Ladies and Gentleman, we have a lift off!

Nothing is more exciting than to start the first day of the month with food as Gen of Eat, Play, Clove and I teamed up with our first Monthly Mystery Munchies (initially tagged to my Weekly Fabulous Friday Feature) whereby one of us chooses a theme or a few ingredients and we each cook a surprise dish and link to the other’s blog without knowing what the other has cooked.

Gen’s an awesome “experimeteur” (if that is even a word!) with food, but I’m sure you know what I mean and I’m over the moon that she has accepted to collaborate on this challenge.

This month’s theme is Mexican and Gen has cooked up some  sinister-looking Chilli Corn Carne that is looking just too good not to try. If I have been somewhere in South Africa, I might shamelessly drop by to have a taste of that juicy-looking, beefy dish, I swear!

Gen’s take on her dish:

Chilli Con Carne is hands down one of my top three favourite meals, both to cook and eat. It’s absolutely delicious. The inviting fragrant aroma of cumin and other herbs and spices mixed with the tangy taste of chillies, onion and garlic, simmered with tomatoes, ground beef and red kidney beans, makes for a mouth-watering food festival of flavour like none other. I’ve been cooking this recipe for years and the serving choices are plenty. My personal favourite is to top it with sour cream and wrap it in a tortilla. The Husband prefers it another way. You have the option of serving it in tacos, tortillas or with plain or spicy rice. Topping it with a smattering of guacamole is also a firm favourite. My ideal serving is to wrap it in a tortilla, drop a dollop sour cream on it, add a smidgen of guac and cheese and fold it up into one flavorful (and moreish) tortilla.

That’s just food porn at its best! Make sure you check out her recipe here.

I may be on vacation at the moment, but my head never, and I mean NEVER go on a break when it comes to food! Funny thing happened when we got back from Belgium today though and I just had to post this up as quickly as I can – much to the chagrin of Silver Bullet who probably gave me “the eye” when I fished out my laptop.

Turned out that the Mexican theme was also “observed” in my in-laws’ household today as my Mom-in-Law decided just a few days ago that she was going to make a Tortilla dish without any prior knowledge of the mystery theme we are having for this month and without telling us what she was going to make when we get back from Belgium.

Freaky, funny coincidence or what! It’s mysterious on a different level!

But I can’t complain, for we love Mexican. My MIL thought it was disappointing that the tortilla was a little too soft, but I thought that it was some pretty decent home-made meal! Thanks for feeding us, Mom!

 Here’s to more #MysteryMunchies to come!