I can't believe I'm writing this

And for that matter, I can't believe I'm posting this recipe, for - ready for this ? - Mexican lasagna. But I will explain.

This weekend, we are hosting a brunch for Guy's chorus. It's a "pilot" project. As with every organization that has more than one person in it, the Chorus has "issues." At its core, this is a group of dedicated, almost obsessed men (and one woman), who have wonderful hearts and souls. And that's where the road to troubles begin. Where there is passion, there is conflict. That is a fact. It always will be. It's sort of like a 'YIN/YANG' thing. If there is no conflict, there is no passion (something my very wise friend David clued me into a few days ago. Thank you, David). So try as you might, it will not go away.

But there's "good" conflict and "bad" conflict. This is not the place to get into the distinctions (if I could ever even figure them out), but Guy and I are trying to work on one of the "bad" ones: in an organization as big as this one, people do not talk to as many people as they could. It happens. You have a rehearsal process with 200 plus people, at night, after work, when people are tired, still processing eight hours or frequently more, of a work day, just how much do you have left? So, our "solution," if in fact it is one, is to try to bring small groups of people together, use our ability to get people to chat at parties to best impact, and make something happen. My fingers are crossed.

Now, the brunch is happening on Sunday, which is one day before "Cinco de Mayo," so Mexican immediately came to mind.

Uh, I don't cook Mexican food all that well. Is that stopping me ? Gentle reader, you should know the answer to that by now. And, Mexican food when done properly and well, is time consuming. And it involves "things" that people really do not want to know they are eating. Someday, ask someone about chichiarones.

So, what follows is a "compromise." Something that I can do easily, has a Mexican "feel" to it, is accessible, and feeds a lot of people. Authentic? DO NOT MAKE ME LAUGH. But it's good.

And I hate to 'fess up to this, but the first, ahem "inspiration" came from someone I truly do not like: Rachel Ray. Less said about her the better. But on one of her programs, she did a dish that made me think. I make enchiladas sometimes, and I always have trouble rolling the tortillas and holding them together in the final product. Well, in this dish, you don't have to. Many of the things in here I had made previously, so it's easy to throw together, and you have options . I'll list some of them.


You will need 8 inch corn tortillas. I try to keep extras, and I'm not giving quantities, because this is a very free form recipe. You'll also need tomato sauce, some grated cheese, beans, and either some meat (cooked chicken is good, or ground beef), or a sturdy kind of vegetable (I'm doing it with greens of some kind). I had cooked up a pound of beans from scratch earlier in the week, but if you're pressed for time, get some canned beans, wash them well, and use those. Use two cans. I'm also using smoked cheddar cheese , but you could use Monterey jack, or plain cheddar, and frankly, you could use mozzarella, or queso blanco, or something along those lines too. For the tomato sauce, I'm using homemade. I'm not giving you leave to use the stuff in the jar. It's nasty. Make your own. Go look at my first blogs and I teach you how to do it.

Chop up your greens and cook them in salted water, but leave them underdone. And grate about three cups of cheese. Now, get a big 9x13 baking pan, or two smaller ones (9x9 or 8x8 or something like that). Spread a little olive oil on the pans, and then put down a layer of tortillas. But cut them so they fit. Once you've got down that layer of tortillas, you're on the way home. Put down a layer of beans on that, some veggies, and then some cheese. If you're using meat, use that instead of the veggies. Then pour some tomato sauce over it (incidentally, you can flavor the tomato sauce with chilis, or spices or something like that, too, if you want more of that, ahem "authentic" flavor). Repeat with the tortillas and so forth, and end with tortillas, tomato sauce and cheese. Bake the thing for about twenty minutes at 400, or until the cheese bubbles and it looks like you want to eat it. Try to let it cool for an hour or so to set, because corn tortillas will thicken a dish , as they do with something like chilaquilles or migas (which ARE in fact authentic).

You can leave the cheese out of this for a vegan version, as we will be doing, and if you want it to be really hefty, you can use a meat containing tomato sauce, you can add corn kernels or rice, and so forth. Were it "heavy summer," I'd be using squash instead of the greens.

Hey, this is not artistic, fancy, over the top "what a creative approach to cooking " time here, folks. We're trying to feed twenty people and get out there and mingle. It's going to work. As I always say, "it's not about the food."

One day, I'll actually believe that.