Grandpa and Grandma Kelly's "Spanish Food"

One of our favorite meals at Grandpa (Kermit) and Grandma (Wanda) Kelly's house was what they called "Spanish Food." It involved flat enchilidas, and tacos on a plate that was heated in the oven to melt the cheese. For those of you who might have fond memories of that meal I'm going to try to tell you how they made it.

Their sauce began during the harvest season when Grandma would bottle tomatoes, onions and green peppers all mixed together--about equal amounts. (I pressure cook them when I do this). They would make a roux of a couple of tablespoons of butter, melted and cooked with a couple of tablespoons of flour. Then they would add a quart of the tomato mixture and a can of Campbell's tomato soup, and heat and stir until it was nicely thickened--they may have added some hotter chilis to the mix depending on the crowd they were going to feed.

They would cook and season ground beef, grate cheese, chop lots of onions.

They would quickly fry corn tortillas, and drain them. Some they would fold for tacos, others they would leave flat

To assemble: They would dip a flat tortilla into the tomato sauce, place on a plate, top with onions and cheese, and sometimes ground beef, then make another layer the same way--sometimes they made three layers. (You could choose meat or cheese enchilidas.)

For the tacos they would put some meat, onions and cheese in the folded tortillas. They usually put three tacos around the enchilidas, so it made a very full plate!

Into the oven the plates would go--about a 300 degree oven--until the cheese melted.

The plates would be served on top of a cool plate, so as to not burn the table. There would be a nice green salad with lettuce and tomatoes to put on top, and a bowl of the homemade sauce, chips, and a fruity drink.

A lovely and satisfying meal!

(If you don't have bottles of mixed tomatoes, onions and peppers in your pantry you could use bottled or canned tomatoes and add fresh chopped peppers and onions, and cook them awhile. The proportions are not very exact, so make it the way you would like.)