Mystery Ingredient Monday: Jalapeno plus Week 4 Reveal!

Last week, Anne chose jalapenos as her MIM pick.

I chose to make Pioneer Woman's Migas from her first cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks:  Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

Apparently, the word "migas" means different things, depending on where in the world you are, Carmen Sandiego.

We're going with Tex-Mex migas today.

My stove looks much cleaner in real life.

Imagine the greatest omelet minus the bacon plus lightly fried warm corn tortillas.  But imagine that it's not really an omelet, more of a sloppy scrambled egg dish.  Looks messy, tastes yummy. 

I got all caught up in PW's vibe and used cast iron, even though I knew this would happen.

According to my friend, Mr. W.K. Pedia, migas traditionally may have been eaten during Lent.

I had the same idea!  This would be a great meatless Friday breakfast.    Of course, with the addition of chorizo, or bacon, or chopped ham, or breakfast sausage, it would be an even better Meat Friday breakfast.

I must have been channeling Anne this week, because I started making this dish at 8am, only to realize all of the packs of tortillas I have in the freezer are flour.  So I thought I could just skip that part.  But about 8:26am I realized that the corn tortillas are critical, otherwise you just have scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese.  Patrick saved the day however, and Edmund was only a teensy bit late to the Totus Tuus day camp that started at 9.

Edmund, Jill, and I all had the migas.  Patrick being the loco cheese hater that he is, declined.  Edmund and Jill both commented on the spiciness, but Edmund was not deterred.  He cleaned his plate in record time.  Jill...did not.

Yes, they are hot.  I made a half batch, which according to PW feeds 3-4 people, but I used one entire jalapeno.  Plus, I used pepper jack cheese.  I did not use green peppers, as the recipe says, because I didn't have them and everybody knows red peppers are better anyway.

How hot are they?  Well, I was sweating and my nose was running by the time I was finished, but my face did not melt off.  

I've been channeling Anne all week, because I had originally planned to make Salsa Verde only to discover that my amazing ethnic supermarket has neither fresh nor canned tomatillos.  They do however have yucca (which I love) and cactus.

Though I'm tempted to choose yucca as my Mystery Ingredient, I'm going with something slightly more mainstream (ie: it's currently available at my Costco).

BEETS!

Above they are are displayed amidst all of the post miga mess.  (No, white wine vinegar is not an ingredient in migas, just didn't get all the groceries put away.)

The Costco beets come in four tidy packs of four cooked beets, and mine are dated good until mid-October.

Stain your fingers and your cutting boards purple while rockin' with the BEET.  (sorry not sorry)

Check in with Anne for more jalapeno stories, and read her last article which has her pregnancy reveal!