La Kitchen Chicana or Brown Hands

My abuelita's hands making her delicious enchiladas

As I have been an official blogger for at least a month now, I thought it might benefit my readers if they knew a little bit about how this blog emerged. Specifically, a conference paper on Gloria Anzaldúa was the initial inkling that I might want to engage with the issues of food, identity and family in a meaningful way. For those of you who know me are probably in no way surprised by this revelation, because her seminal text Borderlands/La Frontera defines my life and my approach to so many things. But as I begun to think about these ideas, A's mother, my wonderful mother-in-law J or as I often refer to her as, The Lone Baker also started a blog a little bit before mine took off and she really made me think that it was worth a go. I briefly mentioned in my last post about the ways that I feel trapped in the Borderlands as an emerging food blogger. By this, I mean, I don't feel my recipes are necessarily going to win any major food awards anytime soon, but it's always been more about the process and what goes on behind the scenes that has been important to me. What was it that made a hot dog in a tortilla so good? I laugh to think of how I define my own identity as the ways that Mexican food (tortilla) and American (hot dog) come together to form Mexican American? I promise this is not the last that you will read on the topic, but I love the ways that my identity can be traced through both enchilladas and pot roast, meals served to me by my abuela and my grandmother respectively. I am so happy that I created this blog as an outlet to explore my identity through food and perhaps share a recipe or two.

The real reason for this post is that I wanted to put a link to a piece that gives a little more into the backstory behind this blog, well, a little piece of the puzzle so to speak. I am going to be a regular contributor for a new online ezine called LuchaVista Magazine the inaugural issue just came out today and has a poem and piece about my family and the role of food in their lives. I urge you to check it out because it goes hand and hand with my blog, if you're interested. Check it out by following the link: Brown Hands, Comida & Love

Thanks for reading.

Kr's (Mini) Tuna Melts

Printable Recipe

Long before Brangelina, more like back in the day when Brad and Jennifer were still together lived the infamous Krandace. Two resident assistants living in Oliver Hall at the University of Kansas on the fifth and eighth floors became one over the course of our sophomore years. Amidst fire alarms, calling the KUPD on students smoking pot, busting up keggers, avoiding Cutco knife salesman and honoring our 10:00pm curfews Kristy and Kandace became Krandace: the ultimate life long friends. As our lives intertwined throughout our college years and Kr worked her way up the Res Hall perpetual ladder by our senior year (I mean, given a few more years we would've been in that main office - that is just how awesome Krandace is - just ask Dr. Stoner!) Kr had worked her way up into having her own kitchen and multiple room apartments our last summer together and began working her way around the kitchen.

I feel it is important to divulge a bit about Kr's background. You see, she comes from a culinary-inspired family where there is cocktail hour and courses involved for every dinner! Quite a change from anything I had ever known growing up. I guess that's how you roll in the burbs of chi-town. Anyways, Kr has always amazed me in the kitchen because I believe R and B's (her parents') positive attitude about food and finding flavors that mesh well together translated into her own ambitious mixing of whatever she has in the kitchen to make delicious meals, I should know she had done this on plenty of occasions long after Krandace had to physically part (but clearly never in our heart). Check out her free spirit here as a guest blogger on Graficionada. But the point of this heartwarming story is one time, I do believe in my first apartment in Minenapolis, Kr and I cooked up some delicious tuna melts, this is a little bit of an adaptation but tuna melts are always a quick and easy lunch or dinner meal. So consider this for one of those times when you don't have much in your kitchen but you're hungry and need something filling. The amount of foods used here was enough for two people with leftovers depending on your appetite. Thank you Kr for your wonderful spirit and being the Kr to my andace.

Now, onto the meat! Two notes about my beautiful display of ingredients here:

1) I forgot a key ingredient to tuna melts - mayonnaise ugh, I try so hard to make it look pretty and this is what I do, leave out key ingredients.

2) La Kitchen Chicana is not a professional operation, I am happy about this for the most part, sure my femme sensibilities sometime push me to want prettier bowls, or dream of shopping sprees at expensive cooking, baking and dish stores but I do recognize that I have an amazing arsenal of plenty of more than adequate cookware and dishes in my kitchen. However, I am often amazed at how much money, time and effort a lot of food bloggers spend on their kitchens and their blogging. Imagine my surprise when The Lone Baker informed me that most of these bloggers have professional photography equipment to make beautifully lit photos, that alone means some serious money is involved. Then to begin to think about the amazing equipment these bloggers have in their kitchens one can become quite upset with one's own lacks in the kitchen area. I like to say what I lack in equipment I make up in love. Well, as the doctoral candidate that I am, we all know that I am not in any sort of financial situation where I can spend endless amount of money on professional photo lighting so that I can make prettier pictures, nor do I have the time to take hundreds of pictures of my food from every angle (people seriously do this - but I do scarily see the appeal) to be honest if I capture the gist of the thing I'm ok with that (for some examples of this type of blogging behavior check out the blogs that had their pics chosen on Food Gawker or one of my other favorites Pioneer Woman.)

I think these are important issues to discuss on the interwebs because blogging and the internet in general has been seen as a "liberatory" tool of the masses. In fact, I have a (albeit small) audience of people who put up with my ramblings in this published format and blogging becomes a means of communication around issues that one might not have access to in the realms of the general/mass media. Clearly, one of these issues should be global capitalism and the selling of certain "ideals" in terms of what you should be if you are a food blogger - mainly, a well-off housewife comes to mind. But what about those of us who clearly do not fit into this world? Am I destined yet again, to be in the borderlands (see Gloria Anzaldúa for more) of cyber space, trying to navigate a world that presumes class privilege while making foods that are meant for those who are clearly not in that status? It's almost too much to bear, but I keep on because I think this blog is as much about my identity as a Chicana who loves food as it is about the food I make. I'm sure I have plenty more of this to discuss but that will come, with my ruminations on future meals. I fear my audience is ready to get to the recipe already.

A perfect way to ponder these very issues is to make up these CHEAP tuna melts and share them over some lively conversation - be my guest. A and I however, enjoyed ours watching Project Runway, so maybe this is more a suggestion and definitely not lead-by-example type advice. Open and drain two cans of tuna. Add some mayonnaise I would say this is about two heaping tablespoons. Mix with a fork to combine.

Now add the secret ingredient, that when I first made these for A she was like, "hmm... what is that in there? It's good but different." That special ingredient would be (yellow) curry powder. Add in about 1/2 tablespoon and a teaspoon (to taste) of red chile powder. Mix it in thoroughly. At this stage I also add in a pinch of kosher salt and some freshly cracked black pepper.

Next comes the delicious crunch. chop up some jalapeños and put into your tuna concoction. I love jalapeños and since I have a high tolerance for spice I put in about 1/4 cup chopped pickled jalapeño peppers. I would NOT suggest putting in this much if you are using a fresh jalapeño, chop that finely in that case but do not add this much or you might die from over-spiced tuna melt syndrome. At this point I also add about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese - I'm using again the three cheese blend from Trader Joe's here, my favorite for easy melting.

Stir it all together and you should have something pretty chunky because of the cheese and the jalapeños and you're ready to go.

Since we're making mini tuna melts today, I cut up about half of a french bread loaf that I got at Cub that morning. It felt fresh at the time, to my disappointment it was really dry on the inside, meaning it was really difficult to cut, I think I lost about two pieces due to squishing them and their insides crumbling out. You may of course use whatever bread you would like.

Then give a little piece to your kitchen assistant, just to make sure it's edible. A will be happy to know that Sandie is working on her poses. Look at her smiling with her eyes, or is she contemplating how to bite my finger off for some additional protein? Alas, we may never know.

Now, I decided to use my Broil King because I wanted to make them all at once. You may of course (which might be the preferable method) use the broil setting on your oven. I had a hard time getting my tuna melt to melt with the BK unfortunately so, I will either use a lower setting (because my bread did get toasty) or put this in the oven to broil to ensure the insides get heated enough. There's almost nothing worse in your mouth than a lukewarm, soggy tuna sandwich. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I used butter to coat my Broil King and then I was able to make this many mini sandwiches from my tuna mix. I let both sides of the bread toast but flipped the top up onto the sandwich part sooner than later in an attempt to warm up my tuna to make it nice and melty.

When your bread gets toasty and your insides are melty, you're ready to eat! You can see that I've paired these with some delicious macaroni and cheese. This made me feel like I needed to add some different colors in my food but another day means another meal means another lengthy blog about it. Until the next time we break bread with one another...

Waiting for my butter to soften

A's birthday is coming up in approximately 48 hours and I have been working my fingers to the bone conceptualizing her cake and as what I thought would be a sweet and relatively cheap romantical birthday present. Who doesn't want a homemade/completely made-from-scratch cake for their birthday? Well, let me just say this has neither been a cheap nor easy process. I made part one (half) of the cake before my beer and popcorn snack (pictured above - YUM). But this started way before baking commenced in La Kitchen Chicana.

My plans were put into action on Wednesday when I took a trip to Williams Sonoma at the one and only "Place for fun in your life" Mall of America to get some supplies. For one aspect of the cake I was in need of a fine mesh strainer much like this one. In fact I did get the mid-size one, of course it was missing it's price tag and me being me thought, oh well, how bad can it be? Well, $45 later I guess that's how bad. Shit.

The ideas behind the trip and plannings and several baking jobs is due to the grand (casino) celebration I am planning for A's birthday. We will not be home to celebrate A's birthday, Sunday August 2nd, rather we will be relaxing and playing slots and bingo, a snapshot of our future old-lady relationship of when we'll be at the bingo hall after some seventy years of bliss much like these amazing women. So, as we celebrate her 29th year I decided I would bake a mini-cake so that we could just transport a small cake that could easily be consumed in one sitting by two people. Thus the planning, baking and messing began. This also led to me having to purchase 4 6oz ramekins (also another pricy investment), an offset spatula for icing another pretty penny. Well, I'm sure you get the point, I have to make these cakes freaking good otherwise my investment (I should've seriously bought stock in Williams Sonoma) will be for naught.

This is what my kitchen looked like after I had completed about 1.5 aspects of a 3-part cake. Clearly I cannot divulge what I was up to in the kitchen because I'm sure A is waiting on the edge of her seat to see this blog post. I'm amazed her presents are still wrapped! Here you can see some chocolatey goodness in my bowl ready to be saran wrapped and lidded into the fridge to rest until cake construction day (tomorrow!) But this picture is really a testament to the unspoken aspects to cooking and baking projects. The mess. Seriously, you should see my La Kitchen Chicana when I'm in there doing my thing, it's like a tornado. This is after I had already cleaned up from a raspberry concoction (part .5 of 3) and this was the second time I had to face the mess tonight! The messes were so bad I am kind of dreading the actual baking day tomorrow!

Doing the dishes isn't exactly a loathsome task and I love to have a clean kitchen. Perhaps I feel this way because I have the luxury of my own in-apartment dishwasher. But I digress, I had plenty of time to contemplate my cake and my blog posts, and my dissertation outlining. I had the water up so high that I got a mini-facial out of the deal. I also felt quite refreshed from the hot, steamy water giving me somewhat of a heating treatment for my right wrist that was sore from transcribing today.

I did manage to fix La Kitchen Chicana up after a long day. A special note to The Lone Baker, thank you. Many of the things I did tonight could not have been possible without your love, patience, guidance and generosity. I would not have my cuisinart food processor that I used twice this evening. I would not have nearly the motivation to make delicious food. I wouldn't be able to admire my broiler king griddle on top of my stove because that is its home for now, I may not have been inspired to be baking and cooking all of the time for A. I definitely wouldn't have my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer which will be put to use tomorrow for my cake batter. Lone Baker, you are an inspiration, thank you for believing, thanks for answering my questions at all times of the day, especially when I'm in the Barnes & Noble cookbook section wondering what cake book I should buy. A and I love you very much!

Works in progress

So, as my loyal readers may or may not know, yes all three of you, I am about to embark on a two week dissertation research quest "vacation". If by vacation one means doing five interviews over a five day period then a 10+ hour drive and another interview and then an academic conference then yes, call it a vacation. But how this all relates to the kitchen is a funny story. You see, A has these "ideas" about what the good "rich wife" should do when she leaves her "rich husband" to fend for herself. She had a quip about me preparing meals in advance and then labeling each with reheating instructions for all 13 days I'll be gone. I said, "yeah right". See I tend to think that if/when I am actually a "rich wife" then I might be a little more inclined - as it stands however I just like to pretend to be one.

But the point of this longwinded story is that I tried to find a recipe that would be quick and easy but would also be able to be frozen and eaten at another time. NOT because I needed to keep A fed while on my "vacation" but because as an occasional temp worker I'm often trying to find something quick and easy to take to lunch that's really a no-fuss kind of thing. So, on the world wide web I found a delicious and nutritious idea for a sweet potato and black bean burrito which of course I would add my own touches to. The best part of this story is when I told A about my plans she said something like, "who's going to eat that?!" But that response, my friends, is for another post.

Using my bean pot from The Lone Baker which had to take an 8 hour soak today since I hadn't used it in a while, here are my black beans soaking with some cilantro sprigs. Doesn't that look yummy? I'm super excited about what's to come from this. I've started to become rather snobbish about sodium in my food, and other additives that one finds in a variety of foods. The recipe can definitely use canned black beans, which you know people always advocate for rinsing and draining to rid yourself of the salt they add to the cans, but I decided to do my beans the good old fashioned way. I thought, hey, I've got time on my hands, I'm only supposed to be writing a dissertation, what's a little bean soak going to harm anyone? As per winePhixation's request I will be posting the rest of the experience as I continue on with it tomorrow.

In other news The Lone Baker sent me this amazingly large Broiler King electric griddle for my pancake making. I'm thinking I'll be making up a batch of oatmeal pancakes courtesy of my friend K via a cooking light magazine... I should look up that exact reference when I post the recipe tomorrow. But here it is in all its glory - ready for some pancakes and A also noted, concurrent quesadilla making! Yum!

I couldn't help but share this photo of our cat who I found wrapped up in the bubblewrap that came around Mr. Broiler King. She is my second kitchen assistant but she usually just lays in the light of the sun streaming through the window or at the base of the refrigerator most often she is in the way of me opening said fridge's door, or in the path of my other kitchen assistant, Sandie scrambling underfoot toward falling food. I love my little family - A, Sandie and JoJo make cooking worth it!

The Lone Baker and La Kitchen Chicana Collaboration

The wonderful Fourth of July holiday took A and I to visit her mother (who happens to be The (one and only) Lone Baker and step-father in the lovely Moorhead, Minnesota. (Side note: The above picture documents a lot of flooding up in the Red River Valley which is exactly where we were - see the debris piled up on this bridge? Scary! Moorhead and Fargo are ok now, I just thought this was a cool pic of some of the damage the area had recently dealt with.)

Before we left, The Lone Baker called to make sure that I was bringing up my New Mexican Red Chile Sauce because she was preparing pulled pork for tacos and wanted to marinate it in my sauce! For her pulled pork recipe, see her blog entry on the subject: Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. I was excited yet nervous, knowing that the entire dinner was pretty much hinged on my sauce - if it wasn't good, the whole meal would be ruined! We pulled into town and The Lone Baker said hi quickly and then proceeded to ask where the sauce was! We brought it inside and it went straight onto her pulled pork and marinated as we settled into to our wonderful accommodations. The aroma quickly filled the house and our mouths were watering! The other main event of the night was that The Lone Baker had made corn tortillas for our tacos - and a delicious faux chile releño which set off the meal perfectly. The tacos were great, and everyone loved our meat and sauce collaboration! I just wish I would've taken some pictures and truly documented our tacos because they were great.

Here's a picture of our marinated pulled pork the next day, there was so much left over we decided to do a red chile pulled pork quesadilla an even truer collaboration because The Lone Baker was so inspired by my chicken quesadilla post that she wanted to try out some quesadillas with the left over pork and the left over homemade corn tortillas. Note the beautiful light that comes into the Lone Baker's Kitchen and the wonderful materials she has to work with! Here are quesadillas with a layer of cheese and the pulled pork adorning them. Don't they look marvelous? We decided to do three flour and three corn tortillas.

Here's another shot of our flour tortillas waiting for their final touches. Another layer of delicious cheese and it's flour tortilla hat.

I was in charge of finishing these up while The Lone Baker worked on preparing the pans and the corn tortillas.

On the corn tortillas we used queso fresco. Look at how beautiful they looked! And if we thought we would even make a dent in our pork we were seriously mistaken!

All of our friends coming together nicely.

The marinated shredded pork was so good A ran in from the living room and just had to have a few bites!

Here are our quesadillas all in a pan making friends and getting melty! I am so jealous of the Lone Baker's equipment - she cooked up all of them at once! In my kitchen one quesadilla per skillet- two if I'm working with the small corn tortillas!

The Lone Baker's kitchen is magnificent.

She finds these amazing tools just hidden in her bountiful cabinets! This is her birthday present and it sliced and diced these quesadillas in seconds!

As you can see the flours were quickly devoured and the corns were on deck.

During the meal I managed to catch this lovely shot. I promise I wasn't the only one eating - it seems as though the Lone Baker, Mr. Lone Baker and A are a bit camera shy. But, clearly they were enjoying the meal because it was quickly disappearing.

I had so much fun at The Lone Baker's house - there was delicious food every meal and I felt I contributed a valuable addition to two of them. I came home two pounds heavier than I left - I'm not exaggerating, the scale at the gym told me so this morning. But, overall it was worth it. On the way home we heard a statistic on the radio about how the French eat and live the best in the world - that opposed to Americans who spend an average of 40 minutes eating per day the French spend hours. We chuckled to ourselves that amidst the corn tortillas, red chile pulled pork, fresh baked bread, steaks, potatoes, and delicious homemade shortbread, that this is definitely never the case at the Lone Baker's - where we all eat like royalty, or at least like the French.