Easy Ersatz Mexican

I'm sure you know by now that I'm a great believer in using up everything in the fridge before it grows hair and even I won't touch it. My mother taught me the parsimony part - the part she didn't get was how to use it up before it became a science experiment. Whenever I visited her in her later years, I would throw away one cure for a dread disease a day so she wouldn't notice they were going until her fridge was free of fuzzy items. No kidding - that woman would save two tablespoons of peas, but then never use them. To this day, I shake my head when I think about the contents of her fridge.

So, when my own fridge was full of this and that, I knew it was time to make them into something before the inevitability of earthy decay became a reality.  I had a hunk of leftover mustard-glazed pork shoulder that had been slow roasted until it was falling apart (I didn't tell you about it because it was unremarkable), a little cup of white refried beans and another of Spanish rice from our last outing to Las Camelias (still the Bay area's best Mexican restaurant), and a half a jar of Newman's Own salsa. Surely I could make something good out of that.

Tortillas are my friend. I found a package of those, too, so spread them out, topped them with shreds of pork, strips of string cheese, a rattle of the rice and a smear of the beans, adding fresh chopped onion and green onions before rolling them up and turning them seam-side down.  I poured the jar of salsa over all of the rolled "burritos" and slid them into a medium oven until they were nice and hot.

I made four, thinking we'd eat them all but they were so hearty that I had two left. They are in the fridge. And you know what can happen in there...