Epic Enchiladas

The Menu: The most epic enchiladas ever, aka filled with homemade refried beans, chopped tomato, scallions, and cheddar cheese; and s'mores lasagna for dessert.

before above, and below: after

The Recipes:

Refried Beans. In your biggest frying pan, saute the dense white part of scallions in olive oil for a few minutes. Pour in 3 14.5 oz. cans of drained (do not forget to drain them!) canned pinto beans. Stir/cook for a few minutes, and then get out the mighty potato masher. Admire the potato masher's versatility (it's good for making banana bread, mashed potatoes, and refried beans! Who knew?) before going to town on the beans. Keep the heat on and keep stirring as you mash. Add water if things get to thick, and salt to taste. We kept the heat on low and kept stirring until it was time to fill our tortillas. Next time we'll mostly leave the heat on--once the pan's mostly empty, things dry out too much if you keep the heat on.

Epic Enchiladas. Preheat oven (we used 350). In a bowl large enough you can comfortably dip your tortillas in (the key is big and shallow; a cake pan might even work), stir together the contents of an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and a 14 oz. can of enchilada sauce. (We used this combination to make the enchiladas fairly mild; use all enchilada sauce for a spicier dish. Having extra sauce isn't a problem - read on.) Dip both sides a tortilla (we used whole wheat flour tortillas) in the sauce, then lay on a clean, flat surface to fill. Spread refried beans, followed by chopped tomato, chopped scallions, and plenty of shredded cheddar cheese. Roll the tortilla up (the best you can; more filling makes it harder to roll but also taste better), and place in a large baking pan (something like a 9x13x2). Continue with the rest of the tortillas, until they're all filled and rolled. If they don't fit in the pan, either make the enchiladas get cozier, or get another pan. Drizzle your leftover sauce over all the tortillas, then sprinkle over the top the rest of your other ingredients (the tomatos, scallions, cheese, etc.). Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, until the cheese bubbly. Serve steaming, cut like you would lasagna.

S'mores Lasagna. S'mores lasagna is built on the same concept as normal lasagna, except infinitely unhealthier. Start with an ungreased baking pan (another 9x13x2). Put in a generous layer of graham cracker crumbs (you either buy them as crumbs or smash existing graham crackers). Add a thick layer of chocolate chips, and put the pan in a hot (350ish) oven for a few minutes, until the chocolate gets pretty soft. Take the pan out and add a layer of marshmallows. Back in the oven, until the marshmallows get pretty soft, and repeat the process: more graham cracker crumbs, more chocolate chips, melt them somewhat, more marshmallows, melt them, until your doctor and/or dentist make you stop. If you want, smash the marshmallows down somewhat with a fork before adding the next layer of crumbs. When you're out of ingredients or your pan's full, put the whole pan in the freezer for about half an hour. (You could skip this step, but freezing the "lasagna" has two important functions: it makes the lasagna crunch like real s'mores, and possibly more importantly, takes away some of the shock of eating pure sugar, so you can eat more s'mores and feel less sick. :P) Store in the fridge to maintain some of the crunchiness, but to prevent them from being inedibly hard should they survive to the next day.