Life, the Universe, and Homemade Nachos (Vegetarian, Gluten-Free)

If you're a regular visitor here, you've noticed that I've sort of gotten out of the habit of blogging. It's one of those things where life has been so eventful that I just don't know where to start. I'm hoping that this will get the ball rolling again, but it will unfortunately involve just listing, probably in an excruciatingly boring manner, the stuff I'd have blogged about if I'd taken time to when it was new. For your trouble, I'll also share the recipe for some nachos I just made, which made Sam declare they were better than any she'd ever had in a restaurant.
So, the news:

• The petition for Fraser's visa was approved near the beginning of the month. Hooray! That's the first hurdle done. He has to go to London in a few weeks for a medical exam (after filling out umpteen more forms and waiting for a couple of other things to process), after which the embassy will schedule his final interview, after which they will at last issue his visa and he'll be able to come over here for good.
• One outcome of the above is that we will be getting married within 90 days of his entry into the USA. The tentative date we've set is May 21, but I can't stress enough that that's tentative. We just can't make solid plans yet without knowing when his final interview is. We're planning a fairly small affair, knowing that hiked travel prices and worldwide financial issues will prevent many people from making the trip. Still, those who attend will be treated to homemade goodies, music, and fun on the theme of "stuff we like." So far, that includes Willy Wonka, Doctor Who, and Star Wars, but expect that list to grow. Fraser will sport a snazzy new kilt, and I have no clue what I'll be wearing. That is, until the costume party bit, where we're encouraging Scottish/American character mashups.
• I am back in the USA now, as of 2 weeks ago Wednesday. It's weird, and it has its ups and downs, and of course I miss Fraser, and of course I'm glad to see family and friends again.
• I'm actively looking for a decent job. I have a couple of leads to follow up, but no news there yet.
• Before leaving Scotland, I got to see more of the country, including Aberdeen and the northeastern coast, along the North Sea, including Pennan, where the movie Local Hero was filmed. I'll be posting pictures from that trip as part of a forthcoming article on Pop Bunker, so stay tuned for that. I did post reviews of a lot of the places I visited on Yelp, so if you're interested, you can see those here.
• I've brought on a new batch of writers at Pop Bunker, so hopefully things will pick up there and get fun again.
• I'm going to be writing more for the Geek Girls Network, once I get my posting credentials, so look for me there too.
• Supersecret project I can't tell you about yet goes here.
• More stuff I've forgotten and may get to later goes here.

Now, for the nachos! I was just feeling snacky, but didn't want anything sweet, so I raided the kitchen to see what all we had. There was a package of corn tortillas. There was one tomato, some onions, some dried cilantro, some lime juice, some garlic powder, some ancho chili powder, and a nearly-full bag of shredded cheddar cheese. Therefore: Nachos!

Use a pizza cutter to cut a stack (don't ask me how many - about 1/4 of the package) of small corn tortillas into quarters. Spray some Pam (I used the organic canola variety) into a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Dump in the tortillas & sprinkle in some garlic powder & ancho chili powder. Zip shut, shake like crazy til evenly(ish) coated. Spread on cookie sheets. Bake at 400F for 5-10 minutes (crispy but not burnt). You might have to check them pretty frequently. Throw away the ones that burned because you weren't checking frequently enough.

While the chips bake, dice up a tomato & a bit of onion (less onion than tomato). Mix in a bowl with a bit of cilantro, a dash of salt, and several generous squeezes of lime juice.

When the chips are done, switch the oven from bake to broil. Spread a layer of chips on an oven-safe plate. Top with shredded cheese and 1/3 of the salsa, making sure you get some of each on every chip (because those dry, bendy chips at the bottom of a plate of restaurant nachos are just nasty). Lay more chips on top and top with more cheese & salsa. Repeat one more time until you've used everything up.

Pop in the oven for just a minute or two, to get the cheese all nice and melty.

Remove with an oven mitt, bring to the table, and warn your friends that the plate is hot!

The Metal Tiger's Last Hurrahs

This is the last week of the Chinese year of the Metal Tiger. That worthy animal has been something of a totem since it was born last Feb. 14th. Its time will be done on the 5th, but as one might expect from a tiger - an animal of action and strength, it is going out not quietly into that good night, but with many mighty roars to call the universe to action.

What the hell is this chick babbling about? you may be asking, and you'd be well within your rights to tell me to just spit out the facts. 

Since yesterday:

Fraser and I celebrated 1 year since we met, along with some early birthday cake, since we'll be out of town for Fraser's birthday on Friday.

We booked our trip up to Pennan, which is the fishing village on the North Sea where the movie Local Hero was filmed. That'll be this coming weekend, and we will definitely toast the Metal Tiger's passing with a pint of the Inn's reportedly-excellent ale.

I received notice yesterday that my short story Sick Weather will appear in the 100 Stories for Queensland anthology. This will be my first print publication in fiction. I'll post more information about the book, where and when you can order it, and how much it will cost when I know those things. Right now, I can only tell you that the proceeds from the sale will go to the Queensland Premier's Flood Relief appeal.

Today, I was notified by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services that our petition for Fraser's visa has been approved. This means that as far as the US government is concerned, he can emigrate. It's not quite finished yet, but we're getting there!

Recipe: Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon & Crushed Chili

Just in case you were wondering, roasted sweet potatoes with cinnamon and crushed chili (red pepper flakes in America) is a wonderful idea. Fraser and I had it with the chicken curry we made for dinner. After learning how to cook basic roasted potatoes, thanks to Gordon Ramsay, I decided to see if it'd work with sweet potatoes and if that combination of tastes would be good. In short: SUCCESS! They were so good, we ate all of it before it occurred to me that a picture would be helpful with this post.

It goes like this:

1. 1. Peel and cut up sweet potatoes (however many you want to eat) and boil with a little salt for about 10 minutes.
2. Put just enough oil in a rectangular baking dish to coat the bottom, and place it in a hot (200 C/ 400 F) oven for a few minutes to get the oil hot.
3. Drain the sweet potatoes, then toss them with some cinnamon (enough to give each chunk of potato a nice sprinkling) and a dash or 2 of chili flakes (depending on how spicy you like things). Season with a little salt & pepper, then toss with a drizzle of oil to help it all stick.
4. Put the potatoes into the heated pan and carefully toss with the hot oil. Roast until crispy, or until you can't take the smell of deliciousness any longer and must eat them even if they're still a bit soft (30-45 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them). Turn them once or twice while roasting.
5. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and spread them on a paper towel to remove any oil that stuck to them.
6. Devour.

P.S. If it won't alienate anyone, I think I'm going to ditch the Tumblr account and just post my recipes and cooking adventures right here, in the mix with everything else I babble about. Tumblr is too buggy, and it's not like I'm over-posting and flooding the Internet with this thing, right?

Realization, Not Resolutions

One year and about 6,000 miles ago, I spent a New Year's Day contemplating just how little the passing of the old year meant to me. Admittedly, I was pretty depressed at the time, and feeling profoundly unconnected and lost. A lot has changed in my life since then, and not one iota of it could have been done if I didn't have the most amazing support network, most notably made up of my mom, my boyfriend, and a few very wonderful friends. That said, I have realized that I still don't believe in New Years. Obviously, I don't mean to say that I don't notice the fact that 2010 is over and 2011 has begun.

No, I mean that even though I'm a little financially better off, with better prospects and more experience, and vastly better off when it comes to my personal life, as I have found a true partner in life, of the kind I'd begun to think didn't actually happen in real life, I still don't place any significance on January 1st. I know a lot of people consider it a good day to evaluate and make resolutions, or start fresh, or wash their hands of the old year, but I am just not one of them.

I actually find more comfort in pretty much ignoring all of that. If the New Year is supposed to be a fresh start, then I find way too many things to be well past their expiration, yet still lingering. However, if I look at the things as happening at random, on their own schedules, then I don't have to be upset about a spoiled celebration, or take it as a bad omen that casts a shadow over the year when an unhappy event happens and isn't resolved before midnight on December 31st.

I have a lot of hopes for the coming year, but I won't get to hoping for them in earnest until some things have been dealt with. Processes that were begun last year have yet to finish, and New Year's Eve itself heralded a family sadness that will not be swiftly relegated to auld lang syne.

In the coming year, I expect a lot of big changes, in addition to the ones that took place in the previous year. A lot of them will be related, though, and in my mind, I haven't parceled them up so that they belong to last year - a thing that is over and done.