The Prettiest Taco That Anyone Can Have

Sometimes you just want tacos. For some reason this happens to me a lot. I've been on a huge taco kick. So BF and I rented a scary movie and set out to have a taco night. I had the meat, the seasonings, the lettuce, the black beans, tomatoes, and the cheese. These are all my favorite taco toppings.
Lucky for me, BF likes refried beans, sour cream, and green chilies on his tacos so we had to go to the grocery store.
When we got back we both tackled cooking the meat and setting up the toppings on my counter.
I made the prettiest taco.
EVER.
So pretty in fact that I was compelled to whip out the camera and take some quick shots of my taco in all its glory.




After a few minutes of taking pictures, we sat down, popped in the movie, and bit into our tacos. Then we realized we were missing one key element for a great taco night: margaritas.
Off the store we went. Again.
Finally we returned and after a fast whirring in the brand new blender, we had margaritas (which were not the prettiest margaritas that anyone can have but they tasted fantastic). With tacos, margaritas, and a scary movie we settled down, realizing we were on our way to having a great Friday night.





:)

I’m Still Alive. Really.

I am a starving student. The things I eat aren’t pretty. My food budget is nonexistent.

My food blog is slightly lacking in content because of my inability to buy food to make fun things (although I just snagged the last two cans of pumpkin from Target so expect a dessert featuring pumpkin really soon).

My latest post was going to be about the most beautiful taco there ever was.

Then midterms week happened. This is my last semester (hopefully. as long as i pass all my classes) and I’m taking 7 classes. I’m probably going to lose my mind.

Then my ex roommate who couldn’t get someone to take over his lease before he moved out a month ago went nuts and wanted a creep to move in then thought he could take me and another roommate to court because he didn’t want to pay his rent. And that is how you lose a couple friends in less than an hours time.

My life for the past couple weeks has been nothing short of terribly horribly aggravatingly frustrating and involved a few break downs. (if you follow me, @smashedpotatoe, on twitter and shoved support in my direction thank you and i’m sorry you had to witness that but i very greatly appreciate it)

So that is my story and I’m totally going to get on posting regularly and more randomness will ensue!

 

:)

I Wanted, I Needed, I Had to Have It…

For the past oh… several months or so all I’ve wanted was a s’more.

I have yearned and craved and pined.

So I fiiiiiiinally broke down and bought grahams, and marshmallows (because for some reason I had a bar of chocolate in my freezer already).

I carefully assembled my s’more on a plate before I gently placed it in the toaster oven.

Halfway to perfection.

I waited. And waited. I waited about 30 seconds and then…This is what I got.

I had to take it out of the toaster before the top completely charred.

I had to manually toast the marshmallow by sticking it on a fork and cranking up the heat.

Only half of my chocolate got melty.

I tried…

:)

The Breakfast That Almost Wasn’t

Breakfast is my favorite. Pancakes make breakfast. Without pancakes, breakfast wouldn’t exist without pancakes.

Although I do enjoy a good waffle or some french toast.

BUT!

When I wanted breakfast last week, I wanted pancakes. I wanted butter. Gosh darn it I wanted syrup!

I also was being quite lazy.

I whipped out the Bisquick and eggs and whatnot and I whisked myself up some pancakes. And then I saw it. I spied out of the corner of my little eye something that said orange extract. I grabbed my poppy seeds and I grabbed the orange extract and I poured both into my pancake batter. Three pours and flips later and I had myself a fine looking stack of pancakes. Syrup topped off my lovely concoction. “Wait a second! (I said to myself) What compliments orange? Chocolate!” So a sprinkle of cocoa was all it took.

I had an awesome breakfast.

The only thing is.. I forgot to take a picture of its awesomeness before I started eating.

:)

Four Dead Bananas

I love twitter. I have awesome tweeps. They actually pay attention to my 140 character ramblings. But when I throw out a question they are there to answer.

A few days ago I tweeted that I had dead bananas and didn’t have anything to do with them. I usually make banana bread but I craved something new. When one of my loooovely tweeps mentions Dorie Greenspan’s super awesome banana cake I immediately grabbed “Dorie” ( I call Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan “Dorie”) and checked it out.

And thus began my big bananaventure.

Classic Banana Bundt Cake

3 c AP Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, At Room Temp

2 c Sugar

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

2 Large Eggs, At Room Temp

~4 Very Ripe Bananas, Mashed

1 c Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt (I used sour cream)

Preheat oven to 350F

1. Butter a 9 to 10 inch Bundt pan

2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together.

3. Beat butter until creamy.

4. Beat in vanilla, then add eggs one at a time.

5. Mix in bananas

6. Mix in half of the dry ingredients, all the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture.

7. Scrape batter into Bundt pan.

Bake for 65-75 minutes or until knife inserted into cake comes out clean.

Lemony White Icing

3/4 c Confectioners Sugar

2+ tsp Lemon Juice

Mix lemon juice into sugar, adding more juice until icing is thin enough to drizzle down the Bundt cake.

Bananas and lemons, you say?!

Uhh… YEAH!! Tart and tangy and sweet and moist and I can go on and on about this delightful combo but…

Let me eat cake!

:)

Cookie Fail?

I have been on somewhat of a kind of vacation of sorts.

I’m at my parents house. I’m on a break from summer break. I can only take so much of my college town.

I haven’t been cooking or baking or doing much of anything this week. Just taking it eeeeeasy. I did make chocolate chip cookie dough. I usually do about once a month. I think having chocolate chip cookies or at least dough around is a requirement for life.

While visiting my parents I have been eating my weight in cherries. My stomach hates me for it too. And it lets me know periodically during the day.

But. I figured having cherries around could be interesting. I cant very well let them go to waste. Duh. So I soaked some chopped up cherries in a little vanilla. Then I added them to my cookie dough.

YUMS!

The only drawback to the cookie is theyre ugly. I know this. They know this. Neither of us are going to skirt the issue. They aren’t pretty cookies. Not in any way, shape, or form. They wouldn’t look pretty to even the most abstract of abstracty artists.

I feel sorry for my yummy ugly cookies. Yumgly.

My cookies are yumgly.

:)

PPPR!!!

Penny pinching pantry raid was a success!
I came in under budget. And prooooobably would’ve come in even more under budget had I not craved fruits. But I think it was imperative to my diet at that point and a purchase was to be made.
I still have a lot left over actually. I CAN ONLY EAT SO MUCH!!
I think I underestimated my sparse pantry. I guess my pantry isn’t so sparse at all. I just need to learn to cook. I have the imagination of a baker not a cook. Geez.
The game plan from now on is to learn to utilize every last little thing in my pantry before I make a trip to the grocery. Weekly menu planning would be ideal. Maybe ill give it a test run while im still on summer break so I can become acclimated with it by the time school starts again.
It was fun though. Really great idea.
It taught me to really evaluate my purchases. It taught me to eat pasta and frozen veggies for every meal.


:)