I Love Nachos More Than I Love You

New Year, new me! Just kidding, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I think they’re silly. Also, are you supposed to complete the resolution by the end of the New Year or have your resolution started on day one of the New Year? I prefer the former…because that gives me more time….to not accomplish the goal that I did not make. Although, I am bound and determined to keep up with this blog thing because it is only one of 100 ideas that I never followed through on; so here’s to the third post! I had a hard time mustering up the motivation to do one (I started typing it like three weeks ago), to be honest, which is why it’s probably the laziest of the three posts so far in that I’m totally using other people’s recipes.  It also doesn’t help that from January until April I don’t feel like doing much of anything except sleep. I suppose it’s the general dreariness of the weather and how it’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home that gets to me. This is also why I run out of vacation days so early in the year.

The Snack: Nachos!!

Anyway, back to foodstuffs, every so often I have a taco night and make beef barbacoa style, with cilantro-lime rice, salsa, guacamole…ya know all of the taco night fixin’s. There’s usually a lot leftover so I spend the rest of the week gussying it up into various leftovers, so today I’m making nachos, everyone loves nachos, you really don’t even need the beef for them, and my version isn’t as spicy as it could be so really if you wanted to add more spice it’d probably make the wine I picked with it all the better.

So basically get all of your nacho fixin’s together, whatever kind you want, I used barbacoa, guacamole, jalapenos, tomatoes, black beans, onions, olives, cilantro, cactus sauce( the reddish stuff pictured in the little dish)*, and lime…as pictured. And then smothered it with queso blanco. I had a really hard time with the pictures this time around, it was difficult making the nachos look like anything other than a mess but honestly what do you want from me? They’re nachos…

*Cactus sauce is my interpretation of the sauce a local popular Cal-Mex (Mad Mex) restaurant chain puts on their burritos. Recipe as follows:

• 1 12oz jar of roasted red peppers (not the juice stuff though)
• 8 oz sour cream
• Juice of ½ a lime
• Like ½ of a bunch of cilantro (sorry I’ve never measured it out)
• Pinch of salt

Puree everything except the sour cream in a food processor until smooth, then add the sour cream and puree until well blended. If you add it all at once it gets a little too soupy.  It’s delicious. Mad Mex gets a lot of shit from people knocking it for being inauthentic, but they clearly do not set out to be authentic Mexican (or even Tex-Mex) cuisine, they’re a delicious burrito joint with frozen margaritas so if you have a problem with that you can just go away forever because I don’t want to be your friend.

 

True story: As I was at the store gathering all my stuffs for my toppin’s, I stopped for a moment to have a think about what I wanted. There I was, standing off to the side in the dairy aisle, pointer finger on my nose, brow furrowed (it’s an intense thinking face, I know), when a store associate snapped me out of my trance by asking me if I was okay. Blank faced, I told him that I was trying to decide if I wanted to put bacon on my nachos or not. He looked at me like I had two heads and then walked away. As if that isn’t a legit thing to ponder. I did decide against it, as you can see…but another day I will do it. Anyway..

The wine: Burgans Albarino 2015

Do they know their font looks like something out of The Lord of the Rings?

I instinctively wanted to pair the nachos with a red wine because of the beef, in fact, I bought a mencia and then after some deliberation with my uncle who is better at this than I am (hey uncle Mike!), I felt that since there are a lot of flavors happening and a lot of spice; a nice crisp white would be better.  Really the beef is secondary to the cheese anyway. I’ll find a use for the mencia eventually, I’m sure. Even if it’s just to drink alone in the dark with Mr. Kitters.

Albariño is a variety of white grape grown in Spain and Portugal, it produces a very light wine that is considerably high in acidity and alcohol content. It is very aromatic, it makes me think of neroli (orange blossoms) or peaches. The taste is elegant and fresh and the finish is clean. 10/10 will totally drink alone in the dark again. I’d also pair this with Thai food, something spicy with coconut milk.

 

The Movie:

I’m not going to lie, on the first day I got distracted by a marathon of Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel. From that I learned that doctors treated Ulysses S. Grant’s throat cancer with cocaine and that Samuel Clemens was almost killed in a duel before ever writing Huck Finn and the like, but my favorite thing I learned was that there is an area in the US betwixt Virginia and North Carolina called the Great Dismal Swamp. It’s a truly awful looking place where runaway slaves camped either permanently or on their way to freedom, which is a true testament to the human spirit. Meanwhile, I don’t like being remotely uncomfortable and would not fare well under such conditions.

Anyway, the name of the swamp made me think of the Swamp of Sadness in the NeverEnding Story, which I do not own so that lead to my second choice the next day when I went to finish the bottle…

Can I just say that I never understood to conflict in this movie. Hot David Bowie wants to make you Goblin Queen where you’ll preside over a magical fairyland? And you get rid of an obnoxious baby…I don’t much care for children, as you can see. Plus the babything was only a half brother so really…what’s it to her? I bet Jennifer Connelly was wishing she had taken him up on the offer toward the end of Requiem for a Dream if you’re pickin’ up what I’m throwin’ down. I’m not funny. I know.