Tepoztlán

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

Here are some pictures that have been left on my camera-with-a-dead-battery since August. During my last week in Mexico City my co-workers all went on an out of town retreat (with interns not included), so my supervisor let us take a day off. He encouraged us to go to Tepoztlan, a town about a 45 minute bus ride from Mexico City.

We hiked up the mountain to find the pyramid that sits at the top. It is not a place to go if you are afraid of heights! Part of it involved climbing up a rickety staircase, but it was breathtaking and well worth the steep climb.

Vegan Shepherd's Pie and Variety

I don't typically make resolutions on New Year's, but I do make goals all year round and one of those goals happened to coincide with the new year: trying to eat a greater variety of foods.

While we don't often repeat meals unless they are really good or we are really busy, it is easy to get into a rut and always eat the same "healthy" foods in different meals: kale, baby spinach, the same old baby greens mix, carrot or celery as snacks, etc.

It is kinda boring eat the same things and I'm always reading about other foods that are really great for you, so my goal (which will last for as long as I can remember it), is to include one food that we don't typically eat per week. It doesn't have to be something new, although that is welcome, but my overall goal is to incorporate more of the veggies, fruits, grains, and beans that I only cook with once in a great while.

This week, it was parsnips! I have used them maybe twice before and really liked them, but just don't find a place for them in my normal diet.


I wrote before about how I had a lot of things I wanted to make over my winter break, one of which was a shepherd's pie. I decided on this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Choosing Raw, featured on the Food52 website: Vegan Lentil Shepherd's Pie with Parsnip and Potato Mash.

The parsnips got mashed in with the potatoes to give the topping a little extra flavor beyond normal mashed potatoes (which is helpful when you aren't adding butter or cream!). We had a lot of topping because our parsnips and potatoes were both huge. I actually ended up only using three parsnips instead of six since ours were absolutely monstrous. Aaron decided we still needed six of them when I was in a different section of the grocery store, so I'll have to find another way to use the other three.

Aaron and I both loved this dish. There is something especially great about mashed potatoes on top of a warm mix of veggies. We followed reader suggestions and seasoned well at each step, as well as broiling to get the top to brown. It made a ton of food as well, so although it takes a while on one day, it is worth it for all of the leftovers. We ate it for dinner two nights in a row and have lunches for the week. 

Overall the parsnips were a success and I would definitely enjoy the potato and parsnip mash as a side dish (or dinner with some spinach mixed in). Some other great ways to cook parsnips are roasting with carrots or making them into "parsnip fries." The sugar in them caramelizes really well to get a coated fry effect.

Next week I'll be buying some bok-choy, another veggie thats really good for you that we only eat once or twice a year. 

Where to go in 2013

Happy new year! After passing all of my classes from the fall semester, it looks like I will really graduate in May 2013. With this in mind, I have officially started looking for full time jobs. It seems like the options are endless and we could go just about anywhere, although we both have priorities and places we would prefer to live.

To help narrow my focus and give us a little bit of compromise, Aaron and I did an activity to figure out what we both want in a potential city. We made our own lists, ranking what we had liked in each of the places we had lived or what we wished those places had (the opposite of what we disliked about them!). Then we combined the top five from each of our lists to make our top ten as a couple. You can probably tell who put which things down.

Now the goal is to share it with everyone and see if they know of a place that has all of these ten things! It might be difficult, but I do happen to know Spain had (small) mountains and palm trees very close together. If we can't get the top ten, the top six would be great, or at least a majority of them.

1. Jobs for both of us
2. Lots of things to do (outdoors and indoors)
3. Walkable (especially to restaurants)
4. Good public transportation
5. Not a huge city...
6... but a bigger city
7. Close to the country/ mountains
8. Good weather/ palm trees
9. A happy city!*
10. Intelligent and advanced culture

*this refers to the total change in attitude we noticed when we moved to Madison. Of course it is not true of everyone or all of the time, but compared to Michigan, people here seem happy and are enjoying their lives. It is a good vibe to be around and is definitely connected to numbers 1 and 2 (the recession wasn't as bad here and there are lots of things to do).

Don't feel offended family members, being close to you was on both of our lists, but just missed getting into the top ten. Also number one pretty much rules Michigan out, sorry.

If you can think of some good suggestions, please share! So far I am focusing my search in Chicago, Madison, New York City, and Denver, but not all of those meet the list requirements and we are open to a lot more places.

Cinnamon Rolls

Like I shared earlier, Aaron and I spent last weekend making cinnamon rolls. We made the dough Saturday evening and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. That helps cut down on the process, since it takes about two hours to get the dough ready.

In the morning we ate breakfast and then got busy.

Here is Aaron sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar onto half of the dough. We made sure to cover every inch so no one ends up with an end roll that doesn't have enough cinnamon.

The second batch rising and waiting for the oven to open up.

Cooling down. As you can see we had already started eating them.

The recipe says it will make about seven pans (with seven cinnamon rolls each), but we have found it makes ten pans, with a couple leftover (which we baked in a bowl). I keep thinking maybe our cinnamon rolls aren't fat enough, but if they got any bigger they would be bursting out of the pan.

It was our second time making this recipe and it was definitely easier this time around. I'm sure you could split the recipe in half or quarters, but if you are putting in the work you might as well make a lot!  They are nice to give to friends and still taste amazing after being frozen (frosting and all). This may just become a yearly tradition for us.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to hop on here and wish everyone a very merry Christmas.  We have a very white Christmas in Madison and are having a day full of presents, delicious food, and drinks. After a week off, I am finally recovering from the semester and checking to see if my grades are posted every day!

Aaron and I have been enjoying time off together by making ten pans of cinnamon rolls and watching a lot of movies. We have also delivered said cinnamon rolls to friends and coworkers and enjoyed catching up with them and driving through the snow filled country (now that the roads are relatively clear).

I hope everyone's holiday is as relaxing and happy as mine!

**This is the best picture we could get together from my iPhone.

Snowed In.

As I'm sure no one failed to notice, there was a huge winter storm this week. There was rain, sleet, high winds, and lots of snow. We got the wind and snow part of the deal in Madison.

The snow began to fall Wednesday night and didn't stop until Friday morning. Luckily Aaron and I had already planned to spend Thursday at home, relaxing together to celebrate the end of my third semester in grad school. Turns out Aaron did not need to take the day off: everything in Madison was basically closed. If they weren't, they realized their mistake and closed early.

The snow was heavy and caused a lot of power outages. We were lucky enough to just have some flickering lights! Many of my friends had flights that were canceled and delayed travel plans, but I think they have all reached their homes safely.

Today we are turning this pot full of dough into delicious cinnamon rolls and delivering them to whoever we can find who is still in the area. We will keep a couple of pans for ourselves, but with over a pound of butter in the recipe, we don't need to keep very many! I recommend making them yourself sometime, you won't regret it: Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Roll Recipe.

Cheers.

Not for kids.

It has been a rough week, so I just wanted to post this cheery picture of eggnog that I drank on Sunday night and promptly got a stomach ache because it was so rich.

I know I am not alone in saying I was extremely saddened by the shooting that took place in Connecticut last Friday. I don't have much to say beyond the fact that for all of the wonderful things about the United States, I am disappointed by how easy it is to do something so terrible and how often it happens. I have considered both sides of the issue, but it is impossible to argue with the number of deaths by gun in the U.S. compared with other countries.

Between working on my final papers, I read many articles and opinion posts about the shooting and gun control laws. My favorite one was this: Stay in your heart, no matter how painful.

Today (hopefully), my group will turn in our final cost-benefit analysis project and there will definitely be a drink to celebrate that!

This week brought to you by: Cookies

It is officially the last week of my semester. Between now and next Wednesday I will turn in two projects and two papers and say adios to the semester from hell. I have already given two in class presentations this week and have one more tomorrow.  Not all of the work is the best I've ever done but it will be done, which is the important part right now!

Aaron decided to make cookies on Monday night while I was at a group meeting on campus. I think he is getting bored of watching stupid videos on youtube while I do school work (maybe). The reason we don't ever buy or make cookies is I ate three of them yesterday. At the end of the semester my scrutiny of what will make my body feel good becomes very blurred. Good thing we also had a raw kale and cabbage salad for dinner: Kale, cabbage, and carrot salad. 

Baby tree.

We got this baby Christmas tree on Sunday night after I spent all weekend (and by all I mean I had a couple of hours to shower and sleep in between but basically Friday night to Sunday night*) hanging out with my Cost-Benefit Analysis group. I needed some Christmas cheer.

We decided to get a real tree for three reasons:
1) We are staying in Madison for Christmas so we can't go without a tree like we did last year.
2) We have nowhere in our tiny apartment to store a fake one.
3) Our parents never let us have a real tree and now we get to choose for ourselves and we need to fill the gap in our childhood. Also, I remember being traumatized by how my parents wouldn't let us put up our tree until Christmas Eve. Well ours was up on December 2nd! So take that traumatized childhood. I'm rebelling.

We decided to get a baby tree because it was so cute sitting outside of Whole Foods!

Also it was just a lot less of a commitment than a big one... no tree stand, only one string of lights, a lot cheaper. Its like how couples get a puppy when they aren't ready to commit to a baby.

I love it! I hope it survives until December 25th. My track record on plants isn't so good.


* so you can see how good I look after marathon project writing in that photo, right?

Thanksgiving Break

Happy Thanksgiving one week and two days later! The work has been piling up and finally reaching its peak point for the last two weeks of school. I have hardly had time to shower let alone think about blogging. I'm currently waiting for a group my classmates to come over so we can work on a project indefinitely, so I thought I would post some pictures from Thanksgiving.

There was singing.

Saying hi to Ruth and Sean in New York.

Missing our other cousins!

Waiting for food!
                          

Great Bingo prizes.

More great prizes.

Aaron learning that toddlers don't actually eat things you prepare for them.

Apple pie making.

Someone's extra large piece. 

One of my best high school friends got married.

It was great to see most of our family and catch up with some high school friends I haven't seen in what feels like forever. We had a little too much fun and all of the food left me with a stomach ache!

Although I was too busy traveling and doing homework over the break to post anything about being thankful, I have been reminding myself all week how thankful I am to be at this point in my life. Sometimes I can't believe it is my life, and not in a good way (non-stop homework and studying can take people to dark places). But when I really think about it, I am so lucky to be going to grad school practically for free, having many opportunities open up for the life I want to live, and have a wonderful husband and family on top of it all.