Burritos! Well, sort of...

On one of my first days in Italy, we got to talking about cooking, and what kind of food I usually eat. Obviously, Mexican was at the very top of my list- I mean, I eat something that could be considered Mexican basically every day of my life. Whether it's something as simple as throwing a plate of Tostitos and cheese in the microwave for a snack, or putting together an entire meal of tacos and everything that could possibly go inside... some form of Mexican food happens quite frequently.

Soon, we picked a day, and Elena asked what kinds of ingredients I needed. It was a lot harder to come up with a list than I expected, since I'm used to there being some version of everything I need right in the cupboard, with enough variety that if I didn't have one specific thing, there is always something that can be used instead. Out of sour cream? That's fine, use extra cheese. No refried beans? Grumble about it for a few minutes while mashing up pinto beans. Anything can be left out if necessary, because there are always enough other ingredients around that the food will still be inherently "Mexican." Now, the more I thought about this list of ingredients, the more intimidated I became. I ended up just listing off the bare minimum- meat (which took some explaining), cheese, lettuce, tomato. And I asked if she had basic baking supplies, because I could make my own tortillas.

How To Cook a Mexican Meal in 12 Easy Steps

You will need:
- Tortillas, or stuff to make them (flour, milk, oil, baking powder, salt)
- Ground beef
- Onion
- Tomato
- Lettuce
- Pinto Beans
- Salt and Pepper
- Cheese

1. Realize that none of your measurements are in metric. Sigh dramatically. Convert.

2. Realize that "yes, I have flour" means less than a cup. Cut measurements in half.

3. Look at the measuring cup and see that it's only divided into 100-mL increments. Sigh dramatically. Decide to wing it.

4. Oops, baking powder isn't a thing here. Google replacements. (Luckily, Elena had "yeast for cakes," even in the same brand that was recommended.)

5. Meanwhile, start browning the meat. Easy enough. Throw some chopped onion in there, too.

6. Realize that you didn't leave any flour to use while rolling out the dough. Oh well. Roll it out anyways. Sigh dramatically. Deal with the sticky mess it leaves later. Set tortillas aside for a while.

7. Drain the meat. Look for spices. Realize too late that chili powder, cumin, and powdered versions of onion and garlic aren't normally found in a cupboard here. Sigh dramatically. Salt and pepper it is, then.

8. Cook the tortillas. Use the down time to cut up the lettuce and tomatoes.

9. Pour a tiny bit of the grease from cooking the ground beef back into the pan. Drain the pinto beans and throw those in the pan as well. Squish. Fry.

10. Look for cheese. Of course, cheese isn't exactly a hard thing to find in an Italian family's refrigerator... but what KIND of cheese is a bit of an issue. If you're lucky, someone will have recently accidentally bought Trugole cheese that ends up being as close as you're going to get to cheddar!

11. Realize that the only part of this dinner you're doing to do correctly is putting all the parts in their respective bowls. Decide to own it. Spill things everywhere in the process. Sigh dramatically.

12. Enjoy!

...Okay, so it was actually a really good meal. Like, super delicious. Everyone loved it. Marco claimed the extra tortilla immediately after taking one bite of his first. It just wasn't quite Mexican.

I'm rather thrilled with how my refried beans came out, though! They were much better than what I have even made in a crock pot in the past. I'm giving the inclusion of the animal fat full credit for that. It really isn't as good without!

While I'm frustrated with the obvious lack of Mexican-ness, I am quite ecstatic that it came out as edible, and even happier that it was actually an enjoyable meal! I'm open to suggestions on what to try next... I'm thinking about volunteering to make pancakes for breakfast during a weekend! I'll just have to find a recipe without baking powder...