A few of my favorite things

There have been a handful of new discoveries around Fort Church these days that have become quickly accepted into our lexicon, or whatever the appropriate word is. These are as follows: Tortilla Land Uncooked Flour Tortillas, Mashups, and the Carl's Junior Cap'n Crunch Milkshake.

First and foremost, the tortillas. After nine years in Tucson, Jana and I became quite picky about our Mexican foods. Now, this does not mean that we became accustomed to fancy, elaborate or even well prepared foods. We simply acquired a taste for simple Sonoran style tacos and burritos that even the most under-rated, drive through, 3 a.m., after-a-bender food joints were able to produce down there (yes, I mean you, Los Betos, my one and only...). Surprisingly, Alaska has no shortage of actual Mexicans, but the food as a whole here is a tragedy. It has taken us almost two years to finally realize that most of this is related to the tortillas. Even the best places in town (yes, I mean you my sweet Taco King) use prepackaged, supermarket flour tortillas. This brings us to Tortilla Land Uncooked Flour Tortillas. These were bought following the recomendation of friends and I remained somewhat skeptical. There's no lard. Everyone knows that it is the lard that makes the tortilla. Canola oil, hmmph. Place one of these thawed doughy thin pages of goodness in a frying pan (no oil needed), however, and I was immediately transported back to Tucson to enjoy the food my abuela used to make. I have eaten more tortiallas this week than the past year. Now all I need to do is go to Sam's Club and buy some real queso.

Mashups. I have long wanted to be a member of the music world. I am what you might call "musically oriented" rather than musically talented. I think I have good taste (I may be the only one) and that should translate to production of good music, right? So I have written quite a paucity of songs over the years (most during my somber, flannel clad college years) and thought that I would be better off mixing two good songs written by other people for my own enjoyment. Thus my exploration into Mashups. I quickly found that I could in no way produce the quality of music mashed here amongst several simillar sites. People are even mashuping (is that the correct term? I am so old) videos. Oh, to have such time on my hands.

Finally, the last nugget (literally nuggets) in this extended post is the Carl's Jr. Cap'n Crunch Shake. All the wonderful flavor of Cap'n Crunch without the bleeding gums razor-bladiness of deliciosity by which they are usually accompanied. The shake was actually so-so, but when I got to the bottom and there were so many Cap'n Crunch chunks that I could'nt suck them up my straw...ahh, pure bliss.

I can recommend a couple of books as well...The Poisonwood Bible and Freakonomics, but that is a little too heady for this post. Perhaps later.