Unsolicited Advice

Empanada Recipe

I made these the other day and they were delicious. They are based off of Cooking Light’s Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas and the Corn & Black Bean Empanadas at Border Cafe in Saugus. 

Ingredients:

• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/4 cup of jalapeño peppers
• 1 egg
• 1 Can of Black Beans
• 1 Can of Corn
• 1 TSP of Cumin
• 1 TSP of Red Cayenne Pepper
• 1 package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls  

Directions

1. Cut Sweet Potato into big chunks, add a splash of water, and microwave for five minutes.
2. Preheat Oven to 350.
3. While sweet potato is in the microwave, saute the onion, garlic and peppers until onion is transparent.
4. Mash sweet potato and egg, then add onions, black beans, corn, and spices.
5. Fold each crescent triangle in half and press two sides together, then using the remaining open side fill the empanada and close it.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden.

Reading List 2012

My reading goal for this year is 25 NEW books, but I am hoping that I manage to squeeze in a few more than that. I am also trying to get in some more non-fiction into my queue- particularly books about finances, food, and communication (although I somehow managed to only get 1 of each of these on this list, its a start). 

So far, this is the list,subject to change and with additions as we go along. I think I got a pretty good variety :)

1. The Magicians- Lev Grossman
2. The Bromeliad Trilogy- Terry Pratchett
3. Chalice- Robin Mckinley
4. Troubled Waters- Sharron Shinn
5. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
6. 1Q84-Haruki Murakami
7. Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art- Lewis Hyde
8. The Outlander Series- Diana Gabolden
9. Slaughterhouse -Five- Kurt Vonnegut
10. The Gifts of Imperfection- Brene Brown
11. Real Food- Nina Planck
12. bossypants- Tina Fey
13. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
14. Smart Women Finish Rich- David Bach
15. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work- John Gottman 

Reading Now: Dance with Dragons!

beccafied:

THIS IS FABRIC, YOU GUYS.

I need this. Every home needs a Dr. Who Pillow! Or a geek quilt!

(Source: littleleslieknopemonster)

Day 13- The year of your life that you loved the most

I have been thinking about this a bunch, and it is so goddamn hard! I would say the preschool years, but it is all relative, really. I also don’t remember them that clearly, just flashes and big events that happened. Even those are very faded. We went to new york, and I remember the hotel the most clearly. Maybe, those years are romanticized.

So cutting out, the fun that was playing outside and singing songs, I’m gonna go with Freshman year of college. I started doing Karate and made a whole bunch of friends. I got to move out of my house and live on campus, and got a job at the writing studio. I feel like that year was a huge turning point to get me where I am today.

In the end though, years are only what you make of them. Even the really hard ones, I learned something and came out of them with new perspective.