February 24: Tortilla Chip Day

Today's Tortilla Chip Day!  It used to be that the only tortilla chips you could get in stores were those yellow or white corn tortilla chips.  Now, you can get tortilla chips in all sorts of colors (blue, red, white, yellow, green) that can also be festively paired for the holidays (Christmas?  Look for bags of red and green!  Fourth of July?  Try a bag of red, white and blue tortilla chips!)  Not only is there a huge variety in color, there's also a huge variety in shapes now- triangles, strips, bowls, scoops, etc.  And of course there are the "added value" tortilla chips that flax seed in them to help you boost your omega-3 intake and tortilla chips that have lime or other seasoning.

Don't get me wrong - I love tortilla chips.  I currently have some triangle-shaped blue corn with flax seed tortilla chips and a large bag of round yellow-corn tortilla chips.  For me, tortilla chips are a tool for eating salsa, chili or hummus.  Yeah, tortilla chips are essential for making nachos, but I prefer to use tortilla chips for dipping.  One super-easy dip I like to make for tortilla chips is simply a can of refried beans and half-a-full-size jar of salsa mixed together.

Now, you can make your own tortilla chips, if you'd like, but these are a food I prefer to buy.  I've only made tortilla chips once, and they came out a little too oily for my preferences.  While I don't have any preferences for tortilla chip shape, I am very picky about the level of oiliness and salt.  If I go to a Mexican restaurant and they serve me a lackluster or flat-out bad basket of tortilla chips, I'm already negatively inclined to the rest of their food. 



Oops!  February 23 was National Chili Day

For some reason I thought today was National Chili Day.  Then I checked and I also had the 28th down as Chili Day.  So I did some more checking and found sites that said it was the 22nd, the 23rd, the 25th...  Ahh!  The confusion!

Finally, this site informed me that the fourth Thursday of February is National Chili Day.  Ah, things make more sense now!  Well, I wish I had realized that because I love making chili.  It's so easy to do with a crockpot- throw in beans, chiles, tomatoes, peppers, onion, seasoning, meat if you want it, set to cook and enjoy in a few hours!  (Or you can always go the super-easy route and open up a can of chili.)

Just remember chili can lead to flatulence so you may not want to eay any before an important meeting or presentation.