A Retched Reduction

Today I went up to scottsdale to the arabian library. I took pictures of the site and inside the existing library, and made notes and measurements. I forget what an identity Scottsdale has created for itself. Even at the library, everywhere you look its slim, fashion-conscious moms in high-end SUVs. I do really appreciate the effort that went into and maintianing the desert landscaping in the city however, especially north of Shea. Gas prices up there are almost twenty cents higher per gallon than what I paid down here in Tempe. After scoping out the site and taking a lot of pictures I went over the Desert Mountian and Palomino library. I took some more pictures there (with the librarians giving me strange and hostile looks) and then took a quick peek inside the high school where I went.

It was so authoritarian, no one in the halls, it felt like a prison. It was such an unpleasant experiance I left after about five minutes without trying to look up old teachers.

I spent the rest of the day reading from Blink! finally taking a break to head down to Food City for sustainance. I was talking to Jen about what she spends per week on food, and I was blown away when she said $20. "I only buy stuff that's fresh" she said, in explanation. "Fruits, vegitables; milk is really the only expensive thing besides the frozen orange juice." So this time, I tried to only buy the really fresh stuff. I bought some potatos on sale, then some mexican green onion, then some regular onions, a bell pepper, and finally some ground beef chorizo. The meat was a little less than two dollars, and the vegitables were less than a dollar a piece for the quanities. I also picked up some limes for mixing with tonic water.

When I got home, I sauted the onion (but added too much oil) and added the chorizo. While that cooked, I added the green onion and the potatos I had coarsely chopped. What I should have done was cook the potatos separtately, maybe boiling them or something, because they refused to cook in the chorizo/oil mixture. I let it sit for about ten minutes with the chorizo starting to burn a bit, then added about two cups of orange juice. (I was thinking, yeah, liquid to help boil the potatos, maybe get a spicy/orange flavor out of it) Then I let it reduce and simmer for about fifteen minutes. Before slapping it on a tortilla and rolling it with fresh pepper jack cheese.

It was retched. By far one of the worst culinary experiments I'd done in a long time. I ate about half of the burrito before conceeding defeat. The armies of orange and the chorizo were attacking each other, and their corpses which littered my burrito were giving off a funky wang.

As some of you know, I have an esteemed history of culinary experiments gone wrong. At the age of five or six, I toasted a rice cake and suceeded in starting a small kitchen fire. If the Ig Nobel Prize had a culinary prize, I would have won it with this thing.

Speaking of the Ig Nobel prizes, they just had this years award. You can check them out here. I think its absolutely hilarious. Every year this international panel presents spoof awards to those experiments which should not be repeated. The winner of the prize for literature went to the many Nigerians for creating the diverse and interesting cast of characters who send you an email claiming someone died and they want to share the money with you- but they need a small amount for their expenses. I love reading those emails because they try to use high-sounding language, but are so ridiculous and obviously fake.