(La Semana de Comida Mexicana!)

My goodness y'all!!!! Aren't we just t!e cullinary masters today?  TWO, count them TWO of my bloggin friends posted recipes for Mexican stuff today! 

(Note to AW Friends: JEENKIES! A Syncronicity!)

So, if you want to check out the recipes, you can look at them here are Jocelyns blog and Moni's blog.

Now I'm issuing a challenge... 

How about we all post our favorite mexican recipe on our blogs?  After you do it, leave a comment on my blog so we know you've got a recipe!

Here's my favorite: *putting on sombrero and some Mexican music as I demonstrate*

Flautas (prounounced like fl OW tas... like the kinda OW you say when you hurt yourself!)

1 package small corn tortillas (the white kind)
Grated or finely sliced cheese, any flavor but I like the white cheeses the best myself
Pre-cooked meat (chicken breast, hamburger, we even used hot dogs once!)
Vegetable Oil

First, put oil (about 1/8 an inch maybe?) in the bottom of a skillet.  I use a small skillet, it makes it easier.  Heat oil on low heat until the oil sizzles dramatically when you put a drop of water in it. 

Next, put a small row of meat & cheese towards one end of a tortilla.  Roll the tortilla up, as small as you can (You know, like kids roll up pieces of paper and then look out of them?) .

Being careful to prevent burns, put the flauta in the skillet.  When it's lightly browned, turn it.  Repeat for all sides. 

Take flauta out of the skillet, and place it on a paper-towel covered plate (to absorb excess grease).  When you have cooked as many flautas as you want, lightly salt them all, and then serve.

Troubleshooting:  If the flautas are soggy (gross!) your oil is not hot enough.  They should cook pretty quick if you want them to be nice and crunchy.

So what about you all? What's your fav Mexican dish?  Let us know!

And whether you give us a recipe or not, make sure you all go check out Jocelyn & Moni's blogs and give 'em some love okay?   I'll give you all a formal introduction to Jocelyn the next time I do a "Best new blogs I've found" post.  But for now, if you wanna get acquanted with her or re-acquanited with Moni and Baby Silas, you'll just have to go hop to their blogs! :)

Anyway, send in your mexican recipes folks!!!!!!!! lol

Yesterday I was happily browsing at Family Dollar after doing my artist date... and guess what I found?  A Star Trek episode VCR tape! How cool.  So, bought it as well as some hairthings, a car air-freshener (tropical scent) and some other things. 

Went home, and guess what was on the Sci-Fi channel?  A movie, Star Trek: First Contact!  It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO awesome, one of my favorites because it has the BORG! (You know, the people who say "I am Jana of Borg - prepare to be assimilated - Resistance is Futile")   So I watched it, loved it as usual...

And the Borg, as well as this blog post, made me think about my AW this week.  I don't have the book in here right now but I think chapter 3's focus was on anger.  (She discussed many topics in the chapter, but I think that was her focus?)  She had us focus on our childhoods, which for me the topic of "anger" goes well with focusing on my childhood.

So, I have had a lot of resistance already this week about doing my AW things... morning pages, tasks, everything.  I just really have no desire to rewind my life to the days of screaming voices, fear at home, torment at school, and all other such things.  None. 

I know I need to, I know I can't grow as an individual, as an "artistic-ish person", as a spiritually, or anything else really until I deal with some more sludge from the past... but I am really just NOT wanting to deal with it.  Can't I put it off? Hide from it a while? Trade chapters with someone else?  Trade CHILDHOODS with someone else? LOL

But, just as the Borg say, "Resistance is Futile."  I will probably become temporarily slightly emotionally unstable in the process, but it is necessary for that to happen in order for me to become more emotionally stable in the future.    I WILL do my morning pages this week, I WILL complete at least half of the tasks at the end of the chapter, and I WILL be glad I did after it's done!  

I wanted to let you all know that I seem to be having a flare-up of a carpel-tunnel type pain in my wrist, so I probably won't be on much in the next day or two.  I'm going to try and not use the wrist any more than is necessary until Monday. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Here we go:

1. I did my morning pages all 7 days.  But, they weren't too helpful several of the days because I did them as a formality, doing like 1 page instead of 3. I think I saw how emotional I had gotten at the first of the week and decided to give myself a break.  I wasn't really surprised at anything i found myself writing, I'm always thinking about crazy stuff LOL

2.  I had a great artist's date, I already wrote about it.

3. Where there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery?  Yes, I had two things that really impacted me.  The first was when my first arty thing went online... i hadn't expected to be that afraid of reactions.  I let it stay online though, and that's what REALLY matters.  I felt better for doing it, and i think next time i'll be less intimidated. 

Secondly, I finally "got" the concept of "Great Creator, I will take care of the quantity, You take care of the quality"  which basically means... I don't have to "work" so much at "getting good"  I can just relax and enjoy DOING whatever it is.  I can let anything artistic that I do be something I PLAY at, instead of work at.  And through that it'll become art without me knowing it.  I hope.  *smile*

I made my list of two goals of this week, then forgot about them.  I think they were to spend some time on the computer just MESSING.  Not on the net, not in a particular program... just open a program at random and see "Hmm, what happens if I press THIS button".  The other was probably either to work on my Spanish or Arabic.  Not sure.  *shrug* 

I also wrote out my three affirmations at the beginning of the week, and then forgot about them! lol

Made my "life pie."  Several pieces were not near where they should be... work, exercise were the lowest, play & spirituality were the highest.

Five on Friday:

Time for a meme!  Had to do this one, cause it is WALL flowers.  (That's my last name... Wall.)

Wall Flowers

1. What is the wallpaper on your computer?   Outer Space scene with planets & comets & stuff.

2. What color are the walls in the room you're in right now?  Off-white (blech! The walls here at work are DEPRESSING!)

3. Describe some of the wallpapers you have lived with.  I don't think we've ever had wallpaper.  We've had several colors of paneling though, and a couple of rooms were painted. 

4. Would you ever consider using wallpaper to decorate? What would it look like?  I DEFINATELY want my dining room to have some kind of antique-ish wallpaper.  Maybe with little roses on it.

5. If you could use anything not specifically intended for walls (no paint, wallpaper, etc) to spruce up your walls, without any nasty consequences, what would you use?Well, it WOULD be fun to have a layer of paint, and then on top of it paint swirlys with glitter glue!!!  

Sitting here at work, enjoying a YUMMY taco from Taco Bell.  I love fridays!!!! 

Tonight is my ONE night off this week with nothing going on, and I have every intention of enjoying it FULLY!  I plan on blasting my little computer stereo while going on a cleaning frenzy.  If all goes as planned, I might even post a pic of my nice clean bedroom.  But don't be too excited, it was decorated before I moved in so it shows none of my personality.  LOL

I was looking for events for my artist dates, and so far the only events going on this weekend are concerts (which I hate), bingo (boring!), and meditation (my inner ADHD artist child would NOT appreciate that.)  And one very interesting show at the theatre which only costs $10!  Hmmm... *looking more*  There's also a Native American History museum... open Sunday afternoons! And lots of neat exibits at places I might go to next Saturday. 

OH and before I forget it, here is the pic of my nice clean car, complete with a can of diet coke! (Not totally empty, therefore not trash!)  That was taken last week, so I have to admit to you that it's already not that clean... but still better, and I plan to clean it again tonight if it's nice outside.

I was tagged by Patti:

4 Jobs You Have Had In Your Life:

Tax Guru

Waitress (Horrible Waitress, to be exact)

Database Manager

Office Manager

4 Movies You Could Watch Over And Over:

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars (the new ones)

The Mummy Series

Indiana Jones Series

4 Places You Have Lived:

North Chicago (yeah, that's really the name.  Creative huh?)

Highland Park, IL (North suburb of Chicago)

Indianapolis, IN (South side)
Terre Haute, IN  (Currently!)

4 TV Shows You Love To Watch:

CSI

StarGate

Criminal Minds

Without a Trace

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation:

Nashville, TN

Orlando & Daytona Beach, FL

Mall of America, MN

London, KY (My absolute FAVORITE place in the world!)

4 Websites You Visit Daily:

Kat's Paws

Mrs D

Be Alive, Believe, Be You

Random Blogs

4 Of Your Favorite Foods:

Enchiladas Reales (You have to eat them to understand!)

Macaroni & Cheese, spirals

Cherizo con juevos

Stovetop Stuffing

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now:

India

Middle East (Asma's House!!!!!!)

Ireland

Jane's House (my older cuz)

4 Bloggers You Are Tagging:

Iryn

The Other Jana

Meigh

Sandy

In the Artists Way's weekly tasks this week, we're supposed to add 5 more "perfect" lives to our list of 5 from last week.  I also decided to give ya some details about mine.  So here we go.

1.  World Traveler - I'd love a career where I traveled and got paid for it.  Taking photos of exotic destinations, or writing stories about families I stay with.

2. Author - This one and the one above it are probably the careers closest to my reality.  I've tried to write books, but never really gotten to deep into it.  I love the idea of writing things for kids - teens.  Devotions, non-fiction, even the idea of fiction for that age sounds fun. 

3. Photographer - Preferably nature photographer, or maybe a photographer for a gardening magazine?

4. Lab person - our junior year of high school we got to "shadow" a professional for a day, and I choose to shadow a lab tech at a local hospital.  It was SOOOO awesome.  I got to see them test urine, blood, and best of all I got to see what they do when a tumor is removed.  (In the form of an amputated breast actually).  At least at THAT time (like 8 years ago?) they removed the tumor, and injected it with some sort of dye.  The die went through the tissue, allowing them to see it more clearly.  Then they could examine the tissue and be able to give more information about the type of tumor it was, so that the person could receive the best possible treatment.    Anyway, I would love to work in some type of a lab, whether in a forensic lab, a hospital lab, or some type of research & developement lab... but I would last, because I thrive on human contact.  *sigh*

5. Professional Computer Geek - I'd charge money to strangers to fix their puters, set up databases, network them, design games or graphics, and other misc. geeky things.  My friends would pay me with junk food! Hahahaha

6. Social Worker - Jocelyn reminded me of this one.  I used to dream about being a social worker, resucing kids from abusive situations and being a stable person in their life that they could trust.

7. Volunteer/Orphanage Worker - I'd love to work with women or children who are disadvantaged, whether because of a lack of education, lack of freedom in their country, or whatever...

8. Guru - I'd love to make a career out of studying religions and spouting off wisdom.

9. Wife & Mommy - I'd love to be the kind of mommy that plays with her kids, who's eyes sparkle with life, who adopts half the neighborhood children as her own to support with her love & attention, who has a husband who she loves to see smile, a home that probably wouldn't be a palace and I'm sure would never be spotless, but where even strangers could feel welcomed and safe. I always wanted a big family too, and so far I still do. 

10.  CSI/FBI Investigator - I'm too adicted to CSI and Without A Trace not to add that to the list.  It WOULD be neat to work in a job where you put clues together, or made a profile, that got a bad guy off the streets.

The Case of the Dismembered Pie

*using best detective story voice*

The day began with a simple mission: Show up at the appointed destination at 6 o'clock sharp, bearing a desert. 

By 2, I had formulated a plan.  At 4:30 I would leave my office, head to Kroger, and be back at the house with ingredients by 5.  I'd chosen several possible deserts, given to me by friends, but the most likely was this: