Valentine's Day and Chimichangas!

Last year we talked about chocolate. While this is a perfectly great food to give to everyone you love—including friends, family, and strange children you appreciate the sidewalk art of—it doesn’t quite display the “make your own” version of love I commonly celebrate with my best friends. You know what does? A burrito! A giant, meat packed, tomato-lovin’ burrito, deep-fried in the heat of my ever-burning love for them—more commonly known as the chimichanga.

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
½ cup diced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 15 ounce can refried beans
3 8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1 4.5 ounce can green chiles
1 jalapeno, minced
8 (10-inch) tortillas
Wooden toothpicks
1½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese or Colby Jack
Vegetable oil for frying
Cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, salsa (whatever you like) for garnish

As you’ve probably guessed, this list isn’t one of mine. The person who provided this list pays a lot more attention to actual measurements than I do. If that’s throwing you off, go with your palate. You can do things like forget about the chiles and jalapenos if you don’t like it spicy. You can switch up the meat if you’re more into carnitas or chicken. That’s the beauty of a chimichanga—you can make it however you want!

You’ll begin by browning your meat. Go ahead and break it apart as you go to make sure it all cooks evenly. Add the onion in when it’s about halfway cooked. When the onion gets soft and the meat is cooked, add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Stir the mix and cook 30 seconds to blend the flavors. Then add in the refried beans and add two cans of the tomato sauce—unless you hate tomatoes. Then you only need one can, and you’ll add half of it here. Save what’s left of your tomato sauce for the exterior chimichanga sauce. Stir everything up once again to get the flavors blending, and then remove it from heat. If you’d like to keep it extra warm, you can leave it on the lowest burner setting—just make sure it isn’t going to burn!

Next, we’re going to make the chimichanga sauce. Grab a medium saucepan and combine what’s left of your tomato sauce and your hot peppers in it. This isn’t going to cook so much as warm, so that when we pour it over our perfectly crisp chimichangas it doesn’t make them cold and soggy.

Now we move on to rolling the burritos. If your tortillas aren’t very pliable, heat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds covered with a damp paper towel. Or, if you’d like to get a head start or if you’re using corn tortillas, go ahead and fry the tortillas by themselves for a few seconds on each side in a very small amount of oil. The oil and heat will help the tortillas hold together while you wrap them around your filling. Once your tortillas are prepared, place about ⅓ cup filling towards one side of a tortilla. We’re going to use measurements here, because there’s nothing worse than putting a ton of work into a chimichanga only to have it unfold or bust in the middle of frying it. Fold over the side nearest the filling to cover the filling. Fold in the two sides, roll it up, and secure the ends of your burrito with toothpicks.

Once you’re done doing this with your remaining tortillas, we’re ready to get our fry on! The oil should be about 375 degrees to fry well, but the popcorn kernel trick we talked about last month in the latke recipe will work fine too. You can fry your chimichangas however you want, but it should only take about 2 minutes on each side to finish them. They should be a golden brown color and slightly rigid. When finished, top your chimichangas with cheese, sauce, sour cream, cilantro, essentially whatever you want! These chimichangas are yours, and they express you!

Those of you familiar with Deadpool will have no trouble discerning the connection between him and this month’s culinary feature. The connection between chimichangas, him, and the many forms of love celebrated on Valentine’s Day might be a little more difficult to parse if you haven’t read the most recent crossover series featuring Deadpool and Spider-Man. Those familiar with Spider-Man will know that he’s often the least desired team-up by other super heroes, while Spidey enjoys working with anyone—except Deadpool.

Until this series, Spider-Man and Deadpool have had rather a terse relationship, with Deadpool idolizing Spider-Man and Spider-Man detesting Deadpool. Deadpool rather mirrors Spider-Man’s role in Spider-Man’s other team-ups, so the hijinks is always well placed when they end up on the page together. But in this first collection of the series—aptly titled Isn’t It Bromantic—Deadpool turns over a new leaf and tries to earn Spider-Man’s friendship and respect.

And after a streak of non-lethal behavior on Deadpool’s part, Spider-Man goes for it!

Although readers of both the Deadpool and Spider-Man series might have thought these two would never develop a real relationship of any kind, the two actually manage to create a friendship—one that both of them end up valuing. When that relationship is challenged, instead of just making assumptions and acting based on those assumptions, Deadpool and Spider-Man do something hugely out of character for two grown adult men in media: they talk about it.

Their conversation is honest and real. Spider-Man is hurt,

Deadpool is apologetic,

And both of them don’t make use of halting sentences or implied emotion. What’s exciting about this collection is these two grown men talking about their feelings and valuing each other as people without needing to rely on tired, ridiculous phrases like “no homo” to convey how they feel about each other.

Besides, there very obviously could be some homo involved if Spider-Man was interested. He’s on Deadpool’s pre-negotiated free-pass list.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Curried Acorn Squash: The Spice of Life is Diversity

This took me forever. I couldn’t for the life of me decide on a recipe that wasn’t going to be taken as some sort of racial slur—and, since this post is about diversity primarily in comics, I just didn’t want to take any chances. Then, as I was grocery shopping with my mother, I passed an acorn squash. I love squash, but I’ve always been really terrible at preparing it. I pointed to the squash and told my mother, “I wish I knew how to cook this.” A woman in the next aisle who through her skin color and accent presented to me as a woman of Indian descent reached out to me and said, “Would you like me to tell you how?” I spent the next twenty minutes in conversation with this woman about how to prepare the squash. I have been kicking myself ever since that I didn’t have my usual paper and pen handy. When I returned home and sat down to record what she’d told me, I couldn’t even remember her name. So, after a week of experimentation and hunting, I’ve found a recipe that I can only deem as similar to the one she gave me. I’m so sorry, but I hope you will enjoy this vegan curried acorn squash recipe. Ingredients: 1 acorn squash, peeled and deseeded, then cut into ¾ inch cubes 1 cup coconut milk or ½ cup grated coconut 1 tsp cumin seeds 2 dry red chillies 2 tsp grated ginger 1 tsp coconut oil 1 medium onion 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tbsp coriander powder ½ tsp turmeric 2 tomatoes Salt to taste 1 tbsp brown sugar or raw cane sugar ½ cup chopped coriander (for garnish)

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees on Bake so the oven is hot when the squash is ready to go in. Next, toss the acorn squash cubes with some salt and pepper. Once done, coat them with oil—a spray is recommended by some sites, but so long as they're coated in a thin layer of oil it doesn’t matter. Then spread the squash on a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the squash is tender. While the squash is cooking, add the coconut milk, cumin seeds, red chillies and ginger together in a blender. Blend into a smooth paste. If you’re using grated coconut, you’ll want to add some water to make the paste. If spice isn’t your thing, feel free not to put the red chillies in the blender. Instead, take your chillies and use them for the next step of the process. In a separate pan, sauté your onions until the edges start to brown. Place your chillies in with the onion to get some of their flavor without as much of their heat. You can also add some garlic at this point, if you like. Then, add the turmeric, cumin powder and coriander powder. Be sure to stir while your onion sautés to coat it with the spices. After you’re satisfied with your onions, add the spiced coconut paste you made in the blender earlier to the pan. You’ll want to stir your pan contents frequently until most of the moisture in it has evaporated. This is important, because if there’s too much moisture the spices won’t have blended together properly.  Once the moisture is mostly gone, add your acorn squash cubes and tomatoes and mix everything together. Next you’ll want to bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer covered on low heat for about five minutes. If the curry looks like it’s too dry to boil and/or simmer without burning, you can add some water to the mixture. Last, add your sugar, mix, and serve over rice or rotis with chopped coriander as your garnish. I really wanted to choose a dish to cover today that had a lot of ingredients in it and that doesn’t speak of white privilege or straight white feminism. Essentially, I didn’t want anything in this post to read like this:

This post is about the positive portrayal of women of color in comics and feminism that ISN’T just white feminism in comics. I hope you’ll enjoy my findings.

We've all heard the cries of how #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Fortunately, the comics industry is listening! Ms. Marvel has been a woman of Muslim descent since August of 2013, the Batman universe finally got a story centering around three women of color with Gotham Academy in October of 2014, and in the dystopia of Bitch Planet where non-compliant women are sent off world to a prison planet and only two women could even potentially be read as white amongst the group cast has been running since December of 2014.

The refreshing part about these portrayals is that they read like real people. Instead of a token black girl in the background, these women of color are the main characters. Kamala Kahn struggles with how to create a superhero costume that will allow her to cover her body in a way that aligns with her religion. Olive Silverlock hates Batman for locking up her mother. Every woman on Bitch Planet has a story and a reason for not complying with their patriarchal dystopia. These characters are not defined by their skin color. Instead, they are defined by their beliefs, their pasts, their values—just like any other human being.

The other refreshing thing about these comics is the lack of prejudice due to skin color. There are a few moments where Kamala is made fun of for being a girl, and of course there is a massive tendency of prejudice towards women in Bitch Planet. However, Gotham Academy seems to be a very diverse setting in which every main character is a person of color; and, while one might argue that since the setting for Bitch Planet is a prison and the cast is primarily made up of women of color that there is a racial prejudice inferred, there are no racial slurs and the characters themselves don't seem to acknowledge it. The respect for these characters is a welcome breath of fresh air.

The authors writing for these stories also warrant a mention. To begin with, all of them are women. Ms. Marvel is a girl of Islamic faith—and her writer is too! G. Willow Wilson has been writing for the new Ms. Marvel series since it started, and is an Islam follower herself. Becky Cloonan is the first woman to write for the Batman comics universe. And Kelly Sue DeConnick is a local Portlander who is known for her feministic attitude.

However, some people still think that for a piece of media to be "feministic" it simply needs to pass the Bechdel test. Some comics know it takes more than that to impress the ladies these days.

One of my all time favorite comics that knows this is the Avatar: The Last Airbender Free Comic Book Day chapter produced by Dark Horse Comics. A few of you may be familiar with the idea of the "fake geek girl." This ten page installation to the Avatar series deals directly with that scenario. Suki of the Kyoshi warriors—the all female fighting force of the Earth Kingdom—is shell shopping with her sweetheart Sokka. When another young woman who is obviously interested in shells walks in and starts perusing the shelves…

As you can see, he isn't very nice to her, and Suki immediately steps in. When the shopkeeper tries to physically throw Suki out, she defends herself, and, due to the shopkeeper's own poor fire bending, his shop burns down. Suki then goes after the girl and offers to teach her how to defend herself, in true Kyoshi warrior fashion. She adds to the ranks of girls who won't stand for being treated like fake fans, and writer Gene Luen Yang makes a mockery of the "fake geek girl" myth as well. Yang also takes some time to portray what a supportive male feminist/ally looks like in the portrayal of Sokka. Not only does he believe in Suki's abilities, but he doesn't try to step in and doing the fighting for her. He does offer Suki help at one point, but she turns him down, kisses him, and tells him that it was sweet of him to offer.

This story is one of my favorites because for a very long time, I was actually afraid to go into comic book stores because of all the stories I'd heard about the poor treatment of women there. We're fortunate to have a welcoming and diverse comics community in Portland, so when I finally went, it was amazing. I braved my first expedition in order to get this very book on Free Comic Book day. It felt like as good a time as any, and the support I found amongst the book's pages was well worth the risk.

Ms. Marvel has also been doing a fantastic job of bringing up feminist issues. Tricked into coming to the lair of her adversaries by her new crush Kamran, Kamala and Kamran have a conversation that is very reminiscent of the victim blaming prominent in rape culture:

Kamala's will to survive and her fight response when Kamran corners her during her escape attempt help Kamala get through her feelings of betrayal, guilt, and failure. It's important to understand that it's not as easy as a good plot point for many survivors to get over the victim blaming they deal with, but the fact that Ms. Marvel is acknowledging the problem and bringing it to the forefront of discussion is noteworthy.

Deadpool is also a comic that loves to fit social commentary into its panels—amongst the jokes of course. One of the most comically executed is the transphobia lecture that Deadpool receives while chasing a shape shifter.

Deadpool has been including a lot more women as main characters lately as well. Agent Emily Preston of S.H.I.E.L.D. becomes one of Deadpool's dearest friends when she's killed during the battle of the dead presidents and thrown into Deadpool's mind to keep her alive until a suitable vessel can be found for her to live in again. A ridiculous jaunt through Dracula's gauntlet finds Deadpool in love with succubus and mighty queen of the underworld Shiklah—whom he later marries! And, on top of all that, an old back issue brings to light an afternoon of passion Deadpool had with a Carmelita Camacho, leaving him with a daughter he fears affiliation with might endanger and Preston can't help but want to find.

All around, comics is working for the benefit of gender and racial equality. Not all comics are being so inclusive, and there are definitely a lot of steps to take to true equality; but here are some steady anchors for the staircase. Enjoy!