Insulated Jar & Sides #13

I was super frustrated with the lighting in my kitchen this morning. This is the best shot I could get. The glare is the sun, not flash; I had the flash off.

Ignoring the oddities of my lighting, let's talk food. This is how you pack Frito chili pie for lunch.

Some of you are scratching your heads and saying, "Frito what?"

In the Southwest, this is a super common dish. When I lived in Texas, the first time I was invited to anyone's house--with maybe one exception--they served Frito chili pie. Normally, what one does is to put down a layer of Fritos, then top with chili and cheese. Like Cincinnati chili, you can stop there if you want. (If Cincinnati chili also has you scratching your head, it's the same thing, just with spaghetti instead of Fritos and the chili is a mole-based flavor.) You can also add other toppings. Here I had scallions (barely visible), sliced black olives, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream. People in New Mexico, I am told, eat this by dumping the chili into a bag of Fritos, but I'm from Oklahoma, and we do it in a bowl. Some people also assemble the thing and then bake it like a casserole, but I like the crunch of the Fritos.

To eat this at lunch, you dump everything into the jar and go at it. By then the heat of the chili will have melted the cheese.

A lovely, low-effort meal to soothe my transplanted soul.