A Super Cambridgey Weekend

I can't stop making tortillas.

Which is fine, considering I have 5 pounds of corn flour to use up. My aunts were in town this weekend, so Saturday morning I decided (a) I should make breakfast for everyone and (b) I need to use as many ingredients as possible in hopes that our packed dorm refrigerator's door might actually close. Solution: breakfast burritos.

Except I forgot the refried beans and queso fresco, which were the main things I wanted to get rid of anyways. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS.

Anyways, these are they. I can't believe I voluntarily put hot sauce on mine.

In other news, happy Palm Sunday, y'all! Today I was pleasantly surprised that my church was giving out palms. Got a whole frond, too. Way to go, protestants.

That happened outside church, here. SO nice in the sun. Almost as though it were Spring or something.

Fine Art and Frijoles

This post's drawings are brought to you by Boston's finest, the Museum of Fine Arts. Apparently they have a  thing every Wednesday night where they bring in a live (clothed) model and set them up in different parts of the museum. While drawing people always results in disaster for me, they also have art supplies that you can take to whatever part of the museum you want.

SO my pal E. (as she says on her blog) situated herself in front of the model and I took my gear to the nearby Art of the Americas wing. My first stop was with the castas paintings. Check it out, I think they're fascinating. Examples are at the bottom of this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casta#Pintura_de_castas

I should have seen it coming, but after drawing a disfigured face, I moved on over to colonial Peruvian silver communion accoutrements, and this chalice and cruet (?) / vinajera happened:

I kindly ask that you squint and pretend things are symmetrical.

A major highlight was their really awesome erasers, which I have since purchased. It feels like sticky tack and you can shape it into a point. Also it doesn't tear up your paper. Also it was 69 cents. Wins all around.

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This post's food, tortillas with refried beans and queso fresco, is brought to you by Tony's mom and a Mexican store in Roslindale. Also a couple hours of work, a smoky kitchen, and a lot of laughs. 

Each individual step is relatively simple, but there's a whole lot of room for mistakes, we found. To make the masa, you mix Maseca, water, and salt...if you remember...ha. Then you make little balls and flatten them as evenly as possible, to just the right thickness. After that, you put them on a heated and oiled comal/whatever that big cast iron sheet is we found in my kitchen. Then you try not to forget about them cause you're simultaneously doing laundry. Another tricky part was cutting them open to put all the stuff in. That got a little messy...

BUT even the wonky ones tasted amazing. Just sayin.

Monday Night Wins

I realize I'm easily amused, but two fun things happened tonight.

Many moons ago, when I served 40 hours a week, I had all sorts of time to beebop all around town. This included frequent visits to what must be the US's best Armenian grocery store. So I hadn't gone in months, but today I skipped the gym and went on over to get some random goodies for a certain visitor coming to town. I feel like, living near Watertown, this shouldn't be overlooked. I also did what you're not supposed to and went shopping hungry, so this happened:

That was win #1. Win #2 was that my mom sent the blizzard sketch I mentioned before. Turns out she had "scooped it up because she feared would be lost to the ages." Ta daa!