Nachos Experiment Day

[RowanC]

Inspired by Rawkinlocs, I experimented with the Nachos recipe today from Alissa's book.

For one thing, it calls for 2 cups of macadamia nuts and those are around $16 per pound here in portland. 2 cups is over one pound!

So.. I made 1/2 recipe of nacho cheese with macadamias, and the other half I just used broken cashews. They taste nearly identical. Cashews are a great substitute.

Then, I made the refried beans from Alissa's book. I thought they were "ok" although a little bitter tasting.

THEN, I tried Rawkinlocs' recipe from yesterday. This recipe ROCKS! I ground the sunflower seeds first (no soaking) in the small grinder, then put them in with everthing and began processing and tasting.

I added water as I went (warm water makes warm beans!)
I tasted..

I added a bit, just a BIT of onion and a garlic clove. I also added one more teaspoon of cumin and a capful of ACV. Bingo!

This is the best recipe I've ever found for refries!

Hooray! Now I can go watch my movies... except...

My chips... I got everything all ground up, tasted it.. and whew.. it was NASTY. Apparently, the frozen corn must have thawed out at the market then got refrozen, making the dish inedible. I learned.. TASTE the corn before you mix all the ingredients in.

Oh well.. I have some tortillas left from last week.

How long do you think these things (nacho sauce, refries, guacamole, and chili sauce) will last in the fridge? There is WAY too much for me to eat. I should have cut it all in half!

[Raw Jewelrylady]

I dehydrate the nacho sauce, then I cut & freeze. It has worked great, as we could not eat it all either. I have frozen guac, just put in a freezer bag & "squish" all the air out...freezes up really well. Not to sure about the chili sauce,but it seems food last 2-3 days, depending upon what is in them.

BTW....what is ACV???
Thanks, Lana

never mind..blonde moment....Apple Cider Vinegar, guess I don't know all the "Puter" lingo yet...LOL

[Rawkinlocs]

Hey Rowan!! Good deal!!

Yeah, Macs are like $12 a lbs. here and like you, I also did half mac and half cashew. In fact, sometimes even when a recipe calls for macs I have used ALL cashews and it was still good...like Alissa's Onion Dip...I used cashews and it was DELICIOUS!

Sorry your chips didn't turn out good, but glad you had some leftover from before.

Not sure how long they'll last...but knowing me, I'd end taking that cheese and like Lana said, dehydrate it and the salsa will end up being mixed with some flax for crackers and the refried beans...not sure but they might end up dehydrated as well though I don't know how that would taste.

But I didn't make full batches, I halved the recipes so I won't have any leftover to worry about! :p

Glad you liked everything, though!

[Raw Jewelrylady]

I was thinking, My Mom has always frozen her "home-garden" grown salsa. she makes in a food processor-comes out great. Esp. great since it's "Home-grown" tomatoes-nothing better. :p The reason I am thinking about the freezing, is I bought a bunch of tomatillas -love that green salsa- & I think I will freeze up my leftover "red"salsa"-make some tomatilla salsa & freeze that in batches as well. It's hard to get tomatillas up here, so I had to buy a bunch.

I wonder if the refried beans could be frozen as well? I don't think there is anything that could be harmed by freezing. I am trying desperatly to learn to freeze/divide/organize my new food journey, as I am going to be coming into a different life in the Spring when my shop opens again for the busy summer season.

Just some thoughts. :rolleyes:
Lana