Frito Pie Bar with John's Chili and Cheesy Guacamole

I hosted a game night last night. Well, I bought a new game and wanted people to play it with, so when I say game night I really mean I forced everyone to play my new game until we ran out of playing cards. The game is called 'Likewise' and it's my new favorite game. Correction: my new favorite board game, because my favorite game will always be Power Hour.

Anyway. I wasn't going to do food or anything until I remembered the Frito Pie Bar "recipe". What I mean by that is there really isn't a special recipe for Frito Pie, just the stuff that goes in it; i.e. John's Chili and Cheesy Guacamole. But, the "recipe" was in the book, so it counts.

I broke my rule here. She tells you to buy 6 one ounce bags of Fritos and cut them open and eat out of the bag. While that is a cute idea, I decided in the store that there just wasn't enough room/Fritos in those tiny bags to render a sufficient pie. So I bought two kinds of big bagged Fritos - scoops and regular, because I like a nice variety with my chips, and decided to use some leftover disposable bowls I had at home.

I started with John's Chili because I wanted it to simmer for a few hours. I managed to fuck this up almost immediately and I don't even have crying children or alcohol to blame it on. This calls for Cayenne Pepper and Chili Powder, one significantly more than the other. Guess who grabbed the wrong one for the wrong measurement? Yep. And then, upon realizing my mistake, I tried to compensate by adding more of the ingredient that was lacking. So I basically put a shit ton of Cayenne and Chili Powder in this...probably more than the recipe called for either one. My bad. Oh well, I figured this is Chili and it's supposed to be spicy.

I will say that I am glad I started it early. She tells you to simmer for about 50 minutes or so to let the liquid reduce (there was a lot of liquid...way too much for Frito Pie). After 50 minutes, I felt there was still way to much liquid and if I tried to pour it over the Fritos it would just make soup. At this point I was glad I vetoed the bag idea because that would have been a freaking disaster. I adjusted the heat and let it simmer for about another hour and a half and thankfully by then it had reduced enough and the consistency was perfect.

Now, to taste. It was spicy, as anticipated, but honestly it wasn't bad. I don't know that mixing up the measurements was actually a bad thing because it tasted like spicy chili. My sister didn't care for it by itself, but it was good on the Fritos and we all ate it. I probably won't make it again because my chili, quite frankly, is better. I did have leftovers, so that will go over baked potatoes or I'll add noodles or something to get rid of it this week. This made enough for another dinner, so I'm pleased.

I photograph chili about as well as I photograph meatloaf.

Next, I prepared the Cheesy Guacamole. I'm not really a huge fan of guacamole unless Collin (hubs) makes it. I know, I know "OMG you don't like guacamole?????" No, not really. I'm more of a cheese dip and salsa kind of girl. Or the green sauce from Gringo's *drool*. Anyway...I've never made guacamole myself, but there's a first time for everything. She cracked me up here because she said to mash up the avocado with a potato masher. Who has a potato masher in the days of stand up mixers anymore? I haven't mashed a potato by hand since 'Nam. So, in the spirit of potato mashers, I mashed it up with a fork like a Neanderthal while my stand mixer cried in the corner. 

When this was all said and done, she tells you to wrap this up with plastic wrap for an hour to let the flavors meld. I tried it before and after and....there was no real difference. It tasted like guacamole. Really, you can make this with your guacamole recipe; just add shredded cheese. Her recipe is good though so I recommend trying hers at least once in your life. 

Guacamole is right up there with chili and meatloaf.

Now, for the spread. I did spread all out of the fixings that she recommended. I actually forgot to take pictures before my sister and I helped ourselves to a bowl, so by then it wasn't pretty anymore. I had planned to get flowers in the picture and everything...but as you'll see below that didn't happen. My son found out there was cheese and helped himself to it while sitting on the counter...so that's who the leg belongs to in the background there. I'm glad I remembered the book had this recipe. It had been a while since I had Frito Pie. I had forgotten how damn good it is. 

My sister turned me on to squeeze sour cream and it's amazing.

A completed Frito Pie.