our way to the Dolomites we stopped in Verona where we took a guided tour to get some history overview, which was interesting. We went and saw “Juliet’s Balcony” and Sam touched Juliet’s breast because it’s apparently supposed to mean you will find love , not sure why he is looking? haha. We ate (do you see a theme here?), walked around, then headed out for the Dolomites.

4. Alpe di Siusi

This was one of my favorite places. Maybe because I am in love with mountains, I don’t know, but I loved it here. However, it was more like being in Austria than Italy because most of the people here speak German first and Italian second. We stayed at Hotel Seelaus. Our first day here we mainly just took everything in and then ate dinner.

The next day we went on a hike through the meadows. Had an awesome lunch. Then more hiking. Then we took a 2 hour nap, had dinner, and then skyped with friends and family! This place is on my must visit again list. Apparently they have great skiing here, and in July there is a lot of good climbing and hiking, and in the fall there is paragliding. Fun. Fun. Fun.

5. Bolzano

After leaving the Dolomites, we stopped in Bolzano to see the town and to see Otzi, the 5,300 year old ice man that has his own little museum in the town. Pretty amazing how well preserved he was. The town here was really cute, and they had the most amazing farmers market! I told Sam I would want to live here so I could go down to the farmers market every morning to get fresh foods for dinner, and then it would only be an hour or less drive to the mountains for climbing and skiing. It would be perfect. We walked around the town, ate a quick pizza lunch, got gelato and then left for Venice.

6. Venice

We took a boat into Venice which was really cool, and checked into our hotel, Hotel Serenissima,  which was really close to St.Marks square. Our first night there we just went to dinner, walked around, and then went on a classic gondola ride. We had one of those guys who sings on the gondola to you and we also had prosecco during the ride. At first i didn’t want to do a gondola ride because it felt super touristy, but I’m glad we did, and doing it during the night was so much better because it was hardly busy at all.

Our second day in Venice actually ended up being our 3yr wedding anniversary (insert awhs), and to start off the day I knocked Sam’s contact lens case into the drain so we spent the whole morning fishing it out with my toothbrush. We did a walking tour of Venice in the morning, where I got pooped on by a seagull ( watch out for the seagulls, they poop where they please). We got to see a mask making demonstration. We went to St. Marks Basillica, did some shopping, and then ate some lunch away from the main square. then we went to Frari church, got some macaroons, and then went back to nap at the hotel. After napping we went to the Doges Palace. Then went to the Campanile Tower to get a good view of Venice. To end our sightseeing for the day we went to the Correr Museum. By this time we were exhausted, so all we wanted to do was eat a really long dinner, get a little tipsy, and relax… So we did. We had one of our best dinners here in Venice, great seafood, but I’ll go into details on that on a later post.

Venice is great during the night and early morning, but during the afternoon it starts to feel like an amusement park, so you need to escape to the less touristy places during the day, but all in all we loved Venice.

7. Florence

We stayed in Hotel Academia in Florence, and our first day here Sam and I went to the Medici Chapel where they had these really huge ornate tombs for the Medici Family. We took a walking tour around Florence and ended at the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David and some other pieces of art and sculpture. We rested a bit and then went to dinner.

Our second day in Florence we went to the Uffizi Gallery we got to see some of the famous Da Vinci paintings, Botticelli, and Michelangelo, but the museum was going on strike so we could only stay for about an hour. Then Sam and I went to walk around inside the Duomo (shown above) and then made our way to the Duomo Museum. We had lunch, more gelato, and then headed over to the Santa Croce Church where you can find the tombs of famous people like Michelangelo and Galileo. We walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge toward the Pitti Palace  and at the Pitti Palace we saw Galleria Palatina, the apartments, and the modern art museum in there. After this we were pretty exhausted so we napped and then later went to dinner… and then got more gelato.

8. Pisa

On our way to the Cinque Terre, we stopped in Pisa to see the leaning tower, which was pretty cool. We also went inside the church there that you see in front of the tower.

9. Monterosso, Cinque Terre

This place is beautiful, and we stayed in a really amazing hotel called Villa Steno. The Cinque Terre is known for its seafood and pesto, so naturally we had these a lot here on our visit. Our first day here we got here later in the day so we rested from traveling and then went to this pesto making demonstration (the old fashioned way with a pestle and mortar) and then had an AMAZING dinner made by this old woman. She made the most incredible pesto lasagna I have ever had in my life, and the great thing is, is that I got the recipe from her. I just need to try and make it myself. Also, we drank so much at this meal, and so naturally following this dinner we wanted to keep the night going. We ended up running into a dj/concert thing going on in the center of Monterosso and ended up joining in on the dancing. It was a lot of fun.

We started out our next day later and enjoyed sleeping in. We  purchased ferry and hiking passes so that we could go explore some of the other towns in the Cinque Terre and do a little bit of hiking between the towns. We first to the ferry over to a town called Riomaggiore where the picture above is taken, and we had lunch here. Then we did this little “hike” (more like a stroll) called Via Dell’Amore to the next town called Manarola. We didn’t actually spend much time in Manarola though because we wanted to catch the next train to Corniglia, which is this cute little town on top of these hills. When the train dropped us off we climbed over 300 steps to Corniglia and had some amazing gelato and walked around. After this we went back to Monterosso so that we could go spend some time at the beach before dinner. After dinner we ended up going to a bar and had this stuff called grappe, which is like Italian moonshine… super strong.

I’d love to come back to the Cinque Terre and do some more hiking, relaxing, eating more good food, and drinking more good wine and liquor. It was a really neat place.

10.Lucca

Before we left Monterosso, I got pooped on again by another seagull… second time in Italy. What’s the deal? Before hitting our final destination, Siena, we stopped by Lucca, which is this big fortified town that still has its original wall surrounding it. In the picture above I am standing on that wall, and it is pretty cool because you can go up on the wall and bike around it. We didn’t end up doing this because it was kind of raining when we got there, but it would be cool to do if we ever went back.

While we were here, we basically just walked around, saw many of there beautiful churches, had lunch, gelato, and then headed out for Siena.

11. Siena

Siena was really cool, very classy. You didn’t see the same poverty here that you see in a lot of other Italian towns. We stayed at Hotel Chiusarelli. We walked around and saw the big Campo which is shown above and then went to dinner, which was excellent. Walking home from dinner was beautiful because the sky was this deep blue and the brown of the buildings just made an awesome combo.

The next day in Siena we started off doing a tour of Siena, where we got to learn all about the Palio horse races that they do in the big Campo, which would be cool to come back and see one day. We went to the Duomo in Siena and then went to this stained glass shop and got to learn how they make big stained glass windows. Then Sam and I did some shopping where I got a Chirstmas ornament for our trip. Then we went to this grocery store called Consorzio Agrario Siena where we got lunch and this desert that is popular here called il panforte di Siena, which is basically like a fruitcake, but it was really good! We took our food and the panforte to the Campo and ate it picnic style there. After lunch we went to the church Basilica Cateriniana di S. Domenico and saw St. Catherines head and thumb… which is strange to me. Then we walked back to the Duomo and went inside the Duomo Museum where we saw some of the original paintings and sculptures from the Duomo and we also got to go up to a high point and see a good view of Siena. We walked back to the hotel and got gelato and then rested at the hotel until dinner. For dinner we got to participate in typical Palio horse race celebration dinner. Basically we went to one of the 17 neighborhoods and this family threw us and some other people a typical dinner that would take place in celebration of their neighborhood winning the bi-annual horse race. It was pretty cool and the food was great. They fed us so much and it seemed like we had an endless amount of wine.

12. Assisi

Next we were headed to an agritourismo (a place that is a hotel and winery in one), but on our way there we stopped in Assisi. There are two parts of Assisi, a new and old Assisi. In the new part of Assisi we toured the Santa Maria Degli Angeli, where we saw the cahpel inside that was given to St. Francis. Then we headed up to old Assisi where we picked up lunch (seen in Sam’s hand above) in the Piazza del Comune and took it beside the St. Clare Church and picnicked. The sandwiches were delicious, and the view of Umbria was amazing. We hung out in this spot for a while, people watched, and got gelato. Later in the day we did a tour of Assisi and got to see a lot of the old Roman remains there like the Roman Temple and some old Roman walls. We finished by touring the Basilica of St. Francis, and then headed to our agritourismo.

13. Umbria

As mentioned before, we stayed at an agritourismo which is basically a hotel and a winery at the same time. Our specific agritourismo was called La Rocca Orvieto Agritourismo. This was a nice vacation from our vacation. After settling in here, we went to a wine tasting put on by the hotel for the grapes they grow there. We got to taste 4 of the 6 wines that they produce there. We had 2 red wines and 2 white wines. My favorites were Albaco (a white wine) and Lavico (a red wine). Click here for more information on their wines, you can actually order them and have them shipped to you in the states. They apparently have a vendor in the United States that makes the shipping costs more affordable. Following the wine tasting we had a fabulous dinner there at the hotel.

The next day we took a short day trip up to Orvieto, which I talk about in the next section, but when we got back we went and played bocce ball and then relaxed at the pool swimming and reading (overlooking the vineyards). We ate another fabulous dinner and then went to bed to get ready for Rome.

14. Orvieto

The main attraction here in Orvieto was the beautiful Duomo that you see in the picture above. We toured the church and got to see some amazing frescos and an interesting pieta. Then Sam and I went to the National Archeological Museum, which was cool. We wandered around a bit, had lunch, got gelato, sat on a bench and people watched, and then headed back to our agritourismo.

15. Rome

Ahhh Rome. Get ready because we did a lot in Rome in only two days. In Rome we stayed at a hotel called Hotel Sonya. When we first arrived it was about lunch, so we found a place near our hotel to eat. Then we met a tour guide at the Colosseum to get a tour of many of Rome’s highlights. We started at the Colosseum and she told us a lot of interesting things about it, including that the Colosseum used to be covered in beautiful colored marble. In fact, she said to imagine Rome in technicolor. It only now looks all white because of theft and looting after Rome’s downfall. We saw the Arch of Constantine and also walked through the Roman Forum. We walked up Capitol Hill  to the Piazza del Campidogllo. We walked through some quaint little Roman neighborhoods until we reached The Pantheon which was amazing and so well preserved. At this point it was about dinner time, so we grabbed a bite to eat before heading to Piazza Navona where we saw the Four River’s Fountain. Then we went to the Trevvi fountain where we each threw in one cent coins over our shoulders, which is supposed to mean that we will return to Rome one day. We ended our long day by getting gelato and climbing the Spanish steps.

16. The Vatican

We started off our second day in Rome by going to the Vatican. First we toured the huge Vatican Museum which is filled of some incredible historical items and paintings; then we toured the Sistine Chapel. We stayed and looked at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel for a long time. It was pretty incredible. All the paintings on the ceiling looked 3D. We ended our tour of the Vatican at St. Peter’s Basilica. Talk about decadent. This church was huge, and it was filled with so much gold and marble, and Michelangelo’s famous Pieta.

After the Vatican, Sam and I got some lunch and then went to the National Museum of Rome, which I really enjoyed. It wasn’t as packed as a lot of other places and it had some really cool sculptures and Roman artwork. We ended our last night in Rome with an amazing dinner, and then got ready for our flight back to Texas.

All in all, the Italy trip was amazing. It was packed with museums, churches, good food and amazing wine. I am really glad we took advantage of the vacation time I had before starting work to go here, and according to the coins we threw over our shoulders into the Trevvi fountains, we will at least be coming back to Rome again sometime in our lives. Ciao.

As always… the best for last. I’ve been a bit busy lately, so getting this post up has taken some time, but this last year of college has definitely been one of the best. I made many of my closest friendships this year and got to have a lot of fun with them. I am seriously going to miss them.

This was the first year I actually remembered to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday. Here he is turning 3 years old and I made him PUP-cakes. He is celebrating with his dog friend Kizzy.

Went to Mt. Bonnell with my beautiful friend Sunnah.

Went to Hamilton pool with her and Samuel. This place is awesome. I’m disappointed I never made it back here.

Kayaked Lady Bird Lake.

Went hiking with Samuel at the Greenbelt. When we went this time there was still a drought in Texas… there is usually water where Sam is standing.

We finally went to the Texas capital… had been here three years and never visited it.

We got tickets to ACL again this year. It was awesome, as we had expected.

Went hiking with Sunnah, Cara and Cara’s newly adopted dog Lucy at a different area of the greenbelt. This photo cracks me up a little bit, looks like a weird family portrait or something.

Made another family pumpkin.

I went to this event in Denver, Colorado called ATCE with Cara and a bunch of my other classmates and got to go to petrobowl and see UT woop up on OU. We also partied a lot, which was obviously fun… and I love Denver, so this was a perfect little trip during the school year. Cara’s face…. lol.

I played on the SPE coed intramural volleyball team, which was so much fun… we made it to the final four!

My Nana had her 80th birthday. This is a picture of her and Pops and all the grandkids around her… and great grandkids.

Over winter break, Samuel and I took a trip up to Bakersfield, CA to try and find a place we want to live when we move there this summer. We spent one of our extra days visiting this place called Vasquez Rocks… which was only about an hour or so out and was beautiful. I’m going to love California if I get to explore a lot. I wrote a post on this place.

Afterwards, we met my dad in Vegas and spent a few days there with him. This is a picture of old Vegas. They turned all the building lights off and did this really cool music video on this paneling above the streets. So cool.

We bought our first climbing rope and gear so that we can start trying to lead climb.

I got my first tattoo. A scorpion… it’s my sign.

Took a road trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans with Cara which was crazy fun.

Sam and I went to the rodeo and saw the Zac Brown Band. I figured this might be one of our last time to go to the rodeo for a while. We got some fried food… fried oreos to be specific. omg.

Went hiking at McKinney Falls State Park with Cara, Barrett, and Brad.

I played on the SPE intramural coed softball team this year too and we actually won the Championship game! One of the best nights…

We had a senior night banquet… which was so fun. One of the best weekends of the semester.

We had one of the best floating the river trips ever… such a great group to go with.

Also, Barrett, Samuel and I went stand up paddle boarding for the first time. Cara and Philippe came with but they kayaked. I really liked the paddle boarding. I was really slow at it, so I was by myself a lot, but it was kind of nice. The weather was gorgeous that day.

Well… then we graduated.

Those photos only capture a small portion of all the good times we had this semester.

Everyone has to go be a grown up now… get a job… move a way. I am really going to miss everyone though, especially some of my best friends Cara, Sunnah, Barrett, Philippe, Tyler, and Price… and some of my fairly recent friends like Rahul, Sowmya, Kyle, Peter and Sammy… and my other classmates in the PGE department.

It’s been real.

This is one of my favorite photos. Sunnah planking on a bike rack (or whatever you call those things). I don’t ride a bike. I don’t know the bike lingo. Junior year stayed pretty serious. Got to keep those grades up ya know? I was a little less nerdy than sophomore year… a little.

I went to my first football game (I’m the worst football fan, I know)… I should have bought tickets sophomore year though, because they were horrible my junior year.

This year I carved a pumpkin with a bunch of my friends… I was lazy and bought a really small one and just carved a heart into it, but some people got creative.

Then my neice, sweet baby Autumn was born… and I immediately loved her. I cried the first night I came to meet her because I had gotten so excited to hold her but wasn’t able to hold her because she had jaundice still. I have my dramatic moments.

We had a great Thanksgiving with the family. I love these moments of just sitting outside talking with everyone and drinking a lot of wine. We enjoy our wine…

Samuel and I went on our first climbing trip to Enchanted Rock… loved it. Definitely take some time to explore Enchanted Rock… there is so much more to it than the main dome. This is a picture of us caving at Enchanted Rock during the night since we were camping there that weekend. Caving is not my thing, but I powered through it. This trip showed me that I don’t like to be in closed in spaces. I’d rather be dangling off the side of a cliff on some rope and in a harness with the fresh air…

Warning: partial nudity. Samuel got his first tattoo! He got it done at the Diablo Rojo next to our apartment.

Sam and I both invested in our first pair of climbing shoes… awhhh.

I took Sam skiing for the first time… and now he is hooked. We went to Breckenridge, CO through UBski, and it was awesome. We had so much fun… even “skied” our first black. Oh yaaahhh. It was more like a walk on skis though. We were better at the blue routes.

I made my new years resolution to cook one new recipe a week and this was the first recipe I made… which led me to create this blog (I used a different server at first, so a lot of my old stuff is not on wordpress)… but it started with Chicken Sorrentino Fusilli. Look how into it I was… I even made a sign for it. I don’t do that anymore. I’m too lazy.

Then it snowed.. quite a bit for Austin, TX.

I cut Sam’s hair into a mullet… but he didn’t keep it unfortunately. Sexy right?

I went with Sunnah to get her nose pierced… and seriously thought about getting one myself. I resisted. Hers looks awesome though!

We took a trip to my parent’s beach house in Port O’ Connor with Lincoln.

I worked in downtown Houston for the summer, which is great because my family lives here. This picture is kind of bad, but it is a picture of all the interns in my business unit.

We celebrated Sam’s 21st birthday at Bakers Street Pub.

We floated the Comal river in San Marcos with some of our best friends, Emily and Nathan.

Then partied with them on 6th street in Austin.

Junior Year.

I kicked my good study habits into high gear sophomore year. Aka, I was a super nerd. I spent more than 20 hours a week at the library with Sunnah in hopes of making good grades… it paid off. I did manage to have a little fun though.

I started by cutting my hair real short before school started. Kind of a bob style. I am not sure why we decided to take a picture like this… I probably found some really red lipstick, and was like SAM COME HERE… and he got marked. He humors me. But this picture shows my short hair too.

Then we got to go to Austin City Limits 2009! It was awesome. Basically it is  this big music event in Austin, and we got three day passes. It rained all day Saturday, so here is what it looked like afterwards. It was a great big mud fest, but it was still fun.

We carved another family pumpkin… this year, I made it an equation… in honor of all the math I had been doing. The square root of -1 = i….. get it? That is why I made the square root of negative 1 the eyes. Bahaha.

Oh my, then sweet baby Solon was born. Our first nephew. We love him to death.

Then we went to holi with Sunnah… which was great. It was this festival where we threw colors on each other and danced to Indian music. I am sure this is actual meaning to the festival, but I am not sure what it is.

We went to Forty Acres Fest to see Girl Talk (A DJ).

Then we flew to Acapulco, Mexico for the weekend and celebrated my brother and sister-n-law’s marriage. This was such an awesome wedding and reception.

Then we moved to Denver, Colorado for the summer for another internship. This is where I fell in love with Colorado, and basically anything outdoors. Samuel and I were used to being pretty lazy, mostly lounging around the house on the weekends, but after living in Colorado we got really crazy about getting out and doing things… at least on the weekends. Life’s to short ya know? That’s a picture of me on the job… chatting with the crew. Our field was near Meeker, Colorado.

One of our first trips in Colorado was going to the Great Sand Dunes. It was freaking amazing. Go here.

We had our first family camping trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. I started out wearing shorts, and in the morning it was 30 degrees F outside! IN THE SUMMER. O.M.G. but so beautiful. I loved it.

I fell in love with Frisco, Colorado. I want to live here one day. It is gorgeous. It is this cute little town in the middle of the mountains… it makes me feel alive. I am in love with the mountains. We spent fourth of July up here and watched fireworks from the side of the road in our jeep overlooking the lake. Incredible.

I played on a beer softball league with my co-workers… some of who are shown below. We were horrible (we literally lost every game), but it was really fun none-the-less. Oh, and our team jerseys came from the only gas station at our field location in Meeker, CO. The Kum & Go gas station. Good ole Meeker.

Then one day I was like, “Sam, haven’t you ever wanted to go rock climbing… like.. legit rock climbing.. on real rocks?” I’m pretty sure he said something like, no… I’ve never thought about it, I’m kind of not into heights. I decided to sign us up for a trip anyways. We climbed at Garden of the Gods with a private guide. Thus began our passion for climbing. We loved it. Love, love, loved it. We’ve been climbing ever since.

We took many more trips that summer, but to conclude the summer we met up with Samuel’s family in San Antonio and had a little family trip with them. It was fun, and this picture just cracks me up. Classic Boyle men.

Sophomore year was pretty life changing for me. I started becoming more of the person I wanted to be… a little more adventurous, a little more risk taking.

I am going to do a series of four posts focusing on all of my favorite memories from college. As I was going back through all my photos, I realized how much actually happened. I was going to do just one post with all four years, but I have way too many pictures. So here we go… Freshman Year first.

I went to UT to make new friends and to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I had gone to a small private high school, and going to a big public University would be a huge change for me, not to mention that almost all my friends went to A&M. Somehow, I new this was the better choice for me. I signed myself up for a UT camp called Ignite. This is where I met my beautiful friend, Sunnah. She is in the middle. I didn’t think at the time that we would stay friends, but we ended up becoming best friends. We are both pretty busy these days, but I will always hold a spot in my heart for Sunnah, and it started here.

So I did a lot of things with Sunnah freshman year. We went to our first college party together, walked to find all of our classrooms before school started together, took weird pictures together… you know, the usual.

I lived by myself freshman year… probably because I am often an introvert, but I tell people it’s because I am independent.. blah blah blah. So I decided I wanted a roomate… Enters new puppy, Lincoln Frank Boyle. Ya, Lincoln has a middle name. I never use it, but I picked it in honor of one of my dachshund dogs that had died when I was in high school. He came all the way from Michigan I think. I was new at the whole getting a dog thing, so I basically picked one online through a puppy website, sent someone my money, then hoped I would get a puppy in return. I would do more research if I did it again… but Lincoln was worth every penny I paid for him. He showed up scared to death from the plane flight but I immediately loved him to death. To this day he sleeps with me in bed… I am a sucker.

I knew that Italian greyhounds had a tendency to be shy and nervous about being around other dogs… so we immediately socialized him with the family… and the family dogs. This was literally the next weekend after we got him. Him and Cooper (the vizla) have been bff’s ever since.

We carved our first family pumpkin. Look at how freaking adorable Lincoln is. So tiny.

And I voted for the first time for president. That picture is a bit scary so, I made it smaller.

Next, without asking anyone’s permission… Sam and I decided to get engaged. When you find that person that enhances your life and you mesh well with… then why not. That’s what I found in Sam. A best friend. Someone a little weird and willing to do crazy things… like me.

See, we have the same sense of humor…

That’s a picture of Lincoln with a sock over his head… it was pretty cold outside and we wanted to keep him warm, but it ended up just being really funny. It snowed in Austin the first semester I was there… this is a pretty big deal for a Houston girl. That is the view from my balcony, by the way… not to shabby, nice view of the tower.

Next we took a bunch of engagement pictures with Alan Doberenz Photography. This is one of his pictures.

Then I dyed my hair pretty dark. I don’t really like it, but I did it because I had never taken a chance to do anything different with my hair before.

My sweet high school friends planned a weekend in San Antonio for me.

I got to see my oldest brother graduate from medical school.

Then….. I got married, May 30, 2009. (awh) This photo is also by Alan Doberenz.

We went to Puerto Morelos, Mexico for our honeymoon… which was beautiful, and we got to go see Chichen-Itza.

Then finally, we moved to Midland, TX for the summer for my internship, and I spent a lot of time with this guy below riding around and taking fluid shots for a project of mine.

Freshman Year. A crazy start to college, but good none the less.

I have had such a busy, but fun, week. On Tuesday, my softball team won the championship game for our intramural league. On Thursday a bunch of us went out country dancing… (Sam and I attempted it at best). Friday, we had party barge to go to which lasted all day, and then we went to 6th street afterwards. Saturday we had our senior banquet which ended at 6th street with an open bar. Sunday, we lounged at the pool and then went bowling at the Highball. Monday we floated the river in San Marcos, and Tuesday Sam and I went to see the Avengers at the Alamo Drafthouse, then I got drinks with some friends at Cain and Ables. Today we are going to kayak or stand up paddle board at Lady Bird Lake. I love Austin. After graduation I am going to be dead tired and broke… but it’s worth it.

As for this beef and broccoli, it was delicious. In fact, one of my new favorite Asian dishes now. I got this recipe from a blog called Mels Kitchen Cafe… make sure you stop by and check it out, it’s one of my favorite blogs.

Here are the ingredients for the sauce…

So basically, I just mixed up all the sauce ingredients and set it aside to use later.

Here are the ingredients for the beef and broccoli…

First I combined my meat and soy sauce together and let it marinate for about 10 minutes in the fridge.

Then I chopped up my broccoli.

In another bowl I combined the garlic, ginger, and canola oil.

Then I heated some canola oil in a skilled and added the beef for about 1-2 minutes until the beef was browned. I did this with half the beef at a time to avoid overcrowding the pan.

Next I heated some more canola oil to the skilled and added the broccoli to cook for about 30 seconds. Then I added some water and covered the pan and steamed the broccoli for about 2 minutes.

Finally, I added the garlic and ginger mixture to the skilled as well as the beef and sauce and heated all the components together.

The Best Broccoli Beef
Thanks to Mels Kitchen Cafe for this recipe!

Ingredients:

Sauce:
✔ 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
✔ 2 tablespoons low-sodium chicken broth
✔ 5 tablespoons oyster sauce
✔ 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
✔ 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
✔ 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Beef and Broccoli:
✔ 3 tablespoons soy sauce
✔ 1 1/2 pounds flank steak, cut into 2-inch-wide strips with the grain, then sliced across the grain into 1/8-inch-thick slices
✔ 6 medium cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press or minced (about 2 tablespoons)
✔ 1-inch piece fresh ginger, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
✔ 1 teaspoon peanut oil or vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking
✔ 1 1/4 pounds broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
✔ 1/3 cup water
✔ 3 medium scallions, sliced 1/2-inch thick on diagonal, optional

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine beef and soy sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour. Meanwhile, whisk the sauce ingredients together in a liquid measure or small bowl. In another small bowl, combine garlic, ginger, and 1 teaspoon peanut oil. Set aside.

Heat 1-2 teaspoons peanut oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot and rippling. Add half of beef to skillet and break up clumps; cook, without stirring, for 1 minute, then stir and cook until beef is browned around edges and cooked through, about 1-2 minutes. Don’t overcook the meat – cook until just barely cooked through so the meat stays tender. Transfer beef to a medium bowl and cover with a lid and tin foil. Heat another 1-2 teaspoons peanut oil in the skillet and repeat with remaining beef.

Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to now-empty skillet; heat until rippling and hot. Add broccoli and cook 30 seconds; add water, cover pan, and lower heat to medium. Steam broccoli until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Push the broccoli to the sides of the skillet and add the garlic/ginger mixture. Cook, mashing the mixture with a spoon, until fragrant, about 15-30 seconds. Stir the mixture into the broccoli. Add the beef back to skillet and toss to combine. Whisk the sauce to recombine and add to the skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened and evenly distributed, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with scallions, and serve.

I went to McKinney Falls for the first time ever last week, and it was really fun. The surprising thing is that it is not that far from Austin at all. I think it took us less than 30 minutes to drive out there. As you can see in the picture above, this would be a great place to come and swim, although, we didn’t swim that day, we just were hiking. I am just creepy and took pictures of other Austinites swimming.

We left after class on Thursday and hiked all over the park. I believe we hiked a total of about 4 hours and since I was wearing my heart rate monitor we burned about 1800 calories (not much elevation change at McKinney Falls so it wasn’t too vigorous of a workout). Some of the trails were paved, like the one above, these double as bike trails, but some of them were more rustic. In fact, we got lost at one point in the park… I will get to that in a bit.

The wildflowers were all over the place, so needless to say, it was gorgeous. We saw one bluebonnet the whole hike, and managed to get a picture with it. (Finally got that bluebonnet picture before leaving Austin!) I think it might be the last surviving bluebonnet in Texas now… they are all dead. Also, Cara and Brad thought it would be cool to run (prance) through the wildflowers which you can see below, and I got a video which was hilarious… but somehow it got deleted… (Cara?…. Brad?…). I may never know.

We took the dogs (Lucy, Cara’s dog, and Lincoln) with us, and they had a great time. Below is a picture of Lincoln leading the pack. He really is an outdoor dog… I know he is tiny, but he loves it… so don’t talk any smack about his tiny legs.. he is all muscle mmkay? Also, Barrett is bananas.

This house below was the point at which we got lost. We thought we were following a certain trail, but I think we went off the park map into somewhere not labeled… However, we managed to get back to it. I remember when we saw the house again Cara and I started trail running… I am not joking… we are legit. Ok, it lasted like 2 minutes, but I can only imagine it is the beginning to a hardcore life of trail running. Get back to me when I move to Cali.

So mostly this was a great hike, there were a few cons though. Don’t wear chacos for long hikes. It was stupid, I shouldn’t have worn them because I got blisters all over my feet. Unless you have beastly calloused feet… then maybe you could do it. However, if I was just going to go swim there they would have been perfect. Also, there are ticks here. I found one on me and Barrett had one on his leg. However, don’t let that keep you from going here… just check yourself afterwards. Be a pal and check your friends scalp. You can do it. I believe in you.

I don’t know about you, but I like to reward myself after I burn more than 1000 calories doing something awesome…. so we went to Chuy’s and feasted on Mexican food and drowned ourselves in margaritas. God, I love margaritas. Oh, and then we went to TCBY… because we could. It was a beautiful day with some beautiful people. (awh) I am going to really miss my Texas friends…

I went out with my friend Cara on Tuesday to look for bluebonnets so we could take those classic “in the bluebonnet” pictures with our dogs (ya, I know, we are cool), alas, we waited to late into April and only found dead bluebonnets. However, we were able to find one field of yellow and red wildflowers that turned out to be pretty awesome. I am posting a picture below of Lincoln that I took there, and there are more on Facebook. He is such a goof. Tomorrow I plan to go on a hike at McKinney Falls, so I will try to post about that later. School is winding down, and I am finding myself doing more non-school things than school things… I guess that is the senioritus in me. The end of the semester will be awesome though because I only have one final, which basically means I can spend all week doing whatever I want… so it is going down. I have to try to finish all the things on my Austin bucket list before I head off to California Land. Here are a few things that I plan to do in the coming weeks: Go to a jumpoline park (apparently this is supposed to be really fun), go to Hamilton Pool (which I’ve been to before, but I think it is awesome), go to Pedernales Falls State Park, eat lemon poppy seed pancakes at Kerbey Lane, and do some stand up paddle boarding.. and I am sure I will think of more things (I will try to make a list soon). I might like to go to Enchanted Rock again one last time because I love that place. I am envisioning a sad post in the future when I leave Austin for good. It doesn’t feel real right now.

Anyways, on to the triple threat: Cookie Dough Cheesecake Brownies. If you are re-reading that just to make sure you read right, don’t feel bad, I think I did a double take as well when I first ran across this recipe on the blog Bakers Royale. This is one of the newer blogs I have added to my list of blogs that I frequently look at, and if you just spend a few minutes looking around the site, you will see why. Everything looks extremely delicious. This is my first recipe to make from this blog, and it did not disappoint.

Here are the ingredients…

The first thing I did was crumble up my cookie dough.

Next I made my cheesecake part by blending together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla.

Next I made my brownie. First I melted my chocolate and butter in a double boiler until it was all melted.

Then I stirred in my sugar, vanilla, and salt.

Finally, I added in my eggs, one at a time, and stirred in my flour.

To assemble the whole thing I put about 3/4 of the brownie mix into a square pan. Next I put the cheesecake mixture on top. Then I sprinkled the cookie dough on top of the cheesecake. Lastly, I put the rest of the brownie mixture on top and then used a fork to swirl the layers together.

I baked this for about 35 minutes at 400 degrees F, and then enjoyed. The picture below is just showing my failure at trying to get the brownie bars out of the pan.

If you know what’s good for you, you will make this. Also, take pictures of your dogs in wildflowers… it is just funny.

Cookie Dough Cheesecake Brownie Bars
Thanks to Bakers Royale for this recipe!

Ingredients:
Cheesecake:
✔ 8oz. cream cheese, room temperature
✔ 1/3 cup sugar
✔ 1 egg
✔ 1 teaspoon vanilla

Brownie:
✔ 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
✔ 4oz. unsweetened chocolate
✔ 1 ¼ cups sugar
✔ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
✔ ¼ teaspoon salt
✔ 2 large eggs
✔ ½ cup all-purpose flour

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
✔ ½ of 1 package Nestle Toll House pre-made cookie dough

Directions:

Cookie dough preparation:
Crumble half of cookie dough mixture.

To make cheesecake:
Add all ingredients in a bowl and beat until blended. Set aside.

To make brownie:
Place butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a bowl over simmering water. Stir frequently until mixture is melted. Remove chocolate mixture from heat and stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated before adding the next. Stir in flour and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture is glossy about 1 minute. Set aside.

Assembly:

1. Pour 3/4 of brownie mixture into pan. Layer cheesecake mixture on top. Sprinkle crumbled cookie dough on top of cheesecake layer. Pour remaining brownie mixture on top. Use a skewer or a fork and drag it through the brownie and cheesecake mixture to create a swirled top.
2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees F. Brownie will will be fudgy and cheesecake layer will be creamy.

I went to my first crawfish boil on Saturday, and it was fun! I think it is a lot of work to get out just a little bit of crawfish meat, but it was still good. I had my friends there to teach me how to open it up and all, so it was a successful crawfish boil. Also, on Saturday Samuel and I went back up to the place that I mentioned we went hiking in August when it was dry, and I have a new picture of what it looks like now… flowing water and all.

On another note, I love pesto. I invested in a big food processor last month and hadn’t used it until last week when I made this Walnut-Tarragon Pesto… and it was delicious.

Here are the ingredients…

First I made my pesto. I processed my garlic clove and parmesan cheese until crumbly, and then added in the walnuts until I had smaller crumbles.

Next I added in the parsley, tarragon, and thyme (I love the smell of thyme… its awesome) and blended these until everything was well incorporated.

Finally, while the food processor was running, I added in my lemon juice and a 1/2 cup of olive oil through the top of the processor. When this is done, CHECK THE SEASONINGS! Your pesto won’t taste right until you add salt and pepper… add little by little to taste until you feel it tastes perfect. Cooking is a involved relationship. You’ve got to taste along the way to make sure things are tasting beautifully.

When I finished the pesto, I set it aside and began cooking my pasta.

While the pasta was cooking, I sauteed the mushrooms over medium high heat.

Finally, I combined everything. I combined my pasta with the mushrooms and peas, and gradually added in the pesto and a little bit of the pasta water. I ended up adding all my pesto in because I thought it tasted better that way, but do it according to your tastes. I didn’t add any more parmesan to the top because I felt it was already salty enough.

This dish was lovely, and if I make it again, I will probably add more peas than what the recipe calls for because I thought the peas added a nice sweet flavor with all the saltiness.

Farfalle with Walnut-Tarragon Pesto, Mushrooms, and Peas
Thanks to The Mushroom Channel for this recipe!
This makes about 4-5 servings.

Ingredients:

✔ 16 oz package farfalle (bow-tie shaped) pasta
✔ 16 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
✔ 1/2 cup frozen petite spring peas, thawed (I would use maybe 1-2 cups next time)
✔ 1 cup raw walnuts, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
✔ 2 cups loosely packed parsley (some stems are fine)
✔ 1/2 cup fresh parmeggiano-reggiano cheese chunks
✔ 1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
✔ 1 TB fresh thyme leaves
✔ 1 peeled garlic clove
✔ 1/2 cup + 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
✔ 1 TB lemon juice
✔ Sea salt
✔ freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Cook farfalle according to package instructions.  Be sure to liberally salt the water. Drain and reserve a cup of pasta water.

In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until golden brown. Add a couple of pinches of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper when they are near done. Turn off heat, add the cooked farfalle and set aside.

Make the pesto by first adding the garlic clove and parmesan cheese to a food processor. Pulse until crumbly, then add the walnuts. Pulse again to smaller crumbles, making sure garlic is well incorporated. Then add parsley, tarragon, and thyme. Blend until herbs are finely minced in with the cheese and walnuts. Add the lemon juice, and with the processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup of olive oil. Check the seasonings and add some pepper and a pinch or two of salt to taste.

Add the pesto, 1/4 cup at a time, and the thawed peas to the skillet. Toss, and add a little bit of pasta water to thin the pesto.  Add more pesto as desired, toss again, and thin with pasta water as necessary.  Serve with a wedge of parmesan cheese to grate fresh over the top.