------------- Mike Lampton's Huevos Rancheros --------------

This is a huge farm style breakfast usually served buffet, but a 
sit down table can work too.  The idea is to offer your guests a 
variety of dishes, everyone can pick and choose.  The dishes are all
mild (not hot) but you should offer a few popular bottled hot sauces
as condiments.  My favorites are:  Cholula Hot Sauce (Mexico), Crystal
Hot Sauce (Louisiana), Melinda's Amarillo Hot Mustard Sauce (Costa
Rica), ....

MAIN DISHES are:

1.  Huge pot of ranchero sauce, made as follows:

Saute four peeled & chopped yellow onions in a large clean pot with
a little oil -- stir frequently over a medium heat.  When they are
soft and mostly cooked, add 1/2 lb of chilies.  These can be fresh
chiles (washed slit cleaned out and chopped) or canned chiles like
the popular green Ancho chilies from Ortega.  Add two lbs of chopped
tomatoes, fresh if in season, otherwise canned.  Stir in about 1 tsp
of freshly ground black pepper.  Let this simmer for at least an
hour over low heat, stirring occasionally.   Better still, make up 
this ranchero sauce the night before and reheat it on Breakfast Morning.

2.  Platter of fried or scrambled eggs.

3.  Basket of freshly heated tortillas: flour or corn.

4.  Platter of fried pork sausages.

SIDE DISHES are:

1.  Dish of freshly grated cheese to use as a topping.

2.  Sour cream with chives or chopped parsley.

3.  Diced olives (mild; helps put out fires)

4.  Neatly sliced green jalapeno chilies, visual and tangy!
But take care to first remove the seeds and the parts around
the stem, which are bitter and unpleasant to eat. 

5.  Finely chopped green onions, otherwise known as scallions.

6.  Some folks cook up a separate platter of sauted yellow onion
slices to use as a condiment.  

7.  If your rural friends are *really* into farm style breakfast
they will also demand a big pot of refried beans.  But for city
dwellers, that would be just too damn much. 

				-enjoy!-