Day: April 20, 2005

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Stovetop Taco Pie

Food just like I like it: tasty, nutritious and easily-prepared
 
This recipe is one of my fav ways to use “leftover” chili (when I have any left over, that is… ).
 
Stovetop Taco Pie
 
4 C chili (see below)
Large bag of your fav tortilla chips
2 C shredded cheese (your fav: I prefer a mix of cheddar and monterey jack)
2 C Quick Salsa
 1 regular-sized can of whole-kernel corn
 
Layer: chili, chips, salsa, corn, cheese, chili, chips, salsa… and end with a layer of chips and cheese.
 
Add some sliced jalapenos or seranos for extra kick if you want (or have them available to add later to taste).
 
Cover and heat in skillet on medium heat until cheese just melts, then turn heat to LOW and cook for another 10 minutes or so.
 
Serve with sides of guacamole, rice or refried beans (prep for both here) and lotsa shredded letuce and chopped onions, peppers, sour cream and more salsa available for garnish.
 
Oh, did I say sliced ripe olives? No, I see I didn’t.  Shame on me.  Nice additional garnish.  But don’t limit yourself to garnishes/addenda I mention.  Let me know what you try out and like that I haven’t mentioned.
 
Chili: For some reason, I can’t seem to find my post of my chili recipe.  I know I had to have posted it sometime or another, but it’s slipped into the ether… So, here goes.  It’s one of those “more of a process than a recipe” recipes.
 
1.) About a pound of roast beef, shredded, preferably leftovers.
2.) 3-4 cups of beans, cooked.  See here for the process. *heh*  Pinto beans, only, please.  🙂
3.) A whole, large yellow (sweet) onion, chopped.
4.) A couple of cups of garlic, minced.
5.) About 1/2 to one cup of Red Sauce.  Use the recipe for red enchilada sauce, here. If you have no sense of taste, just use the packaged chili powder junk.  (Blech!)
6.) At least two tablespoonsful of freshly ground cumin. I use more.
7.) A few leaves of dried oregano, crushed between your hands and dusted off into the pan…
8.) A sparse dash or two of chinese five-spice.  Yeh, it’ll work.  Just trust me on this one.
9.) A can of chopped tomatoes or some of your fav spaghetti sauce (can cut the earlier oregano if you choose this route).
 
Get the onions and garlic started clarifying in a medium-heat skillet with some olive or corn oil (diff flavors, your taste). Add the beef (already cooked, preferably “leftover” roast).  Add the herbs and spices and cook, covered at lower heat, until the beef’s done (you’re way ahead if you went with leftovers!).  Add the red sauce, tomatoes and beans and simmer for an hour or so, checking to see if any added water’s needed from time to time.
 
It’s chili. 
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NEA vs. NCLB

Granted, they’re squealing like stuck pigs cos the pressure’s on teachers, but the NEA proves that even a stuck clock is right twice a day… even if it’s for the wrong reason
 
Kris, over at Anywhere But Here (and I’ve fixed the blogroll link to her blog), has a good lining out of some of the major reasons why NCLB is a stupid idea.  Strangely, the NEA thinks it’s a dumb idea, too is suing the gummint over NCLB… though for the wrong reasons, as Kris points out.
 
It occurred to me, as I was posting a comment at Kris’ site, that I ought to include the links I posted there, here.  Here are two of them, to two mini-essays by Jerry Pournelle:
 
 
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MMPA Maverick

Fifth columnist in the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army, John Stossel, says “Give me a break”
 
I read his stuff now and then, but nothing he’s written recently is more on-target than his recent column “Soldiers Fighting for right to Smoke?” A sample:
 
“Freedom includes the right to quit your job, but freedom also includes the right not to employ someone you don’t want to employ.”
 
Tell that to the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army, the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade and the ever-growing nanny state those groups love so much.
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Drive-by post on congresscritters

Nailed by Tony Blankley
 
“Question: What is the difference between squirrels and members of Congress? Answer: Squirrels make provisions for the future.”
Reminds me of Twain.
 
“Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”—Mark Twain
 
Update: doggone if I hadn’t forgotten about this.  Now, that’d make of our congresscritters something more sensible than they now are. (Warning: it’s an mp3 featuring Ray Stephens.  Be prepared to laugh your socks off. Or at least enjoy the picture of such an event translated to a group of our illustrious congresscritters.)
 
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Comment surfacing for air

So, what do YOU think of “Kipling Tuesdays”?
 
 “Lord how I love Kipling. One of the truly Great Poets.” —David Holtz

Glad to hear it.  I plan on one a week, on Tuesdays. At other times, an occasional Stephenson, Burns, Tennyson or other—maybe a Poe poem *heh* every now and then**—but Kipling Tuesdays will continue for at least a while.

I can’t recount the number of times that “General Summary” has popped into my head (and sometimes onto my lips) when I hear the latest shennanigans our congresscritters are up to…

“…As it was in the beginning/Is today official sinning/And shall be for evermore.”

Kipling is often viewed with disfavor among academics.  Probably because most of academia takes the presciption Holly Lisle gives for “How to Write Suckitudinous Fiction” to be a prescription for writing “great literature.”  Kipling was a craftsman.  But a craftsman with a vision.

And his view of critics is in congruance with mine on a 1 to 1 basis in “The Conundrum of the Workshops” (to be featured in an upcoming “Kipling Tuesday” *s* ‘S’all right. Most folks will have forgotten it by then, and faithful readers of “Kipling Tuesdays” will appreciate re-reading it.)

 
**Speaking of Poe. Here’s my impression of Edgar Allen Poe on Prozac:
 
“Pretty bird… ” (You imagine the inflection.  Got it in one.)