Old Standby

Every family's got their old standby, the when-all-else-fails meal that, over the years becomes a sort of edible member of the family.  Ours is the Breakfast Burrito.  In fact, I think it was the first meal that Adam ever cooked for me, on a camping trip near the Bosque del Apache in New Mexico early in our courtship.  So intimate with the Breakfast Burrito have Adam and I become that we now affectionately refer to it simply as "BB."

It was living in Santa Fe that taught us to integrate the BB into our lifestyle; after all, the cheesy, spicy treat is offered at every cafe and coffee shop worth its salt.  The New Mexican tradition puts green chile and bacon into its BB, but as herbivores who no longer live in chile country, we omit both those ingredients.  This by no means limits us.  Which, I guess, is why the BB is so fantastic-- there is no limit to what you can include.

There is a base, however, which includes tortillas, scrambled eggs, potatoes, shredded cheese, and preferably salsa, though hot sauce will do in a pinch.  Beyond that, let your imagination fly.  Avocado, cilantro, sour cream or yogurt, beans (black, pinto, refried...), fried onions, hash browns, corn, tomatoes, squash, chives, oregano, quinoa, as many different kinds of hot sauce as you want.  Tonight, on a whim, I even supplemented our paltry potato supply with a quarter of a purple cabbage, sauteed in cumin, chile powder, and smoked paprika (which, by the way, was the best six bucks I've spent recently).  It turned out great!  Nice crunch to counterbalance the starch of the spuds and the soft tortillas.  Another tip: if you've got it, stir cream cheese or sour cream into your eggs when you scramble them-- they'll come out soft and fluffy. 

The cabbage looked so pretty in the pan, I'm enclosing a before- and after-cooking shot, along with the final product: the beloved BB.