Mexican Casserole

It's not all exotic ingredients and involved dinner preparations around the DBS household. Sometimes, especially mid-week, I just want something relatively easy to make. As bone-chilling as it has been this month, I was in need of something warm and comforting and I was in the mood for Mexican.

Selma Hayek fits those three requirements, but unfortunately she was nowhere to be found. Instead I made this Mexican casserole for dinner tonight:

2 cups of macaroni (I used a squiggly kind to keep it interesting)

1/3 lb of ground meat

1/2 can of green chiles (4.5 oz size)

1 15 oz of Salsa Con Queso (or just regular nacho cheese)

Taco Seasoning (I used a blend from Penzey's)

1/2 medium tomato, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Cook the macaroni as you normally would. While that's going, brown the ground meat and add the dry taco seasoning to the meat.

Drain both the macaroni and the oils from the ground meat off. Then add both to a mixing bowl. Add the Salsa Con Queso, green chiles, and tomato the bowl and blend together.

Put into an 8" x 8" baking dish and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

This recipe should easily serve 3 people, so adjust as necessary.

Franklin Inn - a penny saved is a penny to spend on a chimicanga

Last Friday, neither DB~ nor I felt like painting the town red. We wanted a nice quiet night as we had a busy Saturday ahead of us. I floated the idea of "Mexican?" and it was embraced by DB~. It's not her go-to food and neither is Asian, so if I get the green light, I'm hitting the hole like a running back off right guard.

Reflexively, we both sort of thought about Mad Mex, but then I brought up the Franklin Inn in Franklin Park. It's one of those places you've probably driven by a bunch of times and wondered if it's any good.

It is. Very good. I'm a fan because the preparation is slightly more Mexican in authenticity than Mad Mex. I love Mad Mex, but it is hipster Mexican. As opposed to Yo Rita, which is pretentious Mexican.

Anywho...on a Friday night, all of Franklin Park Borough and the surrounding environs go to the Franklin Inn it seems. We had a 45 minute wait, but we amused ourselves in the bar with a round of Dos Equis for me and Miller Lite (very Mexican) for DB~.

The inside of the Franklin Inn was re-done a few years ago and it is brightly colored inside. The restaurant, on a side note, was used as a location for the horrible trainwreck of a movie known as Dogma (starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck from the 90's).

The standard complimentary salsa with their chips has a bit of a kick to it. Very refreshing change from the bland tomato-y salsas you typically get.

For dinner, I went with a combo platter of 3 different entrees, albeit at smaller portions. I had the chicken chimicanga, the chicken burrito, and the ground beef enchilda. My two sides were the standard Mexican rice you see out and pinto beans.

DB~ loves her quesadillas...this time building a chicken, cheese, tomato, onion one. It was the large dinner size and she was only able to eat half of it. The other half went in my stomach on Monday at lunch. Via my esophagus of course...I haven't learned to eat via osmosis. Yet.

It's always a good meal at the Franklin Inn on Rochester Road. Definitely worth the drive. Especially if you like a good margarita served out of a mason jar.