Final Days

The final days of the semester are upon us, and the final days of life as a student journalist are here. In my Border Beat class, I have submitted my final stories and have come to the end of my college career. I can say without a doubt though that my experiences in Border Beat have helped me prove to myself that I can succeed in journalism and that I have what it takes.

When given several choices regarding capstone classes, I knew I wanted to get into online journalism. And I knew that it would be a different experience for me, because none of the journalism classes I had taken previously had given me any real know-how or experience in how to work for an online publication.

Border Beat, in that sense, definitely became one of the better journalism courses I studied at the University…mainly because it gave me the opportunity to find my strengths as a journalist and expand upon them. What I mean is, it wasn’t simply a publication that stressed written reporting every week. Instead, if someone loved working in multimedia and video, Border Beat actually gave people the chance to focus in that area and to break out of the mold of traditional reporting that just about all of us students had been exposed to previously. My favorite part of the class was that I got to centralize my work in photography if I wanted to, instead of a regular written story.

In conclusion, Border Beat was worth all the effort I put into it, and gave me the taste of working in internet journalism that I had wanted but had yet to encounter in a journalism course. In an almost old-fashioned school that offers more print capstones than online ones, Border Beat (and yes, J307 too) were the only opportunities I encountered that gave a more realistic view about working in the future of journalism.

O, and my favorite photograph for the class for the semester? Probably this one from the gem show…

Tamale Pie

One of the greatest things I ever tasted was a tamale pie from Cafe Poca Cosa in downtown Tucson. It was so good, in fact, that I went back the very next night for more. Since then, I have yet to taste another tamale pie like it. Last night I attempted to make this wondrous meal on my own, and while I admit that it can’t compare to Poca Cosa, it was still pretty dang good. And yes, it’s gluten free.

1 cup of cornmeal

2 cups water

Salt

Your favorite cheese

Corn

Tomatoes

Olives

Green chiles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil the water, then add a pinch of salt and cornmeal. Stir regularly for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

Pour 75% of the mixture into a baking dish, then toss in the corn (lots of it!), green chiles, chopped tomatoes, and olives and stir well. Add a handful of cheese and stir into the mixture, then add the remaining 25% of the cornmeal mixture on top. Cover with more cheese, then place in oven for 35 minutes or until ‘golden brown.’

Top with the good stuff (sour cream, salsa, hot sauce…) and you’re done!

Visiting St. Andrew’s

Last week some of my fellow Border Beaters and I had the opportunity to cover St. Andrew’s monthly children’s clinic in Nogales. I found that the whole event took an amazing combination of team effort from so many volunteers, from cooks to interpreters to pediatricians. It was especially fantastic to see these doctors able and willing to donate their personal time and resources into spending a full day with these children with medical needs.

Clothing donations were a large part of the clinic. An outdoors courtyard was filled with clothing and shoes for children.

The kitchen was, needless to say, ridiculously busy as volunteers prepared lunch for hundreds of visitors. In an interview with one of the main cooks, I was told that animal crackers are their biggest hit!

My favorite part of the clinic was the pediatrics ward. I spent a lot of time simply standing and watching everything going on — it was impressive to see how much the doctors got done and how many patients they managed to see in such a limited time.

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Above is Dr. Francisco Valencia as he worked with patients and examined x-rays.

There are many more pics, a couple great stories, and hopefully a video or two to come once I get through all my material I need to edit. I’ll post a link to my St. Andrew’s clinic stories after I’ve posted them in my project for Border Beat, so stay tuned!

Taquito time!

I told you this day would come! Yes, I made taquitos tonight, and here’s what you’ll need if you want some too:

1 package of corn tortillas

Refried or black beans

Your favorite cheese, shredded

Vegetable oil

Toothpicks!

Cumin and coriander

Sour cream, lettuce olives, or whatever “toppings” you like to garnish with

Start by adding a small amount of beans onto the center of a tortilla, then sprinkle the cheese and seasonings lightly. It is easy to over stuff these, so just use a little bit of each ingredient as you fill them.

Gently but tightly roll each tortilla into its predestined taquito shape, and make sure to secure each one with a toothpick to avoid a disaster.

Once all your taquitos are rolled, it’s time to heat about 1/8 cup of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and lay each taquito in the pan. Fry each side for 2-3 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Once completely fried, the taquitos should be placed on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Now you can garnish with sour cream, salsa, shredded lettuce, or whatever toppings you prefer. Serve hot, and you’re done!

Really Americanized Tacos

If you take pride in authentic Mexican food, please turn away.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I can’t cook too well. I mean, if you want Spaghetti-O’s then you’ll like my cooking, but other than that I may as well share the ranks of this woman right here.

So, remember those seafood NOTtchos from last week? The ones with all the healthy ingredients that had me in bed for the rest of the night? Yeah, well, I still had some leftover shrimp and scallops in my freezer from that memorable meal, and decided I should use them up today. In what, you ask? Why, shrimp scampi tacos of course!

Since I was only cooking for myself, I only used a handful a small shrimp and about four big scallops and cooked them in a pan over medium-high heat with some olive oil for about 4 mins.

Then I added diced yellow onion and some garlic (okay, lots of it). Then add a splash of white wine ( I used the really cheap stuff for $3.99), butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook for about two minutes more, then remove from heat.

Spoon into warm corn tortillas, and add a spoonful of hot refried beans (better if you add cheese to it beforehand). Hey, I told you this was Americanized. Now add shredded lettuce, diced tomato, and the most American item of all — sour cream. Blasphemy, I know, but this time dinner was actually good!

I’m already thinking of a meal for next week. Shrimp and scallop taquitos, anyone?

Poll time!

Seafood NOTchos

I did some experimenting this week for the perfect recipe for you all to enjoy, and I thought I had the one. I really anticipated this one, and thought it would be fantastic to make seafood nachos. So I did what any sane person would do when attempting such a recipe, and I poured shrimp, scallops, crab, heavy cream, three pounds of cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and lettuce atop an enormous pile of chips. I thought I had created a masterpiece, and as I sat down to take my first bites, I thought this would be a recipe that everyone would love to try.

Fifteen minutes later, that vision changed. Perhaps it was the heavy cream, or perhaps no human should attempt to consume so many ingredients in such a short time, but that fabulous recipe I had concocted for you all made me want to barf. Feeling sick with myself for thinking this was a good idea, I slowly collapsed into bed and couldn’t move til the following morning.

Now, I have a confession. The ridiculous amount of leftovers I had? They’re still in my fridge. I know, I know. But at the moment I’m having a hard time throwing away all that $ worth of seafood! So it just kind of sits in my refrigerator like some kind of monument to my cooking failure, neatly wrapped in aluminum foil. Oh, don’t worry, they’ll be gone soon…probably when my sense of shame for having wasted all that $ is overridden by the smell of leftover seafood trapped inside a fridge. In other words, probably tomorrow.

So with much regret and shame I confess that this week’s adventures in gluten-free Mexican cooking were an absolute failure. I could never bring myself to share that recipe that I once innocently thought would be a hit. The moral of the story? Seafood nachos = seafood NOTchos.

My first tortilla-making experience ever!

This morning, I randomly decided that I needed to try making my own corn tortillas. Whenever I watch chefs on Food Network make their own, I realize it’s time to try it myself. So today, despite lacking a fancy tortilla press thingy, I went to the store for some masa harina and got my feet wet. If you want to try what I tried, you’re gonna need (for 8 tortillas):

1 cup masa harina (a.k.a. corn flour). Remember, we’re keeping this gluten free, so we’re making corn tortillas.

2/3 cup water, plus a little extra later for moistening the dough.

A pinch of salt

That’s it!

Add those 3 ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir with a whisk.

Within a minute, a dough should form, and you’ll have to knead the dough with your hands for about another minute. If it’s crumbly at all, add a tiny bit of water to the dough at a time until its moist enough to stick together without crumbling.

Next, divide the dough into eight sections and roll into a ball with your hands. Place on a cookie sheet and cover with a damp cloth while you work on the next step — rolling them flat.

I laid each ball of dough on some plastic wrap, then rolled it as thinly as I could with a rolling pin.

Warm a skillet on medium heat, then place each tortilla — one at a time — on the skillet for about one minute on each side. This is the part where they start smelling good. And guess what? You’re done! Now do whatever you want with them — eat them hot off the skillet, make a carne asada taco, or feed them to the dog if you failed this time. Whoever ends up eating the tortillas, it’s a win-win situation.

Tostadas!

It’s midterms (enter “Jaws” theme music), we’re all slammed and in need of a quick meal — preferably one with lots of cheese. Tonight, I made just the right thing — cheesy (and yes, gluten-free) tostadas!

Go get yourself:

1 small tomato, diced

finely diced yellow onion

refried beans

diced green chiles

your favorite cheese — I used cheddar and jack

a package of corn toastadas

olives, if you so desire

Lay your tostadas onto a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the refried beans over them, then a few handfuls of cheese, then spoon on everything else — the chiles, tomato, onion, and olives. They should now look something like this, minus the mess of extra beans and cheese on the cookie sheet:

Now the next step is very important: add more cheese. Perfect.

Now they’re ready for the oven. I baked mine for 10 minutes, peeked inside the oven, decided they needed more cheese, and finished letting it bake for 2-3 more minutes. You can top yours with shredded lettuce and sour cream if you like that sort of thing. I usually top mine with chopped olives, and had just bought myself a can for this very purpose. When I opened the can before dinner, however, its contents looked like pureed catfood. I had to look twice at the can to make sure I had indeed bought olives and not some sort of Fancy Feast. So, in all its grossness, I decided to skip the olives this time and just eat the baked tostadas in all their cheesy glory.

Guacamole!

One of my favorite things ever, I’m usually looking for an excuse to make guacamole — yes, I’ve made it for breakfast too. Below I’ve included a basic guacamole recipe I like to use, but feel free to play with it and create your own variations. And don’t forget to share your experiments!

You’ll need:

3 avocados

lemon juice

kosher salt

pepper

diced tomatoes

a liiiittle bit of finely diced red onion

garlic powder (or toasted garlic)

A few dashes of your favorite hot sauce. (Remember, we’re focusing on gluten-free here, so make sure to read the label and check that it doesn’t contain wheat.)

 

Slice the avocados, remove the pit, and mash them in a medium bowl (I like to mash with a fork). Add as much lemon juice as you please — I generally use about 1 teaspoon. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper, then stir in the diced tomatoes and red onion. The onion can often overpower the flavor of the avocados, hence my warning to be sparse with it. Finally, sprinkle in some garlic powder, or you can toast a chopped clove or two in a frying pan with a few drops of olive oil before mixing it into the guacamole. Now add a few dashes of your hot sauce into the dip and you’re done!

If you’ve never sliced an avocado before or have a history of messing that up, here’s a tutorial that should help: