Quick little cooking question

“Hey, we're not moving to Houston this year at least, but I have a Texas Cooking cookbook with several recipes calling for "ranch style beans" among other things. What the heck are these? Beans are okay, I frequently use garbanzo, pinto and kidney, but I've never heard of ranch style beans.”

“they are a barbeque-type/style recipe for pinto and kidney beans i believe.”

“baume's got it right.”

“Thanks. I'll look for a recipe.”

“You can buy them in a can here.”

“I'll look, but I don't think that they are in a regular grocery store here.”

“They sell "Ranch-style" beans in cans here, also.”

“Ranch style beans are the ones that make you toot.

Didn't you every see Blazing Saddles?”

“We make something called that in my family,, it's fried ground beef, canned pork and beans, canned corn, and BBQ sauce,, cheap, easy meal, and quick to make,, really good for car camping”

“Wow, that's alot more than what I think of for Ranch Beans. The ones I know are pretty simple, like baked beans, only more like a barbeque sauce.”

“This is one of the recipes that I wanted to try:

Texas Stuff

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 10 oz can tomatoes and green chilis
1/2 pkg chili mix
1 15 oz can ranch style beans
8 oz american cheese, cubed
1/2 cup half&half cream
1 large bag tortilla chips

Brown the beef, drain off grease, add onions and cook a few minutes, add the tomato/chilis, chili mix and beans and cook for 15 min. Add the cheese and cream, cook for five minutes. Pour over tortilla chips and serve.

Sounds good to me!

(From Tastes & Tales from Texas by Peg Hein)”

“Oh and last night I used fresh jalapeno peppers for the first time. They are soooo much better than canned or bottled. I'm sorry that I waited so long to try them.”

“Let's call it by its true name... "American Pasteurized Process Cheese Food Product".

ick!

If they need to include the word 'food' in the name, that's a CLUE, LOL”

“Yep, that looks like Tex Mex to me.

I'll take a New Mexican plate that looks like this, (I hope the image works)



Flat enchilada with New Mexico Red Chile, Blue Corn Tortillas

Pintos (Beans)

Calabacitas (squash with cheese and green chile, often with corn)

Guacamole.”

“Tilt, you may not have noticed, but there is American Processed Cheese, and then there is American Processed Cheese Food. The latter is really icky. The first one is real cheese and is not bad tasting, a little like colby cheese.”

“Oh and we don't have ranch style beans at the grocery store. There is a Bush Barbecue style baked beans. I wonder if that is similar. Are these ranch style beans good or nasty. Maybe I shouldn't even bother.”

“I don't think the Bush BBQ style would be the same. The Ranch style aren't really sweet or brown sugary.”

“Okay, thanks Pathman.”

“ooooooooookay! If you say so, <grin>.

This is reminding me of the time Martin Mull went on the Tonight Show and read the ingredients of Cool Whip.

"What the heck IS polysorbate 80?"

The sponsors were THRILLED, I'm sure.”

“Lyndy, be careful what you call beans when you get down there. I don't think they consider Garbanzos "beans" in Texas. And when you ask for Soda Water, you get Coke.”

“LyndyS,
Ranch Style beans are nasty IMO. They are regularly on sale for $0.25 a can in AZ and usually make you sick (I only ever bought them when I was in college). The Busch baked beans are edible. I would make the substitution and run!”

“If you can't resist and have to try them, get these

http://www.texmex.net/Products/foods.htm#Ranch

not the generic brand”

“Looking at your recipe again, I'd try canned pinto beans instead. You already have chili mix, you don't really need the sauce of the beans. If you can't find pintos, use red kidney.”

“I like black beans”

“If you like it hot char some serrano chilis, cut em up and garnish with them.

ummmmmmmmmmm”

“black beans are good, but not very Tex Mex. ;-)

If you want it really hot, order some Hatch New Mexico green chili. Or a couple of habaneros. USE WITH CAUTION!”

“My wife would rather die than eat canned beans, she cooks up a pot of pintos every week. Starts with the dry beans and cooks from scratch.

Remember if you come to Houston, beans is beans and chili is chili and never shall the two mix.”

“Chili is a vegetable. ;-) From it you can make chili con carne, green or red chili stew, chili rellenos.......”

“I prefer chili rellenos myself.”

“I use dry beans too, even for refried beans. They take way longer to soak and cook than the recipes say. I think it has to do with the water here.

No beans in Chili? Weird!!

Habeneros? I am NOT THAT BRAVE (do you all still have taste buds?)”

“Hey Chuck, we'll have to try and arrange an outing for chili rellenos and cold beer if you have time when you pass through.”

“Chuck D is right.

Real chili does not have any beans or tomatoes.

The addition of beans must have started by someone in the eastern half of the U.S.”

“Habaneros are candy.”

“No tomatoes, either? Might as well just drink a beer and be done with it.”

“Pinto beans:
Soak em overnight, change water a couple times (I read somewhere that the chemical that makes gas is water soluble so changing the water a couple times helps). Cook slowly with bacon and salt.

yummmeeee

The Mexicans I know put them in hot tortillas with cottage cheese.”

“Pathman, Ive had Green Chili stew from ABQ. Yummmmmmmmmm!”

“Vann, you're on.

I'll be up that way the week of July 4th, let's see if we can get together.”

“Do Texans have nightmares about eating chili with beans in it? <G>

I threw together some hamburger chili once and forgot the beans. My then girlfriend gave me crap all weekend, calling it HOT-DOG chili.”

“whadaya think would happen if you used Frosted Flakes to make Rice Crispies Treats??”

“I wouldn't - I think the texture is what makes the crispies treat and you can't get that with Frosted Flakes. I'd search the net for a snack recipe with Frosted Flakes.”

“Try a variation of this recipe. I use it alot but always try something different with it. It is similar to the corn flakes p/b treats we got in school when I grew up, a looooong time ago.http://camping.about.com/od/recipes/r/ucrec034.htm”

“not bad but not GRRRRR-Eeeeaaatttt”

“< ARGH >”

“We do holly wreath cookies with corn flakes, not frosted flakes. Its one big bag of marshmallows, one bottle of green food coloring, butter, vanilla, and corn flakes. You
melt the marshmallows and other stuff in a very large pot, carefully stir in the corn flakes, put that in blobs on waxed paper, dot with red hots to look like holly berries, then let them cool and get a little less sticky before packing them away. Don't stack them on top of each other because they'll stick. Use layers of wax paper instead. This is just an approximation of the recipe. My mom has the written recipe, or it could be found on corm flake boxes this time of year. We used to make these constatnly.”