Texicana week! Chicken Fajitas and Chile con Carne

I was so lucky to have some samples of proper Mexican spices, sauces and chili powders sent to me from La Costeña

but I realised I hadn't cooked TexMex for a long long time, let alone proper Mexican dishes -- they are different in lots of ways, most of the things we think of as Mexican (unless from a proper Mexican restaurant) are really TexMex.

So I kicked off the Texicana with chicken fajitas - which would properly be made with steak I believe - and an old favourite chili con carne. (Recipes on the way on A Greedy Piglet. Link should be live in a day or so )

Chicken Fajitas:

Rolled: 

Open so you can see what is in there..... LOTS of stuff! There's chicken, and sweet peppers, and onions, and guacamole, and freshly soured cream, and home made ricotta and tomatillo salsa... oh it is good....

Chili con carne:

Now to a true Texas chilihead, this is doubtless a travesty... it transgresses most (if not all) of the rules for a proper Texican Chili Cook Off... in particular, it has beans and it has minced beef. The tomatoes are controversial too. in fact, there is a HUGE amount of nitpicking about chili.. or chile... or chilli ... this will give you a taste of what I mean.

But come on, if you were a student from about 1970 on, this is going to be so familiar... and it still tastes as delicious now as it did then.