My favorite Black Bean burritos:

Hardware)
1 medium pot OR sauce pan
1 10"+ fry pan
Broiler safe casserole
potato masher or fork
blender (optional)

Software)
2 cans black beans OR 1lb soaked black beans
4-8 wraps (number depends on size - I go out of my way for real corn wraps, but the flour gorditas are fine)
2 cans diced tomato (if you have a blender) or a 20-30oz can of tomato sauce
4 oz tomato paste
1 onion, diced
a few cloves of garlic, diced
shredded cheeze
1 piece bitter bakers chocolate
various spices

Mole Sauce:
First, make the tomato sauce. If don't have a blender, and bought premade sauce, feel free to warm it up in the pot/sauce pan and skip this step. Put the 2 cans of diced tomato and 2 oz of tomato paste in the blender. (Also, some hot pepper go really well in here, like chipoltles) Puree it with a small handful of the onion. Add salt, black pepper, cumin, chipotle (or red pepper), and a hint of cinnamon. If you have them, add in a little of of ground pumpkin seeds (you can use a coffee bean grinder) Move puree to pot/sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add in the chocolate and stir it in, then reduce for 20 minutes or so.

Filling:
Heat some oil in the fry pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes or until translucent. Toss in the beans (drain them fool!) and cook for a minute more. With the masher/fork, mash those beans real good! Add in the other 2 oz of tomato paste and mix it all up real good. Season with salt,pepper,red pepper, whatever you want. I like the filling to be milder then the sauce, but thick and heavy.

Assemble:
Toss some bean mixture into the wraps, fold them by bringing two ends in slightly, then pulling the other two all the way over. Put a little bit of the sauce in the bottom of the casserole, then fill it with burritos. Cover the whole thing with the tomato sauce, then smother with cheese. Broil it for a few minutes, until it gets how you like it. Personally, I like the cheese to get nice and brown on the edges while still soft in the middle.

Consumption:
Eat it. With a good darker beer.

Here is a recipe for Carne Seca from my girlfriends mom:

1 Thick Round Steak or 3 lb. Roast
1 Large Onion, sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
2-4 Green Anaheim Chilies, roasted, peeled & diced (variety of chilies may be used)
Oil
6-8 Ripe Tomatoes or 2 lbs. Canned Tomatoes, seeded, peeled and diced
1 Pair Rubber Gloves or Surgical Gloves (to peel and seed chilies)

chilies in plastic bag to sweat for about 15-minutes. With gloves on, peel skins off the peppers. Remove seeds and dice peppers. Add to In 325 degree oven, cook meat in a large covered Dutch oven until it falls apart. Shred meat, dispose of any fat. Maybe refrigerated at this point and finished cooking the next day.

Sauté onion and garlic in a little oil until they begin to brown and are translucent; add to meat. Roast chilies on hot grill or under broiler. Turn the peppers as the skins blister and turn black; put roasted meat mixture. Add tomatoes and a salt to taste. Mix all ingredients together. The final result should be colorful. Put meat mixture back into 325 degree oven; stir meat occasionally. Taste meat after it has cooked for a while to see if additional salt or peppers are needed. If the mixture is very hot, you may need to add more shredded meat, onions, garlic and tomatoes. The meat is done when all the liquid from the vegetables and meat are adsorbed. It should be fairly dry. Sometimes I will cheat and cook the meat mixture on top of the stove to accelerate the evaporation of the liquid. However, it is very important that Carne Seca be cooked slowly to allow initially the meat to fall apart and to allow all the flavors of the vegetables to be absorbed into to the meat.

She uses this meet for tacos, burros, nachos, chimmies.

Here is another one of my favs for machuca:

3 lb. Lean Beef, cut into approximately 1" chunks
1 lb. Pork, cut into 1" chunks (may use all beef, not preferred)
2 – 3 T. Oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
2 C. or 1 large can Las Palmas Red Chili Sauce (see Enchiladas or "Red Chili Sauce" recipe)
½ t. - 1 t. Cumin
Chili Powder, to taste (see "Chili Powder") - for 10 lbs meat I use approximately ½ lb. Santa Cruz Chili powder, water and some chicken broth
Salt to taste
2 - 4 T. Flour

Cut meat into small pieces. Heat a little salad oil in a Dutch oven; braise small portions of meat oil until brown. Remove each batch of browned meat to a large bowl; add additional oil as needed to Dutch oven and continue to braise small portions of meat. In the last batch of meat add onion and garlic; cook until onions are lightly browned and translucent. Put all the meat back in pan. Add chili sauce, cumin and salt to taste. Add additional chili powder during the cooking process if needed. Also add enough water to just cover meat. Simmer meat approximately 4 hours or more, until meat shreds easily. As meat shreds, be careful to stir meat mixture more frequently to prevent sticking and burning and add more water if necessary. In a small jar, add flour and a little water, shake well. Add to meat mixture. Continue to stir and cook mixture until mixture boils and thickens a little. Add additional water and flour mixture if needed. Generally it is better if chili is seasoned hotter when used as a filling for tamales.

Guinness Black Bean Chili

4 cups black beans (cover beans in Guinness
and soak for 24 hours)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups white onion, diced
1/2 cup green onions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 pounds lean ground beef
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons dark chili power
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup chopped jalapeno peppers
2 cups crushed, whole peeled tomatoes, with juice
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 pint Guinness stout

After beans have soaked, drain, then cook beans in water for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until tender. Set aside.

In a deep saucepan, brown beef in oil, then strain the oil. Add cumin and chili powder and cook 4 to 5 minutes.

Add Guinness, tomatoes, peppers, white onion, celery, garlic, Tabasco, black pepper, salt and cheese, bring to boil and let simmer for 45 minutes. Add black beans. More Guinness may be added if chili reduces too much.

This chili is medium hot. Heat can be increased or decreased by adjusting amounts of Tabasco or jalapenos.

Garnish with fresh parsley, chopped green onion and shredded Cheddar cheese.

Guacamole, i.e. Food You Can't Screw Up

It's really, really, really hard to screw up guacamole, but just in case, here's a recipe courtesy of my favorite cookbook in the entire world, "The Moosewood Bible" (but with a few tweaks!).

2 ripe Haas avocados
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 hearty cloves garlic, minced as fine as you can get it (less garlic if you're a wuss)
couple of pinches of salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder, although I find other chili powders work just as well.
black pepper and cayenne to taste
1/4 bell pepper, any color, minced as fine as you can get it

1) Place lemon and lime juice in a medium shallow bowl.

2) Cut the avocados around the edges and pry apart. Reserve the pit! Spoon out the avocado meat and put it into the bowl, mashing it to a nice consistency.

3) Stir in the remaining ingredients. When guacamole is the consistency you like, put reserved pit back in (it helps the guacamole retain its color. Nobody likes yellow guac. Remove before serving, of course). Chill your concoction for at least an hour.

Serving:

Guacamole goes well with chips, veggies, beans, and tortillas, but I discovered a divine little trick one day when I was bored. Place Guacamole on toast with a nice hard cheese and make a sammich out of it. It's different, but really comforting.

Lobster's Tasty Heartattack

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 big ole' chunk of sharp cheddar
1 big ole' chunk of monterey jack
1 packet of El Paso taco spice powder
Hot Salsa
Soft Tortillas
Teflon Pan (you'll see why)

1. Pour meat into a pan over a medium heat. Add olive oil if you like. Chop meat finely as it cooks with spatula. Heat until lightly browned. Drain some of the 'juice' and lower the heat a little bit.

2. Add taco spice.

3. Grate cheddar and monterey jack directly into pan, stirring frequently and turning over to make sure cheese doesn't gather at the bottom. Occasionally drain oil off the top. Add cheese until mixing starts to become unwieldly (you feel like you're going to start spilling).

4. Add salsa to taste.

5. Simmer and stir frequently, trying to keep the cheese on top (won't happen, but it'll keep it well mixed).

6. Turn heat to low and scoop onto tortillas.

7. Add bacon if you want to (you know you want to).

Jeremy's Homemade "make the recipe up as you go" Salsa

18-20 tomatoes (chop 5 - rest liquefy in blender)
2-3 green peppers (chopped)
2-3 yellow onions (chopped)
2-4 Jalapeño peppers (finely chopped) (you can also add Habenaro peppers for more heat)
5-6 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
1 bunch cilantro (leaves only no stem)
¼ to ½ cup sugar
2-3 tbsp lime (lemon also works) juice (fresh if possible!)
Red pepper flakes to taste (I used about 1 tbsp)
Black pepper to taste (I used a good bit 2 tbsp?)
Seasoned salt to taste (I used about 1 tbsp and prefer McCormick Season-All)
½ cup Olive oil plus some for Sauté

1 can tomato paste (big can 12 or 16 ounce) (do not forget this otherwise it will be runny!)

Sauté Onions, peppers (Green and hot), and garlic in olive oil until semi soft in large pot (I did this on medium high)
Blend all but 5 tomatoes in blender until liquid.
Chop remaining 5 tomatoes
Add tomatoes (chopped and liquid), Olive oil, lime/lemon juice, and spices / cilantro to pot with onion/pepper/garlic. Bring to boil. Stir often. After boil simmer on low to med low for 1 hour stirring every 5-10 minutes. Add tomato paste at end to thicken (again if you skip this it will be runny!). Simmer for about 15 more minutes.

All amounts are very rough as this is salsa so it doesn't matter.

I like to serve on eggs, home fried potatoes, grilled chicken, or heated tortillas (I like the lime resturant style for this).

Huevos Rancheros!

Here's a fun recipe we finally got down after a number of interations. This serves two to the point of bursting.

Hardware)
Non-stick pan (for eggs)
Fry pan
Medium sized sauce pot
Blender (if you're going to make your own sauce)

Software)
4 large eggs (I think organic eggs taste much better, but also cost three times as much. Oh well.)
2 large gordita wraps (I like corn, Katerin likes flour; you pick your favorite)
Can of black beans or refried/baked beans
Can of diced tomatos and big spoonful of tomato paste -OR- a cup and a half of tomate puree
Half an onion, diced
Few cloves of garlic, diced
Few jalapenios, diced (seeds in or out, depending on your preference)
Another spoonful of tomato paste
Spices
Grated cheese for topping (you can make your own queso blanco, or use storebought mild cheddar, or whatever you like, it's all good )

Disclaimer: Parts of this dish as very similar to the burrito recipe above. Also, the assembly technique is thanks to Rick Bayless.

Put the wraps in the oven on about 300 to get them crispy. If you want them warm but not crispy, wrap them in tin-foil.

Simple tomato sauce:
Add the tomato and spoonful of tomato paste to the blender with some salt, pepper, red pepper, and cilantro. Add whatever. This is the basic version. Puree it until smooth, then move to the sauce pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let sit uncovered while you work on everything else.

Bean mixture:
Heat the not egg pan to a wee over medium, and add some oil. Toss in the onion, garlic, and jalapenios. Season with kosher salt, and let them cook for maybe five minutes, but not quite until the onions get soft and translucent. If you're using canned beans, make sure to drain them first - add the beans to the pan. Let them all cook together for a few more minutes. Mash them up with a potato masher or fork, then add tomato paste. Stir to combine.

Eggs:
If you refridgerate your eggs, let them sit under running water for a few minutes - it will help bring them to room temp, which makes them easier to deal with. Fry your eggs, sunny-side-up. For this recipe, I sometimes but a pot lid over the eggs to catch evaporated steam and help cook the tops of the whites a bit more. You don't have to, but it keeps it from falling apart when you assemble. It depends on how runny you like your eggs.

Assembly:
Lay the two crispy wraps on a plate. Top each with half the bean mixture. Try to dig little volcanic holes for your eggs. Put the eggs on top of the bean mixture. Top with the tomato sauce, leaving the yolks uncovered. .It should look like two eyes looking out at you. Top with the mild cheese, so that it melts over everything. Top with fresh cilantro if you've got it. Maybe I should post a picture?

Another disclaimer: This is tons of food. It really, really is. Enjoy!