Chris Tomale Pie

Our family menus tend to revolve around the easy and the comforting. Time and energy override adventurous undertakings. Before I had kids, I did go more adventurous, trying my hand at making a crab bisque, which required the Old Bay seasoning I mentioned earlier that is now like a lawn ornament in my spice cabinet.

Today, I tend to find easier recipes for dishes that I love to eat at restuarants. Tamales, for instance. Love tamales, but who, other than the lady at our favorite Mexican restaurant, has the time to make them from scratch? So, I went the easier route and pointed my compass toward Tamale Pie.

Elli told me she wanted some "moosik" while we cooked, so I took her over to the stereo to pick out a CD.

“How about Chris?” I ask her.

“Tiss!” she replies.

Chris it is. Chris Tomlin, Hello Love, that is. Elli and I both started to bounce when the high-energy first track began to play.

Sing, sing, sing,
And make music with the heavens
We will sing, sing, sing

Stir, mix, bake
And make Tamale Pie with conviction
We will prep, cook, eat

Tamale Pie

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed, drained, slightly mashed
1 15 oz can pinto beans, rinsed, drained, slightly mashed
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 11 oz can whole kernel corn
¼ cup sliced black olives
1 small can green chilies (optional, and in our house it always is)
1 8.5 oz package corn muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 2-quart baking dish; set aside. In large skillet over medium heat, cook meat, onion, garlic until meat is brown. Drain meat. Add chili powder, cumin, black beans, pinto beans, tomatoes, paste, corn and olives; mix well; heat through, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, in bowl, beat egg; add milk and corn muffin mix; stir until just moistened; mix in cheese. When meat mixture is heated through, pour into baking dish. Spoon corn muffin batter over top. Top with paprika. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until golden.

This recipe is a cocktail of two recipes because I couldn’t make up my mind. One, a vegetarian version, is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, and one is from the Taste of Home’s 1999 Quick Cooking. I’ll let you guess which ingredients came from which recipe.

I usually pick recipes that I think Elli will be able to help with at many steps along the way. Otherwise, she gets bored, food gets thrown, no one’s happy. But this recipe, to my pleasant surprise, allowed Elli to help out at virtually every step.

I did some prep work before I brought her into the kitchen, though, like chopping the onion in the food processor, and getting the meat started. I also opened all my cans. Why? Let me introduce you to my can opener: unpadded, hand-crank style, bought-at-garage-sale-in-1996-for-a-quarter old school. I keep blister relief treatments on hand.

While the meat, onions and garlic cooked, Elli helped me “slightly” mash the beans in a medium mixing bowl. And by “slightly” I mean “almost completely.” That’s what you get with a toddler, though. It all works out.

Instead of adding the beans, et al., to the hot skillet, I had Elli help me first pour them into the mixing bowl. She commanded the can of corn. And, unlike the Birthday Pizza Pie Incident, not a single olive hit the floor.

I added the mixing bowl mess to the skillet, and as the mess was heating through, we turned our attention to making the corn muffin batter. She poured in the mix, stirred in the milk and egg. I actually had her help me crack the egg on the side of the bowl. She did great!

And I practically let her go solo on the cheese. She lost control over one handful, but other than that, all went well.

I did intervene with the paprika sprinkling, though. She hasn’t quite distinguished the difference between “sprinkle” and “turn canister upside down and let it rain.”

I was so proud of her. She is really gaining skills by the day, both physical and verbal. She repeats the name of every ingredient and some she can recognize without any prompts from me. What's even better, I can tell she is proud of herself and more confident in what she can do.

This called for a celebration.

With the Tamale Pie in the oven and half a CD left to listen to, I enticed Elli to a dance. We jived our way through two songs, including the upbeat title track. Elli can pick up small parts of songs, and for the title track of Chris' CD, the thing she picked up was when "Tiss" belts out, "Hello, Love!" She really liked that part. 

Though a far cry from a traditional tamale, we enjoyed this dish very much and have voted it into the Family Recipe Box. It was unanimous that the cornbread crust was the best part.

Things Elli could do:

• mash beans
• pour canned ingredients into bowl and mix
• help crack egg
• mix cornbread batter
• put cheese into cornbread batter
• sprinkle paprika

Tamale Pie Ratings

Elli-friendly cooking: 4
Elli-friendly eating: 5
Simple: 4
Fast: 3 (prep time isn’t bad, but counting cook time, it’s about 40 minutes total to make)
Frugal: 5 (lots of ingredients, but all inexpensive)

Where I bought:
Hy-Vee: everything except milk
Costco: milk