Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Homemade Enchiladas!!

Family traditions are wonderful things. Except for when the cousin's new boyfriend comes in and breaks your record.

For probably fifty years now, our family has made homemade enchiladas on my grandma's birthday.  My great-grandma used to be the one to make them, then when she got too old she passed the recipe on to my mom.  Making these enchiladas is a two day process, between making the crepes from scratch, to marinating and grinding up the beef, to finally baking the whole enchilada (literally, and the figure of speech, I suppose).  They are delicious.

Now, my family is full of big eaters, and we pride ourselves on the ability to consume mass quantities of food.  So obviously, there is a family record for most enchiladas eaten.  It is something I have coveted since childhood, and I finally broke it last year.  How many did I eat, you ask? Twenty.  The old record was fifteen, set in the 80s.  I was so proud of myself; that's an epic amount, right? A number that would last generations.

Well, my cousin's boyfriend comes in this year and manages to squeeze down twenty-one.  Darn him.  I was a good sport about it, but I secretly boiled inside, and took solace in the fact that at least he was miserably full.

Next year, though, I'm going for twenty-five.  I keep telling myself that if I had had to last year, I could have put down more, but didn't need to. The record had already been shattered.  I can do it. Right?

Does anyone else have any family traditions that involve gorging one's self with disgusting amounts of food? Or any other tradition you care to share?

4 comments:

StaffPicks said...

I'm too much of a francophile and too scrawny to overeat. Slow and steady wins the race. Gotta go. Time for me to eat my teaspoon of milled flax seed.

Tyler said...

Mmm, flax seed. My favorite. Yeah, Paul, I somehow don't see you stuffing your face with enchilada after enchilada.

Casey Something said...

Wowza. 25? You're going to feel AWFUL. Sorry the cousin's new boyfriend had to ruin your record.

Tyler said...

It's alright, he deserved it. And while 25 is certainly a lot of enchiladas, these are slightly different because the crepes are a lot thinner and lighter than normal tortillas.

But still, I'ma get 'im, next year,