stormy night

so, it's supposed to storm pretty good here tonight, i'm very excited. so i'm making 'mi especial'... cuban black beans and rice
black beans: in large pot, heat olive oil, throw in one green pepper, roughly chopped. then after a few minutes, when the pepper is tender, add about 5 green onions, chopped, a couple of cloves of garlic, chopped, a can of green chilies and a couple of tea spoons of chipotle chili powder and cumin. stir a few minutes more until onions become translucent. then add one and a half 26 oz cans of black beans. mash the remaining half can of black beans with a fork in a bowl. add them after mashed. add one can of tomato paste. let simmer on stove for however long you want... 5 minutes to 2 hours, just on low. just before serving, add a couple tablespoons of white vinegar and some chopped cilantro. serve with warmed tortillas, white rice, cilantro, limes, shredded mexican cheese and sour cream. yum!!! i'll post some pictures when it's done.
also, i made sangria... well, i bought sangria from the store (i've made it before, and this huge bottle from world market was only 5.99... i can't make it that cheap!) but i put it in a pitcher with a bunch of fruit... strawberries, watermelon, limes, apples, blueberries and melon. so good!

ingredients:


after about an hour simmering:


toppings:


finished product!:


oh yeah... sangria!!!:

i'm kicking myself again

i didn't take any pictures of the lunch i just made for gabe and i. here's what it was... blackened tilapia sandwich with cumin sour cream and pico de gallo
here's what i did...
to begin, i made the cumin/oregano sour cream by mixing about a half of a cup of sour cream with a teaspoon-ish amount of cumin and the same of dried oregano. then i set them aside in the fridge to cool back down.
meanwhile, i got out some lettuce leaves and some pico de gallo (chopped tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and jalapenos) that i bought in the deli section of the grocery store. i had already spiced the pico de gallo up a bit with some more chopped jalapenos just a few days ago, so that was all set and very spicy. (usually i make my own pico de gallo, but it's just so easy to buy it!)
i had a frozen tilapia which i thawed. i took two fillets, dipped them in a little bit of melted butter (i try to use butter sparingly, but with a light fish, you almost have to because there isn't much flavor in the fish to begin with) then dipped it in a mixture of garlic powder ( i know, i know, i'm not the biggest fan of garlic powder, but fresh garlic would have burned up in my grill pan), zatarain's blackened seasoning, salt and pepper. then i grilled them on high in my grill pan so the outsides would get nice black grill marks. they only take a few minutes on each side.
while the fish was grilling, i brushed the insides of kaiser rolls with some olive oil and placed them in the grill pan as well, just to heat them up, make them a little crunchy and get some nice grill marks.
when the fish was done, i spread the cumin sour cream on both ends of the roll, put a whole fillet of the blackened tilapia on each heel of the roll, then piled on some pico de gallo and some lettuce leaves and placed the crown of the roll on top. it was pretty amazing. i wish i could have gotten a picture!!!

salvation army 4/23

this one actually has a really great red piping collar, but you can't see it in the picture



yeah, i really went for the green/blue skirts, i don't know what mood i was in, but i think it works. everything was 50% off anyway and on top of that i get a 10% student discount, so it was worth it

after my last exam today, i decided to treat myself by stopping by the salvation army. i haven't been to a thrift store or vintage store in probably 4 or 5 months. i just haven't wanted to shop for winter clothes anymore. i was waiting for spring. somehow my "prairie mod" spring has never come to fruition, but i found some great 40's and 50's style skirts, a really cute navy dress and some (more) pearls. i should put up some pics, but i don't have a really good mirror in here. maybe i'll figure something out.(edit: i obviously did)

oh, so by the way, what this is supposed to be about is the amazing lunch i just made for myself. browned butter and thyme gnocchi. super easy, pretty healthy and lots of flavor. i should have gotten a picture, maybe next time.

I think I'll dedicate this outlet to all things food. I cook quite frequently and I can direct people here if they want a recipe or something. It happens that I've really found a love for cooking over the past few years, which I wasn't really sure was there. My mother has always been, and continues to be, such a wonderful cook and I guess maybe I get it from her. Well, look for future posts to be of that nature, until then, I'm supposed to be listening in class, so goodbye.

drove around in a convertible yesterday. best day this spring so far.