Dianne's Green Chile Smothered Burrito

Ingredients:

2 pounds lean ground (preferably grass fed, kosher) beef

flour tortillas (ones with baking soda instead of baking powder)

chopped lettuce and tomatoes

Beef stock or water

Fresh or frozen chopped Green Chile (Anaheim chiles, not Jalapeno!)

1 onion

2 cloves (organic) garlic, smashed or pressed

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Prepare the lettuce and tomatoes and set aside. 

In a large saucepan, brown the onions slightly over medium heat in a little coating of olive oil. Add the hamburger and brown with the onions, stirring often. Add a quarter cup of flour to make a reux, stirring into the meat mixture to brown the flour for a couple of minutes, stirring. Add four cups beef stock or water and stir gently, bringing it to a boil again over medium heat. Add two and a half pounds (One large and one small commercial brand frozen, home prepared frozen, or fresh roasted if available in the Fall ) chopped Green Chile and the garlic. Stir, turn burner to low, and simmer for 30 minutes.  In large skillet on medium heat, coat pan with a few drops of olive oil and wipe with paper towel. Warm the flour tortillas on both sides, cover all and set aside in slightly warm oven.

Put a half cup of flour in a bowl and add water, stirring well, until you have a slightly thick paste and all flour is dissolved.  This is your thickener. Add to the Green Chile slowly, stirring constantly. Make more and add it, if needed, to the Chile, until it's slightly thickened. Cook a minute or two and remove from heat.

Place some cheese on a tortilla, on the edge nearest you. Cover with two heaping spoons full of the Green Chile. Roll up away from you and place each roll on respective serving plates (one or two on each).  Ladle Green Chile onto the rolled filled tortillas. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, and a dollop of sour cream (optional). 

Note: Southwesterners usually like their Green Chile very hot, but you can also find 'mild' in most stores, though it might not be as flavorful. (If frozen or fresh Green Chile is not available in your local grocery store, check a Mexican food specialty store. And don't forget to request from the store manager, that he or she buy Green Chile. I once moved to Texas where they'd never heard of Green Chile, and I asked the store manager to purchase some frozen Bueno Brand Green Chile, and it became popular in that town!)  

This is one of my family's favorite dishes! Enjoy! - Dianne

Ahhh, Home Grown Tomatoes

"Rock", from eFoods Direct, shares his own secret recipe for success in growing tomatoes on the porch:

"Today I’d like to tell you how to do something I know almost nothing about, but at which I have enjoyed brilliant success for the past four years.  I’m going to tell you how to grow really big tomato plants on your front porch.

Now, it’s very likely that some of you real gardeners out there won’t be impressed at all by my revolutionary methods.  You may even say, “everyone does that.”  But I’ve never heard it done this way, and never read about it, so I’m going to share my super-duper tomato growing secret now.

I’m 6’2″ tall, and several inches wider than I should be. Yet I’ve grown tomato plants on my porch an inch or two taller than me and just about as wide.  These tomato plants are as tall as a stalk of corn.  I’ve never been able to grow tomatoes in dirt anywhere near that tall and full. Strangers strolling by have stopped to stare and admire."  Read more, here.

Why there is a monster in our cupboard