“This recipe was adapted from whatever ingredients were handy,” writes rancher Bob Kinford in his cookbook Gourmet Cowboy: Cowboy Style Gourmet Cuisine (2lazy4U Livestock & Literary Company, 2009). “I was about ready to run to town for supplies when unexpected company showed up. When you live beyond the phone lines, most company is unexpected, and as usual, they were hungry.”
Recipe (yields two pies)
• 1 pound hamburger meat
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 3 Tbl. red chili powder
• 1 large onion
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 8 oz. mayonnaise
• 6 oz. chopped black olives
• 8 oz. chopped green chilis
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 9” pie crusts
• 12 oz. grated longhorn or
Colby cheese
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown hamburger with garlic and chili powder.
2. While meat is browning, chop onion finely and mix well with sour cream, mayonnaise, black olives, and green chili. Slice tomatoes as thinly as possible.
3. When hamburger is browned, drain and place evenly into pie crusts. Place a layer of tomato slices, then a layer of onion, sour cream, olive, green chili, and mayonnaise mixture over both pies and top with a layer of cheese.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until cheese it thoroughly melted. Let cool slightly before serving.
*This is a great recipe to freeze and bake later. Increase cooking time by 45 to 50 minutes if frozen.
Sour Beer Punch
• 3 lemons
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/ 2 cup chilled grapefruit juice
• 1 can light beer
Remove zest from lemons and set aside. In a saucepan over high heat, combine sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon zest and remove from heat. Cover and let stand 10 minutes. Remove and discard lemon zest from the mixture and let it cool to room temperature. Juice the peeled lemons, and add lemon juice and grapefruit juice to sugar mixture. Pour into a large serving pitcher and chill for at least two hours. Stir in the beer just before serving.
From Cowboy Cocktails by Grady Spears and Brigit L. Binns (Ten Speed Press, tenspeed.com)