Book Review - Diary of a Mad Fat Girl

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fund book and the title rocks!

The main character, Graecela Jones (ACE) is amazing – I see so much of myself in her and she does so many things that I wish I could or would do.  In saying that, I think that was the one downfall.  This woman does everything we all want to do in a fantasy world and gets away with it.  There is no way, in the most remote possibilities that life would go this way, but damn! You sure would like it to, and in this book it does.  It makes the book a fun read.  This book if a fantastic escape, especially for women. 

I found that Diary of a Mad Fat girl took on, not only abuse in marriage, but in a subtle way, how that abuse is still accepted and swept under the rug by family and friends, even today.  I loved how it was attacked and addressed and in a subtle passive aggressive sort o’ way, put in our faces.  By no means a sophisticated read, but a damn funny one and a rewarding one.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a good laugh and a feeling that someone has had a chance to  experience a little “justice” in their lives. 

Cordelia's Essay - How To Make Toast

Hi there! Today I'm writing an essay on how to make toast!  If you already know how to make toast, then this is pretty useless.  Although, if you need to learn how, then I'm offering you a new skill!  Woo hoo!

Step number one; obtain a piece of bread of your choice.  If you don't know where the bread is, you're going to have to look for it on hour own. Once you find it, extract the desired amount of toast you with to make.

The next step is toasting your bread.  To do this, you're going to need a toaster.  Find the slots for the bread in the toaster, and put your bread in. Now push down the slider thing on your toaster.  All you need to do now is wait!  Don't get scared or startled when the toast pops out. 

Congratulations!  If you're reading this it means you've successfully toasted bread!  Now's the time for you to locate the butter. Most likely, it's in your refrigerator.  Once you are in possession of that, find a butter knife, or the dullest knife in the house.  Take a few slices of butter and spread them on the toast.  You can be done, or add any other toppings, like jelly or jam. 

Awesome, you learned how to make toast!  The last step is, of course, to eat it!  When you eat, one bite at a time. We wouldn't want to choke. Thank you for reading my probably useless essay about toast! 

The Heat Is On Cake Contest

Stop by TLC's The Next Great Bakers Challenge to vote on my friend Wendy's cake. She does some amazing work and deserves your vote!

Back to Taqueria Tech

So back to my birthday taco post.  So what would Negra Modelo and Coca Cola have to do with taco's, other than drinking them with your taco? 

Beef taco's

My daughter's friend hates her birthday already, at the age of 12 she's already hating her birthday.  That's just not right.  I'm 44 going on 45 and I still love my birthday!  A 12 year old should most definitely like her birthday, especially since she is now one more year closer to being a teenager.  When I was 11 turning 12, I could not wait for my next birthday because I would officially be a teenager. 

So I had to do a little something to make her birthday special. This girl LOVES taco's.  So a few days before her birthday my daughter and I set up a little special taco birthday dinner for her friend.  Me being who I am, I could not bring myself to do the silly hard shell, hamburger cooked with packaged taco spice and grated cheddar cheese tacos.  If it was coming from me, it had to be the real deal.  So I pulled out my trusty Taqueria Tech recipe collection and made homemade shredded beef tacos. 

My homemade pickled Mexican Vegies

The beef boil

Beans

Mexican Rice

Sides for the tacos

And the taco dinner!

Now for the recipes:

Shredded Beef:

2 1/2 lbs rump or any other beef cut

6 oz dark Mexican beer

1 11 1/2 oz jar of hot Mexican veggies - I used my homemade pickled Mexican veggies (verduras escabeche) with 1/2 cup of the pickling liquid

3 or 4 dried pasilla chilies

1 peeled orange

1/2 tablespoon California chili powder

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp Mexican Oregano

4 or more cursed garlic cloves

Use fatty meat - fat equals flavor.  Prepare the chilies by roasting them on an open flame until they just begin to brown, then soak them, completely covered in hot water until slightly pliable, about 20 minutes.  Slit them down one side, rinse out the seeds, and lay them flat open on a paper towel.  

Cut the beef into quarters and put all ingredients in a large pot and stir.  Add enough beer or water to just barely cover the surface of the meat.  lay the soft chilies over the top of the meat chunks and bring to a rapid boil.  Cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the cooked meat and place it on a large cookie sheet, reserving the liquid and veggies.  With two forks shred the meat and arrange it on the sheet so it will bake evenly.  Ladle some of the cooking liquid onto the tray and place it in the oven.  Bake the meat, turning once, for about half an hour.  Make sure it doesn't burn.  

Strain and reserve the cooking liquid from the veggies.  Remove the orange and peppers.  Puree the veggies with a bit of the liquid.  Save half for something else like enchilada sauce.  When the meat is deep brown, return it to the puree mixture and cook it down until it's almost dry.  Keep some of the juice so the meat will be easier to reheat later.  Keep the beef covered in a warm oven until ready to use for tacos.  

Taqueria Beans from canned refrieds:

1 30 oz can of "spicy" refried beans.

1 sliced onion

2 or 3 garlic cloves

2 to 3 tablespoons lard

1 small package cream cheese

1 medium handful of jack or cheddar cheese - or Mexican cheese

canned green chilies or minced jalapenos.

Prepare the lard by melting it in a large pan. Lightly saute' the sliced onion and garlic cloves.  The plan is to flavor the lard only.  Don't let the garlic and onion brown.  Remove them and place the canned beans and their liquid in the hot lard.  Be careful not to splatter the hot lard on yourself.  Add the chilies or jalapeno's, unless you want the beans mild.  Add the cream cheese and grated cheese, turn on medium heat and stir until all is melted and mixed together.  

Arroz a la Mexicana (Mexican rice)

1 cup rice

1/3 cup chopped white onions

2 to 3 cloves minced garlic

1/4 to 1/2 tablespoon pasilla or New Mexico chili powder

2 peeled, seeded finely chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons chopped pimiento

1/3 cup peanut oil

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the rice until golden.  About 10 minutes. Drain oil from the rice.  Add the onion, garlic, cumin, and the chili powder and saute', stirring continually for about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken stock, peas, pimiento, and tomatoes.  Cook covered until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.  

Sides for the taco's - salsa, sour cream, avocado, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, crumbled Mexican cheese or shredded cheddar, and limes.  

Along with this I served sliced cucumbers with sliced lemons and kosher salt.  

To drink?  Negra Modelo and Mexican Coca Cola

And there is one yummy Taco Birthday party! 

 

Taqueria Tech

I've been meaning to post about my little taco fest I served up for one of my daughter's bff's a while back.  Every day life takes over and I have yet to do it.  It's too late for me to get it posted tonight, once again - but damnit I'm going to post something - so here is a teaser.....

 

What - other then drinking - could these two things have to do with tacos?  I'll give you 3 guesses until tomorrow night - when I can hopefully get back here and tell you the answer. 

Getting Happy

How do you practice self-acceptance and find unconditional love for yourself? How does practicing love first help you attract more love and happiness in your life?


Self-acceptance is something that has never come easy to me. I have spent years trying to accept myself through the eyes of others. I am finally learning to accept myself on my own terms. The first thing I needed to do was to leave my marriage. A marriage that was an emotionally abusive one and I needed to start working my way through healing from that. That took some therapy, eliminating poisonous relationships and building healthy ones, and leaning on a special person to get me through the initial hell. Going through that process has taught me to learn to ask for help, and it has shown me who I can trust and who I can’t. Finding and building a support system gave me the safety net I needed to heal and get my strength back. I finally started to learn to give myself permission to do things for myself. Things like taking time to meditate and do yoga, or sit and write out my thoughts and feelings in my journal.

In learning to give myself that time I got myself back into a regular exercise routine, and that in itself – good strenuous exercise – gave me so much confidence. The endorphins lifted my mood and helped me to get through the tough days with a smile. The more I put into my workouts, the stronger I became physically and the more confident I became emotionally. The exercise was huge in turning my attitude around. My fear subsided, my desire to enjoy life grew, and my love for myself came back. And this wasn’t about losing weight or looking better in the mirror – this was just all about feeling better, physically and mentally.

As my attitude improved, my situation at work improved. The people in my life seemed to be more positive and my children are happier. My new love for myself has not only attracted a better situation at work and better friends, but it has also brought a new love into my life, which would not have happened without me finally learning to accept and love myself.

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Christmas Bark

Last year, while desperately trying to make candy for Christmas like my mom used to (she was a master candy maker) I discovered how easy it is to make Peppermint Bark and how delicious it is. A sure hit as a gift.  This year I decided to get a little more creative and with the help of my youngest daughter came up with a couple new recipes.  I realize these recipes already exist out there, but we just made these up as we went and made up our own versions. 
First we made the traditional Peppermint Bark. 
We tempered - melted slowly in the microwave - 12 oz of semisweet chocolate - 1 minute at a time at 50% power, stirring in between.  You can do this on the stove top with a double broiler.  I spread this out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put in the refrigerator to harden.
Then we tempered 12 oz of white chocolate.  Be sure to get good quality chocolate.  The cheep stuff doesn't melt right and will affect the texture of your bark.  And it burns easily.  While I was melting the chocolate my 8 year old was violently smashing peppermint candies.  I mixed 2/3 of these into the melted white chocolate and spread it evenly over the top of the now hard semisweet chocolate.  Then sprinkled more broken peppermint candy pieces on top and put this back in the refrigerator to solidify into bark.  The amount you put in your chocolate is really to taste in my opinion.  We probably put about a half cup of crushed peppermint candy into the white chocolate. 

Next we made butterscotch bark - two different ways.  The first one was:
12 oz of butterscotch chips tempered
about 1/2 cup of pretzels crushed and mixed into the melted butterscotch - I would increase this next time.  Butterscotch is super sweet and this really needed some more pretzels to balance it out. 
I spread this out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and topped with crushed coffee flavored toffee candies that my 8 year old had crushed. Placed into the fridge to harden.

The second version was 12 oz of butterscotch tempered and about 1/2 cup of crushed roasted salted peanuts mixed into the melted butterscotch.  This was spread on parchment on a cookie sheet and topped with crushed hard butterscotch candy and placed in a fridge to harden.

The last bark I did was a lemon bark.  Once again I will reiterate - get good white chocolate for this.  If you use the cheep stuff it won't melt properly.  It will get grainy and eventually burn. 
I tempered the white chocolate and put a few drops of lemon extract into the white chocolate.  I spread it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and topped it with the shattered lemon drops that my daughter had vigorously worked on.

The next morning I pulled all of my cookie sheets out of the fridge and broke the bark into pieces and placed into on of my trays and took it to work to test it all on my co-workers  It had already received a thumbs up from my girls. 

I think next time, not only will I use better white chocolate for the lemon bark, I may use lemon zest instead of lemon extract and crush the lemon drops down to smaller pieces. 

All and all, it all turned out delicious. So this is what I took to work:

And ended up coming home with a empty tray.  Most people preferred the peppermint bark over all.  Those with a real sweet tooth loved the butterscotch bark, and those who didn't have so much of a sweet tooth, avoided it like the plague.  The lemon bark was favored more then I expected it to be, so I'm happy it came out ok in spite of the not so ideal chocolate I used.

So I hope this gives you the basis to make you're own bark.  It's really an easy thing to make when all ingredients are of good quality. So good luck and enjoy.  Let me know who yours comes out - and if you experiment with the recipe I'd love to hear what you've come up with.
Have a very Merry Christmas!