By Trina Machacek

Two things can happen when making leftovers for dinner. One, they come out scrumptious and are eaten until there will be no leftover, leftovers. Two, it turns out that putting cranberry sauce on and then frying an old carne asada burrito will not magically turn it into the carnitas your mouth was waiting for. Or some other likewise flop that may have been served from your kitchen. But! Yes, a re-run of a “but.” Hopefully you have one or several cats, dogs or other critters that have no taste expectations.  Okay here’s the story.

Trina Machacek

Beyond a taco and maybe an occasional chili relleno I am not a Mexican foodie. I don’t like hot, or mildly hot, or sometimes even ketchup without some kind of sour cream mixed in it. So when I was invited to a dinner of carne asada at a local watering hole I drug my feet, but I did go. My taste buds were delightfully surprised by the taste and the meat was tender. Something that only happens when I have my butcher run something through a tenderizer. Twice. Well that’s not including my steaks. I can do a steak that will melt in your mouth.  Back to the Wednesday night special. On my carne asada platter I also got this huge roasted chili that I was talked into biting. That just the tip wouldn’t hurt. Famous last words, right? HOT! I’m talking, BRING ME MILK- HOT! Live and learn. Wiping my chin and moving on.

So now I have a desire for the Wednesday special at our local restaurant. Then the chef moved back to Peru and the special came to a screeching whoa. That’s when I learned of a fast-food Mexican place that served carne

asada tacos. Be still my heart. Something I could bring home after a long day in a neighboring town doing the monthly grocery and everything else shopping, we rural residents do. It wasn’t exactly the same carne asada that I had fallen for at the restaurant, but close enough for this Chick-a-dee. So I got into the habit of bringing home a plate of three carne asada tacos and dividing them up over a few days. Then…

A friend and I traveled for a few days and on the way home we stopped to bring something back to my house to eat when we got home. I chose my Mexican fast-food place without hesitation.  I was about to order my tacos when she suggested we get a couple of carne asada burritos. “Well sure,” I said, I could do a small burrito. The order came and it weighed about 5 pounds! Yes, truly about 5 pounds. These babies could feed nearly all of the town I live in!

At home we opened the packages and at the table my friend got up and got a knife to start with. We each ate about a fourth of the bundles of meat wrapped in huge flour tortillas and put the rest back in the fridge. She was leaving for home the next day and would take hers and I would use mine to eat on for the rest of the week. We came home on Tuesday!

Well my friend left and endowed me with her left-over bundle of joy. Let me say this. I have made many a leftover dinner in my lifetime. I have made French toast out of left over dried out French bread. I have made rice pudding out of left over rice. The only reason I really make meatloaf is for the leftover cold meatloaf sandwiches the next day. I know what to do with leftovers.

I finished my burrito off over the next two days. It was okay, but not spectacular. Then I saw hers still in the refrigerator. Laying there, waiting for it’s turn in the leftover line. I know the meat was beef. I know it wasn’t carnitas pork all juicy and yummy. But for some reason I reasoned that if I seasoned it just right it would pass for carnitas. Put some orange on it and onion and stuff. Well I had no oranges and onions just didn’t suit me. So I used whole berry cranberry sauce from a can. What could happen?

Throw the rest of the three-day old burrito, tortilla and all, some butter, (everything is better with butter) and the cranberry stuff I’d smashed up. Fry it all together in a pan. Magic was happening for sure.

Then I took a pinch of the mix from the pan and tasted it.

My outside cats are now full of three-day old burrito. The have no expectations of magic from my kitchen.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com