All's Well

Good morning!

I'm happy to say that our little scenario of yesterday ended well (and cheaply) as we got a replacement mirror from Witt Lincoln Mercury when we drove up to get it. It turned out to be only the mirror that was injured. Good!  Replacing the whole rear view mirror arm would have been tremendous.

The cautionary part of the dangers of being on the freeway--still with us. Be careful out there, folks!

This is a day for tomato sauce.  Several years ago I worked out the perfect tomato sauce for myself, but have misplaced it over moves and traumatic circumstances. So, I will extemporize about tomato sauce for now.

There is innocuous American tomato sauce which comes in a little (8-oz) can. It used to be priced at a wonderfully cheap rate, three for something, and was a good staple in the pantry.  I still like it. It has a pleasant taste and does incorporate a little bell pepper taste and a little onion taste.  I am not going to go into salt. This sauce is useful for many things, and especially, often, as a base for other sauces.

There is tomato paste, which is supposed to be pure tomatoes, concentrated down until there are eight great tomatoes in that tiny little can, and it is very handy too. Only problem is that with such a concentrated product you only  need a little bit of it in many things, and then the rest of it sits in the refrigerator and molds, unless you agressively plan to make a spaghetti sauce the next day.

MY tomato sauce of preference is the sauce I want to taste on Huevos Rancheros.  Huevos Rancheros  are  eggs prepared the way they would be out on The Ranch, which everyone seemed to have in South Texas but us.  Some people scramble things into the eggs and call it  Huevos Rancheros, but it is not--that's Huevos a la Mexicana.  Which I also love.

The Los Angeles Times, a few years ago, had a wonderful article about going on a number of different Sundays to different restaurants in search of the perfect Huevos Rancheros.  Fun article, and if I lived in Los Angeles, which sometimes I wish I did, I would have pursued the search myself accordingly.

My idea of a good HR sauce is:  Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a skillet.  Make the fire be very low because I do not want to brown the onions and peppers.  Cut an onion and a green pepper into strips or cubes.  You are going to
cook these very slowly, stirring, until they are pretty soft.  You will either add a couple of cans of that tomato sauce mentioned above, or a whole lot of peeled cubed tomatoes, and simmer away, after adding a knife tip or two of Gebhardt's Chile Powder.  One knife tip for a few one or two cans of sauce, two for more. You just want a hint of that further pepper plus cumin taste. Continue to simmer.

Heat spray fat in a skillet and crack in your eggs, trying not to break them. If you break one just leave it alone, and that will be YOUR egg, masked on the table with plenty of sauce.  Says me, consumer of many a broken egg, fried chicken wing, and tough little old piece of steak.  If you break in a tiny piece of eggshell by accident, remove it immediately with the eggshell half that's  in your hand; it is the easiest way to get out a little piece of eggshell.  As the eggs are gently frying and you are making up your mind to risk turning them over easy, get your stack of corn tortillas and start toasting them two by two over a gas burner you have thoughtfully turned on.

After your eggs have been more or less fried on two sides, or only on one if you are wise,  place toasted tortillas ( not hard, just a little blackish and soft) on a platter. Place eggs on tortillas, and pour over your sauce.  This is the point at which some would say: Sprinkle with grated cheese.  I don't say it.  But you may. Serve at once with a bottle of Mexi-Pep, Tabasco, Louisianne, or Cholula on the side.  They will be good.

For Huevos a la Mexicana, you don't need tomato sauce at all so I should not even mention them here. But they belong here anyway. This time you need a flavorless fat or oil.  Not flavorless!  Just not olive oil.  You will have cut some onions, some jalapenos or serranos or both, into little cubes or pieces. This time you may  brown them.   After they are browned a bit, some people like to add a bunch of tomato. I do and I don't. Experiment.  Now, scramble in a bunch of eggs, salt and serve. I think they are really good.  I really wonder if I am teaching you, here, anything you don't already know or could instruct me about in spades.  I am writing this because I like to think about these dishes as I  chomp down my hard defrosted and toasted Eggo whole grain low fat waffle, unadorned with anything.  YAZZYBEL