S'mores Pizza and Outdoor Movie Night

So my latest Pinterest attempt was to make a S'mores Pizza. My friend had an outdoor movie party and since it's summer we couldn't make real s'mores so I decided to check out Pinterest and see what other ideas there were. A pizza sounded perfect! It turned out pretty well and was really easy to make. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I very much enjoyed the left overs.

I think next time I might crunch up the graham crackers more and possibly use small marshmallows and chocolate chips so that the dough isn't as covered and will cook faster. I didn't want to burn the marshmallows so I probably took the pizza out a little to early so the dough wasn't quite as cooked as I would've liked, but it was good enough. See pictures and instructions below and ENJOY!

Can you guess which movie we're watching?

Recipe Description

The marshmallows were nice and gooey and the chocolate was melty, but not too melty—the perfect amount of meltiness, in fact. And if the scent of toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate isn’t enough for you, there is also the smell of cinnamon, my favorite fall scent. If you love s’mores like I do, then definitely give this pizza a try!

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Roll out your pizza dough as thin as you can get it. (Mine was actually thicker than I would have liked, but I ran out of patience!) Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Spread the graham cracker chunks all around the pizza. Next, spread the marshmallows on the pizza, and finally the chocolate. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the marshmallows are golden brown but not burnt.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Frozen Pizza Dough, Defrosted
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
• 5 whole Graham Crackers, Broken Into Chunks
• 3 cups Large Marshamallows
• 2 whole Hershey Bars (1.55 Oz. Size), Broken Into Pieces

Here's the blog where I found it:  http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/se28099mores-pizza/

South By Southwest (SXSW)

March also brings in one of the largest festivals of the year to Austin- SXSW. It's a week long festival of interactive, moveis, music. It's stat off with interactive where start up businesses can come meet and greet and sell their ideas. What it means for everyone else is parites throughout the city with free alcohol and sometimes free food. Next, the movies start up. Mostly independent films (that are ridicously hard to get into), but it's also a good time for some celebrity spotting. In the middle of the week really starts the music portion. It's music all day all night every 30 mins at every bar, restaurant, location in central Austin. It's crazy! This year I got a wristband which allowed me to get into some harder to get in shows. 

Who says you can't have a Spring Break when you're not in school? Austinites! Seriously, if you aren't lucky enough to get off work during the day you rally every night and stay out until you're forced to go to sleep and then do it all over again the next day. I don't think I've ever rallied that much in my life or had that much fun in one week. SX I enjoyed the beast that you were and was equally excited to see end so that I could sleep. Until next year!

 Yea, that's a single show under a light pole. Who knows...that'sSX.

 The Austin skyline at night

 Foxy Shazam! This guy was crazy and it made for a great show :)

 Counting Crows

 Fun.

 My friend John and I

Crystal, Derek, and I. Derek was the best to follow around during the music portion and took me to a lot of good shows. I don't know how many I saw in the last 4 days, but it was a lot. A new local band I found was the Language Room. I'll actually be going to their show this week. Can't wait!

The last day of SX was also St. Patrick's Day. I didn't take any pictures of the Irish Shenanigans, but I did get to meet some Irish people and it was a lot of craic (fun). March turned out to be a great month!

Spring has Sprung!

The month of March brought warm weather and with that outdoor activities. The first was a UT baseball game. We didn't win, but it felt so good to watch some good baseball and eat some nachos! It's OFFICIALLY baseball season. Who's excited? 

It also means great climbing weather! I don't have any pictures, but man I'm just as excited to be outdoors climbing again. I recently went Reimer's Ranch with some friends and we had a great day pushing each other to the limit. It hurt so bad the next day, but also felt soooo good.

 Austin is pretty well known for it's food trailers and this location is no exception. It's called the "East Side Drive In" and it's full of trailers, picnic tables, and it's BYOB. During the summer they even have drive in movies. I'm not sure how Austin fits everything into one city, but it's gotta be the coolest one!

March also brought everyone out to Zilker park for the annual kite festival. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful windy day! The amount of kites that were out was amazing and of course there was an oustanding view of the Austin skyline. It never gets old :)

2nd Work Travel Trip: Missouri

My 2nd and last travel trip was to MO. I kinda drove all around the state to get to 4 different schools. I also got to experience my first time driving in Snow! It wasn't very much fun. This was also my first trip by myself. I'd say it was pretty successful, but it def made me realize that repping isn't really for me. I'm pretty happy with my Site Specialist position after this trip. Not only did I have to drive in snow, but it also rained, fogged and iced. The pictures below are from when I arrived and it was beautiful, but it all went downhill from there.

The other great thing I got to do though was visit with my friend Kyle. He went to KU and now lives in KC on the KS side of course. But we missed each other over the holidays the last few years and I wasn't able to go to his wedding last summer because I was in London so it was good to visit with him and his new wife Kristen. We had dinner at this great BBQ place that was on the Food Channel of places you have to eat before you die. Of course it was in a gas station!! Even though I didn't get to cross a city I've never been to off my list I still had a great time and successfully completed my solo travel trip.

 Driving into KC

 Cute moose picture in the restaurant I stopped to eat in. Being by myself made me very talkative with the waiters. haha

 As promised, there was overnight snow. This is what I woke up to the next morning.

Again, the campuses in MO were very different than the ones in Texas! I thought this one was really pretty especially with the snow. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Kyle and I, but it just means we'll have to get together again sometime in the future.

Happy Birthday Gigi!

For Christmas "Santa" bought us all tickets to the Fort Worth Rodeo. The only day all of us could go was on Mom's birthday. So we all headed to Fort Worth to celebrate and enjoy our Christmas Gift. I headed by train. Mom has tried to get me to ride it from Austin --> FW all through college and I finally decided to check it out. It was pretty nice and as you can see very spacious. We had some hick ups with having to allow other trains to pass and it only goes 50 mph so it took a lot longer than driving, but I didn't have to worry about I-35 traffic so it was nice for that. If it was more convenient I would ride it all the time!

 

Sterling and Hudson had a great time at the rodeo. Hudson couldn't stop talking about "Boo Riding," he fell asleep for most of the rodeo but made sure he was awake for the grand finale. They enjoyed their "light up things" that Gigi bought for them on our way out. Thank you Gigi for great Christmas present! I think next year we should all head to Disney for New Years! Let's see if Santa can pull that one off ;)

1st Work Travel Trip: Miami

So much has happened since Precious Little Talent closed. In short, life hasn't slowed down much. During the run of the show I actually had my first training trip to Southern Florida! It was a great time, but also exhausting. Shortly after arriving back in Austin I got a new position - the England Site Specialist and Assistant to the VP of Marketing. I was sad at first to not travel anymore, but that didn't last long. Being on the road is tiresome and long.... well try to fit in a little fun anyway. Check out some of my photos from Miami!

Seriously some of the best ice cream ever! Thank you to the airport car rental attendant for the suggestion :)

 The city of Miami at sunset. I would never want to live here, but it was pretty beautiful and the weather was amazing for February!

 A student who talked at our table for a little while.... apparently he has a gun with a real gold trigger.

 The campuses were very different than what I was used to in Texas.

 Yes, this is a real sign on the FGCU campus. REALLY!

My first taste of cuban food! Who says I'm a picky eater? Well I took out the plantains, but the rest of it was really good :) Gotta eat like the locals right?

Precious Little Talent

It's that time of year again when Frontera Fest rolls around and my life is taken up by doing a show. It started back in October with Director interviews, auditions in November, rehearsals in December, and shows in January and February! Whew! Needless to say I'll be glad when it's over so I can make dinner, or work out, or just sleep again. 

PLT is about a British girl, Joey, who comes to NY to see her father, George, who left England 2 years ago. She meets Sam, a young American boy, who is taking care of Joey's father. She doesn't know that her father has been diagnosed with Dimentia and George wants to keep it that way. It's been a great show and we just got our first review! Check it out here: http://austinlivetheatre.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3009:precious-little-talent-by-ella-hickson-capital-t-theatre-january-25-february-11&catid=764:capital-t-theatre&Itemid=151

 

PLT first caught my eye this last time I was in London. It was performed at the Trafalgar Studios last April and I thought it would make a great show for Capital T. It's been fun to be a part of the process from the very beginning and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Below is the poster from the British version of the show. Although, I'm still waiting on Mark to read the other show I REALLY want to do. Maybe next year :)