Spices from Chicago made my Burritos

So, first and foremost:
Sorry again for being super lame and forgetting to update. Between working 13 days in a row, family moving, and then getting to take a vacation to Chicago, I've been a bit flighty. Why Miss Rabbit doesn't post is beyond me. Maybe she's lazy. You guys should all write her and tell her how mean she is for not posting.

So, here's how silly I am. I fly half way across the country, and the only souvenir I bring back? Spices. We went to this God's gift to man little spice shop..Err. The Spice House actually.. And my god I wanted to spend every cent on me. And I wanted to sell an organ and buy more.

I held back. With reserve and help from my friend, I purchased Sunny Oaxaca Ancho-Coffee Rub. Now, I know it was supposed to be a rub, but know what? Nope. I ran with it.

Kobold's Fancy Freaking Pork Burrito

The hardest part? The beans. I hate soaking and cooking beans. It takes forever..

What will you need, G?

• 
  
• Pork - I did a pork loin, about 1.6lbs
• Spices: Yeah, you know what one I did. 
• About a teaspoon of olive oil
• Coffee - Strong. 
• Black beans
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tortillas
• What ever else you want in your burrito

So how do we do it?

• 
  
• I like to slice a nice grid in my pork. 

• Shove parts of those grids full of  bits of garlic. Season all over all of this.

• Oil the bottom of your crock pot and put the pork in it
• Surround with coffee. 
• Slow cook this beast. I like to wait until the spices are well cooked into the meat and then baste. Baste with coffee. SO MUCH COFFEE. 

• Beans: Soak beans. Cook beans. Directions on the package. 

• Mash the means. 

• Shred the pork.

• Make a burrito.
• I like to put my burritos on the griddle. I admit, my burrito wrapping game is WEEEAAAKKK. 
• I like corn. I've discussed before how I season and make my corn. 

Nacho Nacho Man... I want to be a Nacho Man

Now picture a large bearded man shimmying and spinning around.

With that, I give you :

Nachos. 

I'm not going to hold your hand. They are freaking nachos. You lay down chips, throw some cheese, and make it hot and melty. I think there are chimpanzees in the wild who make nachos from leaves and cheese. Don't ask where a monkey gets cheese, you don't want this answer.

What am I going to do? Instead I'm going to walk you through how to not make your nachos suck. I mean, you would think this wasn't possible, right? But cheap cheap cheese and boring chips sucks. Unless you're drunk, and then a cardboard box with what might be cheese is freaking incred-e-balls.

So there are some tricks to nachos.

• Season that chip
• Pick a good cheese
• Add a few veggies and/or fruit
• Don't bake your meat 
• Citrus is your friend.
• Lay-yers.
• Don't cook it too long!

This is simple come to life. So lets break it down:

Seasoning is going to save your face. A little granulated garlic sprinkled around? Awesome. Some pepper, cayenne, chili powder? Totally. Just, don't go over board. 

Cheese should be simple. Grab something that melts. But I honestly love to either shred my own cheddar, colby, asadero, anything that melts good. Blend it! The generic pre-shredded Mexican Blend? Not a bad option! Really. In most cases it's got a good base to it that'll take seasoning well and melt without burning the chips in the process. 

Fruits and Veggies are great things to sneak in. Green onion, slides and spread about, you can run the gambit on the colors of peppers. Those sweet peppers they sell that are all colorful. Avocados, pineapples, shallots, normal onion, garlic cloves. They key here is don't over power the cheese. You want everything to be friends. 

I cook my meat separate. This seems odd. You can brown it, toss it over the top, and let it bake. But I prefer to cook my meat in a skillet while everything else bakes. I then toss it over when everything is hot. It gets it's own seasoning, I normally make the meat more savory than spicy, because I often use things like chili or cayenne already on the chips. This gives a layer of flavor, and saves your chips from baking the grease from the meat in, where while skillet cooking you can repeatedly drain that off. 

Citrus. Seriously I love lemons and limes. The juice from these is magic when lightly squirted over the chips. It soaks in just a bit, bakes, gives the chips flavor, brings out flavors from other things. Then you can get fancy. Ever had nachos with a bit of orange or blood orange flavoring? Mangos? Yes please. 

Layer it. Don't just hope your cheese and spices will soak in - They don't. A layer of chips, season and cheese, a layer of chips, season and cheese. It's like Nacho Lasagna and it's worth the few extra moments of effort. Gives more bites of cheese and flavor and far fewer naked chipy-whips.

 Cooking it.This is, to some, a science. To me? I cook it until the cheese melts, the top layer gets a slightly grilled cheese look. I cook at about 350/375 and it normally takes me just long enough to bake it as it does for me to cook my meat.  

Nachos are easy. The problem is they are easy to mess up and make boring, or suck.

Enjoy them, think a bit about what tastes good, and melt some yum.

On a roll! Wait no, Tortilla!

I am on a roll with posting though! This cooking this be fun, yo.

So tonight the Mighty Miss Rabbit was burdened with finding something to make. So she hit up her secret lover (Pinterest) and I can only assume she typed something like "OMFG what can I make that isn't too hard and I can still con Kobold into cooking tonight!!!"

Ok she doesn't con me as much as I enjoy helping, and then she sneaks away and laughs maniacally. It works.

So what did we do?
White Sauce Enchiladas.

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Gimme Some Oven we had something to go off of!!

We pulled up their recipe and went to the market. And promptly screwed up, grabbed "Mexican Cheese," forgot sour cream or yogurt, and, well, lets just say we might have been distractable. It happens. Don't judge.
The worst part? We didn't notice until we got home. So, we made due:

• 6 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup flour
• 1 can o' chicken stock
• 1 small can chopped Chiles
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ cup mozzarella 
• 10 normal sized tortillas
• Around 1 lb chopped and cooked chicken
• 1 can White Northern beans
• 8 ounces Mexican Cheese
• 1 avocado
• Cilantro to taste

You'll notice it's almost spot on to Gimme Some Oven's. It gets a little weird around here. Mainly because we ain't that smart sometimes. 

Onto the Yummy

Let's start with the chicken (the easy part).

1. Chop up that chicken into bits and pieces as small as you want. Rabbit uses scissors, and giggles. 
2. Throw it in a pan, and cook it!
1. So I didn't add in the spices. But, all we did was add about
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon this awesome citrus chili power I've acquired somewhere.
3. Cook it through. It doesn't take but like, 8 minutes if you cut them small. 

The sauce (the not as easy part!)

1. You get to learn to make a roux!
1. In a sauce pan throw in half of your butter and let it liquify
2. Add in about a quarter of your flour
3. Whisk this until it becomes a lovely gelatinous glob- Cook until it browns a bit
2. Add in about half of your chicken stock, whisking and stirring to get it mixed and no clumpy bits. Let this cook for about two minutes.
3. Add in more flour and chicken stock. Whisk whisk whisk! Continue until you're out of flour and chicken stock. Going a bit slow helps.
4. Throw in your chiles.
5. Add that mozzarella!
6. Stir this occasionally on like, 3 or 4 depending on your stove. Not quite half heat. You'll notice the sauce thickens, the cheese at first forms a ball all on it's own, then slowly (but surely) it'll mix into the sauce and taste yummy. 
7. Add your cumin

While the sauce becomes freaking incredible off to the side, spend some time building your first layer of nom. This isn't hard. Chop some tortillas in half, and lay them out in a roasting pan of some sort (I use one that's like 9"x14"). Make a good covered layer. Throw in some of your beans. I added some sliced cilantro. Throw in some of your chicken, about half. By now your sauce should be saucey and sassy. Pour about a third of it over this layer. I use a spoon to spread and mix all the yumminess over the tortillas. Spread some of your Mexican Cheese over the top. Add tortillas like you did before, and do it all again. More tortillas, and you'll be out of meat and beans! But you have a top. You can stop here, but, I like more sauce and cheese.
 Lay out your sliced lawyers (err, avocados) over the top and make it pretty! 

Cover the pan with foil, and toss it in the oven at 350. You probably should have pre-heated, but who am I to judge?
Let this bake for about a half an hour, and poof, yummy, if improvised, white enchiladas. 

Sere with a cold beer and a shot of tequila! I like Don Julio myself ahaha.

Are you a Mexican, or a Mexican't!?

Ok I wouldn't use that joke if it wasn't something we've heard in real life. The first time I heard about it a good friend was recounting one of his favorite bus rides ever. A few months back, I heard a father say it to his son. It makes me laugh. Every time. A lot.

La Costa is a small place off Sierra Vista and Swenson. It's tucked into this shady looking strip mall that has like 2 or 3 things still open. The first time I went was with a coworker who kept telling me it was fine, the place had great food. I was worried. I was hungry. I was intrigued.
So far I've had their tacos, burritos and tortas. I love a good sammich, and their tortas make me happy every time. Their burritos, though, are why I go there for lunch. For $3.99 you get an all meat burrito. No onion or cheese or rice filler. Just this wonderfully seasoned meat that falls apart in your mouth. It's not often that I will brag about meat being in my mouth, it makes me feel dirty to say like that, but this stuff? Yeah it's fine to talk about like that. I'm good with it. Give me your big meaty burrito!

Ahem, enough of that.

I've eaten at Roberto's and their many clones, and for those of you that have, the serving sizes are about the same, if not a little bigger. The main difference is where Roberto's is "Yeah that was good.." this place is more of "Nom.. Mmm yeah Nom nom nom nom good.

It's a small joint, I think I've seen three workers total, and it's fine by me. It's open early, and late until 11:00pm. I think the longest I've waited for food was about 10 minutes. It's worth the jaunt over any time, and they always seem happy to have people coming in.