Barrio Life
I'm lying in my bed at 9:30 in the morning with all the windows open. The weather has been truly spectacular for at least three days. At night the crickets are so loud I feel like I'm in a tent in the wilderness, a tent that accommodates my $2,000 bed and has indoor plumbing. The crickets' song drowns out even the drag racing on Federal.
Sometimes I love living in the barrio. Right now I smell some neighbors' food cooking, and it's like being back in San Blas with Chuy at work in the kitchen juicing eight pounds of oranges while making juevos divorciados. All right, I can't smell any oranges, it's just that the last time I was in Mexico, Chuy served Rachel and the girls and me fresh OJ every morning - in bed(!) Today I can smell the onions and tortillas, the pico de gallo, the jalapeños, the refritos.
I want to get up and make chilaquiles for Wendy and me but I wonder if we have all the ingredients. Then I remember chilaquiles are like Everything But the Kitchen Sink Soup, you make them with whatever is lying around. Maybe I'll get out of bed and try. I just wish the cilantro we were growing hadn't died.
My Recipe for Chilaquiles
* About 5-8 stale corn tortillas cut into triangles and fried in cheap vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet
* fresh Olathe sweet sweet corn sliced off the cob
* 2 purple jalapeños from the garden, sliced
* 3/4 yellow onion, chopped
* 5 eggs and the last of the 1/2-n-1/2, watered down
Fry the sweet sweet corn, jalapeños, and onion in the oil left after the tortillas are done. Scramble the eggs and add them to the skillet, cooking till slightly underdone. In a square Pyrex, layer chips, egg mixture, chips, egg mixture, and top with the last of the chips. Pour one can of cheap enchilada sauce that you got off the discount shelves in the back corner of the good King Soopers for 79 cents. Sprinkle shredded Mexican cheese blend on top, as much as you like. Bake in 350 degree oven for 25ish minutes, till cheese is all melty. Let rest 5ish minutes, then serve. Make a note for next time to roast the corn first and use hotter jalapeños. Otherwise, outrageously good.
