Give thanks. This is life.

Hi.

Do you remember this blog thing at all? Don't worry if you don't; I pretty much forgot about it too. I last posted on October 3rd. It is now November 22nd, the day before Thanks-frickin-giving. We're here. It's the holidays, people.

To recap: I was complaining about not following my school year resolutions, and I was gonna bake some stuff, and I was trying to get y'all inspired to make yourselves more awesome, too. The usual.

Pretty sure I didn't actually get around to baking anything for my friends before fall break. Nor have I made any progress on school resolutions or the lame resolutions I threw together after fall break. The deal is, I started rehearsing a show, which pretty much consumed my life in a totally wonderful way until just this past Sunday.

But you know what? I'm happy. I'm excited. This girl is pumped up about life.

We'll get back to that later. I owe you food.

This is the beginnings of what became the famed cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread that began this whole crazy baking journey at the beginning of the summer. I finally got around to making it, and holy lord, am I glad I did. At so many steps in the process I thought I was screwing it up, but I totally wasn't. It came out beautifully. A totally affirmation of where I've come as a baker and a cook since I became serious about it. Below, see the dough after its first rise. When I really thought that it was too sticky and I'd screwed it up.

Oohhhh. It's a little hot and steamy in there, isn't it?

I swear to you, this stuff sounds like it's breathing after you punch it down.

One of the best photos ever taken with my camera.

In the photo below, I have slathered the dough with browned butter and cinnamon and sugar. Gaahhhh.

It looks like a map of Happy Imara Land. 

Now there are the beautiful pillows of goodness layered in a buttered pan, after rising a second time. Or before their second rise. Can't remember which.

It just kept rising and rising and rising.

The finished product. Drool. Now. Lose it.

Whoaaaa.

The inside shot. Golden brown, yeasty, fluffy, cinnamon sugar-y bliss.

My family pretty much just picked at it constantly for about three days. It was incredible. I seriously cannot wait to make it again. Due credit goes to the consistently mind-blowing and inspirational Joy the Baker.

Next up: brown sugar cookies. These were a gift to a couple friends who I didn't get to see over fall break, and they held up incredibly well. As in, I brought them back to school with me and didn't mail them about until about two weeks later. And then they took a few days to get to my friends. Who proclaimed them delicious and intact. Miracles happen, people.

You know what's a great thing? The macro setting (aka the flower button) on your camera.

Crackly, chewy, sweet, fall-flavored goodness.

These were also courtesy of Joy the Baker.

Next came apple crisp. Which was heavenly. Absolutely heavenly.

See the blue-handled thing on the cutting board? That's a tomato corer. Which I used to core a bajillion apples for this apple crisp. (P.S. Just learned today that that's not an apple corer, as I was attempting to core even more apples for apple pie.) And then silver thing on the left? A vegetable peeler. Which I used to peel the apples. And that butcher knife? Yeah. Not so good with the fine motor skills. I almost lost a finger that night- several times.

How I almost lost a finger.

Oats, flour, and butter. Mashing this up with your hands is wonderful. Love.

Close up shot of the apples macerating (say that out loud...sorry, sometimes I have the maturity of a twelve-year-old boy.) in their juices, sugar, and spices.

In a well-buttered baking dish.

Covered with the magical crumble stuff.

Golden brown and bubbly. Boy, did this make the house smell beautiful.

My Facebook friends freaked out over this picture. I promise you, it tastes even better than it looks.

 I attempted to get a shot of the bubbly, juicy, glowy goodness. So much delicious.

Phew. So that was actually all I made on fall break. There just was not enough time to make more stuff. But I feel like I did these things well. And that's what really matters.

I'm still gonna talk food for a little while here. Here's what I ate at my birthday dinner. This is veal osso bucco. I swear to you, it was one of the most memorable things I have ever eaten. And the best thing I put in my mouth in weeks. It pretty much fell off the bone, and then rested on a bed of olive oil mashed potatoes. The only mashed potatoes that I think would compare to my dad's.

I spent about four hours today baking two pies. The first was a pumpkin pie. I took the recipe off the can of pumpkin puree, which was really quite easy. The most difficult things about this pie were the crust- which actually was not even as difficult as I thought it was going to be- and the fact that the filling is totally liquid, so it spilled over the edge when I put it in the oven, and my house smelled like it was burning for about an hour.

Here's the crust in the pan. I used the Betty Crocker recipe. Don't knock those old cookbooks your parents and grandparents might have! Remember that that's where your favorite recipes come from!
From this angle, you can't see the fact that I had to patch large sections of it back together.

Check the decorative trim. I'm legit.

 The finished product. I really thought that the crust was going to burn, the filling wouldn't set or would taste off...I don't know. I was really not feeling good about it. Then I pulled it out of the oven. Yeah. I had nothing to worry about.

However, I did have extra filling left over. I did a quick google search, and I was told to put it in an oven-safe dish, top it with sugar, and bake it up with the pie. The crunchy carmelized stuff on the edges is amazing. I've eaten about half of it already. Bonus: it's a taste test of the pie, without actually digging into the pie itself.

 While the pumpkin pie was baking/cooling, I assembled the crust for the apple pie. I got that recipe here, at Brown Eyed Baker, which I have found to be a great blog, like Joy the Baker and How Sweet It Is (have to plug How Sweet. She cracks me the heck up. And makes some really brilliant stuff.).
Now is the point at which I have to give my dad credit for peeling and slicing all of the apples, after he saw me attempting to core them with a tomato corer. I'm just lucky he caught me before I had started peeling them with a vegetable peeler and risking dismemberment by butcher knife again.

Natural light. It's a beautiful thing.

I'm gonna be conceited here and suggest that we take a moment to suggest the beautifully, rustically arranged crust pictured below. I did that. With my own two hands.

Be. Jealous.

Now for the grand reveal...

It glows. Like it's heavenly.

Get right up in there and smell that crust. It's buttery. It's sugary. It's gleaming because of an egg wash. Get it.

Here are my pies, being best friends and chumming it up before they get in our turkey-stuffed bellies tomorrow night.

The apple pie is definitely the glamourous, guy-getting, high-drama friend. The pumpkin pie is frumpy and has a fragile crust, but everyone loves her anyways.

No, I didn't just talk about my pies as if they were people...

I'm sleep-deprived, okay? I just spent six days a week for five weeks putting my heart and soul into a play and somehow managing to keep passing my classes and have a social life as well. I had to compromise. (This is the truth.)

But that leads me to my next thing. Which is why I am really loving life and should have an incredible Thanksgiving this year.

Everything is coming together. I can feel it. This show was an incredible experience. Never before have I seen a group of people so different come together and put out something as remarkable as what we did. I learned how to be vulnerable, how to commit, and how to be busy every night of the week for weeks without losing my mind. I also re-learned my passion for theater. The bug bit me again. And hard.

So I declared a Theatre major. At this moment, I am currently enduring major ball-busting and harrassment from various family members for this decision. I need to clarify: I added a Theatre major to a Political Science major and a Latin American Studies minor. So as long as I stick with those things (although really, just as long as I don't drop Political Science), I'm golden. Really. My mom asked me about the practical value of the Theatre major, and I threw something together about how it makes you learn about other people and empathy and stuff like that, but then I realized how unconvincing that was, and then I told her, "Because I love it and it makes me happy." Those words literally came out of my mouth.

But truly, that is the practical value of it for me! Why can't being happy be practical? Isn't that kind of the most practical thing of all, besides being able to make money (which I can still totally do, everyone!)?  And seriously, I'd been circling that major pretty much since I'd entered school. Even just a month ago, I thought that I would be content just doing shows as an extracurricular and wouldn't need to study it. Then my director sat me down after rehearsal one night and asked me what classes I was taking next semester. And that's when I realized it was a sign. This theater thing wasn't going to let me go. So I might as well just embrace it and give it a shot.

And I'm happy about it! I am really, genuinely excited for everything that's coming. So what if I have to negotiate a land mine of questions and concerns about this new path? How many people can honestly say they're doing something because they really love it? To put it quite frankly, I don't want to get to 35 and hate what I'm doing with my life. I don't want to have regrets. This all just feels right. All the stuff that I was worried about at the beginning of the year is kind of falling away out of my mind. And I think it's because of this.

So what am I thankful for this year?
1. A healthy, supportive and protective family.

2. Friends old and new.
3. An amazing show under my belt, and the affirmation that I can in fact still do this acting thing.
4. Easily accessible and nutritious food.
5. Rediscovering passions.
6. Taking chances.
7. An awesome new job.
8. Safe places to live.
9. Turning a corner.
10. Getting the chance to reflect and enjoy the ride.

My darlings, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Take a second to be quiet and just look around the room, and smile. We are blessed. We should be thankful.

I am thankful for all of you, and all of the things you have brought to my life.

Much love,
Imara