Hunting Easter Eggs and Eating Frito Pie

 

Getting friends together for an Easter Weekend Ride to hunt eggs is something we have been doing for a couple years now. I go out in the desert and hide small, medium and large plastic eggs with prizes such as grooming items, halters, socks, stuffed animals - you get the idea. This year, I finally did it in a smart manner. Rather than ride out with four huge bags of eggs burdening my horse and making riding uncomfortable, this year I drove out into the desert and dropped the bags off, then returned to my property to trade truck for horse and rode out.

About two hours later, I had finished hiding all the eggs and waited on the group of 14 riders to meet up with me. As they approached, they were greeted by a horse and rider with a giant bunny head,.......I regret letting my wife talking me into wearing that uncomfortable and ridiculous thing. Next year, I'm talking my buddy Dave in wearing it.

One of the riders was a 7 year old boy, named Marius, who was riding his minature horse Thunder. Twenty seconds after mounting from the start point, Thunder threw Marius, but he gamely got back on the rode that little horse. What impressed me about little Marius was that he occassionally dismounted and walked his horse to give that short legged minature a break.

The rule was that each rider could only keep 3 eggs. If someone found a fourth egg, they would have to give one of the eggs to someone who had less than three eggs. While some people may think this was communist ideology in nature, each rider did have a choice in what eggs they gave up - hopefully keeping the eggs they thought had good stuff inside.

After all, or what we hoped were all the eggs being found, we rode back to my property for Frito Pie and assorted side dishes. Eggs were opened and trading prizes commenced. Pretty nice day here in West Texas with the temps pushing 80 degrees. Nice folks to ride and eat lunch with, except for the aforementioned Dave - nobody really likes him.

If you have never had Frito Pie, then you are missing a classic Texas favorite. Here is the recipe my wife used:

Frito Pie Recipe
1 Pound lean Ground Beef
1 Medium or Large chopped Sweet Onion
1 Clove of Garlic, minced
1 eight (8) ounce can of Rotel Mild Dice Tomatoes & Green Chiles
1 eight (8) ounce can of regular diced Tomatoes  
1 sixteen (16) ounce can of Dark Red Kidney Beans (drained)
1 eight (8) ounce can of tomato sauce
1 four (4) ounce can of black Olives, drained
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 Large bag of Frito Chips, regular size

Brown beef, onion and garlic - My wife uses Great American Land & Cattle Co. Steak and Meat seasoning. Cavenders All Purpose Greek seasoning is a good alternative.  Drain fat. note:  you can save the drained fat, and later put in someone's toothpaste tube for next year's April Fools Day.

Put browned beef, onion and garlic in crock pot.  Stir in undrained tomatoes, drained kidney beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and drained black olives. Salt and pepper a bit.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer. 

If you use small snack size bags of Frito Chips, people can cut the tops off and dish Chili on top of fritos - otherwise put frito chips in bowl and cover with chili for individual servings.  Above recipe makes 4 to 6 servings.