Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Easy yummy cross cultural snack

Black forest ham sliced thin (not shaved though).
Cream cheese. (Philly or such. Plain, no pineapples or chives or nothin.)
Flour tortilla, as Tex-Mex as possible. HEB brand or El Milagro will do nicely. Regular size (a bit bigger than a ham slice).

Apply about 1.5 tbsp cream cheese to one thin ham slice.

Warm a tortilla in a dry nonstick pan on medium-high until just starting to toast on one side. Flip and apply ham cheese side up. Brown second side lightly. Fold in half and press flat with a spatula. Heat to taste a few seconds more. The tortilla should be hot, the ham should be warm, the cream cheese should be soft but not totally melted.

Prep time about a minute. The NAFTA special. Yummm...

Monday, January 03, 2011

Fake Villages


Apparently the big budget corporate fake village shopping zone is catching on in Europe as well. This scene, meant to emphasize the fact of snow, is of "Clarks Village" in Street, England.

Here is a busy day at Austin's "The Domain", a privately owned shopping center that is also one of our few tolerable walking neighborhoods.

(To be fair, I am discovering that the park system here is great on foot, though the idea that it is bikable is pure BS.)

But I don't see why a place with real villages would want fake ones.