So, that idea of documenting the whole tamales making process? I didn't count on the fact that my hands were going to be all messy and covered in dough through most of it, so for now this is my sole picture of my efforts in tamal cooking.

I'm kind of surprised that they turned out well! They're queso con rajas, which is dough made with masa, finely grounded white rice, homemade chicken broth, lard (next time I'm trying it with olive oil, but decide not to mess with original recipe for now), and salt. In an effort to keep it simple I stuffed the tamale dough with farmer's cheese and poblano and serrano slices. Pretty tasty, although they're missing a good tomatillo sauce on the side.

I grew up completely spoiled by my mom's cooking. Little did I realize that other people's moms would not be necessarily be as - um - focused on their cooking. I didn't really learn to cook from her as much as I could have, because she had little patience, didn't cook from recipes, and most times doing 3 course meals was way more than she should have been doing every single day.

Apparently, once I moved out, my mom's cooking started not being as good as it used to be. Talking to her, it seems that I was the one who always commented on how good the food was, and after I left she wasn't as motivated. I have little memory of this, but she insists that even as a kid I always talked about what made food good. Not the technique, that was beyond me until my late 20s, but texture and tastes and comparisons to meals we had weeks, months or years before.

Talking to Mr. L last Sunday reminded me how lucky I was. His mom wasn't a good cook, and according to him one of the best things she made was a spam* and rice dish. Which explains his interest in learning to cook more than the basics and his praise of almost anything I make. But he cooks better rice than me, so he did learn something from mom!




*I've never had spam myself, but since most people make the DDDDDDDD: face when they hear the word spam, and M*A*S*H had a running joke on the awfulness of eating spam all the time, I'm guessing spam =/= good.

Spent most of my Saturday over in Tijuana with ma', making great quantities of tamalas: pork, chicken, cheese and peppers, and pineapple-cinnamon. We wrapped them up and froze them, ready to be put in the tamalera on Xmas Eve. The whole eating, present opening and partying happens on the 24th, which is pretty convenient, because then we cross the border Xmas morning to spend that day with family and friends in San Diego. My family mostly spends that day eating leftovers in their PJs, so not being around is perfectly acceptable.

Perhaps for the first time ever I'll be able to make and share some tamales of my own on the 25th. I plan to cook some on Saturday as an experiment, although we already have gingerbread men baking planned for that day. Might be too much to even think of making a pound of masa, a tiny amount by any Mexican cook's standard, but still we're talking tamales here. Is there another Xmas food that takes as much time and can be so thoroughly fucked up?

There is also the possibility of pozole, but that is going to have to be on my mom's shoulders this year. No way am I crossing the border again until the 24th. It took me 2 hours to get through.

It happens that once in a while I'll forget to check for new fic for a particular fandom. I didn't realize that some many additional stories had been posted over at AO3 in the last 2 years for Profit, so I'm freaking delighted this morning, sipping my coffee and reading fic after good fic. Oh, where is my Profit icon? I must find another one.

I had a light day today at work, so I thought I would kill a few minutes before I took off early, and started reading A Man of Few Words: an addendum to Pride and Prejudice. It's now an hour later and I. Can't. Stop. Reading.

I'm reading The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes, but at some point (lets say 200 pages in) I want to tell Steven Pinker yes, yes, I believe you, stop it with the stats, only to then realize that most of the book is stats. Who are these people that believe human beings, on average, are in more danger to suffer from violent acts now than in the not so distant past? I don't even have to look that far back in my own family history. The good old days were anything but.

I believe I might have found the right chiropractor for me. So easy going and not pushing me to come back for a series of adjustments, unlike the other dude. This one was just sent me off with his card and a recommendation to call him if I don't feel better. There was a lot of cracking going on, but in a way that wasn't as disturbing as previous adjustments. I'm hopeful this is the guy to help me feel better. 

Being married to a guy who is older than me has given me an unusual "always the youngest person in the room" series of experiences, so I can usually just chill about aging worries. 99% of the time I feel pretty OK with aches and pains, since all and all I'm pretty healthy,  and damn grateful for it. However, there are weird moments when I realize how many years have passed since I was a youngish woman, like when I read a medical report on "Wayne, Bruce's physical and MRI, DOB. 2/16/1971"

/random

I spent a big chunk of the weekend reading up on what is going on with the OTW. I love the archive, I've been using it more and more as authors have started using it more regularly. Fanlore is a great resource for me, specially when I'm dipping my toes into a new fandom. So, er, yeah. This feels BIG and I can't help but follow along as things develop.

I've been told by a masseuse that I might be suffering from a dislocated rib, which has been caused/aggravated by doing crunches. This means going to a chiropractor, which, eeeek, I hate. I've gone to one before, 3-4 sessions, enough to realize that being cracked and pulled is not something I can stand very easily. But now I'm motivated by weird aches and pains, so off to see a chiro and hope I can find one I can trust. Last guy I saw was a bit creepy and smiled too much.

As fr TVeeee, I'm almost caught up on my watching. I can do a couple of hours sometimes, but usually after an hour terribly antsy in a way my younger self would find odd. But yes, I'm now caught up on Fringe, Supernatural and (new good show, yay) Homeland. Is Dexter getting any better after episode 1? Season premiere felt so *meh* I kind of forgot about it.

So, Heaven. I've now had 3 people tell me it's fun, so I'm going to hunt it down. Right now I have no idea what network airs it or what's its basic premise.

I've moved over to Pinboard for tagging fic, but I miss the old Delicious terribly. It had been my main resource for finding new fic to read. I hope that eventually I can use it to find fics that have been tagged several times, once I have to move outside the people I follow in my network when I'm looking for new stories.

http://ask-soulless-cas.tumblr.com/

Via lithiumdoll 

Ah Tumblr, so many unexpected giggles.

No Google, I didn't mean "squirts" when I searched for the very SFW series Suits. Good thing I didn't do an image search first.

ETA: Oops, I guess you would be confused by my insistence on typing the show's name as Suirts. 

I wanted to like this movie, but damn, 20 minutes into the final battle I had enough. Also I suspect that the translation on the Netflix version is pretty bad, because that dialog was awkward in a way I remember seeing in English movies subtitled into Spanish.

Just saw "Rise of Planet of the Apes". Two three things:

1.- David Hewlett is never going to play a likable Simon Pegg kind of character, is he? :(

2.- Our future ape overlords are amazing and completely steal the movie. Humans? What humans?

3.- I'm having a hard time saying I enjoyed any other summer movie more.

Dear Lady at Henry's*:

I appreciate how you jumped to my aid when you saw that I had spilled hot soup on my hand, and that I was trying to figure out how to set down the laddle without burning myself even more. However, you applying a cheese block to my hand, making me drop the laddle onto the floor, which then splattered all over my pants and shoes, was perhaps not the best move.

Still, you're awesome to help me out and the shared giggle after the pain calmed down was a comfort,

Sincerely,

Me




*Henry's: Think Whole Foods, but 35% less expensive.

Our summer crops are coming in, with the favorite of mine being figs. They're still unusual enough that every single one is appreciated and eaten with much gusto. We have a young tree in our yard that will have it's first serious crop of fruit this year. Luckily we're getting a lot of sun, unlike last year in San Diego, although we have yet to get any seriously hot weather. That usually comes in later in the year, at weird times, like October.

It feels to me that even more so than good tomatoes, good figs can only be had when you can get to them quickly after ripening on the tree. I've had many bad figs in the past, with tough leathery skins or on the mushy end of their lives, already going off. Nevermind how expensive they can be and that organic ones are probably even more so.

I can't say how much I'm looking forward to experimenting with different ways of serving figs this season and sharing them with our friends.

I love the Miso flavor ramen with extra pork that this place sells close to the office. It's so delicious and yet everytime after I eat a bowl of their yumminess my body goes WTF ARE YOU DOING?



I wonder if they put in huge amounts of MSG into their broth or if there is something else going on. My mouth will be all puckered and salty tasting the rest of the day.

If I don't think about it too hard, Captain America was a lot of fun. The idealized 40s look is perfect eye candy, and there are funny lines, with Chris Evans looking pretty, a cool heroine played by someone I'd never seen before and Tommy Lee Jones being Tommy Lee Jones.

I'm very interested now in seeing if it's possible to pull all The Avengers characters together into one story without it being a disjointed mess.

That was a good example of going in to a movie with low expectations and coming out thinking it wasn't bad. That's the best I can say about this movie, eventhough for a while last year I was hopeful it would be good or even very good. But nah, it's too long and the dialog is predictable. OTOH, Daniel Craig being a quite believable man-with-no-name bad ass, looking incredibly good in his little cowboy outfit, was fun.