Frito pie

     This one goes out to my friend Keri.  She was hosting a birthday party for her husband, Emiliano and made it a "white trash" themed party.  She asked for everyone to bring something to eat so being the gigantic foodie that I am, I researched white trash food.  There were surprisingly a lot of posts with queries about what to bring to a white trash party.  One of the answers was frito pie.  Since I actually quite enjoy frito pie (unlike some of the other things they were suggesting), frito pie it was!     Now you would be not alone if you are thinking to yourself right now "What in the world is Frito pie?"  The long and the short of it is fritos topped with chili and cheese.  I first heard about it from Scott who had them in New Mexico.  The southwestern version has fritos, chili, green chilies, tomatoes, onions and cheese.  Often times served in the frito bag itself (although Scott has never heard of this so maybe not all that often?).  I had it when we went to the balloon festival in Albuquerque and quite enjoyed it!  So, I decided to make it myself (for the second time in my life, actually).  All amounts are approximate:

Frito pie

Ingredients:

2 bags fritos
2 cans turkey chili
1/2 diced onion
1 container of tomatoes, chopped
extra sharp cheddar cheese
4-6 New Mexico Hatch green chilies

Procedure:

1) Heat the onions up with some butter until nice and cooked through and starting to brown.  Traditionally, they are served raw but I like cooked onions better.
2) Heat up the turkey chili.
3) Start assembling the pie.  I used an iron skillet for the genuine "white trash" look.  Put a layer of fritos down in the skillet.
4) Cover that layer with the turkey chili (I left some fritos on the outside for presentation).
5) Cover that with green chilies, then onions, then tomatoes and then cheese.
6) Enjoy!  You can heat it up in an oven to melt the cheese if desired.

     That's it!  Super easy and surprisingly delicious.  Yes, I realize green chilies are not traditionally white trash, but how can I resist adding them in?  Mmmmm....

Frito pie

We went all white trash to the party

We's got ourselves an edumacation!  Yep!