Football Season and New Recipes

It is September, which means the beginning of the fall semester and the start of college football. Our first football game was actually in late August, but it was an away game at South Carolina. This past weekend was our first home game at the newly half-renovated Kyle Field. The stadium, one season into its 450 million dollar renovation, is beautiful... and it's only going to get bigger and better.

Amazing photo courtesy of Jacob's fab photography skills.

On Saturday, the Aggies played Lamar University and, as you can imagine, it was a beat down. The Aggies won with a whopping score of 73-3! Can I get a "Whoop"?! We only had to wait through a two hour and fifteen minute weather delay before the game started. Worth it... totally worth it! The stadium was beautiful and Jacob and I had a great time. The only downside was climbing up to row 35 of section 516- this season is going to be rough! 

 A new semester also means trying some new recipes. As always, I've been busy on Pinterest, searching for fun new recipes. And who doesn't love cooking something new?

I've been eyeing a few different quinoa recipes, but really curious about what the hell quinoa actually is. So, just like a typical millennial... I Googled.

Random facts about quinoa according to Google:

• it's a seed and not a grain
• closely related to spinach and tumbleweed
• it's gluten free
• it's high in protein 
• it can be a good source of omega-3 fatty acids
• it's both nutty and grainy in flavor 
• there's a film on the outside that if you don't wash off before preparing, will make the cooked quinoa soapy tasting
• white, black, and red variations of quinoa exist

Weirdest fact about the food? The way it's pronounced. There's no reason that the word "quinoa" should be pronounced "keen-wah." Absolutely no reason. Nonetheless, I wanted to give a recipe a try. I love crock pot recipes too, so this one was kind of a natural fit. I threw all the ingredients in the crock pot on my lunch break and let it cook on low until I got home from work, when I cranked it up to high until the chicken easily tore apart. 

Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken Chili

Makes enough to feed about 8 people. So much chili! We had lots of leftovers!

Ingredients

1 cup of quinoa (don't forget to rinse!)

1 large can (28oz.) diced tomatoes

1 can (14oz.) black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can rotel

1 can corn (rinsed)

2 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed are okay) 

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

Prep

1) Throw everything in the crock pot. Easy, right?

2) Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-7. 

3) Use two forks to shred the chicken. Stir all ingredients together. 

4) Top with cheese, avocado, sour cream... or anything else that sounds delicious. 

The original blogger of the recipe said that leftovers thicken up by day two and you can put it in a tortilla for tacos. Yum! 

And... More Cookies!

I know, I know... I have a cookie problem. When I find fun new recipes on Pinterest, I just can't resist. And since I have an excuse for baking and somewhere to get rid of them (coworker's birthday), I don't feel guilty at all for indulging my baking addiction.

When I find a fun new cookie recipe to try... 

Yes... I did just somehow find a way to include Spongebob in my blog post about baking.  :)

I love M&Ms and I love pretzels (definitely my go-to munchie)! So when I ran across this recipe on Pinterest, my immediate reaction was... I must make these! These cookies are a little bit more involved than your average cookie, but they are so worth it!

Brown Butter Pretzel M&M Cookies

Ingredients
1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch (the magic cookie ingredient)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup pretzel pieces
3/4 cup M&M minis

Directions

The first step is by far the most complicated/one you can mess up easily... but stay with me. If I can do this, so can you!

1) Melt butter in a medium-sized sauce pan over low-medium heat. When the butter is melted, begin to continually whisk it and make sure not to leave it alone- you definitely need to be attentive in this stage so you don't burn the butter! The butter will get foamy and brown specs will begin to appear- this means you're doing it right! The butter will turn a nice amber color. Don't overcook or it will burn. Once browned, pour the butter in a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool until it's solid (1-2 hours). When you're ready to do the next steps, remove from fridge and allow to soften a little before beginning (~15 minutes).

Disclaimer: I'm absolutely not an expert at this whole brown butter thing. I'm pretty sure I didn't brown my butter enough, but the cookies were delicious anyways. This first butter browning experience was a learning opportunity for me. If you want to see how to brown butter like a pro, I'd suggest YouTube-ing some videos (like the one below). That's probably what I should have done before I started. Hindsight is always 20/20. Alas, the cookies survived. 



2) In a large bowl (I used my KitchenAid mixer and paddle attachment) cream brown butter until smooth. It'll take about 1 minute until it's nice and smooth.

3) Add brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream together until smooth.

Brown butter and sugars creamed together. 

4) Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Add egg & vanilla.

5) Add baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Mix well.

Add baking soda, cornstarch, and salt.

6) Add flour and mix. Dough will be very thick!

Add flour.

Final dough before adding yummy mix-ins.

7) At this point, you'll have to abandon your mixer and stir the pretzels and M&Ms in by hand. The dough will be thick and somewhat difficult to stir, but you can do it!  :)

Add 3/4 cup pretzel pieces and 3/4 cup mini m&ms.

Use that elbow grease and mix well! Dough will be thick!

8) Once all goodies are mixed in, cover bowl and place in fridge for at least one hour so dough has time to firm up.

9) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once dough has firmed up, remove from fridge and roll dough into 1.5 inch balls and place in cookie sheet. Top with additional mini M&Ms and pretzel pieces.

10) Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are barely browned. Don't overcook! Let cool for a few minutes and then transfer them to cooling rack or parchment paper to cool fully.

Most important instruction... eat and enjoy! Best had warm with a cold glass of milk! Yum!  :) 

Summertime Lemon Cookies

The last week has been crazy, but also very fun! The official week of welcome at Texas A&M University, Gig 'Em Week, kicked off on Monday and my office had the priviledge of planning some events to welcome these students to campus!

We kicked off the craziness of Tuesday with Gig 'Em Week 'GatheRing', where we invited all students to join us for free food and a Fightin' Texas Aggie Yell Practice! Well, as anyone knows, if you tell college students there are going to be free food and give-aways- they come en masse! We had about 2,500 people out in the Haynes Ring Plaza at The Association of Former Students. A few thousand hotdogs later, we kicked off the Yell Practice to BTHO South Carolina! As you can tell from the picture below, the event was a huge success!

Then, on Thursday, due to the crazy and unpredictable weather that College Station often has, the game-watching party to view the Texas A&M vs South Carolina game was moved to our building from the previous outside location. We had another 1,000 (give or take) students in our building hosted by the New Student and Family Programs office. They put on a fabulous event and we were thrilled to have the students in our building again! We also got to show these students the amazingness that is the 26-foot TV screen at the alumni center!

Finally, on Saturday, we hosted a much smaller and more solemn event to honor a former student that had passed away. Her family placed her Aggie Ring in The Association's Memorial Ring Collection to forever represent the Class of 2010. I was honored to be a part of the ceremony and learn more about the former student's life and her courageous fight against pulmonary hypertension.

Needless to say, the week was eventful, but also meaningful. Now that the majority of the craziness is over (until September Ring Day), I am celebrating with an afternoon of baking cookies! I haven't baked in a while (or at least nothing new so I haven't posted about it) so I'm excited to knock some more recipes off of my Pinterest "to-bake" list.


Chewy Lemon Sour Cream Cookies
Recipe will make ~36 yummy little cookies. 

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1/4 cup sour cream (I used light)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar
yellow food coloring

Directions
1) In a large bowl (I used my KitchenAid mixer), cream together butter and granulated sugar. Cream it for a couple of minutes so it's nice and smooth.

2) Add egg, sour cream, vanilla, and food coloring. Mix to combine.

(The original recipe called for just 2 drops of food coloring. I'm not sure what size drops they're referring to, but I had to use like 15-20 to turn the dough any kind of yellow color. Just add slowly and use your best judgement. The worst thing that's going to happen is fluorescent yellow cookies... and that'd just be fun.)

3) Add lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and baking soda.  Mix to combine.

4) Mix in flour. Dough will be thick and sticky.

5) Throw bowl of dough into the refrigerator to firm up a little while the oven heats to 350 degrees. Chilling the dough will also make the dough easier to roll into balls before baking.

6) Once oven is preheated, roll dough into 1-inch balls. Before placing on cookie sheet, roll dough in powdered sugar until coated.

7) Cook for 10-12 minutes. You'll know they're perfect when they become slightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool before transferring to parchment paper.

Yum, yum, yum! I love new recipes and this one turned out great. It will be a wonder if any of these make it to work tomorrow.

Now for some relaxing and enjoying more college football before another busy week!   :) 

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Since my return from London, I've been busy, busy, busy with work. The end of summer means going out to extended orientation camps, hosting students for graduation events, coordinating details for the Alumni Professionals of the SEC Conference (APSEC), and other random events- like the SEC Network launch party! Anyone that works at or with a university knows that this is a crazy time of the year... and it's definitely lived up to that hype. 

In early August, The Association hosted alumni professionals from all 14 universities within the SEC for an educational and networking conference. I went to this last year in Kentucky and had an absolute blast! So, I knew this one was going to be fun as well. I had the privilege to help plan some of the details and loved every minute of the conference itself, right down to the wrap-up breakfast that we had at the George Bush Presidential Library, where I sat in the below replica of George Bush's oval office.

I've also been watching a coworker's dog- she's stinkin' precious and we love having her! Tucker has also enjoyed having a playmate around the house. 

Look at that cute little face!

The new student welcome event that I've been planning is upon us- just 12 days away- and I couldn't be more excited! The final pieces are coming together- we received the pallet of soda that was donated the other day- so much soda!!

Then, today at work we hosted the SEC Network launch party, where we had about 1,000 members of the Aggie Network over to join in a Fightin' Texas Aggie Yell Practice, which was filmed and shown on TV this evening. We had a great turnout and the event itself was so much fun! We even had the famous Bus 12 in attendance flying the SEC flag!

It's been a busy, yet really fun few weeks at work and I'm looking forward to the beginning of the school year too, which is nearly here (so hard to believe summer is almost over)! 

Until next time...   :)