< Previous48 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 GAME ON ALL IN ONE This venison version of fajitas can be prepared and cooked in a single pan story, photo and recipe by CAPT. NATE SKINNER I f you love fajitas but want to put a wild twist on the traditional dish, then this sheet-pan recipe is perfect for you. Instead of beef, it uses venison from a white-tailed deer for the fajita meat. It also allows you to prepare and cook nearly every- thing together, including the fixings and the meat in a single pan. For this dish, I used fajita meat that was cut and tenderized from the hind quarter of a white-tailed deer. You could sub- stitute any cut of tenderized deer steak or tenderized backstrap cutlet if you don’t already have the venison processed into fajita meat. I like to season the meat and let it marinate in some Worcestershire sauce for a couple of hours in the refrigerator before starting the cooking process. Once it’s ready, simply slice it into thin, bite-sized pieces and spread it across a sheet pan that’s covered with sliced bell peppers and onions. From there, you’ll slide the entire pan into the oven at 425 F, and let the heat do the rest. About 10-15 minutes later, you’ll have sheet pan venison fajitas that are absolutely delicious. Place some cooked bell peppers, onion and venison fajita meat on a tortilla and top with cheese, sour cream and whatever else you like on your fajitas. SHEET-PAN VENISON FAJITAS 1 pound venison fajita meat or tenderized cutlets 3 bell peppers of various colors 1 white onion 2 limes Sour cream Shredded cheese Tortillas Fajita seasoning Worcestershire sauce Olive Oil Season the venison fajita meat or cutlets with your favorite fa- jita seasoning. Allow the meat to marinate in Worcestershire sauce for about 2 hours. Thinly slice the bell peppers and onion while the meat is marinating. Spread the bell pepper and onion slices evenly across a large sheet pan. Drizzle olive oil over the sliced bell pepper and onion and toss them around in the pan until they’re evenly coated with olive oil. After the venison meat has finished marinating, slice it into bite-sized fajita pieces. Spread the pieces of meat across the pan with the bell pepper and onions. Cut 2 limes in half, and squeeze them over the pan so the meat, bell peppers and onions are lightly coated with lime juice. place the entire sheet pan in the oven. Allow it to cook for 10-15 minutes at 425 F, or un- til the peppers and onions are tender and the meat is cooked to your liking. remove the pan from the oven. place a few pieces of meat and some pieces of bell pepper and onion on a torti- lla. Top with sour cream and shredded cheese and serve. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 49 Imagine your home, totally organized! Custom Closets Garage Cabinets Home Offices Wall Beds Wall Organizers Pantries Laundries Wall Units Hobby Rooms Garage Flooring Media Centers and more... 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Availablenowatyourlocal 201445thStreetOpenDaily50 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 DESSERT ISLAND TINPOT TREAT This popular potato-based pastry hails from the Canary Islands story and recipe by PHIL NEWTON | photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDS V ilana Cake is an unusual pastry from the Canary Islands, specifically the volcanic island of La Gomera. The pastry is named after the rectangular tinpot called vilana or milana in which it’s made. This type of sponge cake arose from leftover stewed potatoes in the Gomeran home. La Gomera is in a sub-tropic region best known for its potato recipes. This cake incorporates mashed potatoes into a moist and buttery crumb. It contains other ingredients from the island, including almonds, spices and dried fruits and lies somewhere between a quick bread and a cake, made with yeast but not left to rise. With a light lemon scent, this pastry isn’t too sweet and is made with a little spice and raisins. It’s wonderfully moist, slightly dense and buttery with an almost brioche-like aroma. Vilana cake makes a nice afternoon snack or teatime treat, though with a drizzle of honey and a dollop of Greek yogurt will work as a breakfast. VILANA CAKE 8 ounces mashed potatoes 5 tablespoons butter, room temperature 5 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 tablespoons honey 3 large eggs 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup almond flour 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon grated nutmeg 1 teaspoon active dry yeast Pinch of salt Zest of 2 lemons 1 ⁄ 3 cup raisins or other dried fruits 2 tablespoons flaked almonds Grease an 8-by-8-inch pan and line with parchment paper. peel and boil potatoes. Drain and mash, set aside. preheat oven to 300 F. Cream butter and sugar, beat in honey, add eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour between each addition to pre- vent curdling. Beat in mashed potatoes. Fold in the rest of the flour nutmeg, yeast, salt, raisins and lemon zest until just combined. pour into prepared pan, level and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 45 minutes, until golden, remove and brush with honey. Cool before serving. PHIL NEWTON is a Galveston baker/cook. He’s the owner/operator of Stiglich Corner with partner Cindy Roberts. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 51 GalvestonFeatherFest.com 832.459.5533 Free Raptor ShowsEvening Events Native Plant SaleFeatherFest Market FledglingFest for Families Birding & Photo Events 200+ Species of Birds52 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 DOWN HOME ‘MADE WITH LOVE’ Islander turns passion for baking into a sweet side hustle story by SHANNON CALDWELL | photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS I slander Amy Bly has turned her passion for baking into a successful side hustle thanks to the rave reviews she has received from colleagues, neighbors, friends and family for her sweet treats. “I like to have treats on hand for people, usually in my picnic basket,” Bly said. “I’m the secretary for the superintendent of the Galveston Independent School District and sometimes people are nervous to meet him. I usually have cookies, cupcakes or brownies on hand to offer peo- ple. Everyone likes something sweet.” Bly was born on Galveston Island and has lived her whole life here, save a year after Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008, when she moved to League City. She took to cooking at a young age and was 6 years old when she became the official scrambled egg maker for her family, she said. While she’s comfortable with savory fare, baking long has been her passion and a year ago she launched a home baking business. “I would make cakes for my children growing up, but last year I went from zero to 100 and now it’s like I’m everyone’s personal baker,” she said. “I make pies, cakes, cupcakes, brownies and sugar cookies.” No cookie shape is too unusual for Bly, who has made custom cookies for Hanukkah, Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day among other holidays and special events. She has made football fields, college mascots, hearts, faces, tacos and even school buses. “I don’t even want to count how many cookie cutters I have,” she said. “I have them all in boxes and keep meaning to organize them by type.” Bly has spent months perfecting her sugar cookie recipe and is loathe to share it. But she does have tips for people when it comes to frosting their creations. Consistency of the royal icing is key and it’s easy to outline the shapes and then fill them in or flood the cookies, she said. She also has perfected her chocolate brownie recipe. Making chocolate brownies from scratch is so easy, Bly doesn’t know why anyone would use a box mix, she said. “I’ve worked on my brownie recipe for a while and it is pretty minimal with only a few ingredi- ents,” she said. “I like to keep things simple, with simple, fresh ingredi- ents and not too many additives.” Rich and moist, the brownie is soft but not too cakey. She sometimes adds walnuts or pecans to the mix depending on what she feels like, and she often tops it with a swirl of chocolate buttercream frosting. Bly likes the precision of baking and making new recipes, tweaking them to her own taste until they’re perfected, she said. Although she’s self-taught, her mother provided some inspiration for her bakery business and might also have pro- vided a name for Bly’s growing home baking enterprise. “When I was young, if I asked her for a cookie, she would say ‘I’ll cookie you,’” Bly said. ‘I think I’ll Cookie You would be a great name because that’s what I like to do, make people something sweet. I always say my baking tastes so good because it’s made with love. There’s nothing like eating fresh baking.” (Opposite) Amy Bly has turned her passion for baking sweet treats, like her brownies, into a side hustle. Find recipes for Bly’s brownies and royal icing on page 54. “I usually have cookies, cupcakes or brownies on hand to offer people. Everyone likes something sweet.” AMY BLY COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 5354 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 DOWN HOME AMY BLY’S BROWNIES ½ cup vegetable oil 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla 2 large eggs 1 ⁄ 2 cup Hershey’s Simply 5 chocolate syrup 1 ⁄ 4 teaspoon baking powder 1 ⁄ 3 cup cocoa powder 1 ⁄ 4 teaspoon salt 3 ⁄ 4 cup flour 1 ⁄ 2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 ⁄ 2 cup walnuts or pecans preheat oven to 350 F. Mix the first five ingredients together with a whisk. Mix the dry ingredients and add to the first five. Add choco- late chips. Mix in pecans or walnuts if desired and/or top with nuts. pour into an oiled 9-by-9-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges pull away from the pan. AMY BLY’S ROYAL ICING 1 (2-pound) bag powdered sugar 4 tablespoons meringue powder 7-9 tablespoons water 1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl with a paddle attachment, add 7 tablespoons of water and vanilla extract. Add the powdered sugar and the meringue powder and mix on low until incorporated. Mix on high for about 5 minutes. The icing will look whiter than when it started and hold a peak. Spoon out enough for any writing or detail work needed. This icing is thick enough that it won’t spread. Color thick icing and add to piping bags. Hint: Add white food coloring for white icing to prevent color bleeding. Finally, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the remaining icing in the mixer bowl and blend, checking in between for consistency. peaks should flatten back into the rest of the icing in 10-15 seconds. icing used to outline needs to be a little thicker and the “flood” — what’s used to fill in the outline — a little thinner so it will flatten out. (Above) Amy Bly squeezes royal icing onto an Easter-themed sugar cookie at her home in Galveston. Bly has made a variety of custom cookies in various shapes for holidays and special events. THEROOFTOP NOWOPEN! Sunday-Thursday:12pm-12am Friday&Saturday:12pm-1am COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 55 12 EVIA MAIN UNIT 1201 GALVESTON, TEXAS 77554 WWW.EMPOURIA.COM 409.295.4096 Call-ahead, Curbside & Delivery options available GENERAL STORE & POUR ROOM • Wine by the Taste, Glass, or Bottle • Over 140 curated wines to shop • Unique sundries and housewares • Gourmet snacks and local craves • Indoor and patio seating available56 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 COU r TESY MYLES ST r ANE p HOTOG r A p HY Amy and John price’s Beachside Village home in Galveston features an upside down layout, in which the living, dining and kitchen areas are on the third level. (Opposite) The couple’s spacious living area on the third floor is decorated with bold splashes of coral and touches of the beach. COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2025 57 HOMEPORT ‘PALM BEACH MEETS NANTUCKET’ Couple enjoys full-time island life in spacious ‘upside-down’ house story by BARBARA CANETTI E ven though they live in an upside-down house, life for John and Amy Price is anything but chaotic. In fact, the Prices have made the most of the past year and are completely settled in their new Beachside Village home in Galveston. In a so-called upside-down house, the main living area is on the third floor, rather than on the second level, where guests enter the house. They had the house designed by architect David Mullican to enter through a decorative foyer, with hallways to three bedrooms and a media room on the second level. The third floor is where the couple spends most of their time. “It is a very symmetrical house,” said Mullican, explaining that two bedrooms on the right balance the two rooms on the left on the lower level. Upstairs, the living room, dining room and kitchen all are one great living area, large enough to accommodate family JENN i FE r r EYNOLDSNext >