Monday, November 21, 2011

Yo quiero taquitos a las 6!!

Yes, I woke up at 6am craving taquitos.


I hardly ever eat breakfast, especially on the weekend. I have no idea why. I just always have been that way.


I sat in my bed too lazy to wake up yet tooo hungry to ignore my stomach. It was yelling at me.  Thinking about how I am going to use up my 120 corn tortillas in my fridge (actually 40 in my fridge and 80 in the freezer).  Gotta love Costco. Less than $3 for 120 tortillas now that's a STEAL. 


Meat is not in my diet therefore I am on a constant mission to improvise anything I make.  Veggie patties mashed with onions and voilà! I have taquitos.


the filling
So I make the filling and roll. I roll and ended up with these. These bad boys weren't those frozen Jose-Juan-Tia Maria brands at the grocery store where they just put a little filling. I had them FILLED. I could only eat 3 at a time.


before I fry
There is the option to either fry or put it in the oven and bake it.  Being a very impatient person, I opted to fry mine.  I didn't have the patience to stare at an oven telling it to ¡apúrate!

My end result: 
I might have cooked em a little toooo long. Oh well. It was crispy. Served with salsa and sour cream (Yes I am aware sour cream is dairy and I shouldn't have it. But I didn't care)




I bet you can't tell that's not meat!


My veggie taquitos were good. Definitely going to start making this more often.


I guess this is the beauty of living in California.  You learn to make Mexican cuisine and get to the point of making "decent/good Mexican food" because you have something to compare it to.  Imagine living in the middle of Tibet or China.  If that is the case, your Mexican food is probably good there but don't expect too much when you return to the States- better yet, Mexico.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Spicy Thai-m

Um, don't ask me to make something and expect it not to be spicy.


I am addicted to chili flakes, hot sauce, and peppers.  Anything, you name it. I'll eat it if it's hot. Don't give me mild, kinda-hot, give me HOT.


Funny story: The Dutch don't eat spicy. It's just not part of the cuisine.  When I was in the Netherlands, my girlfriends and I decided to head to a local Thai restaurant in the town square that we had never been to.  The choices were level 1 mild, level 2 spicy, level 3 damn hot. I looked in the kitchen and it was a small Thai lady cooking. I judge the level of spicy by who is cooking. She looked straight-Thai-local so I stuck to level 2. Good choice. I was fine, perfect amount of hot.  Didn't make me sweat but it sure made my Dutch friend sweat at level 1. She even order a glass of melk. But whatever, that's the joys of traveling. Food and culture.


When I was in Thailand, I brought home spices. Chili spices. Oh yes. Party in my mouth.


I bought a red curry paste that they sell by weight at the supermarket. Kind of like a Super Target but imagine everything in Thai. It was 17 baht. I have no idea what that translates to except for f-n cheap.


My mother tells me "I want Thai curry.  Go make some" "Yes mother (smile)"


I heat the oil and add some paste... I think it needs a little more... maaaybe a little more. Whoops. My bad. Too spicy for the people in my house except me. HAHA.  My mothers solution, a WHOLE can of Coconut Cream. Not milk. Cream. Oh maan. It made it sweeter, still good except it wasn't spicy anymore. Uber sad face. Whatever, I ended up doing the same thing again the second time around. I will never learn.




So here is a picture of my Pumpkin Red Curry.



Thursday, November 10, 2011

A failed attempt at American cuisine

So I have never made baked mac n cheese in my life. I think I have found the reason, more so an excuse as to why I have never tried. A large amount of butter, milk, pasta and cheese- heart clogging premature death menu.


After a semi-failed attempt at hiking today. Not even sure as to how that happened.. First, we don't know where to hike. Second, We didn't know how to get there. Third, once we got there, where the entrance to the trail was so we ran after a runner, realized there are cars and saw a lady go on the trail with her dog and followed her in a non-creepy fashion. Casual and cool.  I thought we were gonna have a nice ocean view. Yah, no that didn't happen. Just dry California mini mountains and doggie poo here and there.  In total, "our hike" was about 3 miles, we turned around and went to Jamba Juice and the SPCA.


Back to me being "American"


My friend wanted mac n cheese and picked up a Kraft Mac n Cheese box. I cringe at the color of neon orange and extra skinny pasta. I suggested, baking one since we had nothing else better to do. We had to break in her kitchen somehow. At the store I was looking at elbow pasta while she kept insisting on getting a fancy twirly bag of Target Archer brand thing. We get to the cash register and she goes "You didn't get the pasta!" "You didn't want elbow pasta!" "Ah, whatever we can use this Kraft box"


Big mistake. Not a baking pasta let alone an eating pasta.


We mix the butter and flour, add salt, eventually some milk. Whisk.  Whisk. Cheese. Boiled pasta. Bake at 375F for 20 min. No breadcrumb topping but probably not going to make a difference. That shit was NAASTY. eww.

The pasta was all soggy and soft..Pasty..kind of cheesy. This is probably good for after a late night out and you're drunk hungry.  

I'm not Mexican but I can make a decent batch of Mexican rice and beans. Mac n Cheese, add that to the failed attempt of American Cuisine #1. I probably can't make meatloaf either since I don't like meat and a block of meat is eww. 

Lesson from this failed attempt: Do not follow a pasta box recipe for Mac n Cheese.  Do not make Mac n Cheese. Stick to Japanese food.