Nacho love.

I come from a family of champion spectators…we know how to watch sports, with food and friends and yell-’til-it-hurts loyalties.  Growing up, the Olympics provided a much-anticipated opportunity to hone our skills over weeks of competition.  My family would gather around our TV and watch hours of Olympics, adopting athletes from around the world and cheering them on in pidgin phrases we picked up from the crowd (is is possible that France played Yugoslavia in hockey at Sarajevo?  I have a memory of my mother chanting “Yu-Go-Slav-ia!” with my dad fist-pumping “Vive la France!”).

So this weekend I gathered my own family to pass along some of these hard-won skills.  We had dinner in front of the TV-a rare occurrence-and watched speed skating, cheering on Orange Pants against Blue Pants, and Red Pants over Gold Pants.  We ate decadent nachos and drank margaritas poured into snow-packed pint glasses.   I’m not sure if it was the kids’ excitement or the jumbo margaritas, but even my sports-phobic husband got into the spirit and may have even teared up when Hannah Kearney brought it home for the U.S. in a rocket-hot moguls run.

But let us return to those nachos.  My word.  The cupboard was still a little bare from the infamous snowstorm, but I was able to cobble together a most delicious meal from the odds and ends lurking about.  I began by whirring up some black bean dip out of a drained, rinsed 32 ounce can of black beans, 4 ounces of cream cheese, a teaspoon of ground ancho chile, a few slivered scallions, a clove of garlic, and some salt.  Buzz food proccesor, done.  I dolloped the beans on tortilla chips and sprinkled with a mix of grated cheddar and monterey jack.  10 minutes in the oven at 375, while I used the food pro again (when watching Olympics in Canada, utilize Canadian terms for kitchen appliances…so goes the adage, right?) to make a fresh pico de gallo out of a pint of grape tomatoes, an onion, some cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.  I squished up a couple avocados with more lime, cilantro and salt, pulled the nachos out of the oven, and a new generation of Olympic rituals was born.

4 Comments

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  By Darling Husband, February 15, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

  Not so much sports-phobic as sports-indifferent. I don’t fear them, I just don’t care enough to watch them. Sports-apathetic, perhaps.

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  By Darling Husband, February 15, 2010 @ 4:57 pm

  Oh, and if I recall correctly, it was not you who squished up the avocados… it was our soon-to-be-chef daughter.

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  By Katherine, February 19, 2010 @ 5:51 pm

  I have missed all of the Olympics so far (I’m afraid once I start, I won’t be able to stop). I too am the only adult sports nut in the house. Dave dislikes sports (and isn’t afraid to admit it, Peter!), but LOVES Nachos. And those WITHOUT meat are up next on our things-to-steal-from-Jen list. xo

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  By margo, February 28, 2010 @ 4:09 pm

  Sounds like a perfect family night! Now I craving your guac!!

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