So, several weeks ago, I made empanadas. I used this recipe and stuck to it pretty closely, although I didn’t have raisins, so I used dates, added a bit of carrot, stuff like that. They turned out great and we enjoyed them. But I had lots of leftover filling. So I stuck it in the freezer and resolved to get back to it. Things around the &c house lately are busy and not always awesome, so when thinking about ways to cut corners this week, I decided to get out the frozen empanada filling and figure out what to do with it later.

Yesterday, I sent Christopher three options. I could try making a humongous crust and dump all the filling in and we could have MEGAPANADA. Or combine leftover filling and leftover potato soup and have something approaching Shepanada Pie. Or I could roll it up in tortillas, cover it in salsa and we could eat Enchiladapanada. Or Empanadachilada! Either way, it look the glee of “empanada” and turned it up to 11. Christopher immediately voted Empanadachilada.

Also I took pictures of it. Want to see?

Start with your mise. The beer doesn’t actually go into the recipe, but it’s fun to drink while you cook. Please ignore my filthy counters.

Empanada filling extreme closeup

I cooked the tortillas. Like I said, things are less than awesome lately and I didn’t want to compound that with crumbly raw tortillas. I started out by lightly frying them in olive oil and after about three just gave up and let them fry dry. Again, please excuse my filthy stove. That crust is the remains of some excellent potato soup.

So get a bunch of those done and then put a few spoonsful of filling in there.

Roll up and nestle them together, seam side down. If you use small tortillas and a small pyrex, because that’s what you have, you may need to get creative with the remaining space and tortillas.

You may end up with some leftover leftover filling. At our house, this is an “appetizer.”

The spoon some salsa over everything and bake it for a little while. I did 20 minutes at 350, but you know what you like. I also know that enchiladas have a whole different sauce and there’s cheese and a whole process, but I am busy and so salsa from a jar is how I roll.

Give them a sec to cool down. While you’re waiting, shred some Jack cheese.

Dish up your Empanadachiladas and sprinkle on the cheese. Then sprinkle on some cheddar cos there’s a bag of that in the fridge, too. Empanadachiladas look great in your sunniest Fiestaware bowl.

Cheese closeup

Om nom nom!

I don’t know where it came from or why it sounds so good there, but I’m doing it. Those really seem like the right words. It’s been that sort of season. I need to make up more words to creep the song up further.

• Via David Thompson: Elite Executive Marshmallow Blaster!
• What do you think of the coffeehouse that fired its customers? I say more power to ‘em. I was at the Starbucks in Cahaba Heights the other day and it was covered up with middle-aged men, with Bluetooths and laptops, yammering into nothingness. I ordered a standard drink and waited 20 minutes for it. There was an occasional moment of eye contact where I felt a very, “What are you doing in my office?” vibe. I nearly said, at one point, “Trying to get a latte!” They gave me a free one for the wait.
• Got allergies? You might be too clean.
• From Apollo, advice for troubled hearts: My wife of seven years informed me she’s going to a Nickleback concert. Is divorce my only option?
• Katie Benedict has a lot of videos where Alan Rickman talks about himself and his projects. Y’all, last night I was in WalMart and I saw a big old HP & the HBP stand full of DVDs and there was a huge Severus Snape and my heart felt nothing. I thought, “Hey, they’re less than $20.” I have officially lost that lovin’ feelin’.
• A collection of Extreme Advertisements. I love these. I am so ashamed.
• From Apollo, play like your lives depended on it!
• Related: Plants vs Zombies is an awesome game. I highly recommend you get it. Well worth the $10. I think it’s only $5 if you get it via Steam. If I could, I would buy it for everyone reading as a Christmas present.
• Speaking of Christmas, it seems that a lot of atheists really are just assholes.
• Doctor Who fan builds his own Dalek
• Rhett Butler, libertarian icon:
  

  In an agrarian antebellum society obsessed with the noble ideals of ancient chivalry, Rhett’s attitudes are shockingly modern. He is a calculating capitalist, shamelessly professing his pursuit of self-interest. When Scarlett reproaches him for doubting the Confederate cause, Butler memorably retorts, “I believe in Rhett Butler. He’s the only cause I know.”

  There’s nothing quite like a man totally unashamed to be a man.

• Good news! Young men are shrugging off the slacker look:
  

  “There’s a sense that this return to style, or to a consciousness of how you look, is an attempt by young men to recover a set of values that were at one point very much present in American society and then lost,” he said.

• Learn to Fucking Spell isn’t about spelling so much as usage, but you fucking get the idea. (Via C)
• Also via C, 17 Rules for Surviving the Internets
• A list of controversial donut-related items
• People claim that the average woman eats seven pounds of lipstick over a lifetime:

  I like lipstick much, much more than the average woman. Eep.

• British supermarket chain Tesco withdraws offensive anti-Ginger Christmas card

Average lifetime Bacon consumption? 50? Pounds?

• Not a Ginger? Ginger supportive? Bacon Christmas cards!
• Bistro Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potato Stuffing with Bacon and Thyme
• Bacon, Egg and Leek Pie

  For further contemplation: what’s the difference between and egg pie and a quiche? Is there one? Technique? Depth? Willingness to say “quiche” in conversation?

• Foccacia with bacon and thyme
• Hamhock liquor or Liquid Bacon
• Risottos
  1. Squash and chestnut
  2. Egg
• Shrimp Lejon
• Some more Brussels sprouts and bacon
  1. just plain
  2. with some figs
  3. with emphasis on butter

  Can I just say, if you want to cut down on total verbiage, don’t say, “The Brussels blah blah blah.” Who does that? They’re sprouts. They come from Brussels. Or whatever. Point is, just say sprouts. Yes I’m being intolerant and irrational. I don’t care anymore. I am so fucking sick of bacon. There are adjectives and there are nouns and they don’t do the same thing. Parts of speech! They’re sprouts!

• Baked bacon
• Mustard and jalapeno bacon
• Bacon-wrapped stuff medjool dates. I’ve made bacon-wrapped dates twice now and both times they were a tremendous hit. I highly recommend them. Christopher’s cousin recommend we start calling them Indiana Joneses, but I don’t remember why.
• Push Button, Receive Bacon
• Meat Candy Gift Baskets!
• Maple Bacon lollipops
• Sugar-free chocolate dipped pork rinds. I’m not saying I would eat these. But if I had some and no one else was around or knew I had them, I would try them. And like them. And never tell anyone.
• Soups
  1. Made of cauliflower, but there’s bacon on the side
  2. Chipotle bean
  3. Chestnut and fancy bacon
  4. Rustic Basque chicken stew

  I’m making that last one tomorrow night for people we’re having over (along with a big pot of plain potato soup). I’ll report back if you’re interested.

• Bacon and butternut squash pasta. You know it’s extra fancy cos it says “lardons.”
• Sun-dried tomato and bacon palmiers
• Banana-chocolate-bacon spring rolls
• Honu Girl forwarded me an article saying People Really Love Bacon. Yes, they do. I think now we need to put a lot of research money into finding out whether or not people think the sky is blue.
• Bacon and pimiento cheese potato skins

I’m pretty sure “visit that elephant in my underwear” should be a euphemism for doing something really, really awesome.

• I Fought the Law…and I Won is an enlightening article about the TSA.
  

  At one point I was informed, “If you have nothing to hide, just answer the question.” I cringed as I listened to the argument used by those who give preeminence to the state over the individual. This line of training had apparently been bred into in these agents and was unfortunately well engrained in whatever type of training they had received.

• Motivational Tips for Every Young Career Woman
• Chanel’s limited-edition Jade nailpolish now selling for upwards of $150.
  

  You’d think even the bleariest 2am blogger would realise that £84 for a miniature shot of something that looks like a plaque removal treatment is a bit steep. But logic and cult status do not roam the plains of desire hand in hand.

• Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn From ‘Twilight’
• 15 Things Worth Knowing about Coffee
• The Social Media Revolution
• Marriage Proposal, Leap Year, 1924
• Top 10 Scariest Scenes in Film
• Pantone’s Color of the Year 2010: Turquoise!
• The Path to Fabulous is Lined with Bumpits
• Pac Man rings set
• A short visual history of Coca-cola
• Is FTD the first internet business, preceeding the internet by some 80 years? (Here I’m thinking of “internet” in the 1994 sense when hyptertext protocol data first begins to exceed file transfer protocol data.)
• From Marcie, scientists create the world’s smallest snowman
• From Skillzy, Man in a Lady Wig. He sent that to me because he knows I totally have a crush on the UPS artist guy, with the long black hair and big nose. He’s hott. Even if he is wearing a lady wig.
• Via Maggie’s Farm: The Day We Killed John Lennon
• Science Cookies: Gel Electrophoresis!

First stop Bacon, next stop Shangri La

• The Bacon Cake (is real!)
• Scientists grow pork meat in a laboratory! Step carefully– this slope is slippery.
• Related, from Apollo: HAMN! Just like God used to make!
• Bacon braised green beans
• Bacons Featuring Sticks
  1. Chocolate-covered bacon… ON A STICK!

  2. Candied bacon… ON A STICK!

• Cookies Made More Loving with Bacon
  1. If you don’t have a stick, you can put your Candied bacon in chocolate chip cookies . It’ll be safe and happy there.
  2. Chocolate Chip Maple Bacon
• The 90s Salad. Do all decades have salads? What are some others?
• Soups Made More Boss with Bacon
  1. Creamy chicken corn chowder
  2. Lighter New England clam chowder
  3. Celeriac
  4. Idaho baked potato
• Noodles Made More Fancy with Bacon
  1. Chanterelle, bacon and spinach pasta
  2. Spinach fettucine with cauliflower and bacon
  3. Bacon and cabbage pasta
• Pigeon Devils on Horseback
• Clams Casino
• Squeeze bacon (That’s from Apollo too.)
• Turkey, cranberry, brie, and bacon panini
• Cinnamon-sugar bacon is part of The Bacon Experiments, which sound like a damn fine idea all ways.
• Bacon-wrapped pork chops with apples and onions
• Bacon and cheddar stuffed mushrooms
• Bacon flavored envelopes.

• I forget how I found Temptalia, but it’s one I definitely read every day. Christine is a prolific, fun blogger. And though for a while there her site was exceptionally cluttered and hard to navigate, she’s written her ass off the last few months with a series of posts called The Scarlet Season, describing and swatching all her red lipsticks. It’s glorious!
• And then there’s The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Karlasugar swatches like she was born to do it! I have a great time looking at her new posts every day, comparing colors and reading about textures and finishes. She even posts great, complex look tutorials from time to time.

And then there are the blogs not in the sidebar blogroll, because I’m lazy and also there was a strange feeling of not wanting everybody to necessarily know how much time I spend contemplating eyeshadow. Which is silly, don’t you think? I do. So here goes.

• Karen’s Makeup and Beauty Blog is awesome and hilarious. She might be my favorite beauty blogger. I’d love to take her out for lunch, because she reads like she’d be totally cool if you just said, “Hey, let’s go to lunch and talk about Benefit and cats.” Her cat blogs, and she’s constantly editing pictures of fantastically attractive men with hilarious speech bubbles while swatching, describing, tutoring, and dishing like she’s your best friend who just happens to be massively stylish and awesome and normal all at the same time.
• Beauty Blogging Junkie is kind of the opposite of that. Everything is rarefied and sophisticated and so very New York. But what do I know about how to look glamorous in New York? Not a thing. But she writes a lot, so I’m learning.
• Scrangie is, in my opinion, pretty much the best nail polish blog there is. I’m pretty sure she has more than two hands. Or maybe just a preternatural ability to organize editorial lead times. Whichever. Point is: gorgeous swatches, honest commentary, near-daily updates. Excellent!
• Beauty and the Blog is Sephora’s corporate blog, so what you lose in honesty is made up in frequency. It’s great reading for finding new products and new incarnations of existing products.
• The Beauty Look Book seems to concentrate on rarer brands, and also pick a brand and exhaust all exploration possibilities before moving on to a new one. But I’m still getting to know it and how the author works, so I could be wrong there. She also posts fantastic product sets– pictures of all the products she used to create any given look. It’s very inspirational.
• I’m also new to Chic Profile, but I give her mad props for the first two posts as of today. The first one is on a hot pink Essie nail polish that, worn without base or topcoat, is not long for this world, and saying that it’s not worth the money you’d spend on it. And then, in the next entry, talking about how great La Mer face cream is. For $110 or so per ounce, it best soothe your skin, clean your house and give you an orgasm.
• All Lacquered Up is another nail polish blog. There are fewer swatches, but more information on upcoming trends and releases.
• Just getting to know Spoiled Pretty, but I really like her voice. She seems very genuine and very down to earth and honest about the products she’s using and recommending. She’s also got a great Ask a Makeup Artist feature.

I spend a whole lot of time contemplating eyeshadow. And even more on lipstick. And lately, a ton on nailpolish. I’m very serious about my silly!

But then I started to wonder…. And Kirk is the only guy I think could come close to rocking my world like Riker would. And by “rock” I mean rock, with some Barry White action, twice, and then we’d meet again like a year later and he would rock it twice more. And then, he would tell stories to other Starfleet officers about me, but only using vague identifying details, giving the impression that I, too, rocked his world.

What do you think?

Unladylike poll is unladylike!