all dressed in black: May 2009

Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted? So much has been going on...

I have a few new kitcheny things that I need to blog about soon, my birthday and I'm moving this weekend! Oh, and lots of work, as usual.

Interestingly the other day I was taking a mid-day cab ride when the driver just started chuckling. He told me to look at the driver in the car next to us and the was a woman devouring a sandwich and the half masticated grub was rolling around in her wide open trap. It was down right revolting. Ironically, she was a very nicely dress business looking woman in a luxury automobile. The cabbie then launched into how much he loved seeing how people eat and chew when they are in their cars because "their true colors come out." Since then, I have kept my eye out for mobile eaters and it does seem like they have worse manners than table eaters.

Megan "Maher" Gray emailed this recipe to me months ago and I have a made it several times because it is so tasty. The last time I made it was for my parents on a trip home. That was the real test to convince these carnivores that a vegetarian meal could be so satisfying...I think they were convinced.

SHOPPING LIST FOR MEXICAN BURRITO PIE:

Produce
-one medium VERY RIPE avocado
-a small bunch of green onions
-a head of garlic
-a lemon or a bottle of lemon juice

Dairy
-Sour cream
-Shredded cheese (Mexican blend recommended)

Spices
-cumin
-chili powder

Bakery
-5 8 inch tortillas (smaller if necessary, no bigger or won't fit in pan, doy)

Canned/Dry Goods
-19 oz can of pinto beans
-Salsa (the fresher the better but any kind works fine)
-Small can of pickled jalapenos (optional)

Other
-disposable deep dish 8" pie tin if you don't have one, or are making this for someone else

READY TO GET TO IT?

Mash these items together in another mixing bowl (with potato masher if available)...
1 19-oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed (if you can only find a 15-oz can it won't be a huge disaster)
2T pickled jalapenos, minced (optional for the spicy food lovers, I actually add more because I like it HOT, HOT, HOT)
1 tsp chili powder ½ tsp ground cumin 1 cup salsa

It looks good, doesn't it? No, not really. It's the final product that really counts.

Now...
Mash these items together in one mixing bowl (with fork) until smooth...

One large VERY RIPE avocado (if it's not really soft it will ruin the whole thing)
3 green onions finely chopped
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic minced
1T lemon juice
1T sour cream (I use the Tofutti brand faux sour cream and it is really good, I promise)

You are really starting to lick your lips now, huh? Or is it making your stomach churn?

Just keep mixing...wow, my hand looks freakishly large. Yikes.

Again, another shot of the over sized hand. All the better for mixing.

I employed my mom to do a little mashing. Hey, you have to make your money where you can in these hard economic times. :-)

These were the tortillas we used. Hy-Vee, where there's a helpful smile in every aisle. I've never really seen a smiling worker in every aisle when I've been there, but that's what they claim.

Alright, here we are really ready to throw this together now.

Use some non stick spray on your 8" pie pan. Put down one tortilla and then spread 1/2 of your bean/salsa mashed up mixture on it. Then top that off with another tortilla.

Got that tortilla on top? Ok, then spread 1/2 of your avocado/sour cream mixture on that tortilla.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup of mexi blend cheese on top of that spread and top with another tortilla. Mmm...it's starting to look good now.

Ok, add another tortilla and spread on the rest of the bean/salsa mash. Then top with another tortilla and add the other 1/2 of the avocado spread, top that with 1/2c cheese and toss another tortilla on top of that. So, you pretty much just repeated the first two steps over again, Easy, huh?

Then you add another 1/2c of cheese on top of that last tortilla so it looks like this:

Were you preheating your oven to 350F? You should have been! So, if you did, cover that pie with foil and bake for 25 minutes. If you didn't, wait for it to heat up then bake.

After 25 minutes, take the foil off and bake for another 5 minutes.

It will come out looking like this:

Well, not exactly like that, because I added some diced tomato to the top when it came out. They didn't just magically appear while it was in the oven. Sorry for any confusion.

Slice it up into pie shaped pieces and serve and EAT! Yummmmm~