(This was originally posted in 2008 but it happened to me again Monday so I am reposting it because it was such deja vu for me)
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 understand the concept that you might not want the 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. I wonder if the boys would accept them as a substitute for buns on their ham & cheese sandwiches? I suppose I can freeze them?
I need your small corn tortilla recipes please!
12 comments:
I have this problem all the time with bread. We won't eat two loaves of bread in one week, so half will go bad. And I don't have room in my tiny freezer. I usually just stuff it in there anyway. So here's my thought: buy some freezer bags - separate the tortillas into amounts you would use for one meal and freeze them so you can pull out & thaw just one bag at a time. Freeze as much as you can reasonably use in a chosen period of time. Give the rest away to friends, family, etc. with a recipe for yummy breakfast burritos attached. Yes, turn that pesky BOGO into a RAK!
I don't know if you actually need corn tortilla ideas or not, but you could make up some taquito style items (I think taquitos usually come in flour tortillas, but I'm not sure) with ground beef instead of shredded beef, or maybe cheese inside, that your boys would likely love.
We eat a lot of Mexican and Cuban food in our house (my husband spent a lot of his childhood traveling in Latin American countries). Basically, any meat and cheese combos can be served with tortillas. I really like mixed meats (steak, chicken and pork) with onions and cheese (I use a fajita seasoning when frying).
Too funny!!! Thanks for the belly laugh this morning.
Rinda
Bwahahahaha! I totally don't need tortillas. But Daver will totally come eat them.
I love this idea! I think I'll package up enough for the mexi lasagna recipe I have and give that to a few people
My boys love taquitos, especially the hard to find corn ones with steak & cheese, but I have never tried making them myself. Thanks for the suggestion!
Ha, ha! that is sooo funny! (only I suppose it's not if you're the one with the overrun-by-tortillas problem).
A yummy recipe variation on tacos... make a meat sauce, with ground beef, taco or fajita seasoning, onion, tomato etc. Toast your corn tortillas a little, so they crisp up (oven is good for this). Lay one on a flat serving plate, then place some meat sauce on top, then some nice veggies - like sliced peppers, or sweet corn, or crispy lettuce..., then another crispy tortilla, then more meat, more veg, more tortilla, meat, veg, tortilla.... you get the idea. Make a fabby stack with them - as high as you dare! Then top with grated cheese (Monterey Jack? Cheddar? something that melts) and melt under the grill or in the oven. If you put it in the microwave, the tortillas will go soggy.
You could also put in refried beans and/or guacamole etc etc... kind-of a semi-Mexican hotch-potch tower!
But it's such messy fun to eat it and it tastes soooooo good!
The boys would love making this... anything that involves layers involves mess. Anything that involves mess pleases boys!
Have fun!
lol. Great post! One easy way to use them would be to make tortilla chips. I don't have a recipe, but I am sure you can find one on food network online. Other ideas are quesadillas, burritos (breakfast and otherwise), etc.
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This made me laugh out loud. And reflect that it's a pity my kids won't eat the frickin' corn tortillas. And wonder if it's just a tortilla day, because I'm in the process of editing a tortilla picture to go on a post. Hmm...
200 corn tortillas!!! And it happened again!!! I think your store is in the middle of crazy-town. Honestly, I would never know what to do with 200 corn tortillas.
First off, thanks for the giggle!! I am also buckle to the BOGO peer pressure. Never had to do it with corn tortillas though.
Since your children love pizza, why not make "mexican pizza" a la Taco Bell. Taco sauce, shredded cheese and pizza toppings on top of a corn tortilla. I'd use the stacking technique to get rid of as many as possible in one serving. Got a deep fryer? Cut up the tortillas, make your own fresh corn tortilla chips. Melt some cheese over it and nomnomnom. Or make chilaquiles or migas with them.
If all else fails and the tortillas aren't very salty on their own, cut into strips, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake until crispy and sugar is all caramel-y, use as a garnish with ice cream.
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