SERIOUS PARTY PIG

     What happened to "tomorrow?"  Yesterday now, and I haven't given you Chalupas.  That will be today's topic, to keep my little declension going.

     This is a recipe dating from our Midwest ex-pat group back in the day.  Which included Dorsey and Tom Pierce from North Dakota.  They don't actually speak Fargo, but they can light up a room with it if you ask them nicely.  

     The belief that the jello-pineapple concoction can be considered a green salad is 

true . . . you simply have to use lime jello when you make it.  But the real point is:  when you have to survive weeks of sub-zero weather, frozen pipes, frozen batteries, with only ice-fishing to brighten the days, you need to know your way around pork and beans.  Dorsey does.  Here's her recipe:

Chalupas

3 # pork roast, cut into 4-5 large chunks

1 # pinto beans

2 pods garlic, chopped

2 TBS chile powder

2 TBS cumin

1 tsp. oregano

1 4-oz can chopped green chiles

2-3 TBS salt

Yes, two whole pods of garlic.  It's okay.  Just do it.

Put all ingredients into a pot and add water to cover.  Cook for 6 hours, low heat, covered, or until beans are soft and the meat falling apart.  Maybe only 3 hours -- use your judgment.  Add water as needed to keep pork submerged.

Take meat out and shred.  Cook beans 1 hour longer, until thickened.  Reintroduce the meat and taste for seasoning.  It helps if you use a scoop of Fritos for this to get the total effect.  Or you can tell your mate that if you get caught in the act.

Have bowls of the following available for self service around the meat/bean mix, and dish up in this order:

1. Fritos (either scoops or regular)

2. Chalupas

3. Grated cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, as you like)

4.  chopped onion

5.  shredded lettuce

6.  diced tomatoes

7.  diced avocado

8.  salsa or taco sauce or both.  A little sour cream would not be amiss here, but sour cream might be a bit too fancy for North Dakotans. 

Note the simplicity, the make-ahead quality, the potential for extemporaneous additions.  This is perfect for watching the endless football games on the 1st.  And it's really crazy good!

The last Christmas Cookie recipe you'll ever really need.

     As an experiment, at the promting of my mentor in all things computer, Allsion, I'm going to "share" this to my FaceBook page.  Who knows what that will look like?

     My kitchen smells this morning, not of cinnamon and cloves, but garlic and fish sauce.  Merry Christmas?  The pickle queens have been at it again.
     But I'm not going to give you the recipe for kimchi, the Korean condiment responsible for the unlikely aromas in my house -- you will never make it, and I probably won't again.  What are you supposed to do with kimchi?  My cooking buddy Vik, my co-queen has munched it alongside a pastrami on rye, and stirred it into scrambled eggs, and claims it's fabulous, but I'm not there yet.  We'll see.
     What I have in mind today are first, cookies.  Yes, I know, you think the last thing you need is another cookie recipe at this late date, but you're wrong, if you don't already have Grandma Viehl's Melting Moments.
     When I met my mother-in-law, I began to understand what might be possible in the kitchen.  She made an ordinary "cold meat" sandwich transcend it's limits, baked yeast rolls that pulled apart in etherial strands of a buttery sacrament . . . oh there, I said it.  Butter.  Okay, back in Oregon, we had a cow, we had a butter churn and knew how to use it, and yet my mom decided somewhere along the line to squeeze orange food coloring into white footballs of vegetable shortening.  I'm sure she had her reasons.  Come on, it sounds lovely, but milking a cow and making butter is hard work, added to raising 4 daughters, raising all our fruit and vegetables and then canning and freezing it, sewing all our clothes, and so on when you don't have much money and a husband gone all the time.  So I forgive her, but oh man, butter?
     I was pretty parochial about our Christmas cookies, which really didn't need butter:  springerlie, vanilla strips?  Well, okay the Wandering Jews did want butter, but of course they got what we called oleo.  (What an awful word).  But Myrtle was of the Lutheran, Swedish persuasion, so she made spritz -- which were pretty good and have joined my repertory.  But the ones that converted me from the German tradition prevailing back here in Oregon were the above mentioned Melting Moments.  They're so easy you can make them in minutes, and really, you just should.  Here's to Mrytle Viehl.

MELTING MOMENTS

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup corn starch
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour.

Beat these things together until they form a mass.  Form into balls, the size of well, bigger than marbles, smaller than golf balls.  Use corn starch on your hands instead of flour to work these.  Place them on cookie sheets, then flatten somewhat with a thumb dusted with  the corn starch.  Bake at 400 degrees, for 10 minutes.  Depending on your oven, you might prefer 375 for a bit longer.  Watch them carefully.  You want them to be just slightly brown around the bottom edges.

Remove to a rack and cool

For the frosting:

2 TBS butter
2 TBS milk
1 cup powdered sugar
green food coloring

Melt the butter with the milk in a bowl in the micro.  When bubbly, combine with the powdered sugar and food coloring.  You need the food coloring or they won't be Melting Moments.  Frost the cookies.  Store them carefully between sheets of waxed paper and then try to protect them from the pirates living with you.

We're all tired now, so I'm going to post this and tell you about Chalupas tomorrow.  You're going to want Chalupas for your New Years football-watching parties.  Easy, and honestly, your guests will want the recipe too . . .