Cheesecake brownies

I wanted to thank you all for reminding me of the great things that come along with living in a university town. Examples. Most university towns are home to some of the greatest ethnic eats! It must have something to do with the wide variety of backgrounds of the people living and working at the university. While walking down State street you will pass Ethiopian, Laotian, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, Afghanistani, Mexican and five ice cream shops. Just to name a few. And yes, ice cream is its own genre of food.

They also have the best options for grocery shopping. To go along with the traditional mega grocery store, you can find the wholesaler, the food co-ops (yes, plural), the employee owned warehouse store, the organic grocery and Trader Joes. Love it. There are also multiple Asian and Indian markets. My favorite places to go and buy random food products, often with non-English labels. Just remember your cash, the international markets rarely take credit.

There are also the great events that take place through the year. There is “Kites on Ice” in the winter, Arboretum tours in the spring and Hippie Christmas in the summer. Hippie Christmas you ask? Well, I’m sure that it happens in every university town, right around move-in time. In Madison, hippie Christmas is always the week of August 15th.

The vast majority of leases end at noon on August 14th and you move into your new apartment as soon as you can get keys on the 15th. The night of August 14th, it is very likely that you will find people either a. partying all night, or b. sleeping on their front lawns guarding their stuff. The streets are piled high with some of the funkiest couches you have ever seen and each year I wonder how there can be more 1970’s couches. Do old couches come to Madison to die? Not only do you find couches, but you also find beds, shelves and other furniture, cookware, clothes and the list goes on and on.

Those not afraid of picking through piles on the side of the road view this stuff as gold. The Madison hippies love August 15th. When I moved from one apartment to another in the summer of my first year I put a bunch of stuff at the curb on top of an already huge pile. When I came out twenty minutes later to deposit more hippie gold, my bookshelves were already gone. Way to pounce hippies, I hope your books enjoyed their new home.

Apple Ginger Chicken & Curried Rice

Living in a university town, you get used to the ebb and flow of population. You brace yourself for the influx of bright-eyed students in September. You get used to standing in line for your burrito at Chipotle. You drive your car cautiously to avoid running over the absentminded undergrads. And you wait for this time of year. You revel in this time of year.

Having lived in university towns for the past eight years I have gotten used to all of the intricacies of the situation. It was most prevalent when I lived in Madison. Being a graduate student is totally different from being an undergrad, especially those in the hard sciences. You live and breathe your degree. There are no spring breaks or summer vacations, it’s five years of working and you don’t want to wait in line to get your lunch.

Madison, Wisconsin has a population of two hundred thousand people. The University of Wisconsin has a student enrollment of forty thousand. The population of Madison jumps by 15-20% every September when the students move into their dorms and off-campus apartments. Now, I’m sure that when I was an undergrad I was really smart. I looked both ways before crossing the street. I didn’t ask crazy questions during o chem recitation. I didn’t wear Uggs and sweatpants to school (this is true, Uggs look like potatoes and sweatpants are for bedtime). And I’m sure that you all were/are wonderful undergrads as well.

When you are a grad student, beaten down by your classes and research, the energy and enthusiasm of an undergrad is wearing. You stand there, looking at your class, thinking “how many more classes until I’m finished?” Luckily I taught organic chemistry lab, so I’m pretty sure everyone sitting there was thinking the exact same thing.

Then, at last, that day rolls around. The last day of exams, followed by graduation and then… Move out day! And they’re gone! The graduate students can finally go outside and enjoy lunch once again. Free from the danger of falling in stride with a group of bubbly undergrads on their way to play Frisbee at noon on Tuesday. No more standing on the bus, waiting in line at Hawks or worrying about taking out a group of girls standing in the middle of the street. The terrace grill opens and those brats smell like freedom! Well, at least for those twenty minutes before you have to head back to the lab.

Oh, and if you live in Wisconsin and have to cross University Avenue… Please do not hit the crosswalk button. It won’t make the light change faster. It’s only for the blind people, hence the sign that says “Press button for audible walk.” Thanks!

Key Lime Pie on a Stick

Way back in the spring of 2004, Boyfriend and I went on our first cruise. At this point in our lives, I was in Grad school in Madison, WI and he was working in Miami, FL. You can imagine that I spent as much time as I could get away with visiting him during the winter months. As we’ve discussed before, winter is not the best time to visit Wisconsin. It’s a little cold and frigid and blustery. For the entire month of February 2004, the temperature didn’t rise above 15° F (we’re talking -10 degrees Celsius here!). The trip to Miami was a welcome break from the ridiculous temperatures.

After arriving in the Miami airport I began to shed my layers of warmth. First, the Northface jacket (basically a down comforter with sleeves) was bundled into a ball and tossed into the back seat. My sneakers and socks were shed in favor of flip flops, allowing my pale feet their first bit of sunshine in months. Finally, I was warm enough to change from my lab uniform of jeans and a t-shirt to a cute sundress. I began to embrace the warm weather and slather on the SPF 50.

Our five-day cruise was sailing out of the port of Fort Lauderdale the next morning, so we enjoyed a seaside dinner on South Beach. If it’s still open, you should head to Rendevous, they have an amazing flatbread pizza. Boyfriend and I took a stroll on the beach and I got lots of sand in my shoes. Let it be known, I love the beach, I hate sand.

The next morning we waved goodbye to our car and sailed away into the bright blue ocean. Our first port of call, Key West. Although we were making other ports while on our cruise, this was the one that I was most excited about. Why? I love Key limes. If you ask my mom, I would ask for Key Lime pie for my birthday. Love that tangy-sweet flavor. My mission while on Key West was to eat some pie. And oh boy, did I.

While walking our miles and miles around Key West, Boyfriend and I stumbled upon Kermit’s Key Lime Shoppe. A haven for all things key lime and therefore my new favorite place in the world. I stocked up on key lime juice (oh the days before the 3 ounce rules), key lime taffy and cookies.

Something that caught my eye was sitting quietly in the freezer with a simple sign - Frozen Key Lime pie on a stick. Think of the combination of tart key lime pie and dark chocolate. The tangy, sweet and bitter flavors played off of each other so well that it was hard to keep myself from eating more than one slice. Years later I found myself wanting to reminisce on Key West. I leave you with an amazing recipe and a suggestion to head to Kermit’s and buy one of the original.