as my graduate career and thesis project continue to head south, I am having more and more trouble seeing myself with a career having anything to do with psychology ever again. Congrats university, you win. I can't wait to be finished and then move back closer to Mario and possibly even take cooking classes. I found an ACF accredited program very near there, and depending on my work situation and how much it costs, I may go for chef certification. Assuming I ever even finish my thesis, I'll have a master's degree, and end up going back to a technical college but who cares? I'll be doing something that doesn't make me want to crawl under the covers and cry anymore.

Had brinner, or breakfast for dinner tonight. One of my all time favorite meals. Bananas Foster pancake syrup, and what my roommate refers to as "Magical Grits" :D

Visited a Corningware and Corelle store at the mall, but didn't see anything I just couldn't live another day without. I was hoping to find a garlic roaster like this
but didn't see one there. :/

headed off to Spice Traders, smelled lots of goodies but nothing I absolutely had to have...until I passed by the bagel place next door. Whole wheat everything bagel with cheddar garlic cream cheese. You are my friend.

I really want to learn to make my own bagels. I LOVE bagels. :D

To Pineapple or Not to Pineapple?

So Mario and I and some of his roommates had a few tacos for dinner and after we were all cleaned up, I went ahead and trashed the kitchen again with a few new recipes of my own creation.

First up, I made some roasted corn salsa with fresh peppers, cilantro, lime juice and tequila. I attacked the boys for gratuitous feedback to ensure maximum awesomeness before I decide to include it in a potential cookbook. The overwhelming conclusion was that it had great heat and the perfect consistency but would be just right with the addition of a tropical fruit, pineapple in particular. Mario, who does not appreciate any sweet or fruity salsas vehemently denies this. After a long discussion about the flavors, we arrived at a decision: I am redoing and canning for his mom and her friend, Amy. I am going do everything pretty much the same except for a few ingredients that seemed to get lost in the mix: I am going to double the roasted corn, add a lot more salt, some more cilantro, and CAREFULLY more tequila. Then I am going to separate and add the pineapple to half. Then we will do the whole sterilized mason jar + hot liquids trick, and take them to the other side of the state for more opinions from serious foodies. Depending on their feedback, I will either add and subtract til its just right, or "Sweet Corn and Cuervo Salsa" with be a ready recipe for the still nameless cookbook project.

Rice and Beans with Chorizo and Creamy Cheese Sauce. Rice and beans, pretty standard as far as Mexican food goes, I think. But I also added chopped chorizo, which I was thoroughly excited to use for the first time. Basic cheese sauce with a touch of sour cream to top it off. End result, too much beans, not enough rice. The boys ended up eating it with tortilla chips like it was bean dip. It also had a really chili-ish flavor to it, which I suppose was good but nothing outside the box, and I definitely did not get any chorizo impressions from it at all so I absolutely need double or even triple the amount. I felt like the cheese sauce was good but didn't really stand out much from the rice and beans. It was delicious and super rich on its own, but it was meant to be a cool contrast to the spiciness. Maybe more sour cream next time. Who knows?

Anyway, heading to Spice Traders tomorrow, always a delight! Whole vanilla beans imported from Madgascar, how can that not be exciting?!? Hopefully I don't spend too much. Also hoping to head back to World Market soon, that place is great too. Also, Whole Foods was recommended to me today. Temptation, thy name is unique and foodie-coveted goodness.

Taco Tuesdays

Heading to Mario's for dinner tonight, the boys have decided (with no input from me) that they are having tacos, and if I want to cook, I need to go with the taco theme. :/

I enjoy some southwest/tex-mex kind of food, but as far as cooking goes, I wouldn't call it my forte. I've been trolling for a bit on allrecipes.com but I have decided in light of my recent commitment to adventure, I am going to wing it. I am going to go to the store, buy cilantro, limes and some other veggies, make whatever the heck seems right, and if the boys rate it 10/10, well then into the cookbook it goes!

I can always use the practice and my cookbook could always use a little more variety, right?!

so just throwing some ideas around, I am thinking about making a roasted corn salsa, and some sort of spicy rice and bean type dish with a creamy cheese sauce to cool it down a bit. I think I am going to start having Mario take pictures of all my test recipes, and perhaps build a chart for the boys to rate all my test recipes.

Also been reading my "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" a bit today, and I really want to try to make hollandaise sauce soon. I really just need an electric mixer though, anytime I have to whisk anything to thicken it, it never turns out. I just can't seem to whisk fast enough :[

Suggestions, Anybody?

On an entirely unrelated note, I watched Julie and Julia again last night, probably for the millionth time. I absolutely adore Meryl Streep, and I see so much of myself in both stories. It's cute and funny, and I guess just because I'm so frustrated with school and really just wanna cook and not do much else, I just bawled pretty much the whole movie.

SO...I would love any recommendations for any similar cooking movies. <3

Decisions, Decisions

A few months ago, I let this blog fall by the wayside. Nobody was really reading or commenting, and I tend to get lazy with my cooking sometimes. especially when I'm broke, which by the end of the semester, I usually am. But I am in a new semester now, hopefully my last, and I have hit a crossroads of sorts. I love psychology. Or at least I used to. I love psychology in it's purest form. I am utterly intrigued by the inner workings of the human mind, and it seems that a career in psychology would be the right path for me, and for a long time, it was. Working on my master's has stolen all the joy of psychology from me. With advanced statistics, constant problems with my thesis and/or thesis advisors, and never ending red tape, the bureaucracy of a major university has killed everything inside me that loved learning anything and everything I could get my hands on. Now it is all about getting through that next paper, that next test, that next class. This is the beginning of what is supposed to be my final semester, assuming my thesis gets done on time. And I take no joy or pride in that. It's my name on a piece of paper, a really expensive insurance policy.

Psychology was the dream job and cooking was just a hobby, but those tables are starting to turn. Psychology is absolutely fascinating to me, but maybe just on my own terms. But I am day dreaming about dropping out and running away to cooking school, being the next Julia Child or Paula Deen, having a best selling cookbook or a television show, opening a restaurant, having people hear my name and say "God, I wish I could cook like that one day."

I want to be an icon. A kitchen goddess.

I've cooked a few dinners in the months since I've been MIA, tweaked a few dishes, even invented a few recipes of my own. I feel that I have really come into my own as a cook. I have decided I am going to continue on with this degree, finish it as quickly as I can, hopefully finish this semester and graduate on time. But in the background, I'll still be here. Blogging, cooking, testing, and writing it all down. Mario's mom gave me an empty recipe book for my birthday last year, and as I test new recipes, substitute things, tweak to my tastes, and make it my own, I am adding it to the blank pages. This semester, I am going to finish my thesis, but more importantly, I am going to write something that will actually make a difference, that somebody might give a damn about. A master's degree might make my mother proud but I think publishing a cookbook might too.