puebla here we come

Just booked a week in Puebla, the land of my ancestors, in May.  Yes!

in your eyes

It's custom makeover time for the ol' blog. I'm not as tech-smart as I'd like to be, so it took me forever to figure out what I had to modify in the default HTML template in order to incorporate the graphics for the new layout. It was a lot of "Uh, maybe I'll put 20 pixels of padding here and see what happens." It seems to have worked out, though. I really hope it looks something like this:

 

Because the website-makin' classes I took were literally so 10 years ago, and I'm worried that I may not have executed it correctly depending on who's looking.

I saved the old code just in case.

ETA: I'm one of those people who can't stop fiddling with and overthinking/overworking things, so after I originally posted this I got the idea of adding a chevron pattern to the background . . . I'm digging the subtle zigs and zags. But will probably change my mind about it in a few weeks.

there's an app for that

Appetizer, that is. Sorry, Apple fans. For the Super Bowl, I made sweet and spicy pork empanadas from Rick Bayless's cookbook Salsas That Cook. The pastry was a bit of a challenge to work with (next time I'll be taking the pre-made pie dough route), but it turned out nice and flaky and the filling gets a serious two thumbs up—a nice balance of savory and sweet. You can't lose with Rick by your side.

We also had slow cooked pulled pork for the taco bar. I love recipes that involve five-minute prep but result in maximum tastiness. One thing to note about that recipe is that it's kind of vaguely worded when it comes to what to do with the "divided" spices. I think the poster basically meant that you should distribute the spices equally on both sides of the roast. I just combined the spices into one bowl and sprinkled the mix all over the meat—seemed to work out just fine.

Also, TJ made not one, not two, but THREE different salsas (which you can kind of see in the background of the pork picture, behind the mounds of guacamole and cotija cheese). All delicious in their own way, though I think my favorite was the roasted tomato/jalapeño.

Every Sunday should be Super Bowl Sunday. Except without all the stupid GoDaddy ads and stereotypical dumb guy/overbearing woman commercials.

well done, bad robot

This is turning into the television shows co-created by J.J. Abrams blog, but I literally have nothing else more exciting going on in my life right now, so . . . how about that episode of Fringe tonight? Holy moly. As in all the best Fringe episodes, this one brought the alt-verse wackness and super creepiness, and it was angsty as all get out. Congratulations, writers!

I've been waiting to see how they would reveal what we all already knew about Peter and saw it looming as soon as Walter mentioned Olivia's superpower, but it was no less awesome when it happened. They did it brilliantly. No huge blow out, just a poor, sad, ashamed Walter quietly begging, "Olivia, please don't tell him," and whoa, the look on Olivia's face. So much for that nice evening out with Peter. That glimmer would be really distracting as you're trying to get to know each other better over drinks, wouldn't it? (NOT A) DATE FAIL. Anyway, what a great scene, and such fantastic performances by the leads.

I can't wait until the show returns from its seven-week hiatus. Yes, seven weeks. But maybe this is a good thing—between Fringe and Lost, I'm not sure how many parallel universes I can handle at once.

ticket, please

Hee . . . the travel site Kayak.com has a fake listing for an Oceanic Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. You can find it by searching for a one-way flight between those cities on September 22. And the price is $4815.16 plus $23.42 in taxes and fees—perfect. (h/t: Boston Globe).

I heartily enjoyed tonight's big season opener. They didn't waste any time getting the crazy started, did they? And Kate is annoying as ever. "Nothing's irreversible"? Wrong again, Jack!