Boys and Grills

This is Father's Day weekend.  I hope you all called your Dads and and expressed your hearts' true feelings. 

And I know as I write that, not everyone has had such an idyllic life as I have.  I can say such compassionate things only because my Dad and I are close--friends, even.  But regardless of your relationship with your Dad, there is someone out there close to you who represents your ideal of fatherhood.  Go with that for the rest of the day and tell those people what they mean to you.

This is my blog and my Dad, however, so allow me to regale you with my experiences and impressions of my mind.  Whereas my Mom is regarded by the greatness (quantity and quality) of her food in the kitchen, my Dad is known for his grill work.  Like the cliched greeting cards you will find at the supermarket, he has prepared the meat of nearly every kind of animal--fish or fowl, beef, buffalo or game.  Steaks, fillets, roasts, whole, spit, or racked.  Even oysters in the shell (see below). 

So I was thinking, as an homage to my Dad, a man I love and admire, how can I pass on his grilling acumen?  Here's some of what I have picked up over the years:

1) Know your fire.  Every grill has hot and cold spots.  Use these.  My Dad switched years ago to a gas grill, built into the back patio.  I use charcoal.  Dad's grill has spots that stay 10-20 degrees cooler than other parts; I have to stack coals to one side or another to create a cold zone.  The hot parts of the grill are good for searing meat but bad for sustained cooking.  The cooler parts will be good to slowly raise the temperature of the food. 

2) Take the food's temperature.  Undercooked is generally better for flavor and texture than overcooked.  The best way is an instant-read thermometer on a long probe.  (Although my Dad would always operate by instinct, then cut into the center of the steak seconds before declaring it done.)  Remember, most foods will continue to cook for 5-10 minutes after removing it from heat. 

3) Know when to poke your meat.  The best time to put holes into your meat (if you must) is BEFORE it goes on the grill, and is usually only to let in certain flavors.  For example, little slices of garlic and sprigs of rosemary stuffed into tiny holes all around a leg of lamb offers a deep infusion of flavor.  For thick steaks, you may use a fork to poke holes before adding a marinade. 

4) Leave your meat alone.  Give it time to rest.  Most meat benefits by sitting on a slightly heated plate and covered with tinfoil for 10 minutes after taking it off of the grill.  This allows the juices to return to the muscle structure.  Cut into the meat when the temperature is too high, the juices have too much kinetic energy to be bound by the heated cell walls of the meat.  (Yes, I'm using physics and biology!  Isn't science cool?)

5) Know your marinades, rubs and sauces.  Marinades add flavor and if they use salt, sugar or oil, also aid in the browning of the grilled offering.  Rubs provide a good surface flavoring, and can caramelize on the surface adding a crispiness (especially good for some fish!)  Sauces are served afterward and compliment cooked food.  One can make a sauce from the marinade but reserve the liquid before touching it to raw meat.  This avoids cross-contamination.

6) Apologize for it being under/over done before anyone has any on their plates.  Set the audience's expectations low and dazzle them anyway.  Under promise and over deliver. 

To Dads everywhere: Thank you for all the wisdom you have imparted.  Thank you for (trying to) teach us the little lessons that we should know before life kicks sand in our face.  Thank you for inspiring us to reach higher, think better and do gooder (yes, I like saying that) than we would ever have imagined for ourselves.  We love you. 

Tonight for dinner, try:

Grilled Oysters
2-3 live Oysters per person (I prefer large Pacific species)
Hot Sauce
Lemon wedges

Line the oysters (live, in the shell) on a hot grill.  Watch them closely.  After about 2 minutes, the shells will open.  Remove from the heat, being careful not to spill the liquid from the shells. 

Let the guests open their own oysters (fingers are fine--no need for an oyster shucking knife.)  Add a dash of hot sauce and a squirt of lemon, then shoot the oyster, liquid and all.  This is the most flavorful way of eating these guys!

Sugar Steak
1 12 oz Ribeye Steak per person (1 1/2 inch cut)
Soy Sauce
ground Black Pepper
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 tablespoon Red Chili Powder
1/4 teaspoon Cumin Powder


Lay the steaks out flat.  Sprinkle on enough soy sauce to coat each side of all of the steaks.  Add a light dusting of black pepper (to taste).  Cover and let them come to room temperature.


In a bowl, mix the sugar, salt, chili and cumin powder.


Make a two tiered fire in your grill, or for gas, get one side very hot and the other warm.  When the grill is hot, pack the sugar rub evenly onto each side of the steak.  Place on the hot part of the grill, at least 1 inch between steaks and leave the lid up.  Leave it alone for 3 minutes and then flip over.  Cook that side for 2 minutes more, then move to the cooler part of the grill.  Cover the grill and let cook until rare or medium rare (120-125 degrees.  Remember the steak will continue to cook for 5 minutes when you take it off the heat.)

Remove from the grill and cover for 10 minutes. 

Grilled Asparagus with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
1 bunch of Asparagus
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar (the good stuff--aged)
2 tablespoons Sugar

Cut the white, woody ends off the asparagus spears and discard.  Rinse them well and lay out on a paper towel.  Pat them dry. 

In a saucepan, heat the vinegar until until simmering.  Continue to simmer and add the sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Continue to heat slowly, stirring occasionally until the volume has been reduced by 1/2. 

Place asparagus in a bowl or baking dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Toss to cover each spear and place the spears directly on the hot part of the grill.  Cook for about 2-3 minutes.  Turn them over.  Some charring will occur, but you don't want them too blackened.  Cook for another minute of two then return to the baking dish. 

Sprinkle with pepper, to taste and drizzle with the vinegar deduction. 

Paradise by the Kitchen-Stove Light

First, I have to apologize to all of my sensitive readers.  Today's topic is very adult.  I should probably apologize to all of my other readers, too, because it's probably not very well written. But if you're still reading, I will try to make up for it.  I promise. 

Many foodies have written about aphrodisiacs and they all talk about the same things: what are the various aphrodisiacs, whether aphrodisiacs really work and sometimes (rarely), how to prepare aphrodisiacs. I may bump into a couple of these topics, but it'll probably be more on accident.  Today, I want to bring sexy back to food.  Think of me as Emeril Lagasse's and Dr. Ruth Westheimer's brain child.  Or love child: noisy and a little uncomfortable to watch.

Lets get it out there: the biggest sex organ is the brain.  Boys and girls, if you can't stimulate this, you're not going to have much hope with second or third bases, let alone a home run.  (Mixing metaphors here.  Let's see how it goes.)  Women admittedly have it easier than men.  (Good example: H and I were driving home last night and drove by a topless sports bar.  The natural conversation ensued:

H: What's so great about boobs?  If you had the same sports bar without boobs, would it be as good?
Me: Boobs make it better. 
H: Why? 
Me: Because boobs make it better.  If I had Buffalo wings and could see boobs, or I could have Buffalo wings and not have boobs flouncing by, I would definitely choose with boobs.
H: Do you ever get over saturated with seeing boobs?  
Me: Sometimes, but then I'd still have the sports to keep me entertained.
H: I think if I had a shopping mall with penis or a mall without, I'd be indifferent, at best. In fact, I'd probably choose the one without.
Me: That's because boobs aren't the same as penis. They aren't even on the same continuum.  What else do you enjoy looking at? 
H: Shoes.  But I want to buy the shoes and take them home.  Is that how you feel about the boobs?
Me: Not exactly.
H: Diamonds then.
Me:  Maybe.  Closer. 
H: It'd be like me shopping at Cartier. 
Me: Yes.  Exactly like that. 
H: But I want to bring Cartier home with me, too.
Me: Then it's almost nothing like Cartier.  *pause, thinking* They are more like the Hope Diamond. 
H: How so?
Me: The boobs are very pretty to look at, but you can't touch.  And frankly, I wouldn't want all the drama that comes with fancy boobs or the Hope Diamond.  But I'm still happy that both are there. 
H: So I'm more like your Cartier and not the Hope Diamond. 
Me: Right.
H: I can live with that.

So, anyway where was I?  Oh yeah.  Food blog.  Aphrodisiacs.  Baseball.)  Women can appeal to a man's visual cortex and she'll often have her way.  Men need to get more creative.  Romance, wooing, a little more effort applied.  I think this is where aphrodisiacs come into play.  Chocolate covered strawberries, for instance, demonstrate a bit more effort than going out to Olive Garden.  One shows intimacy, specialness and consideration for your loved one.  The other says, "I don't want you to do the dishes, but I don't want to do them, either." 

So what foods are aphrodisiacs, then?  How about almost anything that is intended to be an aphrodisiac.  Phallic-looking asparagus?  Sure.  Sliced fruit?  You bet!  A ham sandwich?  Um, not if she's Kosher, but get ready, if you are charming Mama Cass.  Gravitate to food that sweetens your breath, that doesn't get stuck in your teeth, that can be eaten with your fingers and even better, fed to your paramour.  Unusual, out of the ordinary.  Think about the 9 1/2 Weeks refrigerator scene. Was it hot because Micky Rourke and Kim Bassinger were in various states of undress?  Or was it hot because it was outrageous and devil-may-care?  (OK, maybe a little of both.)

For the basics on aphrodisiacs, check out Gourmet Sleuth.  Lots of history and a few recipes. 

And for a light erotic dinner:

The TLC
Sparkling wine (chilled)
Rum (dark or spiced is good)
Cointreau
Passion Fruit Nectar (chilled)


In a pitcher or shaker, combine 1 part rum, 1 part Cointreau, 3 parts wine and 2 parts passion fruit nectar.  Stir twice to mix. 


Serve in a champagne flute garnished with a strawberry.  (First Base, here we come!)


Crab and Avocado Salad
1  large ripe Avocado
1 cup Lump Crab meat, cooked and cooled
1/2 cup diced Celery
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon fresh Taragon
2 tablespoons Olive Oil (use the good stuff here)
1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
2 wedges of Lemon

In a glass bowl, mix the crab, celery, salt and pepper (to taste), tarragon, olive oil and vinegar.  Mix well, by hand.  Let stand, covered in the refigerator for an hour, stirring occasionally.

When ready to serve, slice the avocado in half length-wise and remove the pit (leave the skins on, however).  With a spoon, carve about a 1/4 inch more from around the pit hole, making more of a bowl.  Spoon in the crab salad, and serve with a wedge of lemon. 


Fresh Fruit Ideas
Mango
Berries of every kind
slices of Pear or Apple
slices of Peaches
Orange wedges
Champagne Grapes
Cherries

Think about dipping sauces, too.  Caramel, honey, whipped cream, clotted cream and chocolate are all extra tantalizing.


Use that big sexy brain of yours.  I bet you can come up with some great ideas of your own.  Swing for the fences and before you know it, you'll be rounding third and sliding into home.  (Nailed that metaphor!  Woohoo!)

Cooking for One

My beautiful and perfect wife is out of town with her mom and sister, and I'm home alone.  A time for quietude, watching sports, playing video games and puttering.  And I'm also by myself for tonight's dinner.  Yes, sometimes that happens for every one.  So what do you cook when you're cooking for one?

First of all, this is a chance to eat all those things that your significant other doesn't want to eat or won't let you eat.  Spam is at the top of my list.  (A nice fried Spam and egg sandwich with a little cheddar cheese melted on it---MMMMMM!)  H hates Spam.  I also like sardines and other canned fish, and since our bugs outing, bamboo caterpillars.  H is not especially fond of any of these.

I also eat a lot of the leftovers from the refrigerator.  Tuna casserole and day-old pizza.  I also make popcorn and eat some fruit.  I confess, left to my own devices for a day or two, I don't eat a lot of vegetables. 

But if I'm really cooking for one, what should I be making?  Does it have to be significantly different from cooking for two or more?  Short answer "no."  And "yes." 

Cook as you're used to cooking.  If you make too much, enjoy the leftovers. But try new things.  If you fail miserably, you don't have to share your embarrassment with anyone else.  This is a time for invention! 

Tonight's invention:

Banana Quesadillas
1 Banana
sliced or shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 Corn Tortillas
Butter
Chili Powder

Butter one side of both tortillas.  Place one tortilla in a medium hot skillet, butter side down.  Slice  banana onto the tortilla and layer cheese on top.  Sprinkle chili powder on top, to taste. Cover with the other tortilla, butter-side out. 

Heat until the cheese is melty and the bottom tortilla is golden brown.  Flip.  Heat until that tortilla is brown, too. 

Goes great with black beans, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and a dollop sour cream. 

Apocalypse Eventually

What will you do when the Four Horsemen ride up outside your front door and greet you with the ol' tip of the hat?  Don't think the end isn't coming.  It is.  So make plans. 

My brother and his wife had just finished watching a zombie movie with my wife and I.  Without a trace of sarcasm, irony or satire, my beautiful and charming sister-in-law deadpanned, "So what will we do when the zombies come?"  Wow.  That floored me.  I'd never looked at that question in quite that way before.  Let's examine the philosophical impact of the syntax.  Not "What if . . . ?" but "WHEN!"  This begs a follow-up question: "When the hell ARE they coming?"  Followed quickly by a third, "Is there a frosty adult beverage in the refrigerator?  I could use something to calm my nerves."

So the four of us planned it out.  (You should visit ZombieTools for more ideas.)  We eliminated the obvious scenarios that always lead to trouble in the movies.  Can't stay at home.  Zombies won't care about an alarm system on the door, so we clearly lack the necessary anti-zombie security.  And we can't/won't drive through Denver.  Traffic on I-25 through The Mile High City is bad during a light rain.  I can only imagine the troubles when the walking undead are cleaning overturned vehicles of the owner's brains.  Nope.  We're going to take the back roads to the mountains then south.  South to Canon City.  To some very basic prisons.  Now I know what you're thinking, George Romero's characters very successfully fended off a lasting attack in Dawn of the Dead by hanging out in a shopping mall.  There's one big problem anymore:  How long can you survive on Orange Julius, Cinnabon, and Godiva chocolates?  I think a prison has a number of distinct advantages: food supply, arable land, weaponry, a strong defensible position and snitches to toss to the zombies when we need a distraction.  (Too dark?  A little grim?  Not family reading material?  Well, this is real life, baby!  A zombie catastrophe doesn't care about your feelings.)

Eventually, the zombies will exhaust their own food supply and waste away.  Then we can come out of our fortresses to repopulate the earth.  With criminals.  It will be just like Australia, but without the adorable accent.

In my world, every good end-of-humanity doomsday scenario has an associated cuisine.  For zombies, naturally sweetbreads, brains and organ meats.  2012 should be traditional Mayan.  Global warming, volcanoes, and asteroids?  En flambe and fondue, of course.  Nuclear Holocaust?  There's a lot you can cook in a microwave! 

Remember the movie Alive?  I have a pact like that.  (No, not just the "you're allowed to eat my body if I'm not using it anymore" thing, because I've already made that compact with my wife, or in the event of her passing before me, anyone else.  I mean this from the bottom of my heart: "Eat me.")  I will be the one to slice and dry jerky from your butt and hike over the mountian to find help.  I'm no soccer player, but I do hunt and hiking mountains is a skill I have. 

And if the zombies invade the mountains, too?  Well... 

I wonder how zombies taste?

Tonight for dinner:

Non-Zombie Chicken in Coconut Milk and Lemongrass
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Chicken Breast per person (boneless and skinless is good)
a pinch of  Kosher Salt per chicken breast per side
2 cloves of Garlic, minced
half of 1 medium Onion, chopped fine
1 medium-sized node of Ginger, sliced thin
1 tablespoon Red Chili powder (more or less to taste)
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon Tumeric powder
4 stalks of Lemongrass (bottom 6 inches, only, lightly beaten to begin to separate the fibers)
1 can of Coconut Milk


Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Salt and saute the chicken until lightly browned on both sides.  Remove chicken from the pan and reduce heat to medium.  Add the garlic, onion and ginger and lightly saute.  Reduce the heat to low (simmer).  Add the spices and stir quickly. 

Return the chicken to the skillet and add the coconut milk.  Simmer for 1/2 hour. 

Serve with long grain rice.

How To Entertain on a Budget and How To Handle Leftovers

Uninformed acquaintance: "So how did you get interested in cooking?" 
Me: "In a smackdown fit of necessity."
Uninformed acquaintance: "What do you mean?"
Me:

Here's what I mean. 

In college, I was the popular non-fraternity geek.  I loved studying, I loved teaching, I loved being with people.  Frankly, I loved (and still do) being loved. 

The class clown.

Even for classes I didn't take. 

True story: I took the test for a junior-level mechanical engineering class having never ever stepped into the building, let alone that class.  (As a reminder to those who don't remember, I was an English Major.  I can deconstruct Chaucer, but never got past high school trigonometry.)  It was the first test of the semester, a few weeks before midterms.  In a class of 45 people, I had the perfect balance of geek and nervous apprehension to blend right in.  As all around me settled into their seats and pulled out their mechanical pencils, exchanging furtive glances and whispers of "how do you think you'll do?"  I didn't want to be discovered before completing my mission.  Only my #2 wooden pencil with a conventional, if pristine eraser on top ("has he never made a mistake?!?" I imagine them to have asked) looking out of place.  As class began, the professor handed out the test booklet and everyone settled into their work.  I could answer part of the first question: "How is the force of a falling object determined?  What is the mass of [something something] when [something happens] and [gobbledy gook]?"  Easy.  F=MA.  It went down hill from there.  I ended up drawing pictures in the spaces provided and used blanks in the questions as a Mad Libs exercise.  I proudly signed my nom de plume at the top of the page--Simon Mathews--and was the first to hand in his test. 

When the tests were graded and handed back I heard reports that the professor was very concerned for Simon.  The professor drew a graph on the chalk board with the x-axis representing scores and the y-axis representing numbers of students.  He used a bar graph to represent a near perfect bell curve.  Looking like the skyline of downtown Denver, I understand my bar stood so far on the outside of the metropolis to suggest more of an outhouse in the woods than even suburbs. "Mr. Mathews doesn't seem to have been in class yet this semester and I worry that his self study lacks focus."  Lacks focus? My score single handedly busted the bell curve and pushed all other grades 10 points closer to getting an A!

What I'm trying to say is that I got a lot of love from people whom I never met.  That pleased me.  So I'd regularly look for opportunities to create joy in others.  I also learned to use food and drink to charm those around me.  There was one great hurdle to overcome in college, however.  Poverty.  The challenge was that I was putting myself through school.  How to entertain on a budget and how to feed myself. 

1. Make more!  If a little is good, then a lot will be better.  I would always cook large quantities whenever possible with the anticipation of having leftovers.  Also, bulk quantities of anything tends to be cheaper. 
2. Make food that will keep through the week.  Highly perishable, means that you'll have to eat it all in one sitting.  That obviously circumvents the Leftovers. 
3. Make things that are simple.  The more simply a dish begins, the more easily it can be dressed up later on.  If you start off with a a number of complex flavors the leftovers will be hard to adapt into a new meal.  The caveat to this is the One Big Pot Rule.  If you make a meal in one big pot (Pot Roast, for instance) then all the complex flavors meld together, creating one new flavor. 
4. Make it a potluck!  Allow others to contribute to your future dinners, but be willing to share.
5. Make spices your friend.  Nothing can redress last night's dinner (or 2 or 3 nights ago) than adding more spices and herbs and building the layers of flavors. 
6. Make new combinations.  Have leftovers from multiple meals?  How can they be combined?  With a little experimentation, you'll amaze yourself!

Great example from this week:

Friday: My brother bought his house!!  He took possession of his house and he flew to Denver for a few days. I cooked Sugar and Spice Rubbed T-Bones out on the grill with mushrooms and garlic.   The steaks were huge.  We had leftovers.
Sunday: Family came over.  I made Smoked Venison in a Cream Sauce over Pasta  (I cooked too much pasta).
Wednesday: We had leftovers stacking up, and not enough time to cook a meal from scratch.  I sliced the steak into thin strips, heated the steak with the leftover mushrooms and garlic in a skillet with a little olive oil, and then added the leftover pasta.  When hot, I spruced it up with crumbled blue cheese.  Add a side salad, and you have a creative new meal within 15 minutes.

I can't promise that the creative use of leftovers will get you some love this week.  But it may keep you (or you loved ones) from throwing out your food.

Bitters: Attempts 3 & 4

Habañero Bitters
750 ml Everclear
1 Habañero Chili Pepper
12 Juniper Berries, crushed
1 teaspoon Coriander Seed
25 drops Gentian Root Extract

Very good mixed in other drinks.  This bitters has a strong bite that lingers on the tongue.  When mixed in a Manhattan, for example, the bite is softened but still offers a residual tingle inside the mouth. 

Vanilla Bitters
750 ml Everclear
3 Mexican Vanilla Beans, split open
2 sticks Cinnamon
1 Black Cardamom Pod
20 drops Gentian Root Extract

Very aromatic with a sweet scent.  This is almost the exact opposite of the habañero bitters.  Goes down smoothly--too smoothly . . . .

For both, follow the basic instructions of the bitters recipes presented before.

Examining Duality and Why Diets Fail

I was speaking with a beloved friend who was going through a struggle this past week and was struck by the way we tend to view the world. All people (and certainly me, included) seek particular atributes in life and hold others in distain. 

Humankind embraces and yet struggles with duality.  We view things in contrasts to create distinction and clarity, but we also attach values to these distinctions.  Good/bad, happy/sad, love/hate, right/wrong.  We often have a hard time reconciling these dichotomies, favoring one quality over another but missing the fact that you cannot have one without the other.

Entire philosophies have been created around the nature of duality.  Taoism's Yin/Yang symbol graphically represents this ideal: masculine and feminine, rigidity and yielding, solidness and openness.  All are contained with the symbol and the philosophy.  E.g, the space of a room cannot exist if there are not borders containing it.  And the walls are useless if there is not an emptiness contained within to create usability.  Most religions make a distinction between the body and the soul; the profane and the spiritual; and the rational and the emotional.

All aspects of our lives are contained within this recognition of differences.  Our very bodies are created to find distinction.  For example, the human mouth has been designed to recognize and place certain values on food.  Sweet and sour, salty and bitter.  At the most basic level, our bodies need variety in our diet and the various flavors help us determine what needs are being satisfied. 

(Thank you to Morphonix for this illustration.  Visit them for more cool stuff!)

Sweet flavors contain a lot of sugars that we need for energy.  Salt contains minerals that our bodies use to regulate our chemistry and which is essential for our nervous system.  Sour and bitter may be warning signs.  Many poisons have strong flavors that we find disagreeable, but these flavors may also signal the presence of certain vitamins and minerals.  Humans have evolved to crave certain tastes when we have a lack of them in our diet.  In modern diets, however, processed foods have taken over and have conditioned our bodies to value sweet and salt to an unhealthy degree.  Even artificial sweeteners stimulate the nerve receptacles in our tongue to such a degree that our bodies crave more sweet foods.  And because most diet foods are highly processed they punctuate flavors that the manufacturer thinks you want.  They try to override the body's natural programming, creating a cascade of cravings that eventually crashes in on itself. 

So to try and wrap up all these thoughts running around this page, look at the nature of duality.  We need a balance of flavors in our diet which helps ensure that we're getting all the nutrients we need.  And a combination of flavors keeps it interesting.  Which is a lot like life.  Sadness creates an appreciation of happiness, but too much sadness leads to depression and too much happiness leads to  . . . well, I guess hedonism.  The world is a rich banquet of experience, and I want to try it all.

Tonight for dinner:

Uber Nachos con Pollo
Restaurant-style Tortilla Chips
2 Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless)
1 16 oz can Black Beans
Red Chili Powder
1/4 lbs of Cheddar and/or Jack Cheese
1 Tomato, chopped
1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeded
1 Onion, chopped
1 cup shredded Lettuce
1 Avocado
the leaves of 4 large sprigs of Cilantro (about 2-3 tablespoons)
1 large dolop of Sour Cream
Salsa, if you want it

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  On an oven-proof platter, lay out one single layer of chips. 

In a sauce pan, add the chicken breasts and enough water to cover.  Bring to a boil. In a seperate sauce pan, heat the can of beans, adding 1-2 tablespoons chili powder.  bring to a slow boil and then set to a low simmer.  We want the liquid from the beans to be reduced by half.  When the chicken breasts are fully cooked (15-20 minutes), remove from the heat and drain, reserving the liquid for something else. 

Chop or shred the chicken.  Add 1/3 of the chicken and 1/3 of the thickened beans and 1/3 of the cheese to the layer of chips.  Lay down another layer of chips and repeat.  Lay down the 3rd layer and repeat. 

Bake the nachos for 15-20 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and add slices of avocado, shredded lettuce, onions, peppers and tomatoes.  Add the sour cream and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.  I promise, you would spend $15 to $20 at any restaurant for these and you did it for less than half.  Awesome.

Margaritas, deconstructed (per person)
3 oz Tequila (I'm using Milagro Añejo)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed Lime Juice
3/4 oz Triple Sec (natural acutally makes a difference)
pinch of Sugar
Lime slice
Kosher Salt

Salt the rim of a martini (cocktail) glass.  In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, triple sec, sugar and lime juice with ice.  Shake vigorously.  Strain into cocktail glass.  Garnish with lime.