I was watching "Outnumbered" on Fox News that features 5 'on the couch,' consisting of one man, either a Liberal or Conservative, and 4 mostly beautiful women, but always with brains. They try to have at least one Liberal woman for balance, but many Liberals won't accept the invitation, though it's perfectly safe and very much welcomed. Lisa Booth is one of my fave Conservatives there often because she has always reminded me of my cousin, Bonnie Dean---brains, ambition, and beauty. They were discussing the Super Bowl, and Lisa said she would be watching with Fritos Pie and beer with friends. So I went on a search for Frito Pie, and there are a huge number of varying recipes that I assume are all delicious, but I wanted a simple one in an amount that would do for just an intimate group, like us (LOL), though I'm not sure about the intimacy, and not a big crowd. I thought most of what I found for Frito Pie would be fine, and I found this one good and simple and felt it was good enough for Super Bowl. As it turns out, our Chicago Bears lost their chance anyway (G-r-r-r), so the half-time entertainment and Super Bowl commercials will have to do. Bring on the food and beverages, such as Dos Equis, Monterey, Corona with lots of lime, and Diet Dr. Pepper makes me happy too. The sweet Gallo fruit wines (Sweet Apple, Sweet Peach, and Sweet Pineapple) make me sweeter than sweet, warm and fuzzy, and hap, hap, happy. Give me a glass of wine, and I can sit at a keyboard with a glow and words that just flow like liquid silver. I prefer silver or white gold over yellow gold. Give me a 2nd glass and the liquid precious metal color makes no difference. It's all good.
The first time I became familiar with Fritos was we first moved to McAllen TX when I was a very young child. Fritos' home was in TX, as was Dr. Pepper, and that bag of Fritos was on our table at dinner time, eaten with the hottest of hot chillies---the tiny green ones that made you cry and made your nose run---and we all messed around with jalapenos though they got pussy-fied after the mean green baby ones. We all found our niche with Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican faire. We had 3 Mexican ladies working with us in our home-based Knowles Infra-Red Sandwich Services. Carolina helped with the house, and Petra & Margarita helped with recipes and putting together the different sandwiches, heat-sealing them in the correctly ID'ed cellophane bags with simple mechanisms on counters built in the breezeway that was enclosed with screen and narrow louvered windows. It was a very large room that connected the two-car garage to the house (kitchen). It was wonderful. On one side a door that went outside to our grill and picnic table; the other side of windows showed our beautiful banana tree, a bougainvillea and small collection of varied palm tree varieties. My mother, bless her heart, worked so hard on those recipes. She did a lot of the meats in pressure cookers, and the STEAM was incredible in that kitchen. We had to slide the pocket doors closed to the dining room and to the hall from the living room to the bedrooms & baths to keep it from becoming too much of a heat load for the A/C. Her health wasn't the greatest because of that work. She had boils in hidden places on her body and her appendix had to be removed. I doubt the steam & hard work caused it all, but she never let it get her completely down & out. Our hard-working girls were a huge help to us also.
My dad had a new red & white big honkin' '56 Chevy station wagon with add-on A/C (not factory in those days), and he had a refrigeration man build him a big box that had its own refrigeration unit for delivery of sandwiches all over the Rio Grande Valley. Each patron had his/her own infra-red machine with timer, and the cellophane sealed bags had a component that allowed intense heat without burning up, yet heated the content to perfection. It was cutting edge in the 50s, and it was a huge hit. He took me with him on his route when I wanted to go. Used to be cigarettes were given away for samples with 4 in a neat little package. I was fascinated by the charm of the neat little pack, so my dad got me to 'light one up.' He laughed so hard while I was holding back the puke. We delivered to bowling alleys, gas stations (no convenience stores then), taverns, theatres, etc. In summer, when not in school, I took many orders, names, and phone #s to give to my dad when he got home from his Valley route.
We never lost our taste for the authenticity of great Mexican food, and with our beloved Mexican friends/employees, we learned how to seek out the best. When we first arrived in TX, we were sent to this out-of-the-way tin shack with canvas windows that were held up with broomsticks. No screens, no glass, and no public health food inspectors, LOL! I sank 7-year-old teeth into my first cheese & onion enchilada, and at that tender age, I thought I was dying, and by God, I KNEW I was going to heaven without a doubt or prayer. I've never had any like those anywhere else, but I found a recipe that I'm betting is close, but no cigar. My cookbooks define my love: My Sweet Mexico, The Homesick Texan, etc. I've never been able to match the food of the little tin shack or La Hacienda or even some of Luby's Cafeteria's Tex-Mex recipes (yes, I have that cookbook too---chain of cafeterias in TX), but some of the local Mexican ristorantes here are close 2nds, such as Taco Amigos here in Mattoon and the Charleston IL El Rancherito, where Dick has learned all the bad-taste Spanish they will give him. They call him "Ricardo Cabeza," (Dick Head), and I am simply "Nanci." My best friend in McAllen was Sarah Jane, and their little Mexican live-in help, Maria, named me "Nancina." I loved her. I wanted her to live with us.
I was watching "Outnumbered" on Fox News that features 5 'on the couch,' consisting of one man, either a Liberal or Conservative, and 4 mostly beautiful women, but always with brains. They try to have at least one Liberal woman for balance, but many Liberals won't accept the invitation, though it's perfectly safe and very much welcomed. Lisa Booth is one of my fave Conservatives there often because she has always reminded me of my cousin, Bonnie Dean---brains, ambition, and beauty. They were discussing the Super Bowl, and Lisa said she would be watching with Fritos Pie and beer with friends. So I went on a search for Frito Pie, and there are a huge number of varying recipes that I assume are all delicious, but I wanted a simple one in an amount that would do for just an intimate group, like us (LOL), though I'm not sure about the intimacy, and not a big crowd. I thought most of what I found for Frito Pie would be fine, and I found this one good and simple and felt it was good enough for Super Bowl. As it turns out, our Chicago Bears lost their chance anyway (G-r-r-r), so the half-time entertainment and Super Bowl commercials will have to do. Bring on the food and beverages, such as Dos Equis, Monterey, Corona with lots of lime, and Diet Dr. Pepper makes me happy too. The sweet Gallo fruit wines (Sweet Apple, Sweet Peach, and Sweet Pineapple) make me sweeter than sweet, warm and fuzzy, and hap, hap, happy. Give me a glass of wine, and I can sit at a keyboard with a glow and words that just flow like liquid silver. I prefer silver or white gold over yellow gold. Give me a 2nd glass and the liquid precious metal color makes no difference. It's all good.
The first time I became familiar with Fritos was we first moved to McAllen TX when I was a very young child. Fritos' home was in TX, as was Dr. Pepper, and that bag of Fritos was on our table at dinner time, eaten with the hottest of hot chillies---the tiny green ones that made you cry and made your nose run---and we all messed around with jalapenos though they got pussy-fied after the mean green baby ones. We all found our niche with Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican faire. We had 3 Mexican ladies working with us in our home-based Knowles Infra-Red Sandwich Services. Carolina helped with the house, and Petra & Margarita helped with recipes and putting together the different sandwiches, heat-sealing them in the correctly ID'ed cellophane bags with simple mechanisms on counters built in the breezeway that was enclosed with screen and narrow louvered windows. It was a very large room that connected the two-car garage to the house (kitchen). It was wonderful. On one side a door that went outside to our grill and picnic table; the other side of windows showed our beautiful banana tree, a bougainvillea and small collection of varied palm tree varieties. My mother, bless her heart, worked so hard on those recipes. She did a lot of the meats in pressure cookers, and the STEAM was incredible in that kitchen. We had to slide the pocket doors closed to the dining room and to the hall from the living room to the bedrooms & baths to keep it from becoming too much of a heat load for the A/C. Her health wasn't the greatest because of that work. She had boils in hidden places on her body and her appendix had to be removed. I doubt the steam & hard work caused it all, but she never let it get her completely down & out. Our hard-working girls were a huge help to us also.
My dad had a new red & white big honkin' '56 Chevy station wagon with add-on A/C (not factory in those days), and he had a refrigeration man build him a big box that had its own refrigeration unit for delivery of sandwiches all over the Rio Grande Valley. Each patron had his/her own infra-red machine with timer, and the cellophane sealed bags had a component that allowed intense heat without burning up, yet heated the content to perfection. It was cutting edge in the 50s, and it was a huge hit. He took me with him on his route when I wanted to go. Used to be cigarettes were given away for samples with 4 in a neat little package. I was fascinated by the charm of the neat little pack, so my dad got me to 'light one up.' He laughed so hard while I was holding back the puke. We delivered to bowling alleys, gas stations (no convenience stores then), taverns, theatres, etc. In summer, when not in school, I took many orders, names, and phone #s to give to my dad when he got home from his Valley route.
We never lost our taste for the authenticity of great Mexican food, and with our beloved Mexican friends/employees, we learned how to seek out the best. When we first arrived in TX, we were sent to this out-of-the-way tin shack with canvas windows that were held up with broomsticks. No screens, no glass, and no public health food inspectors, LOL! I sank 7-year-old teeth into my first cheese & onion enchilada, and at that tender age, I thought I was dying, and by God, I KNEW I was going to heaven without a doubt or prayer. I've never had any like those anywhere else, but I found a recipe that I'm betting is close, but no cigar. My cookbooks define my love: My Sweet Mexico, The Homesick Texan, etc. I've never been able to match the food of the little tin shack or La Hacienda or even some of Luby's Cafeteria's Tex-Mex recipes (yes, I have that cookbook too---chain of cafeterias in TX), but some of the local Mexican ristorantes here are close 2nds, such as Taco Amigos here in Mattoon and the Charleston IL El Rancherito, where Dick has learned all the bad-taste Spanish they will give him. They call him "Ricardo Cabeza," (Dick Head), and I am simply "Nanci." My best friend in McAllen was Sarah Jane, and their little Mexican live-in help, Maria, named me "Nancina." I loved her. I wanted her to live with us.
There's still time to pick out the simple ingredients of Frito Pie and have some jalapeno poppers, boneless wings in your favorite flavors, chips, dips, and the beauty of most of this is it's all readily available to buy already made. Just throw this simplest of Frito Pie together, and wow yourself and/or anyone you're sharing with. I'll also be switching over to the Puppy Bowl and the Kitten Bowl.
http://www.texascooking.com/recipes/fritopie.htm
