Reasons Why I'm Not Running Today

Hey, party people!  Today, in lieu of pictures of everything I've eaten this week, I thought I'd mix things up and supply a list of reasons that I'm not outside running right now.

1. This little piggy is sore.
1. Last Friday, I tripped, in the dark, over a suitcase wheel.  The result was sustaining (in very quick succession) an ouchie left 'ate roast beef' piggy, a small rug burn on my right knee, and a minor head injury.  I kicked the suitcase, which sent me flying, head first, into a door jam.  Ouchie.  I've decided the toe probably isn't broken (it seems like it'd still hurt worse than it currently does), but it's still sore. 
1. Maybe it totally was broken, but my Mutant Power is quick bone healing.  That would be a good Mutant Power for any of the X-Men (see: Wolverine), but kind of a lame one for someone such as myself who is not often in peril.
2. Last night's workout: 
1.  I did weightlifting class at the gym last night.  I mean, I always do that on Wednesday night, and it doesn't usually stop me from exercise on Thursday morning, but last night was the kind of workout where it was hard to go up a flight of stairs afterwards.  My muscles aren't even stiff yet, they're still tired.  I'm not looking very forward to later this afternoon when most of the moving parts of my legs start to seize up.  I am, however, looking very forward to the massage I have scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. (thanks for that gift certificate, Farrigs!)
1. Ok, so I know what you're saying.  You're saying, "But Becky, the best way to keep muscles from getting all stiff is to exercise again!" To which I must reply, "What's that?  I'm sorry, I can't hear you. You're breaking up.  Must be a bad connection. Ok, bye!"
3. I miss you guys:
1. I feel like we hardly ever hang out and talk anymore.  You're busy, I'm busy, we're busy.  So I thought, if I have to be the one to sacrifice one of my top 5 most favorite activities* so that I can talk to you guys, so be it. 
1. No, please, don't cry.  It's ok.  We still get to talk sometimes.  And look, we're together right now, see?  So everything will be alright.  Don't worry about me.  Like i said, I'm totally willing to not run, even thought I love it dearly**, because I love you more. 
4. Sidewalk Construction:
1. The city of Minneapolis seems to have decided to tear up every sidewalk in out part of town.  They did our block last week, and there are orange cones and "Road Work" signs all over the place.  On Thursdays I usually run around the neighborhood because I don't want to go quite as far as all the way around a lake before a full work day.  Since I'm not completely sure which blocks are currently torn up, it would be perilous for me to run around.  I'd have to run in the street, probably.  I'd get hit by a car. 
1. Why are you so keen on my getting hit by a car?
5. The weather is terrible outside.  I mean truely.  Blech. 
1. Ok, this isn't even close to being true.  It's 65 and sunny.  We have the windows open.  It's glorious.  If it was a little later in the day and I didn't have to go to work later, I'd totally want to be outside with a beer. 

Really, last night I looked at the forecast and was like, "Aww, man, it's supposed to be sunny and warm tomorrow!  Damnit!  I'd really rather it was raining all morning.  Lame." sadface. 

So while all of those reasons are true, none of them are the actual reason I'm not running.  If I'm honest with myself, I think I'll find that I'm not running because I'd rather be in my pj's writing blogs and watching Gilmore Girls reruns.  And really, who wouldn't?

I feel bad not giving you guys any pictures to look at, so here's a dog face:

Ok, blog over.  I have to go watch Gilmore Girls reruns or some more Eclipse special features or something.  (You guys?  I'd like us to climb into the Trust Tree for a second here: I know how lame this is, but I'm already getting kind of excited about the next Twilight Saga installment.  I know it's not out until November, and I understand that this movie will be just as bad as the last 3, but I can't help it, I just love it.  Not as much as Harry Potter, obviously.  And I'm also so excited that I'm totally peeing right now that HP 7.2 comes out in theaters in LESS THAN A MONTH!!! and all that.   Hey, do you guys think we should have, like, a Harry Potter party just before the next movie?  Maybe we should.  What do you think?)

kthnxbai


*not true

**very much not true.

Wanna see some pictures of some stuff?

You guys?  I was just going through my phone, and I have, like, a billion-ty pictures to show you since last time.  Mostly of food.

You like food, right?

So ok, a lot of time has passed since last time, and I've eaten a lot of meals, but nothing all that actually exciting has happened.  There was a birthday party, and this other party, and then this other event, too. 

Ok, so some stuff has happened.

The parties were fun.  Dan and Jacqie had a thing at their house.  We met some new peeps (maybe just I met some new peeps.  I think Derek had met most of them before) and there was this guy who was extra good at singing and guitaring.  Live music at a last-minute house party?  Word.

There was also a fundraising event at Sigh Yoga for their MS 150 team.  There was beer and wine and a food truck (I'd totally link them if I could remember the name of the thing.)  The food truck had tacos.  I took a picture of them.....habit.

They were spicy and flavorful and delicious; and served in a paper boat, which makes everything tastier.

The fundraiser also had a dunk tank and hula hoops.  Jacqie forced me to try the hoops.  I did better than I thought I would, but I certainly can't stand around hulaing forever like Jacqie and Becky (the other one, not me) can.  Them ladies has mad hula skillz.


OMG I was just looking at the other pictures that I've taken since last time I blogged, and I totally have to tell you guys about my most recent British Culinary Adventure.

So there's a recipe in the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for Pease Pudding (or Pease Porridge).  Like the nursery rhyme.  It's basically cooking the everloving shit out of split peas in chicken stock with onions and garlic.  It was pretty good, although I kind of hoped it would be amazing.  I didn't know what to make it with, so it ended up being on the side of mesquite pork tenderloin with spicy schezuan green beans.  I think I called it an 'international meal' or something.  It looked like this:

That's the pudding there in the back.  I'm guessing it's terribly healthy.  That guess is based on the assumption that ugly food is better for you.  Cake=Pretty.  Cake=bad for you.  Therefore, Pretty=bad for you. 

Boom.

Last night I got to make one of my favorite meals.  It's a great big salad with zucchini, chicken, red onion, spinach, parmesean, pecans, and mint.  The dressing is just olive oil and lemon juice.  I just went to see if I could link it for you, but the link on the Martha Stewart page is broken. 

But anyways it's a Martha Stewart recipe. 

It makes a whole lot.  I look very forward to eating some for lunch today. 

I just looked at the picture I took of it.  It's awful.  So you guys can't see it.  That's maybe ok, because how many pictures of my food do you really need?

Last week, True Blood Season 3 came out on DVD.  I love that Target puts new releases on sale the first week they're out.  I also love True Blood.  I finished rewatching the season a couple of days ago.  What a great show.  You guys should really watch it.  It's all violence and swearing and nudity.  HBO is so good at making shows.  *sigh* *swoon*


There's a bunch of construction outside.  I don't know what they're doing do the street, but I hope they finish today.  There's "No Parking 7-4:30 Monday Through Friday" signs on both sides of the street, which makes parking a problem.  I'm parked around the corner.  It's not like I look out the window at my car very often, but it sure makes me uncomfortable when I can't see it.  I hope it's ok.  worriedface.

It'd be cool if they were making the street wider.  Then, maybe next winter would be a little easier to navigate.  Probably, though, they're refilling the cracks in the sidewalks or something.  Maybe it's good to do street construction when it's a zillion degrees out.  Maybe that keeps away the "pavement failures" that happened yesterday when a bunch of streets buckled. 

Oh, so I went for a run the other day, and there was a Caterpillar Mass Migration happening around Lake of the Isles.  It was very weird, and VERY gross.  Tons of little black caterpillars all effing over the place, being all wiggly.  I get the creepy-crawlies just thinking about it.  Blech. 

So Caterpillar Plague + Pavement Failure Plague = .....End Times???

Back to eating for a second:

I tried a new breakfast this morning.  I warmed up half a cup of cooked quinoa and some milk in the microwave.  Then I added fresh mango (SIDE NOTE: how do you break down a mango without making an enormous mess?  Anybody?), Crasins, and sliced almonds.  It was very tasty, and I think it'll stick with me for a while.  Hopefully.  I'll take a granola bar to work, just in case it doesn't, but it felt pretty hearty. 

Yummy!!  And seriously, guys?  If you haven't jumped on the Quinoa Bandwagon, it's time.  Just do it.  It's tasty, filling, contains all of the essential amino acids (or something) which makes it a Super Food, and plus all the cool kids are doing it. 

I made a whole bunch of it on Sunday, and I think I'll make some sort of salady thing with some of it tonight.  It keeps in the fridge and reheats WAY better than rice.  WAY.

I just realized that I showed all ya'll, like, half of the pictures I had for you, but I have to go get ready for work now.  And you need to go eat some quinoa.  I get to go get chiropracted today, which I'm pretty stoked about.  I'll tell him you guys said "hi."

 

Cakepop Greenmouth, of the Manhattan Greenmouths

Hello, Friends!

I was just reading this other blog that I really like, and it got me thinking that I haven't talked to you guys in a while.  It also served as a reminder that 30 Days of Tacos is now officially themeless.

Last weekend, Derek and I went to his homeboy-from-back-in-the-day Paul's new place for a housewarming party.  He lives in a totally swanky building in St. Paul.  Derek and Paul hardly ever saw each other when Paul lived 5 blocks away.  Maybe that was too close, and now that they have some physical space they can talk more often? 

Whatever, their problem.

So, on the invite, Paul had said that we could, if we felt so inclined, bring a dessert to the party.  And I thought, "EURUEKA!"  (I just spelled that correctly on my first try, boom) I've been wanting to try making Cake Pops since we had them at Jake and Patti's wedding reception.  Cake Pops are so cute, extra tasty, and can be eaten without dirtying any dishes. 

I found a recipe for them (thanks, internet!), and was terribly disappointed to find that, while cake pops aren't acutally all that much work, there is way too much waiting around involved for me to be capable of making them. 

The instructions are something like:
1. bake a cake
2. cool completely.
3. break the cake into crumbs and mix with frosting.
4. chill.
5. form into balls.
6. chill
7. put balls on sticks
8. chill.
9. cover balls on sticks in chocolate
10. chill.

NO, THANK YOU.  I get bored just thinking about putting them in the refrigerator that many times.  So instead, I made Oreo Balls on Sticks.  There's, like, 3 less steps.

MINT OREO BALLS ON STICKS

Ingredients:
1 pkg Oreo's (NOT double stuf)
1-8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 pkg meltable white chocolate
1 tsp mint extract (optional)
Sticks (found at craft store)
Chunk of foam to stick the sticks into to dry (also from the craft store)


Instructions:
1.  Gradually add all of the Oreos to a food processor until completely ground into fine crumbs.  Eat at least one or two of the Oreos while you do this, for happiness reasons.
2. Gradually add cream cheese and mint extract (if using) until mixture resembled dough. (steps 1 and 2 can be done in batches if necessary).
3. Put dough in a bowl, refrigerate until dough is cold and easier to handle.
4. Form dough into walnut-sized balls, shove sticks into them.  Put them on a cookie sheet, and put the cookie sheets into the  fridge/freezer while you finish with the rest of the dough.
5. Melt the chocolate per package instructions.  Dip each cooled pop into chocolate, then stick into foam to dry.  If you're going to use sprinkles to decorate, now's a great time to do that, while the chocolate is still wet.
6. When they're dry, put the pops into the refrigerator to store.  Decorate however you want.

They ended up looking like this:

As it turns out, the green sprinkles were a mistake.  I thought they looked nice on the pops, but they dyed everyones mouths green.  Oops!

I didn't quite know how to transport these things, so I put the foam I used in step 5 into a box, covered everything with tissue paper, and stuck all the pops in.  While I was doing it, I felt very crafty and creative.

Then we got to the party.

The door opened, and the apartment was full of strangers who were staring at us.  That is the moment that I realized that the tissue paper was too much.  Then Derek was all, "You brought the 'Look At Me' dessert!"

And damnit, he was completely right.  I didn't do it on purpose, I just wanted to make some cake pops!  sadface.

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I just checked my Twitter feed, and it looks like the Olympic Wine Drinking Team of which I am a member is talking about having practice some time soon.  Goodie!  (What does it say about me that my first thoughts are about what food stuffs I'm going to make?)  I really like all of my OWDT team mates.  Maybe we should get jerseys. 

There's this other dessert recipe I've been wanting to make, but I can't make it for just Derek and I beause there is absolutely no excuse for us to have this many calories in the house.  The OWDT, however, is full of athletes.  Like, I try to work out 6 days a week, and I am easily the least athletic member of the team.  On any given day, they have probably ridden a zillion bike miles, run half-a-zillion foot miles, and done 58,000 downward-facing dogs.  Point is, they can eat whatever they want.

It's called a Deconstructed Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball.

Did you just go to that link?  Doesn't it look insane?!?!?!!?!!

I want to show you guys really cute pictures of my niece, Ellie, who is the cutest, most photogenic baby in history, but I don't know the rules about blogging other peoples' photography, so I'll hold off for now.  Just know that she's so cute that it almost hurts.

Ok, so I guess that's it for now.  I'm gonna go start the crock pot here in a little bit, before I go work out.  We're going to have Chicken Edamame Chowder for din-din tonight.   I'll let you know how it is.

Maybe the theme of this blog will be reviewing recipes that I find in Yahoo.  Maybe some day I'll make my own recipe...

...  that doesn't seem likely...


...

CONFETTI!!

Yesterday, this blog reached 1000 hits!!! 

TRUMPETS!!! 

FALLING BALLOONS!!!!!!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all 10 of my readers for visiting my blog 100 times a piece.  I couldn't have done it without you.  *tear*

*sigh*

To celebrate our 1,000th internet together, I will today have homework for you guys.  Fun homework.  Homefun.  It's a word problem.  Wordfun.

 ...

If you could have a piece of Harry Potter themed jewelry made just for you, what would it be?  Share with the rest of the class down there in the comments!!

I had a birthday on Wednesday.  It was a really great time.  When I got home from work (that wasn't really part of the 'great day,' although there was delicious cake available, and Derek had some very beautiful and colorful flowers delievered.  I like it when he reminds all the gals at work that I'm a lucky, lucky lady) Derek and I had present-opening time.  He's so good at gifting!  Thoughtful and creative, even if he doesn't feel like that's how he's being.  After that, we went out to dinner at Ngon Vietnamese Bistro in St. Paul.  We've been there one other time for some friends' wedding reception and really enjoyed it.  It's the first time that I'm aware of eating pork belly.  Usually I'm kind of uncomfortable with cuts of meat bearing the name of be body part they came from, as I prefer to pretend that my meat was never adorable.  Pork belly, however, is delish.  Bueno.  Molto buona. 

Dinner was with Derek (obviously), Damon, Nate, and Sarah.  Spending time with Nate and Sarah is a rare treat.  (Damon is great, too, of course.  It just isn't nearly as rare a treat to see him.)  After dinner, we all went to Izzy's Ice Cream for dessert.  I'd heard about it but never been.  It was totally fantastic! 

So, Derek ordered first.  He's all, "single scoop of Whatever in a cup."
And then the young lady behind the counter is like, "what would you like for your Izzy?"
Then Derek is all, "WTF is an Izzy?"
Young lady: "It's a little tiny scoop of ice cream that goes on top."
All of us in unison: "BRILLIANT!!!!"

That's how I decided to remember it, anyways.  It's possible that we didn't say anything in unison.  Possible, but not probable.

I got a scoop of Norweigan Chai with a Cake Batter Izzy. 

I would like to marry Cake Batter ice cream. 

Nate didn't have any ice cream because he'd already had ice cream, like, infinity times that week.  Also because he's a sissy girl.

After that we kind of all went home.  Nate and Sarah gave me a Lego Harry Potter Quidditch set, so I went ahead and worked on that pretty much the second we got home.  It's fun.  Not only are there, like, 5 Lego guys, there are little tiny Quaffles and little Quaffle launchers so that you can play Quidditch!

I skipped going to the gym twice because of my birthday and didn't work out yesterday because it was too chilly and gray to go run after work yesterday.  I haven't actually exercised since Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to Turbo Step later this morning.  I think I'll spend some of the rest of my Saturday doing a little laundry and maybe shopping just a little.  My jeans are staring to look a little 'poopy diaper,' if you know what I mean.

Acutally, they look like that even if you don't know what I mean.  My jeans' appearance is not conditional on your understanding. 

I almost forgot to tell you guys something:  So last night we were playing Portal 2 co-op mode, and neither of us could figure out the puzzle we were working on.  We both got majorly P-Oed and decided to quit playing. 
Cut to this morning.  I woke up at 6am with a fully formed solution in my head.  I don't know if it'll work.  I think it will.  I'm kind of excited to try it later.

Ok, so I'm gonna go now.  I think I've typed at all ya'll enough for now.  Don't forget about the homefun assignment.  What kind of HP jewelry would you want?  Go comment about it. 

Days 28, 29, 30, and 1 bonus day: Finally!

Hey, so I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to get to this post, guys.  I've just been too busy not feeling like blogging to get it done.

Let's jump right in, shall we?

On Thursday, I got off work late, and Derek and I knew there were places we wanted to get to by the end of the month, but couldn't think of any.  I think the conversation was something like:

"Qdoba?  Was that on the list?  I don't remember talking about it, but I also don't remember discounting it."

"Ok, well I guess let's go to Qdoba.  I've heard it's fast, which is sure nice at 8:30 at night."

Shrug.

I'd never been there.  We went to the one in Saint Louis Park.  It was ok, I guess.  I wouldn't say no to eating there again, but I don't think it'd be my idea.

They do know how to hand out cheese, thought.

Here's my Chicken Tacos before consumption

At least, I'm pretty sure I ordered chicken.  It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures.  Update:  Upon further inspection, I'm fairly confident these are chicken.  See?

We were there pretty soon before they closed, and so I think we were the only customers in the joint.  It wasn't much of an experience, but I took a lot of pictures on account of all the cheese.  Here's my basket, post consumption:

Just as we got home, Damon Foursquare checked-in at Common Roots.  SHIT!  We had that on our mental lists and forgot about it!  That'll teach us to have mental lists instead of physical ones.  So we didn't get to have any of their tacos for 30 Day of Tacos, but I can tell you that the Bison Tacos there are quite good.  They have Fish or Tofu ones also.  Derek's had the fish ones, and really liked them, too.  Still, I was hoping to get to show you guys pictures of how good their food looks.  Cuz it's good.  Go to Common Roots.  Get an Almond Earl Gray Latte while you're there.  You'll thank me.

Friday, we drove to Des Moines for James and Amanda's wedding.  It was a nice wedding.  It was in a barn.  It was good to see friends I don't normally get to spend time with.  Good times.

But the wedding was Saturday night.  Before that, we had 2 days of 30 Days of Tacos to get through. 

When we got into town on Friday, we had some business to attend to downtown.  On the way from I-80 to downtown Des Moines, we drove past several taco joints.  One in peticular was called Leo's Tacos.  It looked authentic as hell.  We decided to hit it up on our way back to the interstate. 

When we got to the parking lot, we were disappointed to discover that the Leo's Tacos sign was acutally in front of a Mexican bakery.  Damnit.

I feel like it was after 2 by this point, and we had 6pm dinner plans with Dereks family that we kind of needed to be hungry for.  Plus we were both, like, totally so super hungry.

"Wasn't there another place down that way on the other side of the street?"

So we ended up at Pueblo Viejo (they don't seem to have a website to link to).  Since we were there sort of between meals, we sat straight down and had exceptionally fast service.  Like, he wanted to know what we wanted to drink as he handed us menus and showed us our table.  I found that suprisingly stressful, even though I was really only going to order diet coke or iced tea.  I think we made him come back an extra time, since we hadn't decided what we wanted to eat in the 2 minutes it took him to come back with our drinks. 

We both ordered tacos.  Mine were some special kind, although I don't remember what they were called.  Less than 10 minutes past between us ordering and recieving our food.  Crazy fast.

They were pretty darn good.  They tasted almost exactly like cheeseburgers.
It's a difficult thing to stop eating before you're super full when you're super hungry.  It's extra difficult, it turns out, when you're eating cheeseburger flavored tacos. 

After lunch we continued on down the road to my parents' new house.  They just finished building it (erm, having it built by professionals, obviously).  It's beautiful and smells new and is just the right size.  I'm excited to go back when the landscaping is done. 

After a full tour and spending a little time hanging out with them, we hopped back in the car and went over to see Dereks family.

It also was wonderful.  Their shy, one eyed Boston Terrier, Mollie, is getting a little more friendly.  She let us touch her this time, at least.  And Buddy, the little black OCD dog is getting a little better about letting us touch him, too.  It's like the 2 crazy little things are in doggie group-therapy, and it's making a difference.

Saturday, after a lovely breakfast with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece Ellie (omg, you guys? Ellie is so cute! She's 3 months old, and she's starting to get a fat little baby belly and she's moving around more and staying awake and I got to feed her a bottle and burp her and carry her around as much as I wanted and SQUEE!!!)

Excuse me. 

After that, we went to the saddest sidewalk sale I've ever seen at the Shops at West Glen, and then later Derek and I met up with Scott, Jess, and Ellie for lunch at Tasty Tacos. 

Seriously, though?  We've been excited about finishing 30 Days of Tacos with Tasty Tacos since I realized we'd be in Des Moines on the 30th.  If you're ever there, EAT AT TASTY TACOS.  Their shells are fried soft flour ones, so they're very soft and all puffy and warm.  They also use really finely grated cheese.  The tables all have squirt bottles of salsa on them. 

There's other stuff on the menu, but when you go there, at least one of the things you order needs to be the original taco.  It's a masterpiece of folded food.



Do you like how I fit the Tasty Tacos logo in the picture?  Yeah, me too.

It was a magical way to spend day 30.

Saturday night was the wedding.  Hickory Park catered.  I'll have to take Derek there some time, because the actual restaurant is kind of an experience, but the food is good no matter where it's served.  The ceremony was short, followed by a nice reception.  Their first dance was very sweet.  I got to see my homeboys.

Sunday, we left Des Moines a little early (after breakfast as the Ankeny IHOP with Derek's mom and dad) so we could get back in time for 30 Days of Tacos Bonus Day!  It was over and Josh, Aleisha, and Sam's house.  Dan was there, too.  Jacqie couldn't come because she was sick.  Yucky :(.  Damon and Becky were going to come, too, but I think Becky's sister had a baby, so they had to go and smell it, I think.  Which I totally get. 

So it was a best-of meal, each of us providing one of our favorite taco recipes from the month.  Josh and Aleisha were nice enough to make ours for us, since it required a crock pot and we couldn't quite manage that while we traveled. 

THE SPREAD



Dan brought Sloppy Joes tacos (the recipe Jacqie gave us a couple of weeks ago), Josh and Aleisha made roasted chicken tacos with an avacado-mayo-cilantro sort of dressing, and we were represented by pulled pork.  

It was a fantastic meal and a really, really fun way to spend it.  Sam is super friendly and energetic and seems to like everyone right away.  It's kind of fun to watch people parent their children.  As an adult, I can appreciate the teamwork that goes into parenting in a way I couldn't when I was younger. 

Oh, geez.  I just looked at the clock.  I'd better go get ready for work. 

But this isn't goodbye.  I know the blog is called "30 Days of Tacos" and that those 30 days are over, but I'll still tell you guys about every little unnecessary detail of my daily life all the time!  Maybe I'll work on another 30 days concept.  Or start a band and name it "30 Days of Tacos".

Or something.

But I'll for sure see you guys again very soon. 

Until next time!...

Days 26 and 27: Nice surprises

What's up, guys?  Having a nice week? 

Me too.

We've been eating out a lot this week (we feel like we're running out of time, and there's lots of places left we wanted to go.)  That wasn't why we went out last night.  Last night we both had some mall shopping that needed doing, so we ate at a Mexican joint over in Roseville.  I'll get to that in a minute.

Tuesday, D&D and I went to Pepitos in south Minneapolis.  We've been there before, but I guess I didn't know that's what it was called, because when we got there I was all, "hey, we've totally been here before!" 

I think Derek suspects I have some sort of memory dysfunction. 

D&D talked about bikes for a while.  I was very bored for that part. 

Pepitos has a Foursquare special for a free beer or house margarita with check-in on Monday or Tuesday.  We were excited for free drinks.  The waitress was all, "wtf?"   Apparently not everyone uses Foursquare.  But her manager knew all about it, so crisis averted.

I got fried tacos, one chicken and one beef, with a side of refried beans and caesar salad. 

The tacos were huge!  Kind of hard to eat, but pretty tasty.  They put what I think they call "taco relish" on them, which seemed to me to be diced pickle.  It was a nice surprise.  I'll be remembering that and adding it to my Regular Kind tacos in the future.

Hey, I just realized that I didn't make original recipe Regular Kind tacos the whole month.  There was maybe something close to Regular Kind once, but I don't think I ever used a packet of Ortega Taco Seasoning.  Huh.  Fancy that.

Like I said, we went to Rosedale Mall on Wednesday night for a little shopping.  Both of us needed pants.  Pants shopping, ugh.

After pants shopping (ugh) we drove over to La Casita.  It's behind where like Good Earth is.  It's a definite 'Carlos O'Kellys' feel, but our server, Denise, was very nice and I was pleasantly suprised by my tacos.

If you've ever thought, "you know what this taco needs? Bacon bits."  then go here and order the Baja Tacos.  Beef, bacon bits, cilantro, avocado sauce.  The bacon bits made it special.

Derek liked his fish tacos, too.  He also commented that 30 Days of Tacos is really feeding into his chips and salsa addiction.  Some time we'll have to do a salsa taste-test.  I suspect French Meadow will win, but you never know.

Last night at dinner, Derek suggested that we should have had cards made with this website on them to leave at restaurants and stuff.  Sad that he thought of it on day 27.  Maybe next year.  sadface.

Bob asked me to talk more about Portal 2.  While we haven't played it in a few days, I do have a thought I'd like to share.

The games puzzles are such that after you complete a level, you feel like THE KING OF MENSA.  Then the next level might be so hard that you have to get mad and consult the internet.  You'd think this'd make you feel dumb again.  It doesn't.  Instead, it makes you feel like the game is so smart and awesome that it stumped THE KING OF MENSA.

 Plus, you kinda leave feeling like you've just learned something about space or physics or whatever. 

Or like you just pushed dimentia a month further away.


The Harry Potter and the Dealthly Hallows part 2 trailer was released.  Feel free to pee your pants while you watch:

As aways, I have to leave you now so I can get ready to go work out.  Have a nice day!!

Days 24 and 25: Many paragraphs, few pictures

Hey, you guys?  I have an important discovery to announce:  Exercising a lot makes exercise way easier.

The gym was closed on Sunday because of Easter, and it was a beautiful day here in the big TC, so I decided to go around Lake of the Isles.  My original plan was to walk around it.  Derek would, meanwhile, be riding bikes.  Anywhosits, I got all my workout gear on, strapped on my heart rate monitor, attached my footpod (it measures distance and pace and stuff) and headed out the front door. 

At this point, I was barked at viciously by this totally adorable little tiny puppy that lives in our neighborhood.  I think he might be like a little weiner dog, but black (do weiner dogs come in black?) and he seems to have a barking fit whenever he sees a person.  His somewhat embarassed owner had to pick him up while I passed, presumeably so the little guy didn't TOTALLY ATTACK!!!  I couldn't help laughing.

The lake is about 3/4 of a mile away from our house.  About the time I started walking around the lake itself, I decided that I was chilly (it was sunny, but apparently not quite warm enough out) and that when my watch showed that I'd gotten to 1 mile, I'd run for "oh, I don't know, maybe a quarter mile?"

Just enough to warm up, anyways.

So I stared jogging.  A quarter mile came and went, and I felt pretty good.  I kept giving myself little goals ("maybe another half mile?") and then I'd look down at my watch and see that I'd gone past my goal while I wasn't looking.  By the time I got back to the street I take back home, I'd run 2.47 miles.  I had to stop running because I got to my exit, not because I was totally out of running.  I thought fleetingly of continuting on around the lake again, but I knew for sure that I'd get part of the way around and then be very bummed out that I was on the wrong side of the lake, a few miles from home, and very, very tired.

All of this is only impressive if you know that 2 1/2 miles non-stop is roughly 1 mile further than I've ever run non-stop before, and I haven't acutally run at all in several months.  I'm sure it's all of the classes I've been going to at the gym, but I'd like to give a little extra credit to Ignition Jump Rope.  25 minutes of jumping.  Intense stuff.

Ironically, the running I did on Sunday made Ignition Jump Rope way harder on Monday.

After I got home and cleaned up and stuff, I started on our Sunday tacos.  We had them as a snack mid-afternoon.  I used the dessert taco shell recipe from that other blog (too lazy to link right now) and made "fruit salsa" by chopping and mixing up strawberries, blueberries, pear, and orange.  Thinking back, I feel like there was another fruit in there, but I can't think of what it might have been now.  Anyways, the fruit salsa was over ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce.



It made a lovely snack.  I made a cheese plate to go along with it.  Then we napped.  Then we played Portal 2.  It was rad, obviously.  Then we went out for sushi at Midori's Floating World Cafe.  I really like everything I've eaten there, they have a very nice tea menu, and I think it's maybe the best name for a resteraunt ever.  If it was a book title, I'd read it right away without even glancing at the back cover.

Monday, after a full day of work and working out, I came home to Derek telling me that he'd decided we should go out for dinner. 

I sighed with relief.
He even had a place in mind. 

Another sigh, this one because neither of us had to say, "I don't care, where do you wanna go?"

What a great guy.

So we went to Pineda Tacos on Lake Street.  It was An Experience.

It's sort of set up Chipotle-style, with a long bar that you start at one end of, and tell them what you want in your taco/burrito/enchilada/etc.  Unlike Chipotle, beef tounge is a meat option.  I got 3 tacos; beef and onion, chicken in green sauce, and chicken in tomato sauce.  All 3 topped with onion, cilantro, and mild salsa.  They were delicious.  Every kind  I tried was flavorful and interesting and a little spicy but not too much.  Derek liked all of his kinds, too.  He got beef and onion, regular beef, and spicy chicken, all with hot sauce.  All of it served with rice and refried beans.

After you pay for your meal, you can go into the next room where there are tables.  It's a strange selection of tables and booths, like they were purchased at fast food restaurant garage sales.  The dining room's walls were white plastic paneling.  At about seated shoulder height running around the room were weird orange stains on the walls, like there used to be something glued to the wall there.  A strange array of pictures lined the walls (think motivational poster next to Christmas themed mini-Thomas Kinkade print).  It smelled a little like a bowling alley. 

I was totally into all of it.  Put together, it's a strange and awesome experience filled with delicious tacos.

I'm starting to feel like we're running out of time.  We'll probably be going out a lot this week, because there are several places we'd still like to get to during this 30 days.  I suppose we could keep going into next month, but it won't be the same. 

Looking at the clock, I see it's about time for me to get ready for work.  Thanks, all, for tuning in today.  I'll type atcha again soon.

Piece!

Day 21, 22, 23: Fire up the slow cooker

I kind of told myself that I wouldn't do any more 3-day posts after the last one, but then Portal 2 came into our lives, and I kind of had to play some of that.  You know how it goes. 

If you don't "know how it goes," please go buy Portal 2 immediately and play it.  It's one of my all time favorite games so far.  I mean, we're not that far into it yet (Derek and I are playing co-op mode), but I loved the first Portal very much, and this is turning out to be just as neat. 

But lets get into tacos. 

Thursday, Derek went to Ignite Minneapolis so I, once again, found myself eating alone.  Although I didn't especially feel like it, I went ahead and made the meal I'd planned for the both of us. 

OMG wait a second...I was just looking at the Portal 2 website, and they have this personality test.  If you've played the game, you should totally go take it.  If you haven't played, you won't understand the result, but you will get an idea of how funny the game is.

So anyways,
When I got home from work on Thursday, I made myself Beef and Mushroom Tacos with Avocado Salad.  It's a Rachel Ray recipe.   Usually, Rachel Ray recipes take (me, at least) about 45 minutes to make and have as many ingredients.  This one, however, was very simple with few ingredients.  Basically gound beef, onion, mushroom, garlic, and avocados.  It was simple to make and tasty.  Not super amazing or anything, but I'll make it again for sure.

Both of these tacos have the beef-mushroom mixture and the avacado salad in them, i just alternated which was on top for the picture.  As you can see, I also chose hard shells for this meal rather than the soft shells the recipe calls for.  Come to think of it, I've been on something of a hard shell kick this week. 

"Come to think of it" is a phrase that I say out loud from time to time, but typing it out just now, it occured to me that I don't really write it.  It doesn't seem to make as much sense as a written phrase as it does a spoken one.  Oh, language, you vex me so.

Friday was my day off this week, so I chose it as slow-cooker day since I would be home at the right time to get things started. 

Here's the thing about slow cookers:  I really like the idea of "set it and forget it" or whatever, but there are an awful lot of recipes that are supposed to cook for 7-8 hours.  The problem with that is that on work days, there are far more than 8 hours between when I'd get it started in the morning before work and dinner time.  I suppose I could ask Derek to start dinner cooking before he leaves for the day, but again, it feels like longer than 8 hours before dinner.  Harumph.

So we return to Friday and the slow cooker.  I went to the gym in the morning, and did an hour of step class followed by an hour of yoga.  It's the longest workout I've done, but I skipped yoga on Tuesday and really missed it.  Plus, the gym is closed today for Easter, so doubling up on Friday seemed wise. 

It was totally great, by the way.  I'm going to do that every time I have Friday off.  I'll have to take a different shirt or something to change into, though.  Going from a very sweaty step class to a much clamer yoga class (in a much cooler studio) made me rather chilly by the end. 

Anyways, I got everything into the crock pot right when I got home from the gym.  It only took a few minutes.  The result was FANTASTIC!

It's so hard to tell with these darn pictures, but theres pulled pork in there.  It's basically salsa, oregano, chili powder, cocoa powder, and pork shoulder in a crock pot for 8 hours.  It was so simple to make, but really tasted killer.  We'll be making this again for sure, probably for more people than just the two of us.  The hard shells turned out to be a questionable choice since the pork was so juicy, but really, if that's the biggest complaint...

Joining Friday's tacos in this picture are Spanish Rice (90 seconds in the microwave-DONE!) and Jicama Slaw.  The slaw was surpising.  There was an awful lot of raw red onion in there, but I rinsed it under cold water first to mellow it out.

This plate reminds me of something that I've been meaning to tell you guys for quite a while:  this month, I've gone through more limes and bunches of cilantro than probably in all the rest of my cooking-years combined.  I've finished at least 3 or 4 cilantro bunches and, I-don't-know-how-many limes.  Several. Lots.  A good many.


Last night, I was thinking we'd either have meatball tacos or chicken finger tacos.  When it got to be dinner time, however, I felt like I'd eaten a number of lazy tacos and didn't really want to make anything.  Luckily, Damon texted just as we were trying to decide what to eat.  Damon to the rescue!  The three of us ended up at Pancho Villa on Eat Street.  I feel like Damon said he'd never eaten there before, but Derek and I are big fans.  They serve good food, do so quickly, and have a huge menu.  I'll warn you, though, that one time I ordered a fish dish and got a whole fish-head included.  I know that some people think that's great or whatever, but I like to think that my meat never had eyes.  That, and deboning an entire fish is a little more work than I like to have to do in a meal that I didn't prepare myself. 

But none of that is Pancho Villa's fault.  We all got some tacos.  Mine are chicken tacos in a combo meal with a chalupa, rice, and beans.  Had a sangria cocktail and margarita as well.  Which reminds me, something else nice about Pancho Villa is their drink prices. 


This picture is sideways, but I care just enough to mention it,
 not nearly enough to fix it



This morning, I learned a valuable lesson as I blogged.  I can listen to music while I do a great many things; drive, exercise, clean, nap...but not while I write.  I find that I use most of my concentration trying to ignore the music, making it very difficult to write anything coherent.  Like my brain is trying to shout at the page over the music.  It's a bummer as I enjoy music, but I guess it's nice to know.  Even now, just thinking about music is making me tense up a little.   

So....ok super.  I'm going to go ahead a go now.  Plenty to do today.  Laundry to wash, walks to be taken, Harry Potter to be thought about. 

You crazy kids have a lovely Easter, and I'll talk atcha again soon!

Days 18, 19, and 20: Taco Taco Taco

Hey, guys!

I should have blogged last night, and I'm very sorry that I didn't but after tacos at La Sirena Gorda at the Midtown Global Market, Sarah came over and we watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1.  If you've read any of my other posts, you've maybe noticed that I have Potter Fever.  Sarah hadn't even seen the movie at all yet, so it was kind of a big deal. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First, let's talk about Monday.  (It feels so long ago that I sort of forget what happened). 

This is what happened:



These are Portobello and Zucchini Tacos.  As always, thanks, Martha Stewart!  It's a really easy recipe.  Mostly, you just roast a few things for a little bit, and then throw them in a tortilla with cheese and salsa and mow down.  Derek and I both went into this meal assuming we wouldn't be all that into them, but were both pleasantly suprised.  They were filling and flavorful.  On the side is a Southwestern Quinoa Salad.  This recipe is from a blog that I've really been enjoying reading.  The salad is totes great.  It's just quinoa and a bunch of diced veggies.  If you haven't tried quinoa yet, go get on it right now.  It's kinda like rice, but it take half the time to cook and has roughly a bazillion times more nutrition in it than white rice. 

Bazillion.

There's a joke about GW Bush.  The punchline is something like: "Oh my God.  How many is a Brazillian?"

Ok, so then last night, Derek, Damon, Sarah and I went, like I said, to this place at the Midtown Global Market.  I'd never been in there before.  It's cool.  It's a fleamarket kind of a thing, but with lots of eateries.  We got fish tacos (Sarah got shrimp, and liked them I think) and Hibiscus tea.  Usually I enjoy weird-tasting stuff.  The tea, however, was a little too weird.  I don't know what we thought we were getting ourselves into, but it was sort of salty our sour or something, and almost tasted thick to me.  It was one of those things that I could sort of understand that someone else was really into it, I just don't happen to be.  Like with beets.  Or jazz.

The tacos, on the other hand, were good.  The fish was in a pineapple orange sauce.  Zesty!

Tonight, I came home from the gym to an empty house.  Confused, I texted Derek asking, "Where TF are you, bro?"
He was out to dinner.  I completely forgot he had plans.  It made me relieved because I didn't feel like cooking.  Left to my own devices, I will usually choose to make the easiest possible meal, but since I was going to have to take a picture of it for you fine folks,  I went ahead and plated the hell out of it.

So here we have 3 jicama sticks (jicama is one of those foods that Derek and I have always both enjoyed, but the uncut version of it looks so scary that I'd never brought one home to cut up on my own.  Turns out it's really easy.  Acutally, cutting up a jicama is a pretty gratifying experience.  It's just one big solid mass, and the texture is as pleasing to cut through as it is to bite into.)  Below that is some leftover Southwestern Quinoa Salad, then alternating cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, then some Trader Joes Frozen Mini Tacos.  These are beef-filled.  The center of the plate contains Trader Joes Fresh Salsa.  These tacos are pretty good, and very easy to make.  And faster than pizza bites.  Oooh, I should have had the mini tacos with pizza bites, damnit. 

Anyways, I ate dinner with a beer while I watched whatever on tv. 

Dessert was very special.  Last night,  I had a stroke of genius and made a very fancy looking candy dish out of a clear glass teapot.  I filled it with jelly beans.  It worked well for HP night.  We also had caramel toffee scones and Butterbeer.  For this version of Butterbeer (is it weird that I have more than one recipe for Butterbeer?) I dunked spoons into Smuckers butterscotch caramel ice cream topping, then stirred them into glasses filled with diet cream soda.  Add ice and voila!  (I had no idea that I knew how to spell 'voila' until just now... so that's nice.)

So anyways, dessert 2 nights in a row;

Teapot full of jelly beans.  BOOM.

 

So now I have to go and try to not eat the rest of those delicious beans.  Not only do they definitely not help me meet my weight loss goals, they also make me feel like barfing by the third of fourth pound of them.  It's just, they're so good. 

Until next time, remember: I LOVE JELLY BEANS

Days 16 and 17: No judging me allowed.

Hey, kids! 

Did you all enjoy spending all yesterday watching HP 7.1?  Me too!  After i got home from the gym, I put it in just to watch while I snacked and until I cooled down enough to shower (at least, that's what I told myself I was doing).  At some point, I had to force myself to hit "pause" so I could get ready for the day.  As it turned out, "the day" acutally involved a lot more Harry Potter watching, and shopping for just the right meal to prepare for watching it again with Derek. 

I watched it twice yesterday.  Don't judge me.  I'll do it again later tonight, too, given the opportunity.

So we ended up eating what I named Cornish Tacos with a side of Spice Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions.  The squash recipe is a Weightwatchers one that my boss gave me to try.  The Cornish Tacos were really just the filling from the Cornish Pasties recipe from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook cooked sans-pasty and put into whole wheat flour tortillas.

 

As you can see, I had it with a cuppa.  (I'm like 90% sure that means "cup of tea" in British.)  We put some A-1 Steak Sauce on our taco because, well, we're American, so we like flavors.  This great country of ours is, afterall, birthplace of Baconnaise*.

(*disclaimer: I've never acutally tried Baconnaise and I didn't do any research to make sure it's actually American, but I saw it at the store today and bacon flavored cholesterol-spread stuck me as being extra especially American.  amiwrong?)

Basically, Cornish Pasty filling finely diced beef, carrot, potato, onion, and I added celery.  Then it's baked for a while.  I chose the roasted squash because the spice it uses is Garam Masala, and I like English food with Indian.  It seemed right.  I'm pretty sure they do stuff like that there.  If any of you fives of readers are British, perhaps you can shed light on whether that sounds like something you'd do?

So anyways, we really enjoyed our Cornish Tacos, and Derek hardly fell asleep at all watching HP 7.1. 

So, when you guys watch it again, use Maximum Movie Mode.  It's on the Blu Ray copy for sure, I sort of doubt it's on the DVD.  Anyways, it's totally great.  At certain points, cast and crew members will sort of stop the movie to tell you interesting things.  There's also the option to jump to extra little videos about things like Privet Drive and House Elves and stuff.  (Anyone that's seen any of that stuff, did the kid that plays Dudley have a prosthesis on his face?  I think he grew up too thin and they put him in like a fat-face.  Maybe his makeup just looked weird.  Something struck me as "off."  And if not, I hearby officially apologize to him for saying his face looked weird.)

Today, we forwent (there I go, using my new favorite word again) the breakfast tacos, opting instead to eat them for lunch.  There's a great little place in St. Paul called Caribe Bistro.  Totally delish.  We ordered 2 dishes and shared them both.  The Caribe Eggs Benedict was probably the best eggs benedict I've ever had.  It was different and interesting, and everything about it was wonderful.  The taco portion of our meal was the Cuban Pork Hash.  It came with corn tortillas (and we got a couple more tortillas, too).  It made a very good taco.  It was tasty and juicy.  It had eggs on top.

 

Doesn't that look good??!

I took a picture of something else while we were there.  Derek ordered a banana soda.  If you like banana flavored candy, YOU WANT THIS.  I had a few sips and was so jealous that I was drinking iced tea. 

Ok, so PSA, if you ever see this bottle anywhere, BUY IT:

This afternoon at the grocery store, I finally found some Masa, which is the corn stuff used to make tortillas.  I brought it home and Derek spent some time practicing with his new tortilla press.   I think he got mad at the whole process, but I have faith that he's gonna get good at it and add a whole new dimension to taco eating.  I'm looking very forward to trying some. 
Finally, I'll leave you with one more for the OMG I <3 HP photo series. 

Yeah, we're going to have to go back there very soon.  *sigh*

Days 14 and 15: So easy a Derek can do it!

Good morning, and Happy (belated) Harry Potter day!!

I want to talk more about HP, but I have to wait until I get there, chronologically...you know how it goes.

I think when last we spoke I'd just recently enjoyed myself at the Taco Party.  Woohoo, taco party!!

Thursday, Derek made dinner!  He's a fine cook, although I don't think he enjoys it especially.  I do most of the cooking around here, which I'm totally into, but it is nice to get home late from work to find the Jacqie and Dan Special Sloppy Joes Tacos already simmering for it's final half-hour. 

So we got this message from Jacqie (hey, girl!) about a taco night recipe they'd just used and enjoyed.  It was super duper easy (so easy Derek could do it!) and was quite delicious!  If you want the recipe, I can ask Jacqie about posting it.  We had the sloppy joe stuff on whole wheat flour tortillas with spinach.  On the side, lentils.  I'd never made lentils before, and I've only eaten them one other time that I'm aware of.  And to be clear, I'm using the word "made" to mean "put the presteamed-ready-to-eat-lentil-bag in the microwave."  I put salsa verde on my lentils and a little mustard on my tacos. 

We will definitely be eating this sloppy joe recipe again.  Probably in tacos.  SO GOOD!

We watched Archer while we ate.  Anyone else watch that show?  Funniest cartoon on television.  Go watch it.  The first season is on dvd (there aren't that many episodes in a season, so I think it's only one disc). 

I'd put "restaurant" on the calendar for Friday before we chose the 13th for Taco Party night, and then never changed it because, well, I'm extremely lazy.  Like, really really lazy.  So since it said "restaurant" right on there, and because going to a restaurant is easier than cooking (did I mention I'm lazy?) we went out.  We chose a restaurant in St. Paul that Derek had heard good things about called Rusty Taco.  OMG, you guys, GO THERE.  It's this great little place where you go in and order at the counter then wait for your name to be called.  The menu has all ala carte tacos for cheap, a couple of sides (we didn't have room to try any of those, we were busy stuffing our pig faces full of tacos!) and beer. 

Here's the first round:

I don't remember for sure which ones we got, but I think I ate the Fried Chicken, Beef Fajita (Damon will be so excited for the Fajita taco), Rajas (mushroom), BBQ brisket, and some other chicken one later.  Derek had Fish, Fried Chicken, Brisket, Rajas, and Picadillo (ground beef and potato).  Every one was totes tasty.  The fried chicken sticks out most in my mind because I'd just been thinking earlier that day about making shake and bake chicken fingers and putting them in tacos.  Maybe with honey mustard or bbq sauce? 

I also had a bite of Dereks fish taco, and it, too, was delicious. 

The last taco I had was a chicken one (I'm not sure which...chicken fajita maybe?) and it was very spicy.  By then, however, I had finished my beer.  Derek let me sip on his, but it was really spicy and I was trying to be careful to not finish his beer.  I had a moment when I looked down at my iPhone and just for a moment, got really mad at it for not having "an app for that."  Immediately after, I decided that my phone and I spend too much time together. 

Don't get my wrong, I'm not going to spend any less time with my phone, I just wanted you to know that I recognize that it's weird to be upset that my phone cant stop the inside of my mouth from burning. 

After dinner, we went to the Trader Joes next door in search of some Masa to make homemade tortillas with Derek's new tortilla press.  No luck.  Didn't find it at Target before dinner, either.  I'm worried that we're going to have real trouble finding it.  Worriedface.

Oh, that reminds me, though, that I forgot to mention that after work, before taco time, I stopped at Target for a few things, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 on Blu Ray.  OMFG YOU GUYS, YAY!!!

 After we got home from our after dinner errands, I watched the special features DVD while Derek did other things.  Poor guy is going to have enough unwanted exposure to this movie in the near future, it's ok if he skips some of the extras.  Today, I'll maybe watch some of the extras on the movie disc, and then we'll watch the movie together tonight over dinner.  I'll spend some time today looking throught my Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for British Taco ideas.  Probably Bangers and Mash tacos.  Maybe Steak and Kidney tacos.  If Derek liked pumpkin more, we'd almost certainly have a dessert taco version of Pumpkin Pasties.  Maybe I'll get some diet cream soda and butterscotch schnapps so we can have butterbeers, also.

OMG I <3 HP series #3: 

From whence my Butterbeer, sadly, does not come

And a special bonus picture:



Winged Boars at the school gates

So there's my blog for the day, I think.  If I hurry, I can get quite a bit of HP watching in before Turbo Step starts at the gym.  And a lot of coffee drank, as well.  And I'm so Harry Potter excited that I'm kinda done talking to you guys, so no hard feelings?  Wait, what am I talking about?  You guys aren't even reading this right now, because you're all too busy watching HP, too, aren't you?  Well then it'll be like we're watching together!

Cherio!


Days 12 and 13: TACO PARTY!

Ok, So this time I acutally have had a couple of busy days.  Tuesday, there was working, grocery shopping, chiropracting, and yoga.  While I was at yoga, Derek went to a cycling race thingie.  So busy day for us both, really.  For dinner, we had Beef Tacos with Radish and Avacado Salsa from the same Martha Stewart cookbook that brought you the glazed carrots from the other day.  What a great cookbook.  Plus, it's so nice of her to put the recipes I want to share up on her website.  I thank you, Martha. 

They were pretty good tacos.  I'd never broiled meat before.  In retrospect, I don't quite know how I've avoided it for this long.  It was so easy!  The steak ended up maybe a little rarer than I meant it to be, but neither of us really has a problem with rareish beef.  We used white corn tortillas (we doubled up on each taco since they were so juicy).  Sadly, I could taste the tortillas more than any other ingredient.  The radish and avacado salsa was very tasty.  Now I have a nearly-full jar of pickled jalapeno slices that I have no idea what to do with. 

Do you guys know what I can do with pickled jalapeno slices?

I served them with a Dole bagged Southwestern salad.  It's one of my favorite ones. 

Actually, I like all of their bagged salads.  The dressing is always really good.  This dressing especially.

When yoga class wrapped up on Tuesday night, I left a little disappointed at the length of our Savasana.  It's the last pose of the night, where you just lay there on your back and, you know, be.  It's a big part of why I like yoga, and it's always a huge bummer when we run out of time for a good one.  But then, on my way home, I was skimming through the satellite radio channels, looking for something relaxing to maintain my calmness, and my radio landed on the Cinemagic station, which plays movie scores.  And so I drove home listening to the Ghostbusters music.  It was fantastic and perfect.  It was the bouncy part of the score, when things in the movie were going well. 

Then, last night, I skipped the gym (I just tried to type the past-tense version of "forgo" instead of "skipped."  Then I thought, "Forwent?  I'm not sure that's a real word??"  But then I thought, "eff it, I'm gonna use it anyways, because eff the establishment, that's why!!!")

Then, last night, I forwent the gym for the Taco Party at Rojo Mexican Grill in St. Louis Park.  There were 9 of us total.  It was really fun!  We had a couple of drinks, and ate some delicious tacos, and had a super-duper time.  I'm sure the mixed drinks were great, but I have to suggest the red sangria.  Very summery and refreshing. 

I ordered the chicken tacos and Derek the fish, and then we swapped one so we could each try both. 

 The Chicken Tacos

The Fish Tacos



There were refried beans and "sticky rice" on the side.  Both delicious.  The tacos were totes delish, too.

I have to go get ready for the gym in a minute.  I'm tempted to skip the gym and go walk around outside, but I think I'll be disappointed with the temperature, and I'm 100% sure I won't get as good a workout in as little time as I would at the gym.  Sadface.

OMG I <3 HP series, photo #3

Honeydukes

This (clearly) is Honeydukes.  Full of magical treats like chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and such.  It's connected to Zonko's joke shop.  This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip.  The whole park felt sort of whimsically crooked like this. 

Let's all take a moment to be a little too excited that HP 7.1 comes out tomorrow.  HIZAH!

 

Days 10 and 11: Seriously

We just got done watching Avatar.  We'd never seen it.  It was visually very, very beautiful.  The story was also good, although they changed Pocahontas' name and made Native Americans tall and blue.  It's cool that they got dragons, though.  In that regard, it's rather like a 9 year old boy rewrote the Disney classic.  Was anyone else slightly creeped out by the icky fingery thingies at the end of their ponytails? 

They looked slimey.  That's all I'm saying.

ON TO TACOS

Sunday was breakfast tacos.  Corn tortillas filled with breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs with goat cheese and oregano, salsa verde on top, and sausage links on the side.  Quite tasty.  I didn't put enough goat cheese in, so you couldn't really taste it.  I like salsa verde, though.  I wonder why I've never gotten into it before.  Probably because it's green.  I assumed I didn't like guacamole until I was an adult because of the green thing.  Which is weird, since I'm not acutally a picky eater, and I like most green vegetables. 

Sunday evening, Derek went over to a friends house for a taco party and to watch the Paris Roubaix bike race.  I didn't go for a couple of reasons (mostly cuz I wasn't in the mood to listen to all the bike-parts talk, but also because I wanted to get some responsible stuff done, like laundry and grocery shopping.)  I was really sad after that I didn't go because it sounded like it was a good time with good tacos.  On the other hand, I was in bed before Derek got home, so it was probably good that I got to bed at a descent hour.

Today, after work and gyming (Ignition Cardio Kick and Ignition Jumprope classes), I came home and made Buffalo Chicken Tacos with a side of glazed carrots.  The Buffalo Chicken recipe was pretty easy.  I just sauteed a couple of chicken breasts, shredded them, returned them to the pan and squirted Buffalo sauce on them until it was the right shade of orange.  Then we filled hard shells with lettuce, diced celery, and the chicken, and squirted some Ranch dressing on top.  The glazed carrots came from a Martha Stewart cookbook, although 30 seconds of internet searching and I found the recipe for all ya'll.  They were suprisingly good. 

Remember how it used to be that if you wanted to internet something, you had to dial up, wait for the dial up noises, close all 15 AOL pop-up windows, wait for a year, and then get kicked off because your mom picked up the phone?  I love modern interneting.

Can I get a "hell yeah?!"

Anywhosits, the tacos looked like this:

I think it's one of my favorites so far.  Just so darn tasty!  And those carrots...suprisingly good.  I made carrots as a side because Buffalo wings usually come with carrots and celery on the side.  I was being clever...get it?

We're having a Taco Party on Wednesday.  I'm excited.  Maybe I'll live tweet some pictures from it.  (To clarify, when I say "taco party" what i mean is "dinner at a restaurant with several other people"). 

Seriously, you guys?  Harry Potter comes out on DVD on Friday, yay!!!  Per Jess/Scott's suggestion, I'm seriously considering making Bangers & Mash tacos, or something else all British on Saturday.  I bet Derek'll be excited to find out he gets to spend his Saturday watching the movie.  Seriously.

Which brings us to picture 2 in the OMG I <3 HP series





Hogs Head Brew tapper

 The Hogs Head had it's own beer.  It was good. A Newcastley sort of thing, which was quite perfect for me.  There in the background of the picture you can see the hogs head that graced the wall behind the bar.  It grunted and snorted and it's eyes moved.  It was bitchin.

Bedtime for me.  Hafta get up early tomorrow to figure out my shopping list for after work.  Ugh.  Sometimes being an adult is lame.

Ok, usually.