Sesame-Seared Tuna and Tempura Papaya Sushi with Spicy Sesame Sauce and Papaya Chutney

Quite a title, eh? SO. Remember that foodie fights thing I told you about like... 2 days ago? Well, guess who snagged a spot on the battle...um... kitchen this week? That's right, baby. After missing my chance last week, I made sure to be all over the sign-ups this week, even though I had no idea what to create with the ingredients- sesame seeds and starfruit. After a bit of thinking I came up with a sushi idea, but alas! No starfruit was to be found. Luckily Dan and Nick saw that starfruit availability might be an issue, so they decided to allow papaya as a substitute. I've never cooked with papaya, but they've been in every grocery store recently- so what better time to go ahead and try them out? Papaya slid into starfruit's spot in my mental recipes without a problem, and what was manifested was pretty darn spectacular.

Honey-Glazed 'Chicken' Enchiladas

Ok. It's been a while. I know. I have no excuses. Well, I do, but none that can explain away over a month of silence. What can I say? I'm just busy! I've been in Arizona for almost a month and a half now, and I've been trying to squeeze as much out of the gorgeous desert summer as I can. I even managed to find an awesome summer job, working as a server/counter girl for an super-cool pizza joint downtown. When I'm not there, I'm camping, swimming, seeing old friends, or cooking... and forgetting to take pictures of it so I can post it. Thing is... the apartment kitchen is a little cramped for all the stunning food photography that I feel a proper blog post is worthy of. But there I go making excuses again. Honestly though, how do those famous food bloggers do it? I feel like they all live in their own perfect world where it's always spring time, there are farmers markets everyday, no one has to work and everyone has endless funds. Maybe I'll get there someday, but for now I'll just have to cope with my minimum wage job, tiny apartment, and elusive free-time.

Busy busy... and a Cinco de Mayo recipe!

It's been a couple weeks since my last post. This has been for a few reasons, mostly the crazy business I've been experiencing what with finals and projects and packing up EVERYTHING I own here and getting it back to Arizona. It's been... intense. But now the storm has passed! Everything I still have here- except for my pjs, an outfit for tomorrow, and my comforter- is packed into three suitcases, a shoulder bag, and one last box to be shipped first thing in the morning. My four crazy projects are completed, three out of four finals have been attended, the choir's performance of Carmina Burana went off without a hitch, and tomorrow I will go to my last final (a Biology poster symposium) and then hop in a cab to make my 1:50 flight. It's pretty crazy that twenty-four hours separate me from the end of my freshman year of college in Portland and the beginning of a four month summer in Arizona. I don't think it's hit me yet.

Anyways, that's why I've taken so long to post anything- the blog kind of got put on the back burner when I realized how much I had to do before leaving. During the elapsed time, though, my Mom came to visit me and not only did I get a camera cord (so I can upload pictures again!), we had the time/facilities/money to go out to eat, and do some cooking ourselves! I was soooo happy to actually eat well for four days. I mean, really, Bon (the dining hall here at Lewis and Clark)? Curry bars every other day? Vinegar-soaked parsnips? Spinach-apple pie? I get the whole "international" and "interesting" thing you're going for, but cut it out, please.

3 Word-Bending Novels

The first really "absolutely-freaking-weird-as-hell-but-still-pretty-darn-cool-because-I've-never-seen-anything-like-it" book I ever read was House of Leaves. That book is awesome. Of course, you kind of have to approach it with a VERY open mind and at least somewhat know what you're getting yourself into before you attempt to read it. My senior year of high school I recommended it for one of the four books we read for book club, and that turned out to be a pretty big mistake. Those 14, 15, and 16 year-old kids just weren't really prepared for the 700 page mess of wordy sentences, copious footnotes, constantly changing fonts, and the necessary flipping between appendixes, exhibits, and chapters. Very few of them managed to finish it in 9 weeks, and what they did read pretty much went right over their heads. My English teacher didn't care for it much either, probably because it's full of run-on sentences, drug abuse, and unnecessary narrative- but that's part of what makes the book what it is.

Besides, I mostly only recommended it so that I could get my own free copy.

The Little Things

I sat around for the last few days feeling utterly unmotivated and rather glum. My DARLING roommate decided to invite her boyfriend to come stay with us for a few days(I found this out by reading something he posted on her Facebook, not by her actually telling me). He was supposed to be here from this Thursday (tomorrow) until this Sunday. Only, Last Saturday night my roommate walked in and announced that he was actually going to be arriving the next day (last Sunday) and staying until this Saturday. No checking with me beforehand (like she's supposed to do), no willingness to maybe, y'know, have him get a hotel for a few nights of this busy week in which I had a 10 page research paper due AND a midterm, no witnessing my shock and irritation and realizing she had crossed the line, nothing at all. And so, for the last three nights I have been sharing my room with my already tiresome roommate and her camo-duffel-bag-toting, neon-orange-hat-wearing, godzilla-roar-snoring boyfriend. I can't believe it's only Wednesday.

Saturday Night Tunes: Iron and Wine

In writing the first few posts of Girl of a Thousand Faces, it's become clear to me that the best way for me to make sure I keep trucking away at it and maintaining lots of variety is to have some structure. I'm a world-class procrastinator and I don't always put 100% effort into everything, but I do, for some strange unknown reason, thrive on lists and calender dates and memo books. I get satisfaction from crossing things out to mark their completion and I get excited when I have weekly or monthly appointments or commitments to look forward to. This doesn't necessarily include stuff like going to work in my college phonathon on Sunday and Monday evenings or going to Biology lab at the ungodly hour of 8:50 AM every other Friday morning. Only the fun stuff- like writing this blog [almost] every day!

Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate

I just finished watching Julie and Julia. I adore that movie. The first time I saw it was last summer, when S worked at a little movie theatre and we spent a whole afternoon and evening watching movies for free, taking a break only to go out to dinner at my favorite Indian restaurant. I hadn't seen it in it's entirety since then because, although everyone admits it is a good movie, most people don't want to rent it for a movie night or spend the money to buy it. But me, being a foodie, cooking blog geek, and new blogger myself- imagine my delight when I discovered it had been added to Netflix's list of instant movies!

Julie and Julia is a great movie for aspiring food bloggers and chefs alike, because that's exactly what it's about- two women who love to cook and are able to fill a void in their lives with food. Isn't that what a lot of bloggers and casual cooks are doing? We want a hobby, something that makes us happy and brings new dimensions to our lives. Plus, it gives me hope. If Julia Child didn't know how to boil an egg when she got married and Julie Powell didn't get readers until 60 days in, just imagine how far I can go. At least I'd like to hope ;)

St Paddy's Countdown: Day 1 and Spring Break!

So... This is going to be a terribly sad and boring entry for the time being because I left my beloved camera/USB cord in Arizona... so, until I get it in the mail, Girl of a Thousand Faces will be tragically devoid of pictures. Still, I didn't want to get out of the swing of writing so after giving it a good 5 days to see if a temporary cord would magically turn up, I opted to just suck it up and write an entry anyways.

As you know, I was in Arizona for spring break. It was amazing! Spending lots of quality time with my family, boyfriend, and friends in the glorious sunshine with a car to drive and a kitchen to cook in- what more could I possibly want or need? Needless to say I did a LOT of cooking (and movie-watching, and lounging around, and sleeping... not blog writing though! S and I both lapsed into lovey-dovey too busy for the computer mode.) and got to try out a few new things. For instance, the colcannon I made with my Grandma's mashed potatoes- AMAZING. I'm both happy and disgruntled to say that the two casserole dishes I made of it (incredible how adding a head of cabbage makes a mashed potato recipe grow in size!) disappeared entirely before S and I had a chance to eat more than a couple servings of it.

St Paddy's Countdown: Day 2- The Irish Car Bomb Situation

Day Two! That means... Tomorrow is St. Paddy's! I've been thinking more and more about how to make this year different from past years, and I've come to the conclusion that I need to change up the Baileys+Guinness combination.

Most people have at least heard the term "Irish Car Bomb". This is a drink that's been around since the late 70's and actually evolved from a couple other versions titled "The Grandfather" and "The IRA". All three of these drinks were coined by Charles Burke Cronin Oat, current instructor at Connecticut School of Bartending, and former owner and bartender of Wilson's Saloon. The Grandfather" was originally a 50/50 shot of Bailey's and Kahlua. Apparently Oat thought the shot needed an extra kick, though- so he added some Jameson whiskey to the top of the shot. The reaction of the hard liquor on the creamy liqueur created an immediate foaming and bubbling action to occur, and the resemblance to a bomb caused Oat to remark, "the IRA just showed up!" (bombs being the weapon of choice for the IRA at the time). Hence, the second generation of the drink.

St. Paddy's Countdown: Day 3- Irish Colcannon

I'm so very excited, because not only will I be in sunny, beautiful Arizona with all my favorite people in less than 48 hours, but also because the same day I get there is St Patrick's Day! This is my second favorite holiday of all time, falling only slightly behind Halloween... But of course, whenever March 17th comes around I always feel like this is really my favorite holiday.

Why, you might ask, is this, one of the most unrecognized holidays of them all, my second favorite? Well, how could it NOT be?! I'm partly Irish- I'm not entirely sure how Irish, exactly, but quite a good amount. That right there is reason enough to get decked out in green and orange and celebrate, but of course there is so much more about this holiday to take advantage of. Any culture that is best known for potatoes, drinking, and general merriment is one I'm happy to be a part of. So, the next three days I will be having a St Paddy's Countdown, posting recipes and such in preparation for the actual holiday.