pringle potatoes

probably a good year ago, i bought a cookbook with low-fat, healthy recipes, with the intention that i was going to expand my cooking repertoire.

that didn’t happen.

but in the past couple of days it has come in handy. i made a stir-fry to go with tempura shrimp. tonight i needed something to go with steak.

so i flipped open the book and found potatoes with some fancy name, but to me they’re pringle potatoes.

i mean, come on, they look like pringles chips!

i was sold at that point, so i went to the store and got my potatoes.

tonight i embarked on the adventure of creating pringle potatoes, which was made even more exciting when i set out to stuff garlic in between the potato slivers!

when my pringle potatoes came out of the oven, criss and i agreed that i didn’t do half bad.

and plated with the steak (prepared by criss) and the veggies (major fail on my part – when steaming the veggies all the water burnt off and i ruined the pan while creating burnt pan-infused veggies) it looked pretty fabulous.

criss agreed.

and now it’s after 11 and i’m making brownies. with reese’s pieces. in a heart-shaped pan.

good times and good food.

whiteboard wednesday: butterflies

i’m taking a break from practicing to provide you with another post (by the way, after i practice, i get to eat gelato. how good of a deal is that?). i think today should be deemed “wonder wall wednesday” however, because instead of providing you another gem from my whiteboard, which is in front of me, i’ve turned around and put some fancy pants stuff on the wall behind me!

yes there are some lovely words, they say “i have found the one whom my soul loves” blah blah blah, but more importantly, i got a mirror! finally!

you really don’t know how monumental this is. i greatly dislike watching myself in the mirror when i sing. and yet, i knew i needed one, and i’ve even been sneaking glances at myself in the window and in a framed picture while practicing just to get some sort of gauge on how i’m doing, even though i really don’t want to see.

but it was time. i’ve been tasked with keeping tabs on my tongue, and i can’t do that without a mirror. i attempted it with a compact mirror, but that ended in awkwardness and a broken lid on the compact (i didn’t throw it, pinky swear). so now i have a cheap, full mirror from target (funny thing is, i don’t think it’s even a real mirror, it’s some other strange material that just mimics a mirror) and i can watch my tongue and scold it for moving and retreating into the cave of my mouth when it’s not supposed to.

and i have butterflies on my wall too.

on another note, i’m super sad because borders is filling bankruptcy. and reorganizing. which means closing stores. one of which is my local store. and i refuse to go to the barnes and noble down the street. so now what? more on that later. for now, you just get a cat in a borders bag.

leftover pie

today i found myself in the unfortunate situation of having too many leftovers, so i was left with no choice but to make leftover pie. it’s a special recipe, that i developed in my high-end kitchen tonight.

start with the salivating spread of leftovers:

set the oven to preheat to 350:

and heat up some refried beans:

then get your pie plate! mine’s pyrex

and start layering! put down a tortilla:

by now your beans should be warm enough. add the beans from the leftovers, and just for fun, add taco seasonings to taste:

now back to layering. add the most important ingredient: cheese, of course! and on top of that, the leftover enchilada.

then the beans:

then more cheese and all the leftover bits of chicken:

and then gee, what else? more cheese!

pick some arbitrary number that will make the cheese melt and heat the pie fully and stick it in the oven:

and then wait! it will be tasty when it comes out, i promise!

i would have steamed some green beans so i could pretend this meal was healthy, but our beans weren’t fresh anymore, so i had soy milk instead.

cheers!

whiteboard wednesday: stay out of my head!

sometime’s we are our own obstacle. shoot, getting this post written is a challenge because i’m so tired that i can’t coax myself to move. but these posts are important, because they keep me on track and remind me of where i’ve been and where i’m going.

hopefully i’m leaving behind a time when all i could do is beat myself up. nothing was ever good enough. but as I was told today, i can’t get in my own way. time to suck it up and admit that maybe for once i’m actually doing something right.

claire virginia, get out of my way!