Tuesday, September 09, 2008

I just wanted a few

Just a few. All I wanted was to make some breakfast burritos. I needed maybe 6 corn tortillas. Small ones, but knowing how these things go package wise, I accepted I'd probably end up with 12 large ones or 15 small ones & make enchiladas for dinner one night. HA! I was determined to get corn tortillas, not flour. I like corn better, especially for breakfast burritos.

I run into Food Lion & scan the 'international food aisle' for tortillas. They only have taco shells and flour tortillas, so I head back to the refrigerated section. There I find corn tortillas. Except....they only come in bags of 100. Yeah 100 tortillas, when I need maybe 6. There are slots for bags of 36 tortillas and bags of 15 large sized tortillas, but the slots are empty. It's 100 tortillas or no tortillas. The boys were very into having breakfast burritos and the boys rarely get excited about food that isn't cheese pizza, so I was feeling pressure about the burritos. I stood there in the refrigerated aisle and tried to come up with things to do with 94 corn tortillas. Enchiladas, of course. Quesedillas. Steak & veggie fajitas.  That's maybe 15 tortillas. Wrappers for BBQ pork sandwiches.  That lasagna thing Alton Brown made, that used a lot of tortillas. I could cut some into triangles & fry or bake them for nachos. We could do breakfast burritos twice in one week. That's maybe 50 tortillas.  I could cut them up and blend them to mush. I'm fairly sure Alton Brown did that, and use them like polenta & serve with ragu. Maybe I could layer them with cheese & top them and call them pizza? I'm sure I stood there a good 5 minutes pondering all the tortilla recipes I have heard of (I'm Irish & German, tortillas are a rarity in my life). Finally I decided I could use at least 70 of them & given the cost, that would be ok.  Then I saw the sign.  BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!  Yeah. 200 tortillas, when I need maybe 6. 

I don't know how it is at your Food Lion, but the checkers at ours will not let you leave without your BOGO. Saying "that's ok, really, 100 tortillas is way more than I need anyway" will not stop them from sending someone back to get you your free bag. They don't seem to get the idea that you might not want free food to which you are entitled. If you stand there & try to insist that you don't want it, life will grind to a halt while you are stared at by checkers, baggers and fellow customers in blank incomprehensibility. She doesn't want the BOGO? Why is she buying the item if she doesn't want the BOGO?  How can you not want a BOGO? I have this problem all the time with soda products. I want a 12pack of Coke & one of Sprite for a cookout we're having, but the deal is buy 2 get 2 free. but I don't want 24 extra cans of soda in my house. I will drink them if they are in my house. I don't not need the calories of 24 extra cans of soda (and I can't stand diet so it's the caloried stuff or nothing). I can't not drink them. I know this about myself. So I just don't buy them. But you can't not get BOGOs. I can usually solve the problem when it is soda or something like chips or cookies.  The store is always collecting goods for the food bank and I just drop my unwanted BOGO soda into the collection box. Corn tortillas are perishable & they don't collect perishable items at the box.

There are now 192 corn tortillas in my fridge (the boys at more burritos than I thought they would).  This is the 2 week menu

Roast chicken, with tortillas instead of flat bread

Chicken enchiladas

Quesidillas with various fillings & salad

Tortilla lasagna

Grilled Steak

Steak Fajitas

soft tacos

Tortilla pizza

BBQ pork wraps, with tortillas

Roast pork loin

Soup - TBD
Coq au Vin

Spaghetti & meatballs.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

OMG, that is a TON of tortillas!! LOL!!

Nikki said...

LOL, I am a lover of the corn tortilla - yum. But they don't come in small packages here either. So I usually have way too many and wind up (yikes) eating them with butter and hot sauce with or without a meal.
But I only have one question for you!
What time do you serve dinner?

LOL - I'm totally going to steal some of your menu. I'm tired of cooking the same things over and over. :)

Anonymous said...

LMBO

Miss j aka mixedclawzz said...

That is HILARIOUS! I am seriously cracking up over here.
Seriously tho I am gonna steal some of your menu ideas.

Tara @ Feels Like Home said...

That is a crazy amount of tortillas! How long will they last? I have a delicious recipe called Layered Chicken that we use to get rid of them. Do you want me to send it to you?

Anonymous said...

Well I'm not sympathyzing with you, girlie. WE can't get tortillas at all here. :( I would LOVE to have a freezer full of them; if you can figure out a way to ship them to Malaysia, I'll take some off your hands. ;)

Designing Hilary said...

Just cut them in strips and drop them in a pot with hot canola oil. Deep fry until they just start to turn brown, drain on paper towels and voila! You have fresh tortilla chips.

Once you eat fresh, it's hard to go back to the bagged stuff.

Athena said...

Hahaha, that is just too funny. And don't you just love the quizzical look you get from checkers who cant fathom the thought of not taking the bogo? Hilarious!

Jenni said...

You have muchas tortillas, senora!

Anonymous said...

That is HYSTERICAL!

I've successfully frozen flour tortillas, not sure about corn.

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.