Monday, August 3, 2009

happy accidents


this dish was supposed to be a burrito, but the type of tortillas i was using were teff flour tortillas, which are more appropriate for ethiopian cooking. my first burrito fell apart, i cussed a few times, then i had a huge light bulb go off above my head. what would a good midwesterner do? make a casserole! it is a widely known fact that us folks from the midwest thoroughly enjoy bastardizing a perfectly good meal by throwing it in a casserole dish and occasionally topping it with french's french fried onions. casseroles are the glue that keep potlucks alive and the tummies of the sick, mourning, and new parents full of goodness. you might think i'm joking, but i've seen people jailed for not fulfilling this quota.

so i spread some enchilada sauce on the bottom of a lightly oiled glass baking dish, layered some of the tortillas on top of that, put my burrito fillings of veggies, pintos, ground boca burgers, brown rice, and taco seasoning, and repeated the sauce, tortillas, and the rest of the beans and rice on top. covered that puppito with some foil and cooked for 45 at three-fiddy, then uncovered for about 10 minutes more. topped it all off with some chopped jalapenos and banana peppers and had a dyn-o-mite burrito casserole that i happily nommed for three days in a row-(the second day i had it twice). i was amazed that i didn't turn into a giant fart machine, and i found that to be an added bonus. the flavors were perfect. i accented the casserole with a little tofutti sour supreme, home made salsa, avocado slices, and of course the obligatory consumption of frank's red hot.

so the next time a regular recipe goes awry in your kitchen, ask yourself: WWJD? what would jewbacca do?

tell me about a happy accident. what happened?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

When my enchiladas kept breaking apart and making a mess, i 'invented' nearly the same casserole as you just did. As a good polish midwest girl, i need at least 2 casseroles a week to maintain my health.

nora said...

good idea! i bet it was even better than reg burritos!

one time i had a lot of extra pasta della california from vcon (the broccoli avocado one), and it had gotten soggy and kinda nasty, so i put it in a baking dish and topped it with bread crumbs and made a casserole--it was good!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

ooh that sounds good!

I've had many accidents in the kitchen, some of which are happy. Usually I mess up and leave something out and sometimes it tastes better.

Bianca said...

Yum! I agree that casseroles are the best thing ever. Everything tastes better when piled into a baking dish and stuffed into the oven. I had some trouble with some brown rice flour burrito wraps the other day and I wish I'd thought of this. I ended up just eating the messy, broken burrito with a fork.

Cyn said...

Great recipe! Do you call casseroles "hot dish" where you live? That's very midwestern.