Saturday, June 18, 2005

The Tastes Of Home



There are a lot of memories that will remind me of my childhood. But, one thing that I know that I will never replace is the family dinners. I spent the last two days just thinking about dinner at my mother's house tonight (we celebrated Father's Day and my grandmother's 74th birthday.) All it took was for my mother to mention the magic phrase: Taco Pie. Whenever I've mentioned it to people before they've looked at me strangely but heck, I'm used to that. Today, I figured that I'd share this recipe with you as it happens to be one of my favorites.

Taco Pie is pretty simple to make and can be adapted to fit a lot of different tastes -- less this, more that and none of those. The simple version includes ground beef or turkey cooked with taco seasoning, uncooked croissant roll dough (usually comes in a can at the store), corn chips (Doritos or Fritos), mild cheddar cheese (longhorn cheddar or even a shredded Mexican cheese mix would work), sour cream and a little bit of time.

First, cook your taco beef. Take your croissant roll dough and place it in a butter (or substitute vegetable oil) coated pie tin. Make it look like a pie crust. Take some of your corn chips of choice, crunch them in your hands and sprinkle them as a first layer. Top that with your cooked taco beef, a thin layer of sour cream, cheese and a few crunched chips on the top for decor. For those of you willing to experiment more... try two layers. Bake that in the oven at 375 or so until the top and crust lip has gone just past golden. Then let it sit for a few minutes to cool. Sure you can add tomatoes, salsa, olives, onions, peppers and pretty much anything to this dish but we've always kept it simple.

I ate my fill tonight and almost came home with leftovers but it tells you something when that last slice disappeared and no one fessed up. hahaha Just wish I brought my camera to take a photo of it there instead of the taco pic but the idea is there. Just remember that when you start getting homesick, try to bring some of that home into your own.Posted by Hello

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna try that one...and you've got me in the mood to look up some new ones for the boys and I to try.

And Jill, I always get the same delivery guy from our Chinese restaurant and when he leaves he says "see ya next time" lol.

LoraLoo said...

My Mom used to make a variant of this when I was a little girl, and I'm glad you reminded me of it! I haven't had that in many moons, I'm going to have to make some.

RT said...

Yummmm! That does sound good! I'll have to see if I can find someone to make it for me :D

BTW, what do you mean Doritos or Fritos? I thought you were in the same age group that I am, (you know, 29ish). Were Doritos and Fritos even invented back then? I don't even remember seeing them until I was a teen...

Teri said...

Sounds pretty good, I might have to try a variety of it.

Anonymous said...

My mom's cooking is off the wall. My grandma's taught her so hers is the same. Mexican food in case you're wondering.

Martin said...

RT - Very wild history there: In 1932, Elmer Doolin bought the Fritos recipe, manufacturing equipment and 19 retail accounts from vendor at a small San Antonio cafe for a whopping $100. Frito-Lay would introduce Doritos nationally in 1966.

Btw, any of you that try the recipe, let me know how it comes out.

FantasticAlice said...

Sounds excellent, seems like less of a ordeal than just making all the fixings for tacos too. I'll have to give it a try!