Thursday, July 5, 2012

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas




At about 9 o'clock this evening, I finally got tired of waiting for my parents to come home from work (and a visit to the grocery store), and decided I was going to make dinner without them.  Being car-less and past the closing time of all food stores within reasonable walking distance (2-5 miles).

So I was left with three options:

1- Forage for leftovers (but really what fun is that?)
2- Throw together whatever I can find from the cabinets
3- Don't eat.

Naturally, I decided to go the more adventurous route and see what kind of concoction I could scrounge up from the random foodstuffs in the cupboards and fridge.

Originally, we were going to have tacos for dinner... so my mind was kind of in the "fake Mexican food" mood and mode.  So with that in mind, I started opening cupboards.

The spoils of pillaging?

1 can of black beans
1 can of corn
1 can of petite diced tomatoes
1 can of diced green chilies (fire roasted for extra fancy!)
garlic
sharp cheddar cheese
flour tortillas of an unknown age and without an expiration date (but not moldy, so okay?) (I recommend knowing the age of the food in your cupboards and fridge... just as a good, sanitary health practice.)

So here's how this went down.

Pour a tablespoon or so of oil into a large skillet/frying pan thingy.  Add 3-5 cloves of crushed garlic... and let that heat for a few minutes.

Drain and rinse black beans.  Drain corn and tomatoes.

Add black beans, corn, tomatoes, and green chilies to skillet.

Stir occasionally and heat/cook until excess water/juice is gone... but don't dry it out.  Remove from heat.

In a separate frying pan/skillet thing, heat a tablespoon or so of oil, and flop down your first tortilla.

Sprinkle plenty of grated cheese on the tortilla in the pan and then spoon the black bean mixture on top of the cheese... as thick as you'd like! (I did about 1/4-1/2 inch.)

Place the second tortilla on top.

Flip.

Cook on the other side.

Slide off pan onto [clean] counter, cutting board, or plate.

Cut into wedges/slices.

Garnish with lettuce and sour cream.

Take pictures for blog (but not very good ones because you're too hungry and it's getting cold).

Consume ferociously.












Wednesday, May 30, 2012

22 Things to do Before I Turn 22

So here is the list that started it all!
I didn't have the idea for this list until about 11 weeks before my birthday, which is one of the reasons I didn't get many things one it done before then...

22 Things to do Before I Turn 22
(Some of these things have been... censored... for personal reasons... deal with it.)

1. Be a tour guide in NYC (February)
2. See Addison Station!
3. Have an adventure in Boston (August 2012)
4. Finish watching season 2 of Being Erica (April 2012?)
5. Lose ** pounds (August)
6. Visit the Ralph Lauren "Mansion" on Madison Avenue (aka the Flagship Store)
7. Get my Driver's License (June 29)
8. Sun bathe on the beach in a swimming suit (it's January remember...) (January 13)
9. Play hide-and-seek in a department store
10. Watch [at least] two Jim Carrey movies I haven't seen
11. Read 22 books (see list)
12. Eat 11 new foods!
13. Buy something .... (August)
14. Learn a new dance (Always!)
15. Get carded (September)
16. Run a 5k in 22 minutes
17. Build a snowman on the beach (January 13)
18. Finish knitting mittens
19. Make fudge (January 13)
20. Learn 22 words in ASL (American Sign Language)
21. Learn to juggle
22. 22 new blog posts (11 at each AwfullyWaffly and BreadyorNot)

So, I have a few more things done from this list... but still a long way to go! Yikes!

There are some fun stories with some of these things... heehee... :) I'll share more later!

Peaces,
<3 L


Here's the book list:
22 Books I Want to Read Before I’m 22
(In the order they were originally added)
1. Lieutenant Hornblower by C. S. Forester
2. Hornblower and the Atropos by C. S. Forester
3. MacBeth by William Shakespeare
4. Othello by William Shakespeare
5. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
6. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
7. King Lear by William Shakespeare
8. Paper Towns by John Greene
9. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
10. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
11. Richard II by William Shakespeare
12. The Boy Who Made Dragonfly by Tony Hillerman
13. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
14. A Dolphin Adventure by Wayne Grover
15. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
17. (Complete) Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
18. Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
19. One For The Money by Janet Evanovich
20. Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
21. Inferno by Dante Alighieri
22. Cruddy by Lynda Barry

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

23 Things to do Before I'm 23

Hi all,
I'm not sure if I should post date this or not... I guess I probably won't.  As mentioned in my previous post, I have a list of 23 things to do as well.  And as I also mentioned, I have yet to finish it.  Hopefully I will be crossing off a number of things within the next week or so. :)

So here goes!  (This has been slightly modified from the original list... which I may have misplaced. :-\ )

23 Things to do Before I Turn 23

1. Canada!
2. Publish a book
3. Move out  (August)
4. SD   (September)
5. Dress in period clothing and attend an event (January 14)
6. "Find" a new, fun place (January 20 or 25)
7. See a Shakespeare play at Blackfriars (June 6)
8. Sing "At the Zoo" en route to the Central Park Zoo
9. Bikini
10. Ice skate in NYC
11. Learn to pick locks
12. Run a 5k in <23 minutes
13. Foamhenge!!!! (May 11)
14. Kiss a Cadet (January 20)
15. See exit, pursued (November) [local theater production of Cabaret]
16. Weight 1**
17. Cook soup in the woods
18. Learn to play the ukulele
19. Finish term papers and term projects (May 31)
20. Hike Mt. Pleasant
21. Make/gather at least 7 "looks" for a photo shoot
22. Leave [State] for a weekend (April 28-30)
23. Write something for fun

Completed Before Birthday
Completed After Birthday


I know it doesn't really look like I've done much... well, I haven't.  But what you can't see is that I'm pretty close on quite a few things.  There are a couple things that might take a little while... like 12 and 10.

I'm reasonably certain I'm going to drag some friends to Canada this summer. (I've been to Canada before, but not since like 2005 or something crazy like that.)

I should be publishing something within the next month!

The next time I'm in the City, the CPZ is at the top of my list!

Hopefully I'll be able to wiggle in a show at Blackfriars within the next week or so.

I'm planning on going camping soon, and while it is lamentable I don't have my uke at the moment, I will be hiking Mt. Pleasant and cooking some soup!

In less than 48 hours I will be done with all of my term papers and projects!

And I definitely have at least three, maybe four, really solid looks for a photo shoot (penciled in this summer).

And I think blogging counts as writing something for fun! But in the spirit of not double counting things, I'm sure sometime in the next week or so, I'll be writing something for fun--that's just what I do!

So that really just leaves the 5k, the bikini, 1**, and picking locks...  three of those things kind of go together, and will be happening in a couple months. :)  The other thing I'm sure I can pick up pretty quickly.

Catch ya on the flip side!  I'll start updating and sharing some stories once this school thing is over in a couple days!  Because me oh my! There are stories!!!

Peaces,
<3 L

Monday, May 28, 2012

24 Things to do Before I turn 24

For a couple of years now, I've been creating fun To Do/Goal/Bucket sort of lists of things to do before my next birthday.  Ideally, I would like to have the list for the next year done before my birthday, so I have the maximum amount of time to complete it... but life doesn't always happen like that.  Also, I have yet to complete an entire list.  Part of the reason is because when I write the list, I tend to imagine my schedule for the coming year one way... and then because of all the wonderful new opportunities presented in life... it takes you in different directions than you had originally intended.  As such, some things have been slightly modified, and others have just not been able to be completed as planned... I'll get there someday... and soon!

After my first two years (and first two failed attempts), of trying this fun little game, I've added the completion of my 22 and 23 lists as the pre-requisite for my 24 list.  (I'll post those lists later as well as posts about each adventure and some pictures!).

Today, I finally filled in the last two slots on my 24 list, so I thought I'd post it. :)

24 Things to do Before I Turn 24

0. Finish 22 List
00. Finish 23 List

1. Find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie pop
2. Join the DAR
3. Join the Mayflower Society
4. Solve a Rubix Cube (by myself!)
5. Ride a horse
6. Write (and record!?) an entire album
7. Learn to shop with coupons! (Keep track of the money I save)
8. Boil water in a paper cup
9. Pay off Student Loans
10. Donate blood
11. Publish something I've written
12. Publish at least 24 different authors
13. Learn to drive a standard (and other kinds of vehicles)
14. Try/learn archery
15. Learn to throw things
16. Be in a feature length film
17. Learn to tie knots
18. Learn some new words/Increase vocabulary
19. Learn a parkour/free running move (or maybe 12 or 24 of them!?)
20. Be able to do 24 pull ups! (Okay, so that might be a bit ambitious. 12 would be cool though...)
21. Finish reading the Lord of the Rings books
22. Run a half marathon (Disney's Princess Half Marathon?!?!) in under 2 hours
23. Learn to roller ski!
24. 24 new posts on each of my blogs (in addition to the 22 owed from my 22 list) AwfullyWaffly, BreadyorNot, awLauren.

I'll keep you updated!
Wish me luck!

<3 L

Monday, March 26, 2012

I Want to Blog!

Hello Universe, how are you this evening?

I don't know what it is exactly, but I've really wanted to blog lately. My problem, is I can't exactly think of anything to say. It's not like I have time to do anything fun. Mostly my life is pretty boring. At least at the moment. All I do these days is go to class and do lots of homework. It isn't terribly exciting. Maybe this desire to blog is really from a wish for something about which I could blog.

Hmmm...

Well, the only fun thing I've done semi-recently... I've started to design a couple more houses! But I never really get far enough to get past the outlines.

A couple days ago, an old friend contacted me about making a movie this summer. That could be fun right?

And last night I threw together a quick, delicious dinner... that almost sounds blog-worthy, right?

Except it's so simple it's almost embarrassing... but simple is good right? I am in college after all, it's not like I have time to be terribly fancy.

Okay, so, I like cooking, yeah? But it's really hard to cook for just one. So I make things I can cook, eat some, and then freeze some. Recently, I found this cool "saffron" rice mix/dish/thing at the store and I wanted to see if it was any good (because I'm planning on making this Indian dinner for a friend soon). So I whipped it up, but realized, I probably shouldn't eat just rice for dinner. So I dug through my freezer and found a bag of "North African Soup".

Saffron Rice dish + North African Soup = delicious!

It was easy, fast, and oh so tasty! And I felt pretty fancy for making a meal in <20 minutes.

So this is probably enough for now... I guess I'll have to blog about my experimental Indian Food cooking later! Mmm! Mmm! I'm so excited!

Peaces,
~ L