Aye Caramba!

Last week we posted three of the six russipies braved by our friends during Joey's South of the Border Sodalishous Fiesta. Today, we write about the other three. First, there was the bland, dry Margarita Chicken. This was chased down with watery Boraccho Beans, and we rounded out the meal with the surprisingly tasty Black Bean Quesadillas.

Since the Quesadilla was sodalishous, I want to start with that. You spread a layer of beans, then a layer of jar salsa over a burrito-size flour tortilla. You sprinkle it wish Mexican-style shredded cheese and then put another tortilla on top and bake it in a 400 degree oven for around 15 minutes till the tortilla is crisp and brown. You take the quesadilla pizza out and cut it into four slices (can this even be called a recipe?). As a dipping sauce, you take 1/2 c. prepared guacamole and mix it with 2T. sour cream. Another topping to dip the quesadilla into is the premade salsa. Although I hold great disdain for premade salsa and guacamole, I do believe it is pretty hard to mess up a quesadilla. As you can tell from the picture, Lindsay made a massive platter full of this quesadilla appetizer and it was the first thing to go....seriously. Why Aunt Sandy decided to mix guacamole and sour cream (something I usually loathe), I'll never know. But, this was the best thing of the night (probably because it was the only russipe with store bought ingredients that weren't modified). Perhaps she thought this extra step would make it taste homemade....it didn't. But, I must confess- this was delicious (compared to everything else).

Onto the flavorless Margarita Chicken. The russipe is simple enough. You marinate 4 bone-in chicken breasts, for 2 hours in: 1 can frozen margarita mix, 2/3c. tequila, 1/2c. chopped cilantro and 2T. chicken seasoning. Then you grill the chicken till it's cooked (30 minutes). The chicken was kinda dry after 30 minutes, and the flavor didn't permeate the skin so the chicken didn't taste like much of anything, except for bland chicken breasts. Where is the salt and pepper? Yes, there was a season packet used, but come on! Salt and Pepper is a basic essential when grilling chicken and Aunt Sandy usually over-salts EVERYTHING! This was bland. Very... very... bland. That being said, we cut it up, put it into tacos and smothered the flavorless poultry in guacamole, tossed in some salsa and sprinkled on some cheese. Then it was tasty. I am surprised Aunt Sandy wasted a whole 2/3c. of tequila on such a tasteless russipie. For shame, Aunt Sandy! Our tip to you semihomemakers out there- save the tequila for the margaritas.

Finally, was the Boraccho Beans. In all honesty, I thought this russipe looked fairly tasty; I have made drunken beans before and they turned out well. This however was not the case. Joey threw 2 cans of pinto beans, 1 can of diced tomatoes and green chiles, 1 can green chiles, 1/2c frozen diced onios, 1t. crushed garlic, 1 bottle mexican beer and 1/3c. "real" bacon bits into a pot, brought it to a boil and cooked the beans for 20 minutes. Then he stirred in 1/4c. cilantro and served it with lime wedges. As you can tell by the picture, the liquid did not cook down which I thought it should have. It looked like bean soup...very unappealing. And, the taste also left something to be desired. The bacon bits made this disgusting (I know, because Joey also made a batch of these beans vegetarian style for Liz (spoiled veggie eater!) which I thought were definitely more tasty). The original russipie tasted fake and processed- like salty, plastic bacon bit beans. Blech!

So after 6 Semi-russipes, one was delicioso (although I would challenge that the quesadilla does not count as an actual russipie), two were decent, one was bland and the other two were a complete waste of ingredients. I would call the South of the Border Party a hit! Pitchers of margaritas later, we all forgot that we had come over to sample Sandy's russipes. Until next time, remember to keep it peppered, keep it vegetarian, keep it a fiesta, and always keep it Semi-Edible!