I love magazines. I’ve been trying really hard to cut back since I’m doing this whole live consciencly thing with recycling and reducing the resources I use. I went and took myself off the junk mailing lists and I have stopped a lot of subscriptions.

BUT I HAVE MY WEAKNESSES!

Southern Living and Real Simple. I justify that I buy them because I read them cover to cover, several times and I keep them for a few months, so I can reference back to neat projects and recipies.

In the 2007 recipe edition of Southern Living, I’ve found several tasty treats. The Chorizo Black Bean Quesadilla is one of them.

The *big* secret here is the cilantro pesto.

Chorizo, Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

4 chorizo sausage links

1 can drained black beans

1/2 cup frozen whole kernal corn

1/2 t ground cumin

1/3 cup cilantro pesto

6 flour tortillas

8 oz shredded cheese

• Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat 5 minutes or until browned. Add black beans, corn and cumin and cook stirring occasionally. 3 to 4 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
• Spread cilantro pesto evenly on each tortilla; sprinkle with cheese. Sppon chorizo mixture on half of each tortilla and whip skillet clean.
• Cook, tortillas side down in lightly greased skillet over  medium high heat 1 minute or until lightly browned. Fold tortilla in half. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Cilantro Pesto

3 bunches fresh cilantro, stems removed

1 1/2 T fresh lime juice

2 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

2 T water

• Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Store in refrigerator up to one week.

Two different cupcakes on the same day! Yay! I walked into our Tempe office and I was greeted with a batch of cupcakes. Nothing is better than a cupcake for breakfast.

Then I headed over to Gilbert. And Dollar Hotdog guy, he and his mom (I know, weird that a grown up guy is making cupcakes with his mom over the weekend) had a surprise for me.

A CUPCAKE MONSTER made in one of those cutsie silicone cupcake cups with the feet. It’s a Wilton brand, so you can find them at any Michael’s or Target. And let me tell you, his mom wasn’t messing around either. The frosting was very smooth and the cake, was a deliciously moist white cake.

Thank you Dollar Hotdog guy’s mom. This was great.

I’m playing around with different blogging platforms and I’m learning a lot.

You can see my current posts at http://www.prissycook.com

Don’t update any bookmarks yet. This is just a staging area and once I get a final product I’ll be updating to a new domain name too.

Rick Bayless Margarita- The tequilla really sings in this lime margarita.

Orange Margarita- Drink this one by the pool.

I’m from Texas. I didn’t realize how much people from Texas talk about Texas until I moved out of the state. People, I’m sorry.

Not sorry that I’m from Texas, but I need you to know that we’re just raised that way. We talk about Lone Star this, Big that. We can’t help it.

I blame my parents.

AND to add to lots of generalizations and stereotypes about Texas I present you with Chicken Fried Bacon. From a restaurant fifteen minutes from where I grew up. You need to look at this YouTube video.

People watch rain in Phoenix. It’s strange and when you move here, you see people watching the rain with an intensity. Nobody talks. They just watch.

I thought that was odd. I like a good storm and I have indeed watched te rain, but it’s different here.

I’ve been here almost three years. I now watch the rain with that same odd intensity. It’s such a treat. The feel of humidity in the air, the clouds. All weather elements we don’t get to experience very often.

Thunderstorms rolled into the Phoenix area around 4:30AM. Yay!

My usual weekend wake up ritual includes going to the coffee house with computer in hand for a muffin and great cup of coffee. Today with the rain- I wanted to stay home.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t still want my coffee and breakfast. I found this recipe from Mr.Breakfast.

Banana Pancakes

Yay! I love brown bag lunches! I forgot my fancy lunch bag yesterday at work and this morning I pulled out a good old fashioned brown bag for lunch.

I couldn’t resist putting my name on it all twirly fancy like I would in middle school.

Let’s see, other news? Oh, I put a recycle box in my office. My neighbors are starting to toss in their plastic coke bottles and I take it home on Mondays to put in the recycling bin.

Hope you’re having a good week.

My dad learned how to text message and usually it drives me crazy, but today this text brought a big smile.

He sent me a flower! This is the best ever!

“SISSY!” That’s what I heard when I answered the phone today.

“Sissy, Paige didn’t know my computer was in hibernate mode and you can’t hit the power button when it’s in hibernate because it messes up and she didn’t know that, so she did and now when I turn it on the screen is all messed up, I don’t see anything on my desktop, all my homework is on there and I don’t know what to do.”

Now you and I both know that she was probably more freaked out that she may miss something on MySpace, more than she was freaked out that she maybe lost her homework (and people school doesn’t start until next week).

“Liz, turn your computer off, and take the battery out, plug it back into the wall and let me know what happens.”

“Oh Sissy, that worked! Ok thank you!”

Click.

She could barely breath when she called me. Her world was almost ending because her computer wasn’t working. She was going to lose all her homework. This would all catapult into a downward spiral of not getting into college and it was all so horrible. OMGIDK! And, she gets off the phone without giving me the gratification of saying good-bye back.

But people, you can rest easy tonight. Lizzy’s computer is back up and running.

And this is what she was doing with the rest of her day.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
One year ago, I started my blog.

Five snacks you enjoy:

Wow, I don’t really snack too much.

1. Hostess Orange Cupcakes
2. Homemade Cupcakes
3. Cheese
4. Cheese Doritos
5. Cheese 

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:
I’m notorious for singing in the car and singing the wrong lyrics. So, I may think I know all the words, but they’re ones I made up. 

1. On the Road Again by Willie Nelson
2. Bidi Bidi Bum Bum by Selena
3. My Maria by Brooks and Dunn
4. Happy Birthday 
5. Suavemente by Elvis Crespo 

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Summer home/ Winter home.
2. Do the family hook up thing.
3. Big family vacations yearly. 
4. Travel. Exquisitely. 
5. Feed people.

Five bad habits:

1. Clicking my jaw
2. Channel surfing
3. Starting projects and …
4. Not working out
5. Eating cupcakes

Five things you like doing:
This is pretty vague…

1. Writing, reading and learning. That’s why this blog thing is so neat. I can do so much here.
2. Window shopping. I love going to cooking stores and browsing the shelves for inspiration.
3. Baking. I love trying new techniques in the kitchen.
4. Traveling. Even with travel state-side, I want to absorb as much as possible.
5. Eating cupcakes. Hmmm, I detect a trend.

Five things you would never wear again:

1. Tiva sandals
2. Bass penny loafers
3. NKOTB t-shirt
4. Banana clip
5. Metallic skirt

Five favorite toys:

1. Casio key board
2. Pogoball
3. Twirling baton
4. Scooter
5. Cabbage Patch Kid