Mud Pies

In Houston we were introduced to mud pies (it might have two d's). It's like a mini taco salad in a crunchy shell, named after our friend's grandma who made them.
We have had many mud pie parties - it's a favorite.

The shells are made by deep frying small corn tortillas, using a ladle to shape them. We haven't found any "ultra thin" corn tortillas since leaving Houston, but they still turn out well. The meat is seasoned with El Pato (we probably have our years supply), the refried beans are made from scratch, refried in a cast iron pan, and mashed with the "bean masher" (which I always thought was a potato masher), finely shredded cheddar cheese, julienned lettus, canned whole tomatoes - diced, a little salt and pepper and hot sauce . . .

and you're good to go!

It's best to have friends over to share - come hungry!

It's been a while since we've shared them with the makers of the original, so I hope we are keeping it real!
Whenever we have invited people for mud pies they always get really excited and then I say, "it's not the chocolatey dessert." So, this time I decided to try my hand at the chocolatey dessert as well. I found a recipe for T.G.I. Friday's Mocha Mud Pie and made some adjustments (I don't like mocha ice cream, so I used chocolate ice cream) . . .

- there were no complaints.