Mexican Pie

I met my BFF in September of 1986. We’ve lived less than 6 miles apart and more than 600 miles apart during our 30 years of life and 25 years of friendship, but I’m happy to say we settled down within about 70 miles of each other, albeit divided by the Red River. (Hi, C!)

Some of my favorite childhood memories with C revolve around her dad’s then-restaurant. Started as a hamburger joint, the super-successful endeavor soon expanded into all things Texan — barbeque, Tex-Mex, chicken fried steaks and a host of other delicious items. We spent a lot of time in that restaurant, whether it was eating with our families or working there during high school, and ate just about everything on the menu (and a few things we created ourselves, like corn fritters dipped in queso) at one time or another.

That restaurant is no longer there, but her family does have another location with the same great food and the childhood nostalgia factor. But since I don’t get to eat there as often as I’d like, tonight I decided I’d make my own version of one of their best dishes — the Mexican Pie.

Here’s what you’ll need to make 2 of your own:

6 Flour tortillas

1 can refried beans

1 pound ground beef

Hot taco seasoning

Queso (Need a good recipe? See here.)

Mexican blend cheese

Pickled jalapenos, for garnish

Start by browning the ground beef. When it’s good and brown, add the taco seasoning and water and simmer according to package directions.

While the beef is cooking, warm the refried beans. If you want them to taste better-than-canned, add a little vegetable oil and cheese as they cook and stir well.

Warm the tortillas.

On an oven-safe plate, add 1 tortilla. Cover in a layer of refried beans. Add a second tortilla. Cover in a layer of ground beef. Top with one last tortilla. Cover in queso. Sprinkle a little Mexican blend cheese on top and add a couple of pickled jalapenos. Repeat on second plate and stick under the broiler until the cheese melts. It’ll look like this, and you’ll be really, really happy:

Brisket: budget-friendly and delicious!

Who says you can’t feed beef to a big crowd without blowing your grocery budget?

Enter the super flavorful brisket. When properly prepared (cooked low and slow), the cut becomes fall-apart tender. It also meets the government’s guidelines for lean.

I eat a lot of brisket on the job — it’s a staple at cattlemen’s events in Texas — but by far, my favorite is the Mr.’s

His super secret spicy dry rub and slow smoking technique makes for a craveable hunk of meat that’s as good on a sandwich a few days later as it is freshly cut. When we have leftover brisket, we usually save some as sliced beef (my favorite) and make chopped BBQ (his favorite) out of the remaining. To make chopped BBQ, all you have to do is chop the brisket and simmer it in your favorite BBQ sauce. Ours is Head Country’s Original. Sliced beef makes for great sandwiches and tacos, while chopped beef is great filler for sandwiches or baked potatoes.

Here’s what it looks like, freshly sliced:

The draft, the kitchen and the food

This weekend, my home will be filled with guys toting laptops and notebooks, their heads filled with rankings, rushing yards and injury reports.

See, the Mr. serves as commissioner of a fantasy football team and Saturday is draft day. It’s also his birthday eve, so the yearly event also serves as a birthday gathering of sorts.

In preparation for the event, we spent last night getting to a stopping point on the kitchen remodel so we could put most of the cabinet’s contents back in their places and have a usable kitchen. So far, we’ve stripped and sanded the top level of cabinets.  When we quit last night, it looked like this:

Once the weekend’s events are over, we’ll start stripping and sanding the lower level cabinets. Once we’ve made sure they all match, we’ll stain them. (If we run into a snag and they don’t match, we’ll paint.) Next, it’s on to paint the countertops — goodbye, green! — and walls and re-grout the tile.

Tonight, the cooking begins. The Mr. will be smoking a brisket (post to come) while I’ll be baking his birthday cake, these brownies and making my homemade salsa.

What are you all up to this weekend?

1 year as the Mrs.

Today is not your ordinary Tuesday. Well, not around here anyway.

Today marks the day, 1 year ago, when I married my best friend. The day my name — and my life — changed forever.

But since you’re not here to read “True love is your soul's recognition of its counterpoint in another” (..."I read it on a bumper sticker...") kind of stuff, I’ll stop there and instead share a few photos of that first day as Mr. and Mrs.

So, to the Mr., happy anniversary! And, to the rest of you, I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday!

Cream-style corn

My kitchen is a mess.

Not an I just made a bunch of chicken fried steaks mess. Not even a I just made mashed potatoes for 12 (just ask my aunt, who is still cleaning the roasted garlic mashed potatoes I made some 5 Thanksgivings ago off her ceiling) mess.

Nope, it’s an epic mess of the DIY kitchen remodel variation.

We started on our project, which consists of stripping, sanding and staining our cabinets; painting the walls and countertops; and re-grouting the tile about 2 weeks ago, but kicked it into high gear over the weekend when we were able to dedicate all of our waking hours to the job. We made a lot of progress, but still have much to do.

We decided from the get-go we’d work in sections and try to keep at least part of the kitchen usable most of the time. This is especially important, I’m learning, when you live 30 miles from quality takeout. That being said, any cooking that can be done right now is on a small scale. It’s preferably grilling and something that uses very few dishes. (Which, by the way, are located on my dining room table and covered in a drop cloth at the moment.) There’s also been quite a bit of Sonic (pretty much the only choice in the town we small live in) eaten lately. But, tonight, I was bound and determined to actually cook something and was able to make a one-pot side dish that was as low-maintenance as it was good. Yay for successful experiments!

I had 3 ears of fresh sweet corn in the fridge that needed to be cooked pronto, so I decided to give homemade cream-style corn, one of my favorites but something I’d never made, a shot. Here’s what you’ll need to duplicate it:

3 ears fresh sweet corn

Water

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Cut the corn off the cob and transfer to a saucepan. Add enough water to just almost cover it. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium and add cornstarch, sugar, salt, butter and cream. Stir well. Cook about 10-to 15- minutes on medium heat, and then reduce to low. Let it simmer on low for 1- to 1.5- hours, stirring occasionally. The longer you leave it, the thicker it will get.

Taste and add additional salt or sugar if desired.

It’ll look like this:

Fun Fact Friday: The life cycle

Did you know beef cattle are raised and cared for in 3 different phases, each targeting a specific stage of their life cycle?

Calves are born on cow-calf operations. On these ranches, cattlemen are in the business to breed and raise cattle. As the calves grow, the rancher will decide which animals will become market animals and which ones will be kept as replacements (go back into the herd to be bred). Once weaned, many calves intended for market will be sold or moved to a stocker operation.

Stocker and backgrounding operations are where calves are grown out and prepared for the feedlot. Here, weanlings graze on grass and may start eating some grain to supplement their diets. Once, they reach 12- to 18- months of age, they are sold or moved to a feedlot.

Feedlots are where market cattle enter their final growing stage. In the feedlot, cattle are grouped with penmates of similar size. They eat a carefully-calculated ration and put on the fat or finish required to produce desirable meat.

In each of these phases, cattle are raised by men and women who believe giving animals the care, handling and nutrition they deserve is an obligation, not an option. They take their job — contributing product to the world’s safest and most abundant food supply — very seriously.

Pendleton mashed potatoes

Tonight’s entry is an original recipe I came up with last week and made tonight. I wasn’t sure it would work. (Obvious by today’s Facebook status — “Very excited about the semi-experimental side dish I have planned to accompany tonight's T-bone dinner. If it's a hit, it'll be on the blog tonight! And, if it's not, just forget we ever had this conversation.”) But it did, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 potato

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup Pendleton Canadian Whisky

Sea salt and coarse pepper

Wash and cut the potato into 4 pieces. (You can peel it if you want, but I prefer skin-on.)

Place the potato pieces in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil on stove and cook until tender, about 35 minutes or so usually.

While the potatoes are cooking, add the heavy whipping cream and butter to a saucepan and heat on medium low. Allow to reduce. The process only takes about 10-15 minutes, but it won’t hurt to start it when you start the potatoes and just reduce the heat or even turn it off toward the end.

When potatoes are done, drain and pour into a mixing bowl. (I like to use my stand mixer if it’s not already in use.) Add the butter and cream mixture and the whisky. Mix using an electric mixer until you’ve reached your preferred consistency. Add some sea salt and coarse pepper and give it another quick mix.

I served these with grilled T-bones. I also had a salad, while the Mr. had green beans. I’ve learned it never hurts to have a back-up side dish when experimenting!

It looked like this: