Making It Up As We Go

When I was younger, every Friday my family and I would sit in the living room and watch 3 TV shows together every week! It was an awesome tradition that I loved and one of the TV shows that was part of the routine was WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY

The show always had us busting out in laughter and when it went off the air we were really sad because it was a humor that all of us loved.  For those who do not know, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY is a TV Show where 4 improvisors act out scenes and play games and all all of the jokes are made on the spot (COMEDY IMPROV!).  Luckily however, they brought it back last year with Aisha Tyler ("Lana" from Archer and "Charlie" from Friends) replacing the original host, Drew Carey.  That was the only major change really which was not that bad because Aisha is an amazing comedian and improvisor AND they kept the original three improvisors everyone loved from the show: Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles! IT IS SO FUN!

Anyway, I haven't been watching religiously the new season unfortunately but whenever I was able to catch an episode I did and it was still Hilarious! The improvisors are so funny and they are what inspired me to join the Comedy Improv team at UCSD actually!

What I an trying to get to is that not only should you start watching this show (it comes back in March on the CW), but I wanted to talk about (and brag) how me and my friends were able to go to a filming of the show!

(Me when it hit me that I would be in front of the amazing hilarious famous people)

Now I cannot talk really about what jokes they made, the special guests or anything due to policy but what I can say is that I had such a good time! It was SUPER FUNNY, all of the improvisors are hilarious always cracking jokes not only with each other but with the audience as well, and the entire ambiance was just phenomenal.

I scored our tickets FOR FREE on tvtickets.com which you should check out if you wanna go to a filming of a certain show in the LA area.  Some shows may be on hiatus at the time you check it out but when they aren't, they have tickets for WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, THE BIG BANG THEORY, MIKE & MOLLY, 2 BROKE GIRLS, and SO MANY MORE!

We waited in line for a while, sat down, and laughed for so many hours it was amazing!  I AM MOST EXCITED ABOUT COMING OUT ON TV TO BE HONEST THOUGH AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MY STARSTRUCK FACE ON THE SCREEN

One of the best moments I love watching in the show is SCENES FROM A HAT which is basically what we call on my Comedy Improv team: Potpourri.  The coach (in the case of the show, Aisha Tyler) will state something such as ....

... and then the improvisors just blurt out whatever comes to mind and honestly this is one of the best games they have but then again, all the games they play are great

So go ahead and Find a Way to watch older episodes or wait till March to watch it but until then, try to be better than this guy if he were real

Taco Tuesday? Tacos Every Day!

Funny story.  When I went back home my friends and I were eating some Mexican Food and they made the comment how they wished they had some good legit Mexican Food near their campuses (they study in Washington & New York) and I agreed with them not really thinking it through to which they were not happy.  "YOU GO TO SCHOOL IN SAN DIEGO LITERALLY ONLY A FEW MILES FROM MEXICO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" ... woops

It was then that I had realized my friends and I HAD had some Mexican Food like Vallarta's Carne Asada Fries but had yet to find a traditional taqueria and taken advantage of being so near Mexico to have real good Mexican Food without having to bring a passport with us for a meal.

So yesterday some of my friends and I needed some comfort food and found this great Mexican place that was delicious and magical and all that we needed and will be going there a lot more often I just know (and hope). Not only was the food good, traditional, and cheap... it was FAST!

I mean as soon as we passed the place while looking for parking we knew we made the right choice driving to this restaurant.

Mmmmmm $1.95 tacos

Maria's Mexican Cocina is the name of this delicious Mexican restaurant in Downtown San Diego that my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed!

        

First off they kicked us off by giving us some chips and salsa AND even some Queso Fundido which is basically like a cup of melted cheese delicious for dipping and its like some NACHOS for appetizer with no extra charge.  I also ordered an Horchata to test out just how authentic the place is and it was delicious! Not too cinnamony and not artificial.  It was Good!

For our main dish I got a plate of fish tacos and my friend got a chicken tamale and they were both amazingly delicious.   The fish tacos were fresh and crunchy and super savory.  I actually do think I enjoyed my friends' tamale a lot more than mine but they were both really good.  The tamale was fresh and homemade and not super filling but just right .... she finished the whole thing and is a very small individual so the fact she finished it says a lot about how good it was.

So in summation, my friends and I will be enjoying a lot more authentic Mexican Food more often - and I am excited! NOTHING IS HOLDING US BACK TO EAT MEXICAN FOOD!

Not So Precious but Not So Bad

So if any of you remember one of my earlier posts or if any of you have checked out my tabs (Just Add Popcorn), it has been my goal to watch all 250 movies from IMDBs list of top 250 movies of all time.  I have been trudging through very slowly and when I can I burn through a movie and happily cross it off my list.

One of those movies... or actually, four of the movies on the list... are the three Lord of the Rings Trilogy movies as well as The Hobbit (the first one so far).  I mean, of course they were on the list after so many Oscar nominations and wins but admittedly I had not sen any of the movies.  NOW HOLD ON DON'T FREAK OUT! 

(this is a LOTR representation of how people usually react when I would say I had not seen any of the movies ... me being the elf lady)

I finally watched all four of them and surprisingly enjoyed them.  We went up to Lake Tahoe during my Winter Break and while we were there I burned through the first two and then watched the third one once I got back only to end up watching The Hobbit the following night.

Anyway, the main point of my blog post is that I think people should actually give the movies a chance.  A big reason I was very hesitant to watch any of them was because I found them to be geeky, weird, and dumb.  And I apologize.  The second one was actually my favorite one too I should add! Even though Gollum was in it who as a kid scared the begeezus out of me and still grosses me out (I feel like he is just cold and clammy and ew)

Ew

But essentially I gave in, realized I would eventually have to watch them since they are on the list and fully enjoyed then.  So I guess all I am trying to say in this somewhat short post is that no matter how weird or "not your type of movie" a movie may seem, you should give it a shot ... at least if they have good ratings.

No matter how out there they may seem...

Diabetic December

In the words of one of my SD friends: "Tis the effin' season"

I know it may be January and this post is titled with December but lemme just say last month was a lot of fun and deserves a post about it.  Winter Break is almost done for me and athough it will be sad to leave home and go back to San Diego.  I think my gut needs it.

I left San Diego cooking all of my meals which were just brown rice and chicken and SMALL PORTIONS to come home and find delicious home cooked meals everyday from my mom and a lot of going out to eat more delicious food and I think I am starting to pay for it but UGH ITS ALL JUST SO GOOD.

I just thought I would share with you all a little bit of the best desserts I had this Winter Break.  Also, sorry if the title is misleading but I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES ... but after eating all that I ate I have no idea how that is.  

Every year it is a tradition that my mom and I make Christmas Cookies together.  This has been going on for 6 years now we realized and were very surprised after calculating because we thought somehow it was only our 2nd or 3rd year.  Another tradition is our changing patterns of whether or not we share with people our cookies.. it varies every year depending on how generous and hungry we are feeling (this year we did not share with anyone... hence this post).

CHECK OUT OUR PRIDE AND JOY FOR CHRISTMAS 2013

These were our jelly cookies, the ones on the left were our "challenge" for this year.  We had never made them and they were pretty difficult to make since the cookies were fragile (hard to spread jam) and also you should know that the centers are supposed to be Christmas Trees... supposed to be.  The ones on the right we have been making every year and are my traditional favorites I usually eat 2 or 7 of them not too many 

The bars on the left are another set of "cookies" we have been making every single year and are my Mom's favorite and indeed are pretty dang good.  They have white chocolate chips, craisins, pecans, condensed milk, and clouds from the heavens.  OK but NO YOU GUYS LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THESE COOKIES ON THE RIGHT - this was our first year making them and holy crap they are mainly the reason we did not share treats this year.  They have chocolate, pretzels, and TWIX chunks in it and I LOST IT WITH THESE COOKIES THEY WERE GOOD.

But HOLD UP! There was more! We all have a bit of a creative side in my family and also hold the tradition of making sugar cookies which we later decorate as we please.

Now I know you are dying to know and YES I did make that cow and I also should let you know I made the Santa with the beard on the bottom left... the original cookie was a Christmas Tree shape but the oven did not like that and deformed it so I worked around it.

NOW THESE BABIES ARE MY PERSONAL FAVORITES OF XMAS 2013 BAKED GOODS

(cuz I decorated them)

They are just regular cupcakes but my mom found this marshmallow snowmen idea online and I let my creative side out (1. on the far left you can see a "melting snowman" 2. in the far back [hard to miss] is the "KING SNOWMAN" I dubbed him lastly, 3. is that guy on the right with half his head missing and a surprised expression on him... his story is that he was hit by a snowball and is still recovering from the shock haha)

Mmmmmmmmmmm it was all so good .... but guess what, it did not end there, 

and I am so glad it did not end with that

These delights are my expertise which I actually made back at school when my friend was down in the dumps and when my dad saw them on Instagram he made a personal request for some to made while I was home.

Their Name? Nutella-Mallow Pillow Pockets ... yes, that is their full name and they deserve each bit of it with how delicious and savory they are.  In case you could not tell from the name, they have nutella and marshmallow in them and are fluffy and crispy and chocolatey and marshmallowy and delicious and oh no I am drooling again.

We had them for post-dessert dessert while we watched a Christmas movie with some Hot Chocolate my sister had made and I decided to take the vanilla marshmallow that was all warm and gooey and lathered it on top and Oh Crap I Should NOT HAVE DONE THAT because my heart stopped, went to heaven, and wrote a personalized thank you letter to the angels for allowing us to have such goodness on Earth.

SO MUCH DESSERT AND DELICIOUSNESS IN DECEMBER I DO NOT KNOW IF MY BODY WILL EVER RECOVER FROM IT ALL BUT HONESTLY I THINK IT IS OK