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

Aca-Mazing

WOW I HONESTLY SERIOUSLY TERRIBLY APOLOGIZE TO YOU ALL FOR NOT POSTING THIS IN SUCH A LONG TIME I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON AND LOVE YOU ALL AND AM BACK!

Well now that that is out, I must share with you all in the holiday spirit since I am super excited for Christmas! Whether you celebrate or not (Happy Channukah a few days ago respectively to those who celebrate), I want to share my latest obsession.  

Acapella is amazing and I am a big fan of all of the music from "Pitch Perfect" and any other acapella groups but the greatest acapella out there (at least that I know of) is PENTATONIX.  They won NBC's "The Sing-Off" which I did not watch but I have watched almost all of their videos and love just about all of their renditions of their songs.  And to make it even better, THEY RELEASED A CHRISTMAS ALBUM - I KNOW RIGHT!??!!

My greatest obsession on the album is their rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" which I basically binge listened to on my drive from San Diego to LA which is probably unhealthy but I was able to learn all the words and each time I sang it I sang different parts and was basically a one man acapella group.  Also it should be noted I played it so loud in my car that I sounded super good and basically sounded just like them which is unusual because I don't sing well but for this song I sounded amazing.

HERE IS THE LINK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc

You all should listen to it it is amazing, although my sister and my friend did not like it for some reason but that don't even phase me because I still listen to it at least once a day and sing it in the shower and know all the right tones and melodies to hum along to I am just awesome basically haha

Aside from their holiday music they also did Radioactive with LINDSEY STERLING 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE2GCa-_nyU

AND OF Royals - AWESOME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9XQ2MdNgKY

Medley of Daft Punk - SUPERB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MteSlpxCpo

And they did "Somebody that I Used to Know" (this is the song that made me fall in love with them)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOKuAigsrec

But yea if you have not heard them check them out I promise they will NOT DISAPPOINT 

Side Note: definitely listened to them while writing this post , ITS GOOD TO BE BACK

who knew it would be during Finals Week that I would find time to post on the blog again?

Just Look At It This Way

So far I have been pretty good in crossing off movies off of my list of 250 movies to watch in my 'Just Add Popcorn' and the latest movie I saw was Life is Beautiful.

HOLY COW EVERYONE

That movie was amazing.  Like seriously.  It is on Netflix.  And if you do not have Netflix, you HAVE to find a way to watch this movie.  It's a foreign film from 1997 that was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and won 3 of them including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Roberto Benigni, Best Foreign Film, and Best Music Score.

The movie was incredible and made me feel so many emotions it was not okay at all.  It is a World War II Concentration Camp in Berlin type movie... except for not.  It was like no Holocaust movie I had ever seen and because it was so different and heartwarming it instantly became one of my new favorite movies.  

To put it into perspective, the day before I watched The Pianist and was ready to just die from the stress and so the next day when I started watching Life is Beautiful I was expecting death and tears and blood and me crying in my room but instead I felt really good from this movie.  The beginning part of the movie even had me look up on IMDB the genre of the movie because I was doubting whether it was a drama or a comedy.

Like y'all do not even understand, even finding this gif I just smiled remembering the sweet lovable character of Guido.

Also the movie reminded me of an awesome story that one of my high school teachers once told us all.

HERE READ THIS AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU WILL WATCH THE MOVIE FROM THIS STORY

"There were two men in a hospital room for two different types of symptoms.  One man's bed where he lay was by the window and he could sit up unlike the other man who was closer to the door and he could only lay flat due to his condition.  Everyday the man by the window would tell the other man about the beautiful sights of a park across the street from the hospital and of families walking around and having a good time.  The descriptions would amuse the man without the view but it also made him jealous that he could not see outside the window.  One day, the man with the bed by the window saw a parade and told the other man of all the smiles, colors, and happiness he could see and this enlightened the other man, but still made him more jealous.  The next day, the man by the window could not breathe and could not reach his remote to call the nurse.  The other man saw this but did not act upon this.  The man by the window passed away that day and as they moved his body, the man without the view asked the nurse if she could move his bed to be by the window.  She gladly moved his bed and left.  The man was extremely happy that he could finally see something else besides the room he has been in for many days now.  He somehow found the strength to lift himself.  When he looked out the window however, all he saw was a massive brick wall from the building beside the hospital."

I have always loved that story and all I could think about while watching Life is Beautiful was this story and how all it takes to make someone else happy is to change their focus from what it is making them depressed and keep them dreaming for more.  To change someone's perspective is a selfless act I wish one day I could do for someone else just as Guido and the man in the story did for someone else.

Twisting Your Tongue for Ice Cream

Try saying this 5x fast: Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous

For some it is easy, but for me it is terribly difficult mainly because I cannot get through the first two times saying it without starting to drool because Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous is probably my new favorite place to get ice cream in San Francisco.

Me every time I go there

Located at 699 22nd St. somewhat near the SF Giants Ballpark is a small corner shop that changed my life.  I was introduced to this place by my good friend who actually took me to the french sandwich shop I had posted about before.  Even though I was really full and completely satisfied with my meal, she urged me to go with her to get just one scoop.  HOLY CRAP am I glad that I did so.

Those are some shots of the inside of the ice cream place.  Not only do they sell amazing ice cream, but they also have chocolate malt balls, cookies, and all sorts of other goodies that make you loosen your belt just by looking at them all.

So the way it works, is everyday they have different flavors and most of those flavors are definitely a little more different than your typical ice cream shop.  So far I have gone twice and have been really happy with every flavor I have tried.  They make it there themselves and once they run out of a certain flavor, they simply erase that flavor from the chalkboard and don't serve it again until the next day you find it on the menu.

In case you can't read the flavors in those two pictures, here are the flavors that I have seen so far

• Banana with Sesame Brittle
• Sweet Cream
• White Russian (Kahlua, Cream, Vodka)
• Bourbon & Caramel
• Pink Squirrel (Chocolate with Almond Liquer)
• Sassafras (Root Beer)
• Cookies n' Cream
• Vanilla Bean
• Sour Cream Cheesecake
• Fruity Pebbles
• Cinnamon Chip (like the 'hot/spicy' cinnamon)
• Molasses Ginger
• Butterscotch & Butterfinger
• Salted Mango
• Fig & Marscapone
• Ovaltine
• Frosted Flakes
• Crema Cataline (Lime Custard with Burnt Orange Caramel

So far I have yet to be disappointed with any of the flavors.  I haven't necessarily gotten a scoop of every flavor but I do have the tendency to sample just about every single one of them.

(From Left to Right) Fig & Marscapone, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles with Cookies n' Cream

Another thing I love about this place is that they are not at all stingy when it comes to serving you and when you order anything to go and take home, they fill these little containers (they have bigger sizes too) all the way up to the brim... and then squish it down to fit more.  Both times now I have brought some home and made sure to bring home flavors that I did not already get served in a cone so I could enjoy something different.

So if you are in San Francisco and want to try something other than the typical Ghirardelli Chocolate Ice Cream (I am not bashing, I love Ghirardelli, just sometimes you need something different), go over to Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous and get some amazing ice cream before it runs out!

September Can be Spooky Too

It may still be September but as soon as I saw that the pumpkin spice latte was back in Starbucks, I have basically decided it is time to get into the Halloween Season!  Pumpkin flavored everything, orange leaves (in pictures, none outside where I live really), and watching Classic October Halloweeny movies!

[I have yet to see my neighborhood look like this]

Typically this includes The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown Movies (Classics and you know it), and a bunch more!  But this year I found another one that I think needs a little more appreciation.  Mockingbird Lane is what I am talking about.

I first heard about it when I was on the Studio Tour at Universal Studios and had heard about an upcoming series.  1313 Mockingbird Lane was to be the home of a remake family of Munsters.

[Paul from the past took this photo on the tour in case Future Paul liked Mockingbird Lane and it turns out, Past-Paul was right!]

Mockingbird Lane was supposed to be a series picked up starting last fall but was found to lack enough potential to be a compelling enough series but not due to it being sucky, instead they turned it into a Halloween Special on NBC.  I did not watch it last fall when it premiered and instead watched it last weekend.  I actually enjoyed it even if it was only 40 minutes long and found it to be a cute family Halloween thing to watch that I would not mind keeping as a September/October tradition.

The special had Jerry O'Connell as Herman Munster (the Frankenstein Dad) married to Portia de Rossi (the Vampiress Mom) whose Dracula Dad/Grampa was played by Eddie Izzard and whose "normal" niece is played by Charity Wakefield. 

Above is the son of 'Frankenstein' and the sexy vampiress of this show is Mason Cook who is going through some changes of his own as he deals with becoming a werewolf... without knowing that he is the werewolf wreaking havoc on the innocent (not much of a spoiler that's how the show starts).  

In terms of the characters, the Dracula thing was a little over the top for me...

... but looking back I think it was more playful and meant to be over the top due to it being for families and kids more than being a horror version of the Munsters.  I mean, I never saw the Munsters original series but I am sure that this show did it justice in portraying the family the way they did as they took up an abandoned home originally set to be destroyed due to a homicidal past...not the house killing people, but the people in it ... hopefully you got that.

Anyway, in case you were interested in watching it here is the link to the NBC website 

http://www.nbc.com/mockingbird-lane/video/mockingbird-lane/n29651/

and if that does not work I am sorry but I am sure you have other ways of finding a way to watch if you really wanted to.  Personally I think it was a good way to kick off the Halloween Season and start dreaming of packing in candy.

HAPPY ALMOST MONTH OF HALLOWEEN!

.

Milkshakes Make Me Too Lazy to Go Out to the Yard

Why fight the urge? Milkshakes are delicious and you know it and I have never heard of someone having a disappointing experience while drinking a milkshake.  I apologize for the hint of aggression behind this post its just that this year I really learned what it meant to have a really delicious milkshake.

It was when I went to my first improv festival which was held at USC that I realized you don't have to only put ice cream and milk in a blender to have an awesome milkshake and the more sugary products you blend the better.

[I hired John Travolta to reenact me drinking milkshakes all weekend]

GROUND ZERO is the name of this student-run cafe at USC which is better known for its milkshakes than it's coffee (and I don't mind, I like coffee but damn those milkshakes are good) and you should really go check it out if you're in the area.  They're open weekdays from 8:30am-Midnight and weekends from 1:00pm-Midnight by the way, I looked it up.

 

LOOK AT THIS MENU!

Well, if you can zoom in somehow, look at it... there's a bunch of different mixtures where they'll mix in bananas, oreos, brownies, oreos, chai, marshmallows, snickers, peppermint, and/or twix... not all in one though of course, but you get the point.

Also, when we went they had specials based off of superheroes and holy crap were those amazing and I WAS SO HAPPY BECAUSE THERE WAS A BATMAN THEMED SHAKE AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.... Even if it wasn't my type of milkshake I most likely would have forced myself to like the shake because it was a Batman milkshake but that's besides the point. - It was banana, chocolate syrup, and Oreo cookies by the way so you can totally make it at home and feel just like Bruce Wayne when he orders Alfred to make some shakes for him.

But this was all a while ago, and actually a few days ago I told my friends about this place and we decided to recreate some of these milkshakes.  We didn't look up the actual milkshakes but we ran over to Target and followed our hungry stomachs to whatever we wanted.  We bought some vanilla ice cream, Twix, peppermint patties, chocolate syrup, and unfortunately lactose-free milk because my friend is lactose intolerant but hey they were still good.

[Hard at Work]

The milkshakes were great and we only got a little bit of the concoction on the ceiling (not joking) and we may have made a mess on the kitchen counter but it was awesome.  So whether you're still at home, at college, or just plain hungry, I recommend you get your blender and mix in whatever you want and I promise you will not regret it.

.

Just Add Popcorn

Although in my info at the top it only says that "I watch movies" I really need to emphasize just how much I love movies.  I never really realized it until this past year I think.  I don't really know what it is about movies either that attracts me to them.  Possibly because I wonder what it is I would do in such situations whether it be fiction or not, or maybe because I can't believe someone was able to come up with such a storyline just from inspiration/imagination or that something like this actually happened in history and was so greatly portrayed in a movie.

Also, I tend to make the effort to memorize the names of actors and actresses and am always the guy my friends ask when they wonder "where have I seen that person before?" as we watch a movie or TV show.  IMDB is one of my favorite websites (something I have never heard anyone else say unfortunately) because that's where I find the names and filmographies of all these actors and actresses. ALSO! They actually post a lot of information about upcoming movies, movie roles, and other movie crap that I love.

IMDB has also given me the Top 250 Movies of All Time which if you go into my tab of 'JUST ADD POPCORN' at the top, you can see that it is my goal to watch all of them (I know the list will be updated but for now I am going to complete the list of movies from August 2013).

The list of movies has a bunch of cult classics and oldies I have been meaning to watch for a long time so I'm excited to finally get to watch them instead of just saying "I've been meaning to watch it".  Also my roommate is a big movie buff too and my friends love a lot of the movies on the list so watching these movies with friends will be even more fun than just watching it to cross it off the list.

At the end of the list of 250 movies though I should note that I added some movies I recommend you watch that for some reason did not make it on the list from IMDB but I find to be great.  A bunch of them were recommended to me from friends or family and some others were movies I watched with people I care a lot about recently.

Seriously though, I really recommend going out to watch a movie with some people by the way.  I have a few friends who don't like watching movies at the movie theatre because they find it antisocial or something but my parents and I started a tradition late this summer where every Sunday night we would watch a movie and I  LOVED IT.  It was a lot of fun watching some new movies I hadn't seen and going to the movie theatre with my parents was fun too.  Especially since I am leaving to go back to college, I really liked that for sure, there was an afternoon in the week dedicated to family time.

So whether it be watching movies every Sunday or grabbing breakfast every other week, or even just making that phone call you push aside so often... Call or hang out with your parents (or guardians/role models/whomever you want) and dedicate some time to those who matter.

[No matter how you may feel about your family members, they are family... 

they will always be waiting for you and never stop loving you]