What are we to do when we have purchased so many $5/lb beans from Rancho Gordo? I mean, with gas prices at close to $5 a gallon, that $5 a pound for beans seems, well, I dunno, relative? Well, I just can’t eat the mega-mart beans anymore.

You know it is almost a shame. I got my life together at 25. Up until that time, I was pretty much a Robert Downey, Jr., I don’t stand in line at clubs, kinda guy. I made a decision to join the Army, get off the streets of Philadelphia, leave the clubbing life, and protect this country and all of you beautiful people. Of course, I had an agenda. I didn’t become all GI Joe and whatnot, leaving my wild all-night-long life for expletive yelling cadre for nothing. There was a plan. I was going to serve the government, actually become its property, and it was going to provide me with an opportunity to obtain a marketable skill. This plan worked out for me.

So I manage to “do my time", get honorably discharged, manage to actually miss the experience (read: but not the minuscule paycheck), and parlee the entire experience into a decent engineering career. Now after all this, all my sacrifice, all my pain, all those long, long, marches, most excellent weaponology training, I get a decent job, and I find that I need to get a second job, maybe a third, just to pay for gas!!! I am not happy Mr. Bush! I may be a conservative, but this is truly ridiculous! I am especially furious, because I have one of those sporty cars that requires, you know, REQUIRES I SAID, premium gas. Dangit, I have to fill tomorrow. Crap! Are any of you guys hiring? I know, let’s start a food blogger gas fund and hope that people contribute. Whaddya say?

Well there but for the grace… go I. And I now find myself cash-poor but, belly full! The latter is most important to me, mind you.

I must mention that I was recently given the Arte y Pico award from Su-Lin at Tamarind and Thyme and, get this, from Ruth over at Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments. This is truly an excellent recognition for me. This award is given for creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogger community. I really thank both Su-Lin and Ruth for thinking of me, and my blog, for this award. I truly appreciate it.

Now, as any meme requires, I am to pass this award on to 5 other blogs that I find are worthy. Here are my choices for this award:

1. Kim at A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen. Kim makes southern dishes with Yankee passion. But her blog prose is almost poetic.
2. A true inspiration to me is Claudia over at Cook Eat Fret. It was her blog that got me started really. She prepares such great dishes and pushes the boundaries along with her prose pushing the envelope.
3. Katy at Sugarlaws is another cook whose passion I admire. She blogs her creations with the passion and conviction of a state prosecutor who has all the evidence needed to crush that punk who stole your, your, your…whatever! Do feel lucky punk? Well…do ya?
4. Krysta at Evil Chef Mom creates dishes that are imaginative. Her prose which usually involves her husband and charges is always a great read.
5. Sharon at Culinary Adventures of a New Wife is definitely one of my favorites. Her dedication to her husband and cooking, her perspective, is evident through her prose. Enjoy it Sharon. I’ve been married for 5+ years and I am still on my honeymoon!

On to the meat of this post…so to speak. We love to go to our local Mexican restaurant which is right around the corner. Now there is a Taco Hell nearby attached to a KFC and both are equally awful. I am not sure that I can identify the “meat” in those tacos and burritos from Taco Hell. We try to stay away from those two places.

I lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years back in 1974. Yes I am THAT old. We had a housekeeper who was Mexican and no one in my family could speak Spanish except me. That worked out nicely for me in the cucina con la comida. I got to learn a lot about making burritos. Maria used to make me burritos for breakfast by simply tossing the disc onto a gas eye, flipping, then filling. Oh so good.

This is my redition of the basic beef and bean burrito supremo. The supremo is the guac, sour cream, shredded lettuce, and ripe chopped tomato, atop the burrito. This is truly easy to make and equally as easy to devour!

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INGREDIENTS:

2 lbs ground beef (I use beef not chuck for this application)
1/2 lb pinto beans (preferably Rancho Gordo) soaked and cooked (I cooked mine for 4 hours, then added salt, pepper, and some cayenne.
3 Haas avacados
1 medium-large onion diced
1 cup queso blanco packed - grated
1 large tomato chopped
garlic to taste (I used 6 cloves)
shredded lettuce (about 1 cup)
2 tsp Mexican oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp Mexican chili powder
1 can green chiles
2 tbsp cilantro chopped
sour cream
1 cup brown rice cooked
oil for cooking
salt and pepper

For Bechemel
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour

METHOD:

Heat an oven to 250 degrees-f

Make a quick guacamole. Slice and pit the avacados. Dice the avacados and put into a bowl. Add onion, salt and pepper and 1 tbsp cilantro. Refrigerate.

Wrap 4 large tortillas in foil and put into the oven.

Bring the cooked beans to a simmer if not already.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat.

Add the ground beef, breaking it up.

Let beef cook for about 2 minutes.

Add half the onion, oregano, cumin, chili powder, coriander, and stir in.

While the beef is cooking down, make a bechemel in a sauce pan. Melt butter, then whisk in flour until smooth. Keep over medium-low heat.



Add grated queso blanco. Stir peridocally until melted, thickened, and smooth.

Add two spoonfuls of the beans. Smash a lot of them.

Add the chiles and cilantro

Stir and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Remove tortillas from oven. They should be warm and flexible. Turn oven up to 350 degrees-f.

Keep them covered.

Remove one and prepare to roll.

Add a loving spoonful of the beef to the middle of the tortilla. Then roll:

Place the rolled tortillas in to a baking dish. Cover each buritto with a ladle of the cheese.

Put burritos into the oven for about 7 minutes; just until warmed through and cheese is melty.

Garnish with shredded lettuce, sour cream, guac, and tomato. Add some rice topped with those delicious beans on the side. Es la comida para mi.