Dutch Apple Pie Cookies with a Caramel Apple Glaze | #TheMagicofTea

Hello, friend.

Halloween is over and November is in full swing! The days are colder and the nights are longer. During this time of year when I’m not spending my time in class or in the library studying, I can be found baking my little heart out in my tiny apartment kitchen. There is something therapeutic about coming home after a long day of school, out from the biting autumn winds of Illinois, and just baking my feelings. After I am all said and done, I take a deep sigh, brew myself a steaming cup of tea, sit down at my desk and proceed to go on a photo editing binge, the sounds of smooth jazz acoustics playing softly in the background. 

As I've gotten older, tea has become one of those drinks that has ever so quickly grown on me. Coffee has always had my heart (or at least since freshman year of college when I started drinking it), but there is something so powerful about the calming, floral flavors that tea provides. It's this which has recently gotten my hooked, the warm brew trickling down my throat with each savored sip. Tea reminds of late night study sessions at my or my friend's apartments, our laughter proceeded late into the evening. Happy memories and funny moments, all over a cup of tea, and  more specifically, Celestial Seasonings tea.

Grandma Crawford's Cinnamon Apple Poundcake + my first magazine feature

Hello, friend.

So some exciting news... I’M IN A MAGAZINE!!

That’s right, the rumors are trumors. The blog title does not lie. I am in a magazine!

So rewind to December of last year. I had been following the magazine Local Wolves on Instagram for a while (around October-ish). One day, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when I came across one of their post with the caption “#newbeginnings”. It was an open call for submissions where you emailed them, answering the question “how were you going to challenge yourself in 2016?”, for a chance to have a potential spot in their user submitted section of the magazine. I thought “Why I can answer that!” So I sat down in front of my laptop and starting writing. I wrote about the blog, my love of food, and my journey with stuttering. I sent the email and walked away from the computer, knowing I was never going to hear anything back.

Salted Caramel Sauce │ My Fourth Attempt

“Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.” - Marilyn Monroe

You might be wondering about the “fourth attempt” addition to the title? On this blog, I don't only want to talk about my successes, but also my failures, and this was definitely a failure. I adore salted caramel sauce. It’s salty, sweet , and has a nutty essence, that works beautifully drizzled over a bowl of ice cream. What I hate is spending money on ingredients, getting half way through the recipe, only to find out the recipe is bad or  I made a minor, “no-turning-back-now” mistake, and having to start over. In a 24 hour period, I had attempted the sauce four times, and finally succeeded after countless dirty pans, sticky counters, and disappointing scowls.  Also, the sugar, which had the consistency of concrete, then had to be scraped, chiseled, and otherwise finagled out of the cookware.