My Ride To ATX

A few weekends ago I rode in the BPMS150 for the first time with my dad. He had done it a few times before with some friends, but that was when he had "younger legs". The ride was absolutely phenomenal and I enjoyed almost every second of it. The biking really wasn't half as bad as I thought it out to be and i finished well lets just say on both days. . . a good hour before my father. (Yes, I left him at the half way mark each day.) On Saturday I arrived at the half way point in La Grange, Texas at around 1:15 being one of the few done out of the Gardere Team, and my dad came in around two-ish and was also only one of the few done considering we had to sit around and wait until about six o'clock for the bus to round up the team and head off to adorable little bed and breakfasts in Fayetteville, Texas. We had started our ride on Saturday from our back door around 6:45 a.m. but were hit with a flat only two miles in. Luckily we came prepared and only had one more hiccup the rest of that day. 

On Sunday we left from a hotel near La Grange around seven and rode into University of Texas at Austin around noon that day. (Yes, I not only beat my dad by an hour but also my mom who drove to meet us!) Therefore, the end was bittersweet with the feeling of accomplishment of finishing so early, yet the feeling of loneliness to have no one greet me at the end. However, it all worked out because in the end my mom showed up and shortly after my dad rode in, and before I knew it we had met up with all our other riding friends and had a relaxing, fabulous time in ATX.

The first picture is just of a rack of bikes I saw laying together at the lunch stop on day two. I found it ironic that I arrived at the "lunch" stop around 9:30 that morning and on the day before we arrived at around 9! The first photo of my dad is while getting ready to leave from the "lunch" stop on day one, and the second photo of him (the one right above) is when we were in La Grange and he was awaiting for his leg massage. . . I just could not resist to snap a few even though I'm sure he will make me pay for it in the long run if he ever reads this blog, ha! (well worth it.) The photo below is what a crowd of people would look like at a typical rest stop, which came about every 8 to 14 miles in which my dad would love to linger about and chat about with whatever breath he had left, while I simply just used the stops as a butt and water break eager to move on to the finish line. The other photo is of my dad riding which was taken by photographers along the road, and somehow (with how UNcomputerized of a person I am) managed to copy them off of the website and delete their logo (which covered half the photo unless they were bought. . . I found that ridiculous but whatever floats their boat) in order to have a half way decent picture to share amongst my readers.

All in all the ride was absolutely amazing. I want to genially thank everyone who supported me, my dad, and our friends and who contributed towards my donations in which I raised over one thousand dollars towards multiple sclerosis. One day the world will be free of MS, and thanks the thousands of bikers who biked a near 190 miles, that dream will one day become reality. Those are the people who got me through this bike ride, for I realized that I could take a few days of pain to help those who have to take a lifetime of agony. My life now feels that much more fulfilled knowing that I am not only here to live through the days, but am living for a purpose. The reality of MS didn't sink in until I passed that finish line and the only picture popped into my head; a church I had passed earlier that morning with three elderly ladies sitting in their lawn chairs with a simple white poster reading, "I have MS, Thank you" . Those words were so simple, yet so powerful they made me beam with happiness that I was able to contribute to those helpless, determined souls.

Giada De Laurentiis Book Signing

On April sixth, twenty ten Giada De Laurentiis came to Houston, Texas for a book signing on her recent cookbook, Giada at Home which includes all family recipes from her homes in Italy and sunny California. This was my first ever book signing to go to, and it was nothing like I had expected! I had absolutely no idea the line would swerve around blocks and blocks for a near mile. I also did not expect to be standing in that never ending line for almost two hours only for Giada to sign my book and have a sentence long conversation lasting a whopping 30 seconds. But wow! It was completely worth it! I absolutely LOVED every bit of the entire event! My mother, neighbor, and I left our house around four that afternoon to arrive in the luxury side of town known as River Oaks to stand in a line filled with armature chefs, food junkies, and book lovers while enjoying the sun shining weather and Giada's at home appetizers.

My mother was nice enough to provide the cookbook and ticket for me in order to meet my favorite television chef as well as have her sign it exclusively to me, Megan Brown. (So thank you so much mom for everything. It truly was a wonderful experience that will not be forgotten! And I love you for that as well as having the patience to wait around all afternoon with me!)

The book signing event was held at Sur La Table, a nice little cooking store located on the corner of West Gray street near the downtown of Houston. The service there was exquisite as people walked around with platters of Giada's crostini appetizers and drinks. It was very well organized and everything (thankfully!) ran smoothly as managers prepared our books and led us through the maze of cook ware to the back of the store where Giada was signing lots and lots of her cook books.

This here is Blake, which could be said he became our friend after walking the line multiple times passing out samples of Giada's at home appetizers and stopping each time to allow his photo to be taken exclusively for the Little Blue Box Blog. (I have to admit I became a bit embarrassed to keep taking photos, but my mother insisted and I just could not pass up this opportunity without having any photos to blog about and share with my fellow readers!) Thankfully my mother was persistent, because in the end I always do thank her for that, because now I feel my blog post is complete with insight, details, and pictures of the book signing with Food Network's Italian chef, Giada De Laurentiis.  

Above is a photo of the inside cover from her new book with her one and only signature as signed with a kiss and a hug addressing it to me, Megan. As I approached her table, I felt like a child picking out that one special ice cream from an ice cream truck, because I was just so happy and giddy inside that I almost (but luckily I held my composure) went star struck at yes, a chef! She was even more beautiful in person and looked so happy to be signing books for her all her lovely fans. However, there was one disappointment overall. . . the mean lady who stood next to Giada forced everyone to walk about six feet away only to take a NO FLASH picture. Which was quite a bummer considering even on zoom I could barley see her through my lens and thanks to the "NO FLASH" rule every picture turned out blurry. (Not like it matters, because one would have to squint their eyes really really had to be able to spot Giada in my photos. . . it would almost be like playing a "Where is Waldo?" game. Ha!)

And to wrap up the book signing event, the line only continued to stand around for many more hours after I had left content and happy with my book and signiture in hand. :-)

My Poor, Poor Plants

Times have been grim and dull here at the Brown household. Feet sulk past one another dragging with zero posture as the monotone days begin to blend into each other and the calendar is no longer a necessity. Before long, it can be sure that the Grim Reaper will appear any moment now, and a big, stretched limo will arrive shortly after to escort the bodies into a deep, blue pit.

Okay, maybe I am being a bit dramatic, but seriously, I think I have recently gone into a short term depression. My once lovely little parsleys, basils, and chives, have been murdered by the plant devil; Vinegar Water! Everyday before I leave for school, I make sure to check on my little herbs that I have nurtured from seedlings to now (or shall I say once?) strong and full growing plants. According to all environmental greenhouse growers, the beginning stages of a plant must be carefully observed and well taken care of. Therefore, I always made sure to give at least six hours of "sunlight" to my little plants, and I always made sure to water them just enough to quench their thirst. However, on one specific day that will no longer pass by without being forgotten, I noticed a clear, purple spray bottle nestled silently beside my herbs. To my joy I came to think that my mother had decided to help me out by putting a spray bottle near my plants so I could easily spray them versus occasionally (and on accident at that) drench them with an over sized water jug. Ten minutes after I sprayed the herbs and. . . poof. They were gone. The once tall, and strongly growing herbs had now become sickly skinny drooping over the sides of my pot.

Panic arose within! I had no idea what I could have possibly done to hurt such a precious little plant. And that is when I noticed the label on the side of the spray bottle. . . Vinegar Water. My life was now over. I was doomed forever. I had murdered my own plants that have only lived a short two months! How could this be? How could I have been so stupid as to not read a label?
When it finally came to me. . . some one who is so strongly against fresh herbs and healthy eating must have set me up! But who could it be? This is a mystery that has yet to be solved, and the culprit still roams my house silently. I can picture the culprit laughing instinctively with their evil cackle ringing through their ears as they read my blog and smile over the fact they have beat me and my herbs out. Well this part is to you, my evil vinegar water plotter:  The games are not over, and I will succeed on with new herbs yet again! Mua ha ha ha!

My First Ultimate Challenge: The Search For The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie

The search for the very best chocolate chip cookie first started last weekend. Well I guess technically you could say that it started the first time I ever bit my mouth into an ooey, gooey, chocolate chip cookie. But really the idea of actually searching, and I mean digging deep into history, was last weekend when Blake and I had just completed a forty mile bike ride in the blistering cold weather and were now snuggled up against my fireplace eating one of Brittany's chocolate chip cookies. I couldn't help but notice that her cookie was buttery, soft, chewy, crispy, moist, and so much more that would describe the perfect cookie. I knew the cookie would be good the moment Blake put it in my hand and it nearly crumbled to pieces; this is how I determine one of the best chocolate chip cookies. So after eating one of Brittany's cookies, Blake and I got to talking and were curious about who could make the best chocolate chip cookie. I mean for decades or even centuries there has been a universal debate over that secret ingredient or that special technique to finding the absolute, very best, and one of a kind, chocolate chip cookie. So that is exactly what I decided to do. . . research a little, compare a few recipes, add some things here and there to make them my own, experiment, and simply have fun in finding my favorite chocolate chip cookie!

So when making a chocolate chip cookie, I came to find that most of the recipes called for flour (that's an obvious) chocolate chips (once again another obvious) brown sugar (some prefer light over dark) granulated sugar, vanilla (some more than others), and ohh lots and lots of butter. Now the New York Times once wrote an article over the perfect chocolate chip cookie, and they said that in order to meet expectations, one must refrigerate the dough for at least 24 hours. So for half of my doughs that I made that is exactly what I did. But I soon came to find not much of a difference, in fact I think my favorite cookie out of all seven that I made was one with the dough that was not refrigerated at all. So I believe that new papers can come across as A. either bias, or B. the writer of this column did not take a big enough survey when proposing his hypothosis. I also came to find that many recipes liked to add more than just chocolate chips to the cookie to make a more dramatic and unique cookie. For instance I made one that also included oatmeal, coconut, and walnuts. Another added hazelnuts, another with double chocolate and walnuts, and another mixing dark with white chocolate. With so many extreme variations, it is difficult to pick out the very BEST chocolate chip cookie.

I think when adding extra ingredients, it is not very fair to the true and simple chocolate chip cookie and it can not be fair to compete against such extravagant added flavors. Therefore I still have yet to find the ultimate and perfect chocolate chip cookie. However, I do believe (and this is my opinion for myself) that when adding a variety of flavors aside from the chocolate chips, and when using real chocolate chunks versus the plasticy taste of a chip, the cookie will not only taste better, but is much more sophisticated and is a great "wow" factor for friends and family. . . as well as pleasing to the taste buds.

So in honor of Brittany, my first Ultimate Challenge in search of the very BEST chocolate chip cookie; this post goes out to her for inspiring me to expand my horizons and look beyond a simple chocolate chip in order to find the very best and perfect cookie.

A Not-So-Dreadful Break From my Blog (Skiing in Colorado)

As it has been stated I am a girl from Texas. In other words I am a girl that lives hand in hand with heat, Mr. Sun, heat, Mrs. Humidity, and oh did I mention heat? And sadly in my lifetime I can easily remember the exact days, where I exactly was, and what I was exactly doing on the three days that it has snowed in Houston, Texas in the past seventeen years. Yes, in 6,205 days it has snowed a whopping 3 days here in Houston, Texas. (And that is even stretching it considering the snow only falls for a few hours out of those days. And that is even if you would like to consider calling it snow considering as soon as it hits the heated sidewalks, the precipitation instantly changes into water.) So to no surprise I was expecting a not-so-white Christmas this year. But, thanks to some lovely friends I was able to experience a white New Years (and I'm talking at least a foot of white and not the "fake" almost half an inch white.)

On December 29, 2009 I was forced to put away my computer and say good bye to my blog for an entire week. However, in exchange I experienced the ultimate trip of my entire life. Now yes, this trip was amazing because I got to experience snow as well as snowboarding and skiing, but no trip is ever fun alone. And this was definitely the ultimate trip of my life because I not only got to spend it with Mr. Handsome, but his wonderful and amazing family and friends as well. From the hot tubbing in the snow to cooking warm Spaghetti Carbonara in the cozy log cabin, and from the long but short days of skiing to the endless hours of game nights; Winter Park, Colorado was packed down with not just a white blanket, but lot and lots of happy hearts and warm laughters. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and truly did make this the ultimate winter vacation.

As I have experienced snow for I am a traveler and am not completely shunned from the majority of the world, Winter Park was truly a "Winter Wonderland" with isosceles dangling from roofs and snow topping each and every Christmas tree.

The view in Winter Park was simply stunning, and I could easily go on for hours describing every little detail of the most splendid vacation, but then the blog would become miles long and take days to read let alone view my many two hundred pictures taken over a total of seven days. However I do not mind bragging a bit about this fairy tale vacation, because yes, it was just that amazing. The food was superb,(each night a different group would cook some of the most exquisite food I have tasted in a long, long time) the skiing was frustrating at first (well at least snowboarding and the last mountain I went down, ha!) but was all worth it in the end for the adrenaline and excitement could not be resisted, the snow tubing was breezy and cold along with exciting and all around a blast, and simply being with such wonderful friends was indescribable for pictures could not even capture all the splendid and pure joy that spread from smile to smile to smile and yes, more smiles.

This blog post in not only for me to boast on and on about such a wonderful vacation that I was gratefully invited to by such amazing friends, but also to say thank you to those for absolutely everything and for taking me on one of my favorite and most fun trips of all times.
(And I am sorry Blake, but I just could not resist adding the picture of us in our matching Winter Park jackets :)

Christmas Cookies Galore!

Once again I am blogging about Christmas cookies! That is because Christmas is the time that my family will make lots and lots and lots of cookies. My grandma and I made a total of five different kinds in one day! (And that is not even counting the four different kinds that she brought with her.) So yes, I am going to have to admit that my family and I are obsessed with Christmas cookies and baking, and when I say obsessed, I mean OBSESSED! I may make the cookies in bland Houston, Texas, but these cookies have expanded my horizon to some of the greatest measures. These cookies come from all over, such as Switzerland, Germany, my grandmother's good and trusted cook book, and even from her best friend as a little girl.

A whole entire day was set aside simply for baking cookies with my grandmother. Yes, I could have easily done them on my own, however this is Christmas time and baking is always more fun when done with your partner in crime. (Yes, that is you grandma, for I am not the only one who makes flat moons or crooked fingers!) Also, she has been baking these holiday traditions way longer than I have, and she does know best.

Our Christmas cookies are stored away in many adorable little tin boxes to give them the whole antique and traditional look. However, they are not stuck hiding in a box for long since by the third or so day our cookie collection dwindles drastically as they soon move from boxes to stomachs. Every year we create some of the same cookies, however each year they all tend to turn out a little different than the year before. However they turn out, I know one thing, it is always a joy to learn and bake with my lovely grandmother. (Or am I just saying this because I know she reads my blog? Ha! I am kidding grandma, and you know I love you!)

So from my family to yours: may your Christmas be as lovely and yummy as ours! Merry Christmas

A Break From Cooking (Painting with Blake)

It has been expressed that I enjoy many hobbies besides baking and cooking. Painting has begun to spark an interest as I have been inspired by my grandfather, many deceased artists, and some one special known as Blake. He paints for a small hole-in-the-wall store, Phoenix Rising, and is brilliant at what he does. On one particular day we had decided to put our imaginative and right sided brains together to create what we call our very own master piece out of mostly acrylic paints and a whole bunch of random techniques founded by Blake (or was it Hue's grand idea of adding shiny foil to dull paintings? Hah!)

Our painting started off as any other standard painting Blake does with deep orange and red strokes. It is a very neat technique that is used, however I saw it as a little blah and ordinary. As bold as I may be I just couldn't bring my self to telling him this, so I did what I knew I could. I took a dark blue and attacked the canvas. From that moment on, he painted his way and I painted mine. Somehow we managed to collaborate and blend together and this is what we came up with; mixing the warm with the cool, the geometric with the organic, and all in all, going with our gut instincts.

This is the start of the many paintings we will do together, as well as a new way of expressing our personalities (how they are so similar yet contrast greatly!) through a few worn out and stiff paint brushes and near to empty paint bottles. :) P.S. I spy a shiny butterfly. . .

Very first post!!

WOW! this is very new and very exciting to me as I write my very first post on my very first blog.  I have intentionally created this blog to share my cooking recipes and expiriences with the world, as well as mixing a bit of my life and my self into it. . .

So I would first off like to say that I wrote out beautifully written paragraphs about myself. Unfortunately computers do not always do as you please and the screen had passed out before I could simply press the save button. Therefore everything was lost and now I must attempt to remember my words that I have written...
This blog is coming from a suburban girl who is trapped inside a blistering cave known as Houston, Texas. Fortunately I have been able to travel the world to know that there actually is breathing and living life amongst the delicious and sophisticated cities such as the city of New York and all of their many coffee shops, the citrus scented markets of California, the restaurants filled of pasta and only more pasta in Rome, and the sweet, sweet, savory feelings when one bites into that oh so tempting sugary scone in a little cafe on the corner of Paris, France. So yes, I am aware that Houston feels quite small in comparison to these extravagant places that are well known for their food. Yet I am here to break through and be known as that girl from Texas who has such a strong passion for cooking.

Aside from cooking and baking, I also have a strong passion for art and music. My inspirations come from many unique museums (as well as battlefields, hah!). And for music, well I am an extreme concert junkie and have an intense passion towards music. As I am not an instrumental girl, I have recently decided to attempt to learn to read music notes, and that one day my fingers too will be able to move so gracefully over the dainty black and white keys that blend so well together to form a little something known as music.

Before i babble on more about myself i would simply like to say THANK YOU.

"My Blue Box Blog" was created by inspirations from other bloggers who so dearly love sugar, butter and kitchens. I want to genuinely say thank you to all the online cooks and bakers who have contributed and shared their very own recipes through the World Wide Web and blogging community. It is now my time to make a contribution back to the online networking community as I share my very own works through lots and lots of food and art.