2002-11-08 10:47 p.m.
The Shiny Chef Makes Mexican Ring Thing
Entry #100! Woohoo!
The other night I finally made good on my threats: I made Mexican Ring Thing for dinner.
What's with the fascination with Mexican Ring Thing, you're asking? Well, it reminds me of the stuff that showed up at just about every work party and potluck I went to when I lived in Texas -- vaguely ethnic (considered unusual and therefore festive), easy to make and bad for you. Think Beanie Weenies (always, always in a crockpot with a hokey pattern on it), Jello Salad, and Five-Layer Dip. Mexican Ring Thing sounded like it was of this tradition, and it did not disappoint.
I started out heating the oven and trying to lay out the crescent roll triangles as Matt described. I ended up tugging and stretching them and laying and re-laying them out and finally getting fed up.
This wasn't going well. Clearly some fortification was called for.
Things went a little better after that.
I couldn't find my grater, so I ended up slicing the cheese into the beans. Not a problem, since it melted pretty quickly. I added some ancho chile powder and a fair dose of Cholula. Then I spread the beans around the ring, like this:
I imagine ground meat piles up a little better, but I'm a vegetarian, and there's no way in hell I was going to eat fake ground TVP quasi-meat stuff or some such nonsense, so refried beans it was.
Then came the salsa. We don't have Chi-Chi's in California, so I had to settle for Trader Joe's. I should have scooped chunks out instead of pouring, because it ended up a little runny.
Then came time to seal it up. I didn't quite get it all, so it had a big red spot on it, like Jupiter:
Pulling and patching dough got it all covered. And into the oven it went.
20 minutes later dinner was ready. TheBoy declared it "tasty in a really... wrong way." Exactly the effect I was hoping for. Success!
