feasting.

beans and rice.
what?
oh.
specifically,
red beans, in red rice, with all sorts of red stuff in there.
...that's what i wanted.
and that's what i got.
i spend way too much time cooking on my day off, neighbors.
like,
vast tracts of time elapse while i'm stirring and simmering and sauteing,
and honestly,
i think i could get a lot of other other chores and tasks completed
if i just wasn't so damned busy loving food all day long.
mmhmm.
those red beans, though, y'all.
they deserve a decent quantity of attention.
habichuelas coloradas.
a,k,a, small red expert jauns.
with red onion, and red bell pepper, and red hot chilis,
red pepper flakes, cherry tomatoes, crushed tomatoes,
paprika, cayenne pepper, poblano pepper, cilantro, scallions,
and a whole lot of lime juice.
....and rice, obviously.
boiled in all that red stuff.
what do you get when you get all that going at once?
you get the new hottness.
i mean,
c'mon.
check the wednesday-night-tightened-up-type teleport:

ole!
yes, yes, YES.
that's red beans and red rice, for sure.
but, of course,
there's also so much MORE.
word up.
the chunky guacamole is in full effect, as usual.
i mean,
once you've dominated the guac' secnario,
you'd be a real A*-hole if you didn't capitalize on that success.
y'know?
uh-huh.
so, that's there,
and there's a lime wedge, for added activational citrus magic,
and there are scallions and cilantro garnishing everything, too.
all that's well and good, tasty, pretty, terrific, delicious, etc, et al.
however,
i know you want to know what's up with that meaty beige big action on the rice,.
and i'll wager you also are a little tiny bit interested in how something as simple
as a burrito can go all the way up to eleven.
i'm here to help, homies.
that beige business on the reddish ricey niceness is a new invention.
that's real.
cooked red lentils, which as we're all already aware, get pretty mushy when they're ready,
added into some simmered sweet onions, hot sauce, bouillon, g.p.o.p,, garlic,
and a jalapeno.
that gives us a pretty spicy mash of mush.....which i s'pose isn't a bad thing.
but,
then we add in the vital wheat gluten, and make a F*ing awesome dough.
whaaaaaaat?
as a matter of fact, that IS a flippin' hot tamale.
expert!
with a little shapely shaping, rolled up in foil. (corn husks are great, i'm sure,
but i'm living in the future, and in the mountains,
and i also made this recipe up on the fly, after a chat with my consultant in utah)
once they're wrapped, they get all steamed up for a spell.
how long a spell?
well,
how long does it take to make red beans and rice.
that s how long a spell.
mmmmm.
they're hot, and they're hot, and they're reallly good.
i hit 'em with a dashing drizz' of cholula chipotle, for good measure.
so spicy.
-
now let's discuss that burrito for a bit.
the biggest tortilla is key, so that you can get way more food in there.
we've got underchee', and daiya(rrhea) chee', and refried beans, and seitan strips,
and shredded baby spinach leaves, and oven-roasted diced multi-colored
fingerling potato bits, in place of rice, and so crispy and awesome in all the right ways.
daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
with exxxtra-garlicy salsa fresca, and scallions, and cilantro garnishing those guts,
so that the hot, the wet, and the fresh all coincide on your tongue at once.
yummmmmm.
and then the mutha-'ucker gets baked, to crisp up that shell,
and firm up the first layer of that slow-cooked salsa roja on top.
....yeah, it's gets some more unbaked sauce afterwards, too.
it has too, doesn't it?
after all,
rules is rules,
and the rules clearly state that too much is the right amount.
roja mexicana salsa caliente, in vast amounts.
so much red in all the places that matter most,
and all of it really cooperating to ensure the success of this operation.
it worked.
in fact,
that massive mountain of food was so filling that for the first time in weeks,
i had no room for seconds.
boom.
that's heavy duty heavyweight hot fire.
***********
it's not like i've been taking it easy, either.
my only day off, and it was spanned in front of the stove.
i could've, and maybe even should've been raking and yard-working-
but that's not very delicious,
and it's a lot like working harder than i do at my actual paying job,
only for free.
that's just not really what i'm about these days.
nope.
not one bit.
i'm about finding joy in necessary creation,
and enjoying the super-fancy unneccesary level-up luxury that i add into it.
yeah.
i want alllllll the dopeness,
and a whole lot less of the waterbabyish weak sauce.
i'm just sayin'-
if i can stew a tomato and pepper sauce for hours to get it where it needs to be,
how could i possible chump out on things that last longer and matter more?
exactly.
i can't, i won't, i shouldn't, i couldn't, and i wouldn't.
there's work to be done.
i've got a job to do, or two, or three,
and all of it is really happening...
occasionally in sequence and out of order;
short-ordered and short-tempered and most of all, short on time;
this is it, all over again;
never quiet, never soft.....