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This sounds like the opening line of an entertaining story: OK, I’ll bite. What happened in 1958 that caused you to quit Fritos?

It's 11.40pm and I'm roasting 2kg of pork shoulder. It's only halfway through plus time to get the crackling crackled. Why am I like this.

First of all, I wouldn't use Fritos. I quit eating Fritos in 1958, and pretty much stayed away from corn chips and Frito-like products until discovering TJ's corn chips a couple of years ago. I like both of TJ's versions, and depending on whom I was feeding, I'd use one or the other. I'd fry up some ground beef with diced onions, add some herbs and spices depending on mood (I could see Rancho Gordo oregano Indo and my own blend of dried chile powder [Ancho, Guajillo, Pasilla Oaxaca for example] and which corn chips I was using. I'd add drained, diced fire roasted tomatoes packed with citric acid to help them retain shape and texture, a can of TJ's green hatch chilies or, if on hand, some very finely diced jalapeño. I'd use Whole Foods 365 spiced (or not) black beans, shredded cheddar or maybe pepper jack cheese. I'd adjust the moisture content with Bonafide organic beef bone broth. I'd layer the dish with chips, meat mix, chips, cheese, etc., rather than mix everything together and pop the whole mess into the oven to brown a little. The top layer would be cheddar, even if using pepper jack, and maybe some broken corn chip pieces would be rained across the final cheese layer. I'd probably cook the casserole in the Fat Daddio 3" deep 9 x 13 pan. Nice pan, good for taking to a pot luck and feeding a crowd. Except for the bottom layer of chips, which would be spread out over a very light layer of sauce to form sort of a bottom crust, the layers of chips would be spread thin so they'd not clump together too much and make eating the casserole just a little easier and more pleasant. Anyway, I'm just riffing on an idea or two. For a dish like this, the recipe is often cupboard dependent, but generally I'm pretty well stocked. Hope this gives you what you're looking for.

I agree. @pazzaglia has a bunch of risotto recipes on her site and this one for an asparagus risotto that uses a quick stock made from the asparagus trimmings really won me over. I sometimes add shrimp to that one, too.

If you were to make a Frito Pie, Shel, how would you make it?

On the previous page I linked to a video of the Cassonade cannelé shop in Bordeaux who make theirs with T80 flour (less refined) and cassonade sugar (also less refined). I was curious how this would compare to my regular recipe (adapted from Pierre Hermé). So, Cassonade at the back, Hermé in front... The Cassonade ones took a little longer to colour evenly (5-10 mins). There wasn't much difference in appearance outwardly, except the Hermé were ever so slightly taller... The Cassonade were a shade more beige inside, presumably from the sugar... The Hermé were a touch more yellow, presumably helped by the extra yolk... Flavour-wise, it wasn't a huge difference. The Cassonade tasted 'browner' somehow, but I doubt in a blind test I'd be able to put my finger on the specific flour or sugar. Texture was where things got interesting. The Cassonade had a crisper shell, but the inside was more dense and not as soft and creamy as the Hermé. I don't think the crispness was down to the slightly extended cooking time, because that tends to make the shells thicker and crunchier rather than pleasingly crisper (hard to explain!). Overall, I still preferred the Hermé textural contrast between inside and out, but the Cassonade shell was good, so maybe I'll punch T80 and brown sugar into Hermé's recipe and see if I get the benefit.

https://thebitenm.com/frito-pie-a-new-mexico-classic/

If only they would come to Canada. There was a business in Vancouver years ago that sold TJ's stuff at inflated prices. I think it was called Pirate Joes's. Anyway - I guess TJ's shut them down with a cease and desist. Fair enough. There is one in Bellingham WA, which is about 40 km from me - I used to go down two or three times a year. Now I'm standing with my fellow Canucks, trying not to spend any money south of the 49th. Hopefully I will wake up and this has all been a bad dream....

We've eaten at Mokonuts a couple of times...thanks for the heads-up! They definitely like their labné!

Only on Day 3 !!

I would love to have breakfast with you - every day! Between your unique breakfasts and your personality, it would be a wonderful meal!

I was really skeptical the first time I made risotto in the instapot but I have never looked back. Once it is cooked, you can turn on saute for a minute if it's to soupy but I've never had that problem. Once the parm and butter are added at the end, it is pretty reliably perfect.

A few recent breakfasts. Peanut butter & banana on toast with hot honey drizzle. Used to eat this everyday when I was a kid, without the honey. Kimchi dog - I was in a mood! The ALF sandwich from A Super Upsetting Book about Sandwiches Roasted asparagus topped with a drizzle of roasted tomato mayo (tomato, onion, garlic and jalapeño, roasted and blended into mayo) and a sprinkle of fried garlic on a split-top bun toasted in butter with a squeeze of lime juice.

Really. While the original "Frito Pie" used Fritos, as in the beginning Fritos was the only corn chip available (early 1930's IIRC). It has been said that, about a decade after the creation of the chip, the Frito company themselves created the recipe in order to promote their prodct, and naturally the Fritos brand chip was featured. Now, most any corn chip, including generic supermarket brands, are used in Frito pies. Currently, Frito Pie denotes more of a style than the use of a specific ingredient (although Fritos is still quite commonly used), and that style, that original recipe idea, has morphed into many variations. A few years ago, in Lincoln, New Mexico, I had a variation made with tortilla chips, which I later found to be not that unusual. Frito Pie, often called a walking taco, is frequently made with Doritos instead of the corn chip. Back around 1981, my wife and I had a dish (the precise name of which I don't recall) which was described as "corn chip pie" at the historic Oxford Hotel in Walsenburg, CO. BTW, in your opinion, what is a "real Frito pie?" Is it the concoction served in a Fritos bag (dare I say corn chip bag?), or the casserole so frequently served at backyard and community barbeques, or the individual bowls served at many restaurants throughout the Southwest.

https://www.themediterraneandish.com/shrimp-risotto-recipe/

Glad to hear that it isn’t gamey. I was feeling bad for you, putting all the research into it and spending just shy of $3k on your project, only to have a few hundred pounds of “not nice” meat.

Oh meatloaf! I haven't had that in a long time. I used to love the meatloaf sandwiches the next day with mayo and ketchup, but I don't think I'll be doing that. I'm really cutting back on carbs. But high quality meatloaf with high quality fat content - oh yeah. Tail, cheeks, snouts and trotters are not for me! Too outside the box for my simple palate. Greg

If you follow David Lebovitz maybe this Parisian restaurant is familiar to you. Actually I was on Phaidon's website ordering the pre-release for On Meat by Jeremy Fox and somehow the Mokonuts book ended up in my cart! So here is a first look

Have you ever had a real Frito Pie? In New Mexico (or Texas)? I can just imagine the look on someone's face when you for a Trader Joe's corn chip pie!

Ok, I was wrong. Last night we had the sirloin steaks in the picture I posted and a hamburger patty. No gamey taste or smell at all. I cooked them in a skillet with shallots, garlic, salt and pepper and the steaks were delicious. I didn't have quite enough food from the small steak, so I decided to cook a burger. I purposely didn't use any other seasoning on it, just cooked in the leftover oil/seasoning that was in the skillet. It was really good. That's a relief! I should have waited a bit longer to taste and smell more of it before saying it was gamey. I was basing the gamey smell off of the beef I put with my eggs every morning. The gamey smell/flavor is probably just from my eggs or egg/meat mixture. I have a very keen sense of smell and any little thing that is off bothers me. I've been putting some salsa in with my egg/meat mix and it's really good. Tex-Mex egg bowl. Greg

Yesterday I saw this pan featured on one of the YouTube cooking shows that I enjoy: https://www.stratacookware.com/ The skillet uses a 3-layered construction unlike single layered traditional carbon steel pans. It uses a carbon steel cooking surface, an aluminum core, and a stainless steel outer layer. The result is said to provide the benefits of cooking on carbon steel with lighter weight provised by the aluminum middle layer. The reviews and tests that I watched from various videos were positive. https://youtu.be/o73ev0cC5pQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivikVNb1nY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV96azQuj58 Has anyone tried this pan yet? Any thoughts on the design and construction from the cookware mavens? I'm seriously considering getting the 10-inch pan.

Not if you take my opinions an empirical fact and commands. Gosh you catch on slow

I've been grappling with the moral dilemma of being totally open or subjecting the innocent to crimes against food, so have so far avoided any mention of the yellow peril, although it seriously limits my posting options. I will consult my psychiatrist and probation officer over the weekend and make my final decision. "To post or not to post. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows or take arms against the yellow poison", as the 16th century pizza maker said.

I’m sure @liuzhou is saving the best for last!

still no sight of sweet corn. I've seen that in Norway!.