tutorial: frito pie

It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm going to start up again with a fun one.

Is it really necessary to have a tutorial for Frito pies? Most would say no, unless you're not from Texas, at which point, yes, you do need a tutorial. In New York, people look at you with eyebrows raised and an expression somewhere between disgust, horror, and confusion if you mention a Frito pie. They usually have the same expression after I explain what a Frito pie is. But they're really yummy! It's a staple dish!

So here we go. There are three main ingredients: Frito chips, chili (preferably with no beans ... but whatever floats your boat), and shredded cheese (I usually go with plain ol' cheddar).


1. Get yourself a bowl. Really any bowl will do as long as it's big enough for all the yummy goodness that is to come.


2. Open the bag of Fritos. Pour some of those corn chips into bowl. Oh, and as a side note: If you're in Texas, enjoy the low price and ease of obtaining Fritos, because there's only one grocery store in my area that carries them and a bag cost me $3.50!


3. Open the can of chili, heat it up on the stove, and pour some of it over the Fritos. Well, I suppose you should have had the chili on the stove before you even got out the bowl ... but stop criticizing me! I usually go with Hormel's no beans chili because (being from Texas) beans do not belong in chili and I've never been good at making my own chili.


4. Open the bag of shredded cheese. Grab a handful of it and sprinkle it oh so gingerly over the chili-covered Fritos.


5. Get yourself a fork. Plunge that fork into the concoction, stir it up a bit, and use that fork to stuff your face with Frito pie.

It's not really healthy, and I make no recommendations in regards to feeding it regularly to children. Everything in moderation. I merely say that it's yummy, it's easy, and it's cheap (except in certain states like New York where cans of chili and bags of Fritos and bowls, shredded cheese, forks, and life cost more than they should). It's one of those foods that just makes you happy. Maybe it's because I grew up eating Frito pies so it's kind of a nostalgic thing, but anyway, I really like 'em.

The end! I hope you've been enlightened.

cutting up glossies

At work, I'm organizing files to be archived. In the file cabinets there were some magazines, but only certain articles were relevant for the archives, meaning ... I had to cut up an Artforum. ACK!


I am one of those people who does not write in books. I don't highlight. I don't even fold pages. I just do not mess with publications. It seems so blasphemous. And then to CUT UP a magazine, especially one like Artforum? Sadness. Pure sadness in my mind. Especially because according to the archiving procedures, I had to cut out the relevant articles AND the cover ... and the rest of the mutilated glossy could go into recycling.

Sigh. I have a stack of Better Homes and Gardens and I don't even tear those apart. I might place a post-it note on an article to get back to, but I don't think I could bring myself to destroy it. Oy. Yes, I'm a bit neurotic about these things, but it truly pained me to cut up those magazines!

internship sm-internship

I have never been one for real work. Working around 30 hours a week at an architecture firm (as a part-time position that was only supposed to be 20 hours a week, I might add) just about killed me. I worked there about four months before throwing in the towel. I used to think that I hated it because the pay was so crappy, but it's more a question of value. Right now I have an internship that's unpaid. But I like it. Getting paid would be nice, but I'm okay with this slave labor.

>
Sure, it could be that I like it because it's only about 20 hours a week (and I don't have school or other work commitments like I did while at the architecture firm) or it could be that it's because everyone speaks English at my internship and I'm not such an outsider. It also could be that my current work actually seems useful and helpful whereas my work at the architecture firm seemed largely about getting the clients to pay us. But mostly I think it's because at my internship, no one's an architect. Yep, I gotta say that's it.

There's a reason why a lot of people (id est, architecture students) refer to 'architecture' as 'architorture'. And scarily enough, it's said with almost a sad fondness, because really ... all architects are masochists to some degree. I guess that's why it's refreshing to go to work at the internship, rifle through boxes of old exhibition installation photos, take a trip to the archives, compile a list of publications, watch a YouTube clip of an interesting piece of performance art, and actually eat lunch in the break room instead of my desk. Almost doesn't feel like work.

I like architects. Most of my friends are architects, studied architecture, or are in some way connected with architecture. And I can't really fault architects for their neurotic quirks, obsession with details, egosim, or constant dissatisfaction ... because I'm often guilty of the same. I'm still an architect at heart and still relate best to other architects, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy to work with them. The art world, however, IS A LOT MORE CHILL. Sure they have their own brand of crazy, but (from what I can tell) it's a lot less ulcer-prone.

circles + circles + circles = overkill

Even though it's technically still spring, it feels like summer. I'm down in Texas for the time being, and whew it's humid! In the spirit of spring cleaning I went through some of my old architecture stuff ... and I can't believe I actually kept some of this stuff. After living in a fairly small Manhattan apartment, I'm beginning to see how useless this extra stuff is.

About three years ago I was in an experimental organic architecture studio, where what we ended up creating were less like buildings and more like art pieces. It was fairly complicated, but basically I extrapolated dimensions from Georgia O'Keefe's "Jack-in-the-Pulpit No. V" painting and for part of the project, I laser cut A LOT OF CIRCLES based on the relationships between those measurements, with the largest circles about 3 inches in diameter. Yeah, it was weird. I used some of the circles, but ended up with a ton of extras. Most were laser cut from cheap 2-ply chipboard.


There were also a ton of circles laser cut out of 1/16-inch basswood sheets. And even more cut out of 2-ply white matboard. Um ... I think I got a little crazy with the laser cutter, but it's an awesome piece of machinery! At my graduate school, students aren't allowed to operate the laser cutter themselves, but back at my undergraduate school, it was free reign (after paying and scheduling the time, of course)! Sigh ... I miss the smell of burnt chipboard/basswood/matboard.


I didn't use any of the matboard because the charring was too severe so the circles didn't turn out as nice and white as I was hoping, but oh well. Good times. Good memories. One of these days I'll have to post the completed projects, which I was pretty proud of. But after three years, I think I can let go of the 200+ circles. Off to the trash they go!

the hunt for snackages

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't made anything in a while. Yeah ... school has basically sucked me in. I can spend the entire day in studio and feel like no time at all has passed. That space truly is a black hole of time. Sigh. I made oatmeal cookies the other day but those got decimated pretty quickly . Today I made potato bread and granola bars, which I thought would be great for studio snacks.


The bread was yummy. I sliced it up and stuck a bunch of it in the freezer. I'll probably have that for toast in the mornings. As for the 'granola bars,' ... um, I guess they turned out decently enough. I put chocolate on them because all great granola bars have chocolate. They don't look very appetizing, but they're still edible. They're kind of sticky though (from the honey in the recipe), so I won't be making them again. Cookies are so much simpler to make ... and to eat.


And speaking of cookies, they sold Girl Scout cookies near campus today! It was very exciting. And goodness gracious those suckers sold FAST. I thought Girl Scout cookie season started a while ago, but this is the first time I've seen them being sold up in my neighborhood. That little table basically got swarmed. It was kind of entertaining watching a bunch of college students go crazy for Girl Scout cookies. I got two boxes of Caramel deLites (aka Samoas), which are the BEST COOKIES EVER, and two minutes later when I walked by again, they were out.

I won't be bringing the Girl Scout cookies to studio (because I'm too afraid others are going to eat them!) and I probably won't bring the granola bars to studio either (because the stickiness is too annoying), so I still need some studio snack food! I might just go out and buy some Craisins. Although the last bag of Craisins I had went really, really fast. I need something healthy, filling, energy-sustaining, and easy to eat. It's always amazing just how much food I can consume just sitting at a computer in studio.