Carne Adovada Repair?

So, Tuesday was Bill and I’s second wedding anniversary. The plan was for it to start with carne adovada breakfast burritos.

I dragged my father, who was visiting Sunday and Monday, to one of our two butcher shops to buy 5 lbs of meat. I carefully trimmed it down and cut it into chunks late Monday night after visiting with several of my beer friends at a beer launch. I placed it in the same slow-cooker I have always made carne adovada in, with the same amount of red chile (two cups) I have always used.

The house smelled amazing the next morning when we opened the slow-cooker. We were very excited. Only to have our hopes cruelly dashed once we tried a piece.

It… was bland.… Continue reading →

The first meal.

To get the full context for this post, please read both Grant’s post and Ellen’s post over at the blog One Hundred Meals. The meal described in those posts and below was prompted by this project Ellen and Grant have launched. To get the fullest context, you really should read the full blog archives which, as of today’s post, are only six posts deep―and that’s including the two I linked to above. Maybe you won’t do all that now, but I hope by the end of my post, you’ll be convinced to do so.

This isn’t a widely read blog. I’m terrible at paying attention to analytics, so if I had to guess, I would guess I have no more than ten regular readers. Most, maybe all, who read this blog regularly know me personally.… Continue reading →

[113] Borracho Baked Beans

Cover of Red Chile Bible by Kathleen Hansel and Audrey Jenkins

I have a friend who throws an awesome party approximately yearly. I think she is not the originator of this party idea, but it has migrated to her home through the years. The party theme is “Beer and Bacon”. It’s basically a pot luck that everybody brings a food that has beer or bacon (or both!) involved. Also, many people just bring beer.

Obviously, it is full of deliciousness.

This year, I was very torn on what to bring. I just couldn’t make up my mind. Eventually, I settled on bacon macaroni and cheese. Bill thought this was a very great idea, I thought this was probably a great idea, and it sounded pretty straightforward. All systems were go. Until I realized that this is a pretty straightforward recipe, and so possibly it might be one the hosts would make…

Yup, going back and looking at a few comments she made on her blog about her plans, I realized she was definitely making bacon mac & cheese, and so I should probably do something else and not duplicate that.… Continue reading →