Better than Taco Bell

Dinner was a question mark when I arrived home tonight, especially because I only have me to feed tonight. Ava and T are still rolling around the hills of Tennessee with T's brother and family and I am pretending to be single and childless for the two minutes it's really possible to forget.

I thought about eating the last third of a small chicken lasagna, of which I ate the first third on Tuesday night, and the second third last night. Then I looked at the homemade tortillas T's Mom gave me on Monday, and a can of Rosarita beans in the cupboard, and declared it burrito night.

Nobody, but nobody, can compete with my mother-in-law's tortillas. I tried, as a social experiment to make tortillas a couple months back and they were edible, but just barely. They weren't round, they weren't moist, and they had the texture of saltines. T said they weren't "bad" - especially for a gringa - but it's hard to compete with the tortillas of someone who doesn't have a recipe because she's been making them for THAT LONG and yet they always turn out perfectly.

There's no point in competing anyway; she loves to make tortillas.

So I heated up the beans, taking care to oil the sides of the small sauce pan to make clean up easier, or really to test the theory that the clean up would be easier, added shredded cheese to the beans and stirred until hot.

Then I threw the tortilla onto the live fire of the burner, because this is the way the Mexicans do it. Or at least the Mexicans I've known, which include half of T and half of my ex-husband. I agree though, the flame heats the tortilla well, sometimes the sides catch on fire, which adds to the drama of cooking, and there's one less pan to clean. I am all about less cleaning.

I spooned the beans onto the tortilla, but alas, there was one thing missing.

"Please," I said to nobody in particular, especially not Magi the cat who was watching me, "please tell me he didn't throw it away."

But he didn't. Or maybe I stole a few more packets on my last run for the border. I saw one, resting innocently in the cheese drawer.

Single mild sauce, seeking friendship, maybe more.

Thank you Taco Bell, for your contribution to my burrito.